human
Can you write me a poem about charon, francesca da rimini and cavalcante dei?
assistant
Sure, here's a poem about charon, francesca da rimini and cavalcante dei:
  The Slumber--the Wood--the Hill--the three Beasts--Virgil--the
Dante's misgivings--Virgil's account of how he was induced to
come to his help--the three Heavenly Ladies--the beginning of
The Gate of Inferno--the Vestibule of the Caitiffs--the Great
Refusal--Acheron--Charon--the Earthquake--the Slumber of Dante,
The First Circle, which is the Limbo of the Unbaptized and of
the Virtuous Heathen--the Great Poets--the Noble Castle--the
Sages and Worthies of the ancient world,
The Second Circle, which is that of Carnal Sinners--Minos--the
Tempest--The Troop of those who died because of their Love--
Francesca da Rimini--Dante's Swoon,
The Third Circle, which is that of the Gluttonous--the Hail and
The Fourth Circle, which is that of the Avaricious and the
Thriftless--Plutus--the Great Weights rolled by the sinners in
opposite directions--Fortune--the Fifth Circle, which is that
of the Wrathful--Styx--the Lofty Tower,
The Fifth Circle continued--the Signals--Phlegyas--the Skiff--
Philip Argenti--the City of Dis--the Fallen Angels--the Rebuff
The City of Dis, which is the Sixth Circle and that of the
Heretics--the Furies and the Medusa head--the Messenger of Heaven
City--the red-hot Tombs,
The Sixth Circle continued--Farinata degli Uberti--Cavalcante dei
The Sixth Circle continued--Pope Anastasius--Virgil explains on
what principle sinners are classified in Inferno--Usury,
The Seventh Circle, First Division--the Minotaur--the River
of Blood, which forms the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle--
in it are those guilty of Violence against others--the
Guy of Montfort--the Passage of the River of Blood,
The Seventh Circle continued--the Second Division consisting
of a Tangled Wood in which are those guilty of Violence against
themselves--the Harpies--Pier delle Vigne--Lano--Jacopo da Sant'
The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature--
Brunetto Latini--Francesco d'Accorso--Andrea de' Mozzi, Bishop
The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature--
the Cataract--the Cord--Geryon,
The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Art--Usurers--
the descent on Geryon's back into the Eighth Circle,
The Eighth Circle, otherwise named Malebolge, which consists of
ten concentric Pits or Moats connected by bridges of rock--in
these are punished those guilty of Fraud of different kinds--
First Bolgia or Moat, where are Panders and Seducers, scourged
by Demons--Venedico Caccianimico--Jason--Second Bolgia, where
are Flatterers plunged in filth--Alessio Interminei,
The Eighth Circle--Third Bolgia, where are the Simoniacs, stuck
head downwards in holes in the rock--Pope Nicholas III.--the
The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia, where the Barrators, or corrupt
officials, are plunged in the boiling pitch which fills the
Bolgia--a Senator of Lucca is thrown in--the Malebranche, or
Demons who guard the Moat--the Devilish Escort,
The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia continued--the Navarese--trick
played by him on the Demons--Fra Gomita--Michael Zanche--the
Demons fall foul of one another,
The Eighth Circle--escape from the Fifth to the Sixth Bolgia,
where the Hypocrites walk at a snail's pace, weighed down
by Gilded Cloaks of lead--the Merry Friars Catalano and
constantly undergoing a hideous metamorphosis--Vanni Fucci,
The Eighth Circle--Seventh Bolgia continued--Cacus--Agnello
Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa Donati,
The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia, where are the Evil Counsellors,
death,
The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia, where the Schismatics in Church
and State are for ever being dismembered--Mahomet--Fra Dolcino--
The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia continued--Geri del Bello--Tenth
Bolgia, where Counterfeiters of various kinds, as Alchemists and
Forgers, are tormented with loathsome diseases--Griffolino of
The Eighth Circle--Tenth Bolgia continued--Myrrha--Gianni
Schicchi--Master Adam and his confession--Sinon,
The Ninth Circle, outside of which they remain till the end of
this Canto--this, the Central Pit of Inferno, is encircled and
guarded by Giants--Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus--entrance to
The Ninth Circle--that of the Traitors, is divided into four
concentric rings, in which the sinners are plunged more or less
deep in the ice of the frozen Cocytus--the Outer Ring is Caina,
where are those who contrived the murder of their Kindred--
Camicion de' Pazzi--Antenora, the Second Ring, where are such
as betrayed their Country--Bocca degli Abati--Buoso da Duera--
The Ninth Circle--Antenora continued--Ugolino and his tale--the
Third Ring, or Ptolomaea, where are those treacherous to their
Friends--Friar Alberigo--Branca d'Oria,
The Ninth Circle--the Fourth Ring or Judecca, the deepest point
of the Inferno and the Centre of the Universe--it is the place
of those treacherous to their Lords or Benefactors--Lucifer with
Judas, Brutus, and Cassius hanging from his mouths--passage
through the Centre of the Earth--ascent from the depths to the
light of the stars in the Southern Hemisphere,
impelled unconsciously by the forces that in every society divide
The opportunity of this class might seem to have come when the
threatened for their persevering and active enmity to Siena, now
were ready to betray a gate to them. In vain did Tegghiaio
The fortifications of Florence had been recently completed and
Cacciaguida, and feigns contrition for the pleasure with which he
blood. In Inferno he catches a glimpse, sudden and terrible, of a
Dante was born in Florence in the May of 1265. A brother of his
father had been one of the guards of the Florentine Caroccio, or
standard-bearing car, at the battle of Montaperti (1260). Whether
Baptistery, his beautiful St. John's. At the font he received the
written down of necessity, the poet says--the necessity of being
Of the poems written in his youth he made a selection, and with a
circumstances of her departure, he says, without being his own
imagination and of his heart.
The narrative of the _Vita Nuova_ is fluent and graceful, in this
verse. These inherited from the Provencal and Sicilian poets much
'After losing the earliest joy of my life, I was so smitten with
sorrow that in nothing could I find any comfort. Yet after some
time my mind, eager to recover its tone, since nought that I or
reading that little-known book by Boethius, by writing which he,
friend Scipio, I read that too. And though at the first I found
their meaning hard, at last I comprehended it as far as my
knowledge of the language and some little command of mother-wit
enabled me to do: which same mother-wit had already helped me to
much, as may be seen by the _Vita Nuova_. And as it often happens
tears, became possessed of wisdom from authors and sciences and
books. Weighing this well, I deemed that philosophy, the mistress
things. And imagining her to myself fashioned like a great lady,
rich in compassion, my admiration of her was so unbounded that I
found in very deed--in the schools of theology, to wit, and the
In this passage it is less the poet that is heard than the sober
One strong claim which Corso Donati had on the goodwill of his
fellow-townsmen was that by his ready courage in pushing on the
absence from Florence to treat freely with the Pope.
Besides Dante many other Whites had been expelled from Florence.
successor, sent the Cardinal of Ostia to Florence with powers to
reconcile the two parties. Dante is usually credited with the
composition of the letter in which Vieri dei Cerchi and his
fellow-exiles answered the call of the Cardinal to discuss the
himself. With the Whites, then, he had little more to do; and the
addressed to the 'wicked Florentines,' to the Emperor, and to the
obedience, but to descend on Florence, the rotten sheep which was
Florentines he had raised fresh barriers against his return. The
Italy, and had 'been held cheap by many who, because of his fame,
We have Dante's own word for it that he found his exile almost
intolerable. Besides the bitter resentment which he felt at the
debt appears to be ascertained; but, without knowing the
husband. But this is all matter of the merest speculation. Gemma
is known to have been alive in 1314. She brought up her children,
matter Boccaccio is a prejudiced witness, and, in the absence of
first annexed to the world of Romance. For hours of relaxation,
humanists of a century or two later were to make the world
intellectual perception of these that Dante had--or professed to
when required to declare in what he believes, nothing against the
priest-ridden. It was liberty that he went seeking on his great
journey; and he gives no hint that it is to be gained by the
servants.
If e'er it comes that this my sacred Lay,
To which both Heaven and Earth have set their hand--
Through which these many years I waste away--
Shall quell the cruelty that keeps me banned
From the fair fold where I, a lamb, was found
Hostile to wolves who 'gainst it violence planned;
With other fleece and voice of other sound,
Poet will I return, and at the font
Where I was christened be with laurel crowned.
 Whether by Matilda the great Countess is meant has been eagerly
disputed, and many of the best critics--such as Witte and
Scartazzini--prefer to find in her one of the ladies of the _Vita
 See note on _Inferno_ xxx. 73.
 Dante sets the Abbot among the traitors in Inferno, and says
 Villani throws doubt on the guilt of the Abbot. There were some
cases of churchmen being Ghibelines, as for instance that of the
 Manfred, says John Villani (_Cronica_, vi. 74 and 75), at first
 Provenzano is found by Dante in Purgatory, which he has been
 For this good advice he gets a word of praise in Inferno (_Inf._
 These mercenaries, though called Germans, were of various races.
 Lucera was a fortress which had been peopled with Saracens by
 For an account of the constitution and activity of the _Parte
 The month is indicated by Dante himself, _Parad._ xxii. 110. The
 _Inf._ viii. 45, where Virgil says of Dante that blessed was she
statement.
surface--between his experience and Dante's.
 G. Villani, viii. 10. Latini died in 1294. Villani gives the old
 We may, I think, assume the _Vita Nuova_ to have been published
 So long as even Italian critics are not agreed as to whether the
 As, indeed, Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, expressly says was the
case.
 The _Vita Nuova_ contains some thirty poems.
 In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English
 Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266.
 His sister is probably meant by the 'young and gentle lady, most
 The difference between the Teutonic and Southern conception of
marriage must be kept in mind.
 He describes the weather on the day of the battle with the
exactness of one who had been there (_Purg._ v. 155).
 The _Convito_ was to have consisted of fifteen books. Only four
were written.
 From the last canzone of the _Convito_.
 Sacchetti's stories of how Dante showed displeasure with the
blacksmith and the donkey-driver who murdered his _canzoni_ are
'In painting Cimabue deemed the field
His own, but now on Giotto goes the cry,
Till by his fame the other's is concealed.'
 No unusual provision in the industrious Italian cities. Harsh
 At a later period the Priors were known as the Signory.
 Fraticelli, _Storia della Vita di Dante_, page 112 and note.
 It is to be regretted that Ampere in his charming _Voyage
Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to
 Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at _Parad._ xvi. 127.
 At which Dante fought. See page lxii.
 Vieri was called Messer, a title reserved for magnates, knights,
 Villani acted for some time as an agent abroad of the great
business house of Peruzzi.
 Albert of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor in 1298, but was never
crowned at Rome.
 As in the days of Guelf and Ghibeline, so now in those of Blacks
excommunication.
 Charles of Anjou had lost Sicily at the Sicilian Vespers, 1282.
 _Inf._ vi. 66, where their expulsion is prophesied.
 See at _Purg._ xx. 43 Dante's invective against Philip and the
Capets in general.
 The ingenious speculations of Troya (_Del Veltro Allegorico di
 The _Convito_ is in Italian, and his words are: 'wherever this
language is spoken.'
 There is a splendid passage in praise of this family, _Purg._
 It is true that Villani not only says that 'he went to study at
 'O ye, who have hitherto been following me in some small
 In the notes to Fraticelli's _Vita di Dante_ (Florence 1861) are
 The details are given by Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol ii. p.
 See in Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri_, 1879, page 552, extract
 In Purgatory his conscience accuses him of pride, and he already
 In a letter of a few lines to one of the Marquises Malaspina,
 However early the _De Monarchia_ may have been written, it is
 The _De Vulgari Eloquio_ is in Latin. Dante's own Italian is
barbarous, even for the period.
 But in urgent need of more of it.--He says of 'the sublime
 As, for instance, Herr Scheffer-Boichorst in his _Aus Dantes
 The Traversari (_Purg._ xiv. 107). Guido's wife was of the
 In 1350 a sum of ten gold florins was sent from Florence by the
 The embassy to Venice is mentioned by Villani, and there was a
 Not that Dante ever mentions these any more than a hundred other
 A certain Cecco d'Ascoli stuck to him like a bur, charging him,
 _Inf._ x. and xxviii. There is no place in Purgatory where those
Vasari, in his _Lives of the Painters_, tells that in his day the
'All inferences to be deduced from the subject and form of these
frescos point to the date of 1301-2. It may be inquired whether
portrait would hardly have been introduced into a picture so
conspicuously visible as this, had not the poet at the time been
executed previous to Dante's exile, and this view is confirmed
by the technical and artistic progress which they reveal. They
difficulties it presents.
bloodshed. Nor is it easy to imagine how, at any time during his
In 1326 Dante had been dead for five years. The grudge his
anachronisms. Had Dante been still living the painter would have
been less at liberty to create, out of the records he doubtless
 It is best known, and can now be judged of only through the
 Antonio Pucci, born in 1300, in his _Centiloquio_, describes the
 In the Munich collection of drawings, and ascribed to Masaccio,
but with how much reason I do not know.
 Painted by Domenico Michelino in 1465, after a sketch by Alessio
 'Wearing over the long hair of the Frenchmen of the period a
 The Priorate was the highest office to which a citizen could
aspire, but by no means the highest in Florence.
 I suppose the meaning is 'immediately previous.'
 John Villani, _Cronica_, viii. 40 and 49; and Perrens, _Hist. de
 Who the other Florentines in the fresco are does not greatly
 Only twenty-five, if the commonly accepted date of his birth is
correct. In any case, he was still a young man.
 It is true that, on technical grounds, it has been questioned if
 Long since destroyed.
 An anachronism of another kind would have been committed by
In middle of the journey of our days
I found that I was in a darksome wood--
The right road lost and vanished in the maze.
Ah me! how hard to make it understood
How rough that wood was, wild, and terrible:
By the mere thought my terror is renewed.
More bitter scarce were death. But ere I tell
At large of good which there by me was found,
I will relate what other things befell.
Scarce know I how I entered on that ground,
So deeply, at the moment when I passed
From the right way, was I in slumber drowned.
But when beneath a hill arrived at last,
Which for the boundary of the valley stood,
That with such terror had my heart harassed,
I upwards looked and saw its shoulders glowed,
Radiant already with that planet's light
Which guideth surely upon every road.
A little then was quieted by the sight
The fear which deep within my heart had lain
Through all my sore experience of the night.
And as the man, who, breathing short in pain,
Hath 'scaped the sea and struggled to the shore,
Turns back to gaze upon the perilous main;
Even so my soul which fear still forward bore
Turned to review the pass whence I egressed,
And which none, living, ever left before.
My wearied frame refreshed with scanty rest,
I to ascend the lonely hill essayed;
The lower foot still that on which I pressed.
And lo! ere I had well beginning made,
A nimble leopard, light upon her feet,
And in a skin all spotted o'er arrayed:
Nor ceased she e'er me full in the face to meet,
And to me in my path such hindrance threw
That many a time I wheeled me to retreat.
It was the hour of dawn; with retinue
Of stars that were with him when Love Divine
In the beginning into motion drew
Those beauteous things, the sun began to shine;
And I took heart to be of better cheer
Touching the creature with the gaudy skin,
Seeing 'twas morn, and spring-tide of the year;
Yet not so much but that when into sight
A lion came, I was disturbed with fear.
Towards me he seemed advancing in his might,
Rabid with hunger and with head high thrown:
The very air was tremulous with fright.
A she-wolf, too, beheld I further on;
All kinds of lust seemed in her leanness pent:
Through her, ere now, much folk have misery known.
By her oppressed, and altogether spent
By the terror breathing from her aspect fell,
I lost all hope of making the ascent.
And as the man who joys while thriving well,
When comes the time to lose what he has won
In all his thoughts weeps inconsolable,
So mourned I through the brute which rest knows none:
She barred my way again and yet again,
And thrust me back where silent is the sun.
