Inferno Canto 1 MIDWAY upon the journey of our life 1 I found myself within a

forest dark, 2 For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! how hard a
thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very
thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to
treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there. I cannot
well repeat how there I entered, So full was I of slumber at the moment In which I
had abandoned the true way. But after I had reached a mountain’s foot, 3 At that
point where the valley terminated, 4 Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders 1The action of the poem begins on Good
Friday of the year 1300, at which time Dante, who was born in 1265, had reached the
middle of the Scriptual threescore years and ten. It ends on the first Sunday after
Easter, making in all ten days. 2The dark forest of human life, with its passions,
vices, and perplexities of all kinds; politically the state of Florence with its
fractions Guelf and Ghibelline. 3Bunyan, in his Pilgrim’s Progress, which is a kind
of Divine Comedy in prose, says: “I beheld then that they all went on till they
came to the foot of the hill Difficulty... But the narrow way lay right up the
hill, and the name of the going up the side of the hill is called Difficulty...
They went then till they came to the Delectable Mountains, which mountains belong
to the Lord of that hill of which we have spoken before.” 4Bunyan, Pilgrim’s
Progress – “But now in this valley of Humiliation poor Christian was hard put to
it; for he had gone but a little way before he spied a foul fiend coming over the
field to meet him; his name is Apollyon. Then did Christian begin to be afraid, and
to cast in his mind whether to go back or stand his ground. ...Now at the end of
this valley was another, called the valley of the Shadow of Death; and Christian
must needs go through it, because the way to the Celestial City lay through the
midst of it.” 1 2 http://www.paskvil.com/ Vested already with that planet’s rays 5
Which leadeth others right by every road. Then was the fear a little quieted That
in my heart’s lake had endured throughout 6 The night, which I had passed so
piteously And even as he, who, with distressful breath, Forth issued from the sea
upon the shore, Turns to the water perilous and gazes; So did my soul, that still
was fleeing onward, Turn itself back to re-behold the pass Which never yet a living
person left. 7 After my weary body I had rested, The way resumed I on the desert
slope, So that the firm foot ever was the lower. 8 And lo! almost where the ascent
began, 9 A panther light and swift exceedingly, 10 Which with a spotted skin was
covered o’er! And never moved she from before my face, Nay, rather did impede so
much my way, That many times I to return had turned. 11 The time was the beginning
of the morning, And up the sun was mounting with those stars 12 That with him were,
what time the Love Divine 5The sun, with all its symbolical meanings. This is the
morning of Good Friday. In the Ptolemaic system the sun was one of the planets.
6The deep mountain tarn of his heart, dark with its own depth, and the shadows
hanging over it. 7 Jeremiah ii. 6: “That led us through the wilderness, through a
land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death,
through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt.” In his note
upon this passage Mr. Wright quotes Spenser’s lines, Faerie Queene, I. v. 31, –
“there creature never passed That back returned without heavenly grace.” 8Climbing
the hillside slowly, so that he rests longest on the foot that is lowest. 9
Jeremiah v. 6: “Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the
evening shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that
goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces.” 10Wordly Pleasure; and politically
Florence, with its factions of Bianchi and Neri. 11Pi `u volte volto. Dante
delights in a play upon words as much as Shakespeare. 12The stars of Aries. Some
philosophers and fathers think the world was created in Spring. Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno 3 Figure 2: And lo! almost where the ascent began, a panther
light and swift exceedingly... At first in motion set those beauteous things; So
were to me occasion of good hope, The variegated skin of that wild beast, The hour
of time, and the delicious season; But not so much, that did not give me fear A
lion’s aspect which appeared to me. 13 He seemed as if against me he were coming
With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger, So that it seemed the air was afraid
of him; 14 And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings 15 Seemed to be laden in her
meagreness, And many folk has caused to live forlorn! 13Ambition; and politically
the royal house of France. 14Some editions read temesse, others tremesse.
15Avarice; and politically the Court of Rome, or temporal power of the Popes. 4
http://www.paskvil.com/ She brought upon me so much heaviness, With the affright
that from her aspect came, That I the hope relinquished of the height. And as he is
who willingly acquires, And the time comes that causes him to lose, Who weeps in
all his thoughts and is despondent, E’en such made me that beast withouten peace,
Which, coming on against me by degrees Thrust me back thither where the sun is
silent 16 While I was rushing downward to the lowland, Before mine eyes did one
present himself, Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse. 17 When I beheld
him in the desert vast, “Have pity on me,” unto him I cried, “Whiche’er thou art,
or shade or real man!” He answered me: “Not man; man once I was, And both my
parents were of Lombardy, And Mantuans by country both of them. Sub Julio was I
born, though it was late, 18 And lived at Rome under the good Augustus, During the
time of false and lying gods. A poet was I, and I sang that just Son of Anchises,
who came forth from Troy, After that Ilion the superb was burned But thou, why
goest thou back to such annoyance? Why climb’st thou not the Mount Delectable Which
is the source and cause of every joy?” Now, art thou that Virgilius and that
fountain 19 16Dante as a Ghibelline and Imperialist is in opposition to the Guelfs,
Pope Boniface VIII., and the King of France, Philip the Fair, and is banished from
Florence, out of the sunshine, and into “the dry wind that blows from dolorous
poverty.” Cato speaks of the “silent moon” in De Re Rustica, XXIV., Evehito luna
silenti; and XL., Vites inseri luna silenti. Also Pliny, XVI. 39, has Silens luna;
and Milton, in Samson Agonistes, “Silent as the moon.” 17The long neglect of
classic studies in Italy before Dante’s time. 18Born under Julius Caesar, but too
late to grow up to manhood during his Imperial reign. He florished later under
Augustus. 19In this passage Dante but expresses the universal veneration felt for
Virgil during the Middle Ages, and especially in Italy. Petrarch’s copy of Virgil
is still preserved in the Ambrosian Library at Milan; and at the beginning of it he
has recorded in a Latin note Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 5 Which
spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?” I made response to him with bashful
forehead. “O, of the other poets honour and light, Avail me the long study and
great love That have impelled me to explore thy volume! Thou art my master, and my
author thou, Thou art alone the one from whom I took The beautiful style that has
done honour to me. 20 Behold the beast, for which I have turned back; Do thou
protect me from her, famous Sage, For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.”
Thee it behoves to take another road,” Responded he, when he beheld me weeping, ”If
from this savage place thou wouldst escape; Because this beast, at which thou
criest out, Suffers not any one to pass her way, But so doth harass him, that she
destroys him; And has a nature so malign and ruthless, That never doth she glut her
greedy will, And after food is hungrier than before. Many the animals with whom she
weds, And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound 21 Comes, who shall make
her perish in her pain. He shall not feed on either earth or pelf, the time of his
first meeting with Laura, and the date of her death, which, he says, “I write in
this book, rather than elsewhere, because it comes often under my eye.” In the
popular imagination Virgil became a mythical personage and a mighty magician. See
the story of Virgilius in Thom’s Early Prose Romances, II. Dante selects him for
his guide, as symbolizing human science or Philosophy. “I say and affirm,” he
remarks, Convito, V. 16, “that the lady with whom I became enamored after my first
love was the most beautiful and modest daughter of the Emperor of the Universe, to
whom Pythagoras gave the name of Philosophy.” 20Dante seems to have been already
conscious of the fame which his Vita Nuova and Canzoni had given him. 21The
greyhound is Can Grande della Scala, Lord of Verona, Imperial Vicar, Ghibelline,
and friend of Dante. Verona is between Feltro in the Marca Trivigiana, and
Montefeltro in Romagna. Boccaccio, Decameron, I. 7, peaks of him as “one of the
most notable and magnificant lords that had been known in Italy, since the Emperor
Frederick the Second.” To him Dante dedicated the Paradiso. Some commentators think
the Veltro is not Can Grande, but Ugguccione della Faggiola. See Troya, Del Veltro
Allegorico di Dante. 6 http://www.paskvil.com/ But upon wisdom, and on love and
virtue; ‘Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be; Of that low Italy shall he be
the saviour, 22 On whose account the maid Camilla died, Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of
their wounds; Through every city shall he hunt her down, Until he shall have driven
her back to Hell, There from whence envy first did let her loose. Therefore
I think and judge it for thy best Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide, And
lead thee hence through the eternal place, Where thou shalt hear the desperate
lamentations, 23 Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate, Who cry out each one
for the second death; And thou shalt see those who contented are Within the fire,
because they hope to come, Whene’er it may be, to the blessed people; To whom,
then, if thou wishest to ascend, A soul shall be for that than I more worthy; 24
With her at my departure I will leave thee; Because that Emperor, who reigns above,
In that I was rebellious to his law, Wills that through me none come into his city.
He governs everywhere and there he reigns; There is his city and his lofty throne;
O happy he whom thereto he elects!” And I to him: “Poet, I thee entreat, By that
same God whom thou didst never know, So that I may escape this woe and worse, Thou
wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said, That I may see the portal of Saint
Peter, And those thou makest so disconsolate.” Then he moved on, and I behind him
followed. 22The plains of Italy, in contradistinction to the mountains; the
Humilemque Italiam of Virgil, Æneid, III. 522: “And now the stars being chased
away, blushing Aurora appeared, when far off we espy the hills obscure, and lowly
Italy.” 23I give preference to the reading, Di quegli antichi spiriti dolenti.
24Beatrice. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 7 Figure 3: A lion’s aspect
which appeared to me. 8 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 4: Then he moved on, and I
behind him followed. Inferno Canto 2 DAY was departing, and the embrowned air
Released the animals that are on earth 25 From their fatigues; and I the only one
Made myself ready to sustain the war, Both of the way and likewise of the woe,
Which memory that errs not shall retrace. O Muses, O high genius, now assist me! O
memory, that didst write down what I saw, Here thy nobility shall be manifest! And
I began: “Poet, who guidest me, Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient. Ere to the
arduous pass thou dost confide me. Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent, 26
While yet corruptible, unto the world Immortal went, and was there bodily. But if
the adversary of all evil Was courteous, thinking of the high effect That issue
would from him, and who, and what, To men of intellect unmeet it seems not; For he
was of great Rome, and of her empire In the empyreal heaven as father chosen; The
which and what, wishing to speak the truth, Were stablished as the ho]y place,
wherein Sits the successor of the greatest Peter. 27 25Dante, Convito III. 2, says:
“Man is called by philosophers the divine animal.” 26Æneas, founder of the Roman
Empire. Virgil, Æneid, B. VI. 27“That is,” says Boccaccio, Comento, “St. Peter the
Apostle, called the greater on account of his papal dignity, and to distinguish him
from many other holy men of the same name.” 9 10 http://www.paskvil.com/ Upon this
journey, whence thou givest him vaunt, Things did he hear, which the occasion were
Both of his victory and the papal mantle. Thither went afterwards the Chosen
Vessel, To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith, Which of salvation’s way is
the beginning. But I, why thither come, or who concedes it? I not Aenas am, I am
not Paul, Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it. Therefore, if I resign myself
to come, I fear the coming may be ill-advised; Thou’rt wise, and knowest better
than I speak.” And as he is, who unwills what he willed, And by new thoughts doth
his intention change, So that from his design he quite withdraws, Such I became,
upon that dark hillside, Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise, Which was so
very prompt in the beginning. 28 “If I have well thy language understood,” Replied
that shade of the Magnanimous, “Thy soul attainted is with cowardice, Which many
times a man encumbers so, It turns him back from honoured enterprise, As false
sight doth a beast, when he is shy. That thou mayst free thee from this
apprehension, I’ll tell thee why I came, and what I heard At the first moment when
I grieved for thee. Among those was I who are in suspense, 29 And a fair, saintly
Lady called to me In such wise, I besought her to command me. Her eyes where
shining brighter than the Star; 30 28Shakespear, Macbeth, IV. i: “The flighty
purpose never is o’ertook, Unless the deed go with it.” 29Suspended in Limbo;
neither in pain nor in glory. 30Brighter than the star; than “that star which is
brightest,” comments Boccaccio. Others say the Sun, and refer to Dante’s Canzone,
beginning: “The star of beauty which doth measure time, The lady seems, who has
enamored me, Placed in the heaven of Love.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 11 And she began to say, gentle and low, 31 With voice angelical, in her
own language “O spirit courteous of Mantua, Of whom the fame still in the world
endures, And shall endure, long-lasting as the world; A friend of mine, and not the
friend of fortune, Upon the desert slope is so impeded Upon his way, that he has
turned through terror, And may, I fear, already be so lost, That I too late have
risen to his succour, From that which I have heard of him in Heaven. Bestir thee
now, and with thy speech ornate, 32 And with what needful is for his release,
Assist him so, that I may be consoled. Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go; 33 I come
from there, where I would fain return; Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak.
When I shall be in presence of my Lord, Full often will I praise thee unto him.”
Then paused she, and thereafter I began: “O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom
The human race exceedeth all contained 31Shakespeare, King Lear, V. 3: – “Her voice
was ever soft, Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman.” 32This passage will
recall Minerva transmitting the message of Juno to Achilles, Iliad, II.: “Go thou
forthwith to the army of the Achæans, and hesitate not, but restrain each man with
thy persuasive words, nor suffer them to drag to the sea their double-oared ships.”
33Beatrice Portinari, Dante’s first love, the inspiration of his song and in his
mind the symbol of the Divine. He says of her in the Vita Nuova: – “This most
gentle lady, of whom there has been discourse in what precedes, reached such favour
among the people, that when she passed along the way persons ran to see her, which
gave me wonderful delight. And when she was near any one, such modesty took
possession of his heart, that he did not dare to raise his eyes or to return her
salutation; and to this, should any one doubt it, many, as having experienced it,
could bear witness for me. She, crowned and clothed with humility, took her way,
displaying no pride in that which she saw and heard. Many, when she had passed
said, ‘This is not a woman, rather is she one of the most beautiful angels of
heaven.’ Others said, ‘She is a miracle. Blessed be the Lord who can perform such a
marvel.’ I say, that she showed herself so gentle and so full of all beauties, that
those who looked on her felt within themselves a pure and sweet delight, such as
they could not tell in words.” – C.E. Norton, The New Life, 51, 52. 12
http://www.paskvil.com/ Within the heaven that has the lesser circles, 34 So
grateful unto me is thy commandment, To obey, if ’twere already done, were late; No
farther need’st thou ope to me thy wish. But the cause tell me why thou dost not
shun The here descending down into this centre, From the vast place thou burnest to
return to.” 35 “Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern, Briefly will I
relate,” she answered me, “Why I am not afraid to enter here. Of those things only
should one be afraid Which have the power of doing others harm; Of the rest, no;
because they are not fearful. God in his mercy such created me That misery of yours
attains me not, Nor any flame assails me of this burning A gentle Lady is in
Heaven, who grieves 36 At this impediment, to which I send thee, So that stern
judgment there above is broken. In her entreaty she besought Lucia, 37 And said,
“Thy faithful one now stands in need Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him.”
Lucia, foe of all that cruel is, Hastened away, and came unto the place Where I was
sitting with the ancient Rachel. 38 “Beatrice” said she, “the true praise of God,
Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so, For thee he issued from the vulgar
herd? Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint? Dost thou not see the death that
combats him Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?” 39 34The heaven of the
moon, which contains or encircles the earth. 35The ampler circles of Paradise.
36Divine Mercy. 37St Lucia, emblem of enlightening Grace. 38Rachel, emblem of
Divine Contemplation. See Par. XXXII. 9. 39Beside that flood, where ocean has no
vaunt; “That is,” says Boccacio, Comento, “the sea cannot boast of being more
impetuous or more dangerous than that.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 13
Never were persons in the world so swift To work their weal and to escape their
woe, As I, after such words as these were uttered, Came hither downward from my
blessed seat, Confiding in thy dignified discourse, Which honours thee, and those
who’ve listened to it.” After she thus had spoken unto me, Weeping, her shining
eyes she turned away; Whereby she made me swifter in my coming; And unto thee I
came, as she desired; I have delivered thee from that wild beast, Which barred the
beautiful mountain’s short ascent. What is it, then? Why, why dost thou delay? Why
is such baseness bedded in thy heart? Daring and hardihood why hast thou not,
Seeing that three such Ladies benedight Are caring for thee in the court of Heaven,
And so much good my speech doth promise thee?” Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal
chill, Bowed down and closed, when the sun whitens them, Uplift themselves all open
on their stems; Such I became with my exhausted strength, And such good courage to
my heart there
coursed, That I began, like an intrepid person: “O she compassionate, who
succoured me, And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon The words of truth which
she addressed to thee! Thou hast my heart so with desire disposed To the adventure,
with these words of thine, That to my first intent I have returned. Now go, for one
sole will is in us both, Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou.” Thus said I
to him; and when he had moved, I entered on the deep and savage way. 14
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 5: Day was departing... Dante Alighieri - Divine
Comedy, Inferno 15 Figure 6: “Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go; ...” Inferno Canto
3 THROUGH me the way is to the city dolent; 40 Through me the way is to eternal
dole; Through me the way among the people lost. Justice incited my sublime Creator;
Created me divine Omnipotence, The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. Before me
there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last. “All hope abandon,
ye who enter in!” These words in sombre colour I beheld Written upon the summit of
a gate; Whence I: “Their sense is, Master, hard to me!” And he to me, as one
experienced: “Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned, All cowardice must needs
be here extinct. We to the place have come, where I have told thee Thou shalt
behold the people dolorous Who have foregone the good of intellect.” 41 And after
he had laid his hand on mine With joyful mien, whence I was comforted, He led me in
among the secret things. 40This canto begins with a repetition of sounds like the
tolling of a funeral bell: dolente...dolore! 41Aristotle says: “The good of the
intellect is the highest beatitude”; and Dante in the Convito: “The True is the
good of the intellect.” In other words, the knowledge of God is intellectual good.
“It is a most just punishment,” says St. Augustine, “that man should lose that
freedom which man could not use, yet had power to keep, if he would, and that he
who had knowledge to do what was right, and did not do it, should be deprived of
the knowledge of what was right; and that he who would not do righteously, when he
had the power, should lose the power to do it when he had the will.” 16 Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 17 Figure 7: “All hope abandon, ye who enter
in!” There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud Resounded through the air without
a star, Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat. Languages diverse, horrible
dialects, Accents of anger, words of agony, And voices high and hoarse, with sound
of hands, Made up a tumult that goes whirling on For ever in that air for ever
black, Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes. And I, who had my head
with horror bound, Said: “Master, what is this which now I hear? What folk is this,
which seems by pain so vanquished?” And he to me: “This miserable mode Maintain the
melancholy souls of those Who lived withouten infamy or praise. Commingled are they
with that caitiff choir 18 http://www.paskvil.com/ Of Angels, who have not
rebellious been, Nor faithful were to God, but were for self. The heavens expelled
them, not to be less fair; Nor them the nethermore abyss receives, For glory none
the damned would have from them.” And I: “O Master, what so grievous is To these,
that maketh them lament so sore?” He answered: “I will tell thee very briefly.
These have no longer any hope of death; And this blind life of theirs is so
debased, They envious are of every other fate. No fame of them the world permits to
be; Misericord and Justice both disdain them. Let us not speak of them, but look,
and pass.” And I, who looked again, beheld a banner, 42 Which, whirling round, ran
on so rapidly, That of all pause it seemed to me indignant; And after it there came
so long a train Of people, that I ne’er would have believed That ever Death so many
had undone. When some among them I had recognised. I looked, and I beheld the shade
of him Who made through cowardice the great refusal. 43 Forthwith I comprehended,
and was certain, That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches Hateful to God and
to his enemies. These miscreants, who never were alive, Were naked, and were stung
exceedingly By gadflies and by hornets that were there. These did their faces
irrigate with blood, Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet By the
disgusting worms was gathered up. And when to gazing farther I betook me. People I
saw on a great river’s bank; Whence said I: “Master, now vouchsafe to me, 42This
restless flag is an emblem of the shifting and unstable minds of its followers.
43Generally supposed to be Pope Celestine V. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 19 That I may know who these are, and what law Makes them appear so ready
to pass over, As I discern athwart the dusky light.” 44 And he to me: “These things
shall all be known To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay Upon the dismal shore
of Acheron.” Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast, Fearing my words might
irksome be to him, From speech refrained I till we reached the river. And lo!
towards us coming in a boat 45 An old man, hoary with the hair of eld, Crying: “Woe
unto you, ye souls depraved Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens; I come to lead
you to the other shore, To the eternal shades in heat and frost. And thou, that
yonder standest, living soul, Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead! 46 But
when he saw that I did not withdraw, He said: “By other ways, by other ports Thou
to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage; 44Spencer’s “misty dampe of
misconceyving night.” 45Virgil, Æneid, VI., Davidson’s translation: – “A grim
ferryman guards these floods and rivers, Charon, of frightful slovenliness; on
whose chin a load of gray hair neglected lies; his eyes are flame: his vestments
hang from his shoulders by a knot, with filth overgrown. Himself thrusts on the
barge with a pole, and tends the sails, and wafts over the bodies in his iron-
colored boat, now in years: but the god is of fresh and green old age. Hither the
whole tribe in swarms come pouring to the banks, matrons and men, the souls of
magnanimous heroes who had gone through life, boys and unmarried maids, and young
men who had been stretched on the funeral pile before the eyes of their parents; as
numerous as withered leaves fall in the woods with the first cold of autumn, or as
numerous as birds flock to the land from deep ocean, when the chilling year drives
them beyond sea, and sends them to sunny climes. They stood praying to cross the
flood the first, and were stretching forth their hands with fond desire to gain the
further bank: but the sullen boatman admits sometimes these, sometimes those; while
others to a great distance removed, he debars from the banks.” And Shakespeare,
Richard III., I. 4: “I passed, methought, the melancholy flood With that grim
ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.” 46Virgil
Æneid, VI.: “This is the region of Ghosts, of sleep and drowsy Night; to waft over
the bodies of the living in my Stygian boat is not permitted.” 20
http://www.paskvil.com/ A lighter vessel needs must carry thee.” 47 And unto him
the Guide: “Vex thee not, Charon; It is so willed there where is power to do That
which is willed; and farther question not.” Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks
Of him the ferryman of the livid fen, Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.
But all those souls who weary were and naked Their colour changed and gnashed their
teeth together, As soon as they had heard those cruel words. God they blasphemed
and their progenitors, The human race, the place, the time, the seed Of their
engendering and of their birth! Thereafter all together they drew back, Bitterly
weeping, to the accursed shore, Which waiteth every man who fears not God. Charon
the demon, with the eyes of glede, 48 Beckoning to them, collects them all
together, Beats with his oar whoever lags behind. As in the autumn-time the leaves
fall off, First one and then another, till the branch Unto the earth surrenders all
its spoils; In similar wise the evil seed of Adam Throw themselves from that margin
one by one, At signals, as a bird unto its lure. 49 So they depart across the dusky
wave, And ere upon the other side they land, Again on this side a new troop
assembles. “My son,” the courteous Master said to me, 47The souls that were to be
saved assembled at the mouth of the Tiber, where they were received by the
celestial pilot, or ferryman, who transported them to the shores of Purgatory, as
described in Purg. II. 48Dryden’s Æneid, B. VI.: – “His eyes like hollow furnaces
on fire.” 49Mr. Ruskin, Modern Painters, III. 160, says: – “When Dante describes
the spirits falling from the bank of Acheron ‘as dead leaves flutter from a bough,’
he gives the most perfect image possible of their utter lightness, feebleness,
passiveness, and scattering agony of despair, without, however, for an instant
losing his own clear perception that these are souls, and those are leaves: he
makes no confusion of one with the other.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno
21 Figure 8: Charon the demon ... beats with his oar whoever lags behind. “All
those who perish in the wrath of God Here meet together out of every land; And
ready are they to pass o’er the river, Because celestial Justice spurs them on, So
that their fear is turned into desire. This way there never passes a good soul; And
hence if Charon doth complain of thee, Well mayst thou know now what his speech
imports.” This being finished, all the dusk champaign Trembled so violently, that
of that terror The recollection bathes me still with sweat. The land of tears gave
forth a blast of wind, And fulminated a vermilion light, Which overmastered in me
every sense, And as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell. 22 http://www.paskvil.com/
Figure 9: And lo! towards us coming in a boat, an old man, hoary with the hair of
eld.
Inferno Canto 4 BROKE the deep lethargy within my head 50 A heavy thunder, so that
I upstarted, Like to a person who by force is wakened; And round about I moved my
rested eyes, Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed, To recognise the place wherein
I was. True is it, that upon the verge I found me Of the abysmal valley dolorous,
That gathers thunder of infinite ululations. Obscure, profound it was, and
nebulous, So that by fixing on its depths my sight Nothing whatever I discerned
therein. “Let us descend now into the blind world,” Began the Poet, pallid utterly;
“I will be first, and thou shalt second be.” And I, who of his colour was aware,
Said: “How shall I come, if thou art afraid, Who’rt wont to be a comfort to my
fears?” And he to me: “The anguish of the people Who are below here in my face
depicts That pity which for terror thou hast taken. Let us go on, for the long way
impels us.” Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter The foremost circle that
surrounds the abyss. There, as it seemed to me from listening, 50Dante is borne
across the river Acheron in his sleep, he does not tell us how, and awakes on the
brink of “the dolorous valley of the abyss.” He now enters the First Circle of the
Inferno; the Limbo of the Unbaptized, the border land, as the name denotes. 23 24
http://www.paskvil.com/ Were lamentations none, but only sighs, That tremble made
the everlasting air. And this arose from sorrow without torment, 51 Which the
crowds had, that many were and great Of infants and of women and of men. To me the
Master good: “Thou dost not ask What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are? Now
will I have thee know, ere thou go farther, That they sinned not; and if they merit
had, ’Tis not enough, because they had not baptism Which is the portal of the Faith
thou holdest; And if they were before Christianity, In the right manner they adored
not God; And among such as these am I myself For such defects, and not for other
guilt, Lost are we and are only so far punished, That without hope we live on in
desire.” Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard, Because some people of
much worthiness I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended. “Tell me, my Master, tell
me, thou my Lord,” Began I, with desire of being certain Of that Faith which
o’ercometh every error, “Came any one by his own merit hence, Or by another’s, who
was blessed thereafter?” And he, who understood my covert speech, Replied: “I was a
novice in this state, When I saw hither come a Mighty One, 52 With sign of victory
incoronate. Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent, And that of his son
Abel, and of Noah, Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient Abraham, patriarch, and
David, king, 51Mental, not physical pain; what the French theologians call “la
peine du dam”, the privation of the sight of God. 52The descent of Christ into
Limbo. Neither here nor elsewhere in the Inferno does Dante mention the name of
Christ. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 25 Figure 10: ”For such defects,
and not for other guilt, lost are we and are only so far punished, that without
hope we live on in desire.” Israel with his father and his children, And Rachel,
for whose sake he did so much, And others many, and he made them blessed; And thou
must know, that earlier than these Never were any human spirits saved.” We ceased
not to advance because he spake, But still were passing onward through the forest
The forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts. Not very far as yet our way had gone
This side the summit, when I saw a fire That overcame a hemisphere of darkness. We
were a little distant from it still, But not so far that I in part discerned not
That honourable people held that place. 53 53The reader will not fail to observe
how Dante makes the word “honor”, in its various 26 http://www.paskvil.com/ “O thou
who honourest every art and science, Who may these be, which such great honour
have, That from the fashion of the rest it parts them?” And he to me: “The
honourable name, That sounds of them above there in thy life, Wins grace in Heaven,
that so advances them.” In the mean time a voice was heard by me: “All honour be to
the pre-eminent Poet; His shade returns again, that was departed.” After the voice
had ceased and quiet was, Four mighty shades I saw approaching us; Semblance had
they nor sorrowful nor glad. To say to me began my gracious Master: “Him with that
falchion in his hand behold, 54 Who comes before the three, even as their lord.
That one is Homer, Poet sovereign; He who comes next is Horace, the satirist; The
third is Ovid, and the last is Lucan. Because to each of these with me applies The
name that solitary voice proclaimed, They do me honour, and in that do well.” 55
Thus I beheld assemble the fair school Of that lord of the song pre-eminent, Who
o’er the others like an eagle soars. When they together had discoursed somewhat,
They turned to me with signs of salutation, And on beholding this, my Master
smiled; And more of honour still, much more, they did me, 56 In that they made me
one of their own band So that the sixth was I, ‘mid so much wit. Thus we went on as
far as to the light, Things saying ’tis becoming to keep silent, forms, ring and
reverberate through these lines, – “orrevol, onori, orranza, onrata, onorata”!
54Dante puts the sword into the hand of Homer as a symbol of his warlike epic,
which is a Song of the Sword. 55Upon this line Boccaccio, Comento, says: – “A
proper thing it is to honor every man, but especially those who are of one and the
same profession, as these were with Virgil.” 56Another assertion of Dante’s
consciousness of his own power as a poet. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno
27 As was the saying of them where I was. We came unto a noble castle’s foot, 57
Seven times encompassed with lofty walls, Defended round by a fair rivulet; This we
passed over even as firm ground; Through portals seven I entered with these sages
We came into a meadow of fresh verdure. People were there with solemn eyes and
slow, Of great authority in their countenance; They spake but seldom, and with
gentle voices. Thus we withdrew ourselves upon one side Into an opening luminous
and lofty, So that they all of them were visible. There opposite, upon the green
enamel, Were pointed out to me the mighty spirits, Whom to have seen I feel myself
exalted. I saw Electra with companions many, ‘Mongst whom I knew both Hector and
Aenas, Caesar in armour with gerfalcon eyes; I saw Camilla and Penthesilea On the
other side, and saw the King Latinus, Who with Lavinia his daughter sat; I saw that
Brutus who drove Tarquin forth, Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia, 58 And saw
alone, apart, the Saladin. 59 When I had lifted up my brows a little, The Master I
beheld of those who know, Sit with his philosophic family. All gaze upon him, and
all do him honour. There I beheld both Socrates and Plato, 57This is the Noble
Castle of human wit and learning, encircled with its seven scholastic walls, the
Trivium – Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric – and the Quadrivium – Arithmetic, Astronomy,
Geometry, Music. The fair rivulet is Eloquence, which Dante does not seem to
consider a very profound matter, as he and Virgil pass over it as if it were dry
ground. 58In the Convito, IV. 28, Dante makes Marcia, Cato’s wife, a symbol of the
noble soul: “Per la quale Marzias’ intende la nobile anima.” 59The Saladin of the
Crusades. See Gibbon, Chap. LIX. Dante also makes mention of him, as worthy of
affectionate remembrance, in the Convito, IV. 2. 28 http://www.paskvil.com/ Who
nearer him before the others stand; Democritus, who puts the world on chance,
Diogenes, Anaxagoros, and Thales, Zeno, Empedocles, and Heraclitus; Of qualities I
saw the good collector, Hight Dioscorides; and Orpheus saw I, Tully and Livy, and
moral Seneca, Euclid, geometrician, and Ptolemy, Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna,
60 Averroes, who the great Comment made. 61 I cannot all of them pourtray in full,
Because so drives me onward the long theme, That many times the word comes short of
fact. The sixfold company in two divides; Another way my sapient Guide conducts me
Forth from the quiet to the air that trembles; And to a place I come where nothing
shines. 60Avicenna, an Arabian physician of Ispahan in the eleventh century. Born
980, died 1036. 61Avverrhoes, an Arabian scholar of the twelfth century, who
translated the works of Aristotle, and wrote a commentary upon them. He was born in
Cordova in 1149, and died in Morocco, about 1200. He was the head of the Western
School of philosophy, as Avicenna was of the Eastern. Dante Alighieri - Divine
Comedy, Inferno 29 Figure 11: After the voice had ceased and quiet was, Four mighty
shades I saw approaching us. Inferno Canto 5 THUS I descended out of the first
circle 62 Down to the second, that less space begirds, 63 And so much greater dole,
that goads to wailing. There standeth Minos horribly, and snarls; 64 Examines the
transgressions at the entrance; Judges, and sends according as he girds him. I say,
that when the spirit evil-born Cometh before him, wholly it confesses; And this
discriminator of transgressions Seeth what place in Hell is meet for it; Girds
himself with his tail as many times As grades he wishes it should be thrust down.
Always before him many of them stand; They go by turns each one unto the judgment;
They speak, and hear, and then are downward hurled. “O thou, that to this dolorous
hostelry Comest,” said Minos to me, when he saw me, Leaving the practice of so
great an office, “Look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest; Let not the
portal’s amplitude deceive thee.” 62In the Second Circle are found the souls of
carnal sinners, whose punishment “To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, And blown
with restless violence round about The pendent world.” 63The circles grow smaller
and smaller as they descend. 64Minos, the king of
Crete, so renowned for justice as to be called the Favorite of the Gods, and after
death made Supreme Judge in the Infernal Regions. Dante furnishes him with a tail,
thus converting him, after the mediaeval fashion, into a Christian demon. 30 Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 31 Figure 12: There standeth Minos horribly...
And unto him my Guide: “Why criest thou too? 65 Do not impede his journey fate-
ordained; It is so willed there where is power to go That which is willed; and ask
no further question.” And now begin the dolesome notes to grow Audible unto me, now
am I come There where much lamentation strikes upon me. I came into a place mute of
all light, 66 Which bellows as the sea does in a tempest, If by opposing winds ’t
is combated. The infernal hurricane that never rests Hurtles the spirits onward in
its rapine; Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them. 65Thou, too, as well
as Charon, to whom Virgil has already made the same reply, Canto 06. 022. 66In
Canto 01. 060, the sun is silent; here the light is dumb. 32
http://www.paskvil.com/ When they arrive before the precipice, There are the
shrieks, the plaints, and the laments, There they blaspheme the puissance divine. I
understood that unto such a torment The carnal malefactors were condemned, Who
reason subjugate to appetite. And as the wings of starlings bear them on In the
cold season in large band and full, So doth that blast the spirits maledict; It
hither, thither, downward, upward, drives them; No hope doth comfort them for
evermore, Not of repose, but even of lesser pain. And as the cranes go chanting
forth their lays, Making in air a long line of themselves, So saw I coming,
uttering lamentations, Shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress. Whereupon said
I: “Master, who are those People, whom the black air so castigates?” “The first of
those, of whom intelligence Thou fain wouldst have,” then said he unto me, “The
empress was of many languages. To sensual vices she was so abandoned, That lustful
she made licit in her law, To remove the blame to which she had been led. She is
Semiramis of whom we read That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse; She held
the land which now the Sultan rules. The next is she who killed herself for love,
67 And broke faith with the ashes of Sichcaeus; Then Cleopatra the voluptuous.”
Helen I saw, for whom so many ruthless Seasons revolved; and saw the great
Achilles, 68 Who at the last hour combated with Love Paris I saw, Tristan; and more
than a thousand 69 67Queen Dido. 68Achilles, being in love with Polyxena, a
daughter of Priam, went unarmed to the temple of Apollo, where he was put to death
by Paris. 69Paris of Troy. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 33 Shades did
he name and point out with his finger, Whom Love had separated from our life. After
that I had listened to my Teacher, Naming the dames of eld and cavaliers, Pity
prevailed, and I was nigh bewildered. And I began: “O Poet, willingly Speak would I
to those two, who go together, And seem upon the wind to be so light.” And, he to
me: “Thou’lt mark, when they shall be Nearer to us; and then do thou implore them
By love which leadeth them, and they will come.” Soon as the wind in our direction
sways them, My voice uplift I: “O ye weary souls! Come speak to us, if no one
interdicts it.” As turtle-doves, called onward by desire, With open and steady
wings to the sweet nest Fly through the air by their volition borne, So came they
from the band where Dido is, Approaching us athwart the air malign, So strong was
the affectionate appeal. “O living creature gracious and benignant, Who visiting
goest through the purple air 70 Us, who have stained the world incarnadine, If were
the King of the Universe our friend, We would pray unto him to give thee peace,
Since thou hast pity on our woe perverse. Of what it pleases thee to hear and
speak, That will we hear, and we will speak to you, While silent is the wind, as it
is now. Sitteth the city, wherein I was born, 71 Upon the sea-shore where the Po
descends 70In the original, “l’aer perso”, the perse air. Dante, Convito, IV. 20,
defines perse as “a color mixed of purple and black, but the black predominates.”
Chaucer’s “Doctour of Phisike” in the Canterbury Tales, Prologue 441, wore this
color. 71The city of Ravenna. 34 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 13: “O living
creature gracious and benignant, who visiting goest through the purple air...” To
rest in peace with all his retinue. 72 Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly
seize, Seized this man for the person beautiful That was ta’en from me, and still
the mode offends me. Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving, 73 Seized me
with pleasure of this man so strongly, 74 That, as thou seest, it doth not yet
desert me; 72Quoting this line, Ampere remarks, ` Voyage Dantesque, p. 312: “We
have only to cast our eyes upon the map to recognize the topographical exactitude
of this last expression. In fact, in all the upper part of its course, the Po
receives a multitude of affluents, which converge towards its bed. They are the
Tessino, the Adda, the Olio, the Mincio, the Trebbia, the Bormida, the Taro; –
names which recur so often in the history of the wars of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries.” 73Here the word “love” is repeated, as the word “honor” was
in Canto 04. 072. The verse murmurs with it, like the “moan of doves in immemorial
elms.” 74I think it is Coleridge who says: “The desire of man is for the woman, but
the desire of woman is for the desire of man.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 35 Love has conducted us unto one death; Caina waiteth him who quenched our
life!” 75 These words were borne along from them to us. As soon as I had heard
those souls tormented, I bowed my face, and so long held it down Until the Poet
said to me: “What thinkest?” When I made answer, I began: “Alas! How many pleasant
thoughts, how much desire, Conducted these unto the dolorous pass!” Then unto them
I turned me, and I spake, And I began: “Thine agonies, Francesca, 76 Sad and
compassionate to weeping make me. But tell me, at the time of those sweet sighs, By
what and in what manner Love conceded, That you should know your dubious desires?”
And she to me: “There is no greater sorrow 77 Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery, and that thy Teacher knows. But, if to recognise the earliest root Of
love in us thou hast so great desire, I will do even as he who weeps and speaks.
One day we reading were for our delight Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral. 78
75Caina is in the lowest circle of the Inferno, where fratricides are punished.
76Francesca, daughter of Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna, and wife of Gianciotto
Malatesta, son of the Lord of Rimini. The lover, Paul Malatesta, was the brother of
the husband, who, discovering their amour, put them both to death with his own
hand. 77This thought is from Boethius, De Consolat. Philos., Lib. II. Prosa 4: –
“In omni adversitate fortunae, infelicissimum genus est infortunii fuisse felicem
et non esse.” In the Convito, II. 16, Dante speaks of Boethius and Tully as having
directed him “to the love, that is to the study, of this most gentle lady
Philosophy.” From this Venturi and Biagioli infer that, by the Teacher, Boethius is
meant, not Virgil. This interpretation, however, can hardly be accepted, as not in
one place only, but throughout the Inferno and the Purgatorio, Dante proclaims
Virgil as his teacher, “il mio Dottore.” Lombardi thinks that Virgil had experience
of this “greatest sorrow,” finding himself also in “the infernal prison”; and that
it is to this, in contrast with his happy life on earth, that Francesca alludes,
and not to anything in his writings. 78The Romance of Launcelot of the Lake. The
Romance was to these two lovers, what Galeotto (Gallehault or Sir Galahad) had been
to Launcelot and Queen Guenever. Leigh Hunt speaks of the episode of Francesca as
standing in the Inferno “like a lily in the mouth of Tartarus.” 36
http://www.paskvil.com/ Alone we were and without any fear. Full many a time our
eyes together drew That reading, and drove the colour from our faces; But one point
only was it that o’ercame us. When as we read of the much-longed-for smile Being by
such a noble lover kissed, This one, who ne’er from me shall be divided, Kissed me
upon the mouth all palpitating. Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it. That day
no farther did we read therein.” And all the while one spirit uttered this, The
other one did weep so, that, for pity, I swooned away as if I had been dying, And
fell, even as a dead body falls. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 37 Figure
14: The infernal hurricane that never rests. Inferno Canto 6 AT the return of
consciousness, that closed Before the pity of those two relations, 79 Which utterly
with sadness had confused me, New torments I behold, and new tormented Around me,
whichsoever way I move, And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze. In the third circle
am I of the rain 80 Eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy; Its law and quality are
never new. Huge hail, and water sombre-hued, and snow, Athwart the tenebrous air
pour down amain; Noisome the earth is, that receiveth this. Cerberus, monster cruel
and uncouth, With his three gullets like a dog is barking Over the people that are
there submerged. Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black, And belly large,
and armed with claws his hands; He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.
Howl the rain maketh them like unto dogs; One side they make a shelter for the
other; Oft turn themselves the wretched reprobates. When Cerberus perceived us, the
great worm! His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks; 79The sufferings of
these two, and the pity it excited in him. As in Shakespeare, Othello, IV. 1: “But
yet the pity of it, Iago! – O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!” 80In this third circle
are punished
the Gluttons. Instead of the feasts of former days, the light, the warmth, the
comfort, the luxury, and “the frolic wine” of dinner tables, they have the murk and
the mire, and the “rain eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy”; and are barked at
and bitten by the dog in the yard. 38 Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 39
Figure 15: When Cerberus perceived us... Not a limb had he that was motionless. And
my Conductor, with his spans extended, Took of the earth, and with his fists well
filled, He threw it into those rapacious gullets. Such as that dog is, who by
barking craves, And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws, For to devour it he but
thinks and struggles, The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed Of Cerberus the
demon, who so thunders Over the souls that they would fain be deaf We passed across
the shadows, which subdues The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet Upon their
vanity that person seems. They all were lying prone upon the earth, Excepting one,
who sat upright as soon As he beheld us passing on before him. 40
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 16: We passed across the shadows... “O thou that art
conducted through this Hell,” He said to me, “recall me, if thou canst; Thyself
wast made before I was unmade.” And I to him: “The anguish which thou hast Perhaps
doth draw thee out of my remembrance, So that it seems not I have ever seen thee.
But tell me who thou art, that in so doleful A place art put, and in such
punishment, If some are greater, none is so displeasing.” And he to me: “Thy city,
which is full Of envy so that now the sack runs over, Held me within it in the life
serene. You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco; 81 81It is a question whether
“Ciacco”, Hog, is the real name of this person, or a nickname. Boccaccio gives him
no other. He speaks of him, Comento, VI., as a noted diner-out in Florence, “who
frequented the gentry and the rich, and particularly those who ate and Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 41 For the pernicious sin of gluttony I, as thou
seest, am battered bv this rain And I, sad soul, am not the only one, For all these
suffer the like penalty For the like sin,” and word no more spake he. I answered
him: “Ciacco, thy wretchedness Weighs on me so that it to weep invites me; But tell
me, if thou knowest, to what shall come The citizens of the divided city; If any
there be just; and the occasion Tell me why so much discord has assailed it.” And
he to me: “They, after long contention, Will come to bloodshed; and the rustic
party 82 Will drive the other out with much offence. Then afterwards behoves it
this one fall Within three suns, and rise again the other By force of him who now
is on the coast. 83 High will it hold its forehead a long while, Keeping the other
under heavy burdens, Howe’er it weeps thereat and is indignant. The just are two,
and are not understood there; 84 Envy and Arrogance and Avarice Are the three
sparks that have all hearts enkindled.” Here ended he his tearful utterance; And I
to him: “I wish thee still to teach me, And make a gift to me of further speech.
Farinata and Tegghiaio, once so worthy, drank sumptuously and delicately; and when
he was invited by them to dine, he went; and likewise when he was not invited by
them, he invited himself; and for this vice he was well known to all Florentines;
though apart from this he was a well-bred man according to his condition, eloquent,
affable, and of good feeling; on account of which he was welcomed by every
gentleman.” 82The Bianchi are called the “Parte selvaggia”, because its leaders,
the Cerchi, came from the forest lands of Val di Sieve. The other party, the Neri,
were led by the Donati. 83Charles de Valois, called Senzaterra, or Lackland,
brother of Philip the Fair, king of France. 84The names of these two remain
unknown. Probably one of them was Dante’s friend Guido Cavalcanti. 42
http://www.paskvil.com/ Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca, 85 And others who on
good deeds set their thoughts, Say where they are, and cause that I may know them;
For great desire constraineth me to learn If Heaven doth sweeten them, or Hell
envenom.” And he: “They are among the blacker souls; A different sin downweighs
them to the bottom; If thou so far descendest, thou canst see them. But when thou
art again in the sweet world, I pray thee to the mind of others bring me; No more I
tell thee and no more I answer.” Then his straightforward eyes he turned askance,
Eyed me a little, and then bowed his head; He fell therewith prone like the other
blind. And the Guide said to me: “He wakes no more This side the sound of the
angelic trumpet; When shall approach the hostile Potentate, Each one shall find
again his dismal tomb, Shall reassume his flesh and his own figure, Shall hear what
through eternity re-echoes.” So we passed onward o’er the filthy mixture Of shadows
and of rain with footsteps slow, Touching a little on the future life. Wherefore I
said: “Master, these torments here, Will they increase after the mighty sentence,
Or lesser be, or will they be as burning?” And he to me: “Return unto thy science,
86 Which wills, that as the thing more perfect is, The more it feels of pleasure
and of pain. Albeit that this people maledict To true perfection never can attain,
85Of this Arrigo nothing whatever seems to be known, hardly even his name; for some
commentators call him Arrigo dei Fisanti, and others Arrigo dei Fifanti. Of these
other men of mark “who set their hearts on doing good,” Farinata is among the
Heretics, Canto X.; Tegghiaio and Rusticucci among the Sodomites, Canto XVI.; and
Mosca among the Schismatics, Canto XXVIII. 86The philosophy of Aristotle. The same
doctrine is taught by St. Augustine: “Cum fiet resurrectio carnis, et bonorum
gaudia et tormenta malorum majora erunt.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno
43 Hereafter more than now they look to be.” Round in a circle by that road we
went, Speaking much more, which I do not repeat; We came unto the point where the
descent is; There we found Plutus the great enemy. 87 87Plutus, the God of Riches.
Inferno Canto 7 “PAPE Satan, Pape Sat ` an, Aleppe!” ` 88 Thus Plutus with his
clucking voice began; And that benignant Sage, who all things knew, Said, to
encourage me: “Let not thy fear Harm thee; for any power that he may have Shall not
prevent thy going down this crag” Then he turned round unto that bloated lip, And
said: “Be silent, thou accursed wolf; Consume within thyself with thine own rage.
Not causeless is this journey to the abyss; Thus is it willed on high, where
Michael wrought 89 Vengeance upon the proud adultery.” Even as the sails inflated
by the wind Involved together fall when snaps the mast, So fell the cruel monster
to the earth. Thus we descended into the fourth chasm, Gaining still farther on the
dolesome shore Which all the woe of the universe insacks. Justice of God, ah! who
heaps up so many New toils and sufferings as I beheld? And why doth our
transgression waste us so? As doth the billow there upon Charybdis, 88In this Canto
is described the punishment of the Avaricious and the Prodigal, with Plutus as
their jailer. His outcry of alarm is differently interpreted by different
commentators, and by none very satisfactorily. But nearly all agree, I believe, in
construing the strange words into a cry of alarm or warning of Lucifer, that his
realm is invaded by some unusual apparition. 89The overthrow of the Rebel Angels.
St. Augustine says, ”Idolatria et quaelibet noxia superstitio fornicatio est.” 44
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 45 Figure 17: “Pape Satan, Pape Sat ` an,
Aleppe!” ` That breaks itself on that which it encounters, So here the folk must
dance their roundelay. 90 Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many, On one side
and the other, with great howls, Rolling weights forward by main force of chest. 91
They clashed together, and then at that point Each one turned backward, rolling
retrograde, Crying, “Why keepest?” and, “Why squanderest thou?” Thus they returned
along the lurid circle On either hand unto the opposite point, Shouting their
shameful metre evermore. 90Must dance the Ridda, a round dance of the olden time.
It was a Roundelay, or singing and dancing together. Boccaccio’s Monna Belcolore
“knew better than any one how to play the tambourine and lead the Ridda.” 91As the
word honor resounds in Canto IV., and the word love in Canto V., so here the words
rolling and turning are the burden of the song, as if to suggest the motion of
Fortune’s wheel, so beautifully described a little later. 46
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 18: Rolling weights forward by main force of chest.
Then each, when he arrived there, wheeled about Through his half-circle to another
joust; And I, who had my heart pierced as it were, Exclaimed: “My Master, now
declare to me What people these are, and if all were clerks, These shaven crowns
upon the left of us.” 92 And he to me: “All of them were asquint In intellect in
the first life, so much That there with measure they no spending made. 92Clerks,
clerics, or clergy. Boccaccio, Comento, remarks upon this passage: “Some maintain,
that the clergy wear the tonsure in remembrance and reverence of St. Peter, on
whom, they say, it was made by certain evil-minded men as a mark of madness;
because not comprehending and not wishing to comprehend his holy doctrine, and
seeming him feverently preaching before princes and people, who held that doctrine
in detestation, they thought he acted as one out of his senses. Others maintain
that the tonsure is worn as a mark of dignity, as a sign that those who wear it are
more worthy than those who do not; and they call it corona, because, all the rest
of the head being shaven, a single circle of hair should be left, which in form of
a crown surrounds the whole head.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 47
Clearly enough their voices
bark it forth, Whene’er they reach the two points of the circle, Where sunders
them the opposite defect. Clerks those were who no hairy covering Have on the head,
and Popes and Cardinals, In whom doth Avarice practise its excess.” And I: “My
Master, among such as these I ought forsooth to recognise some few, Who were
infected with these maladies.” And he to me: “Vain thought thou entertainest; The
undiscerning life which made them sordid Now makes them unto all discernment dim.
Forever shall they come to these two buttings; These from the sepulchre shall rise
again With the fist closed, and these with tresses shorn. Ill giving and ill
keeping the fair world Have ta’en from them, and placed them in this scuffle;
Whate’er it be, no words adorn I for it. Now canst thou, Son, behold the transient
farce Of goods that are committed unto Fortune, For which the human race each other
buffet; For all the gold that is beneath the moon, Or ever has been, of these weary
souls Could never make a single one repose.” “Master,” I said to him, “now tell me
also What is this Fortune which thou speakest of, 93 That has the world’s goods so
within its clutches?” And he to me: “O creatures imbecile, What ignorance is this
which doth beset you? Now will I have thee learn my judgment of her. He whose
omniscience everything transcends 93The Wheel of Fortune was one of the favorite
subjects of art and song in the Middle Ages. On a large square of white marble set
in the pavement of the nave of the Cathedral at Siena, is the representation of a
revolving wheel. Three boys are climbing and clinging at the sides and below; above
is a dignified figure with a stern countenance, holding the sceptre and ball. At
the four corners are inscriptions from Seneca, Euripides, Aristotle, and Epictetus.
The same symbol may be seen also in the wheel-of-fortune windows of many churches;
as, for example, that of San Zeno at Verona. 48 http://www.paskvil.com/ The heavens
created, and gave who should guide them, 94 That every part to every part may
shine, Distributing the light in equal measure; He in like manner to the mundane
splendours Ordained a general ministress and guide, That she might change at times
the empty treasures From race to race, from one blood to another, Beyond resistance
of all human wisdom. Therefore one people triumphs, and another Languishes, in
pursuance of her judgment, Which hidden is, as in the grass a serpent. Your
knowledge has no counterstand against her; She makes provision, judges, and pursues
Her governance, as theirs the other gods. Her permutations have not any truce;
Necessity makes her precipitate, So often cometh who his turn obtains. And this is
she who is so crucified Even by those who ought to give her praise, Giving her
blame amiss, and bad repute. But she is blissful, and she hears it not; Among the
other primal creatures gladsome She turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices.
Let us descend now unto greater woe; Already sinks each star that was ascending 95
When I set out, and loitering is forbidden.” We crossed the circle to the other
bank, Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself Along a gully that runs out of
it. The water was more sombre far than perse; 96 And we, in company with the dusky
waves, Made entrance downward by a path uncouth. A marsh it makes, which has the
name of Styx, 94This old Rabbinical tradition of the “Regents of the Planets” has
been painted by Raphael, in the Capella Chigiana of the Church of Santa Maria del
Popolo in Rome. 95Past midnight. 96Perse, purple-black. See note in Canto V. Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 49 Figure 19: They smote each other not alone
with hands... This tristful brooklet, when it has descended Down to the foot of the
malign gray shores. And I, who stood intent upon beholding, Saw people mudbesprent
in that lagoon, All of them naked and with angry look. They smote each other not
alone with hands, But with the head and with the breast and feet, Tearing each
other piecemeal with their teeth. Said the good Master: “Son, thou now beholdest
The souls of those whom anger overcame; And likewise I would have thee know for
certain Beneath the water people are who sigh And make this water bubble at the
surface, As the eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turns. Fixed in the mire they say,
‘We sullen were In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened, 50
http://www.paskvil.com/ Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek; Now we are
sullen in this sable mire.’ This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats, For
with unbroken words they cannot say it.” Thus we went circling round the filthy fen
A great arc ’twixt the dry bank and the swamp, With eyes turned unto those who
gorge the mire; Unto the foot of a tower we came at last. Inferno Canto 8 I SAY,
continuing, that long before 97 We to the foot of that high tower had come, Our
eyes went upward to the summit of it, By reason of two flamelets we saw placed
there, 98 And from afar another answer them, So far, that hardly could the eye
attain it. And, to the sea of all discernment turned, I said: “What sayeth this,
and what respondeth That other fire? and who are they that made it?” And he to me:
“Across the turbid waves What is expected thou canst now discern, If reek of the
morass conceal it not.” Cord never shot an arrow from itself That sped away athwart
the air so swift, As I beheld a very little boat Come o’er the water tow’rds us at
that moment, Under the guidance of a single pilot, Who shouted, “Now art thou
arrived, fell soul?” “Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou criest out in vain 99 97Boccaccio
and some other commentators think the words “I say, continuing,” are a confirmation
of the theory that the first seven cantos of the Inferno were written before
Dante’s banishment from Florence. Others maintain that the words suggest only the
continuation of the subject of the last canto in this. 98These two signal fires
announce the arrival of two persons to be ferried over the wash, and the other in
the distance is on the watch-tower of the City of Dis, answering these. 99Phlegyas
was the father of Ixion and Coronis. He was king of the Lapithae, and burned the
temple of Apollo at Delphi to avenge the wrong done by the god to Coronis. His
punishment in the infernal regions was to stand beneath a huge impending rock,
always about to fall upon him. Virgil, Aeneid, VI., says of him: “Phlegyas, most
wretched, 51 52 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 20: Soon as the Guide and I were in
the boat... For this once,” said my Lord; “thou shalt not have Longer than in the
passing of the slough.” As he who listens to some great deceit That has been done
to him, and then resents it, Such became Phlegyas, in his gathered wrath. My Guide
descended down into the boat, And then he made me enter after him, And only when I
entered seemed it laden. 100 Soon as the Guide and I were in the boat, The antique
prow goes on its way, dividing More of the water than ’tis wont with others. While
we were running through the dead canal, Uprose in front of me one full of mire, is
a monitor to all and with loud voice proclaims through the shades, ‘Being warned,
learn righteousness, and not to contemn the gods.’ ” 100Virgil, Aeneid, VI.: – “The
boat of sewn hide groaned under the weight, and, being leaky, took in much water
from the lake.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 53 And said, “Who ‘rt thou
that comest ere the hour?” And I to him: “Although I come, I stay not; But who art
thou that hast become so squalid?” “Thou seest that I am one who weeps,” he
answered. And I to him: “With weeping and with wailing, Thou spirit maledict, do
thou remain; For thee I know, though thou art all defiled.” Then stretched he both
his hands unto the boat; Whereat my wary Master thrust him back, Saying, “Away
there with the other dogs!” Thereafter with his arms he clasped my neck; He kissed
my face, and said: “Disdainful soul, Blessed be she who bore thee in her bosom.
That was an arrogant person in the world; Goodness is none, that decks his memory;
So likewise here his shade is furious. How many are esteemed great kings up there,
Who here shall be like unto swine in mire, Leaving behind them horrible
dispraises!” 101 And I: “My Master, much should I be pleased, If I could see him
soused into this broth, Before we issue forth out of the lake.” And he to me: “Ere
unto thee the shore Reveal itself, thou shalt be satisfied; Such a desire ’tis meet
thou shouldst enjoy.” A little after that, I saw such havoc Made of him by the
people of the mire, That still I praise and thank my God for it. They all were
shouting, “At Philippo Argenti!” 102 101Chaucer’s “sclandre of his diffame.” 102Of
Philippo Argenti little is known, and nothing to his credit. Dante seems to have an
especial personal hatred of him, as if in memory of some disagreeable passage
between them in the streets of Florence. Boccaccio says of him in his Comento:
“This Philippo Argenti, as Coppo di Borghese Domenichi de’ Cavicciuli was wont to
say, was a very rich gentleman, so rich that he had the horse he used to ride shod
with silver, and from this he had his surname; he was in person large, swarthy,
muscular, of marvellous strength, and at the slightest provocation the most
irascible of men; nor are any more known of his qualities than these two, each in
itself very blameworthy.” He was of the Adimari family, 54 http://www.paskvil.com/
And that exasperate spirit Florentine Turned round upon himself with his own teeth.
We left him there, and more of him I tell not; But on mine ears there smote a
lamentation, Whence forward I intent unbar mine eyes. And the good Master said:
“Even now, my Son, The city draweth near whose name is Dis, With the grave
citizens, with the great throng.” And I: “Its mosques already, Master, clearly 103
Within there in the valley I discern Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire They
were.”
And he to me: “The fire eternal That kindles them within makes them look red, As
thou beholdest in this nether Hell.” Then we arrived within the moats profound,
That circumvallate that disconsolate city; The walls appeared to me to be of iron.
104 Not without making first a circuit wide, We came unto a place where loud the
pilot Cried out to us, “Debark, here is the entrance.” More than a thousand at the
gates I saw Out of the Heavens rained down, who angrily Were saying, “Who is this
that without death Goes through the kingdom of the people dead?” And my sagacious
Master made a sign and of the Neri faction; while Dante was of the Bianchi party,
and in banishment. Perhaps this fact may explain the bitterness of his invective.
This is the same Philippo Argenti who figures in Boccaccio’s tale. See Inf. VI. The
Ottimo Comento says of him: “He was a man of great pomp, and great ostentation, and
much expenditure, and little virtue and worth; and therefore the author says,
‘Goodness is none that decks his memory.’ ” And this is all that is known of the
“Fiorentino spirito bizzaro”, forgotten by history, and immortalized in song.
103The word “mosques” paints at once to the imagination the City of Unbelief.
104Virgil, Aeneid, VI., Davidson’s Translation: – “Aeneas on a sudden looks back,
and under a rock on the left sees vast prisons inclosed with a triple wall, which
Tartarean Phlegethon’s rapid flood environs with torrents of flame, and whirls
roaring rocks along. Fronting is a huge gate, with columns of solid adamant, that
no strength of men, nor the gods themselves, can with steel demolish. An iron tower
rises aloft; and there wakeful Tisiphone, with her bloody robe tucked up around
her, sits to watch the vestibule both night and day.” Dante Alighieri - Divine
Comedy, Inferno 55 Figure 21: Then we arrived within the moats profound, that
circumvallate that disconsolate city; ... Of wishing secretly to speak with them. A
little then they quelled their great disdain, And said: “Come thou alone, and he
begone Who has so boldly entered these dominions. Let him return alone by his mad
road; Try, if he can; for thou shalt here remain, Who hast escorted him through
such dark regions.” Think, Reader, if I was discomforted At utterance of the
accursed words; For never to return here I believed. “O my dear Guide, who more
than seven times Hast rendered me security, and drawn me From imminent peril that
before me stood, Do not desert me,” said I, “thus undone; And if the going farther
be denied us, 56 http://www.paskvil.com/ Let us retrace our steps together
swiftly.” And that Lord, who had led me thitherward, Said unto me: “Fear not;
because our passage None can take from us, it by Such is given. But here await me,
and thy weary spirit Comfort and nourish with a better hope; For in this nether
world I will not leave thee.” So onward goes and there abandons me My Father sweet,
and I remain in doubt, For No and Yes within my head contend. I could not hear what
he proposed to them; But with them there he did not linger long, Ere each within in
rivalry ran back. They closed the portals, those our adversaries, On my Lord’s
breast, who had remained without And turned to me with footsteps far between. His
eyes cast down, his forehead shorn had he Of all its boldness, and he said, with
sighs, “Who has denied to me the dolesome houses?” And unto me: “Thou, because I am
angry, Fear not, for I will conquer in the trial, Whatever for defence within be
planned. This arrogance of theirs is nothing new; 105 For once they used it at less
secret gate, 106 Which finds itself without a fastening still. O’er it didst thou
behold the dead inscription; And now this side of it descends the steep, Passing
across the circles without escort, One by whose means the city shall be opened.”
107 105This arrogance of theirs; tracotanza, oltracotanza; Brantome’s
outrecuidance; and Spenser’s surquedrie. 106The gate of the Inferno. 107The coming
of the Angel, whose approach is described in the next canto, beginning at line 64.
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 57 Figure 22: While we were running
through the dead canal, uprose in front of me one full of mire... Inferno Canto 9
THAT hue which cowardice brought out on me, 108 Beholding my Conductor backward
turn, Sooner repressed within him his new colour. He stopped attentive, like a man
who listens, Because the eye could not conduct him far Through the black air, and
through the heavy fog. “Still it behoveth us to win the fight,” 109 Began he;
“Else... Such offered us herself... 110 O how I long that some one here arrive!”
Well I perceived, as soon as the beginning He covered up with what came afterward,
That they were words quite different from the first; But none the less his saying
gave me fear, Because I carried out the broken phrase, Perhaps to a worse meaning
than he had. “Into this bottom of the doleful conch 111 Doth any e’er descend from
the first grade, Which for its pain has only hope cut off?” This question put I;
and he answered me: “Seldom it comes to pass that one of us Maketh the journey upon
which I go. True is it, once before I here below 108The flush of anger passes from
Virgil’s cheek on seeing the pallor of Dante’s, and he tries to encourage him with
assurances of success; but betrays his own apprehensions in the broken phrase, “If
not,” which he immediately covers with words of cheer. 109Such, or so great a one,
is Beatrice, the “fair and saintly Lady” of Canto II. 53. 110The Angel who will
open the gates of the City of Dis. 111Dante seems to think that he has already
reached the bottom of the infernal conch, with its many convolutions. 58 Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 59 Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho, Who
summoned back the shades unto their bodies. Naked of me short while the flesh had
been, Before within that wall she made me enter, To bring a spirit from the circle
of Judas; That is the lowest region and the darkest, And farthest from the heaven
which circles all. Well know I the way; therefore be reassured. This fen, which a
prodigious stench exhales, Encompasses about the city dolent, Where now we cannot
enter without anger.” And more he said, but not in mind I have it; Because mine eye
had altogether drawn me Tow’rds the high tower with the red-flaming summit, Where
in a moment saw I swift uprisen The three infernal Furies stained with blood, Who
had the limbs of women and their mien, And with the greenest hydras were begirt;
Small serpents and cerastes were their tresses, Wherewith their horrid temples were
entwined. And he who well the handmaids of the Queen Of everlasting lamentation
knew, Said unto me: “Behold the fierce Erinnys. This is Megaera, on the left-hand
side; She who is weeping on the right, Alecto; Tisiphone is between;”and then was
silent. Each one her breast was rending with her nails; They beat them with their
palms, and cried so loud, That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet. “Medusa
come, so we to stone will change him!” All shouted looking down; “in evil hour
Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!” 112 “Turn thyself round, and keep thine
eyes close shut, For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it, No more
returning upward would there be.” 112The attempt which Theseus and Pirithous made
to rescue Proserpine from the infernal regions. 60 http://www.paskvil.com/ Thus
said the Master; and he turned me round Himself, and trusted not unto my hands So
far as not to blind me with his own. O ye who have undistempered intellects,
Observe the doctrine that conceals itself 113 Beneath the veil of the mysterious
verses! And now there came across the turbid waves The clangour of a sound with
terror fraught, Because of which both of the margins trembled; Not otherwise it was
than of a wind Impetuous on account of adverse heats, That smites the forest, and,
without restraint, The branches rends, beats down, and bears away; Right onward,
laden with dust, it goes superb, And puts to flight the wild beasts and the
shepherds. Mine eyes he loosed, and said: “Direct the nerve Of vision now along
that ancient foam, There yonder where that smoke is most intense.” Even as the
frogs before the hostile serpent Across the water scatter all abroad, Until each
one is huddled in the earth. More than a thousand ruined souls I saw, Thus fleeing
from before one who on foot Was passing o’er the Styx with soles unwet From off his
face he fanned that unctuous air, Waving his left hand oft in front of him, And
only with that anguish seemed he weary. Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was
he, And to the Master turned; and he made sign That I should quiet stand, and bow
before him. Ah! how disdainful he appeared to me! He reached the gate, and with a
little rod He opened it, for there was no resistance. “O banished out of Heaven,
people despised!” 113The hidden doctrine seems to be, that Negation or Unbelief is
the Gorgon’s head which changes the heart to stone; after which there is “no more
returning upward.” The Furies display it from the walls of the City of Heretics.
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 61 Figure 23: Well I perceived one sent
from Heaven was he... Thus he began upon the horrid threshold; “Whence is this
arrogance within you couched? Wherefore recalcitrate against that will, From which
the end can never be cut off, And which has many times increased your pain? What
helpeth it to butt against the fates? Your Cerberus, if you remember well, For that
still bears his chin and gullet peeled.” Then he returned along the miry road, And
spake no word to us, but had the look Of one whom other care constrains and goads
Than that of him who in his presence is; And we our feet directed tow’rds the city,
After those holy words all confident. Within we entered without any contest; And I,
who inclination had to see 62 http://www.paskvil.com/ What the condition
such a fortress holds, Soon as I was within, cast round mine eye, And see on every
hand an ample plain, Full of distress and torment terrible. Even as at Arles, where
stagnant grows the Rhone, 114 Even as at Pola near to the Quarnaro, 115 That shuts
in Italy and bathes its borders, The sepulchres make all the place uneven; So
likewise did they there on every side, Saving that there the manner was more
bitter; For flames between the sepulchres were scattered, By which they so
intensely heated were, That iron more so asks not any art. All of their coverings
uplifted were, And from them issued forth such dire laments, Sooth seemed they of
the wretched and tormented. And I: “My Master, what are all those people Who,
having sepulture within those tombs, Make themselves audible by doleful sighs?” And
he to me: “Here are the Heresiarchs, With their disciples of all sects, and much
More than thou thinkest laden are the tombs. Here like together with its like is
buried; And more and less the monuments are heated.” And when he to the right had
turned, we passed Between the torments and high parapets. 114At Arles lie buried,
according to old tradition, the Peers of Charlemagne and their ten thousand men at
arms. 115Pola is a city in Istria. “Near Pola,” says Benvenuto da Imola, “are seen
many tombs, about seven hundred, and of various forms.” Quarnaro is a gulf of the
northern extremity of the Adriatic. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 63
Figure 24: The three infernal Furies stained with blood... 64
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 25: The sepulchres make all the place uneven...