And as I downward rushed to reach the plain,
Before mine eyes appeared there one aghast,
When I beheld him in the desert vast,
'Whate'er thou art, or ghost or man,' I cried,
'I pray thee show such pity as thou hast.'
'No man, though once I was; on either side
Lombard my parents were, and both of them
For native place had Mantua,' he replied.
'Though late, _sub Julio_, to the world I came,
And lived at Rome in good Augustus' day,
While yet false gods and lying were supreme.
Poet I was, renowning in my lay
Anchises' righteous son, who fled from Troy
What time proud Ilion was to flames a prey.
But thou, why going back to such annoy?
The hill delectable why fear to mount,
The origin and ground of every joy?'
'And thou in sooth art Virgil, and the fount
Whence in a stream so full doth language flow?'
Abashed, I answered him with humble front.
'Of other poets light and honour thou!
Let the long study and great zeal I've shown
In searching well thy book, avail me now!
My master thou, and author thou, alone!
From thee alone I, borrowing, could attain
The style consummate which has made me known.
Behold the beast which makes me turn again:
Deliver me from her, illustrious Sage;
Because of her I tremble, pulse and vein.'
'Thou must attempt another pilgrimage,'
Observing that I wept, he made reply,
'If from this waste thyself thou 'dst disengage.
Because the beast thou art afflicted by
Will suffer none along her way to pass,
But, hindering them, harasses till they die.
So vile a nature and corrupt she has,
Her raging lust is still insatiate,
And food but makes it fiercer than it was.
Many a creature hath she ta'en for mate,
And more she'll wed until the hound comes forth
To slay her and afflict with torment great.
He will not batten upon pelf or earth;
But he shall feed on valour, love, and lore;
Feltro and Feltro 'tween shall be his birth.
He will save humbled Italy, and restore,
For which of old virgin Camilla died;
Turnus, Euryalus, Nisus, died of yore.
Her through all cities chasing far and wide,
He at the last to Hell will thrust her down,
Whence envy first unloosed her. I decide
Therefore and judge that thou hadst best come on
With me for guide; and hence I'll lead thee where
A place eternal shall to thee be shown.
There shalt thou hear the howlings of despair
In which the ancient spirits make lament,
All of them fain the second death to share.
Next shalt thou them behold who are content,
Because they hope some time, though now in fire,
To join the blessed they will win consent.
And if to these thou later wouldst aspire,
A soul shall guide thee, worthier far than I;
When I depart thee will I leave with her.
Because the Emperor who reigns on high
Wills not, since 'gainst His laws I did rebel,
That to His city I bring any nigh.
O'er all the world He rules, there reigns as well;
There is His city and exalted seat:
O happy whom He chooses there to dwell!'
And I to him: 'Poet, I thee entreat,
Even by that God who was to thee unknown,
That I may 'scape this present ill, nor meet
With worse, conduct me whither thou hast shown,
That I may see Saint Peter's gate, and those
Whom thou reportest in such misery thrown.'
He moved away; behind him held I close.
 _Middle_: In his _Convito_ (iv. 23), comparing human life to an
 _Darksome wood_: A state of spiritual darkness or despair into
which he has gradually drifted, not without fault of his own.
 _The lower foot, etc._: This describes a cautious, slow ascent.
 _A nimble leopard_: The leopard and the lion and wolf that come
 _A lion_: Pride or arrogance; to be taken in its widest sense of
 _No man_: Brunetto Latini, the friend and master of Dante, says
'the soul is the life of man, but without the body is not man.'
 _Author_: Dante defines an author as 'one worthy to be believed
 _The style, etc._: Some at least of Dante's minor works had been
 _Many a creature, etc._: Great men and states, infected with
 _Feltro and Feltro, etc._: Who the deliverer was that Dante
 _Camilla, etc._: All persons of the _AEneid_.
 _Thou hadst best, etc._: As will be seen from the next Canto,
 _A soul_: Beatrice.
It was the close of day; the twilight brown
All living things on earth was setting free
From toil, while I preparing was alone
To face the battle which awaited me,
As well of ruth as of the perilous quest,
Now to be limned by faultless memory.
Help, lofty genius! Muses, manifest
Goodwill to me! Recording what befell,
Do thou, O mind, now show thee at thy best!
I thus began: 'Poet, and Guide as well,
Ere trusting me on this adventure wide,
Judge if my strength of it be capable.
Thou say'st that Silvius' father, ere he died,
Still mortal to the world immortal went,
There in the body some time to abide.
Yet that the Foe of evil was content
That he should come, seeing what high effect,
And who and what should from him claim descent,
No room for doubt can thoughtful man detect:
For he of noble Rome, and of her sway
Imperial, in high Heaven grew sire elect.
And both of these, the very truth to say,
Were founded for the holy seat, whereon
The Greater Peter's follower sits to-day.
Upon this journey, praised by thee, were known
And heard things by him, to the which he owed
His triumph, whence derives the Papal gown.
That path the Chosen Vessel later trod
So of the faith assurance to receive,
Which is beginning of salvation's road.
But why should I go? Who will sanction give?
For I am no AEneas and no Paul;
Me worthy of it no one can believe,
Nor I myself. Hence venturing at thy call,
I dread the journey may prove rash. But vain
For me to reason; wise, thou know'st it all.'
Like one no more for what he wished for fain,
Whose purpose shares mutation with his thought
Till from the thing begun he turns again;
On that dim slope so grew I all distraught,
Because, by brooding on it, the design
I shrank from, which before I warmly sought.
'If well I understand these words of thine,'
The shade of him magnanimous made reply,
'Thy soul 'neath cowardice hath sunk supine,
Which a man often is so burdened by,
It makes him falter from a noble aim,
As beasts at objects ill-distinguished shy.
To loose thee from this terror, why I came,
And what the speech I heard, I will relate,
When first of all I pitied thee. A dame
Hailed me where I 'mongst those in dubious state
Had my abode: so blest was she and fair,
Her to command me I petitioned straight.
Her eyes were shining brighter than the star;
And she began to say in accents sweet
And tuneable as angel's voices are:
"O Mantuan Shade, in courtesy complete,
Whose fame survives on earth, nor less shall grow
Through all the ages, while the world hath seat;
A friend of mine, with fortune for his foe,
Has met with hindrance on his desert way,
And, terror-smitten, can no further go,
But turns; and that he is too far astray,
And that I rose too late for help, I dread,
From what in Heaven concerning him they say.
Go, with thy speech persuasive him bestead,
And with all needful help his guardian prove,
That touching him I may be comforted.
Know, it is Beatrice seeks thee thus to move.
Thence come I where I to return am fain:
My coming and my plea are ruled by love.
When I shall stand before my Lord again,
Often to Him I will renew thy praise."
"O virtuous Lady, thou alone the race
Of man exaltest 'bove all else that dwell
Beneath the heaven which wheels in narrowest space.
To do thy bidding pleases me so well,
Though 'twere already done 'twere all too slow;
Thy wish at greater length no need to tell.
But say, what tempted thee to come thus low,
Even to this centre, from the region vast,
Whither again thou art on fire to go?"
"This much to learn since a desire thou hast,"
She answered, "briefly thee I'll satisfy,
How, coming here, I through no terrors passed.
We are, of right, such things alarmed by,
As have the power to hurt us; all beside
Are harmless, and not fearful. Wherefore I--
Thus formed by God, His bounty is so wide--
Am left untouched by all your miseries,
And through this burning unmolested glide.
A noble lady is in Heaven, who sighs
O'er the obstruction where I'd have thee go,
And breaks the rigid edict of the skies.
Calling on Lucia, thus she made her know
What she desired: 'Thy vassal now hath need
Of help from thee; do thou then helpful show.'
Lucia, who hates all cruelty, in speed
Rose, and approaching where I sat at rest,
To venerable Rachel giving heed,
Me: 'Beatrice, true praise of God,' addressed;
'Why not help him who had such love for thee,
And from the vulgar throng to win thee pressed?
Dost thou not hear him weeping pitiably,
Nor mark the death now threatening him upon
A flood than which less awful is the sea?'
Never on earth did any ever run,
Allured by profit or impelled by fear,
Swifter than I, when speaking she had done,
From sitting 'mong the blest descended here,
My trust upon thy comely rhetoric cast,
Which honours thee and those who lend it ear."
When of these words she spoken had the last,
She turned aside bright eyes which tears did fill,
And I by this was urged to greater haste.
And so it was I joined thee by her will,
And from that raging beast delivered thee,
Which barred the near way up the beauteous hill.
What ails thee then? Why thus a laggard be?
Why cherish in thy heart a craven fear?
Where is thy franchise, where thy bravery,
When three such blessed ladies have a care
For thee in Heaven's court, and these words of mine
Thee for such wealth of blessedness prepare?'
As flowers, by chills nocturnal made to pine
And shut themselves, when touched by morning bright
Upon their stems arise, full-blown and fine;
So of my faltering courage changed the plight,
And such good cheer ran through my heart, it spurred
Me to declare, like free-born generous wight:
'O pitiful, who for my succour stirred!
And thou how full of courtesy to run,
Alert in service, hearkening her true word!
Thou with thine eloquence my heart hast won
To keen desire to go, and the intent
Which first I held I now no longer shun.
Therefore proceed; my will with thine is blent:
Thou art my Guide, Lord, Master; thou alone!'
Thus I; and with him, as he forward went,
The steep and rugged road I entered on.
 _Close of day_: The evening of the Friday. It comes on us with
 _Alone_: Of earthly creatures, though in company with Virgil, a
displayed his commission.
 _Silvius' father_: AEneas, whose visit to the world of shades is
 _Both of these_: Dante uses language slightly apologetic as he
 _Papal gown_: 'The great mantle' Dante elsewhere terms it; the
emblem of the Papal dignity. It was only in Dante's own time that
 _Chosen Vessel_: Paul, who like AEneas visited the other world,
 _Dubious state_: The limbo of the virtuous heathen (Canto iv.).
 _The star_: In the _Vita Nuova_ Dante speaks of the star in the
singular when he means the stars.
 _In narrowest space_: The heaven of the moon, on the Ptolemaic
 _The region vast_: The empyrean, or tenth and highest heaven of
 _A noble lady_: The Virgin Mary, of whom it is said (_Parad._
 _Thy vassal_: Saint Lucy being held in special veneration by
 _Rachel_: Symbol of the contemplative life.
 _Tears_: Beatrice weeps for human misery--especially that of
 _My Guide, etc._: After hearing how Virgil was moved to come,
Through me to the city dolorous lies the way,
Who pass through me shall pains eternal prove,
Through me are reached the people lost for aye.
'Twas Justice did my Glorious Maker move;
I was created by the Power Divine,
No thing's creation earlier was than mine,
If not eternal; I for aye endure:
Ye who make entrance, every hope resign!
These words beheld I writ in hue obscure
On summit of a gateway; wherefore I:
'Hard is their meaning, Master.' Like one sure
Beforehand of my thought, he made reply:
'Here it behoves to leave all fears behind;
All cowardice behoveth here to die.
For now the place I told thee of we find,
Where thou the miserable folk shouldst see
Who the true good of reason have resigned.'
Then, with a glance of glad serenity,
He took my hand in his, which made me bold,
And brought me in where secret things there be.
There sighs and plaints and wailings uncontrolled
The dim and starless air resounded through;
Nor at the first could I from tears withhold.
The various languages and words of woe,
The uncouth accents, mixed with angry cries
And smiting palms and voices loud and low,
Composed a tumult which doth circling rise
For ever in that air obscured for aye;
As when the sand upon the whirlwind flies.
And, horror-stricken, I began to say:
'Master, what sound can this be that I hear,
And who the folk thus whelmed in misery?'
And he replied: 'In this condition drear
Are held the souls of that inglorious crew
Who lived unhonoured, but from guilt kept clear.
Mingled they are with caitiff angels, who,
Though from avowed rebellion they refrained,
Disloyal to God, did selfish ends pursue.
Heaven hurled them forth, lest they her beauty stained;
Received they are not by the nether hell,
Else triumph thence were by the guilty gained.'
And I: 'What bear they, Master, to compel
Their lamentations in such grievous tone?'
He answered: 'In few words I will thee tell.
No hope of death is to the wretches known;
So dim the life and abject where they sigh
They count all sufferings easier than their own.
Of them the world endures no memory;
Mercy and justice them alike disdain.
Speak we not of them: glance, and pass them by.'
I saw a banner when I looked again,
Which, always whirling round, advanced in haste
As if despising steadfast to remain.
And after it so many people chased
In long procession, I should not have said
That death had ever wrought such countless waste.
Some first I recognised, and then the shade
I saw and knew of him, the search to close,
Straightway I knew and was assured that those
Were of the tribe of caitiffs, even the race
Despised of God and hated of His foes.
The wretches, who when living showed no trace
Of life, went naked, and were fiercely stung
By wasps and hornets swarming in that place.
Blood drawn by these out of their faces sprung
And, mingled with their tears, was at their feet
Sucked up by loathsome worms it fell among.
Casting mine eyes beyond, of these replete,
People I saw beside an ample stream,
Whereon I said: 'O Master, I entreat,
Tell who these are, and by what law they seem
Impatient till across the river gone;
As I distinguish by this feeble gleam.'
And he: 'These things shall unto thee be known
What time our footsteps shall at rest be found
Upon the woful shores of Acheron.'
Then with ashamed eyes cast on the ground,
Fearing my words were irksome in his ear,
Until we reached the stream I made no sound.
And toward us, lo, within a bark drew near
A veteran who with ancient hair was white,
Shouting: 'Ye souls depraved, be filled with fear.
Hope never more of Heaven to win the sight;
I come to take you to the other strand,
To frost and fire and everlasting night.
And thou, O living soul, who there dost stand,
From 'mong the dead withdraw thee.' Then, aware
That not at all I stirred at his command,
'By other ways, from other ports thou'lt fare;
But they will lead thee to another shore,
And 'tis a skiff more buoyant must thee bear.'
And then my leader: 'Charon, be not sore,
For thus it has been willed where power ne'er came
Short of the will; thou therefore ask no more.'
And hereupon his shaggy cheeks grew tame
Who is the pilot of the livid pool,
And round about whose eyes glowed wheels of flame.
But all the shades, naked and spent with dool,
Stood chattering with their teeth, and changing hue
Soon as they heard the words unmerciful.
God they blasphemed, and families whence they grew;
Mankind, the time, place, seed in which began
Their lives, and seed whence they were born. Then drew
They crowding all together, as they ran,
Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore
Predestinate for every godless man.
The demon Charon, with eyes evermore
Aglow, makes signals, gathering them all;
And whoso lingers smiteth with his oar.
And as the faded leaves of autumn fall
One after the other, till at last the bough
Sees on the ground spread all its coronal;
With Adam's evil seed so haps it now:
At signs each falls in turn from off the coast,
As fowls into the ambush fluttering go.
The gloomy waters thus by them are crossed,
And ere upon the further side they land,
On this, anew, is gathering a host.
'Son,' said the courteous Master, 'understand,
All such as in the wrath of God expire,
From every country muster on this strand.
To cross the river they are all on fire;
Their wills by Heavenly justice goaded on
Until their terror merges in desire.
This way no righteous soul has ever gone;
Wherefore of thee if Charon should complain,
Now art thou sure what by his words is shown.'
When he had uttered this the dismal plain
Trembled so violently, my terror past
Recalling now, I'm bathed in sweat again.
Out of the tearful ground there moaned a blast
Whence lightning flashed forth red and terrible,
Which vanquished all my senses; and, as cast
In sudden slumber, to the ground I fell.
 _Power Divine, etc._: The Persons of the Trinity, described by
their attributes.
 _If not eternal_: Only the angels and the heavenly spheres were
 _Uncouth accents_: 'Like German,' says Boccaccio.
 _Else triumph, etc._: The satisfaction of the rebel angels at
 _A banner_: Emblem of the instability of those who would never
take a side.
representative caitiff is just that, being himself virtuous, he
suggested in place of Celestine. To either of them there lies the
 _As fowls, etc._: 'As a bird to its lure'--generally interpreted
 _Trembled, etc._: Symbolical of the increase of woe in Inferno
Resounding thunder broke the slumber deep
That drowsed my senses, and myself I shook
Like one by force awakened out of sleep.
Then rising up I cast a steady look,
With eyes refreshed, on all that lay around,
And cognisance of where I found me took.
In sooth, me on the valley's brink I found
Of the dolorous abyss, where infinite
Despairing cries converge with thundering sound.
Cloudy it was, and deep, and dark as night;
So dark that, peering eagerly to find
What its depths held, no object met my sight.
'Descend we now into this region blind,'
Began the Poet with a face all pale;
'I will go first, and do thou come behind.'
Marking the wanness on his cheek prevail,
I asked, 'How can I, seeing thou hast dread,
My wonted comforter when doubts assail?'
'The anguish of the people,' then he said,
'Who are below, has painted on my face
Pity, by thee for fear interpreted.
Come! The long journey bids us move apace.'
Then entered he and made me enter too
The topmost circle girding the abyss.
Therein, as far as I by listening knew,
There was no lamentation save of sighs,
Whence throbbed the air eternal through and through.
This, sorrow without suffering made arise
From infants and from women and from men,
Gathered in great and many companies.
And the good Master: 'Wouldst thou nothing then
Of who those spirits are have me relate?
Yet know, ere passing further, although when
On earth they sinned not, worth however great
Availed them not, they being unbaptized--
Part of the faith thou holdest. If their fate
Was to be born ere man was Christianised,
God, as behoved, they never could adore:
And I myself am with this folk comprised.
For such defects--our guilt is nothing more--
We are thus lost, suffering from this alone
That, hopeless, we our want of bliss deplore.'
Greatly I sorrowed when he made this known,
Because I knew that some who did excel
In worthiness were to that limbo gone.
'Tell me, O Sir,' I prayed him, 'Master, tell,'
--That I of the belief might surety win,
Victorious every error to dispel--
'Did ever any hence to bliss attain
By merit of another or his own?'
And he, to whom my hidden drift was plain:
'I to this place but lately had come down,
When I beheld one hither make descent;
A Potentate who wore a victor's crown.
The shade of our first sire forth with him went,
And his son Abel's, Noah's forth he drew,
Moses' who gave the laws, the obedient
Patriarch Abram's, and King David's too;
And, with his sire and children, Israel,
And Rachel, winning whom such toils he knew;
And many more, in blessedness to dwell.
And I would have thee know, earlier than these
No human soul was ever saved from Hell.'
While thus he spake our progress did not cease,
But we continued through the wood to stray;
The wood, I mean, with crowded ghosts for trees.
Ere from the summit far upon our way
We yet had gone, I saw a flame which glowed,
Holding a hemisphere of dark at bay.
'Twas still a little further on our road,
Yet not so far but that in part I guessed
That honourable people there abode.
'Of art and science Ornament confessed!
Who are these honoured in such high degree,
And in their lot distinguished from the rest?'
He said: 'For them their glorious memory,
Still in thy world the subject of renown,
Wins grace by Heaven distinguished thus to be.'
Meanwhile I heard a voice: 'Be honour shown
To the illustrious poet, for his shade
Is now returning which a while was gone.'
When the voice paused nor further utterance made,
Four mighty shades drew near with one accord,
In aspect neither sorrowful nor glad.
'Consider that one, armed with a sword,'
Began my worthy Master in my ear,
'Before the three advancing like their lord;
For he is Homer, poet with no peer:
Horace the satirist is next in line,
Ovid comes third, and Lucan in the rear.
And 'tis because their claim agrees with mine
Upon the name they with one voice did cry,
They to their honour in my praise combine.'
Thus I beheld their goodly company--
The lords of song in that exalted style
Which o'er all others, eagle-like, soars high.
Having conferred among themselves a while
They turned toward me and salutation made,
And, this beholding, did my Master smile.
And honour higher still to me was paid,
For of their company they made me one;
So I the sixth part 'mong such genius played.
Thus journeyed we to where the brightness shone,
Holding discourse which now 'tis well to hide,
As, where I was, to hold it was well done.
At length we reached a noble castle's side
Which lofty sevenfold walls encompassed round,
And it was moated by a sparkling tide.
This we traversed as if it were dry ground;
I through seven gates did with those sages go;
Then in a verdant mead people we found
Whose glances were deliberate and slow.
Authority was stamped on every face;
Seldom they spake, in tuneful voices low.
We drew apart to a high open space
Upon one side which, luminously serene,
Did of them all a perfect view embrace.
Thence, opposite, on the enamel green
Were shown me mighty spirits; with delight
I still am stirred them only to have seen.
With many more, Electra was in sight;
'Mong them I Hector and AEneas spied,
Caesar in arms, his eyes, like falcon's, bright.
And, opposite, Camilla I descried;
Penthesilea too; the Latian King
Sat with his child Lavinia by his side.
Brutus I saw, who Tarquin forth did fling;
Saladin sat alone. Considering
What lay beyond with somewhat lifted eyes,
The Master I beheld of those that know,
'Mong such as in philosophy were wise.
All gazed on him as if toward him to show
Becoming honour; Plato in advance
With Socrates: the others stood below.
Democritus who set the world on chance;
Zeno, and Anaxagoras met my glance;
Wise judge of nature. Tully, Orpheus, were
With ethic Seneca and Linus. These,
And Ptolemy, too, and Euclid, geometer,
Averroes, the same who did prepare
The Comment, saw I; nor can tell again
The names of all I saw; the subject wide
So urgent is, time often fails me. Then
Into two bands the six of us divide;
Me by another way my Leader wise
Doth from the calm to air which trembles, guide.
I reach a part which all benighted lies.
 _Limbo_: Border, or borderland. Dante makes the First Circle
 _Hidden drift_: to find out, at first hand as it were, if the
 _A Potentate_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the
 _Wins grace, etc._: The thirst for fame was one keenly felt and
 _A sword_: Because Homer sings of battles. Dante's acquaintance
with his works can have been but slight, as they were not then
translated into Latin, and Dante knew little or no Greek.
 _Did my Master smile_: To see Dante made free of the guild of
 _A noble castle_: Where the light burns, and in which, as their
 _Caesar in arms, etc._: Suetonius says of Caesar that he was of
 _Brutus_: Introduced here that he may not be confounded with the
 _Marcia_: Wife of Cato; mentioned also in _Purg._ i. _Julia_:
daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey.
 _Saladin_: Died 1193. To the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
commentator.
 _The Master_: Aristotle, often spoken of by Dante as the
 _Linus_: Not Livy, into which some have changed it. Linus is
mentioned by Virgil along with Orpheus, _Egl._ iv.
 _Ptolemy_: Greek geographer of the beginning of the second
 _Avicenna_: A physician, born in Bokhara, and died at Ispahan,
 _A part, etc._: He passes into the darkness of the Limbo out of
From the First Circle thus I downward went
Into the Second, which girds narrower space,
But greater woe compelling loud lament.
Minos waits awful there and snarls, the case
Examining of all who enter in;
And, as he girds him, dooms them to their place.
I say, each ill-starred spirit must begin
On reaching him its guilt in full to tell;
And he, omniscient as concerning sin,
Sees to what circle it belongs in Hell;
Then round him is his tail as often curled
As he would have it stages deep to dwell.
And evermore before him stand a world
Of shades; and all in turn to judgment come,
Confess and hear, and then are downward hurled.
'O thou who comest to the very home
Of woe,' when he beheld me Minos cried,
Ceasing a while from utterance of doom,
'Enter not rashly nor in all confide;
By ease of entering be not led astray.'
'Why also growling?' answered him my Guide;
'Seek not his course predestinate to stay;
For thus 'tis willed where nothing ever fails
Of what is willed. No further speech essay.'
And now by me are agonising wails
Distinguished plain; now am I come outright
Where grievous lamentation me assails.
Now had I reached a place devoid of light,
Raging as in a tempest howls the sea
When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight.
The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly,
Sweeping the shades along with it, and them
It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be.
Arrived at the precipitous extreme,
In shrieks and lamentations they complain,
And even the Power Divine itself blaspheme.
I understood that to this mode of pain
Are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind,
Who o'er their reason let their impulse reign.
As starlings in the winter-time combined
Float on the wing in crowded phalanx wide,
So these bad spirits, driven by that wind,
Float up and down and veer from side to side;
Nor for their comfort any hope they spy
Of rest, or even of suffering mollified.
And as the cranes in long-drawn company
Pursue their flight while uttering their song,
So I beheld approach with wailing cry
Shades lifted onward by that whirlwind strong.
'Master, what folk are these,' I therefore said,
'Who by the murky air are whipped along?'
'She, first of them,' his answer thus was made,
'Of whom thou wouldst a wider knowledge win,
O'er many tongues and peoples, empire swayed.
So ruined was she by licentious sin
That she decreed lust should be uncontrolled,
To ease the shame that she herself was in.
She is Semiramis, of whom 'tis told
She followed Ninus, and his wife had been.
Hers were the realms now by the Sultan ruled.
The next is she who, amorous and self-slain,
Unto Sichaeus' dust did faithless show:
Then lustful Cleopatra.' Next was seen
Helen, for whom so many years in woe
Ran out; and I the great Achilles knew,
Who at the last encountered love for foe.
Paris I saw and Tristram. In review
A thousand shades and more, he one by one
Pointed and named, whom love from life withdrew.
And after I had heard my Teacher run
O'er many a dame of yore and many a knight,
I, lost in pity, was wellnigh undone.
Then I: 'O Poet, if I only might
Speak with the two that as companions hie,
And on the wind appear to be so light!'
And he to me: 'When they shall come more nigh
Them shalt thou mark, and by the love shalt pray
Which leads them onward, and they will comply.'
Soon as the wind bends them to where we stay
I lift my voice: 'O wearied souls and worn!
Come speak with us if none the boon gainsay.'
Then even as doves, urged by desire, return
On outspread wings and firm to their sweet nest
As through the air by mere volition borne,
From Dido's band those spirits issuing pressed
Towards where we were, athwart the air malign;
My passionate prayer such influence possessed.
'O living creature, gracious and benign,
Us visiting in this obscured air,
Who did the earth with blood incarnadine;
If in the favour of the King we were
Who rules the world, we for thy peace would pray,
Since our misfortunes thy compassion stir.
Whate'er now pleases thee to hear or say
We listen to, or tell, at your demand;
While yet the wind, as now, doth silent stay.
My native city lies upon the strand
Where to the sea descends the river Po
For peace, with all his tributary band.
Love, in a generous heart set soon aglow,
Seized him for the fair form was mine above;
And still it irks me to have lost it so.
Love, which absolves no one beloved from love,
So strong a passion for him in me wrought
That, as thou seest, I still its mastery prove.
Love led us where we in one death were caught.
For him who slew us waits Caina now.'
Unto our ears these words from them were brought.
When I had heard these troubled souls, my brow
I downward bent, and long while musing stayed,
Until the Poet asked: 'What thinkest thou?'
And when I answered him, 'Alas!' I said,
'Sweet thoughts how many, and what strong desire,
These to their sad catastrophe betrayed!'
Then, turned once more to them, I to inquire
Began: 'Francesca, these thine agonies
Me with compassion unto tears inspire.
But tell me, at the season of sweet sighs
What sign made love, and what the means he chose
To strip your dubious longings of disguise?'
And she to me: 'The bitterest of woes
Is to remember in the midst of pain
A happy past; as well thy teacher knows.
Yet none the less, and since thou art so fain
The first occasion of our love to hear,
Like one I speak that cannot tears restrain.
As we for pastime one day reading were
How Lancelot by love was fettered fast--
All by ourselves and without any fear--
Moved by the tale our eyes we often cast
On one another, and our colour fled;
But one word was it, vanquished us at last.
When how the smile, long wearied for, we read
Was kissed by him who loved like none before,
This one, who henceforth never leaves me, laid
A kiss on my mouth, trembling the while all o'er.
The book was Galahad, and he as well
Who wrote the book. That day we read no more.'
And while one shade continued thus to tell,
The other wept so bitterly, I swooned
Away for pity, and as dead I fell:
Yea, as a corpse falls, fell I on the ground.
 _The Second_: The Second Circle of the Inferno, and the first of
 _Downward hurled_: Each falls to his proper place without
 _Precipitous extreme_: Opinions vary as to what is meant by
lamentations against their irremediable fate.
 _I understood, etc._: From the nature of the punishment, which,
 _The cranes_: 'The cranes are a kind of bird that go in a troop,
 _What folk are these_: The general crowd of sinners guilty of
 _The next_: Dido, perhaps not named by Virgil because to him she
 _If none_: If no Superior Power.
 _Doves_: The motion of the tempest-driven shades is compared to
 _Dido_: Has been already indicated, and is now named. This
 _Living creature_: 'Animal.' No shade, but an animated body.
goodheartedness is left her--a consolation, if not a grace.
 _Your demand_: By a refinement of courtesy, Francesca, though
 _Native city_: Ravenna. The speaker is Francesca, daughter of
 _To have lost it so_: A husband's right and duty were too well
breathing-space for repentance and farewells.
 _Which absolves, etc._: Which compels whoever is beloved to love
 _Thy teacher_: Boethius, one of Dante's favourite authors
 _Lancelot_: King Arthur's famous knight, who was too bashful to
 _Galahad_: From the part played by Galahad, or Galeotto, in the
When I regained my senses, which had fled
At my compassion for the kindred two,
Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head,
New torments and a crowd of sufferers new
I see around me as I move again,
Where'er I turn, where'er I bend my view.
In the Third Circle am I of the rain
Which, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe,
Doth always of one kind and force remain.
Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow,
Keep pouring down athwart the murky air;
And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow.
The savage Cerberus, a monster drear,
Howls from his threefold throat with canine cries
Above the people who are whelmed there.
Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes,
His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout.
The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise.
Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout,
And shield themselves in turn with either side;
And oft the wretched sinners turn about.
When we by Cerberus, great worm, were spied,
He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed,
While not a limb did motionless abide.
My Leader having spread his hands abroad,
Filled both his fists with earth ta'en from the ground,
And down the ravening gullets flung the load.
Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound,
But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws,
And, worrying it, forgets all else around;
So with those filthy faces there it was
Of the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowd
Of souls till they from hearing fain would pause.
We, travelling o'er the spirits who lay cowed
And sorely by the grievous showers harassed,
Upon their semblances of bodies trod.
Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast,
Save one of them who sat upright with speed
When he beheld that near to him we passed.
'O thou who art through this Inferno led,
Me if thou canst,' he asked me, 'recognise;
For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.'
And I to him: 'Thy present tortured guise
Perchance hath blurred my memory of thy face,
Until it seems I ne'er on thee set eyes.
But tell me who thou art, within this place
So cruel set, exposed to such a pain,
Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.'
And he: 'Thy city, swelling with the bane
Of envy till the sack is running o'er,
Me in the life serene did once contain.
As Ciacco me your citizens named of yore;
And for the damning sin of gluttony
I, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower.
No solitary woful soul am I,
For all of these endure the selfsame doom
For the same fault.' Here ended his reply.
I answered him, 'O Ciacco, with such gloom
Thy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone;
But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come
The citizens of the divided town.
Holds it one just man? And declare the cause
Why 'tis of discord such a victim grown.'
Then he to me: 'After contentious pause
Blood will be spilt; the boorish party then
Will chase the others forth with grievous loss.
The former it behoves to fall again
Within three suns, the others to ascend,
Holpen by him whose wiles ere now are plain.
Long time, with heads held high, they'll make to bend
The other party under burdens dire,
Howe'er themselves in tears and rage they spend.
There are two just men, at whom none inquire.
Envy, and pride, and avarice, even these
Are the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.'