Inferno Canto 10 NOW onward goes, along a narrow path Between the torments and the
city wall, My Master, and I follow at his back. “O power supreme, that through
these impious circles Turnest me,” I began, “as pleases thee, Speak to me, and my
longings satisfy; The people who are lying in these tombs, Might they be seen?
already are uplifted The covers all, and no one keepeth guard.” And he to me: “They
all will be closed up When from Jehoshaphat they shall return Here with the bodies
they have left above. Their cemetery have upon this side With Epicurus all his
followers, Who with the body mortal make the soul; But in the question thou dost
put to me, Within here shalt thou soon be satisfied, And likewise in the wish thou
keepest silent.” And I: “Good Leader, I but keep concealed From thee my heart, that
I may speak the less, Nor only now hast thou thereto disposed me.” “O Tuscan, thou
who through the city of fire Goest alive, thus speaking modestly, Be pleased to
stay thy footsteps in this place. Thy mode of speaking makes thee manifest A native
of that noble fatherland, To which perhaps I too molestful was.” Upon a sudden
issued forth this sound 65 66 http://www.paskvil.com/ From out one of the tombs;
wherefore I pressed, Fearing, a little nearer to my Leader. And unto me he said:
“Turn thee; what dost thou? Behold there Farinata who has risen; 116 From the waist
upwards wholly shalt thou see him.” I had already fixed mine eyes on his, And he
uprose erect with breast and front E’en as if Hell he had in great despite. And
with courageous hands and prompt my Leader Thrust me between the sepulchres towards
him, Exclaiming, “Let thy words explicit be.” As soon as I was at the foot of his
tomb Somewhat he eyed me, and, as if disdainful, Then asked of me, “Who were thine
ancestors?” I, who desirous of obeying was, Concealed it not, but all revealed to
him; Whereat he raised his brows a little upward. Then said he: “Fiercely adverse
have they been 117 To me, and to my fathers, and my party; So that two several
times I scattered them.” “If they were banished, they returned on all sides,” I
answered him, “the first time and the second; But yours have not acquired that art
aright.” Then there uprose upon the sight, uncovered Down to the chin, a shadow at
his side; 118 I think that he had risen on his knees. 116Farinata degli Uberti was
the most valiant and renowned leader of the Ghibellines in Florence. Boccacio,
Comento, says: “He was of the opinion of Epicurus, that the soul dies with the
body, and consequently maintained that human happiness consisted in temporal
pleasures; but he did not follow these in the way that Epicurus did, that is by
making long fasts to have afterwards pleasure in eating dry bread; but was fond of
good and delicate viands, and ate them without waiting to be hungry; and for this
sin he is damned as a Heretic in this place.” Farinata led to Ghibellines at the
famous battle of Monte Aperto in 1260, where the Guelfs were routed, and driven out
of Florence. He died in 1264. 117The ancestors of Dante, and Dante himself, were
Guelfs. He did not become a Ghibelline till after his banishment. 118Cavalcante de’
Cavalcanti, father of Dante’s friend, Guido Cavalcanti. He was of the Guelf party;
so that there are Guelf and Ghibelline buried in the same tomb. Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno 67 Round me he gazed, as if solicitude He had to see if some
one else were with me, But after his suspicion was all spent, Weeping, he said to
me: “If through this blind Prison thou goest by loftiness of genius, Where is my
son? and why is he not with thee?” And I to him: “I come not of myself; He who is
waiting yonder leads me here, Whom in disdain perhaps your Guido had.” 119 His
language and the mode of punishment Already unto me had read his name; On that
account my answer was so full. Up starting suddenly, he cried out: “How Saidst
thou, – he had? Is he not still alive? Does not the sweet light strike upon his
eyes?” When he became aware of some delay, Which I before my answer made, supine He
fell again, and forth appeared no more. But the other, magnanimous, at whose desire
I had remained, did not his aspect change, Neither his neck he moved, nor bent his
side. 120 “And if,” continuing his first discourse, “They have that art,” he said,
“not learned aright, That more tormenteth me, than doth this bed. But fifty times
shall not rekindled be The countenance of the Lady who reigns here 121 Ere thou
shalt know how heavy is that art; And as thou wouldst to the sweet world return,
Say why that people is so pitiless 119Guido Cavalcanti, whom Benvenuto da Imola
calls “the other eye of Florence,” – alter oculus Florentiae tempore Dantis. He was
a poet of decided mark, but he seems not to have shared Dante’s admiration for
Virgil, and to have been more given to the study of philosophy than of poetry.
120Farinata pays no attention to this outburst of paternal tenderness on the part
of his Guelfic kinsman, but waits, in stern indifference, till it is ended, and
then calmly resumes his discourse. 121The moon, called in the heavens Diana, on
earth Luna, and in the infernal regions Proserpina. 68 http://www.paskvil.com/
Against my race in each one of its laws?” Whence I to him: “The slaughter and great
carnage Which have with crimson stained the Arbia, cause 122 Such orisons in our
temple to be made.” After his head he with a sigh had shaken, “There I was not
alone,” he said, “nor surely Without a cause had with the others moved. But there I
was alone, where every one Consented to the laying waste of Florence, He who
defended her with open face.” “Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,” 123 I him
entreated, “solve for me that knot, Which has entangled my conceptions here. It
seems that you can see, if I hear rightly, Beforehand whatsoe’er time brings with
it, And in the present have another mode.” “We see, like those who have imperfect
sight, The things,” he said, “that distant are from us; So much still shines on us
the Sovereign Ruler. When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain Our intellect, and
if none brings it to us, Not anything know we of your human state. Hence thou canst
understand, that wholly dead Will be our knowledge from the moment when The portal
of the future shall be closed.” Then I, as if compunctious for my fault, Said:
“Now, then, you will tell that fallen one, That still his son is with the living
joined. 122In the great battle of Monte Aperto. The river Arbia is a few miles
south of Siena. The traveller crosses it on his way to Rome. In this battle the
banished Ghibellines of Florence, joining the Sienese, gained a victory over the
Guelfs, and retook the city of Florence. Before the battle Buonaguida, Syndic of
Siena, presented the keys of the city to the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral, and made
a gift to her of the city and the neighboring country. After the battle the
standard of the vanquished Florentines, together with their battle-bell, the
Martinella, was tied to the tail of a jackass and dragged in the dirt. 123After the
battle of Monte Aperto a diet of the Ghibellines was held at Empoli, in which the
deputies from Siena and Pisa, prompted no doubt by provincial hatred, urged the
demolition of Florence. Farinata vehemently opposed the project in a speech. Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 69 And if just now, in answering, I was dumb,
Tell him I did it because I was thinking Already of the error you have solved me.”
And now my Master was recalling me, Wherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit That
he would tell me who was with him there. He said: “With more than a thousand here I
lie; Within here is the second Frederick, 124 And the Cardinal, and of the rest I
speak not.” 125 Thereon he hid himself; and I towards The ancient poet turned my
steps, reflecting Upon that saying, which seemed hostile to me. He moved along; and
afterward thus going, He said to me, “Why art thou so bewildered?” And I in his
inquiry satisfied him. “Let memory preserve what thou hast heard Against thyself,”
that Sage commanded me, “And now attend here;” and he raised his finger. “When thou
shalt be before the radiance sweet Of her whose beauteous eyes all things behold,
From her thou’lt know the journey of thy life.” Unto the left hand then
he turned his feet; We left the wall, and went towards the middle, Along a path
that strikes into a valley, Which even up there unpleasant made its stench.
124Frederick II., son of the Emperor Henry VI., surnamed the Severe, and grandson
of Barbarossa. He reigned from 1220 to 1250, not only as Emperor of Germany, but
also as King of Naples and Sicily, where for the most part he held his court, one
of the most brilliant of the Middle Ages. 125This is Cardinal Ottaviano delgi
Ubaldini, who is accused of saying, “If there be any soul, I have lost mine for the
Ghibellines.” Dante takes him at his word. 70 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 26: As
soon as I was at the foot of his tomb... Inferno Canto 11 UPON the margin of a
lofty bank Which great rocks broken in a circle made, We came upon a still more
cruel throng; And there, by reason of the horrible Excess of stench the deep abyss
throws out, We drew ourselves aside behind the cover Of a great tomb, whereon I saw
a writing, Which said: “Pope Anastasius I hold, 126 Whom out of the right way
Photinus drew.” 127 “Slow it behoveth our descent to be, So that the sense be first
a little used To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it.” The Master thus;
and unto him I said, “Some compensation find, that the time pass not 126Some
critics and commentators accuse Dante of confounding Pope Anastasius with the
Emperor of that name. It is however highly probable that Dante knew best whom he
meant. Both were accused of heresy, though the heresy of the Pope seems to have
been of a mild type. A few years previous to his time, namely, in the year 484,
Pope Felix III. and Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople, mutually excommunicated each
other. When Anastasius II. became Pope in 496, “he dared,” says Milman, Hist. Lat.
Christ., I. 349, “to doubt the damnation of a bishop excommunicated by the See of
Rome: ‘Felix and Acacius are now both before a higher tribunal; leave them to that
unerring judgment.’ He would have the name of Acacius passed over in silence,
quietly dropped, rather than publicly expunged from the diptychs. This degenerate
successor of St. Peter is not admitted to the rank of a saint. The Pontifical book
(its authority on this point is indignantly repudiated) accuses Anastasius of
having communicated with a deacon of Thessalonica, who had kept up communion with
Acacius; and of having entertained secret designs of restoring the name of Acacius
in the services of the Church.” 127Photinus is the deacon of Thessalonica alluded
to in the preceding note. His heresy was, that the Holy Ghost did not proceed from
the Father, and that the Father was greater than the Son. The writers who endeavor
to rescue the Pope at the expense of the Emperor say that Photinus died before the
days of Pope Anastasius. 71 72 http://www.paskvil.com/ Idly;” and he: “Thou seest I
think of that. My son, upon the inside of these rocks,” Began he then to say, “are
three small circles, From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving They
all are full of spirits maledict; But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee, Hear
how and wherefore they are in constraint. Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven,
Injury is the end; and all such end Either by force or fraud afflicteth others. But
because fraud is man’s peculiar vice, More it displeases God; and so stand lowest
The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them. All the first circle of the Violent
is; But since force may be used against three persons, In three rounds ’tis divided
and constructed. To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we Use force; I say
on them and on their things, As thou shalt hear with reason manifest. A death by
violence, and painful wounds, Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance
Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies; Whence homicides, and he who smites
unjustly, Marauders, and freebooters, the first round Tormenteth all in companies
diverse. Man may lay violent hands upon himself And his own goods; and therefore in
the second Round must perforce without avail repent Whoever of your world deprives
himself, Who games, and dissipates his property, And weepeth there, where he should
jocund be. Violence can be done the Deity, In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
And by disdaining Nature and her bounty. And for this reason doth the smallest
round Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 73 Seal with its signet Sodom and
Cahors, 128 And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart. Fraud, wherewithal is
every conscience stung, A man may practise upon him who trusts, And him who doth no
confidence imburse. This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers Only the bond of
love which Nature makes; Wherefore within the second circle nestle Hypocrisy,
flattery, and who deals in magic, Falsification, theft, and simony, Panders, and
barrators, and the like filth. By the other mode, forgotten is that love Which
Nature makes, and what is after added, From which there is a special faith
engendered. Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is Of the Universe, upon
which Dis is seated, Whoe’er betrays for ever is consumed.” And I: “My Master,
clear enough proceeds Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes This cavern and
the people who possess it. But tell me, those within the fat lagoon, 129 Whom the
wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat, 130 And who encounter with such bitter
tongues, 131 128Cahors is the cathedral town of the Department of the Lot, in the
South of France, and the birthplace of the poet Clement Marot and of the romance-
writer Calpren ´ ede. In ` the Middle Ages it seems to have been a nest of usurers.
Matthew Paris, in his Historia Major, under date of 1235, has a chapter entitled,
Of the Usury of the Caursines, which in the translation of Rev. J. A. Giles runs as
follows: – “In these days prevailed the horrible nuisance of the Caursines to such
a degree that there was hardly any one in all England, especially among the
bishops, who was not caught in their net. Even the king himself was held indebted
to them in an uncalculable sum of money. For they circumvented the needy in their
necessities, cloaking their usury under the show of trade, and pretending not to
know that whatever is added to the principal is usury, under whatever name it may
be called. For it is manifest that their loans lie not in the path of charity,
inasmuch as they do not hold out a helping hand to the poor to relieve them, but to
deceive them; not to aid others in their starvation, but to gratify their own
covetousness; seeing that the motive stamps our every deed.” 129Those within the
fat lagoon, the Irascible, Canto VII., VIII. 130Whom the wind drives, the Wanton,
Canto V., and whom the rain doth beat, the Gluttonous, Canto VI. 131And who
encounter with such bitter tongues, the Prodigal and Avaricious, Canto VIII. 74
http://www.paskvil.com/ Wherefore are they inside of the red city Not punished, if
God has them in his wrath, And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?” And unto
me he said: “Why wanders so Thine intellect from that which it is wont? Or, sooth,
thy mind where is it elsewhere looking? Hast thou no recollection of those words
With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses 132 The dispositions three, that
Heaven abides not, – Incontinence, and Malice, and insane Bestiality? and how
Incontinence Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts? If thou regardest this
conclusion well, And to thy mind recallest who they are That up outside are
undergoing penance, Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons They separated
are, and why less wroth Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.” “O Sun,
that healest all distempered vision, Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
That doubting pleases me no less than knowing! Once more a little backward turn
thee,” said I, “There where thou sayest that usury offends Goodness divine, and
disengage the knot.” “Philosophy,” he said, “to him who heeds it, Noteth, not only
in one place alone, After what manner Nature takes her course From Intellect
Divine, and from its art; And if thy Physics carefully thou notest, 133 After not
many pages shalt thou find, That this your art as far as possible Follows, as the
disciple doth the master; So that your art is, as it were, God’s grandchild. 132The
Ethics of Aristotle, VII. i. “After these things, making another beginning, it must
be observed by us that there are three species of things which are to be avoided in
manners, viz. Malice, Incontinence, and Bestiality.” 133The Physics of Aristotle,
Book II. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 75 From these two, if thou
bringest to thy mind Genesis at the beginning, it behoves 134 Mankind to gain their
life and to advance; And since the usurer takes another way, Nature herself and in
her follower 135 Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope. But follow, now, as I
would fain go on, For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon, And the Wain wholly
over Caurus lies, 136 And far beyond there we descend the crag.” 134Genesis, i. 28:
“And God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it.” 135The constellation Pisces precedes Aries, in which the sun now is.
This indicates the time to be a little before sunrise. It is Saturday morning.
136The Wain is the constellation Charle’s Wain, or Bootes; and Caurus is the
Northwest, indicated by the Latin name of the northwest wind. 76
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 27: We drew ourselves aside behind the cover of a
great tomb... Inferno Canto 12 THE place where to descend the bank we came 137 Was
alpine, and from what was there, moreover, Of such a kind that every eye would shun
it. Such as that ruin is which in the flank Smote, on this side of Trent, the
Adige, Either by earthquake or by failing stay, For from the mountain’s top, from
which it moved, Unto the plain the cliff is shattered so, Some path ’twould
give to him who was above; Even such was the descent of that ravine, And on the
border of the broken chasm The infamy of Crete was stretched along, 138 Who was
conceived in the fictitious cow; And when he us beheld, he bit himself, Even as one
whom anger racks within. My Sage towards him shoutedw: “Peradventure Thou think’st
that here may be the Duke of Athens, 139 Who in the world above brought death to
thee? Get thee gone, beast, for this one cometh not Instructed by thy sister, but
he comes 140 137With this Canto begins the Seventh Circle of the Inferno, in which
the Violent are punished. In the first Girone or round are the Violent against
their neighbors, plunged more or less deeply in the river of boiling blood. 138The
Minotaur, half bull, half man. See the infamous story in all the classical
dictionaries. 139The Duke of Athens is Theseus. 140Ariadne, who gave Theseus the
silken thread to guide him back through the Cretan labyrinth after slaying the
Minotaur. Hawthorne has beatifully told the old story in his Tanglewood Tales. “Ah,
the bull-headed villain!” he says. “And O my good little people, you will perhaps
see, one of these days, as I do now, that every human being who suffers 77 78
http://www.paskvil.com/ In order to behold your punishments.” As is that bull who
breaks loose at the moment In which he has received the mortal blow, Who cannot
walk, but staggers here and there, The Minotaur beheld I do the like; And he, the
wary, cried: “Run to the passage; While he wroth, ’tis well thou shouldst descend.”
Thus down we took our way o’er that discharge Of stones, which oftentimes did move
themselves Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden. Thoughtful I went; and he
said: “Thou art thinking Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded By that brute
anger which just now I quenched. Now will I have thee know, the other time I here
descended to the nether Hell, This precipice had not yet fallen down. But truly, if
I well discern, a little Before His coming who the mighty spoil Bore off from Dis,
in the supernal circle, 141 Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley Trembled
so, that I thought the Universe Was thrilled with love, by which there are who
think 142 The world ofttimes converted into chaos; And at that moment this primeval
crag Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow. But fix thine eyes below; for
draweth near The river of blood, within which boiling is Whoe’er by violence doth
injure others.” O blind cupidity, O wrath insane, That spurs us onward so in our
short life, And in the eternal then so badly steeps us! I saw an ample moat bent
like a bow, anything evil to get into his nature, or to remain there, is a kind of
Minotaur, an enemy of his fellow-creatures, and separated from all good
companionship, as this poor monster was.” 141Christ’s descent into Limbo, and the
earthquake at the Crucifixion. 142This is the doctrine of Empedocles and other old
philosophers. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 79 Figure 28: Centaurs in
file were running, armed with arrows... As one which all the plain encompasses,
Conformable to what my Guide had said. And between this and the embankment’s foot
Centaurs in file were running, armed with arrows, 143 As in the world they used the
chase to follow. Beholding us descend, each one stood still, And from the squadron
three detached themselves, With bows and arrows in advance selected; And from afar
one cried: “Unto what torment Come ye, who down the hillside are descending? Tell
us from there; if not, I draw the bow.” My Master said: “Our answer will we make To
Chiron, near you there; in evil hour, That will of thine was evermore so hasty.”
143The Centaurs are set to guard this Circle, as symbolizing violence, with some
form of which the classic poets usually associate them. 80 http://www.paskvil.com/
Figure 29: Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges... Then touched he me, and
said: “This one is Nessus, 144 Who perished for the lovely Dejanira, And for
himself, himself did vengeance take. And he in the midst, who at his breast is
gazing, Is the great Chiron, who brought up Achilles; 145 That other Pholus is, who
was so wrathful. Thousands and thousands go about the moat Shooting with shafts
whatever soul emerges Out of the blood, more than his crime allots.” Near we
approached unto those monsters fleet; Chiron an arrow took, and with the notch 146
144Chiron was a son of Saturn; Pholus, of Silenus; and Nessus, of Ixion and the
Cloud. 145Homer, Iliad, XI. 832, “Whom Chiron instructed, the most just of the
Centaurs.” 146Mr. Ruskin refers to this line in confirmation of his theory that
“all great art represents something that it sees or believes in; nothing unseen or
uncredited.” The passage is as follows, Modern Painters, III. 83: – “And just
because it is always something that it sees or believes in, there is the peculiar
character above noted, almost unmistakable, in all high Dante Alighieri - Divine
Comedy, Inferno 81 Backward upon his jaws he put his beard. After he had uncovered
his great mouth, He said to his companions: “Are you ware That he behind moveth
whate’er he touches? Thus are not wont to do the feet of dead men.” And my good
Guide, who now was at his breast, Where the two natures are together joined,
Replied: “Indeed he lives, and thus alone Me it behoves to show him the dark
valley; Necessity, and not delight, impels us. Some one withdrew from singing
Halleluja, Who unto me committed this new office; No thief is he, nor I a thievish
spirit. But by that virtue through which I am moving My steps along this savage
thoroughfare, Give us some one of thine, to be with us, And who may show us where
to pass the ford, And who may carry this one on his back; For ’tis no spirit that
can walk the air.” Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about, And said to Nessus:
“Turn and do thou guide them, And warn aside, if other band may meet you.” We with
our faithful escort onward moved Along the brink of the vermilion boiling, Wherein
the boiled were uttering loud laments. People I saw within up to the eyebrows, And
the great Centaur said: “Tyrants are these, Who dealt in bloodshed and in
pillaging. Here they lament their pitiless mischiefs; here and true ideals, of
having been as it were studies from the life, and involving pieces of sudden
familiarity, and close specific painting which never would have been admitted or
even thought of, had not the painter drawn either from the bodily life or from the
life of faith. For instance, Dante’s Centaur, Chiron, dividing his beard with his
arrow before he can speak, is a thing that no mortal would ever have thought of, if
he had not actually seen the Centaur do it. They might have composed handsome
bodies of men and horses in all possible ways, through a whole life of pseudo-
idealism, and yet never dreamed of any such thing. But the real living Centaur
actually trotted across Dante’s brain, and he saw him do it.” 82
http://www.paskvil.com/ Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius 147 Who upon Sicily
brought dolorous years. That forehead there which has the hair so black Is Azzolin;
and the other who is blond, 148 Obizzo is of Esti, who, in truth, 149 Up in the
world was by his stepson slain.” Then turned I to the Poet; and he said, “Now he be
first to thee, and second I.” A little farther on the Centaur stopped Above a folk,
who far down as the throat Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth. A shade’
he showed us on one side alone, Saying: “He cleft asunder in God’s bosom 150 The
heart that still upon the Thames is honoured.” Then people saw I, who from out the
river Lifted their heads and also all the chest; And many among these I recognised.
151 Thus ever more and more grew shallower That blood, so that the feet alone it
covered; And there across the moat our passage was. “Even as thou here upon this
side beholdest The boiling stream, that aye diminishes,” The Centaur said, “I wish
thee to believe That on this other more and more declines Its bed, until it
reunites itself Where it behoveth tyranny to groan. 147Alexander of Thessaly and
Dionysius of Syracuse. 148Azzolino, or Ezzolino di Romano, tyrant of Padua,
nicknamed the Son of the Devil. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, III. 33, describes him
as: – “Fierce Ezelin, that most inhuman lord, Who shall be deemed by men a child of
hell.” His story may be found in Sismondi’s Histoire des Republiques Italiennes,
Chap. XIX. He so outraged the religious sense of the people by his cruelties, that
a crusade was preached against him, and he died a prisoner in 1259, tearing the
bandages from his wounds, and fierce and defiant to the last. 149Obizzo da Esti,
Marquis of Ferrara. He was murdered by Azzo, “whom he thought to be his son,” says
Boccaccio, “though he was not.” The Ottimo Comento remarks: “Many call themselves
sons, and are step-sons.” 150Guido di Monforte, who murdered Prince Henry of
England “in the bosom of God,” that is, in the church, at Viterbo. 151Violence in
all its forms was common enough in Florence in the age of Dante. Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno 83 Justice divine, upon this side, is goading That Attila,
who was a scourge on earth, 152 And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and for ever milks 153 The
tears which with the boiling it unseals In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, 154
Who made upon the highways so much war.” Then back he turned, and passed again the
ford. 152Attila, the Scourge of God. 153Which Pyrrhus and which Sextus, the
commentators cannot determine; but incline to Pyrrhus of Epirus, and Sextus Pompey,
the corsair of the Mediterranean. 154Nothing more is known of these highwaymen than
that the first infested the Roman sea-shore, and that the second was of a noble
family of Florence. 84 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 30: The infamy of Crete was
stretched along... Inferno Canto 13 NOT yet had Nessus reached the other side, 155
When we had put
ourselves within a wood, That was not marked by any path whatever. Not foliage
green, but of a dusky colour, Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,
Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison. Such tangled thickets have not,
nor so dense, Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold ’Twixt Cecina and
Corneto the tilled places. 156 There do the hideous Harpies make their nests, Who
chased the Trojans from the Strophades, With sad announcement of impending doom;
Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human, And feet with claws, and their
great bellies fledged; They make laments upon the wondrous trees. And the good
Master: “Ere thou enter farther, Know that thou art within the second round,” Thus
he began to say, “and shalt be, till Thou comest out upon the horrible sand;
Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see Things that will credence give unto
my speech.” I heard on all sides lamentations uttered, And person none beheld I who
might make them, 155In this Canto is described the punishment of those who had laid
violent hands on themselves or their property. 156The Cecina is a small river
running into the Mediterranean not many miles south of Leghorn; Corneto, a village
in the Papal States, north of Civita Vecchia. The country is wild and thinly
peopled, and studded with thickets, the haunts of the deer and the wild boar. 85 86
http://www.paskvil.com/ Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still. I think he
thought that I perhaps might think So many voices issued through those trunks From
people who concealed themselves from us; Therefore the Master said: “If thou break
off Some little spray from any of these trees, The thoughts thou hast will wholly
be made vain.” Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, And plucked a
branchlet off from a great thorn, And the trunk cried, “Why dost thou mangle me?”
After it had become embrowned with blood, It recommenced its cry: “Why dost thou
rend me Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? Men once we were, and now are
changed to trees; Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful, Even if the souls of
serpents we had been.” As out of a green brand, that is on fire At one of the ends,
and from the other drips And hisses with the wind that is escaping; So from that
splinter issued forth together Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip Fall,
and stood like a man who is afraid. “Had he been able sooner to believe,” My Sage
made answer, “O thou wounded soul, What only in my verses he has seen, Not upon
thee had he stretched forth his hand; Whereas the thing incredible has caused me To
put him to an act which grieveth me. But tell him who thou wast, so that by way Of
some amends thy fame he may refresh Up in the world, to which he can return.” And
the trunk said: “So thy sweet words allure me, I cannot silent be; and you be vexed
not, That I a little to discourse am tempted. I am the one who both keys had in
keeping 157 157Pietro della Vigna, Chancellor of the Emperor Frederick II. Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 87 Of Frederick’s heart, and turned them to and
fro So softly in unlocking and in locking, That from his secrets most men I
withheld; Fidelity I bore the glorious office So great, I lost thereby my sleep and
pulses. The courtesan who never from the dwelling Of Caesar turned aside her
strumpet eyes, Death universal and the vice of courts, Inflamed against me all the
other minds, And they, inflamed, did so inflame Augustus, That my glad honours
turned to dismal mournings. My spirit, in disdainful exultation, Thinking by dying
to escape disdain, Made me unjust against myself, the just. I, by the roots
unwonted of this wood, Do swear to you that never broke I faith Unto my lord, who
was so worthy of honour; And to the world if one of you return, Let him my memory
comfort, which is lying Still prostrate from the blow that envy dealt it.” Waited
awhile, and then: “Since he is silent,” The Poet said to me, “lose not the time,
But speak, and question him, if more may please thee.” Whence I to him: “Do thou
again inquire Concerning what thou thinks’t will satisfy me; For I cannot, such
pity is in my heart.” Therefore he recommenced: “So may the man Do for thee freely
what thy speech implores, Spirit incarcerate, again be pleased To tell us in what
way the soul is bound Within these knots; and tell us, if thou canst If any from
such members e’er is freed.” Then blew the trunk amain, and afterward The wind was
into such a voice converted: “With brevity shall be replied to you. When the
exasperated soul abandons The body whence it rent itself away, 88
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 31: It falls into the forest... Minos consigns it to
the seventh abyss. It falls into the forest, and no part Is chosen for it; but
where Fortune hurls it, There like a grain of spelt it germinates. It springs a
sapling, and a forest tree; The Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves, Do pain
create, and for the pain an outlet. Like others for our spoils shall we return; But
not that any one may them revest, For ’tis not just to have what one casts off.
Here we shall drag them, and along the dismal Forest our bodies shall suspended be,
Each to the thorn of his molested shade.” We were attentive still unto the trunk,
Thinking that more it yet might wish to tell us, When by a tumult we were
overtaken, Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 89 Figure 32: Fleeing so
furiously, that of the forest, every fan they broke. In the same way as he is who
perceives The boar and chase approaching to his stand, Who hears the crashing of
the beasts and branches; And two behold! upon our left-hand side, Naked and
scratched, fleeing so furiously, That of the forest, every fan they broke. He who
was in advance: “Now help, Death, help!” And the other one, who seemed to lag too
much, Was shouting: “Lano, were not so alert 158 158“Lano,” says Boccaccio,
Comento, “was young gentleman of Siena, who had a large patrimony, and associating
himself with a club of other young Sienese, called the Spendthrift Club, they also
being all rich, together with them, not spending but squandering, in a short time
he consumed all that he had and became very poor.” Joining some Florentine troops
sent out against the Aretines, he was in a skirmish at the parish of Toppo, which
Dante calls a joust; “and notwithstanding he might have saved himself,” continues
Boccaccio, “remembering his wretched condition, and it seeming to him a grievous
thing to bear poverty, as he had been very rich, he rushed into the thick of the
enemy and was slain, as perhaps he desired to be.” 90 http://www.paskvil.com/ Those
legs of thine at joustings of the Toppo!” And then, perchance because his breath
was failing, He grouped himself together with a bush. Behind them was the forest
full of black She-mastiffs, ravenous, and swift of foot As greyhounds, who are
issuing from the chain. 159 On him who had crouched down they set their teeth, And
him they lacerated piece by piece, Thereafter bore away those aching members.
Thereat my Escort took me by the hand, And led me to the bush, that all in vain Was
weeping from its bloody lacerations. “O Jacopo,” it said, “of Sant’ Andrea, 160
What helped it thee of me to make a screen? What blame have I in thy nefarious
life?” When near him had the Master stayed his steps, He said: “Who wast thou, that
through wounds so many Art blowing out with blood thy dolorous speech?” And he to
us: “O souls, that hither come To look upon the shameful massacre That has so rent
away from me my leaves, Gather them up beneath the dismal bush; I of that city was
which to the Baptist 161 Changed its first patron, wherefore he for this Forever
with his art will make it sad. And were it not that on the pass of Arno Some
glimpses of him are remaining still, Those citizens, who afterwards rebuilt it
159Some commentators interpret these dogs as poverty and despair, still pursuing
their victims. The Ottimo Comento calls them “poor men who, to follow pleasure and
the kitchens of other people, abandoned their homes and families, and are therefore
transformed into hunting dogs, and pursue and devour their masters.” 160Jacopo da
St. Andrea was a Paduan of like character and life as Lano. “Among his other
squanderings,” says the Ottimo Comento, “it is said that, wishing to see a grand
and beautiful fire, he had one of his own villas burned.” 161Florence was first
under the protection of the god Mars; afterwards under that of St. John the
Baptist. But in Dante’s time the statue of Mars was still standing on a column at
the head of the Ponte Vecchio. It was over thrown by an inundation of the Arno in
1333. See Canto XV. Upon the ashes left by Attila, 162 In vain had caused their
labour to be done. 163 Of my own house I made myself a gibbet.” 162Florence was
destroyed by Totila in 450, and never by Attila. In Dante’s time the two seem to
have been pretty generally confounded. The Ottimo Comento remarks upon this point,
“Some say that Totila was one person and Attila another; and some say that he was
one and the same man.” 163Dante does not mention the name of this suicide;
Boccaccio thinks, for one of two reasons; “either out of regard of his surviving
relatives, who peradventure are honorable men, and therefore he did not wish to
stain them with the infamy of so dishonest a death, or else (as in those times, as
if by a malediction sent by God upon our city, many hanged themselves) that each
one might apply it to either he pleased of these many.” 92 http://www.paskvil.com/
Figure 33: There do the hideous Harpies make their nests... Inferno Canto 14
BECAUSE the charity of my native place 164 Constrained me, gathered I the scattered
leaves, And gave them back to him, who now was hoarse. Then came we to the confine,
where disparted The second round is from the third, and where A horrible form of
Justice is beheld. Clearly to manifest
these novel things, I say that we arrived upon a plain, Which from its bed
rejecteth every plant; The dolorous forest is a garland to it All round about, as
the sad moat to that; There close upon the edge we stayed our feet. The soil was of
an arid and thick sand, Not of another fashion made than that Which by the feet of
Cato once was pressed. 165 Vengeance of God, O how much oughtest thou By each one
to be dreaded, who doth read That which was manifest unto mine eyes! Of naked souls
beheld I many herds, Who all were weeping very miserably, And over them seemed set
a law diverse. Supine upon the ground some folk were lying; And some were sitting
all drawn up together, And others went about continually. 164In this third round of
the seventh circle are punished the Violent against God, “In heart denying and
blaspheming him, And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.” 165When he retreated
across the Libyan desert with the remnant of Pompey’s army after the battle of
Pharsalia. Lucan, Pharsalia, Book IX.: – “Foremost, behold, I lead you to the toil,
My feet shall foremost print the dusty soil.” 93 94 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure
34: Supine upon the ground some folk were lying... Those who were going round were
far the more, And those were less who lay down to their torment, But had their
tongues more loosed to lamentation. O’er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall,
Were raining down dilated flakes of fire, As of the snow on Alp without a wind. As
Alexander, in those torrid parts 166 Of India, beheld upon his host Flames fall
unbroken till they reached the ground, Whence he provided with his phalanxes To
trample down the soil, because the vapour Better extinguished was while it was
single; Thus was descending the eternal heat, 166Boccaccio confesses that he does
not know where Dante found this tradition of Alexander. Benvenuto da Imola says it
is a letter which Alexander wrote to Aristotle. He quotes the passage as follows:
“In India ignited vapors fell from heaven like snow. I commanded my soldiers to
trample them under foot.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 95 Whereby the
sand was set on fire, like tinder Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole.