With this the tearful sound he made to cease:
And I to him, 'Yet would I have thee tell--
And of thy speech do thou the gift increase--
Tegghiaio and Farinata, honourable,
With all the rest so studious to excel
In good; where are they? Help me this to know;
Great hunger for the news hath seized me;
Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?'
He said: 'Among the blackest souls they be;
Them to the bottom weighs another sin.
Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see.
But when the sweet world thou again dost win,
I pray thee bring me among men to mind;
No more I tell, nor new reply begin.'
Then his straightforward eyes askance declined;
He looked at me a moment ere his head
He bowed; then fell flat 'mong the other blind.
'Henceforth he waketh not,' my Leader said,
'Till he shall hear the angel's trumpet sound,
Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shade
Its dismal sepulchre shall then be found,
Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume,
And list what echoes in eternal round.'
So passed we where the shades and rainy spume
Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow;
Touching a little on the world to come.
Wherefore I said: 'Master, shall torments grow
After the awful sentence hath been heard,
Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?'
'Repair unto thy Science,' was his word;
'Which tells, as things approach a perfect state
To keener joy or suffering they are stirred.
Therefore although this people cursed by fate
Ne'er find perfection in its full extent,
To it they then shall more approximate
Than now.' Our course we round the circle bent,
Still holding speech, of which I nothing say,
Until we came where down the pathway went:
There found we Plutus, the great enemy.
 _As I move again_: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the
Second Circle down to the Third.
 _Cerberus_: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of
wine-bibbers.
 _Great worm_: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so
called as being a disgusting brute.
 _Semblances, etc._: 'Emptiness which seems to be a person.' To
 _Ciacco_: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his
 _After, etc._: In the following nine lines the party history of
 _Holpen, etc._: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the
 _Two just_: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts
 _But when, etc._: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed
 _And list, etc._: The final sentence against them is to echo, in
 _The world to come_: The life after doomsday.
 _Thy Science_: To Aristotle. In the _Convito_, iv. 16, he quotes
 _Than now_: Augustine says that 'after the resurrection of the
Plutus began in accents rough and hard:
And that mild Sage, all-knowing, said to me,
For my encouragement: 'Pay no regard
Unto thy fear; whatever power he sways
Thy passage down this cliff shall not be barred.'
Then turning round to that inflamed face
He bade: 'Accursed wolf, at peace remain;
And, pent within thee, let thy fury blaze.
Down to the pit we journey not in vain:
So rule they where by Michael in Heaven's height
On the adulterous pride was vengeance ta'en.'
Then as the bellied sails, by wind swelled tight,
Suddenly drag whenever snaps the mast;
Such, falling to the ground, the monster's plight.
To the Fourth Cavern so we downward passed,
Winning new reaches of the doleful shore
Where all the vileness of the world is cast.
Justice of God! which pilest more and more
Pain as I saw, and travail manifold!
Why will we sin, to be thus wasted sore?
As at Charybdis waves are forward rolled
To break on other billows midway met,
The people here a counterdance must hold.
A greater crowd than I had seen as yet,
With piercing yells advanced on either track,
Rolling great stones to which their chests were set.
They crashed together, and then each turned back
Upon the way he came, while shouts arise,
'Why clutch it so?' and 'Why to hold it slack?'
In the dark circle wheeled they on this wise
From either hand to the opposing part,
Where evermore they raised insulting cries.
Thither arrived, each, turning, made fresh start
Through the half circle a new joust to run;
And I, stung almost to the very heart,
Said, 'O my Master, wilt thou make it known
Who the folk are? Were these all clerks who go
Before us on the left, with shaven crown?'
And he replied: 'All of them squinted so
In mental vision while in life they were,
They nothing spent by rule. And this they show,
And with their yelping voices make appear
When half-way round the circle they have sped,
And sins opposing them asunder tear.
Each wanting thatch of hair upon his head
Was once a clerk, or pope, or cardinal,
In whom abound the ripest growths of greed.'
And I: 'O Master, surely among all
Of these I ought some few to recognise,
Who by such filthy sins were held in thrall.'
And he to me: 'Vain thoughts within thee rise;
Their witless life, which made them vile, now mocks--
Dimming their faces still--all searching eyes.
Eternally they meet with hostile shocks;
These rising from the tomb at last shall stand
With tight clenched fists, and those with ruined locks.
Squandering or hoarding, they the happy land
Have lost, and now are marshalled for this fray;
Which to describe doth no fine words demand.
Know hence, my Son, how fleeting is the play
Of goods at the dispose of Fortune thrown,
And which mankind to such fierce strife betray.
Not all the gold which is beneath the moon
Could purchase peace, nor all that ever was,
To but one soul of these by toil undone.'
'Master,' I said, 'tell thou, ere making pause,
Who Fortune is of whom thou speak'st askance,
Who holds all worldly riches in her claws.'
'O foolish creatures, lost in ignorance!'
He answer made. 'Now see that the reply
Thou store, which I concerning her advance.
He who in knowledge is exalted high,
Framing all Heavens gave such as should them guide,
That so each part might shine to all; whereby
Is equal light diffused on every side:
And likewise to one guide and governor,
Of worldly splendours did control confide,
That she in turns should different peoples dower
With this vain good; from blood should make it pass
To blood, in spite of human wit. Hence, power,
Some races failing, other some amass,
According to her absolute decree
Which hidden lurks, like serpent in the grass.
Vain 'gainst her foresight yours must ever be.
She makes provision, judges, holds her reign,
As doth his power supreme each deity.
Her permutations can no truce sustain;
Necessity compels her to be swift,
So swift they follow who their turn must gain.
And this is she whom they so often lift
Upon the cross, who ought to yield her praise;
And blame on her and scorn unjustly shift.
But she is blest nor hears what any says,
With other primal creatures turns her sphere,
Jocund and glad, rejoicing in her ways.
To greater woe now let us downward steer.
The stars which rose when I began to guide
Are falling now, nor may we linger here.'
We crossed the circle to the other side,
Arriving where a boiling fountain fell
Into a brooklet by its streams supplied.
In depth of hue the flood did perse excel,
And we, with this dim stream to lead us on,
Descended by a pathway terrible.
A marsh which by the name of Styx is known,
Fed by this gloomy brook, lies at the base
Of threatening cliffs hewn out of cold grey stone.
And I, intent on study of the place,
Saw people in that ditch, mud-smeared. In it
All naked stood with anger-clouded face.
Nor with their fists alone each fiercely hit
The other, but with feet and chest and head,
And with their teeth to shreds each other bit.
'Son, now behold,' the worthy Master said,
'The souls of those whom anger made a prize;
And, further, I would have thee certified
That 'neath the water people utter sighs,
And make the bubbles to the surface come;
As thou mayst see by casting round thine eyes.
Fixed in the mud they say: "We lived in gloom
In the sweet air made jocund by the day,
Nursing within us melancholy fume.
In this black mud we now our gloom display."
This hymn with gurgling throats they strive to sound,
Which they in speech unbroken fail to say.'
And thus about the loathsome pool we wound
For a wide arc, between the dry and soft,
With eyes on those who gulp the filth, turned round.
At last we reached a tower that soared aloft.
 _Pape, etc._: These words have exercised the ingenuity of many
 _Wolf_: Frequently used by Dante as symbolical of greed.
 _Pride_: Which in its way was a kind of greed--that of dominion.
 _The half circle_: This Fourth Circle is divided half-way round
 _Clerks_: Churchmen. The tonsure is the sign that a man is of
ecclesiastical condition. Many took the tonsure who never became
priests.
 _I ought, etc._: Dante is astonished that he can pick out no
 _Dimming, etc._: Their original disposition is by this time
 _The happy land_: Heaven.
 _Her claws_: Dante speaks of Fortune as if she were a brutal and
 _Some races failing_: It was long believed, nor is the belief
 _Necessity, etc._: Suggested, perhaps, by Horace's _Te semper
 _Whom they so often, etc._: Treat with contumely.
 _The stars, etc._: It is now past midnight, and towards the
 _Perse_: 'Perse is a colour between purple and black, but the
 _In gloom_: These submerged spirits are, according to the older
I say, continuing, that long before
To its foundations we approached nigh
Our eyes went travelling to the top of the tower;
For, hung out there, two flames we could espy.
Then at such distance, scarce our eyesight made
It clearly out, another gave reply.
And, to the Sea of Knowledge turned, I said:
'What meaneth this? and what reply would yield
That other light, and who have it displayed?'
'Thou shouldst upon the impure watery field,'
He said, 'already what approaches know,
But that the fen-fog holds it still concealed.'
Never was arrow yet from sharp-drawn bow
Urged through the air upon a swifter flight
Than what I saw a tiny vessel show,
Across the water shooting into sight;
A single pilot served it for a crew,
Who shouted: 'Art thou come, thou guilty sprite?'
'O Phlegyas, Phlegyas, this thy loud halloo!
For once,' my Lord said, 'idle is and vain.
Thou hast us only till the mud we're through.'
And, as one cheated inly smarts with pain
When the deceit wrought on him is betrayed,
His gathering ire could Phlegyas scarce contain.
Into the bark my Leader stepped, and made
Me take my place beside him; nor a jot,
Till I had entered, was it downward weighed.
Soon as my Guide and I were in the boat,
To cleave the flood began the ancient prow,
Deeper than 'tis with others wont to float.
Then, as the stagnant ditch we glided through,
One smeared with filth in front of me arose
And said: 'Thus coming ere thy period, who
Art thou?' And I: 'As one who forthwith goes
I come; but thou defiled, how name they thee?'
'I am but one who weeps,' he said. 'With woes,'
I answered him, 'with tears and misery,
Accursed soul, remain; for thou art known
Unto me now, all filthy though thou be.'
Then both his hands were on the vessel thrown;
But him my wary Master backward heaved,
Saying: 'Do thou 'mong the other dogs be gone!'
Then to my neck with both his arms he cleaved,
And kissed my face, and, 'Soul disdainful,' said,
'O blessed she in whom thou wast conceived!
He in the world great haughtiness displayed.
No deeds of worth his memory adorn;
And therefore rages here his sinful shade.
And many are there by whom crowns are worn
On earth, shall wallow here like swine in mire,
Leaving behind them names o'erwhelmed in scorn.'
And I: 'O Master, I have great desire
To see him well soused in this filthy tide,
Ere from the lake we finally retire.'
And he: 'Or ever shall have been descried
The shore by thee, thy longing shall be met;
For such a wish were justly gratified.'
A little after in such fierce onset
The miry people down upon him bore,
I praise and bless God for it even yet.
'Philip Argenti! at him!' was the roar;
And then that furious spirit Florentine
Turned with his teeth upon himself and tore.
Here was he left, nor wins more words of mine.
Now in my ears a lamentation rung,
Whence I to search what lies ahead begin.
And the good Master told me: 'Son, ere long
We to the city called of Dis draw near,
Where in great armies cruel burghers throng.'
And I: 'Already, Master, I appear
Mosques in the valley to distinguish well,
Vermilion, as if they from furnace were
Fresh come.' And he: 'Fires everlasting dwell
Within them, whence appear they glowing hot,
As thou discernest in this lower hell.'
We to the moat profound at length were brought,
Which girds that city all disconsolate;
The walls around it seemed of iron wrought.
Not without fetching first a compass great,
We came to where with angry cry at last:
'Get out,' the boatman yelled; 'behold the gate!'
More than a thousand, who from Heaven were cast,
I saw above the gates, who furiously
Demanded: 'Who, ere death on him has passed,
Holds through the region of the dead his way?'
And my wise Master made to them a sign
That he had something secretly to say.
Then ceased they somewhat from their great disdain,
And said: 'Come thou, but let that one be gone
Who thus presumptuous enters on this reign.
Let him retrace his madcap way alone,
If he but can; thou meanwhile lingering here,
Through such dark regions who hast led him down.'
Judge, reader, if I was not filled with fear,
Hearing the words of this accursed threat;
For of return my hopes extinguished were.
'Beloved Guide, who more than seven times set
Me in security, and safely brought
Through frightful dangers in my progress met,
Leave me not thus undone;' I him besought:
'If further progress be to us denied,
Let us retreat together, tarrying not.'
The Lord who led me thither then replied:
'Fear not: by One so great has been assigned
Our passage, vainly were all hindrance tried.
Await me here, and let thy fainting mind
Be comforted and with good hope be fed,
Not to be left in this low world behind.'
Thus goes he, thus am I abandoned
By my sweet Father. I in doubt remain,
With Yes and No contending in my head.
I could not hear what speech he did maintain,
But no long time conferred he in that place,
Till, to be first, all inward raced again.
And then the gates were closed in my Lord's face
By these our enemies; outside stood he;
Then backward turned to me with lingering pace,
With downcast eyes, and all the bravery
Stripped from his brows; and he exclaimed with sighs;
'Who dare deny the doleful seats to me!'
And then he said: 'Although my wrath arise,
Fear not, for I to victory will pursue,
Howe'er within they plot, the enterprise.
This arrogance of theirs is nothing new;
They showed it once at a less secret door
Which stands unbolted since. Thou didst it view,
And saw the dark-writ legend which it bore.
Thence, even now, is one who hastens down
Through all the circles, guideless, to this shore,
And he shall win us entrance to the town.'
 _Continuing_: The account of the Fifth Circle, begun in the
preceding Canto, is continued in this. It is impossible to adopt
 _Two flames_: Denoting the number of passengers who are to be
 _Phlegyas_: Who burnt the temple of Apollo at Delphi in revenge
for the violation of his daughter by the god.
 _Deeper, etc._: Because used to carry only shades.
 _Ere thy period_: The curiosity of the shade is excited by the
 _Names o'erwhelmed, etc._: 'Horrible reproaches.'
 _Philip Argenti_: A Florentine gentleman related to the great
 _Dis_: A name of Pluto, the god of the infernal regions.
 _Burghers_: The city of Dis composes the Sixth Circle, and, as
 _Mosques_: The feature of an Infidel city that first struck
crusader and pilgrim.
 _The gate_: They have floated across the stagnant marsh into the
 _From Heaven_: 'Rained from Heaven.' Fallen angels.
 _Seven times_: Given as a round number.
 _Who dare, etc._: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary,
The hue which cowardice on my face did paint
When I beheld my guide return again,
Put his new colour quicker 'neath restraint.
Like one who listens did he fixed remain;
For far to penetrate the air like night,
And heavy mist, the eye was bent in vain.
'Yet surely we must vanquish in the fight;'
Thus he, 'unless--but with such proffered aid--
O how I weary till he come in sight!'
Well I remarked how he transition made,
Covering his opening words with those behind,
Which contradicted what at first he said.
Nath'less his speech with terror charged my mind,
For, haply, to the word which broken fell
Worse meaning than he purposed, I assigned.
Down to this bottom of the dismal shell
Comes ever any from the First Degree,
Where all their pain is, stripped of hope to dwell?
To this my question thus responded he:
'Seldom it haps to any to pursue
The journey now embarked upon by me.
Yet I ere this descended, it is true,
Beneath a spell of dire Erichtho's laid,
Who could the corpse with soul inform anew.
Short while my flesh of me was empty made
When she required me to o'erpass that wall,
From Judas' circle to abstract a shade.
That is the deepest, darkest place of all,
And furthest from the heaven which moves the skies;
I know the way; fear nought that can befall.
These fens from which vile exhalations rise
The doleful city all around invest,
Which now we reach not save in angry wise.'
Of more he spake nought in my mind doth rest,
For, with mine eyes, my every thought had been
Fixed on the lofty tower with flaming crest,
Where, in a moment and upright, were seen
Three hellish furies, all with blood defaced,
And woman-like in members and in mien.
Hydras of brilliant green begirt their waist;
Snakes and cerastes for their tresses grew,
And these were round their dreadful temples braced.
That they the drudges were, full well he knew,
Of her who is the queen of endless woes,
And said to me: 'The fierce Erynnyes view!
Herself upon the left Megaera shows;
That is Alecto weeping on the right;
Tisiphone's between.' Here made he close.
Each with her nails her breast tore, and did smite
Herself with open palms. They screamed in tone
So fierce, I to the Poet clove for fright.
'Medusa, come, that we may make him stone!'
All shouted as they downward gazed; 'Alack!
Theseus escaped us when he ventured down.'
'Keep thine eyes closed and turn to them thy back,
For if the Gorgon chance to be displayed
And thou shouldst look, farewell the upward track!'
Thus spake the Master, and himself he swayed
Me round about; nor put he trust in mine
But his own hands upon mine eyelids laid.
O ye with judgment gifted to divine
Look closely now, and mark what hidden lore
Lies 'neath the veil of my mysterious line!
Across the turbid waters came a roar
And crash of sound, which big with fear arose:
Because of it fell trembling either shore.
The fashion of it was as when there blows
A blast by cross heats made to rage amain,
Which smites the forest and without repose
The shattered branches sweeps in hurricane;
In clouds of dust, majestic, onward flies,
Wild beasts and herdsmen driving o'er the plain.
'Sharpen thy gaze,' he bade--and freed mine eyes--
'Across the foam-flecked immemorial lake,
Where sourest vapour most unbroken lies.'
And as the frogs before the hostile snake
Together of the water get them clear,
And on the dry ground, huddling, shelter take;
More than a thousand ruined souls in fear
Beheld I flee from one who, dry of feet,
Was by the Stygian ferry drawing near.
Waving his left hand he the vapour beat
Swiftly from 'fore his face, nor seemed he spent
Save with fatigue at having this to meet.
Well I opined that he from Heaven was sent,
And to my Master turned. His gesture taught
Ah me, how with disdain appeared he fraught!
He reached the gate, which, touching with a rod,
He oped with ease, for it resisted not.
'People despised and banished far from God,'
Upon the awful threshold then he spoke,
'How holds in you such insolence abode?
Why kick against that will which never broke
Short of its end, if ever it begin,
And often for you fiercer torments woke?
Butting 'gainst fate, what can ye hope to win?
Your Cerberus, as is to you well known,
Still bears for this a well-peeled throat and chin.'
Then by the passage foul he back was gone,
Nor spake to us, but like a man was he
By other cares absorbed and driven on
Than that of those who may around him be.
And we, confiding in the sacred word,
Moved toward the town in all security.
We entered without hindrance, and I, spurred
By my desire the character to know
And style of place such strong defences gird,
Entering, begin mine eyes around to throw,
And see on every hand a vast champaign,
The teeming seat of torments and of woe.
And as at Arles where Rhone spreads o'er the plain,
Or Pola, hard upon Quarnaro sound
Which bathes the boundaries Italian,
The sepulchres uneven make the ground;
So here on every side, but far more dire
And grievous was the fashion of them found.
For scattered 'mid the tombs blazed many a fire,
Because of which these with such fervour burned
No arts which work in iron more require.
All of the lids were lifted. I discerned
By keen laments which from the tombs arose
That sad and suffering ones were there inurned.
I said: 'O Master, tell me who are those
Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs
Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?'
And he to me: 'The lords of heresies
With followers of all sects, a greater band
Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise.
To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned.
The sepulchres have more or less of heat.'
Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,
'Tween torments and the lofty parapet.
 _Unless_: To conceal his misgiving from Dante, Virgil refrains
 _This bottom_: The lower depths of Inferno. How much still lies
below him is unknown to Dante.
 _First Degree_: The limbo where Virgil resides. Dante by an
 _Erichtho_: A Thessalian sorceress, of whom Lucan (_Pharsalia_
 _The heaven, etc._: The _Primum Mobile_; but used here for the
 _These fens, etc._: Virgil knows the locality. They have no
 _Erynnyes_: The Furies. The Queen of whom they are handmaids is
Proserpine, carried off by Dis, or Pluto, to the under world.
 _Theseus_: Who descended into the infernal regions to rescue
Proserpine, and escaped by the help of Hercules.
 _Mysterious line_: 'Strange verses:' That the verses are called
 _A rod_: A piece of the angelic outfit, derived from the
_caduceus_ of Mercury.
 _Cerberus_: Hercules, when Cerberus opposed his entrance to the
 _Arles_: The Alyscampo (Elysian Fields) at Arles was an enormous
 _Pola_: In Istria, near the Gulf of Quarnaro, said to have
contained many ancient tombs.
And now advance we by a narrow track
Between the torments and the ramparts high,
My Master first, and I behind his back.
'O mighty Virtue, at whose will am I
Wheeled through these impious circles,' then I said,
'Speak, and in full my longing satisfy.
The people who within the tombs are laid,
May they be seen? The coverings are all thrown
Open, nor is there any guard displayed.'
And he to me: 'All shall be fastened down
When hither from Jehoshaphat they come
Again in bodies which were once their own.
All here with Epicurus find their tomb
Who are his followers, and by whom 'tis held
That the soul shares the body's mortal doom.
Things here discovered then shall answer yield,
And quickly, to thy question asked of me;
As well as to the wish thou hast concealed.'
And I: 'Good Leader, if I hide from thee
My heart, it is that I may little say;
'O Tuscan, who, still living, mak'st thy way,
Modest of speech, through the abode of flame,
Be pleased a little in this place to stay.
The accents of thy language thee proclaim
To be a native of that state renowned
Which I, perchance, wronged somewhat.' Sudden came
These words from out a tomb which there was found
'Mongst others; whereon I, compelled by fright,
A little toward my Leader shifted ground.
And he: 'Turn round, what ails thee? Lo! upright
Beginneth Farinata to arise;
All of him 'bove the girdle comes in sight.'
On him already had I fixed mine eyes.
Towering erect with lifted front and chest,
He seemed Inferno greatly to despise.
And toward him I among the tombs was pressed
By my Guide's nimble and courageous hand,
While he, 'Choose well thy language,' gave behest.
Beneath his tomb when I had ta'en my stand
Regarding me a moment, 'Of what house
Art thou?' as if in scorn, he made demand.
To show myself obedient, anxious,
I nothing hid, but told my ancestors;
And, listening, he gently raised his brows.
'Fiercely to me they proved themselves adverse,
And to my sires and party,' then he said;
'Because of which I did them twice disperse.'
I answered him: 'And what although they fled!
Twice from all quarters they returned with might,
An art not mastered yet by these you led.'
Beside him then there issued into sight
Another shade, uncovered to the chin,
Propped on his knees, if I surmised aright.
He peered around as if he fain would win
Knowledge if any other was with me;
And then, his hope all spent, did thus begin,
Weeping: 'By dint of genius if it be
Thou visit'st this dark prison, where my son?
And wherefore not found in thy company?'
And I to him: 'I come not here alone:
He waiting yonder guides me: but disdain
Of him perchance was by your Guido shown.'
The words he used, and manner of his pain,
Revealed his name to me beyond surmise;
Hence was I able thus to answer plain.
Then cried he, and at once upright did rise,
'How saidst thou--was? Breathes he not then the air?
The pleasant light no longer smites his eyes?'
When he of hesitation was aware
Displayed by me in forming my reply,
He fell supine, no more to reappear.
But the magnanimous, at whose bidding I
Had halted there, the same expression wore,
Nor budged a jot, nor turned his neck awry.
'And if'--resumed he where he paused before--
'They be indeed but slow that art to learn,
Than this my bed, to hear it pains me more.
But ere the fiftieth time anew shall burn
The lady's face who reigneth here below,
Of that sore art thou shalt experience earn.
And as to the sweet world again thou'dst go,
Tell me, why is that people so without
Ruth for my race, as all their statutes show?'
And I to him: 'The slaughter and the rout
Which made the Arbia to run with red,
Cause in our fane such prayers to be poured out.'
Whereon he heaved a sigh and shook his head:
'There I was not alone, nor to embrace
That cause was I, without good reason, led.
But there I was alone, when from her place
All granted Florence should be swept away.
'Twas I defended her with open face.'
'So may your seed find peace some better day,'
I urged him, 'as this knot you shall untie
In which my judgment doth entangled stay.
If I hear rightly, ye, it seems, descry
Beforehand what time brings, and yet ye seem
'Neath other laws as touching what is nigh.'
'Like those who see best what is far from them,
We see things,' said he, 'which afar remain;
Thus much enlightened by the Guide Supreme.
To know them present or approaching, vain
Are all our powers; and save what they relate
Who hither come, of earth no news we gain.
Hence mayst thou gather in how dead a state
Shall all our knowledge from that time be thrown
When of the future shall be closed the gate.'
Then, for my fault as if repentant grown,
I said: 'Report to him who fell supine,
That still among the living breathes his son.
Tell him it was that I upon the knot
Was pondering then, you helped me to untwine.'
Me now my Master called, whence I besought
With more than former sharpness of the shade,
To tell me what companions he had got.
He answered me: 'Some thousand here are laid
With me; 'mong these the Second Frederick,
The Cardinal too; of others nought be said.'
Then was he hid; and towards the Bard antique
I turned my steps, revolving in my brain
The ominous words which I had heard him speak.
He moved, and as we onward went again
Demanded of me: 'Wherefore thus amazed?'
And to his question I made answer plain.
'Within thy mind let there be surely placed,'
The Sage bade, 'what 'gainst thee thou heardest say.
Now mark me well' (his finger here he raised),
'When thou shalt stand within her gentle ray
Whose beauteous eye sees all, she will make known
The stages of thy journey on life's way.'
Turning his feet, he to the left moved on;
Leaving the wall, we to the middle went
Upon a path that to a vale strikes down,
Which even to us above its foulness sent.
 _Nor is there, etc._: The gate was found to be strictly guarded,
 _Jehoshaphat_: 'I will also gather all nations, and will bring
them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat' (Joel iii. 2).
 _Epicurus_: The unbelief in a future life, or rather the
indifference to everything but the calls of ambition and worldly
 _Nor only now, etc._: Virgil has on previous occasions imposed
silence on Dante, as, for instance, at _Inf._ iii. 51.
 _His brows_: When Dante tells he is of the Alighieri, a Guelf
family, Farinata shows some slight displeasure. Or, as a modern
 _You_: See also line 95. Dante never uses the plural form to a
 _Guido_: Farinata's companion in the tomb is Cavalcante
 _The Lady_: Proserpine; _i.e._ the moon. Ere fifty months from
 _Our fane_: The Parliament of the people used to meet in Santa
 _The Cardinal_: Ottaviano, of the powerful Tuscan family of the
 _Ominous words_: Those in which Farinata foretold Dante's exile.
 _The stages, etc._: It is Cacciaguida, his ancestor, who in
Paradise instructs Dante in what his future life is to be--one of
 _To the middle_: Turning to the left they cut across the circle
We at the margin of a lofty steep
Made of great shattered stones in circle bent,
Arrived where worser torments crowd the deep.
So horrible a stench and violent
Was upward wafted from the vast abyss,
Behind the cover we for shelter went
Of a great tomb where I saw written this:
'Pope Anastasius is within me thrust,
Whom the straight way Photinus made to miss.'
'Now on our course a while we linger must,'
The Master said, 'be but our sense resigned
A little to it, and the filthy gust
We shall not heed.' Then I: 'Do thou but find
Some compensation lest our time should run
Wasted.' And he: 'Behold, 'twas in my mind.
Girt by the rocks before us, O my son,
Lie three small circles,' he began to tell,
'Graded like those with which thou now hast done,
All of them filled with spirits miserable.
That sight of them may thee henceforth suffice.
Hear how and wherefore in these groups they dwell.
Whate'er in Heaven's abhorred as wickedness
Has injury for its end; in others' bane
By fraud resulting or in violent wise.
Since fraud to man alone doth appertain,
God hates it most; and hence the fraudulent band,
Set lowest down, endure a fiercer pain.
Of the violent is the circle next at hand
To us; and since three ways is violence shown,
'Tis in three several circuits built and planned.
To God, ourselves, or neighbours may be done
Violence, or on the things by them possessed;
As reasoning clear shall unto thee make known.
Our neighbour may by violence be distressed
With grievous wounds, or slain; his goods and lands
By havoc, fire, and plunder be oppressed.
Hence those who wound and slay with violent hands,
Robbers, and spoilers, in the nearest round
Are all tormented in their various bands.
Violent against himself may man be found,
And 'gainst his goods; therefore without avail
They in the next are in repentance drowned
Who on themselves loss of your world entail,
Who gamble and their substance madly spend,
And who when called to joy lament and wail.
And even to God may violence extend
By heart denial and by blasphemy,
Scorning what nature doth in bounty lend.
Sodom and Cahors hence are doomed to lie
Within the narrowest circlet surely sealed;
And such as God within their hearts defy.
Fraud, 'gainst whose bite no conscience findeth shield,
A man may use with one who in him lays
Trust, or with those who no such credence yield.
Beneath this latter kind of it decays
The bond of love which out of nature grew;
Hence, in the second circle herd the race
To feigning given and flattery, who pursue
Magic, false coining, theft, and simony,
Pimps, barrators, and suchlike residue.
The other form of fraud makes nullity
Of natural bonds; and, what is more than those,
The special trust whence men on men rely.
Hence in the place whereon all things repose,
The narrowest circle and the seat of Dis,
Each traitor's gulfed in everlasting woes.'
'Thy explanation, Master, as to this
Is clear,' I said, 'and thou hast plainly told
Who are the people stowed in the abyss.
But tell why those the muddy marshes hold,
The tempest-driven, those beaten by the rain,
And such as, meeting, virulently scold,
Are not within the crimson city ta'en
For punishment, if hateful unto God;
And, if not hateful, wherefore doomed to pain?'
And he to me: 'Why wander thus abroad,
More than is wont, thy wits? or how engrossed
Is now thy mind, and on what things bestowed?
Hast thou the memory of the passage lost
In which thy Ethics for their subject treat
Of the three moods by Heaven abhorred the most--
Malice and bestiality complete;
And how, compared with these, incontinence
Offends God less, and lesser blame doth meet?
If of this doctrine thou extract the sense,
And call to memory what people are
Above, outside, in endless penitence,
Why from these guilty they are sundered far
Thou shalt discern, and why on them alight
The strokes of justice in less angry war.'
'O Sun that clearest every troubled sight,
So charmed am I by thy resolving speech,
Doubt yields me joy no less than knowing right.
Therefore, I pray, a little backward reach,'
I asked, 'to where thou say'st that usury
Sins 'gainst God's bounty; and this mystery teach.'
He said: 'Who gives ear to Philosophy
Is taught by her, nor in one place alone,
What nature in her course is governed by,
Even Mind Divine, and art which thence hath grown;
And if thy Physics thou wilt search within,
Thou'lt find ere many leaves are open thrown,
This art by yours, far as your art can win,
Is followed close--the teacher by the taught;
As grandchild then to God your art is kin.
And from these two--do thou recall to thought
How Genesis begins--should come supplies
Of food for man, and other wealth be sought.
And, since another plan the usurer plies,
Nature and nature's child have his disdain;
Because on other ground his hope relies.
But come, for to advance I now am fain:
The Fishes over the horizon line
Quiver; o'er Caurus now stands all the Wain;
And further yonder does the cliff decline.'
 _Pope Anastasius_: The second of the name, elected Pope in 496.
 _Three small circles_: The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth; small in
 _Who gamble, etc._: A different sin from the lavish spending
 _Fraud, etc._: Fraud is of such a nature that conscience never
 _The second circle_: The second now beneath them; that is, the
 _Seat of Dis_: The Ninth and last Circle.
 _Physics_: The Physics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'Art
imitates nature.' Art includes handicrafts.
 _Genesis_: 'And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the
 _His disdain_: The usurer seeks to get wealth independently of
The place of our descent before us lay
Precipitous, and there was something more
From sight of which all eyes had turned away.