Without repose forever was the dance Of miserable hands, now there, now here,
Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds. “Master,” began I, “thou who
overcomest All things except the demons dire, that issued Against us at the
entrance of the gate, Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not The fire, and
lieth lowering and disdainful, So that the rain seems not to ripen him?” And he
himself, who had become aware That I was questioning my Guide about him, Cried:
“Such as I was living, am I, dead If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom He
seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt, Wherewith upon the last day I was smitten,
And if he wearied out by turns the others In Mongibello at the swarthy forge, 167
Vociferating, ‘Help, good Vulcan, help!’ Even as he did there at the fight of
Phlegra, And shot his bolts at me with all his might, He would not have thereby a
joyous vengeance.” Then did my Leader speak with such great force, That I had never
heard him speak so loud: “O Capaneus, in that is not extinguished 168 Thine
arrogance, thou punished art the more; Not any torment, saving thine own rage,
Would be unto thy fury pain complete.” Then he turned round to me with better lip,
Saying: “One of the Seven Kings was he Who Thebes besieged, and held, and seems to
hold God in disdain, and little seems to prize him; But, as I said to him, his own
despites 167Mount Etna, under which, with his Cyclops, Vulcan forged the
thunderbolts of Jove. 168Capaneus was one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes.
96 http://www.paskvil.com/ Are for his breast the fittest ornaments. 169 Now follow
me, and mind thou do not place As yet thy feet upon the burning sand, But always
keep them close unto the wood.” Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes
Forth from the wood a little rivulet, Whose redness makes my hair still stand on
end. As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet, 170 The sinful women later share
among them, So downward through the sand it went its way. The bottom of it, and
both sloping banks, Were made of stone, and the margins at the side; Whence I
perceived that there the passage was. “In all the rest which I have shown to thee
Since we have entered in within the gate Whose threshold unto no one is denied,
Nothing has been discovered by thine eyes So notable as is the present river, Which
all the little ‘dames above it quenches.” These words were of my Leader; whence I
prayed him That he would give me largess of the food, For which he had given me
largess of desire. “In the mid-sea there sits a wasted land,” Said he
thereafterward,”whose name is Crete, Under whose king the world of old was chaste.
There is a mountain there, that once was glad With waters and with leaves, which
was called Ida; Now ’tis deserted, as a thing worn out. Rhea once chose it for the
faithful cradle Of her own son; and to conceal him better, 169Like Hawthorne’s
scarlet letter, at once an ornament and a punishment. 170The Bulicame or Hot
Springs of Viterbo. Villani, Cronica, Book 1. Ch. 51, gives the following brief
account of these springs, and of the origin of the name of Viterbo: – “The city of
Viterbo was built by the Romans, and in old times was called Vigezia, and the
citizens Vigentians. And the Romans sent the sick there on account of the baths
which flow from the Bulicame, and therefore it was called Vita Erbo, that is, life
of the sick, or city of life.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 97 Whene’er
he cried, she there had clamours made. 171 A grand old man stands in the mount
erect, 172 Who holds his shoulders turned tow’rds Damietta, And looks at Rome as if
it were his mirror. 173 His head is fashioned of refined gold, And of pure silver
are the arms and breast; Then he is brass as far down as the fork. From that point
downward all is chosen iron, Save that the right foot is of kiln-baked clay, And
more he stands on that than on the other. Each part, except the gold, is by a
fissure Asunder cleft, that dripping is with tears, 174 Which gathered together
perforate that cavern From rock to rock they fall into this valley; Acheron, Styx,
and Phlegethon they form; Then downward go along this narrow sluice Unto that point
where is no more descending. They form Cocytus; what that pool may be Thou shalt
behold, so here ’tis not narrated.” And I to him: “If so the present runnel Doth
take its rise in this way from our world, Why only on this verge appears it to us?”
And he to me: “Thou knowest the place is round And notwithstanding thou hast
journeyed far, Still to the left descending to the bottom, Thou hast not yet
through all the circle turned. Therefore if something new appear to us, It should
not bring amazement to thy face.” And I again: “Master, where shall be found Lethe
and Phlegethon, for of one thou’rt silent, And sayest the other of this rain is
made?” 171The shouts and cymbals of the Corybantes, drowning the cries of the
infant Jove, lest Saturn should find him and devour him. 172The statue of Time,
turning its back upon the East and looking towards Rome. Compare Daniel ii. 31.
173The Ages of Gold, Silver, Brass, and Iron. 174The Tears of Time, forming the
infernal rivers that flow into Cocytus. 98 http://www.paskvil.com/ “In all thy
questions truly thou dost please me,” Replied he; “but the boiling of the red Water
might well solve one of them thou makest. Thou shalt see Lethe, but outside this
moat, 175 There where the souls repair to lave themselves, When sin repented of has
been removed.” Then said he: “It is time now to abandon The wood; take heed that
thou come after me; A way the margins make that are not burning, And over them all
vapours are extinguished.” 175See Purgatorio XXVIII. Inferno Canto 15 NOW bears us
onward one of the hard margins, 176 And so the brooklet’s mist o’ershadows it, From
fire it saves the water and the dikes. Even as the Flemings, ’twixt Cadsand and
Bruges, 177 Fearing the flood that tow’rds them hurls itself, Their bulwarks build
to put the sea to flight; And as the Paduans along the Brenta, To guard their
villas and their villages, Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat; 178 In such
similitude had those been made, Albeit not so lofty nor so thick, Whoever he might
be, the master made them. Now were we from the forest so remote, I could not have
discovered where it was, Even if backward I had turned myself, When we a company of
souls encountered, Who came beside the dike, and every one Gazed at us, as at
evening we are wont To eye each other under a new moon, And so towards us sharpened
they their brows As an old tailor at the needle’s eye. Thus scrutinised by such a
family, 176In this Canto is described the punishment of the Violent against Nature;
– “And for this reason does the smallest round Seal with its signet Sodom and
Cahors.” 177Guizzante is not Ghent, but Cadsand, an island opposite L’Ecluse, where
the great canal of Bruges enters the sea. A canal thus flowing into the sea, the
dikes on either margin uniting with the sea-dikes, gives a perfect image of this
part of the Inferno. 178That part of the Alps in which the Brenta rises. 99 100
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 35: And bowing down my face unto his own, I made
reply, “Are you here, Ser Brunetto?” By some one I was recognised, who seized My
garment’s hem, and cried out, “What a marvel!” And I, when he stretched forth his
arm-to me, On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes, That the scorched countenance
prevented not His recognition by my intellect; And bowing down my face unto his
own, I made reply, “Are you here, Ser Brunetto?” 179 And he: “May’t not displease
thee, O my son, If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini Backward return and let
the trail go on.” I said
to him: “With all my power I ask it; And if you wish me to sit down with you, I
will, if he please, for I go with him.” 179Brunetto Latini, Dante’s friend and
teacher. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 101 “O son,” he said, “whoever of
this herd A moment stops, lies then a hundred years, Nor fans himself when smiteth
him the fire. Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come, And afterward will I
rejoin my band, Which goes lamenting its eternal doom.” I did not dare to go down
from the road Level to walk with him; but my head bowed I held as one who goeth
reverently. And he began: “What fortune or what fate Before the last day leadeth
thee down here? And who is this that showeth thee the way?” “Up there above us in
the life serene,” I answered him, “I lost me in a valley, Or ever yet my age had
been completed. But yestermorn I turned my back upon it; This one appeared to me,
returning thither, And homeward leadeth me along this road.” And he to me: “If thou
thy star do follow, Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port, If well I judged
in the life beautiful. And if I had not died so prematurely, Seeing Heaven thus
benignant unto thee, I would have given thee comfort in the work. But that
ungrateful and malignant people, Which of old time from Fesole descended, And
smacks still of the mountain and the granite, Will make itself, for thy good deeds,
thy foe; And it is right; for among crabbed sorbs It ill befits the sweet fig to
bear fruit. Old rumour in the world proclaims them blind; 180 A people avaricious,
envious, proud 180Villani, IV. 31, tells the story of certain columns of porphyry
given by the Pisans to the Florentines for guarding their city while the Pisan army
had gone to the conquest of Majorca. The columns were cracked by fire, but being
covered with crimson cloth, the Florentines did not perceive it. Boccaccio repeats
the story with variations, but does not think it a sufficient reason for calling
the Florentines blind, and confesses that he does not know what reason there can be
for so calling them. 102 http://www.paskvil.com/ , Take heed that of their customs
thou do cleanse thee. Thy fortune so much honour doth reserve thee, One party and
the other shall be hungry For thee; but far from goat shall be the grass. Their
litter let the beasts of Fesole Make of themselves, nor let them touch the plant,
If any still upon their dunghill rise, In which may yet revive the consecrated Seed
of those Romans, who remained there when The nest of such great malice it became.”
“If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,” Replied I to him, “not yet would you be In
banishment from human nature placed; For in my mind is fixed, and touches now My
heart the dear and good paternal image Of you, when in the world from hour to hour
You taught me how a man becomes eternal; And how much I am grateful, while I live
Behoves that in my language be discerned. What you narrate of my career I write,
And keep it to be glossed with other text 181 By a Lady who can do it, if I reach
her. This much will I have manifest to you; Provided that my conscience do not
chide me, For whatsoever Fortune I am ready. Such handsel is not new unto mine
ears; Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel around As it may please her, and the
churl his mattock.” My Master thereupon on his right cheek Did backward turn
himself, and looked at me; Then said: “He listeneth well who noteth it.” Nor
speaking less on that account, I go With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are His most
known and most eminent companions. 181The “other text” is the prediction of his
banishment, Canto X. 81, and the Lady is Beatrice. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 103 And he to me: “To know of some is well; Of others it were laudable to
be silent, For short would be the time for so much speech. Know them in sum, that
all of them were clerks, And men of letters great and of great fame, In the world
tainted with the selfsame sin. Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd, 182
And Francis of Accorso; and thou hadst seen there 183 If thou hadst had a hankering
for such scurf, That one, who by the Servant of the Servants From Arno was
transferred to Bacchiglione, 184 Where he has left his sin-excited nerves. More
would I say, but coming and discoursing Can be no longer; for that I behold New
smoke uprising yonder from the sand. A people comes with whom I may not be;
Commended unto thee be my Tesoro, In which I still live, and no more I ask.” Then
he turned round, and seemed to be of those Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle
185 Across the plain; and seemed to be among them The one who wins, and not the one
who loses. 182Priscian, the grammarian of Constantinople in the sixth century.
183Francesco d’Accorso, a distinguished jurist and Professor at Bologna in the
thirteenth century, celebrated for his Commentary upon the Code Justinian.
184Andrea de’ Mozzi, Bishop of Florence, transferred by the Pope, the “Servant of
Servants,” to Vicenza; the two cities being here designated by the rivers on which
they are respectively situated. 185The Corsa del Pallio, or foot races, at Verona;
in which a green mantle, or Pallio, was the prize. Buttura says that these foot-
races are still continued (1823), and that he has seen them more than once; but
certainly not in the nude state in which Boccaccio describes them, and which
renders Dante’s comparison more complete and striking. Inferno Canto 16 NOW was I
where was heard the reverberation 186 Of water falling into the next round, Like to
that humming which the beehives make, When shadows three together started forth,
187 Running, from out a company that passed Beneath the rain of the sharp
martyrdom. Towards us came they, and each one cried out: “Stop, thou; for by thy
garb to us thou seemest To be some one of our depraved city.” Ah me! what wounds I
saw upon their limbs, Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in! It pains me still
but to remember it. Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive; He turned his
face towards me, and “Now wait, He said; “to these we should be courteous. And if
it were not for the fire that darts The nature of this region, I should say That
haste were more becoming thee than them.” As soon as we stood still, they
recommenced The old refrain, and when they overtook us, Formed of themselves a
wheel, all three of them. As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do, Watching
for their advantage and their hold, Before they come to blows and thrusts between
them, Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage Direct to me, so that in
opposite wise 186In this Canto the subject of the preceding is continued.
187Guidoguerra, Tegghiajo Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci. 104 Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno 105 His neck and feet continual journey made. And, “If the
misery of this soft place Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties,” Began
one, “and our aspect black and blistered. Let the renown of us thy mind incline To
tell us who thou art, who thus securely Thy living feet dost move along through
Hell. He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading, Naked and skinless though
he now may go, Was of a greater rank than thou dost think; He was the grandson of
the good Gualdrada; 188 His name was Guidoguerra, and in life Much did he with his
wisdom and his sword. The other, who close by me treads the sand, Tegghiaio
Aldobrandi is, whose fame 189 Above there in the world should welcome be. And I,
who with them on the cross am placed, Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly 190 My
savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me.” 191 Could I have been protected
from the fire, Below I should have thrown myself among them, And think the Teacher
would have suffered it; But as I should have burned and baked myself, My terror
overmastered my good will, 188The good Gualdrada was a daughter of Bellincion
Berti, the simple citizen of Florence in the olden time, who used to walk the
streets “begirt with bone and leather,” as mentioned in the Paradiso, XV. 112.
189Tegghiajo Aldobrandi was a distinguished citizen of Florence, and opposed what
Malespini calls “the ill counsel of the people,” that war should be declared
against the Sienese, which war resulted in the battle of Monte Aperto and the
defeat of the Florentines. 190Jacopo Rusticucci was a rich Florentine gentleman,
whose chief misfortune seems to have been an ill-assorted marriage. Whereupon the
amiable Boccaccio in his usual Decameron style remarks: “Men ought not then to be
over-hasty in getting married; on the contrary, they should come to it with much
precaution.” And then he indulges in five octavo pages against matrimony and woman
in general. 191See Macchiavelli’s story of Belfagor, wherein Minos and
Rhadamanthus, and the rest of the infernal judges, are greatly surprised to hear an
infinite number of condemned souls “lament nothing so bitterly as their folly in
having taken wives, attributing to them the whole of their misfortune.” 106
http://www.paskvil.com/ Which made me greedy of embracing them. Then I began:
“Sorrow and not disdain Did your condition fix within me so, That tardily it wholly
is stripped off, As soon as this my Lord said unto me Words, on account of which I
thought within me That people such as you are were approaching. I of your city am;
and evermore Your labours and your honourable names I with affection have retraced
and heard. I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits Promised to me by the
veracious Leader; But to the centre first I needs must plunge.” “So may the soul
for a long while conduct Those limbs of thine,” did he make answer thee: “And so
may thy renown shine after thee, Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell Within our
city, as they used to do, Or if they wholly have gone out of it; For Guglielmo
Borsier, who is in torment 192 With us of late, and goes there with his comrades,
Doth greatly mortify us with his words.” “The new
inhabitants and the sudden gains, Pride and extravagance have in thee engendered,
Florence, so that thou weep’st thereat already!” In this wise I exclaimed with face
uplifted; And the three, taking that for my reply, Looked at each other, as one
looks at truth “If other times so little it doth cost thee,” Replied they all, “to
satisfy another, Happy art thou, thus speaking at thy will! Therefore, if thou
escape from these dark places, And come to rebehold the beauteous stars, When it
shall pleasure thee to say, ‘I was,’ 192Boccaccio, in his Comento, speaks of
Guglielmo Borsiere as “a courteous gentleman of good breeding and excellent
manners”; and in the Decameron, Gior. I. Nov.8, tells of a sharp rebuke
administered by him to Messer Ermino de’ Grimaldi, a miser of Genoa. Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 107 See that thou speak of us unto the people.”
Then they broke up the wheel, and in their flight It seemed as if their agile legs
were wings. Not an Amen could possibly be said So rapidly as they had disappeared;
Wherefore the Master deemed best to depart. I followed him, and little had we gone,
Before the sound of water was so near us, That speaking we should hardly have been
heard. Even as that stream which holdeth its own course The first from Monte Veso
tow’rds the East, 193 Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine, Which is above called
Acquacheta, ere It down descendeth into its low bed, And at Forli is vacant of that
name, Reverberates there above San Benedetto From Alps, by falling at a single
leap, Where for a thousand there were room enough; 194 Thus downward from a bank
precipitate, We found resounding that dark-tinted water, So that it soon the ear
would have offended. I had a cord around about me girt, 195 193Monte Veso is among
the Alps, between Piedmont and Savoy, where the Po takes its rise. From this point
eastward to the Adriatic, all the rivers on the left or northern slope of the
Apennines are tributaries to the Po, until we come to the Montone, which above
Forl`ı is called Acquacheta. This is the first which flows directly into the
Adriatic, and not into the Po. At least it was so in Dante’s time. Now, by some
change in its course, the Lamone, farther north, has opened itself a new outlet,
and is the first to make its own way to the Adriatic. 194Boccaccio’s interpretation
of this line, which has been adopted by most of the commentators since his time, is
as follows: “I was for a long time in doubt concerning the author’s meaning in this
line; but being by chance at this monastery of San Benedetto, in company with the
abbot, he told me that there had once been a discussion among the Counts who owned
the mountain, about building a village near the waterfall, as a convenient place
for a settlement, and bringing into it their vassals scattered on neighboring
farms; but the leader of the project dying, it was not carried into effect; and
that is what the author says, Ove dovea per mille, that is, for many, esser
ricetto, that is home and habitation.” 195This cord has puzzled the commentators
exceedingly. Boccaccio, Volpi, and Venturi, do not explain it. The anonymous author
of the Ottimo, Benvenuto da Imola, Buti, Landino, Vellutello, and Daniello, all
think it means fraud, which Dante had used in the 108 http://www.paskvil.com/ And
therewithal I whilom had designed To take the panther with the painted skin. After
I this had all from me unloosed, As my Conductor had commanded me, I reached it to
him, gathered up and coiled Whereat he turned himself to the right side, 196 And at
a little distance from the verge, He cast it down into that deep abyss. “It must
needs be some novelty respond,” I said within myself, “to the new signal The Master
with his eye is following so.” Ah me I how very cautious men should be With those
who not alone behold the act, But with their wisdom look into the thoughts! He said
to me: “Soon there will upward come What I await; and what thy thought is dreaming
Must soon reveal itself unto thy sight.” Aye to that truth which has the face of
falsehood, A man should close his lips as far as may be, Because without his fault
it causes shame; But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notes Of this my Comedy to
thee I swear, So may they not be void of lasting favour, pursuit of pleasure, “the
panther with the painted skin.” Lombardi is of opinion that, “by girding himself
with the Franciscan cord, he had endeavored to restrain his sensual appetites,
indicated by the panther; and still wearing the cord as a Tertiary of the Order, he
makes it serve here to deceive Geryon, and bring him up.” Biagioli understands by
it “the humility with which a man should approach Science, because it is she that
humbles the proud.” Fraticelli thinks it means vigilance; Tommaseo, “the good faith
with which he hoped to win the Florentines, and now wishes to deal with their
fraud, so that it may not harm him”; and Gabrielli Rossetti says, “Dante flattered
himself, acting as a sincere Ghibelline, that he should meet with good faith from
his Guelf countrymen, and met instead with horrible fraud.” It will be remembered
that St. Francis, the founder of the Cordeliers (the wearers of the cord), used to
call his body asino, or ass, and to subdue it with the capestro, or halter. Thus
the cord is made to symbolize the subjugation of the animal nature. This renders
Lombardi’s interpretation the most intelligible and satisfactory, though Virgil
seems to have thrown the cord into the abyss simply because he had nothing else to
throw, and not with the design of deceiving. 196As a man does naturally in the act
of throwing. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 109 Athwart that dense and
darksome atmosphere I saw a figure swimming upward come, 197 Marvellous unto every
steadfast heart, 198 Even as he returns who goeth down Sometimes to clear an
anchor, which has grappled Reef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden, Who
upward stretches, and draws in his feet. 197That Geryon, seeing the cord, ascends,
expecting to find some moine d´efroqu´e, and carry him down, as Lombardi suggests,
is hardly admissible; for that was not his office. The spirits were hurled down to
their appointed places, as soon as Minos doomed them. Inferno, V.15. 198Even to a
steadfast (loyal) heart. Inferno Canto 17 “BEHOLD the monster with the pointed
tail, 199 Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons, Behold him who
infecteth all the world.” Thus unto me my Guide began to say, And beckoned him that
he should come to shore, Near to the confine of the trodden marble; And that
uncleanly image of deceit Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust, But on the
border did not drag its tail. The face was as the face of a just man, Its semblance
outwardly was so benign, And of a serpent all the trunk beside. Two paws it had,
hairy unto the armpits; The back, and breast, and both the sides it had Depicted
o’er with nooses and with shields. With colours more, groundwork or broidery Never
in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks, Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid. As
sometimes wherries lie upon the shore, 199In this Canto is described the punishment
of Usurers, as sinners against Nature and Art. See Inferno XI. 109: – “And since
the usurer takes another way, Nature herself in her follower Disdains he, for
elsewhere he puts his hope.” The Monster Geryon, here used as the symbol of Fraud,
was born of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe, and is generally represented by the poets as
having three bodies and three heads (these are interpreted by modern prose as
meaning the three Balearic Islands – Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica – over which he
reigned). He was in ancient times King of Hesperia or Spain, living on Erytheia,
the Red Island of sunset, and was slain by Hercules, who drove away his beautiful
oxen. 110 Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 111 That part are in the water,
part on land; And as among the guzzling Germans there, The beaver plants himself to
wage his war; So that vile monster lay upon the border, Which is of stone, and
shutteth in the sand. His tail was wholly quivering in the void, Contorting upwards
the envenomed fork, That in the guise of scorpion armed its point. The Guide said:
“Now perforce must turn aside Our way a little, even to that beast Malevolent, that
yonder coucheth him.” We therefore on the right side descended, And made ten steps
upon the outer verge, Completely to avoid the sand and flame; And after we are come
to him, I see A little farther off upon the sand A people sitting near the hollow
place. Then said to me the Master: “So that full Experience of this round thou bear
away, Now go and see what their condition is. There let thy conversation be
concise; Till thou returnest I will speak with him, That he concede to us his
stalwart shoulders.” Thus farther still upon the outermost Head of that seventh
circle all alone I went, where sat the melancholy folk. Out of their eyes was
gushing forth their woe; This way, that way, they helped them with their hands Now
from the flames and now from the hot soil. Not otherwise in summer do the dogs, Now
with the foot, now with the muzzle, when By fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are
bitten. When I had turned mine eyes upon the faces Of some, on whom the dolorous
fire is falling, Not one of them I knew; but I perceived That from the neck of each
there hung a pouch, Which certain colour had, and certain blazon; 112
http://www.paskvil.com/ And thereupon it seems their eyes are feeding. 200 And as I
gazing round me come among them, Upon a yellow pouch I azure saw 201 That had the
face and posture of a lion. Proceeding then the current of my sight, Another of
them saw I, red as blood, Display a goose more white than butter is. 202 And one,
who with an azure sow and gravid 203 Emblazoned had his little pouch of white, Said
unto me: “What dost thou in this moat? Now get thee gone;
and since thou’rt still alive, Know that a neighbour of mine, Vitaliano, 204 Will
have his seat here on my left-hand side. A Paduan am I with these Florentines; Full
many a time they thunder in mine ears, Exclaiming, ‘Come the sovereign cavalier, He
who shall bring the satchel with three goats’ ”; 205 Then twisted he his mouth, and
forth he thrust 206 His tongue, like to an ox that licks its nose. And fearing lest
my longer stay might vex Him who had warned me not to tarry long, Backward I turned
me from those weary souls. 207 I found my Guide, who had already mounted Upon the
back of that wild animal, And said to me: “Now be both strong and bold. Now we
descend by stairways such as these; Mount thou in front, for I will be midway, So
that the tail may have no power to harm thee.” 200Their love of gold still haunting
them in the other world. 201The arms of the Gianfigliacci of Florence. 202The arms
of the Ubbriachi of Florence. 203The Scrovigni of Padua. 204Vitaliano del Dente of
Padua. 205Giovanni Bujamonte, who seems to have had the ill-repute of being the
greatest usurer of his day, called here in irony the “soverign cavalier.” 206As the
ass-driver did in the streets of Florence, when Dante beat him for singing his
verses amiss. See Sachetti, Nov. CXV. 207Dante makes as short work with these
usurers, as if he had been a curious traveller walking through the Ghetto of Rome,
or the Judengasse of Frankfort. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 113 Such
as he is who has so near the ague Of quartan that his nails are blue already, And
trembles all, but looking at the shade; Even such became I at those proffered
words; But shame in me his menaces produced, Which maketh servant strong before
good master. I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders; I wished to say, and yet
the voice came not As I believed, “Take heed that thou embrace me.” But he, who
other times had rescued me In other peril, soon as I had mounted, Within his arms
encircled and sustained me, And said: “Now, Geryon, bestir thyself; The circles
large, and the descent be little; Think of the novel burden which thou hast.” Even
as the little vessel shoves from shore, Backward, still backward, so he thence
withdrew; And when he wholly felt himself afloat, There where his breast had been
he turned his tail, And that extended like an eel he moved, And with his paws drew
to himself the air. A greater fear I do not think there was What time abandoned
Phaeton the reins, Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched; 208 Nor
when the wretched Icarus his flanks Felt stripped of feathers by the melting wax,
His father crying, “An ill way thou takest!” Than was my own, when I perceived
myself On all sides in the air, and saw extinguished The sight of everything but of
the monster. Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly; Wheels and descends, but I
perceive it only By wind upon my face and from below. I heard already on the right
the whirlpool Making a horrible crashing under us; 208The Milky Way. In Spanish El
camino de Santiago; in the Northern Mythology the pathway of the ghosts going to
Valhalla. 114 http://www.paskvil.com/ Whence I thrust out my head with eyes cast
downward. Then was I still more fearful of the abyss; Because I fires beheld, and
heard laments, Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling. I saw then, for before I
had not seen it, The turning and descending, by great horrors That were approaching
upon divers sides. As falcon who has long been on the wing, Who, without seeing
either lure or bird, Maketh the falconer say, “Ah me, thou stoopest,” Descendeth
weary, whence he started swiftly, Thorough a hundred circles, and alights Far from
his master, sullen and disdainful; Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom,
Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock, And being disencumbered of our persons,
He sped away as arrow from the string. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 115
Figure 36: Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly... Inferno Canto 18 THERE is a
place in Hell called Malebolge, 209 Wholly of stone and of an iron colour, As is
the circle that around it turns. Right in the middle of the field malign There
yawns a well exceeding wide and deep, Of which its place the structure will
recount. Round, then, is that enclosure which remains Between the well and foot of
the high, hard bank, And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom. As where for the
protection of the walls Many and many moats surround the castles, The part in which
they are a figure forms, Just such an image those presented there; And as about
such strongholds from their gates Unto the outer bank are little bridges, So from
the precipice’s base did crags Project, which intersected dikes and moats, Unto the
well that truncates and collects them. Within this place, down shaken from the back
Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet Held to the left, and I moved on behind. Upon
my right hand I beheld new anguish, New torments, and new wielders of the lash,
209Here begins the third division of the Inferno, embracing the Eight and Ninth
Circles, in which the Fraudulent are punished. The Eighth Circle is called
Malebolge, or Evil-budgets, and consists of ten concentric ditches, or Bolge of
stone, with dikes between, and rough bridges running across them to the centre like
the spokes of a wheel. In the First Bolgia are punished Seducers, and in the
Second, Flatterers. 116 Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 117 Wherewith the
foremost Bolgia was replete. Down at the bottom were the sinners naked; This side
the middle came they facing us, Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps; Even as
the Romans, for the mighty host, The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge, 210 Have
chosen a mode to pass the people over; For all upon one side towards the Castle 211
Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter’s; On the other side they go towards the
Mountain. This side and that, along the livid stone Beheld I horned demons with
great scourges, Who cruelly were beating them behind. Ah me! how they did make them
lift their legs At the first blows! and sooth not any one The second waited for,
nor for the third. While I was going on, mine eyes by one Encountered were; and
straight I said: “Already With sight of this one I am not unfed.” Therefore I
stayed my feet to make him out, And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand, And to
my going somewhat back assented; And he, the scourged one. thought to hide himself,
Lowering his face, but little it availed him; For said I: “Thou that castest down
thine eyes If false are not the features which thou bearest; Thou art Venedico
Caccianimico; 212 But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?” 213 210The year
of Jubilee 1300. 211The castle is the Castle of St. Angelo, and the mountain Monte
Gianicolo. See Barlow, Study of Dante p. 126. Others say Monte Giordano. 212“This
Caccinimico,” says Benvenuto da Imola, “was a Bolognese; a liberal, noble,
pleasant, and very powerful man.” Nevertheless he was so utterly corrupt as to sell
his sister, the fair Ghisola, to the Marquis of Este. 213In the original the word
is salse. “In Bologna,” says Benvenuto da Imola, “the name of Salse is given to a
certain valley outside the city, and near to Santa Maria in Monte, into which the
mortal remains of desperadoes, usurers, and other infamous persons are wont to be
thrown. Hence I have sometimes heard boys in Bologna say to each other, by way of
insult, ‘Your father was thrown into the Salse.’ ” 118 http://www.paskvil.com/
Figure 37: Beheld I horned demons with great scourges, who cruelly were beating
them behind. And he to me: “Unwillingly I tell it; But forces me thine utterance
distinct, Which makes me recollect the ancient world. I was the one who the fair
Ghisola Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis, Howe’er the shameless story may
be told. Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here; Nay, rather is this place so
full of them, That not so many tongues to-day are taught ’Twixt Reno and Savena to
say sipa; And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof, Bring to thy mind our
avaricious heart.” While speaking in this manner, with his scourge A demon smote
him, and said: “Get thee gone Pander, there are no women here for coin.” Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 119 I joined myself again unto mine Escort;
Thereafterward with footsteps few we came To where a crag projected from the bank.
This very easily did we ascend, And turning to the right along its ridge, From
those eternal circles we departed. 214 When we were there, where it is hollowed out
Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged, The Guide said: “Wait, and see that on
thee strike The vision of those others evil-born, Of whom thou hast not yet beheld
the faces, Because together with us they have gone.” From the old bridge we looked
upon the train Which tow’rds us came upon the other border, And which the scourges
in like manner smite. And the good Master, without my inquiring, Said to me: “See
that tall one who is coming, And for his pain seems not to shed a tear; Still what
a royal aspect he retains! That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning The
Colchians of the Ram made destitute. He by the isle of Lemnos passed along After
the daring women pitiless Had unto death devoted all their males. There with his
tokens and with ornate words Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden 215 Who first,
herself, had all the rest deceived. There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
Such sin unto such punishment condemns him, And also for Medea is vengeance done.
With him go those who in such wise deceive; And this sufficient be of the first
valley To know, and those that in its jaws it holds.” 214They cease going round the
circles as heretofore, and now go straight forward to the centre of the abyss.
215When the women of Lemnos put to death all the male inhabitans of the island,
Hypsipyle concealed her father Thaos,
and spared his life. 120 http://www.paskvil.com/ We were already where the narrow
path Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms Of that a buttress for another
arch. Thence we heard people, who are making moan In the next Bolgia, snorting with
their muzzles, And with their palms beating upon themselves The margins were
incrusted with a mould By exhalation from below, that sticks there, And with the
eyes and nostrils wages war. The bottom is so deep, no place suffices To give us
sight of it, without ascending The arch’s back, where most the crag impends.
Thither we came, and thence down in the moat I saw a people smothered in a filth
That out of human privies seemed to flow And whilst below there with mine eye I
search, I saw one with his head so foul with ordure, It was not clear if he were
clerk or layman. He screamed to me: “Wherefore art thou so eager To look at me more
than the other foul ones?” And I to him: “Because, if I remember, I have already
seen thee with dry hair, And thou’rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca; 216 Therefore I
eye thee more than all the others.” And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin: “The
flatteries have submerged me here below, Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited.”
Then said to me the Guide: “See that thou thrust Thy visage somewhat farther in
advance, That with thine eyes thou well the face attain Of that uncleanly and
dishevelled drab, 216“Allessio Interminelli,” says Benvenuto da Imola, “a soldier,
a nobleman, and of gentle manners was of Lucca, and from his descended that tyrant
Castruccio who filled all Tuscany with fear, and was lord of Pisa, Lucca, and
Pistoja, of whom Dante makes no mention, because he became illustrious after the
author’s death. Alessio took such delight in flattery, that he could not open his
mouth without flattering. He besmeared everybody, even the lowest menials.” The
Ottimo says, that in the dialect of Lucca the head “was facetiously called a
pumpkin.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 121 Who there doth scratch
herself with filthy nails, And crouches now, and now on foot is standing. Thais the
harlot is it, who replied 217 Unto her paramour, when he said, ‘Have I Great
gratitude from thee?’ – ‘Nay, marvellous’; And herewith let our sight be
satisfied.” 218 217Tha’is, the famous courtesan of Athens. Terence, The Eunuch, Act
III, Sc. I: – Thraso: “Did Tha’is really return me many thanks?” Gnatho: “Exceeding
thanks.” Thraso: “Was she delighted, say you?” Gnatho: “Not so much, indeed, at the
present itself, as because it was given by you; really, in right earnest, she does
exult at that.” 218“The filthiness of some passages,” exclaims Landor, Pentameron,
p. 15, “would disgrace the drunkenest horse-dealer; and the names of such criminals
are recorded by the poet, as would be forgotten by the hangman in six months.” 122
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 38: Thither we came, and thence down in the moat I
saw a people smothered in a filth... Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 123
Figure 39: Thais the harlot is it... Inferno Canto 19 OSIMON MAGUS, O forlorn
disciples, 219 Ye who the things of God, which ought to be The brides of holiness,
rapaciously For silver and for gold do prostitute, Now it behoves for you the
trumpet sound, Because in this third Bolgia ye abide. We had already on the
following tomb Ascended to that portion of the crag Which o er the middle of the
moat hangs plumb. Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest In heaven, in earth,
and in the evil world, And with what justice doth thy power distribute! I saw upon
the sides and on the bottom The livid stone with perforations filled, All of one
size, and every one was round. To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater Than
those that in my beautiful Saint John Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,
And one of which, not many years ago, 220 219The Third Bolgia is devoted to the
Simoniacs, so called from Simon Magus, the Sorcerer mentioned in Acts viii. 9, 18.