As at the ruin which upon the shore
Of Adige fell upon this side of Trent--
Through earthquake or by slip of what before
Upheld it--from the summit whence it went
Far as the plain, the shattered rocks supply
Some sort of foothold to who makes descent;
Such was the passage down the precipice high.
And on the riven gully's very brow
Lay spread at large the Cretan Infamy
Which was conceived in the pretended cow.
Us when he saw, he bit himself for rage
Like one whose anger gnaws him through and through.
'Perhaps thou deemest,' called to him the Sage,
'This is the Duke of Athens drawing nigh,
Who war to the death with thee on earth did wage.
Begone, thou brute, for this one passing by
Untutored by thy sister has thee found,
And only comes thy sufferings to spy,'
And as the bull which snaps what held it bound
On being smitten by the fatal blow,
Halts in its course, and reels upon the ground,
The Minotaur I saw reel to and fro;
And he, the alert, cried: 'To the passage haste;
While yet he chafes 'twere well thou down shouldst go.'
So we descended by the slippery waste
Of shivered stones which many a time gave way
'Neath the new weight my feet upon them placed.
I musing went; and he began to say:
'Perchance this ruined slope thou thinkest on,
Watched by the brute rage I did now allay.
But I would have thee know, when I came down
The former time into this lower Hell,
The cliff had not this ruin undergone.
It was not long, if I distinguish well,
Ere He appeared who wrenched great prey from Dis
From out the upmost circle. Trembling fell
Through all its parts the nauseous abyss
With such a violence, the world, I thought,
Was stirred by love; for, as they say, by this
She back to Chaos has been often brought.
And then it was this ancient rampart strong
Was shattered here and at another spot.
But toward the valley look. We come ere long
Down to the river of blood where boiling lie
All who by violence work others wrong.'
By which in our brief life we are so spurred,
Ere downward plunged in evil case for aye!
An ample ditch I now beheld engird
And sweep in circle all around the plain,
As from my Escort I had lately heard.
Between this and the rock in single train
Centaurs were running who were armed with bows,
As if they hunted on the earth again.
Observing us descend they all stood close,
Save three of them who parted from the band
With bow, and arrows they in coming chose.
'What torment,' from afar one made demand,
'Come ye to share, who now descend the hill?
I shoot unless ye answer whence ye stand.'
My Master said: 'We yield no answer till
We come to Chiron standing at thy side;
But thy quick temper always served thee ill.'
Then touching me: ''Tis Nessus; he who died
With love for beauteous Dejanire possessed,
And who himself his own vendetta plied.
He in the middle, staring on his breast,
Is mighty Chiron, who Achilles bred;
And next the wrathful Pholus. They invest
The fosse and in their thousands round it tread,
Shooting whoever from the blood shall lift,
More than his crime allows, his guilty head.'
As we moved nearer to those creatures swift
Chiron drew forth a shaft and dressed his beard
Back on his jaws, using the arrow's cleft.
And when his ample mouth of hair was cleared,
He said to his companions: 'Have ye seen
The things the second touches straight are stirred,
As they by feet of shades could ne'er have been?'
And my good Guide, who to his breast had gone--
The part where join the natures, 'Well I ween
He lives,' made answer; 'and if, thus alone,
He seeks the valley dim 'neath my control,
Necessity, not pleasure, leads him on.
One came from where the alleluiahs roll,
Who charged me with this office strange and new:
No robber he, nor mine a felon soul.
But, by that Power which makes me to pursue
The rugged journey whereupon I fare,
Accord us one of thine to keep in view,
That he may show where lies the ford, and bear
This other on his back to yonder strand;
No spirit he, that he should cleave the air.'
Wheeled to the right then Chiron gave command
To Nessus: 'Turn, and lead them, and take tent
They be not touched by any other band.'
We with our trusty Escort forward went,
Threading the margin of the boiling blood
Where they who seethed were raising loud lament.
People I saw up to the chin imbrued,
'These all are tyrants,' the great Centaur said,
'Who blood and plunder for their trade pursued.
Here for their pitiless deeds tears now are shed
By Alexander, and Dionysius fell,
Through whom in Sicily dolorous years were led.
The forehead with black hair so terrible
Is Ezzelino; that one blond of hue,
Obizzo d'Este, whom, as rumours tell,
His stepson murdered, and report speaks true.'
I to the Poet turned, who gave command:
'Regard thou chiefly him. I follow you.'
Ere long the Centaur halted on the strand,
Close to a people who, far as the throat,
Forth of that bulicame seemed to stand.
Thence a lone shade to us he pointed out
Saying: 'In God's house ran he weapon through
The heart which still on Thames wins cult devout.'
Then I saw people, some with heads in view,
And some their chests above the river bore;
And many of them I, beholding, knew.
And thus the blood went dwindling more and more,
Until at last it covered but the feet:
Here took we passage to the other shore.
'As on this hand thou seest still abate
In depth the volume of the boiling stream,'
The Centaur said, 'so grows its depth more great,
Believe me, towards the opposite extreme,
Until again its circling course attains
The place where tyrants must lament. Supreme
Justice upon that side involves in pains,
With Attila, once of the world the pest,
Pyrrhus and Sextus: and for ever drains
Tears out of Rinier of Corneto pressed
And Rinier Pazzo in that boiling mass,
Whose brigandage did so the roads infest.'
Then turned he back alone, the ford to pass.
 _Our descent_: To the Seventh Circle.
 _The Cretan Infamy_: The Minotaur, the offspring of Pasiphae; a
 _Duke of Athens_: Theseus, instructed by Ariadne, daughter of
 _The slippery waste_: The word used here, _scarco_, means in
 _The new weight_: The slope had never before been trodden by
mortal foot.
 _Another spot_: See _Inf._ xxi. 112. The earthquake at the
Crucifixion shook even Inferno to its base.
 _The river of blood_: Phlegethon, the 'boiling river.' Styx and
 _Centaurs_: As this round is the abode of such as are guilty of
violence against their neighbours, it is guarded by these brutal
monsters, half-man and half-horse.
 _Chiron_: Called the most just of the Centaurs.
 _Nessus_: Slain by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. When dying he
 The natures: The part of the Centaur where the equine body is
joined on to the human neck and head.
 _Other band_: Of Centaurs.
 _Alexander_: It is not known whether Alexander the Great or a
 _That bulicame_: The stream of boiling blood is probably named
 _In God's house_: Literally, 'In the bosom of God.' The shade is
 _Here took we passage_: Dante on Nessus' back. Virgil has fallen
 _Pyrrhus_: King of Epirus. _Sextus_: Son of Pompey; a great
 _Rinier of Corneto_: Who in Dante's time disturbed the coast of
the States of the Church by his robberies and violence.
 _Rinier Pazzo_: Of the great family of the Pazzi of Val d'Arno,
was excommunicated in 1269 for robbing ecclesiastics.
Ere Nessus landed on the other shore
We for our part within a forest drew,
Which of no pathway any traces bore.
Not green the foliage, but of dusky hue;
Not smooth the boughs, but gnarled and twisted round;
For apples, poisonous thorns upon them grew.
No rougher brakes or matted worse are found
Where savage beasts betwixt Corneto roam
And Cecina, abhorring cultured ground.
The loathsome Harpies nestle here at home,
Who from the Strophades the Trojans chased
With dire predictions of a woe to come.
Great winged are they, but human necked and faced,
With feathered belly, and with claw for toe;
They shriek upon the bushes wild and waste.
'Ere passing further, I would have thee know,'
The worthy Master thus began to say,
'Thou'rt in the second round, nor hence shalt go
Till by the horrid sand thy footsteps stay.
Give then good heed, and things thou'lt recognise
That of my words will prove the verity.'
Wailings on every side I heard arise:
Of who might raise them I distinguished nought;
Whereon I halted, smitten with surprise.
I think he thought that haply 'twas my thought
The voices came from people 'mong the trees,
Who, to escape us, hiding-places sought;
Wherefore the Master said: 'From one of these
Snap thou a twig, and thou shalt understand
How little with thy thought the fact agrees.'
Thereon a little I stretched forth my hand
And plucked a tiny branch from a great thorn.
'Why dost thou tear me?' made the trunk demand.
When dark with blood it had begun to turn,
It cried a second time: 'Why wound me thus?
Doth not a spark of pity in thee burn?
Though trees we be, once men were all of us;
Yet had our souls the souls of serpents been
Thy hand might well have proved more piteous.'
At one extremity, the other sighs,
And wind, escaping, hisses; so was seen,
At where the branch was broken, blood to rise
And words were mixed with it. I dropped the spray
And stood like one whom terror doth surprise.
The Sage replied: 'Soul vexed with injury,
Had he been only able to give trust
To what he read narrated in my lay,
His hand toward thee would never have been thrust.
'Tis hard for faith; and I, to make it plain,
Urged him to trial, mourn it though I must.
But tell him who thou wast; so shall remain
This for amends to thee, thy fame shall blow
Afresh on earth, where he returns again.'
And then the trunk: 'Thy sweet words charm me so,
If I some pains upon my speech bestow.
For I am he who held both keys in ward
Of Frederick's heart, and turned them how I would,
And softly oped it, and as softly barred,
Till scarce another in his counsel stood.
To my high office I such loyalty bore,
It cost me sleep and haleness of my blood.
The harlot who removeth nevermore
From Caesar's house eyes ignorant of shame--
A common curse, of courts the special sore--
Set against me the minds of all aflame,
And these in turn Augustus set on fire,
Till my glad honours bitter woes became.
My soul, filled full with a disdainful ire,
Thinking by means of death disdain to flee,
'Gainst my just self unjustly did conspire.
I swear even by the new roots of this tree
My fealty to my lord I never broke,
For worthy of all honour sure was he.
If one of you return 'mong living folk,
Let him restore my memory, overthrown
And suffering yet because of envy's stroke.'
Still for a while the poet listened on,
But make request if more thou'dst have made known.'
And I replied: 'Do thou inquire once more
Of what thou thinkest I would gladly know;
I cannot ask; ruth wrings me to the core.'
On this he spake: 'Even as the man shall do,
And liberally, what thou of him hast prayed,
Imprisoned spirit, do thou further show
How with these knots the spirits have been made
Incorporate; and, if thou canst, declare
If from such members e'er is loosed a shade.'
Then from the trunk came vehement puffs of air;
Next, to these words converted was the wind:
'My answer to you shall be short and clear.
When the fierce soul no longer is confined
In flesh, torn thence by action of its own,
To the Seventh Depth by Minos 'tis consigned.
No choice is made of where it shall be thrown
Within the wood; but where by chance 'tis flung
It germinates like seed of spelt that's sown.
A forest tree it grows from sapling young;
Eating its leaves, the Harpies cause it pain,
And open loopholes whence its sighs are wrung.
We for our vestments shall return again
Like others, but in them shall ne'er be clad:
Men justly lose what from themselves they've ta'en.
Dragged hither by us, all throughout the sad
Forest our bodies shall be hung on high;
Each on the thorn of its destructive shade.'
While to the trunk we listening lingered nigh,
Thinking he might proceed to tell us more,
A sudden uproar we were startled by
Like him who, that the huntsman and the boar
To where he stands are sweeping in the chase,
Knows by the crashing trees and brutish roar.
Upon our left we saw a couple race
Naked and scratched; and they so quickly fled
The forest barriers burst before their face.
'Speed to my rescue, death!' the foremost pled.
The next, as wishing he could use more haste;
'Not thus, O Lano, thee thy legs bested
When one at Toppo's tournament thou wast.'
Then, haply wanting breath, aside he stepped,
Merged with a bush on which himself he cast.
Behind them through the forest onward swept
A pack of dogs, black, ravenous, and fleet,
Like greyhounds from their leashes newly slipped.
In him who crouched they made their teeth to meet,
And, having piecemeal all his members rent,
Haled them away enduring anguish great.
Grasping my hand, my Escort forward went
And led me to the bush which, all in vain,
Through its ensanguined openings made lament.
'James of St. Andrews,' it we heard complain;
'What profit hadst thou making me thy shield?
For thy bad life doth blame to me pertain?'
Then, halting there, this speech my Master held:
'Who wast thou that through many wounds dost sigh,
Mingled with blood, words big with sorrow swelled?'
'O souls that hither come,' was his reply,
'To witness shameful outrage by me borne,
Whence all my leaves torn off around me lie,
Gather them to the root of this drear thorn.
My city for the Baptist changed of yore
Her former patron; wherefore, in return,
He with his art will make her aye deplore;
And were it not some image doth remain
Of him where Arno's crossed from shore to shore,
Those citizens who founded her again
On ashes left by Attila, had spent
Their labour of a surety all in vain.
In my own house I up a gibbet went.'
 _A forest_: The second round of the Seventh Circle consists of a
 _Harpies_: Monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads of
 _My lay_: See previous note. Dante thus indirectly acknowledges
 _For I am he, etc._: The speaker is Pier delle Vigne, who from
 _The harlot_: Envy.
 _Of what thou thinkest, etc._: Virgil never asks a question for
 _My city, etc._: According to tradition the original patron of
 _Attila_: A confusion with Totila. Attila was never so far south
 _My own house, etc._: It is not settled who this was who hanged
Me of my native place the dear constraint
Led to restore the leaves which round were strewn,
To him whose voice by this time was grown faint.
Thence came we where the second round joins on
Unto the third, wherein how terrible
The art of justice can be, is well shown.
But, clearly of these wondrous things to tell,
I say we entered on a plain of sand
Which from its bed doth every plant repel.
The dolorous wood lies round it like a band,
As that by the drear fosse is circled round.
Upon its very edge we came to a stand.
And there was nothing within all that bound
But burnt and heavy sand; like that once trod
Beneath the feet of Cato was the ground.
Ah, what a terror, O revenge of God!
Shouldst thou awake in any that may read
Of what before mine eyes was spread abroad.
I of great herds of naked souls took heed.
Most piteously was weeping every one;
And different fortunes seemed to them decreed.
For some of them upon the ground lay prone,
And some were sitting huddled up and bent,
While others, restless, wandered up and down.
More numerous were they that roaming went
Than they that were tormented lying low;
But these had tongues more loosened to lament.
O'er all the sand, deliberate and slow,
Broad open flakes of fire were downward rained,
As 'mong the Alps in calm descends the snow.
Such Alexander saw when he attained
The hottest India; on his host they fell
And all unbroken on the earth remained;
Wherefore he bade his phalanxes tread well
The ground, because when taken one by one
The burning flakes they could the better quell.
So here eternal fire was pouring down;
As tinder 'neath the steel, so here the sands
Kindled, whence pain more vehement was known.
And, dancing up and down, the wretched hands
Beat here and there for ever without rest;
Brushing away from them the falling brands.
And I: 'O Master, by all things confessed
Victor, except by obdurate evil powers
Who at the gate to stop our passage pressed,
Who is the enormous one who noway cowers
Beneath the fire; with fierce disdainful air
Lying as if untortured by the showers?'
And that same shade, because he was aware
That touching him I of my Guide was fain
To learn, cried: 'As in life, myself I bear
In death. Though Jupiter should tire again
His smith, from whom he snatched in angry bout
The bolt by which I at the last was slain;
Though one by one he tire the others out
At the black forge in Mongibello placed,
While "Ho, good Vulcan, help me!" he shall shout--
The cry he once at Phlegra's battle raised;
Though hurled with all his might at me shall fly
His bolts, yet sweet revenge he shall not taste.'
Then spake my Guide, and in a voice so high
Never till then heard I from him such tone:
'O Capaneus, because unquenchably
Thy pride doth burn, worse pain by thee is known.
Into no torture save thy madness wild
Fit for thy fury couldest thou be thrown.'
Then, to me turning with a face more mild,
He said: 'Of the Seven Kings was he of old,
Who leaguered Thebes, and as he God reviled
Him in small reverence still he seems to hold;
But for his bosom his own insolence
Supplies fit ornament, as now I told.
Now follow; but take heed lest passing hence
Thy feet upon the burning sand should tread;
But keep them firm where runs the forest fence.'
We reached a place--nor any word we said--
Where issues from the wood a streamlet small;
I shake but to recall its colour red.
Like that which does from Bulicame fall,
And losel women later 'mong them share;
So through the sand this brooklet's waters crawl.
Its bottom and its banks I was aware
Were stone, and stone the rims on either side.
From this I knew the passage must be there.
'Of all that I have shown thee as thy guide
Since when we by the gateway entered in,
Whose threshold unto no one is denied,
Nothing by thee has yet encountered been
So worthy as this brook to cause surprise,
O'er which the falling fire-flakes quenched are seen.'
These were my Leader's words. For full supplies
I prayed him of the food of which to taste
Keen appetite he made within me rise.
'In middle sea there lies a country waste,
Known by the name of Crete,' I then was told,
'Under whose king the world of yore was chaste.
There stands a mountain, once the joyous hold
Of woods and streams; as Ida 'twas renowned,
Now 'tis deserted like a thing grown old.
For a safe cradle 'twas by Rhea found.
To nurse her child in; and his infant cry,
Lest it betrayed him, she with clamours drowned.
Within the mount an old man towereth high.
Towards Damietta are his shoulders thrown;
On Rome, as on his mirror, rests his eye.
His head is fashioned of pure gold alone;
Of purest silver are his arms and chest;
'Tis brass to where his legs divide; then down
From that is all of iron of the best,
Save the right foot, which is of baken clay;
And upon this foot doth he chiefly rest.
Save what is gold, doth every part display
A fissure dripping tears; these, gathering all
Together, through the grotto pierce a way.
From rock to rock into this deep they fall,
Then downward travelling by this strait canal,
Far as the place where further slope is none,
Cocytus form; and what that pool may be
I say not now. Thou'lt see it further on.'
'If this brook rises,' he was asked by me,
'Within our world, how comes it that no trace
We saw of it till on this boundary?'
And he replied: 'Thou knowest that the place
Is round, and far as thou hast moved thy feet,
Still to the left hand sinking to the base,
Nath'less thy circuit is not yet complete.
Therefore if something new we chance to spy,
Amazement needs not on thy face have seat.'
I then: 'But, Master, where doth Lethe lie,
And Phlegethon? Of that thou sayest nought;
Of this thou say'st, those tears its flood supply.'
'It likes me well to be by thee besought;
But by the boiling red wave,' I was told,
'To half thy question was an answer brought.
Lethe, not in this pit, shalt thou behold.
Thither to wash themselves the spirits go,
When penitence has made them spotless souled.'
Then said he: 'From the wood 'tis fitting now
That we depart; behind me press thou nigh.
Keep we the margins, for they do not glow,
And over them, ere fallen, the fire-flakes die.'
 _Dear constraint_: The mention of Florence has awakened Dante to
 _Cato_: Cato of Utica, who, after the defeat of Pompey at
 _Some of them, etc._: In this the third round of the Seventh
Circle are punished those guilty of sins of violence against God,
 _The Alps_: Used here for mountains in general.
 _Eternal fire_: As always, the character of the place and of the
 _The wretched hands_: The dance, named in the original the
 _At the gate_: Of the city of Dis (_Inf._ viii. 82).
 _Was slain, etc._: Capaneus, one of the Seven Kings, as told
 _Mongibello_: A popular name of Etna, under which mountain was
situated the smithy of Vulcan and the Cyclopes.
 _Phlegra_: Where the giants fought with the gods.
 _The forest fence_: They do not trust themselves so much as to
 _Bulicame_: A hot sulphur spring a couple of miles from Viterbo,
 _The passage_: On each edge of the canal there is a flat pathway
 _The gateway_: At the entrance to Inferno.
 _Whose king_: Saturn, who ruled the world in the Golden Age. He,
 _Her child_: Jupiter, hidden in the mountain from his father
 _Feed Acheron, etc._: The idea of this image is taken from the
 _To the left hand_: Twice only as they descend they turn their
 _Lethe_: Found in the Earthly Paradise, as described in
Now lies our way along one of the margins hard;
Steam rising from the rivulet forms a cloud,
Which 'gainst the fire doth brook and borders guard.
Like walls the Flemings, timorous of the flood
Which towards them pours betwixt Bruges and Cadsand,
Have made, that ocean's charge may be withstood;
Or what the Paduans on the Brenta's strand
To guard their castles and their homesteads rear,
Ere Chiarentana feel the spring-tide bland;
Of the same fashion did those dikes appear,
Though not so high he made them, nor so vast,
Whoe'er the builder was that piled them here.
We, from the wood when we so far had passed
I should not have distinguished where it lay
Though I to see it backward glance had cast,
A group of souls encountered on the way,
Whose line of march was to the margin nigh.
Each looked at us--as by the new moon's ray
Men peer at others 'neath the darkening sky--
Sharpening his brows on us and only us,
Like an old tailor on his needle's eye.
And while that crowd was staring at me thus,
One of them knew me, caught me by the gown,
And cried aloud: 'Lo, this is marvellous!'
And straightway, while he thus to me held on,
I fixed mine eyes upon his fire-baked face,
And, spite of scorching, seemed his features known,
And whose they were my memory well could trace;
And I, with hand stretched toward his face below,
Asked: 'Ser Brunetto! and is this your place?'
'O son,' he answered, 'no displeasure show,
If now Brunetto Latini shall some way
Step back with thee, and leave his troop to go.'
I said: 'With all my heart for this I pray,
And, if you choose, I by your side will sit;
If he, for I go with him, grant delay.'
'Son,' said he, 'who of us shall intermit
Motion a moment, for an age must lie
Nor fan himself when flames are round him lit.
On, therefore! At thy skirts I follow nigh,
Then shall I overtake my band again,
Who mourn a loss large as eternity.'
I dared not from the path step to the plain
To walk with him, but low I bent my head,
Like one whose steps are all with reverence ta'en.
'What fortune or what destiny,' he said,
'Hath brought thee here or e'er thou death hast seen;
And who is this by whom thou'rt onward led?'
'Up yonder,' said I, 'in the life serene,
I in a valley wandered all forlorn
Before my years had full accomplished been.
I turned my back on it but yestermorn;
Again I sought it when he came in sight
Guided by whom I homeward thus return.'
And he to me: 'Following thy planet's light
Thou of a glorious haven canst not fail,
If in the blithesome life I marked aright.
And had my years known more abundant tale,
Seeing the heavens so held thee in their grace
I, heartening thee, had helped thee to prevail.
But that ungrateful and malignant race
Which down from Fiesole came long ago,
And still its rocky origin betrays,
Will for thy worthiness become thy foe;
And with good reason, for 'mong crab-trees wild
It ill befits the mellow fig to grow.
By widespread ancient rumour are they styled
A people blind, rapacious, envious, vain:
See by their manners thou be not defiled.
Fortune reserves such honour for thee, fain
Both sides will be to enlist thee in their need;
But from the beak the herb shall far remain.
Let beasts of Fiesole go on to tread
Themselves to litter, nor the plants molest,
If any such now spring on their rank bed,
In whom there flourishes indeed the blest
Seed of the Romans who still lingered there
When of such wickedness 'twas made the nest.'
'Had I obtained full answer to my prayer,
You had not yet been doomed,' I then did say,
'This exile from humanity to bear.
For deep within my heart and memory
Lives the paternal image good and dear
Of you, as in the world, from day to day,
How men escape oblivion you made clear;
My thankfulness for which shall in my speech
While I have life, as it behoves, appear.
I note what of my future course you teach.
Stored with another text it will be glozed
By one expert, should I that Lady reach.
Yet would I have this much to you disclosed:
If but my conscience no reproaches yield,
To all my fortune is my soul composed.
Not new to me the hint by you revealed;
Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel apace,
Even as she will; the clown his mattock wield.'
Thereon my Master right about did face,
And uttered this, with glance upon me thrown:
'He hears to purpose who doth mark the place.'
And none the less I, speaking, still go on
With Ser Brunetto; asking him to tell
Who of his band are greatest and best known.
And he to me: 'To hear of some is well,
And time is lacking all their names to spell.
That all of them were clerks, know thou in sum,
All men of letters, famous and of might;
Stained with one sin all from the world are come.
Priscian goes with that crowd of evil plight,
Francis d'Accorso too; and hadst thou mind
For suchlike trash thou mightest have had sight
Of him the Slave of Slaves to change assigned
From Arno's banks to Bacchiglione, where
His nerves fatigued with vice he left behind.
More would I say, but neither must I fare
Nor talk at further length, for from the sand
I see new dust-clouds rising in the air,
I may not keep with such as are at hand.
Care for my _Treasure_; for I still survive
In that my work. I nothing else demand.'
Then turned he back, and ran like those who strive
For the Green Cloth upon Verona's plain;
And seemed like him that shall the first arrive,
And not like him that labours all in vain.
 _Cadsand_: An island opposite to the mouth of the great canal of
 _Chiarentana_: What district or mountain is here meant has been
 _Not so high, etc._: This limitation is very characteristic of
 _Marvellous_: To find Dante, whom he knew, still living, and
passing through the Circle.
 _Ser Brunetto_: Brunetto Latini, a Florentine, was born in 1220.
 _Low I bent my head_: But not projecting it beyond the line of
 _Guided by whom_: Brunetto has asked who the guide is, and Dante
 _Thy planet's light_: Some think that Brunetto had cast Dante's
 _Another text_: Ciacco and Farinata have already hinted at the
troubles that lie ahead of him (_Inf._ vi. 65, and x. 79).
 _The clown, etc._: The honest performance of duty is the best
defence against adverse fortune.
 _Right about_: In traversing the sands they keep upon the
 _He hears, etc._: Of all the interpretations of this somewhat
obscure sentence that seems the best which applies it to Virgil's
 _His band_: That is, the company to which Brunetto specially
belongs, and from which for the time he has separated himself.
 _Francis d'Accorso_: Died about 1294. The son of a great civil
 _Of him the Slave, etc._: One of the Pope's titles is _Servus
 _New dust-clouds_: Raised by a band by whom they are about to be
 _My Treasure_: The _Tresor_, or _Tesoro_, Brunetto's principal
 _The Green Cloth_: To commemorate a victory won by the Veronese
Now could I hear the water as it fell
To the next circle with a murmuring sound
Like what is heard from swarming hives to swell;
When three shades all together with a bound
Burst from a troop met by us pressing on
'Neath rain of that sharp torment. O'er the ground
Toward us approaching, they exclaimed each one:
'Halt thou, whom from thy garb we judge to be
A citizen of our corrupted town.'
Alas, what scars I on their limbs did see,
Both old and recent, which the flames had made:
Even now my ruth is fed by memory.
My Teacher halted at their cry, and said:
'Await a while:' and looked me in the face;
'Some courtesy to these were well displayed.
And but that fire--the manner of the place--
Descends for ever, fitting 'twere to find
Rather than them, thee quickening thy pace.'
When we had halted, they again combined
In their old song; and, reaching where we stood,
Into a wheel all three were intertwined.
And as the athletes used, well oiled and nude,
To feel their grip and, wary, watch their chance,
Ere they to purpose strike and wrestle could;
So each of them kept fixed on me his glance
As he wheeled round, and in opposing ways
His neck and feet seemed ever to advance.
'Ah, if the misery of this sand-strewn place
Bring us and our petitions in despite,'
One then began, 'and flayed and grimy face;
Let at the least our fame goodwill incite
To tell us who thou art, whose living feet
Thus through Inferno wander without fright.
For he whose footprints, as thou see'st, I beat,
Though now he goes with body peeled and nude,
More than thou thinkest, in the world was great.
The grandson was he of Gualdrada good;
He, Guidoguerra, with his armed hand
Did mighty things, and by his counsel shrewd.
The other who behind me treads the sand
Is one whose name should on the earth be dear;
And I, who am tormented with them here,
James Rusticucci was; my fierce and proud
Wife of my ruin was chief minister.'
If from the fire there had been any shroud
I should have leaped down 'mong them, nor have earned
Blame, for my Teacher sure had this allowed.
But since I should have been all baked and burned,
Terror prevailed the goodwill to restrain
With which to clasp them in my arms I yearned.
Then I began: ''Twas not contempt but pain
Which your condition in my breast awoke,
Where deeply rooted it will long remain,
When this my Master words unto me spoke,
By which expectancy was in me stirred
That ye who came were honourable folk.
I of your city am, and with my word
Your deeds and honoured names oft to recall
Delighted, and with joy of them I heard.
To the sweet fruits I go, and leave the gall,
As promised to me by my Escort true;
But first I to the centre down must fall.'
'So may thy soul thy members long endue
With vital power,' the other made reply,
'And after thee thy fame its light renew;
As thou shalt tell if worth and courtesy
Within our city as of yore remain,
Or from it have been wholly forced to fly.
For William Borsier, one of yonder train,
And but of late joined with us in this woe,
Causeth us with his words exceeding pain.'
'Upstarts, and fortunes suddenly that grow,
Have bred in thee pride and extravagance,
Whence tears, O Florence! thou art shedding now.'
Thus cried I with uplifted countenance.
The three, accepting it for a reply,
Glanced each at each as hearing truth men glance.
And all: 'If others thou shalt satisfy
As well at other times at no more cost,
Happy thus at thine ease the truth to cry!
Therefore if thou escap'st these regions lost,
Returning to behold the starlight fair,
Then when "There was I," thou shalt make thy boast,
Something of us do thou 'mong men declare.'
Then broken was the wheel, and as they fled
Their nimble legs like pinions beat the air.
So much as one _Amen!_ had scarce been said
Quicker than what they vanished from our view.
On this once more the way my Master led.
I followed, and ere long so near we drew
To where the water fell, that for its roar
Speech scarcely had been heard between us two.
And as the stream which of all those which pour
East (from Mount Viso counting) by its own
Course falls the first from Apennine to shore--
As Acquacheta in the uplands known
By name, ere plunging to its bed profound;
Name lost ere by Forli its waters run--
Above St. Benedict with one long bound,
Where for a thousand would be ample room,
Falls from the mountain to the lower ground;
Down the steep cliff that water dyed in gloom
We found to fall echoing from side to side,
Stunning the ear with its tremendous boom.
There was a cord about my middle tied,
With which I once had thought that I might hold
Secure the leopard with the painted hide.
When this from round me I had quite unrolled
To him I handed it, all coiled and tight;
As by my Leader I had first been told.
Himself then bending somewhat toward the right,
He just beyond the edge of the abyss
Threw down the cord, which disappeared from sight.
'That some strange thing will follow upon this
Unwonted signal which my Master's eye
Thus follows,' so I thought, 'can hardly miss.'
Ah, what great caution need we standing by
Those who behold not only what is done,
But who have wit our hidden thoughts to spy!
He said to me: 'There shall emerge, and soon,
What I await; and quickly to thy view
That which thou dream'st of shall be clearly known.'
From utterance of truth which seems untrue
A man, whene'er he can, should guard his tongue;
Lest he win blame to no transgression due.
Yet now I must speak out, and by the song
Of this my Comedy, Reader, I swear--
So in good liking may it last full long!--
I saw a shape swim upward through that air.
All indistinct with gross obscurity,
Enough to fill the stoutest heart with fear:
Like one who rises having dived to free
An anchor grappled on a jagged stone,
Or something else deep hidden in the sea;
With feet drawn in and arms all open thrown.
 _The next circle_: The Eighth.
 _Thy garb_: 'Almost every city,' says Boccaccio, 'had in those
 _As he wheeled round_: Virgil and Dante have come to a halt upon
 _Guidoguerra_: A descendant of the Counts Guidi of Modigliana.
 _William Borsiere_: A Florentine, witty and well bred, according
introduced as an authority on the noble style of manners.