Brunetto Latini touches lightly upon them in the Tesoretto, XXI. 259, on account of
their high ecclesiastical dignity. 220Lami, in his Deliciae Eruditorum, makes a
strange blunder in reference to this passage. He says: “Not long ago the baptismal
font, which stood in the middle of Saint John’s at Florence, was removed; and in
the pavement may still be seen the octagonal shape of its ample outline. Dante
says, that, when a boy, he fell into it and was near drowning; or rather he fell
into one of the circular basins of water, which surrounded the principal font.”
Upon this Arrivabeni, Comento Storico, p. 588, where I find this extract, remarks:
“Not Dante, but Lami, staring at the moon, fell into the hole.” 124 Dante Alighieri
- Divine Comedy, Inferno 125 I broke for some one, who was drowning in it; 221 Be
this a seal all men to undeceive. Out of the mouth of each one there protruded The
feet of a transgressor, and the legs Up to the calf, the rest within remained. In
all of them the soles were both on fire; Wherefore the joints so violently
quivered, They would have snapped asunder withes and bands. Even as the flame of
unctuous things is wont To move upon the outer surface only, So likewise was it
there from heel to point. “Master, who is that one who writhes himself, More than
his other comrades quivering,” I said, “and whom a redder flame is sucking?” 222
And he to me: “If thou wilt have me bear thee Down there along that bank which
lowest lies, From him thou’lt know his errors and himself.” And I: “What pleases
thee, to me is pleasing; Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not From thy
desire, and knowest what is not spoken.” Straightway upon the fourth dike we
arrived; We turned, and on the left-hand side descended Down to the bottom full of
holes and narrow. And the good Master yet from off his haunch Deposed me not, till
to the hole he brought me Of him who so lamented with his shanks. “Whoe’er thou
art, that standest upside down, O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,” To say
began I, “if thou canst, speak out.” I stood even as the friar who is confessing
The false assassin, who, when he is fixed, 223 221Dante’s enemies had accused him
of committing this act through impiety. He takes this occasion to vindicate
himself. 222Probably an allusion to the red stockings worn by the Popes. 223Burying
alive with the head downward and the feet in the air was the inhuman punishment of
hired assassins, “according to justice and the municipal law in Florence,” says the
Ottimo. It was called Propagginare, to plant in the manner of vine-stocks. Dante
stood bowed down like the confessor called back by the criminal in order to delay
the moment 126 http://www.paskvil.com/ Recalls him, so that death may be delayed.
And he cried out: “Dost thou stand there already, Dost thou stand there already,
Boniface? 224 By many years the record lied to me. Art thou so early satiate with
that wealth, For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud The beautiful Lady, and
then work her woe?” Such I became, as people are who stand, Not comprehending what
is answered them, As if bemocked, and know not how to answer. Then said Virgilius:
“Say to him straightway, ‘I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest’.” And I replied
as was imposed on me. Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet, Then, sighing,
with a voice of lamentation Said to me: “Then what wantest thou of me? If who I am
thou carest so much to know, That thou on that account hast crossed the bank, Know
that I vested was with the great mantle; And truly was I son of the She-bear, 225
of his death. 224Benedetto Gaetani, Pope Boniface VIII. This is the Boniface who
frightened Celestine from the papacy, and persecuted him to death after his
resignation. “The lovely Lady” is the Church. The fraud was his collusion with
Charles II. of Naples. “He went to King Charles by night, secretly, and with few
attendants,” says Villani, VIII. Ch. 6, “and said to him: ‘King, thy Pope Celestine
had the will and the power to serve thee in thy Sicilian wars, but did not know
how: but if thou wilt contrive with thy friends the cardinals to have me elected
Pope, I shall know how, and shall have the will and the power’; promising upon his
faith and oath to aid him with all the power of the Church.” Farther on he
continues: “He was very magnanimous and lordly, and demanded great honor, and knew
well how to maintain and advance the cause of the Church, and on account of his
knowledge and power was much dreaded and feared. He was avaricious exceedingly in
order to aggrandize the Church and his relations, not being over-scrupulous about
gains, for he said that all things were lawful which were of the Church.” He was
chosen Pope in 1294. Dante indulges towards him a fierce Ghibelline hatred, and
assigns him his place of torment before he is dead. He died in 1303. 225Nicholas
III, of the Orsini (the Bears) of Rome, chosen Pope in 1277. “He was the first
Pope, or one of the first,” says Villani, VII. Ch. 54, “in whose court simony was
openly practised.” On account of his many accomplishments he was surnamed Il
Compiuto. Milman, Lat. Christ., Book XI. Ch. 4, says of him: “At length the
election fell on John Gaetano, of the noble Roman house, the Orsini, a man of
remarkable beauty of person Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 127 So eager
to advance the cubs, that wealth Above, and here myself, I pocketed. Beneath my
head the others are dragged down Who have preceded me in simony, Flattened along
the fissure of the rock. Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever That one shall
come who I believed thou wast, What time the sudden question I proposed. But longer
I my feet already toast, And here have been in this way upside down. Than he will
planted stay with reddened feet; For after him shall come of fouler deed From
tow’rds the west a Pastor without law, 226 Such as befits to cover him and me. New
Jason
will he be, of whom we read 227 In Maccabees ; and as his king was pliant, So he
who governs France shall be to this one.” 228 I do not know if I were here too
bold, That him I answered only in this metre: “I pray thee tell me now how great a
treasure Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first, Before he put the keys into his
keeping? and demeanor. His name, ‘the Accomplished,’ implied that in him met all
the graces of the handsomest clerks in the world, but he was a man likewise of
irreproachable morals, of vast ambition, and of great ability.” He died in 1280.
226The French Pope Clement V., elected in 1305, by the influence of Philip the Fair
of France, with sundry humiliating conditions. He transferred the Papal See from
Rome to Avignon, where it remained for seventy-one years in what Italian writers
call its “Babylonian captivity.” He died in 1314, on his way to Bordeaux. “He had
hardly crossed the Rhone,” says Milman, Lat. Christ., Book XII. Ch. 5, “when he was
seized with mortal sickness at Roquemaure. The Papal treasure was seized by his
followers, especially his nephew; his remains were treated with such utter neglect,
that the torches set fire to the catafalque under which he lay, not in a state. His
body, covered only with a single sheet, all that his rapacious retinue had left to
shroud their forgotten master, was half burned ... before alarm was raised. His
ashes were borne back to Carpentras and solemnly interered.” 227Jason, to whom
Antiochus Epiphanes granted a “license to set him up a place for exercise, and for
the training up of youth in the fashions of the heathen.” 228Philip the Fair of
France. “He was one of the handsomest men in the world,” says Villani IX. 66, “and
one of the largest in person, and well proportioned in every limb, – a wise and
good man for a layman.” 128 http://www.paskvil.com/ Truly he nothing asked but
‘Follow me.’ Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias 229 Silver or gold, when he
by lot was chosen Unto the place the guilty soul had lost. Therefore stay here, for
thou art justly punished, And keep safe guard o’er the ill-gotten money, Which
caused thee to be valiant against Charles. 230 And were it not that still forbids
it me The reverence for the keys superlative Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome
life, I would make use of words more grievous still; Because your avarice afflicts
the world, Trampling the good and lifting the depraved. The Evangelist you Pastors
had in mind, When she who sitteth upon many waters 231 To fornicate with kings by
him was seen; The same who with the seven heads was born, And power and strength
from the ten horns received, 232 So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing. Ye
have made yourselves a god of gold and silver; And from the idolater how differ ye,
Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship? 229Matthew, chosen as an Apostle in the
place of Judas. 230According to Villani, VII. 54, Pope Nicholas III. wished to
marry his niece to a nephew of Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily. To this alliance
the King would not consent, saying: “Although he wears the red stockings, his
lineage is not worthy to mingle with ours, and his power is not hereditary.” This
made the Pope indignant and, together with the bribes of John of Procida, led him
to encourage the rebellion in Sicily, which broke out a year after the Pope’s death
in the “Sicilian Vespers,” 1282. 231The Church of Rome under Nicholas, Boniface,
and Clement. 232The seven heads are interpreted to mean the Seven Virtues, and the
ten horns the Ten Commandments. Revelation XVII. 1-3: – “And there came one of the
seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come
hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon
many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the
inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So
he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten
horns.” Revelation XVII. 12, 13: – “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten
kings, ... and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” Dante Alighieri
- Divine Comedy, Inferno 129 Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother, Not thy
conversion, but that marriage dower Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!”
And while I sang to him such notes as these. Either that anger or that conscience
stung him, He struggled violently with both his feet. I think in sooth that it my
Leader pleased, With such contented lip he listened ever Unto the sound of the true
words expressed. Therefore with both his arms he took me up, And when he had me all
upon his breast, Remounted by the way where he descended. Nor did he tire to have
me clasped to him; But bore me to the summit of the arch Which from the fourth dike
to the fifth is passage. There tenderly he laid his burden down, Tenderly on the
crag uneven and steep, That would have been hard passage for the goats: Thence was
unveiled to me another valley. 130 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 40: Ye have made
yourselves a god of gold and silver... Inferno Canto 20 OF a new pain behoves me to
make verses 233 And give material to the twentieth canto Of the first song, which
is of the submerged. I was already thoroughly disposed To peer down into the
uncovered depth, Which bathed itself with tears of agony; And people saw I through
the circular valley, Silent and weeping, coming at the pace Which in this world the
Litanies assume. 234 As lower down my sight descended on them, Wondrously each one
seemed to be distorted From chin to the beginning of the chest; For tow’rds the
reins the countenance was turned, And backward it behoved them to advance, As to
look forward had been taken from them. Perchance indeed by violence of palsy Some
one has been thus wholly turned awry; But I ne’er saw it. nor believe it can be. As
God may let thee, Reader, gather fruit From this thy reading, think now for thyself
How I could ever keep my face unmoistened, When our own image near me I beheld
Distorted so, the weeping of the eyes Along the fissure bathed the hinder parts.
Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak 233In the Fourth Bolgia are punished the
Soothsayers – “Because they wished to see too far before them, Backward they look,
and backward make their way.” 234Processions chanting prayers and supplications.
131 132 http://www.paskvil.com/ Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said To me:
“Art thou, too, of the other fools? Here pity lives when it is wholly dead; Who is
a greater reprobate than he Who feels compassion at the doom divine? Lift up, lift
up thy head, and see for whom Opened the earth before the Thebans’ eyes; Wherefore
they all cried: ‘Whither rushest thou, Amphiaraus? Why dost leave the war?’ 235 And
downward ceased he not to fall amain As far as Minos, who lays hold on all. See, he
has made a bosom of his shoulders! Because he wished to see too far before him
Behind he looks, and backward goes his way: Behold Tiresias, who his semblance
changed, When from a male a female he became, His members being all of them
transformed; And afterwards was forced to strike once more The two entangled
serpents with his rod, Ere he could have again his manly plumes. 236 That Aruns is,
who backs the other’s belly, Who in the hills of Luni, there where grubs The
Carrarese who houses underneath, Among the marbles white a cavern had For his
abode; whence to behold the stars And sea, the view was not cut off from him. And
she there, who is covering up her breasts, Which thou beholdest not, with loosened
tresses, And on that side has all the hairy skin, Was Manto, who made quest through
many lands, 237 Afterwards tarried there where I was born; 235Amphiaraus was one of
the seven kings against Thebes. Foreseeing his own fate, he concealed himself, to
avoid going to the war; but his wife Eriphyle, bribed by a diamond necklace (as
famous in ancient story as the Cardinal de Rohan’s in modern), revealed his hiding-
place, and he went to his doom with the others. 236His beard. The word “plumes” is
used by old English writers in this sense. 237Manto, daughter of Tiresias, who fled
from Thebes, the “City of Bacchus,” when it became subject to the tyranny of Cleon.
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 133 Whereof I would thou list to me a
little. After her father had from life departed, And the city of Bacchus had become
enslaved, She a long season wandered through the world. Above in beauteous Italy
lies a lake At the Alp’s foot that shuts in Germany Over Tyrol, and has the name
Benaco. 238 By a thousand springs, I think, and more, is bathed, ’Twixt Garda and
Val Camonica, Pennino, 239 With water that grows stagnant in that lake. Midway a
place is where the Trentine Pastor, And he of Brescia, and the Veronese Might give
his blessing, if he passed that way. 240 Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and
strong, 241 To front the Brescians and the Bergamasks, Where round about the bank
descendeth lowest. There of necessity must fall whatever In bosom of Benaco cannot
stay, And grows a river down through verdant pastures. Soon as the water doth begin
to run No more Benaco is it called, but Mincio, Far as Governo, where it falls in
Po. Not far it runs before it finds a plain In which it spreads itself, and makes
it marshy, And oft ’tis wont in summer to be sickly. Passing that way the virgin
pitiless 242 Land in the middle of the fen descried, Untilled and naked of
inhabitants; There to escape all human intercourse, She with her servants stayed,
her arts to practise And lived, and left her empty body there. 238Lake Benacus is
now called the Lago di Garda. It is pleasantly alluded to by Claudian in his “Old
Man of Verona,” who has seen “the grove grow old coeval with himself.” 239The
Pennine Alps, or Alpes
Paenae, watered by the brooklets flowing into the Sarca, which is the principal
tributary of Benaco. 240The place where the three dioceses of Trent, Brescia, and
Verona meet. 241At the outlet of the lake. 242Manto. Benvenuto da Imola says:
“Virgin should here be rendered Virago.” 134 http://www.paskvil.com/ The men,
thereafter, who were scattered round, Collected in that place, which was made
strong By the lagoon it had on every side; They built their city over those dead
bones, And, after her who first the place selected, Mantua named it, without other
omen. Its people once within more crowded were, Ere the stupidity of Casalodi 243
From Pinamonte had received deceit. Therefore I caution thee, if e’er thou hearest
Originate my city otherwise, No falsehood may the verity defraud.” And I: “My
Master, thy discourses are To me so certain, and so take my faith, That unto me the
rest would be spent coals. But tell me of the people who are passing, If any one
note-worthy thou beholdest, For only unto that my mind reverts.” Then said he to
me: “He who from the cheek Thrusts out his beard upon his swarthy shoulders Was, at
the time when Greece was void of males, So that there scarce remained one in the
cradle, An augur, and with Calchas gave the moment, In Aulis, when to sever the
first cable. Eryphylus his name was, and so sings My lofty Tragedy in some part or
other; That knowest thou well, who knowest the whole of it. The next, who is so
slender in the flanks, Was Michael Scott, who of a verity 244 Of magical illusions
knew the game. 243Pinamonte dei Buonacossi, a bold, ambitious man, persuaded
Alberto, Count of Casalodi and Lord of Mantua, to banish to their estates the chief
nobles of the city, and then, stirring up a popular tumult, fell upon the rest,
laying waste their houses, and sending them into exile or to prison, and thus
greatly depopulating the city. 244“Michael Scott, the Magician,” says Benvuenuto da
Imola, “practised divination at the court of Frederick II., and dedicated to him a
book on natural history, which I have seen, and in which among other things he
treats of Astrology, then deemed infallible... It is said, moreover, that he
foresaw his own death, but could not escape it. He had prognosticated that he
should be killed by the falling of a small stone upon his head, and Dante Alighieri
- Divine Comedy, Inferno 135 Behold Guido Bonatti, behold Asdente 245 Who now unto
his leather and his thread Would fain have stuck, but he too late repents. Behold
the wretched ones, who left the needle, The spool and rock, and made them fortune-
tellers; They wrought their magic spells with herb and image. But come now, for
already holds the confines Of both the hemispheres, and under Seville Touches the
ocean-wave, Cain and the thorns, 246 And yesternight the moon was round already;
Thou shouldst remember well it did not harm thee From time to time within the
forest deep.” Thus spake he to me, and we walked the while. always wore an iron
skull-cap under his hood, to prevent this disaster. But entering a church on the
festival of Corpus Domini, he lowered his hood in sign of veneration, not of
Christ, in whom he did not believe, but to deceive the common people, and a small
stone fell from aloft on his bare head.” 245Guido Bonatti, a tiler and astrologer
of Forl`ı, who accompanied Guido di Montefeltro when he marched out of Forl`ı to
attack the French “under the great oak.” 246The moon setting in the sea west of
Seville. In the Italian popular tradition, the Man in the Moon is Cain with his
Thorns. The time here indicated is an hour after sunrise on Saturday morning.
Inferno Canto 21 FROM bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things 247 Of which my
Comedy cares not to sing, 248 We came along, and held the summit, when We halted to
behold another fissure Of Malebolge and other vain laments; And I beheld it
marvellously dark. As in the Arsenal of the Venetians Boils in the winter the
tenacious pitch To smear their unsound vessels o’er again, For sail they cannot;
and instead thereof One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks The ribs of that
which many a voyage has made; One hammers at the prow, one at the stern, This one
makes oars, and that one cordage twists, Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen;
Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine, Was boiling down below there a dense
pitch Which upon every side the bank belimed. I saw it, but I did not see within it
Aught but the bubbles that the boiling raised, And all swell up and resubside
compressed. The while below there fixedly I gazed, My Leader, crying out: “Beware,
beware!” 247The Fifth Bolgia, and the punishment of Barrators, or “Judges who take
bribes for giving judgment.” 248Having spoken in the preceding Canto of Virgil’s
“lofty Tragedy,” Dante here speaks of his own Comedy, as if to prepare the reader
for the scenes which are to follow, and for which he apologizes in Canto XXII. 14,
by repeating the proverb, “In the church with saints, and in the tavern with the
gluttons.” 136 Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 137 Drew me unto himself
from where I stood. Then I turned round, as one who is impatient To see what it
behoves him to escape, And whom a sudden terror doth unman. Who, while he looks,
delays not his departure; And I beheld behind us a black devil, Running along upon
the crag, approach. Ah, how ferocious was he in his aspect! And how he seemed to me
in action ruthless, With open wings and light upon his feet! His shoulders, which
sharp-pointed were and high, A sinner did encumber with both haunches, And he held
clutched the sinews of the feet. From off our bridge, he said: “O Malebranche, 249
Behold one of the elders of Saint Zita; 250 Plunge him beneath, for I return for
others Unto that town, which is well furnished with them. All there are barrators,
except Bonturo; 251 No into Yes for money there is changed.” He hurled him down,
and over the hard crag Turned round, and never was a mastiff loosened In so much
hurry to pursue a thief. The other sank, and rose again face downward; 252 But the
demons, under cover of the bridge, Cried: “Here the Santo Volto has no place! 253
249Malebranche, Evil-claws, a general name for the devils. 250Santa Zita, the
Patron Saint of Lucca, where the magistrates were called Elders, or Aldermen. In
Florence they bore the name of Priors. 251A Barrator, in Dante’s use of the word,
is to the State what is Simoniac is to the Church; one who sells justice, office,
or employment. Benvenuto says that Dante includes Bontura with the rest, “because
he is speaking ironically, as who should say, ‘Bontura is the greatest barrator of
all.’ For Bontura was an arch-barrator, who sagaciously led and managed the whole
commune, and gave offices to whom he wished. He likewise excluded whom he wished.”
252Bent down in the attitude of one in prayer; therefore the demons mock him with
the allusion to the Santo Volto. 253The Santo Volto, or Holy Face, is a crucifix
still preserved in the Cathedral of Lucca, and held in great veneration by the
people. The tradition is that it is the work of Nicodemus, who sculptured it from
memory. 138 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 41: From off our bridge, he said: “O
Malebranche...” Here swims one otherwise than in the Serchio; 254 Therefore, if for
our gaffs thou wishest not, Do not uplift thyself above the pitch.” They seized him
then with more than a hundred rakes; They said: “It here behoves thee to dance
covered, That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer.” Not otherwise the cooks
their scullions make Immerse into the middle of the caldron The meat with hooks, so
that it may not float. Said the good Master to me: “That it be not Apparent thou
art here, crouch thyself down Behind a jag, that thou mayest have some screen; And
for no outrage that is done to me Be thou afraid, because these things I know, For
once before was I in such a scuffle.” 254The Serchio flows near Lucca. Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 139 Figure 42: They issued from beneath the
little bridge... Then he passed on beyond the bridge’s head, And as upon the sixth
bank he arrived, Need was for him to have a steadfast front. With the same fury,
and the same uproar, As dogs leap out upon a mendicant, Who on a sudden begs,
where’er he stops, They issued from beneath the little bridge, And turned against
him all their grappling-irons; But he cried out: “Be none of you malignant! Before
those hooks of yours lay hold of me, Let one of you step forward, who may hear me,
And then take counsel as to grappling me.” They all cried out: “Let Malacoda go;”
Whereat one started, and the rest stood still, And he came to him, saying: “What
avails it?” “Thinkest thou, Malacoda, to behold me 140 http://www.paskvil.com/
Advanced into this place,” my Master said, “Safe hitherto from all your skill of
fence, Without the will divine, and fate auspicious? Let me go on, for it in Heaven
is willed That I another show this savage road.” Then was his arrogance so humbled
in him, That he let fall his grapnel at his feet, And to the others said: “Now
strike him not.” And unto me my Guide: “O thou, who sittest Among the splinters of
the bridge crouched down, Securely now return to me again.” Wherefore I started and
came swiftly to him; And all the devils forward thrust themselves, So that I feared
they would not keep their compact. And thus beheld I once afraid the soldiers Who
issued under safeguard from Caprona, 255 Seeing themselves among so many foes.
Close did I press myself with all my person Beside my Leader, and turned not mine
eyes From off their countenance, which was not good. They lowered their rakes, and
“Wilt thou have me hit him,” They said to one another, “on the rump?” And answered:
“Yes; see that thou nick him with it.” But the same demon who was holding parley
With my Conductor turned him very quickly, And said: “Be quiet,
be quiet, Scarmiglione;” Then said to us: “You can no farther go Forward upon this
crag, because is lying All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth arch. And if it
still doth please you to go onward, Pursue your way along upon this rock; 256 255A
fortified town on the Arno in the Pisan territory. It was besieged by the troops of
Florence and Lucca in 1289, and capitulated. As the garrison marched out under
safeguard, they were terrified by the shouts of the crowd, crying: “Hang them! hang
them!” In this crowd was Dante, “a youth of twenty-five,” says Benvenuto da Imola.
256Along the circular dike that separates one Bolgia from another. Near is another
crag that yields a path. 257 Yesterday, five hours later than this hour, 258 One
thousand and two hundred sixty-six Years were complete, that here the way was
broken. 259 I send in that direction some of mine To see if any one doth air
himself; Go ye with them; for they will not be vicious. “Step forward, Alichino and
Calcabrina,” Began he to cry out, “and thou, Cagnazzo; And Barbariccia, do thou
guide the ten. Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo, And tusked Ciriatto and
Graffiacane, And Farfarello and mad Rubicante; Search ye all round about the
boiling pitch; Let these be safe as far as the next crag, 260 That all unbroken
passes o’er the dens.” “O me! what is it, Master, that I see? Pray let us go,” I
said, “without an escort, If thou knowest how, since for myself I ask none. If thou
art as observant as thy wont is, Dost thou not see that they do gnash their teeth,
And with their brows are threatening woe to us?” And he to me: “I will not have
thee fear; Let them gnash on, according to their fancy, Because they do it for
those boiling wretches.” 257This is a falsehood, as all the bridges over the next
Bolgia are broken. See Canto XXIII. 140. 258At the close of the preceding Canto the
time is indicated as being an hour after sunrise. Five hours later would be noon,
or the scriptural sixth hour, the hour of the Crucifixion. Dante understands St.
Luke to say that Christ died at this hour. Convito, IV. 23: “Luke says that it was
about the sixth hour when he died; that is, the culmination of the day.” Add to the
“one thousand and two hundred sixty-six years,” the thirty-four of Christ’s life on
earth, and it gives the year 1300, the date of the Infernal Pilgrimage. 259Broken
by the earthquake at the time of the Crucifixion, as the rock leading to the Circle
of the Violent, Canto XII. 45: – “And at that moment this primeval rock Both here
and elsewhere made such over-throw.” As in the next Bolgia Hypocrites are punished,
Dante couples them with the Violent, by making the shock of the earthquake more
felt near them than elsewhere. 260The next crag or bridge, traversing the dikes and
ditches. 142 http://www.paskvil.com/ Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about;
But first had each one thrust his tongue between 261 His teeth towards their leader
for a signal; And he had made a trumpet of his rump. 261See Canto XVIII. 75.
Inferno Canto 22 I HAVE erewhile seen horsemen moving camp, 262 Begin the storming,
and their muster make, And sometimes starting off for their escape; Vaunt-couriers
have I seen upon your land, O Aretines, and foragers go forth, 263 Tournaments
stricken, and the joustings run, Sometimes with trumpets and sometimes with bells,
With kettle-drums, and signals of the castles, And with our own, and with
outlandish things, But never yet with bagpipe so uncouth Did I see horsemen move,
nor infantry, Nor ship by any sign of land or star. We went upon our way with the
ten demons; Ah, savage company! but in the church With saints, and in the tavern
with the gluttons! 264 Ever upon the pitch was my intent, To see the whole
condition of that Bolgia, And of the people who therein were burned. Even as the
dolphins, when they make a sign To mariners by arching of the back, That they
should counsel take to save their vessel, Thus sometimes, to alleviate his pain,
262The subject of the preceding Canto is continued in this. 263Aretino, Vita di
Dante, says, that Dante in his youth was present at the “great and memorable
battle, which befell at Campaldino, fighting valiantly on horseback in the front
rank.” It was there he saw the vaunt-couriers of the Aretines, who began the battle
with such a vigorous charge, that they routed the Florentine cavalry, and drove
them back upon the infantry. 264Equivalent to the proverb, “Do in Rome as the
Romans do.” 143 144 http://www.paskvil.com/ One of the sinners would display his
back, And in less time conceal it than it lightens. As on the brink of water in a
ditch The frogs stand only with their muzzles out, So that they hide their feet and
other bulk. So upon every side the sinners stood; But ever as Barbariccia near them
came, Thus underneath the boiling they withdrew. I saw, and still my heart doth
shudder at it, One waiting thus, even as it comes to pass One frog remains, and
down another dives; And Graffiacan, who most confronted him, Grappled him by his
tresses smeared with pitch, And drew him up, so that he seemed an otter. I knew,
before, the names of all of them, So had I noted them when they were chosen, And
when they called each other, listened how. “O Rubicante, see that thou do lay Thy
claws upon him, so that thou mayst flay him,” Cried all together the accursed ones.
And I: “My Master, see to it, if thou canst, That thou mayst know who is the
luckless wight, Thus come into his adversaries’ hands.” Near to the side of him my
Leader drew, Asked of him whence he was; and he replied: “I in the kingdom of
Navarre was born; 265 My mother placed me servant to a lord, For she had borne me
to a ribald knave, Destroyer of himself and of his things. Then I domestic was of
good King Thibault; 266 265Giampolo, or Ciampolo, say all the commentators; but
nothing more is known of him than his name, and what he tells us here of his
history. 266It is not very clear which King Thibault is here meant, but it is
probably King Thibault IV., the crusader and poet, born 1201, died 1253. His poems
have been published by Leveque de la Ravalli ´ ere, under the title of ` Les Po
´esies du Roi de Navarre; and in one of his songs (Chanson 53) he makes a clerk
address him as the Bons rois Thiebaut. Dante cites him two or three times in his
Volg. Eloq., and may have taken this expression from his song, as he does
afterwards, Canto XXVIII. 135, lo Re joves, the Re Giovane, or Young King, Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 145 I set me there to practise barratry, For
which I pay the reckoning in this heat.” And Ciriatto, from whose mouth projected,
On either side, a tusk, as in a boar, Caused him to feel how one of them could rip.
Among malicious cats the mouse had come; But Barbariccia clasped him in his arms,
And said: “Stand ye aside, while I enfork him.” And to my Master he turned round
his head; “Ask him again,” he said, “if more thou wish To know from him, before
some one destroy him.” The Guide: “Now tell then of the other culprits; Knowest
thou any one who is a Latian, 267 Under the pitch?” And he: “I separated Lately
from one who was a neighbour to it; Would that I still were covered up with him,
For I should fear not either claw nor hook!” And Libicocco: “We have borne too
much;” And with his grapnel seized him by the arm, So that, by rending, he tore off
a tendon. Eke Draghignazzo wished to pounce upon him Down at the legs; whence their
Decurion Turned round and round about with evil look. When they again somewhat were
pacified, Of him, who still was looking at his wound, Demanded my Conductor without
stay: “Who was that one, from whom a luckless parting Thou sayest thou hast made,
to come ashore?” And he replied “It was the Friar Gomita, He of Gallura, vessel of
all fraud, 268 Who had the enemies of his Lord in hand, And dealt so with them each
exults thereat; from the songs of Bertrand de Born. 267A Latian, that is to say, an
Italian. 268This Frate Gomita was a Sardinian in the employ of Nino de’ Visconti,
judge in the jurisdiction of Gallura, the “gentle Judge Nino” of Purgatory VIII.
53. The frauds and peculations of the Friar brought him finally to the gallows.
Gallura is the northeastern jurisdiction of the island. 146 http://www.paskvil.com/
Money he took, and let them smoothly off, As he says; and in other offices A
barrator was he, not mean but sovereign. Foregathers with him one Don Michael
Zanche 269 Of Logodoro; and of Sardinia To gossip never do their tongues feel
tired. O me! see that one, how he grinds his teeth; Still farther would I speak,
but am afraid Lest he to scratch my itch be making ready.” And the grand Provost,
turned to Farfarello, Who rolled his eyes about as if to strike, Said: “Stand aside
there, thou malicious bird.” “If you desire either to see or hear,” The terror-
stricken recommenced thereon, “Tuscans or Lombards. I will make them come. But let
the Malebranche cease a little, So that these may not their revenges fear, And I,
down sitting in this very place, For one that I am will make seven come, When I
shall whistle, as our custom is To do whenever one of us comes out.” Cagnazzo at
these words his muzzle lifted, Shaking his head, and said: “Just hear the trick
Which he has thought of, down to throw himself! Whence he, who snares in great
abundance had, Responded: “I by far too cunning am, When I procure for mine a
greater sadness.” Alichin held not in, but running counter Unto the rest, said to
him: “If thou dive, I will not follow thee upon the gallop, But I will beat my
wings above the pitch; The height be left, and be the bank a shield 269Don Michael
Zanche was Seneschal of King Enzo of Sardinia, a natural son of the Emperor
Frederick II. Dante gives him the title of Don, still used in Sardinia for Signore.
After the death of Enzo in prison at Bologna, in 1271, Don Michael won by fraud and
flattery
his widow Adelasia, and became himself Lord of Logodoro, the northwestern
jurisdiction, adjoining that of Gallura. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno
147 Figure 43: The Navarrese selected well his time... To see if thou alone dost
countervail us.” O thou who readest, thou shalt hear new sport! Each to the other
side his eyes averted; He first, who most reluctant was to do it. The Navarrese
selected well his time; Planted his feet on land, and in a moment Leaped, and
released himself from their design. Whereat each one was suddenly stung with shame,
But he most who was cause of the defeat; Therefore he moved, and cried: “Thou art
o’ertakern.” But little it availed, for wings could not Outstrip the fear; the
other one went under, And, flying, upward he his breast directed; Not otherwise the
duck upon a sudden Dives under, when the falcon is approaching, And upward he
returneth cross and weary. 148 http://www.paskvil.com/ Infuriate at the mockery,
Calcabrina Flying behind him followed close, desirous The other should escape, to
have a quarrel. And when the barrator had disappeared, He turned his talons upon
his companion, And grappled with him right above the moat. But sooth the other was
a doughty sparhawk To clapperclaw him well; and both of them Fell in the middle of
the boiling pond. A sudden intercessor was the heat; But ne’ertheless of rising
there was naught, To such degree they had their wings belimed. Lamenting with the
others, Barbariccia Made four of them fly to the other side With all their gaffs,
and very speedily This side and that they to their posts descended; They stretched
their hooks towards the pitch-ensnared, Who were already baked within the crust,
And in this manner busied did we leave them. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 149 Figure 44: Infuriate at the mockery, Calcabrina flying behind him
followed close... Inferno Canto 23 SILENT, alone, and without company 270 We went,
the one in front, the other after, As go the Minor Friars along their way Upon the
fable of Aesop was directed 271 My thought, by reason of the present quarrel, Where
he has spoken of the frog and mouse; For mo and issa are not more alike 272 Than
this one is to that, if well we couple End and beginning with a steadfast mind. And
even as one thought from another springs, So afterward from that was born another,
Which the first fear within me double made. Thus did I ponder: “These on our
account Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff So great, that much I think it
must annoy them. If anger be engrafted on ill-will, They will come after us more
merciless Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes,” I felt my hair stand all on
end already With terror, and stood backwardly intent, When said I: “Master, if thou
hidest not 270In this Sixth Bolgia the Hypocrites are punished. “A painted people
there below we found, Who went about with footsteps very slow, Weeping and in their
looks subdued and weary.” 271The Fables of Aesop, by Sir Roger L’Estrang, IV.:
“There fell out a bloody quarrel once betwixt the Frogs and the Mice, about the
sovereignty of the Fenns; and whilst two of their champions were disputing it at
swords point, down comes a kite powdering upon them in the interim, and gobbles up
both together, to part the fray.” 272Both words signifying “now”; mo, from the
Latin modo; and issa, from the Latin ipsa; meaning ipsa hora. “The Tuscans say mo,”
remarks Benvenuto, “the Lombards issa.” 150 Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 151 Thyself and me forthwith, of Malebranche I am in dread; we have them
now behind us; I so imagine them, I already feel them” And he: “If I were made of
leaded glass Thine outward image I should not attract Sooner to me than I imprint
the inner. Just now thy thoughts came in among my own, With similar attitude and
similar face, So that of both one counsel sole I made. If peradventure the right
bank so slope That we to the next Bolgia can descend. We shall escape from the
imagined chase.” Not yet he finished rendering such opinion. When I beheld them
come with outstretched wings, Not far remote, with will to seize upon us. My Leader
on a sudden seized me up, 273 Even as a mother who by noise is wakened, And close
beside her sees the enkindled flames, Who takes her son, and flies, and does not
stop, Having more care of him than of herself, So that she clothes her only with a
shift; And downward from the top of the hard bank Supine he gave him to the pendent
rock, That one side of the other Bolgia walls. Ne’er ran so swiftly water through a
sluice To turn the water of any land-built mill, When nearest to the paddles it
approaches, As did my Master down along that border, Bearing me with him on his
breast away, As his own son, and not as a companion. Hardly the bed of the ravine
below His feet had reached, ere they had reached the hill Right over us; but he was
not afraid; For the high Providence, which had ordained To place them ministers of
the fifth moat, 273“When he is in a fright and hurry, and has a very steep place to
go down, Virgil, has to carry him altogether,” says Mr. Ruskin. See Canto XII. 152
http://www.paskvil.com/ The power of thence departing took from all. A painted
people there below we found, Who went about with footsteps very slow, Weeping and
in their semblance tired and vanquished. They had on mantles with the hoods low
down Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut That in Cologne they for the monks
arc made. 274 Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles; But inwardly all leaden
and so heavy That Frederick used to put them on of straw. 275 O everlastingly
fatiguing mantle! Again we turned us, still to the left hand Along with them,
intent on their sad plaint; But owing to the weight, that weary folk Came on so
tardily, that we were new In company at each motion of the haunch. Whence I unto my
Leader: “See thou find Some one who may by deed or name be known, And thus in going
move thine eye about.” And one, who understood the Tuscan speech Cried to us from
behind: “Stay ye your feet Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air! Perhaps thou’lt
have from me what thou demandest.” Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: “Wait,
And then according to his pace proceed.” I stopped, and two beheld I show great
haste 274Benvenuto speaks of the cloaks of the German monks as “ill-fitting and
shapeless.” 275The leaden cloaks which Frederick put upon malefactors were straw in
comparison. The Emperor Frederick II. is said to have punished traitors by wrapping
them in lead, and throwing them into a heated caldron. I can find no historic
authority for this. It rests only on tradition; and on the same authority the same
punishment is said to have been inflicted in Scotland, and is thus described in the
ballad of “Lord Soulis,” Scott’s Ministrelsy of the Scottish Border, IV. 256: – “On
a circle of stones they placed the pot, On a circle of stones but barely nine; They
heated it red and fiery hot, Till the burnished brass did glimmer and shine. They
roll’d him up in a sheet of lead, A sheet of lead for a funeral pall, And plunged
him into the caldron red, And melted him, – lead, and bones, and all.” We get also
a glimpse of this punishment in Ducange, Glo. Capa Plumbea, where he cites the case
in which one man tells another: “If our Holy Father the Pope knew the life you are
leading, he would have you put to death in a cloak of lead.” Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno 153 Of spirit, in their faces, to be with me; But the burden
and the narrow way delayed them. When they came up, long with an eye askance They
scanned me without uttering a word. Then to each other turned, and said together:
“He by the action of his throat seems living; And if they dead are, by what
privilege Go they uncovered by the heavy stole?” Then said to me: “Tuscan, who to
the college 276 Of miserable hypocrites art come, Do not disdain to tell us who
thou art.” And I to them: “Born was I, and grew up In the great town on the fair
river of Arno, 277 And with the body am I’ve always had. But who are ye, in whom
there trickles down Along your cheeks such grief as I behold? And what pain is upon
you, that so sparkles?” And one replied to me: “These orange cloaks Are made of
lead so heavy, that the weights Cause in this way their balances to creak. Frati
Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese; 278 276Bologna was renowned for its University;
and the speaker, who was a Bolognese, is still mindful of his college. 277Florence,
the bellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma, as Dante calls it, Convito, I. 3.
278An order of knighthood, established by Pope Urban IV. in 1261, under the title
of “Knights of Santa Maria.” The name Frati Gaudenti, or “Jovial Friars,” was a
nickname, because they lived in their own homes and were not bound by strict
monastic rules. Napier, Flor. Hist. I. 269, says: – “A short time before this a new
order of religious nighthood under the name of Frati Gaudenti began in Italy: it
was not bound by vows of celibacy, or any very severe regulations, but took the
usual oaths to defend widows and orphans and make peace between man and man: the
founder was a Bolognese gentleman, called Loderingo di Liandolo, who enjoyed a good
reputation, and along with a brother of the same order, named Catalano di
Malavolti, one a Guelph and the other a Ghibelline, was now invited to Florence by
Count Guido to execute conjointly the of- fice of Podest. It was intended by thus
dividing the supreme authority between two magistrates of different politics, that
one should correct the other, and justice be equally administered; more especially
as, in conjunction with the people, they were allowed to elect a deliberative
council of thirty-six citizens, belonging to the principal trades without
distinction of party.” Farther on he says that these two Frati Gaudenti “forfeited
all public confidence by their peculation and hypocrisy.”
And Villani, VII. 13: “Although they were of different parties, 154
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 45: “These orange cloaks are made of lead so
heavy...” I Catalano, and he Loderingo Named, and together taken by thy city, As
the wont is to take one man alone, For maintenance of its peace; and we were such
That still it is apparent round Gardingo.” 279 “O Friars,” began I, “your
iniquitous...” But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushed One crucified with
three stakes on the ground. When me he saw, he writhed himself all over, Blowing
into his beard with suspirations; And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this, Said to
me: “This transfixed one, whom thou seest, 280 Counselled the Pharisees that it was
meet under cover of a false hypocrisy, they were of accord in seeking rather their
own private gains than the common good.” 279A street in Florence, laid waste by the
Guelfs. 280Caiaphas, the High-Priest, who thought “expediency” the best thing.
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 155 To put one man to torture for the
people. Crosswise and naked is he on the path, As thou perceivest; and he needs
must feel, Whoever passes, first how much he weighs; And in like mode his father-
in-law is punished 281 Within this moat, and the others of the council, Which for
the Jews was a malignant seed.” And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel O’er him who
was extended on the cross So vilely in eternal banishment. Then he directed to the
Friar this voice: “Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us If to the right
hand any pass slope down By which we two may issue forth from here, Without
constraining some of the black angels To come and extricate us from this deep.”
Then he made answer: “Nearer than thou hopest There is a rock, that forth from the
great circle 282 Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys, Save that at this
’tis broken, and does not bridge it; You will be able to mount up the ruin, That
sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises.” The Leader stood awhile with head bowed
down; Then said: “The business badly he recounted Who grapples with his hook the
sinners yonder.” And the Friar: “Many of the Devil’s vices Once heard I at Bologna,
and among them, That he’s a liar and the father of lies.” Thereat my Leader with
great strides went on, Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks; Whence from the
heavy-laden I departed After the prints of his beloved feet. 281Annas, father-in-
law of Caiaphas. 282The great outer circle surrounding this division of the
Inferno. 156 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 46: His feet had reached, ere they had
reached the hill right over us; ... Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 157
Figure 47: One crucified with three stakes on the ground. Inferno Canto 24 IN that
part of the youthful year wherein 283 The Sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers,
284 And now the nights draw near to half the day, What time the hoar-frost copies
on the ground The outward semblance of her sister white, But little lasts the
temper of her pen, The husbandman, whose forage faileth him, Rises, and looks, and
seeth the champaign All gleaming white, whereat he beats his flank, Returns in
doors, and up and down laments, Like a poor wretch, who knows not what to do; Then
he returns and hope revives again, Seeing the world has changed its countenance In
little time, and takes his shepherd’s crook, And forth the little lambs to pasture
drives. Thus did the Master fill me with alarm When I beheld his forehead so
disturbed, And to the ailment came as soon the plaster. For as we came unto the
ruined bridge The Leader turned to me with that sweet look Which at the mountain’s
foot I first beheld. 285 283The Seventh Bolgia, in which Thieves are punished.
284The sun enters Aquarius during the last half of January, when the Equinox is
near, and the hoar-frost in the morning looks like snow on the fields, but soon
evaporates. If Dante had been a monk of Monte Casino, illuminating a manuscript, he
could not have made a more clerkly and scholastic flourish with his pen than this,
nor have painted a more beautiful picture than that which follows. The mediaeval
poets are full of lovely descriptions of Spring, which seems to blossom and sing
through all their verses; but none is more beautiful or suggestive than this,
though serving only as an illustration. 285In Canto I. 158 Dante Alighieri - Divine
Comedy, Inferno 159 His arms he opened, after some advisement Within himself
elected, looking first Well at the ruin, and laid hold of me. And even as he who
acts and meditates, For aye it seems that he provides beforehand, So upward lifting
me towards the summit Of a huge rock, he scanned another crag, Saying: “To that one
grapple afterwards, But try first if ’tis such that it will hold thee.” This was no
way for one clothed with a cloak; For hardly we, he light, and I pushed upward,
Were able to ascend from jag to jag. And had it not been, that upon that precinct
Shorter was the ascent than on the other, He I know not, but I had been dead beat.
But because Malebolge tow’rds the mouth Of the profoundest well is all inclining,
The structure of each valley doth import That one bank rises and the other sinks.
Still we arrived at length upon the point Wherefrom the last stone breaks itself
asunder. The breath was from my lungs so milked away, When I was up, that I could
go no farther, Nay, I sat down upon my first arrival. “Now it behoves thee thus to
put off sloth,” My Master said; “for sitting upon down, Or under quilt, one cometh
not to fame, Withouten which whoso his life consumes Such vestige leaveth of
himself on earth. As smoke in air or in the water foam. And therefore raise thee
up, o’ercome the anguish With spirit that o’ercometh every battle, If with its
heavy body it sink not. A longer stairway it behoves thee mount; 286 ’Tis not
enough from these to have departed; 286The ascent of the Mount of Purgatory. 160
http://www.paskvil.com/ Let it avail thee, if thou understand me.” Then I uprose,
showing myself provided Better with breath than I did feel myself, And said: “Go
on, for I am strong and bold.” Upward we took our way along the crag, Which jagged
was, and narrow, and difficult, And more precipitous far than that before. Speaking
I went, not to appear exhausted; Whereat a voice from the next moat came forth, Not
well adapted to articulate words. I know not what it said, though o’er the back I
now was of the arch that passes there; But he seemed moved to anger who was
speaking I was bent downward, but my living eyes Could not attain the bottom, for
the dark; Wherefore I: “Master, see that thou arrive At the next round, and let us
descend the wall; 287 For as from hence I hear and understand not, So I look down
and nothing I distinguish.” “Other response,” he said, “I make thee not, Except the
doing; for the modest asking Ought to be followed by the deed in silence.” We from
the bridge descended at its head, Where it connects itself with the eighth bank,
And then was manifest to me the Bolgia; And I beheld therein a terrible throng Of
serpents, and of such a monstrous kind, That the remembrance still congeals my
blood Let Libya boast no longer with her sand; For if Chelydri, Jaculi, and Pharae
She breeds, with Cenchri and with Ammhisbaena. Neither so many plagues nor so
malignant E’er showed she with all Ethiopia, Nor with whatever on the Red Sea is!
Among this cruel and most dismal throng 287The next circular dike, dividing the
fosses. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 161 Figure 48: People were running
naked and affrighted... People were running naked and affrighted. Without the hope
of hole or heliotrope. 288 They had their hands with serpents bound behind them;
These riveted upon their reins the tail And head, and were in front of them
entwined. And lo! at one who was upon our side There darted forth a serpent, which
transfixed him There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders. Nor O so quickly
e’er, nor I was written, As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly Behoved it
that in falling he became. And when he on the ground was thus destroyed, The ashes
drew together, and of themselves 288Without a hiding-place, or the heliotrope, a
precious stone of great virtue against poisons, and supposed to render the wearer
invisible. Upon this latter vulgar error is founded Boccaccio’s comical story of
Calandrino and his friends Bruno and Buffulmacco, Decameron, Gior. VIII., Nov. 3.
162 http://www.paskvil.com/ Into himself they instantly returned. Even thus by the
great sages ’tis confessed The phoenix dies, and then is born again, When it
approaches its five-hundredth year; On herb or grain it feeds not in its life, But
only on tears of incense and amomum, And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet.
And as he is who falls, and knows not how, By force of demons who to earth down
drag him, Or other oppilation that binds man, 289 When he arises and around him
looks, Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish Which he has suffered, and in
looking sighs; Such was that sinner after he had risen. Justice of God! O how
severe it is, That blows like these in vengeance poureth down! The Guide thereafter
asked him who he was; Whence he replied: “I rained from Tuscany A short time since
into this cruel gorge. A bestial life, and not a human, pleased me, Even as the
mule I was; I’m Vanni Fucci, 290 289Any obstruction, “such as the epilepsy,” says
Benvenuto. “Gouts and dropsies, catarrhs and oppilations,” says Jeremy Taylor.
290Vanni Fucci, who calls himself a mule, was a bastard son of Fuccio de’ Lazzari.
All the commentators paint him in the darkest colors. Dante had known him as “a man
of blood and wrath,” and seems to wonder he is here, and not in the circle of the
Violent, or of the Irascible. But his great crime was the robbery of a sacristy.
Benvenuto da Imola relates the story in detail. He speaks of him as a man of
depraved
life, many of whose misdeeds went unpunished, because he was of noble family.
Being banished from Pistoia for his crimes, he returned to the city one night of
the Carnival, and was in company with eighteen other revellers, among whom was
Vanni della Nona, a notary; when, not content with their insipid diversions, he
stole away with two companions to the church of San Giacomo, and, finding its
custodians absent, or asleep with feasting and drinking, he entered the sacristy
and robbed it of all its precious jewels. These he secreted in the house of the
notary, which was close at hand, thinking that on account of his honest repute no
suspicion would fall upon him. A certain Rampino was arrested for the theft, and
put to the torture; when Vanni Fucci, having escaped to Monte Carelli, beyond the
Florentine jurisdiction, sent a messenger to Rampino’s father, confessing all the
circumstances of the crime. Hereupon the notary was seized “on the first Monday in
Lent, as he was going to a sermon in the church of the Minorite Friars,” and was
hanged for the theft, and Rampino set at liberty. No one has a good word to say for
Vanni Fucci, except the Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 163 Beast, and
Pistoia was my worthy den.” And I unto the Guide: “Tell him to stir not, And ask
what crime has thrust him here below, For once a man of blood and wrath I saw him.”
And the sinner, who had heard, dissembled not, But unto me directed mind and face,
And with a melancholy shame was painted. Then said: “It pains me more that thou
hast caught me Amid this misery where thou seest me, Than when I from the other
life was taken. What thou demandest I cannot deny; So low am I put down because I
robbed The sacristy of the fair ornaments, And falsely once ’twas laid upon
another; But that thou mayst not such a sight enjoy, If thou shalt e’er be out of
the dark places, Thine ears to my announcement ope and hear: Pistoia first of Neri
groweth meagre; 291 Then Florence doth renew her men and manners; Mars draws a
vapour up from Val di Magra, 292 Which is with turbid clouds enveloped round, And
with impetuous and bitter tempest Over Campo Picen shall be the battle; When it
shall suddenly rend the mist asunder, So that each Bianco shall thereby be smitten
And this I’ve said that it may give thee pain.” Canonico Crescimbeni, who, in the
Comentarj to the Istoria della Volg. Poesia, II. ii., p. 99, counts him among the
Italian Poets, and speaks of him as a man of great courage and gallantry, and a
leader of the Neri party of Pistoia, in 1300. He smooths over Dante’s invectives by
remarking that Dante “makes not too honorable mention of him in the Comedy”. 291The
Neri were banished from Pistoia in 1301; the Bianchi, from Florence in 1302.
292This vapor or lightning flash from Val di Magra is the Marquis Malaspini, and
the “turbid clouds” are the banished Neri of Pistoia, whom he is to gather about
him to defeat the Bianchi at Campo Piceno, the old battle-field of Catiline. As
Dante was of the Bianchi party, this prophecy of impending disaster and overthrow
could only give him pain. See Canto VI. Inferno Canto 25 AT the conclusion of his
words, the thief 293 Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, 294 Crying: “Take
that, God, for at thee I aim them.” From that time forth the serpents were my
friends; For one entwined itself about his neck As if it said: “I will not thou
speak more;” And round his arms another, and rebound him, Clinching itself together
so in front, That with them he could not a motion make, Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why
resolve not 295 To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, Since in ill-doing thou thy
seed excellest? Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Spirit I saw not
against God so proud, Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls! 296 He fled
away, and spake no further word; 293The subject of the preceding Canto is continued
in this. 294This vulgar gesture of contempt consists in thursting the thumb between
the first and middle fingers. It is the same as the ass-driver made at Dante in the
street; Sacchetti, Nov. CXV.: “When he was a little way off, he turned around to
Dante, and thrusting out his tongue and making a fig at him with his hand, said,
‘Take that.’ ” Villani, VI. 5, says: “On the Rock of Carmignano there was a tower
seventy yards high, and upon it two marble arms, the hands of which were making the
figs at Florence.” Others say these hands were on a finger-post by the road-side.
295Pistoia is supposed to have been founded by the soldiers of Catiline. Brunetto
Latini, Tresor, I. i. 37, says: “They found Catiline at the foot of the mountains
and he had his army and his people in that place where is now the city of Pestoire.
There was Catiline conquered in battle, and he and his were slain; also a great
part of the Romans were killed. And on account of the pestilence of that great
slaughter the city was called Pestoire.” The Italian proverb says, Pistoia la
ferrigna, iron Pistoia, or Pistoia the pitiless. 296Capaneus, Canto XIV. 44. 164
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 165 And I beheld a Centaur full of rage
Come crying out: “Where is, where is the scoffer?” I do not think Maremma has so
many 297 Serpents as he had all along his back, As far as where our countenance
begins. Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, With wings wide open was a dragon
lying, And he sets fire to all that he encounters. My Master said: “That one is
Cacus, who 298 Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine Created oftentimes a lake of
blood. He goes not on the same road with his brothers, 299 By reason of the
fraudulent theft he made Of the great herd, which he had near to him; Whereat his
tortuous actions ceased beneath The mace of Hercules, who peradventure Gave him a
hundred, and he felt not ten.” While he was speaking thus, he had passed by, And
spirits three had underneath us come, 300 Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader
Until what time they shouted: “Who are you?” On which account our story made a halt
301 And then we were intent on them alone. I did not know them; but it came to
pass, As it is wont to happen by some chance, That one to name the other was
compelled, Exclaiming: “Where can Cianfa have remained?” 302 Whence I, so that the
Leader might attend, Upward from chin to nose my finger laid. 297See note in Canto
XIII. 298Cacus was the classic Giant Despair, who had his cave in Mount Aventine,
and stole a part of the herd of Geryon, which Hercules had brought to Italy.
299Dante makes a Centaur of Cacus, and separates him from the others because he was
fraudulent as well as violent. Virgil calls him only a monster, a half-man,
Semihominis Caci facies. 300Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, and Puccio
Sciancato. 301The story of Cacus, which Virgil was telling. 302Cianfa Donati, a
Florentine nobleman. He appears immediately, as a serpent with six feet, and
fastens upon Agnello Brunelleschi. 166 http://www.paskvil.com/ If thou art, Reader,
slow now to believe What I shall say, it will no marvel be, For I who saw it hardly
can admit it. As I was holding raised on them my brows, Behold! a serpent with six
feet darts forth In front of one, and fastens wholly on him. With middle feet it
bound him round the paunch, And with the forward ones his arms it seized; Then
thrust its teeth through one cheek and the other; The hindermost it stretched upon
his thighs, And put its tail through in between the two, And up behind along the
reins outspread it. Ivy was never fastened by its barbs Unto a tree so, as this
horrible reptile Upon the other’s limbs entwined its own. Then they stuck close, as
if of heated wax They had been made, and intermixed their colour; Nor one nor other
seemed now what he was; E’en as proceedeth on before the flame Upward along the
paper a brown colour, 303 Which is not black as yet, and the white dies. The other
two looked on, and each of them Cried out: “O me, Agnello, how thou changest!
Behold, thou now art neither two nor one.” Already the two heads had one become,
When there appeared to us two figures mingled Into one face, wherein the two were
lost. Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms, 304 The thighs and legs, the
belly and the chest Members became that never yet were seen. Every original aspect
there was cancelled; Two and yet none did the perverted image 303Some commentators
contended that in this line papiro does not mean paper, but a lamp-wick made of
papyrus. This destroys the beauty and aptness of the image, and rather degrades
“The leaf of the reed, Which has grown through the clefts in the ruins of ages.”
304These four lists, or hands, are the fore feet of the serpent and the arms of
Agnello. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 167 Appear, and such departed
with slow pace. Even as a lizard, under the great scourge Of days canicular,
exchanging hedge, Lightning appeareth if the road it cross; Thus did appear, coming
towards the bellies Of the two others, a small fiery serpent, 305 Livid and black
as is a peppercorn. And in that part whereat is first received Our aliment, it one
of them transfixed; Then downward fell in front of him extended. The one transfixed
looked at it, but said naught; Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned, Just as
if sleep or fever had assailed him. He at the serpent gazed, and it at him; One
through the wound, the other through the mouth Smoked violently, and the smoke
commingled. Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions Wretched Sabellus and
Nassidius, And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth. Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus
and Arethusa; For if him to a snake, her to fountain, Converts he fabling, that I
grudge him not; Because two natures never front to front Has he transmuted, so that
both the forms To interchange their matter ready were. Together they responded in
such wise, That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail, And eke the wounded
drew his feet together. The legs together with the thighs themselves Adhered so,
that in little time the juncture No sign whatever made that was apparent. He with
the cloven tail assumed the figure The other one was losing, and his skin Became
elastic, and the other’s hard. I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits, 305This
black serpent is Guercio Cavalcanti, who changes form with Buoso degli Abati. 168
http://www.paskvil.com/ And both feet of the reptile, that were short, Lengthen as
much as those contracted were. Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted, Became
the member that a man conceals, And of his own the wretch had two created. While
both of them the exhalation veils With a new colour, and engenders hair On one of
them and depilates the other, The one uprose and down the other fell, Though
turning not away their impious lamps, Underneath which each one his muzzle changed.
He who was standing drew it tow’rds the temples, And from excess of matter, which
came thither, Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks; What did not backward run
and was retained Of that excess made to the face a nose, And the lips thickened far
as was befitting. He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward, And backward
draws the ears into his head, In the same manner as the snail its horns And so the
tongue, which was entire and apt For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked In
the other closes up, and the smoke ceases. The soul, which to a reptile had been
changed, Along the valley hissing takes to flight, And after him the other speaking
sputters. Then did he turn upon him his new shoulders, And said to the other: “I’ll
have Buoso run, Crawling as I have done, along this road.” In this way I beheld the
seventh ballast Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse The novelty, if aught my
pen transgress. 306 And notwithstanding that mine eyes might be Somewhat
bewildered, and my mind dismayed, They could not flee away so secretly 306Some
editions read la penna, the pen, instead of la lingua, the tongue. Dante Alighieri
- Divine Comedy, Inferno 169 But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato; And he it was
who sole of three companions, Which came in the beginning, was not changed; The
other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest. 307 307Gaville was a village in the
Valdarno, where Guercio Cavalcanti was murdered. The family took vengeance upon the
inhabitants in the old Italian style, thus causing Gaville to lament the murder.
170 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 49: The soul, which to a reptile had been
changed... Inferno Canto 26 REJOICE , O Florence, since thou art so great, 308 That
over sea and land thou beatest thy wings, And throughout Hell thy name is spread
abroad! Among the thieves five citizens of thine 309 Like these I found, whence
shame comes unto me, And thou thereby to no great honour risest. But if when morn
is near our dreams are true, Feel shalt thou in a little time from now What Prato,
if none other, craves for thee. 310 And if it now were, it were not too soon; Would
that it were, seeing it needs must be, For ’twill aggrieve me more the more I age.
We went our way, and up along the stairs The bourns had made us to descend before,
Remounted my Conductor and drew me. And following the solitary path Among the rocks
and ridges of the crag, The foot without the hand sped not at all. Then sorrowed I,
and sorrow now again, When I direct my mind to what I saw, And more my genius curb
than I am wont, That it may run not unless virtue guide it; 308The Eighth Bolgia,
in which Fraudulent Counsellors are punished. 309Of these five Florentine nobles,
Cianfa Donati, Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, and
Guercio Cavalcanti, nothing is known but what Dante tells us. Perhaps that is
enough. 310The disasters soon to befall Florence, and in which even the neighboring
town of Prato would rejoice, to mention no others. These disasters were the fall of
the wooden bridge of Carraia, with a crowd upon it, witnessing a Miracle Play on
the Arno; the strife of the Bianchi and Neri; and the great fire of 1304. 171 172
http://www.paskvil.com/ So that if some good star, or better thing, Have given me
good, I may myself not grudge it. 311 As many as the hind (who on the hill Rests at
the time when he who lights the world His countenance keeps least concealed from
us, While as the fly gives place unto the gnat) Seeth the glow-worms down along the
valley, Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage With flames as
manifold resplendent all Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware As soon as I was
where the depth appeared. And such as he who with the bears avenged him Beheld
Elijah’s chariot at departing, What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose For with
his eye he could not follow it So as to see aught else than flame alone, Even as a
little cloud ascending upward, Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment Was
moving; for not one reveals the theft, And every flame a sinner steals away. I
stood upon the bridge uprisen to see, So that, if I had seized not on a rock, Down
had I fallen without being pushed. And the Leader, who beheld me so attent,
Exclaimed: “Within the fires the spirits are; Each swathes himself with that
wherewith he burns.” “My Master,” I replied, “by hearing thee I am more sure; but I
surmised already It might be so, and already wished to ask thee Who is within that
fire, which comes so cleft At top, it seems uprising from the pyre Where was
Eteocles with his brother placed.” 312 He answered me: “Within there are tormented
311I may not balk or deprive myself of this good. 312These two sons of Oedipus,
Eteocles and Polynices, were so hostile to each other, that, when after death their
bodies were burned on the same funeral pile, the flames swayed apart, and the ashes
separated. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 173 Ulysses and Diomed, and
thus together 313 They unto vengeance run as unto wrath. And there within their
flame do they lament The ambush of the horse, which made the door 314 Whence issued
forth the Romans’ gentle seed; Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead
Deidamia still deplores Achilles, 315 And pain for the Palladium there is borne.”
316 “If they within those sparks possess the power To speak,” I said, “thee,
Master, much I pray, And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand, That thou
make no denial of awaiting Until the horned flame shall hither come; Thou seest
that with desire I lean towards it.” And he to me: “Worthy is thy entreaty Of much
applause, and therefore I accept it; But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.
Leave me to speak, because I have conceived That which thou wishest; for they might
disdain Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine.” 317 When now the
flame had come unto that point, Where to my Leader it seemed time and place, After
this fashion did I hear him speak: “O ye, who are twofold within one fire, If I
deserved of you, while I was living, If I deserved of you or much or little When in
the world I wrote the lofty verses, 313The most cunning of the Greeks at the siege
of Troy, now united in their punishment, as before in warlike wrath. 314As Troy was
overcome by the fraud of the wooden horse, it was in a poetic sense the gateway by
which Aeneas went forth to establish the Roman empire in Italy. 315Deidamia was a
daughter of Lycomedes of Sycros, at whose court Ulysses found Achilles, disguised
in woman’s attire, and enticed him away to the siege of Troy, telling him that,
according to the oracle, the city could not be taken without him, but not telling
him that, according to the same oracle, he would lose his life there. 316Ulysses
and Diomed together stole the Palladium, or statue of Pallas, at Troy, the
safeguard and protection of the city. 317The Greeks scorned all other nations as
“outside barbarians.” Even Virgil, a Latian, has to plead with Ulysses the merit of
having praised him in the Aeneid. 174 http://www.paskvil.com/ Do not move on, but
one of you declare Whither, being lost, he went away to die.” Then of the antique
flame the greater horn, Murmuring, began to wave itself about Even as a flame doth
which the wind fatigues. Thereafterward, the summit to and fro Moving as if it were
the tongue that spake It uttered forth a voice, and said: “When I From Circe had
departed, who concealed me More than a year there near unto Gaeta, Or ever yet
Aenas named it so, Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence For my old father, nor
the due affection Which joyous should have made Penelope, Could overcome within me
the desire I had to be experienced of the world, And of the vice and virtue of
mankind; But I put forth on the high open sea With one sole ship, and that small
company By which I never had deserted been. Both of the shores I saw as far as
Spain, Far as Morocco. and the isle of Sardes, And the others which that sea bathes
round about. I and my company were old and slow When at that narrow passage we
arrived Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals, 318 That man no farther onward
should adventure. On the right hand behind me left I Seville, And on the other
already had left Ceuta. ‘O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand Perils,’ I said,
‘have come unto the West, To this so inconsiderable vigil Which is remaining of
your senses still Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge, 318The Pillars of Hercules
at the straits of Gibraltar; Abyla on the African shore, and Gibraltar on the
Spanish; in which the popular mind has lost its faith, except as symbolized in the
columns on the Spanish dollar, with the legend, Plus ultra. Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno 175 Following the sun, of the unpeopled world. Consider ye
the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for
pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.’ So eager did I render my companions, With this
brief exhortation, for the voyage,
That then I hardly could have held them back. And having turned our stern unto the
morning, We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, Evermore gaining on the
larboard side. Already all the stars of the other pole The night beheld, and ours
so very low It did not rise above the ocean floor. Five times rekindled and as many
quenched Had been the splendour underneath the moon, Since we had entered into the
deep pass, When there appeared to us a mountain, dim From distance, and it seemed
to me so high As I had never any one beheld. Joyful were we, and soon it turned to
weeping; For out of the new land a whirlwind rose, And smote upon the fore part of
the ship. Three times it made her whirl with all the waters, At the fourth time it
made the stern uplift, And the prow downward go, as pleased Another, Until the sea
above us closed again.” 176 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 50: And there within
their flame do they lament... Inferno Canto 27 ALREADY was the flame erect and
quiet, 319 To speak no more, and now departed from us With the permission of the
gentle Poet; When yet another, which behind it came, Caused us to turn our eyes
upon its top By a confused sound that issued from it. As the Sicilian bull (that
bellowed first With the lament of him, and that was right, Who with his file had
modulated it) Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted, That, notwithstanding it
was made of brass, Still it appeared with agony transfixed; Thus, by not having any
way or issue At first from out the fire, to its own language Converted were the
melancholy words. But afterwards, when they had gathered way Up through the point,
giving it that vibration The tongue had given them in their passage out, We heard
it said: “O thou, at whom I aim My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard,
Saying, ‘Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,’ 320 Because I come perchance a
little late, To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee; Thou seest it irks not
me, and I am burning. If thou but lately into this blind world 319The subject of
the preceding Canto is continued in this. 320Virgil being a Lombard, Dante suggests
that, in giving Ulysses and Diomed license to depart, he had used the Lombard
dialect, saying, “Issa t’ en va.” 177 178 http://www.paskvil.com/ Hast fallen down
from that sweet Latian land, Wherefrom I bring the whole of my transgression, Say,
if the Romagnuols have peace or war, 321 For I was from the mountains there between
322 Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts.” I still was downward bent and
listening, When my Conductor touched me on the side, Saying: “Speak thou: this one
a Latian is.” And I, who had beforehand my reply In readiness, forthwith began to
speak: “O soul, that down below there art concealed, Romagna thine is not and never
has been Without war in the bosom of its tyrants; But open war I none have left
there now. Ravenna stands as it long years has stood; The Eagle of Polenta there is
brooding, 323 So that she covers Cervia with her vans. The city which once made the
long resistance, 324 And of the French a sanguinary heap, Beneath the Green Paws
finds itself again; Verrucchio’s ancient Mastiff and the new, 325 Who made such bad
disposal of Montagna, Where they are wont make wimbles of their teeth. The cities
of Lamone and Santerno 326 321The inhabitants of the province of Romagna, of which
Ravenna is the capital. 322It is the spirit of Guido da Montefeltro that speaks.
The city of Montefeltro lies between Urbino and that part of the Apennines in which
the Tiber rises. Count Guido was a famous warrior, and one of the great Ghibelline
leaders. He tells his own story suffi- ciently in detail in what follows. 323The
arms of Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna, Dante’s friend, and father (or nephew)
of Francesca da Rimini, were an eagle half white in a field of azure, and half red
in a field of gold. Cervia is a small town some twelve miles from Ravenna. 324The
city of Forl`ı, where Guido da Montefeltro defeated and slaughtered the French in
1282. See Canto XX. A Green lion was the coat of arms of the Ordelaffi, then Lords
of Forl`ı. 325Malatesta, father and son, tyrants of Rimini, who murdered Montagna,
a Ghibelline leader. Verrucchio was their castle, near the city. Of this family
were the husband and lover of Francesca. Dante calls them mastiffs, becaue of their
fierceness, making “wimbles of their teeth” in tearing and devouring. 326The cities
of Faenza on the Lamone, and Imola on the Santerno. They were ruled by Mainardo,
surnamed “the Devil,” whose coat of arms was a lion azure in a white field. Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 179 Governs the Lioncel of the white lair, Who
changes sides ’twixt summer-time and winter; And that of which the Savio bathes the
flank, 327 Even as it lies between the plain and mountain, Lives between tyranny
and a free state. Now I entreat thee tell us who thou art; Be not more stubborn
than the rest have been, So may thy name hold front there in the world.” After the
fire a little more had roared In its own fashion, the sharp point it moved This way
and that, and then gave forth such breath: “If I believed that my reply were made
To one who to the world would e’er return, This flame without more flickering would
stand still; But inasmuch as never from this depth Did any one return, if I hear
true, Without the fear of infamy I answer, I was a man of arms, then Cordelier,
Believing thus begirt to make amends; And truly my belief had been fulfilled But
for the High Priest, whom may ill betide, 328 Who put me back into my former sins;
And how and wherefore I will have thee hear. While I was still the form of bone and
pulp My mother gave to me, the deeds I did Were not those of a lion, but a fox. The
machinations and the covert ways I knew them all, and practised so their craft,
That to the ends of earth the sound went forth. When now unto that portion of mine
age I saw myself arrived, when each one ought To lower the sails, and coil away the
ropes, 329 327The city of Cesena. 328Boniface VIII., who in line 85 is called “the
Prince of the new Pharisees.” 329Dante, Convito IV. 28, quoting Cicero, says:
“Natural death is as it were a haven and rest to us after long navigation. And the
noble soul is like a good mariner; for he, when he draws near the port, lowers his
sails, and enters it softly with feeble steerage.” 180 http://www.paskvil.com/ That
which before had pleased me then displeased me; And penitent and confessing I
surrendered, Ah woe is me! and it would have bestead me; The Leader of the modern
Pharisees Having a war near unto Lateran, 330 330This Papal war, which was waged
against Christians, and not against pagan Saracens, nor unbelieving Jews, nor
against the renegades who had helped them at the siege of Acre, or given them aid
and comfort by traffic, is thus described by Mr. Norton, Travel and Study in Italy,
p. 263: – “This ‘war near the Lateran’ was a war with the great family of Colonna.
Two of the house were Cardinals. They had been deceived in the election, and were
rebellious under the rule of Boniface. The Cardinals of the great Ghibelline house
took no pains to conceal their ill-will toward the Guelf Pope. Boniface, indeed,
accused them of plotting with his enemies for his overthrow. The Colonnas, finding
Rome unsafe, had withdrawn to their strong town of Palestrina, whence they could
issue forth at will for plunder, and where they could give shelter to those who
shared in their hostility toward the Pope. On the other hand, Boniface, not
trusting himself in Rome, withdrew to the secure height of Orvieto, and thence, on
the 14th of December, 1297, issued a terrible bull for a crusade against them,
granting plenary indulgence to all, (such was the Christian temper of the times,
and so literally were the violent seizing upon the kingdom of Heaven,) granting
plenary indulgence to all who would take up arms against these rebellious sons of
the Church and march against their chief stronghold, their ‘alto seggio’ of
Palestrina. They and their adherents had already been excommunicated and put under
the ban of the Church; they had been stripped of all dignities and privileges;
their property had been confiscated; and they were now by this bull placed in the
position of enemies, not of the Pope alone, but of the Church Universal. Troops
gathered against them from all quarters of Papal Italy. Their lands were ravaged,
and they themselves shut up within their stronghold; but for a long time they held
out in their ancient high-walled mountaintown. It was to gain Palestrina that
Boniface ‘had war near the Lateran.’ The great church and palace of the Lateran,
standing on the summit of the Coelian Hill, close to the city wall, overlooks the
Campagna, which, in broken levels of brown and green and purple fields, reaches to
the base of the encircling mountains. Twenty miles away, crowning the top and
clinging to the side of one of the last heights of the Sabine range, are the gray
walls and roofs of Palestrina. It was a far more conspicuous place at the close of
the thirteenth century than it is now; for the great columns of the famous temple
of Fortune still rose above the town, and the ancient citadel kept watch over it
from its high rock. At length, in September, 1298, the Colonnas, reduced to the
hardest extremities, became ready for peace. Boniface promised largely. The two
Cardinals presented themselves before him at Rieti, in coarse brown dresses, and
with ropes around their necks, in token of their repentance and submission. The
Pope gave them not only pardon and absolution, but hope of being restored to their
titles and possessions. This was the ‘lunga promessa con l’attender corto’; for,
while the Colonnas were retained near him, and these deceptive hopes held out to
them, Boniface sent the Bishop of Orvieto to take possession of Palestrina, and to
destroy it utterly,
leaving only the church to stand as a monument above its ruins. The work was done
thoroughly; – a plough was drawn across the site of the unhappy town, and salt
scattered in the furrow, that the land might thenceforth be desolate. The
inhabitants were removed from the mountain to the plain, and there forced to build
new homes for Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 181 And not with Saracens
nor with the Jews, For each one of his enemies was Christian, And none of them had
been to conquer Acre, Nor merchandising in the Sultan’s land, Nor the high office,
nor the sacred orders, In him regarded, nor in me that cord Which used to make
those girt with it more meagre; But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester To
cure his leprosy, within Soracte, So this one sought me out as an adept 331 To cure
him of the fever of his pride. Counsel he asked of me, and I was silent, Because
his words appeared inebriate. And then he said: ‘Be not thy heart afraid;
Henceforth I thee absolve; and thou instruct me How to raze Palestrina to the
ground. Heaven have I power to lock and to unlock, As thou dost know; therefore the
keys are two, The which my predecessor held not dear.’ 332 Then urged me on his
weighty arguments There, where my silence was the worst advice; And said I:
‘Father, since thou washest me Of that sin into which I now must fall, The promise
long with the fulfilment short Will make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.’ Francis
came afterward, when I was dead, For me; but one of the black Cherubim Said to him:
‘Take him not; do me no wrong; He must come down among my servitors, Because he
gave the fraudulent advice From which time forth I have been at his hair;
themselves, which, in their turn, two years afterwards, were thrown down and burned
by order of the implacable Pope. This last piece of malignity was accomplished in
1300, the year of the Jubilee, the year in which Dante was in Rome and in which he
saw Guy of Montefeltro, the counsellor of Boniface in deceit, burning in Hell.”
331Montefeltro was in the Franciscan monastery at Assisi. 332Pope Celestine V., who
made “the great refusal,” or abdication of the papacy. See note in Canto III. 182
http://www.paskvil.com/ For who repents not cannot be absolved, Nor can one both
repent and will at once, Because of the contradiction which consents not. O
miserable me! how I did shudder When he seized on me, saying: ‘Peradventure Thou
didst not think that I was a logician!’ He bore me unto Minos, who entwined Eight
times his tail about his stubborn back, And after he had bitten it in great rage,
Said: ‘Of the thievish fire a culprit this;’ Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I
lost, And vested thus in going I bemoan me.” When it had thus completed its
recital, The flame departed uttering lamentations, Writhing and flapping its sharp-
pointed horn. Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor, Up o’er the crag above
another arch, Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee By those who, sowing
discord, win their burden. Inferno Canto 28 WHO ever could, e’en with untrammelled
words, 333 Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full Which now I saw, by many
times narrating? Each tongue would for a certainty fall short By reason of our
speech and memory, That have small room to comprehend so much If were again
assembled all the people Which formerly upon the fateful land Of Puglia were
lamenting for their blood 334 Shed by the Romans and the lingering war 335 That of
the rings made such illustrious spoils, 336 As Livy has recorded, who errs not,
With those who felt the agony of blows By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,
337 And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still At Ceperano, where a renegade
338 333The Ninth Bolgia, in which are punished the Schismatics, and “where is paid
the fee by those who sowing discord win their burden”; a burden difficult to
describe even with untrammelled words, or in plain prose, free from the fetters of
rhyme. 334Apulia, or La Puglia, is in the southeastern part of Italy, “between the
spur and the heel of the boot.” 335The people slain in the conquest of Apulia by
the Romans. 336Hannibal’s famous battle at Cannae, in the second Punic war.
According to Livy, XXII. 49, “The number of the slain is computed at forty thousand
foot, and two thousand seven hundred horse.” 337Robert Guiscard, the renowned
Norman conqueror of southern Italy. Dante places him in the Fifth Heaven of
Paradise, in the planet Mars. 338The battle of Ceperano, near Monte Cassino, was
fought in 1265, between Charles of Anjou and Manfred, king of Apulia and Sicily.
The Apulians, seeing the battle going against them, deserted their king and passed
over to the enemy. 183 184 http://www.paskvil.com/ Was each Apulian, and at
Tagliacozzo, 339 Where without arms the old Alardo conquered, And one his limb
transpierced, and one lopped off, Should show, it would be nothing to compare With
the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia. A cask by losing centre-piece or cant Was
never shattered so, as I saw one Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.
Between his legs were hanging down his entrails; His heart was visible, and the
dismal sack That maketh excrement of what is eaten. While I was all absorbed in
seeing him, He looked at me, and opened with his hands His bosom, saying: “See now
how I rend me; How mutilated, see, is Mahomet; In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin; And all the others whom thou here
beholdest, Disseminators of scandal and of schism While living were, and therefore
are cleft thus. A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us Thus cruelly, unto the
falchion’s edge Putting again each one of all this ream, When we have gone around
the doleful road; By reason that our wounds are closed again Ere any one in front
of him repass. But who art thou, that musest on the crag, Perchance to postpone
going to the pain That is adjudged upon thine accusations?” 339The battle of
Tagliacozzo in Abruzzo was fought in 1268, between Charles of Anjou and Curradino
or Conradin, nephew of Manfred. Charles gained the victory by the strategy of Count
Alardo di Valleri, who, “weaponless himself, made arms ridiculous.” This valiant
but wary crusader persuaded the king to keep a third of his forces in reserve; and
when the soldiers of Curradino, thinking they had won the day, were scattered over
the field in pursuit of plunder, Charles fell upon them, and routed them. Alardo is
mentioned in the Cento Novelle Antiche, Nov. LVII., as “celebrated for his
wonderful prowess even among the chief nobles, and no less esteemed for his
singular virtues than for his courage.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno
185 “Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him,” My Master made
reply, “to be tormented; But to procure him full experience, Me, who am dead,
behoves it to conduct him Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle; And this
is true as that I speak to thee.” More than a hundred were there when they heard
him, Who in the moat stood still to look at me, Through wonderment oblivious of
their torture. “Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him, 340 Thou, who perhaps
wilt shortly see the sun, If soon he wish not here to follow me, So with
provisions, that no stress of snow May give the victory to the Novarese, 341 Which
otherwise to gain would not be easy.” After one foot to go away he lifted, This
word did Mahomet say unto me, Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it.
Another one, who had his throat pierced through, And nose cut off close underneath
the brows, And had no longer but a single ear, Staying to look in wonder with the
others, Before the others did his gullet open, Which outwardly was red in every
part, And said: “O thou, whom guilt doth not condemn, And whom I once saw up in
Latian land, Unless too great similitude deceive me, Call to remembrance Pier da
Medicina, 342 340Fra Dolcino was one of the early social and religious reformers in
the North of Italy. His sect bore the name of “Apostles,” and its chief, if not
only, heresy was a desire to bring back the Church to the simplicity of the
apostolic times. In 1305 he withdrew with his followers to the mountains
overlooking the Val Sesia in Piedmont, where he was pursued and besieged by the
Church party, and, after various fortunes of victory and defeat, being reduced by
“stress of snow” and famine, was taken prisoner, together with his companion, the
beautiful Margaret of Trent. Both were burned at Vercelli on the 1st of June, 1307.
341Val Sesia, among whose mountains Fra Dolcino was taken prisoner, is in the
diocese of Novara. 342A Bolognese, who stirred up dissensions among the citizens.
186 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 51: Staying to look in wonder with the others...
If e’er thou see again the lovely plain 343 That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo,
And make it known to the best two of Fano, 344 To Messer Guido and Angiolello
likewise, That if foreseeing here be not in vain, Cast over from their vessel shall
they be, And drowned near unto the Cattolica, By the betrayal of a tyrant fell.
Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca Neptune ne’er yet beheld so great a crime
Neither of pirates nor Argolic people. 343The plain of Lombardy sloping down two
hundred miles and more, from Vercelli in Piedmont to Marcabo, a village near
Ravenna. 344Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two honorable citizens of
Fano, going to Rimini by invitation of Malatestino, were by his order thrown into
the sea and drowned, as here prophesied or narrated, near the village of Cattolica
on the Adriatic. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 187 That traitor, who
sees only with one eye, 345 And holds the land, which some one here with me 346
Would fain be fasting from the vision of, Will make them come unto a parley with
him; Then will do so, that to Focara’s wind 347 They will not stand
in need of vow or prayer.” And I to him: “Show to me and declare, If thou wouldst
have me bear up news of thee, Who is this person of the bitter vision.” Then did he
lay his hand upon the jaw Of one of his companions, and his mouth Oped, crying:
“This is he, and he speaks not. This one, being banished, every doubt submerged In
Caesar by affirming the forearmed Always with detriment allowed delay.” O how
bewildered unto me appeared, With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit, Curio, who
in speaking was so bold! And one, who both his hands dissevered had, The stumps
uplifting through the murky air, So that the blood made horrible his face, 348
Cried out: “Thou shalt remember Mosca also, 349 Who said, alas! ‘A thing done has
an end!’ Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people “And death unto thy race,”
thereto I added; Whence he, accumulating woe on woe, Departed, like a person sad
and crazed. But I remained to look upon the crowd; And saw a thing which I should
be afraid, 345Malatestino had lost one eye. 346Rimini. 347Focara is a headland near
Catolica, famous for dangerous winds, to be preserved from which mariners offered
up vows and prayers. These men will not need to do it; they will not reach that
cape. 348Curio, the banished Tribune, who, fleeing to Caesar’s camp on the Rubicon,
urged him to advance upon Rome. 349Mosca degl’Uberti, or dei Lamberti, who, by
advising the murder of Buondelmonte, gave rise to the parties of Guelf and
Ghibelline, which so long divided Florence. See note in Canto X. 188
http://www.paskvil.com/ Without some further proof, even to recount, If it were not
that conscience reassures me, That good companion which emboldens man Beneath the
hauberk of its feeling pure. I truly saw, and still I seem to see it, A trunk
without a head walk in like manner As walked the others of the mournful herd. And
by the hair it held the head dissevered, Hung from the hand in fashion of a
lantern, And that upon us gazed and said: “O me!” It of itself made to itself a
lamp, And they were two in one, and one in two; How that can be, He knows who so
ordains it. When it was come close to the bridge’s foot, It lifted high its arm
with all the head, To bring more closely unto us its words, Which were: “Behold now
the sore penalty, Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding; Behold if any be
as great as this. And so that thou may carry news of me, Know that Bertram de Born
am I, the same 350 Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort. 351 I made the
father and the son rebellious; 350Bertrand de Born, the turbulent Troubadour of the
last half of the twelfth century, was alike skilful with his pen and his sword, and
passed his life in alternately singing and fighting, and in stirring up dissension
and strife among his neighbors. 351A vast majority of manuscripts and printed
editions read in this line, Re Giovanni, King John, instead of Re Giovane, the
Young King. Even Boccaccio’s copy, which he wrote out with his own had for
Petrarca, has Re Giovanni. Out of seventy-nine Codici examined by Barlow, he says,
Study of the Divina Commedia, p. 153, “Only five were found with the correct
reading – re giovane... The reading re giovane is not found in any of the early
editions, nor is it noticed by any of the early commentators.” See also Ginguen,
Hist. Litt. de l’Italie, II, 486, where the subject is elaborately discussed, and
the note of Biagioli, who takes the opposite side of the question. Henry II. of
England had four sons, all of whom were more or less rebellious against him. They
were, Henry, surnamed Curt-Mantle, and called by the Troubadours and novelists of
his time “The Young King,” because he was crowned during his father’s life; Richard
Coeur-de-Lion, Count of Guienne and Poitou; Geoffroy, Duke of Brittany; and John
Lackland. Henry was the only one of these who bore the title of king at the time in
question. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 189 Achitophel not more with
Absalom And David did with his accursed goadings. Because I parted persons so
united, Parted do I now bear my brain, alas! From its beginning, which is in this
trunk. Thus is observed in me the counterpoise.” 190 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure
52: How mutilated, see, is Mahomet... Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 191
Figure 53: And by the hair it held the head dissevered... Inferno Canto 29 THE many
people and the divers wounds 352 These eyes of mine had so inebriated, That they
were wishful to stand still and weep; But said Virgilius: “What dost thou still
gaze at? Why is thy sight still riveted down there Among the mournful, mutilated
shades? Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge; Consider, if to count them thou
believest, That two-and-twenty miles the valley winds, And now the moon is
underneath our feet; Henceforth the time allotted us is brief, And more is to be
seen than what thou seest.” “If thou hadst,” I made answer thereupon “Attended to
the cause for which I looked, Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have pardoned.”
Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him I went, already making my reply, And
superadding: “In that cavern where I held mine eyes with such attention fixed, I
think a spirit of my blood laments The sin which down below there costs so much”
Then said the Master: “Be no longer broken Thy thought from this time forward upon
him; Attend elsewhere, and there let him remain; For him I saw below the little
bridge, Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger 352The Tenth and last
“cloister of Malebolge,” where “Justice infallible punishes forgers,” and
falsifiers of all kinds. This Canto is devoted to the alchemists. Fiercely, and
heard him called Geri del Bello. 353 So wholly at that time wast thou impeded By
him who formerly held Altaforte, 354 Thou didst not look that way; so he departed.”
“O my Conductor, his own violent death, Which is not yet avenged for him,” I said,
“By any who is sharer in the shame, Made him disdainful; whence he went away, As I
imagine, without speaking to me, 355 And thereby made me pity him the more.” 356
Thus did we speak as far as the first place Upon the crag, which the next valley
shows Down to the bottom, if there were more light. When we were now right over the
last cloister Of Malebolge, so that its lay-brothers Could manifest themselves unto
our sight, Divers lamentings pierced me through and through, Which with compassion
had their arrows barbed, Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands. What pain would
be, if from the hospitals 357 Of Valdichiana, ’twixt July and September, And of
Maremma and Sardinia All the diseases in one moat were gathered, 353Geri del Bello
was a disreputable member of the Alighieri family, and was murdered by one of the
Sacchetti. His death was afterwards avenged by his brother, who in turn slew one of
the Sacchetti at the door of his house. 354Bertrand de Born. 355Like the ghost of
Ajax in the Odyssey, XI. “He answered me not at all, but went to Erebus amongst the
other souls of the dead.” 356Dante seems to share the feeling of the Italian
vendetta, which required retaliation from some member of the injured family. “Among
the Italians of this age,” says Napier, Florentine Hist., I. Ch. VII., “and for
centuries after, private offence was never forgotten until revenged, and generally
involved a succession of mutual injuries; vengeance was not only considered lawful
and just, but a positive duty, dishonorable to omit; and, as may be learned from
ancient private journals, it was sometimes allowed to sleep for fiveand-thirty
years, and then suddently struck a victim who perhaps had not yet seen the light
when the original injury was inflicted.” 357The Val di Chiana, near Arezzo, was in
Dante’s time marshy and pestilential. Now, by the effect of drainage, it is one of
the most beautiful and fruitful of the Tuscan valleys. The Maremma was and is
notoriously unhealthy; see note in Canto XIII., and Sardinia would seem to have
shared its ill repute. 194 http://www.paskvil.com/ Such was it here, and such a
stench came from it As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue. We had descended on
the furthest bank From the long crag, upon the left hand still, And then more vivid
was my power of sight Down tow’rds the bottom, where the ministress Of the high
Lord, Justice infallible, Punishes forgers, which she here records. 358 I do not
think a sadder sight to see Was in Aegina the whole people sick, 359 (When was the
air so full of pestilence, The animals, down to the little worm, All fell, and
afterwards the ancient people, According as the poets have affirmed, Were from the
seed of ants restored again,) Than was it to behold through that dark valley The
spirits languishing in divers heaps. This on the belly, that upon the back One of
the other lay, and others crawling Shifted themselves along the dismal road. We
step by step went onward without speech, Gazing upon and listening to the sick Who
had not strength enough to lift their bodies. I saw two sitting leaned against each
other, As leans in heating platter against platter, From head to foot bespotted
o’er with scabs; And never saw I plied a currycomb By stable-boy for whom his
master waits, Or him who keeps awake unwillingly, As every one was plying fast the
bite Of nails upon himself, for the great rage Of itching which no other succour
had. And the nails downward with them dragged the scab, In fashion as a knife the
scales of bream, Or any other fish that has them largest. 358Forgers or falsifiers
in a general sense. 359The plague of Aegina is described by Ovid, Metamorph. VII.
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 195 Figure 54: I saw two sitting leaned
against each other... “O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee,” Began my
Leader unto one of them, “And makest of them pincers now and then, Tell me if any
Latian is with those 360 Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee To all
eternity unto this work.” “Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest, Both of us
here,” one weeping made reply; “But who art thou, that questionest about us?” And
said the Guide: “One am I who descends Down with this living man from cliff to
cliff, And I intend to show Hell unto him.” Then broken was their mutual support,
And trembling each one turned himself to me, With others who had heard him by
rebound. Wholly to me did the good Master gather, 360Latian, or Italian; any one of
the Latin race. 196 http://www.paskvil.com/ Saying: “Say unto them whate’er thou
wishest.” And I began, since he would have it so: “So may your memory not steal
away In the first world from out the minds of men, But so may it survive ‘neath
many suns, Say to me who ye are, and of what people; Let not your foul and
loathsome punishment Make you afraid to show yourselves to me.” “I of Arezzo was,”
one made reply, 361 “And Albert of Siena had me burned; But what I died for does
not bring me here. ’Tis true I said to him, speaking in jest, That I could rise by
flight into the air, And he who had conceit, but little wit, Would have me show to
him the art; and only Because no Daedalus I made him, made me 362 Be burned by one
who held him as his son. But unto the last Bolgia of the ten, For alchemy, which in
the world I practised, Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned.” And to the Poet
said I: “Now was ever So vain a people as the Sienese? 363 Not for a certainty the
French by far.” Whereat the other leper, who had heard me, Replied unto my speech:
“Taking out Stricca, 364 361The speaker is a certain Griffolino, an alchemist of
Arezzo, who practised upon the credulity of Albert, a natural son of the Bishop of
Siena. For this he was burned; but was “condemned to the last Bolgia of the ten for
alchemy.” 362The inventor of the Cretan labyrinth. Ovid, Metamorph. VIII.: – “Great
Daedalus of Athens was the man who made the draught, and formed the wondrous plan.”
Not being able to find his way out of the labyrinth, he made wings for himself and
his son Icarus, and escaped by flight. 363Speaking of the people of Siena, Forsyth,
Italy, 532, says: “Vain, flighty, fanciful, they want the judgment and penetration
of their Florentine neighbors; who, nationally severe, call a nail without a head
chiodo Sanese.” 364The persons here mentioned gain a kind of immortality from
Dante’s verse. The Stricca, or Baldastricca, was a lawyer of Siena; and Niccolo dei
Salimbeni, or Bonsignori, ` introduced the fashion of stuffing pheasants with
cloves, or, as Benvenuto says, of roasting them at a fire of cloves. Though Dante
mentions them apart, they seem, like the two others named afterwards, to have been
members of the Brigata Spendereccia, or Prodigal Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 197 Who knew the art of moderate expenses, And Niccolo, who the luxurious
use ` Of cloves discovered earliest of all Within that garden where such seed takes
root; And taking out the band, among whom squandered Caccia d’Ascian his vineyards
and vast woods, And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered! But, that thou know who
thus doth second thee Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eye Tow’rds me, so that
my face well answer thee, And thou shalt see I am Capocchio’s shade, 365 Who metals
falsified by alchemy; Thou must remember, if I well descry thee, How I a skilful
ape of nature was.” Club, of Siena, whose extravagances are recorded by Benvenuto
da Imola. This club consisted of “twelve very rich young gentlemen, who took it
into their heads to do things that would make a great part of the world wonder.”
Accordingly each contributed eighteen thousand golden florins to a common fund,
amounting in all to two hundred and sixteen thousand florins. They built a palace,
in which each member had a splendid chamber, and they gave sumptuous dinners and
suppers; ending their banquets sometimes by throwing all the dishes, table-
ornaments, and knives of gold and silver out of the window. “This silly
institution,” continues Benvenuto, “lasted only ten months, the treasury being
exhausted, and the wretched members became the fable and laughingstock of all the
world.” In honor of this club, Folgore da San Geminiano, a clever poet of the day
(1260), wrote a series of twelve convivial sonnets, one for each month of the year,
with Dedication and Conclusion. 365“This Capocchio,” says the Ottimo, “was a very
subtle alchemist; and because he was burned for practising alchemy in Siena, he
exhibits his hatred to the Sienese, and gives us to understand that the author knew
him.” 198 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 55: All the diseases in one moat were
gathered... Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 199 Figure 56: “Why is thy
sight still riveted down there among the mournful, mutilated shades?” Inferno Canto
30 ’TWAS at the time when Juno was enraged, 366 For Semele, against the Theban
blood, As she already more than once had shown, So reft of reason Arthamas became,
367 That, seeing his own wife with children twain Walking encumbered upon either
hand, He cried: “Spread out the nets, that I may take The lioness and her whelps
upon the passage;” And then extended his unpitying claws, Seizing the first, who
had the name Learchus, And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock; And she,
with the other burthen, drowned herself; – And at the time when fortune downward
hurled The Trojan’s arrogance, that all things dared, So that the king was with his
kingdom crushed, Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive, 368 When lifeless she
beheld Polyxena, And of her Polydorus on the shore Of ocean was the dolorous one
aware, Out of her senses like a dog she barked, So much the anguish had her mind
distorted; But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan Were ever seen in any one so
cruel In goading beasts, and much more human members, As I beheld two shadows pale
and naked, 366In this Canto the same Bolgia is continued, with different kinds of
Falsifiers. 367Athamas, king of Thebes and husband of Ino, daughter of Cadmus.
368Hecuba, wife of Priam of Troy, and mother of Polyxena and Polydorus. 200 Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 201 Figure 57: As I beheld two shadows pale and
naked... Who, biting, in the manner ran along That a boar does, when from the sty
turned loose. One to Capocchio came, and by the nape Seized with its teeth his
neck, so that in dragging It made his belly grate the solid bottom. And the
Aretine, who trembling had remained, 369 Said to me: “That mad sprite is Gianni
Schicchi, And raving goes thus harrying other people.” “O,” said I to him, “so may
not the other Set teeth on thee, let it not weary thee To tell us who it is, ere it
dart hence.” And he to me: “That is the ancient ghost Of the nefarious Myrrha, who
became Beyond all rightful love her father’s lover. She came to sin with him after
this manner, 369Griffolino d’Arezzo, mentioned in Canto XXIX. 202
http://www.paskvil.com/ By counterfeiting of another’s form; As he who goeth yonder
undertook, 370 That he might gain the lady of the herd, To counterfeit in himself
Buoso Donati, Making a will and giving it due form.” And after the two maniacs had
passed On whom I held mine eye, I turned it back To look upon the other evil-born.
I saw one made in fashion of a lute, If he had only had the groin cut off Just at
the point at which a man is forked. The heavy dropsy, that so disproportions The
limbs with humours, which it ill concocts, That the face corresponds not to the
belly, Compelled him so to hold his lips apart As does the hectic, who because of
thirst One tow’rds the chin, the other upward turns. “O ye, who without any torment
are, And why I know not, in the world of woe,” He said to us, “behold, and be
attentive Unto the misery of Master Adam; 371 I had while living much of what I
wished, And now, alas! a drop of water crave. The rivulets, that from the verdant
hills 370The same “mad sprite,” Gianni Schicchi, mentioned above. “Buoso Donati of
Florence,” says Benvenuto, “although a nobleman and of an illustrious house, was
nevertheless like other noblemen of his time, and by means of thefts had greatly
increased his patrimony. When the hour of death drew near, the sting of conscience
caused him to make a will in which he gave fat legacies to many people; whereupon
his son Simon, (the Ottimo says his nephew,) thinking himself enormously aggrieved,
suborned Vanni Schicchi dei Cavalcanti, who got into Buoso’s bed, and made a will
in opposition to the other. Gianni much resembled Buoso.” In this will Gianni
Schicchi did not forget himself, while making Simon heir; for, according to the
Ottimo, he put this clause into it: “To Gianni Schicchi I bequeath my mare.” This
was the “lady of the herd,” and Benvenuto adds, “none more beautiful was to be
found in Tuscany; and it was valued at a thousand florins.” 371Messer Adamo, a
false-coiner of Brescia, who at the instigation of the Counts Guido, Alessandro,
and Aghinolfo of Romena, counterfeited the golden florin of Florence, which bore on
one side a lily, and on the other the figure of John the Baptist. Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno 203 Of Cassentin descend down into Arno, 372 Making their
channels to be cold and moist, Ever before me stand, and not in vain; For far more
doth their image dry me up Than the disease which strips my face of flesh. The
rigid justice that chastises me Draweth occasion from the place in which I sinned,
to put the more my sighs in flight. There is Romena, where I counterfeited The
currency imprinted with the Baptist, For which I left my body burned above. But if
I here could see the tristful soul Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother, For
Branda’s fount I would Dot give the sight. One is within already, if the raving
Shades that are going round about speak truth; But what avails it me, whose limbs
are tied? If I were only still so light, that in A
hundred years I could advance one inch, I had already started on the way, Seeking
him out among this squalid folk, Although the circuit be eleven miles, 373 And be
not less than half a mile across. For them am I in such a family; They did induce
me into coining florins, Which had three carats of impurity.” And I to him: “Who
are the two poor wretches That smoke like unto a wet hand in winter, Lying there
close upon thy right-hand confines?” 372The upper valley of the Arno is in the
province of Cassentino. Quoting these three lines, Ampere, ` Voyage Dantesque, 246,
says: “In these untranslatable verses, there is a feeling of humid freshness, which
almost makes one shudder. I owe it to truth to say, that the Cassentine was a great
deal less fresh and less verdant in reality than in the poetry of Dante, and that
in the midst of the aridity which surrounded me, this poetry, by its very
perfection, made one feel something of the punishment of Master Adam.” 373This line
and line II of Canto XXIX. are cited by Gabrielle Rossetti in confirmation of his
theory of the “Principal Allegory of the Inferno,” that the city of Dis is Rome.
204 http://www.paskvil.com/ “I found them here,” replied he, “when I rained Into
this chasm, and since they have not turned, Nor do I think they will for evermore.
One the false woman is who accused Joseph, 374 The other the false Sinon, Greek of
Troy; 375 From acute fever they send forth such reek.” And one of them, who felt
himself annoyed At being, peradventure, named so darkly, Smote with the fist upon
his hardened paunch. It gave a sound, as if it were a drum; 376 And Master Adam
smote him in the face, With arm that did not seem to be less hard, Saying to him:
“Although be taken from me All motion, for my limbs that heavy are, I have an arm
unfettered for such need.” Whereat he answer made: “When thou didst go Unto the
fire, thou hadst it not so ready: But hadst it so and more when thou wast coining.”
The dropsical: “Thou sayest true in that; But thou wast not so true a witness
there, Where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy.” “If I spake false, thou
falsifiedst the coin,” Said Sinon; “and for one fault I am here, And thou for more
than any other demon.” “Remember, perjurer, about the horse,” He made reply who had
the swollen belly, “And rueful be it thee the whole world knows it.” “Rueful to
thee the thirst be wherewith cracks Thy tongue,” the Greek said, “and the putrid
water That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes.” Then the false-coiner: “So is
gaping wide Thy mouth for speaking evil, as ’tis wont; 374Potiphar’s wife.
375Virgil’s “perjured Sinon,” the Greek who persuaded the Trojans to accept the
wooden horse, telling them it was meant to protect the city, in lieu of the statue
of Pallas, stolen by Diomed and Ulysses. 376The disease of tympanites is so called
“because the abdomen is distended with wind, and sounds like a drum when struck.”
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 205 Because if I have thirst, and humour
stuff me Thou hast the burning and the head that aches, And to lick up the mirror
of Narcissus 377 Thou wouldst not want words many to invite thee.” In listening to
them was I wholly fixed, When said the Master to me: “Now just look, For little
wants it that I quarrel with thee.” When him I heard in anger speak to me, I turned
me round towards him with such shame That still it eddies through my memory. And as
he is who dreams of his own harm, Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream, So that he
craves what is, as if it were not; Such I became, not having power to speak, For to
excuse myself I wished, and still Excused myself, and did not think I did it. “Less
shame doth wash away a greater fault,” The Master said, “than this of thine has
been; Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness, And make account that I am aye
beside thee, If e’er it come to pass that fortune bring thee Where there are people
in a like dispute; For a base wish it is to wish to hear it.” 377Ovid, Metamorph.
III.: – “A fountain in a darksome wood, nor stained with falling leaves nor rising
mud.” 206 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 58: “That is the ancient ghost of the
nefarious Myrrha...” Inferno Canto 31 ONE and the selfsame tongue first wounded me,
378 So that it tinged the one cheek and the other, And then held out to me the
medicine; Thus do I hear that once Achilles’ spear, His and his father’s, used to
be the cause First of a sad and then a gracious boon. We turned our backs upon the
wretched valley, Upon the bank that girds it round about, Going across it without
any speech. There it was less than night, and less than day, So that my sight went
little in advance; But I could hear the blare of a loud horn, So loud it would have
made each thunder faint, Which, counter to it following its way, Mine eyes directed
wholly to one place. After the dolorous discomfiture 379 When Charlemagne the holy
emprise lost, So terribly Orlando sounded not. Short while my head turned
thitherward I held When many lofty towers I seemed to see, Whereat I: “Master, say,
what town is this?” And he to me: “Because thou peerest forth Athwart the darkness
at too great a distance, It happens that thou errest in thy fancy. 378This Canto
describes the Plain of the Giants, between Malebolge and the mouth of the Infernal
Pit. 379The battle of Roncesvalles, “When Charlemagne with all his peerage fell by
Fontarabia.” 207 208 http://www.paskvil.com/ Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest
there, How much the sense deceives itself by distance; Therefore a little faster
spur thee on.” Then tenderly he took me by the hand, And said: “Before we farther
have advanced, That the reality may seem to thee Less strange, know that these are
not towers, but giants, And they are in the well, around the bank, From navel
downward, one and all of them.” As, when the fog is vanishing away, Little by
little doth the sight refigure Whate’er the mist that crowds the air conceals, So,
piercing through the dense and darksome air, More and more near approaching tow’rd
the verge, My error fled, and fear came over me; Because as on its circular
parapets Montereggione crowns itself with towers, 380 E’en thus the margin which
surrounds the well With one half of their bodies turreted The horrible giants, whom
Jove menaces E’en now from out the heavens when he thunders. And I of one already
saw the face, Shoulders, and breast, and great part of the belly, And down along
his sides both of the arms. Certainly Nature, when she left the making Of animals
like these, did well indeed, By taking such executors from Mars; And if of
elephants and whales she doth not Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly More just
and more discreet will hold her for it; For where the argument of intellect Is
added unto evil will and power, No rampart can the people make against it.
380Montereggione is a picturesque old castle on an eminence near Siena. Ampere, `
Vogage Dantesque, 251, remarks: “This fortress, as the commentators say, was
furnished with towers all round about, and had none in the centre. In its present
state it is still very faithfully described by the verse, ‘Montereggion de torri si
corona.’ ” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 209 His face appeared to me as
long and large As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter’s, 381 And in proportion
were the other bones; So that the margin, which an apron was Down from the middle,
showed so much of him Above it, that to reach up to his hair Three Frieslanders in
vain had vaunted them; For I beheld thirty great palms of him Down from the place
where man his mantle buckles. “Raphael mai amech izabi almi,” 382 Began to clamour
the ferocious mouth, To which were not befitting sweeter psalms. And unto him my
Guide: “Soul idiotic, Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that, When wrath or
other passion touches thee. Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt
Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul And see it, where it bars thy mighty
breast.” Then said to me: “He doth himself accuse; This one is Nimrod, by whose
evil thought 383 One language in the world is not still used. Here let us leave him
and not speak in vain; For even such to him is every language As his to others,
which to none is known.” Therefore a longer journey did we make, Turned to the
left, and a crossbow-shot oft We found another far more fierce and large. 381This
pine-cone of bronze, which is now in the gardens of the Vatican, was found in the
mausoleum of Hadrian, and is supposed to have crowned its summit. Ampere, ` Voyage
Dantesque, 277, remarks: “Here Dante takes as a point of comparison an object of
determinate size; the pigna is eleven feet high, the giant then must be seventy (21
meters); it performs, in the description, the office of those figures which are
placed near monuments to render it easier for the eye to measure their height.”
382“The gaping monotony of this jargon”, says Leigh Hunt, “full of the vowel a, is
admirably suited to the mouth of the vast half-stupid speaker. It is like a babble
of the gigantic infancy of the world.” 383Nimrod, the “mighty hunter before the
Lord”, who built the tower of Babel, which, according to the Italian popular
tradition, was so high that whoever mounted to the top of it could hear the angels
sing. 210 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 59: “This proud one wished to make
experiment of his own power...” In binding him, who might the master be I cannot
say; but he had pinioned close Behind the right arm, and in front the other, With
chains, that held him so begirt about From the neck down, that on the part
uncovered It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre go. “This proud one wished to
make experiment Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,” My Leader said, “whence
he has such a guerdon. Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess. What time
the giants terrified the gods; The arms he wielded
never more he moves.” And I to him: “If possible, I should wish That of the
measureless Briareus 384 384The giant with a hundred hands. Aeneid, X.: “Aegaeon,
who, they say, had a hundred Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 211 These
eyes of mine might have experience.” Whence he replied: “Thou shalt behold Antaeus
Close by here, who can speak and is unbound, 385 Who at the bottom of all crime
shall place us. Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see, And he is bound, and
fashioned like to this one, Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious.” There
never was an earthquake of such might That it could shake a tower so violently, As
Ephialtes suddenly shook himself Then was I more afraid of death than ever, For
nothing more was needful than the fear, If I had not beheld the manacles. Then we
proceeded farther in advance, And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells Without the
head, forth issued from the cavern. “O thou, who in the valley fortunate, 386 Which
Scipio the heir of glory made, When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts, Once
brought’st a thousand lions for thy prey, And who, hadst thou been at the mighty
war Among thy brothers, some it seems still think The sons of Earth the victory
would have gained: Place us below, nor be disdainful of it, There where the cold
doth lock Cocytus up. Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus; 387 arms and a hundred
hands, and flashed fire from fifty mouths and breasts; when against the thunder-
bolts of Jove he on so many equal bucklers clashed; unsheathed so many swords.” He
is supposed to have been a famous pirate, and the fable of the hundred hands arose
from the hundred sailors that manned his ship. 385The giant Antaeus is here
unbound, because he had not been at “the mighty war” against the gods. 386The
valley of the Bagrada, one of whose branches flows by Zama, the scene of Scipo’s
great victory over Hannibal, by which he gained his greatest renown and his title
of Africanus. Among the neighboring hills, according to Lucan, Pharsalia, IV., the
giant Antaeus had his cave. 387Aeneid, VI.: “Here too you might have seen Tityus,
the foster-child of all-bearing earth, whose body is extended over nine whole
acres; and a huge vulture, with her hooked beak, pecking at his immortal liver.”
Also Odyssey, XI., in similar words. 212 http://www.paskvil.com/ This one can give
of that which here is longed for; Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip.
Still in the world can he restore thy fame; Because he lives, and still expects
long life, If to itself Grace call him not untimely.” So said the Master; and in
haste the other His hands extended and took up my Guide, – Hands whose great
pressure Hercules once felt. Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced, Said unto
me: “Draw nigh, that I may take thee;” Then of himself and me one bundle made. As
seems the Carisenda, to behold 388 Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud
Above it so that opposite it hangs; Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood Watching
to see him stoop, and then it was I could have wished to go some other way. But
lightly in the abyss, which swallows up Judas with Lucifer, he put us down; Nor
thus bowed downward made he there delay, But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose.
Typhoeus was a giant with a hundred heads, like a dragon’s, who made war upon the
gods as soon as he was born. He was the father of Geryon and Cerberus. 388One of
the leaning towers of Bologna. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 213 Figure
60: “This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought one language in the world is not
still used.” 214 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 61: But lightly in the abyss, which
swallows up Judas with Lucifer, he put us down; ... Inferno Canto 32 IF I had
rhymes both rough and stridulous, 389 As were appropriate to the dismal hole Down
upon which thrust all the other rocks, 390 I would press out the juice of my
conception More fully; but because I have them not, Not without fear I bring myself
to speak; For ’tis no enterprise to take in jest, To sketch the bottom of all the
universe, Nor for a tongue that cries Mamma and Babbo. 391 But may those Ladies
help this verse of mine, Who helped Amphion in enclosing Thebes, 392 That from the
fact the word be not diverse. O rabble ill-begotten above all, Who’re in the place
to speak of which is hard, ’Twere better ye had here been sheep or goats! When we
were down within the darksome well, Beneath the giant’s feet, but lower far, And I
was scanning still the lofty wall, Heard it said to me: “Look how thou steppest,
Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet The heads of the tired, miserable
brothers!” 389In this Canto begins the Ninth and last Circle of the Inferno, where
Traitors are punished. “Hence in the smallest circle, at the point of all the
Universe, where Dis is seated, whoe’er betrays forever is consumed.” 390The word
thrust is here used in its architectural sense, as the thrust of a bridge against
its abutments, and the like. 391Still using the babble of childhood. 392The Muses;
the poetic tradition being that Amphion built the walls of Thebes by the sound of
his lyre; and the prosaic interpretation, that he did it by his persuasive
eloquence. 215 216 http://www.paskvil.com/ Whereat I turned me round, and saw
before me And underfoot a lake, that from the frost The semblance had of glass, and
not of water. So thick a veil ne’er made upon its current In winter-time Danube in
Austria, Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don, As there was here; so that if
Tambernich 393 Had fallen upon it, or Pietrapana, E’en at the edge ’twould not have
given a creak. And as to croak the frog doth place himself With muzzle out of
water, – when is dreaming Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl, – Livid, as far
down as where shame appears, Were the disconsolate shades within the ice, Setting
their teeth unto the note of storks. Each one his countenance held downward bent:
From mouth the cold, from eyes the doeful heart Among them witness of itself
procures. When round about me somewhat I had looked, I downward turned me, and saw
two so close, The hair upon their heads together mingled. “Ye who so strain your
breasts together, tell me,” I said.”who are you; “and they bent their necks, And
when to me their faces they had lifted, Their eyes, which first were only moist
within, Gushed o’er the eyelids, and the frost congealed The tears between, and
locked them up again. Clamp never bound together wood with wood So strongly;
whereat they, like two he-goats, Butted together, so much wrath o’ercame them. And
one, who had by reason of the cold Lost both his ears, still with his visage
downward, Said: “Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us? If thou desire to know who
these two are, 394 393Tambernich is a mountain of Sclavonia, and Pietrapana another
near Lucca. 394These two “miserable brothers” are Alessandro and Napoleone, sons of
Alberto degli Alberti, lord of Falterona in the valley of the Bisenzio. After their
father’s death they Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 217 Figure 62: Were
the disconsolate shades within the ice... The valley whence Bisenzio descends
Belonged to them and to their father Albert. They from one body came, and all Caina
395 Thou shalt search through, and shalt not find a shade More worthy to be fixed
in gelatine; Not he in whom were broken breast and shadow At one and the same blow
by Arthur’s hand; 396 Focaccia not; not he who me encumbers 397 So with his head I
see no farther forward, And bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni; 398 quarrelled, and
one treacherously slew the other. 395Caina is the first of the four divisions of
this Circle, and takes its name from the first fratricide. 396Sir Mordred, son of
King Arthur. 397Focaccia was one of the Cancellieri Bianchi, of Pistoia, and was
engaged in the affair of cutting off the hand of his half-brother. See note in
Canto VI. He is said also to have killed his uncle. 398Sassol Mascheroni, according
to Benvenuto, was one of the Toschi family of Florence. 218 http://www.paskvil.com/
Well knowest thou who he was, if thou art Tuscan. And that thou put me not to
further speech, Know that I Camicion de’ Pazzi was, 399 And wait Carlino to
exonerate me.” Then I beheld a thousand faces, made Purple with cold; whence o’er
me comes a shudder, And evermore will come, at frozen ponds. And while we were
advancing tow’rds the middle, Where everything of weight unites together, And I was
shivering in the eternal shade, Whether ’twere will, or destiny, or chance, I know
not; but in walking ‘mong the heads I struck my foot hard in the face of one.
Weeping he growled: “Why dost thou trample me? Unless thou comest to increase the
vengeance of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me?” 400 And I: “My Master, now wait
here for me, That I through him may issue from a doubt; Then thou mayst hurry me,
as thou shalt wish.” The Leader stopped; and to that one I said Who was blaspheming
vehemently still: “Who art thou, that thus reprehendest others?” “Now who art thou,
that goest through Antenora 401 Smiting,” replied he, “other people’s cheeks, So
that, if thou were living, ’twere too much?” He murdered his nephew in order to get
possession of his property; for which crime he was carried through the streets of
Florence nailed up in a cask, and then beheaded. 399Camicion de’ Pazzi of Valdarno,
who murdered his kinsman Ubertino. But his crime will seem small and excusable when
compared with that of another kinsman, Carlino de’ Pazzi, who treacherously
surrendered the castle of Piano in Valdarno, wherein many Florentine exiles were
taken and put to death. 400The speaker is Bocca degli Abati, whose treason caused
the defeat of the Guelfs at the famous battle of Montaperti in 1260. See note in
Canto X. “Messer Bocca degli Abati, the traitor,” says Malispini, Storia, Ch. 171,
“with his sword in hand, smote and cut off the hand of Messer Jacopo
de’ Pazzi of Florence, who bore the standard of the cavalry of the Commune of
Florence. And the knights and the people, seeing the standard down, and the
treachery, were put to rout.” 401The second division of the Circle, called
Antenora, from Antenor, the Trojan prince, who betrayed his country by keeping up a
secret correspondence with the Greeks. Virgil, Aeneid, I. 242, makes him founder of
Padua. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 219 Figure 63: Then by the scalp
behind I seized upon him... “Living I am, and dear to thee it may be,” Was my
response, “if thou demandest fame, That ‘mid the other notes thy name I place.” And
he to me: “For the reverse I long; Take thyself hence, and give me no more trouble;
For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow.” Then by the scalp behind I seized
upon him, And said: “It must needs be thou name thyself, Or not a hair remain upon
thee here.” Whence he to me: “Though thou strip off my hair, I will not tell thee
who I am, nor show thee, If on my head a thousand times thou fall.” I had his hair
in hand already twisted, And more than one shock of it had pulled out, He barking,
with his eyes held firmly down, When cried another: “What doth ail thee, Bocca? 220
http://www.paskvil.com/ Is’t not enough to clatter with thy jaws, But thou must
bark? what devil touches thee?” “Now,” said I, “I care not to have thee speak,
Accursed traitor; for unto thy shame I will report of thee veracious news.”
“Begone,” replied he, “and tell what thou wilt, But be not silent, if thou issue
hence, Of him who had just now his tongue so prompt; He weepeth here the silver of
the French; ‘I saw,’ thus canst thou phrase it, ‘him of Duera 402 There where the
sinners stand out in the cold.’ 403 If thou shouldst questioned be who else was
there, Thou hast beside thee him of Beccaria, 404 Of whom the gorget Florence slit
asunder; Gianni del Soldanier, I think, may be 405 Yonder with Ganellon, and
Tebaldello 406 Who oped Faenza when the people slep Already we had gone away from
him, When I beheld two frozen in one hole, So that one head a hood was to the
other; And even as bread through hunger is devoured, The uppermost on the other set
his teeth, There where the brain is to the nape united. Not in another fashion
Tydeus gnawed 407 The temples of Menalippus in disdain, Than that one did the skull
and the other things. 402Buoso da Duera of Cremona, being bribed, suffered the
French cavalry under Guido da Monforte to pass through Lombardy on their way to
Apulia, without opposing them as he had been commanded. 403There is a double
meaning in the Italian expression sta fresco, which is well rendered by the
vulgarism, left out in the cold, so familiar in American politics. 404Beccaria of
Pavia, Abbot of Vallombrosa, and Papal Legate at Florence, where he was beheaded in
1258 for plotting against the Guelfs. 405Gianni de’ Soldanieri, of Florence, a
Ghibelline, who betrayed his party. 406The traitor Ganellon, or Ganalon, who
betrayed the Christian cause at Roncesvalles, persuading Charlemagne not to go to
the assistance of Orlando. See note in Canto XXXI. Tebaldello de’ Manfredi
treacherously opened the gates of Faenza to the French in the night. 407Tydeus, son
of the king of Calydon, slew Menalippus at the siege of Thebes and was himself
mortally wounded. Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 221 Figure 64: When I
beheld two frozen in one hole... “O thou, who showest by such bestial sign Thy
hatred against him whom thou art eating, Tell me the wherefore,” said I, “with this
compact, That if thou rightfully of him complain, In knowing who ye are, and his
transgression, I in the world above repay thee for it, If that wherewith I speak be
not dried up.” Inferno Canto 33 HIS mouth uplifted from his grim repast, 408 That
sinner, wiping it upon the hair Of the same head that he behind had wasted Then he
began: “Thou wilt that I renew The desperate grief, which wrings my heart already
To think of only, ere I speak of it; But if my words be seed that may bear fruit Of
infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw, Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together. I
know not who thou art, nor by what mode Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine
Thou seemest to me truly, when I hear thee. Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino,
409 408In this Canto the subject of the preceding is continued. 409Count Ugolino
della Ghererardesca was Podesta of Pisa. “Raised to the highest of- ` fices of the
republic for ten years,” says Napier, Florentine History, I. 318, “he would soon
have become absolute, had not his own nephew, Nino Visconte, Judge of Gallura,
contested this supremacy and forced himself into conjoint and equal authority; this
could not continue, and a sort of compromise was for the moment effected, by which
Visconte retired to the absolute government of Sardinia. But Ugolino, still
dissatisfied, sent his son to disturb the island; a deadly feud was the
consequence, Guelph against Guelph, while the latent spirit of Ghibellinism, which
filled the breasts of the citizens and was encouraged by priest and friar, felt its
advantage; the Archbishop Ruggiero Rubaldino was its real head, but he worked with
hidden caution as the apparent friend of either chieftain. In 1287, after some
sharp contests, both of them abdicated, for the sake, as it was alleged, of public
tranquillity; but, soon perceiving their error, again united, and, scouring the
streets with all their followers, forcibly re-established their authority. Ruggieri
seemed to assent quietly to this new outrage, even looked without emotion on the
bloody corpse of his favorite nephew, who had been stabbed by Ugolino; and so deep
was his dissimulation, that he not only refused to believe the murdered body to be
his kinsman’s, but zealously assisted the Count to establish himself alone in the
government, and accomplish Visconte’s ruin.” 222 Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy,
Inferno 223 And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop; Now I will tell thee why I am
such a neighbour. That, by effect of his malicious thoughts Trusting in him I was
made prisoner, And after put to death, I need not say; But ne’ertheless what thou
canst not have heard, That is to say, how cruel was my death, Hear shalt thou, and
shalt know if he has wronged me. A narrow perforation in the mew, 410 Which bears
because of me the title of Famine, And in which others still must be locked up, Had
shown me through its opening many moons Already, when I dreamed the evil dream
Which of the future rent for me the veil. This one appeared to me as lord and
master, Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain For which the Pisans cannot
Lucca see. 411 With sleuth-hounds gaunt, and eager, and well trained, 412 Gualandi
with Sismondi and Lanfianchi He had sent out before him to the front. After brief
course seemed unto me forespent The father and the sons, and with sharp tushes It
seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open. When I before the morrow was awake,
Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons Who with me were, and asking after bread.
Cruel indeed art thou, if yet thou grieve not, Thinking of what my heart foreboded
me, And weep’st thou not, what art thou wont to weep at? They were awake now, and
the hour drew nigh At which our food used to be brought to us, 410“The remains of
this tower,” says Napier, Florentine History, I. 319, note, “still exist in the
Piazza de’ Cavalieri, on the right of the archway as the spectator looks toward the
clock.” According to Buti it was called the Mew, “because the eagles of the Commune
were kept there to moult.” 411Monte San Giuliano, between Pisa and Lucca. 412The
hounds are the Pisan mob; the hunters, the Pisan noblemen here mentioned; the wolf
and whelps, Ugolino and his sons. 224 http://www.paskvil.com/ And through his dream
was each one apprehensive; And I heard locking up the under door 413 Of the
horrible tower; whereat without a word I gazed into the faces of my sons. I wept
not, I within so turned to stone; They wept; and darling little Anselm mine Said:
‘Thou dost gaze so, father, what doth ail thee?’ Still not a tear I shed, nor
answer made All of that day, nor yet the night thereafter, Until another sun rose
on the world. As now a little glimmer made its way Into the dolorous prison, and I
saw Upon four faces my own very aspect, Both of my hands in agony I bit, And,
thinking that I did it from desire Of eating, on a sudden they uprose, And said
they: ‘Father, much less pain ’twill give us If thou do eat of us; thyself didst
clothe us With this poor flesh, and do thou strip it off.’ I calmed me then, not to
make them more sad. That day we all were silent, and the next. Ah! obdurate earth,
wherefore didst thou not open When we had come unto the fourth day, Gaddo Threw
himself down outstretched before my feet, Saying, ‘My father, why dost thou not
help me?’ And there he died; and, as thou seest me, I saw the three fall, one by
one, between The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me, Already blind, to
groping over each, And three days called them after they were dead; Then hunger did
what sorrow could not do.” 413It is a question whether in this line chiavar is to
be rendered nailed up or locked. Villani and Benvenuto say the tower was locked,
and the keys thrown into the Arno; and I believe most of the commentators interpret
the line in this way. But the locking of a prison door, which must have been a
daily occurrence, could hardly have caused the dismay here portrayed, unless it can
be shown that the lower door of the tower was usually left unlocked. Dante
Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 225 Figure 65: “As now a little glimmer made its
way...” When he had said this, with his eyes distorted, The wretched skull resumed
he with his teeth, Which, as a dog’s, upon the bone were strong. Ah! Pisa, thou
opprobrium of the people Of the fair land there where the Si doth
sound, 414 Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are, Let the Capraia and
Gorgona move, 415 And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno 414Italy; it being an
old custom to call countries by the affirmative particle of the language.
415Capraia and Gorgona are two islands opposite the mouth of the Arno. Ampere, `
Voyage Dantesque, 217, remarks: “This imagination may appear grotesque and forced
if one looks at the map, for the isle of Gorgona is at some distance from the mouth
of the Arno, and I had always thought so, until the day when, having ascended the
tower of Pisa, I was struck with the aspect which the Gorgona presented from that
point. It seemed to shut up the Arno. I then understood how Dante might naturally
have had this idea, which had seemed strange to me, and his imagination was
justified in my eyes. He had not seen the Gorgona from the Leaning Tower, which did
not exist in his time, but from some one of the numerous towers which protected the
ramparts of Pisa. This fact 226 http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 66: “Threw himself
down outstretched before my feet...” That every person in thee it may drown! For if
Count Ugolino had the fame Of having in thy castles thee betrayed, 416 Thou
shouldst not on such cross have put his sons. 417 Guiltless of any crime, thou
modern Thebes! Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata, alone would be sufficient to
show what an excellent interpretation of a poet travelling is.” 416Napier,
Florentine History, I. 313: “He without hesitation surrendered Santa Maria a Monte
Fuccechio, Santa Croce, and Monte Calvole to Florence; exiled the most zealous
Ghibellines from Pisa, and reduced it to a purely Guelphic republic; he was accused
of treachery, and certainly his own objects were admirably forwarded by the
continued captivity of so many of his countrymen, by the banishment of the adverse
fraction, and by the friendship and support of Florence.” 417Thebes was renowned
for its misfortunes and grim tragedies, from the days of the sowing of the dragon’s
teeth by Cadmus, down to the destruction of the city by Alexander, who commanded it
to be utterly demolished, excepting only the house in which the poet Pindar was
born. Moreover, the tradition runs that Pisa was founded by Pelops, son of King
Tantalus of Thebes, although it derived its name from “the Olympic Pisa on the
banks of the Alpheus.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 227 Figure 67: “I
saw the three fall, one by one...” And the other two my song doth name above! We
passed still farther onward, where the ice Another people ruggedly enswathes, Not
downward turned, but all of them reversed. Weeping itself there does not let them
weep, And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes Turns itself inward to increase
the anguish; Because the earliest tears a cluster form, And, in the manner of a
crystal visor, Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full. And notwithstanding that,
as in a callus, Because of cold all sensibility Its station had abandoned in my
face, Still it appeared to me I felt some wind; Whence I: “My Master, who sets this
in motion? 228 http://www.paskvil.com/ Is not below here every vapour quenched?”
418 Whence he to me: “Full soon shalt thou be where Thine eye shall answer make to
thee of this, Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast.” And one of the
wretches of the frozen crust Cried out to us: “O souls so merciless That the last
post is given unto you, Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils, that I May vent the
sorrow which impregns my heart A little, e’er the weeping recongeal.” Whence I to
him: “If thou wouldst have me help thee Say who thou wast; and if I free thee not,
May I go to the bottom of the ice.” Then he replied: “I am Friar Alberigo; 419 He
am I of the fruit of the bad garden, Who here a date am getting for my fig.” 420
“O,” said I to him, “now art thou, too, dead?” And he to me: “How may my body fare
Up in the world, no knowledge I possess. Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea, 421
418[JN] – In those times, people used to believe that wind is caused by swamp
vapours, thus this seemingly strange remark. 419Friar Alberigo, of the family of
the Manfredi, Lords of Faenza, was one of the Frati Gaudenti, or Jovial Friars,
mentioned in Canto XXIII. The account which the Ottimo gives of his treason is as
follows: “Having made peace with certain hostile fellow-citizens, he betrayed them
in this wise. One evening he invited them to supper, and had armed retainers in the
chambers round the supper-room. It was in summer-time, and he gave orders to his
servants that, when after the meats he should order the fruit, the chambers should
be opened, and the armed men should come forth and should murder all the guests.
And so it was done. And he did the like the year before at Castello delle Mura at
Pistoia. These are the fruits of the Garden of Treason, of which he speaks.”
Benvenuto says that his guests were his brother Manfred and his (Manfred’s) son.
Other commentators say they were certain members of the Order of Frati Gaudenti. In
1300, the date of the poem, Alberigo was still living. 420A Rowland for an Oliver.
421This division of Cocytus, the Lake of Lamentation, is called Ptolomaea from
Ptolomeus, 1 Maccabees xvi. 11, where “the captain of Jericho inviteth Simon and
two of his sons into his castle, and there treacherously murdereth them”; for “when
simon and his sons had drunk largely, Ptolomee and his men rose up, and took their
weapons, and came upon Simon into the banqueting-place, and slew him, and his two
sons, and certain of his servants.” Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 229
That oftentimes the soul descendeth here Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it. 422
And, that thou mayest more willingly remove From off my countenance these glassy
tears, Know that as soon as any soul betrays As I have done, his body by a demon Is
taken from him, who thereafter rules it, Until his time has wholly been revolved.
Itself down rushes into such a cistern; And still perchance above appears the body
Of yonder shade, that winters here behind me. This thou shouldst know, if thou hast
just come down; It is Ser Branca d’ Oria, and many years 423 Have passed away since
he was thus locked up.” “I think,” said I to him, “thou dost deceive me; For Branca
d’ Oria is not dead as yet, And eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on clothes.”
“In moat above,” said he, “of Malebranche, There where is boiling the tenacious
pitch, As yet had Michel Zanche not arrived, When this one left a devil in his
stead In his own body and one near of kin, Who made together with him the betrayal.
But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith, Open mine eyes;” – and open them I
did not, And to be rude to him was courtesy. Ah, Genoese! ye men at variance 424
With every virtue, full of every vice Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world
Or perhaps from Ptolemy, who murdered Pompey after the battle of Pharsalia. 422Of
the three Fates, Clotho held the distaff, Lachesis spun the thread, and Atropos cut
it. 423Ser Branco d’Oria was a Genoese, and a member of the celebrated Doria family
of that city. Nevertheless he murdered at table his father-in-law, Michel Zanche,
who is mentioned Canto XXII. 424This vituperation of the Genoese reminds one of the
bitter Tuscan proverb against them: “Sea without fish; mountains without trees; men
without faith; and women without shame.” 230 http://www.paskvil.com/ For with the
vilest spirit of Romagna 425 I found of you one such, who for his deeds In soul
already in Cocytus bathes, And still above in body seems alive! 425Friar Alberigo.
Inferno Canto 34 “VEXILLA Regis prodeunt Inferni 426 Towards us; therefore look in
front of thee,” My Master said,“if thou discernest him.” As, when there breathes a
heavy fog, or when Our hemisphere is darkening into night, Appears far off a mill
the wind is turning, Methought that such a building then I saw; And, for the wind,
I drew myself behind My Guide, because there was no other shelter. Now was I, and
with fear in verse I put it, There where the shades were wholly covered up, And
glimmered through like unto straws in glass. Some prone are Iying, others stand
erect, This with the head, and that one with the soles; Another, bow-like, face to
feet inverts. When in advance so far we had proceeded, That it my Master pleased to
show to me The creature who once had the beauteous semblance, He from before me
moved and made me stop, Saying: “Behold Dis, and behold the place Where thou with
fortitude must arm thyself” How frozen I became and powerless then, Ask it not,
Reader, for I write it not, Because all language would be insufficient. 426The
fourth and last division of the Ninth Circle, the Judecca, – “the smallest circle,
at the point of all the Universe, where Dis is seated.” The first line, “The
banners of the king of Hell come forth,” is a parody of the first line of a Latin
hymn of the sixth century, sung in the churches during Passion week, and written by
Fortunatus, an Italian by birth, but who died Bishop of Poitiers in 600. 231 232
http://www.paskvil.com/ Figure 68: The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous from his
mid-breast forth issued from the ice... I did not die, and I alive remained not;
Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit, What I became, being of both
deprived. The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous From his mid-breast forth issued from
the ice, And better with a giant I compare Than do the giants with those arms of
his; Consider now how great must be that whole, Which unto such a part conforms
itself. Were he as fair once, as he now is foul, And lifted up his brow against his
Maker, Well may proceed from him all tribulation. O, what a marvel it appeared to
me, When I beheld three faces on his head! 427 427The Ottimo and Benvenuto both
interpret the three faces as symbolizing Ignorance, Dante Alighieri - Divine
Comedy, Inferno 233 The one in front,
and that vermilion was; Two were the others, that were joined with this Above the
middle part of either shoulder, And they were joined together at the crest; And the
right-hand one seemed ’twixt white and yellow The left was such to look upon as
those Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward. 428 Underneath each came
forth two mighty wings, Such as befitting were so great a bird; Sails of the sea I
never saw so large. No feathers had they, but as of a bat Their fashion was; and he
was waving them, So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom. Thereby Cocytus
wholly was congealed. With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins Trickled the
tear-drops and the bloody drivel. At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching A
sinner, in the manner of a brake, So that he three of them tormented thus. To him
in front the biting was as naught Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine Utterly
stripped of all the skin remained. “That soul up there which has the greatest
pain,” The Master said, “is Judas Iscariot; With head inside, he plies his legs
without. Of the two others, who head downward are, The one who hangs from the black
jowl is Brutus; See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word. And the other, who
so stalwart seems, is Cassius. But night is reascending, and ’tis time 429 That we
depart, for we have seen the whole.” As seemed him good, I clasped him round the
neck, And he the vantage seized of time and place, Hatred, and Impotence. Others
interpret them as signifying the three quarters of the then known world, Europe,
Asia, and Africa. 428Aethiopia; the region about the Cataracts of the Nile. 429The
evening of Holy Saturday. 234 http://www.paskvil.com/ And when the wings were
opened wide apart, He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides; From fell to fell
descended downward then Between the thick hair and the frozen crust. When we were
come to where the thigh revolves Exactly on the thickness of the haunch, The Guide.
with labour and with hard-drawn breath. Turned round his head where he had had his
legs, And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts, So that to Hell I thought we
were returning. “Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,” The Master said,
panting as one fatigued, “Must we perforce depart from so much evil.” Then through
the opening of a rock he issued, And down upon the margin seated me; Then tow’rds
me he outstretched his wary step. I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see Lucifer
in the same way I had left him; And I beheld him upward hold his legs. And if I
then became disquieted, Let stolid people think who do not see What the point is
beyond which I had passed. “Rise up,” the Master said, “upon thy feet; The way is
long, and difficult the road, And now the sun to middle-tierce returns.” 430 It was
not any palace corridor There where we were, but dungeon natural, With floor uneven
and unease of light. “Ere from the abyss I tear myself away, My Master,” said I
when I had arisen? “To draw me from an error speak a little; Where is the ice? and
how is this one fixed 430The canonical day, from sunrise to sunset, was divided
into four equal parts, called in Italian Terza, Sesta, Nona, and Vespro, and
varying in length with the change of season. “These hours,” says Dante, Convito,
III. 6, “are short or long ... according as day and night increase or diminish.”
Terza was the first division after sunrise; and at the equinox would be from six
till nine. Consequently mezza terza, or middle tierce, would be half past seven.
Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy, Inferno 235 Thus upside down? and how in such
short time From eve to morn has the sun made his transit?” And he to me: “Thou
still imaginest Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped The hair of the fell
worm, who mines the world. That side thou wast, so long as I descended; When round
I turned me, thou didst pass the point To which things heavy draw from every side,
And now beneath the hemisphere art come Opposite that which overhangs the vast Dry-
land, and ‘neath whose cope was put to death 431 The Man who without sin was born
and lived. Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere Which makes the other face of
the Judecca Here it is morn when it is evening there; And he who with his hair a
stairway made us Still fixed remaineth as he was before. Upon this side he fell
down out of heaven; And all the land, that whilom here emerged, For fear of him
made of the sea a veil, And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure To flee from
him, what on this side appears 432 Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled” A
place there is below, from Beelzebub As far receding as the tomb extends, Which not
by sight is known, but by the sound Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth 433
Through chasm within the stone, which it has gnawed With course that winds about
and slightly falls. The Guide and I into that hidden road Now entered, to return to
the bright world; And without care of having any rest 431Jerusalem. 432The Mountain
of Purgatory, rising out of the sea at a point directly opposite Jerusalem, upon
the other side of the globe. It is an island in the South Pacific Ocean. 433This
brooklet is Lethe, whose source is on the summit of the Mountain of Purgatory,
flowing down to mingle with Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon, and form Cocytus. See
Canto XIV. 236 http://www.paskvil.com/ We mounted up, he first and I the second,
Till I beheld through a round aperture Some of the beauteous things that Heaven
doth bear; Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars. 434 434It will be observed
that each of the three divisions of the Divine Comedy ends with the word “Stars,”
suggesting and symbolizing endless aspiration. At the end of the Inferno Dante
“rebeholds the stars”; at the end of the Purgatorio he is “ready to ascend to the
stars”; at the end of the Paradiso he feels the power of “that Love which moves the
sun and other stars.” He is now looking upon the morning stars of Easter Sunday.