 _Pride and extravagance_: In place of the nobility of mind that
 _There was I, etc._: _Forsan et haec olim meminisse
 _Acquacheta_: The fall of the water of the brook over the lofty
 _Toward the right_: The attitude of one about to throw.
virtuous purpose, is not strange to Dante. In _Purg._ vii. 114 he
 Dante attributes to Virgil full knowledge of all that is in his
'Behold the monster with the pointed tail,
Who passes mountains and can entrance make
Through arms and walls! who makes the whole world ail,
Corrupted by him!' Thus my Leader spake,
And beckoned him that he should land hard by,
Where short the pathways built of marble break.
And that foul image of dishonesty
Moving approached us with his head and chest,
But to the bank drew not his tail on high.
His face a human righteousness expressed,
'Twas so benignant to the outward view;
A serpent was he as to all the rest.
On both his arms hair to the arm-pits grew:
On back and chest and either flank were knot
And rounded shield portrayed in various hue;
No Turk or Tartar weaver ever brought
To ground or pattern a more varied dye;
Nor by Arachne was such broidery wrought.
As sometimes by the shore the barges lie
Partly in water, partly on dry land;
And as afar in gluttonous Germany,
Watching their prey, alert the beavers stand;
So did this worst of brutes his foreparts fling
Upon the stony rim which hems the sand.
All of his tail in space was quivering,
Its poisoned fork erecting in the air,
Which scorpion-like was armed with a sting.
My Leader said: 'Now we aside must fare
A little distance, so shall we attain
Unto the beast malignant crouching there.'
So we stepped down upon the right, and then
A half score steps to the outer edge did pace,
Thus clearing well the sand and fiery rain.
And when we were hard by him I could trace
Upon the sand a little further on
Some people sitting near to the abyss.
'That what this belt containeth may be known
Completely by thee,' then the Master said;
'To see their case do thou advance alone.
Let thy inquiries be succinctly made.
While thou art absent I will ask of him,
With his strong shoulders to afford us aid.'
Then, all alone, I on the outmost rim
Of that Seventh Circle still advancing trod,
Where sat a woful folk. Full to the brim
Their eyes with anguish were, and overflowed;
Their hands moved here and there to win some ease,
Now from the flames, now from the soil which glowed.
No otherwise in summer-time one sees,
Working its muzzle and its paws, the hound
When bit by gnats or plagued with flies or fleas.
And I, on scanning some who sat around
Of those on whom the dolorous flames alight,
Could recognise not one. I only found
A purse hung from the throat of every wight,
Each with its emblem and its special hue;
And every eye seemed feasting on the sight.
As I, beholding them, among them drew,
I saw what seemed a lion's face and mien
Upon a yellow purse designed in blue.
Still moving on mine eyes athwart the scene
I saw another scrip, blood-red, display
A goose more white than butter could have been.
And one, on whose white wallet blazoned lay
A pregnant sow in azure, to me said:
'What dost thou in this pit? Do thou straightway
Begone; and, seeing thou art not yet dead,
Know that Vitalian, neighbour once of mine,
Shall on my left flank one day find his bed.
A Paduan I: all these are Florentine;
And oft they stun me, bellowing in my ear:
"Come, Pink of Chivalry, for whom we pine,
Whose is the purse on which three beaks appear:"'
Then he from mouth awry his tongue thrust out
Like ox that licks its nose; and I, in fear
Lest more delay should stir in him some doubt
Who gave command I should not linger long,
Me from those wearied spirits turned about.
I found my Guide, who had already sprung
Upon the back of that fierce animal:
He said to me: 'Now be thou brave and strong.
By stairs like this we henceforth down must fall.
Mount thou in front, for I between would sit
So thee the tail shall harm not nor appal.'
Like one so close upon the shivering fit
Of quartan ague that his nails grow blue,
And seeing shade he trembles every whit,
I at the hearing of that order grew;
But his threats shamed me, as before the face
Of a brave lord his man grows valorous too.
On the great shoulders then I took my place,
And wished to say, but could not move my tongue
As I expected: 'Do thou me embrace!'
But he, who other times had helped me 'mong
My other perils, when ascent I made
Sustained me, and strong arms around me flung,
And, 'Geryon, set thee now in motion!' said;
'Wheel widely; let thy downward flight be slow;
Think of the novel burden on thee laid.'
As from the shore a boat begins to go
Backward at first, so now he backward pressed,
And when he found that all was clear below,
He turned his tail where earlier was his breast;
And, stretching it, he moved it like an eel,
While with his paws he drew air toward his chest.
More terror Phaethon could hardly feel
What time he let the reins abandoned fall,
Whence Heaven was fired, as still its tracts reveal;
Nor wretched Icarus, on finding all
His plumage moulting as the wax grew hot,
While, 'The wrong road!' his father loud did call;
Than what I felt on finding I was brought
Where nothing was but air and emptiness;
For save the brute I could distinguish nought.
He slowly, slowly swims; to the abyss
Wheeling he makes descent, as I surmise
From wind felt 'neath my feet and in my face.
Already on the right I heard arise
From out the caldron a terrific roar,
Whereon I stretch my head with down-turned eyes.
Terror of falling now oppressed me sore;
Hearing laments, and seeing fires that burned,
My thighs I tightened, trembling more and more.
Earlier I had not by the eye discerned
That we swept downward; scenes of torment now
Seemed drawing nearer wheresoe'er we turned.
And as a falcon (which long time doth go
Upon the wing, not finding lure or prey),
While 'Ha!' the falconer cries, 'descending so!'
Comes wearied back whence swift it soared away;
Wheeling a hundred times upon the road,
Then, from its master far, sulks angrily:
So we, by Geryon in the deep bestowed,
Were 'neath the sheer-hewn precipice set down:
He, suddenly delivered from our load,
Like arrow from the string was swiftly gone.
 _The monster_: Geryon, a mythical king of Spain, converted here
 _Who passes mountains, etc._: Neither art nor nature affords any
 _Knot and rounded shield_: Emblems of subtle devices and
subterfuges.
_ Varied dye_: Denoting the various colours of deceit.
 _Gluttonous Germany_: The habits of the German men-at-arms in
Italy, odious to the temperate Italians, explains this gibe.
 _The right_: This is the second and last time that, in their
 _A half score steps, etc._: Traversing the stone-built border
 _Woful folk_: Usurers; those guilty of the unnatural sin of
represented as 'obscured from any recognition' (_Inf._ vii. 44).
 _Pink of Chivalry_: 'Sovereign Cavalier;' identified by his arms
 _His tongue thrust out_: As if to say: We know well what sort of
 _By stairs like this_: The descent from one circle to another
 _Heaven was fired_: As still appears in the Milky Way. In the
 _A terrific roar_: Of the water falling to the ground. On
 _Lure_: An imitation bird used in training falcons. Dante
Of iron colour, and composed of stone,
A place called Malebolge is in Hell,
Girt by a cliff of substance like its own.
In that malignant region yawns a well
Right in the centre, ample and profound;
Of which I duly will the structure tell.
The zone that lies between them, then, is round--
Between the well and precipice hard and high;
Into ten vales divided is the ground.
As is the figure offered to the eye,
Where numerous moats a castle's towers enclose
That they the walls may better fortify;
A like appearance was made here by those.
And as, again, from threshold of such place
Many a drawbridge to the outworks goes;
So ridges from the precipice's base
Cutting athwart the moats and barriers run,
Till at the well join the extremities.
From Geryon's back when we were shaken down
'Twas here we stood, until the Poet's feet
Moved to the left, and I, behind, came on.
New torments on the right mine eyes did meet
With new tormentors, novel woe on woe;
With which the nearer Bolgia was replete.
Sinners, all naked, in the gulf below,
This side the middle met us; while they strode
On that side with us, but more swift did go.
Even so the Romans, that the mighty crowd
Across the bridge, the year of Jubilee,
Might pass with ease, ordained a rule of road--
Facing the Castle, on that side should be
The multitude which to St. Peter's hied;
So to the Mount on this was passage free.
On the grim rocky ground, on either side,
I saw horned devils armed with heavy whip
Which on the sinners from behind they plied.
Ah, how they made the wretches nimbly skip
At the first lashes; no one ever yet
But sought from the second and the third to slip.
And as I onward went, mine eyes were set
On one of them; whereon I called in haste:
'This one already I have surely met!'
Therefore to know him, fixedly I gazed;
And my kind Leader willingly delayed,
While for a little I my course retraced.
On this the scourged one, thinking to evade
My search, his visage bent without avail,
For: 'Thou that gazest on the ground,' I said,
'If these thy features tell trustworthy tale,
Venedico Caccianimico thou!
But what has brought thee to such sharp regale?'
And he, 'I tell it 'gainst my will, I trow,
But thy clear accents to the old world bear
My memory, and make me all avow.
I was the man who Ghisola the fair
To serve the Marquis' evil will led on,
Whatever the uncomely tale declare.
Of Bolognese here weeping not alone
Am I; so full the place of them, to-day
'Tween Reno and Savena are not known
So many tongues that _Sipa_ deftly say:
And if of this thou'dst know the reason why,
Think but how greedy were our hearts alway.'
To him thus speaking did a demon cry:
'Pander, begone!' and smote him with his thong;
'Here are no women for thy coin to buy.'
Then, with my Escort joined, I moved along.
Few steps we made until we there had come,
Where from the bank a rib of rock was flung.
With ease enough up to its top we clomb,
And, turning on the ridge, bore to the right;
And those eternal circles parted from.
When we had reached where underneath the height
A passage opes, yielding the scourged a way,
My Guide bade: 'Tarry, so to hold in sight
Those other spirits born in evil day,
Whose faces until now from thee have been
Concealed, because with ours their progress lay.'
Then from the ancient bridge by us were seen
The troop which toward us on that circuit sped,
Chased onward, likewise, by the scourges keen.
And my good Master, ere I asked him, said:
'That lordly one now coming hither, see,
By whom, despite of pain, no tears are shed.
What mien he still retains of majesty!
'Tis Jason, who by courage and by guile
The Colchians of the ram deprived. 'Twas he
Who on his passage by the Lemnian isle,
Where all of womankind with daring hand
Upon their males had wrought a murder vile,
With loving pledges and with speeches bland
The tender-yeared Hypsipyle betrayed,
Who had herself a fraud on others planned.
Forlorn he left her then, when pregnant made.
That is the crime condemns him to this pain;
And for Medea too is vengeance paid.
Who in his manner cheat compose his train.
Of the first moat sufficient now is known,
And those who in its jaws engulfed remain.'
Already had we by the strait path gone
To where 'tis with the second bank dovetailed--
The buttress whence a second arch is thrown.
Here heard we who in the next Bolgia wailed
And puffed for breath; reverberations told
They with their open palms themselves assailed.
The sides were crusted over with a mould
Plastered upon them by foul mists that rise,
And both with eyes and nose a contest hold.
The bottom is so deep, in vain our eyes
Searched it till further up the bridge we went,
To where the arch o'erhangs what under lies.
Ascended there, our eyes we downward bent,
And I saw people in such ordure drowned,
A very cesspool 'twas of excrement.
And while I from above am searching round,
One with a head so filth-smeared I picked out,
I knew not if 'twas lay, or tonsure-crowned.
'Why then so eager,' asked he with a shout,
'To stare at me of all the filthy crew?'
And I to him: 'Because I scarce can doubt
That formerly thee dry of hair I knew,
And therefore thee I chiefly hold in view.'
Smiting his head-piece, then, his words were these:
''Twas flattery steeped me here; for, using such,
My tongue itself enough could never please.'
'Now stretch thou somewhat forward, but not much,'
Thereon my Leader bade me, 'and thine eyes
Slowly advance till they her features touch
And the dishevelled baggage recognise,
Clawing her yonder with her nails unclean,
Now standing up, now squatting on her thighs.
'Tis harlot Thais, who, when she had been
Asked by her lover, "Am I generous
And worthy thanks?" said, "Greatly so, I ween."
Enough of this place has been seen by us.'
 _Malebolge_: Or Evil Pits; literally, Evil Pockets.
 _A well_: The Ninth and lowest Circle, to be described in Canto
 _The zone_: The Eighth Circle, in which the fraudulent of all
description of the Second Circle the atmosphere is represented as
 _The extremities_: The _Malebolge_ consists of ten circular pits
 _Horned devils_: Here the demons are horned--terrible
remembrancers to the sinner of the injured husband.
 _Venedico Caccianimico_: A Bolognese noble, brother of Ghisola,
 _Such sharp regale_: 'Such pungent sauces.' There is here a play
 _Thy clear accents_: Not broken with sobs like his own and those
 _Whatever, etc._: Different accounts seem to have been current
about the affair of Ghisola.
 _'Tween Reno, etc._: The Reno and Savena are streams that flow
past Bologna. _Sipa_ is Bolognese for Maybe, or for Yes. So Dante
 _To the right_: This is only an apparent departure from their
 _Medea_: When the Argonauts landed on Lemnos, they found it
 _Who in the next Bolgia wailed_: The flatterers in the Second
 _Alessio Interminei_: Of the Great Lucchese family of the
Interminelli, to which the famous Castruccio Castrucani belonged.
 _Thais_: In the _Eunuch_ of Terence, Thraso, the lover of that
 _Enough, etc._: Most readers will agree with Virgil.
O Simon Magus! ye his wretched crew!
The gifts of God, ordained to be the bride
Of righteousness, ye prostitute that you
With gold and silver may be satisfied;
Therefore for you let now the trumpet blow,
Seeing that ye in the Third Bolgia 'bide.
Arrived at the next tomb, we to the brow
Of rock ere this had finished our ascent,
Which hangs true plumb above the pit below.
What perfect art, O Thou Omniscient,
Is Thine in Heaven and earth and the bad world found!
How justly does Thy power its dooms invent!
The livid stone, on both banks and the ground,
I saw was full of holes on every side,
All of one size, and each of them was round.
No larger seemed they to me nor less wide
Than those within my beautiful St. John
For the baptizers' standing-place supplied;
And one of which, not many years agone,
I broke to save one drowning; and I would
Have this for seal to undeceive men known.
Out of the mouth of each were seen protrude
A sinner's feet, and of the legs the small
Far as the calves; the rest enveloped stood.
And set on fire were both the soles of all,
Which made their ankles wriggle with such throes
As had made ropes and withes asunder fall.
And as flame fed by unctuous matter goes
Over the outer surface only spread;
So from their heels it flickered to the toes.
'Master, who is he, tortured more,' I said,
'Than are his neighbours, writhing in such woe;
And licked by flames of deeper-hearted red?'
And he: 'If thou desirest that below
I bear thee by that bank which lowest lies,
Thou from himself his sins and name shalt know.'
And I: 'Thy wishes still for me suffice:
Thou art my Lord, and knowest I obey
Thy will; and dost my hidden thoughts surprise.'
To the fourth barrier then we made our way,
And, to the left hand turning, downward went
Into the narrow hole-pierced cavity;
Nor the good Master caused me make descent
From off his haunch till we his hole were nigh
Who with his shanks was making such lament.
'Whoe'er thou art, soul full of misery,
Set like a stake with lower end upcast,'
I said to him, 'Make, if thou canst, reply.'
I like a friar stood who gives the last
Shrift to a vile assassin, to his side
Called back to win delay for him fixed fast.
'Art thou arrived already?' then he cried,
'Art thou arrived already, Boniface?
By several years the prophecy has lied.
Art so soon wearied of the wealthy place,
For which thou didst not fear to take with guile,
Then ruin the fair Lady?' Now my case
Was like to theirs who linger on, the while
They cannot comprehend what they are told,
And as befooled from further speech resile.
But Virgil bade me: 'Speak out loud and bold,
"I am not he thou thinkest, no, not he!"'
And I made answer as by him controlled.
The spirit's feet then twisted violently,
And, sighing in a voice of deep distress,
He asked: 'What then requirest thou of me?
If me to know thou hast such eagerness,
That thou the cliff hast therefore ventured down,
Know, the Great Mantle sometime was my dress.
I of the Bear, in sooth, was worthy son:
As once, the Cubs to help, my purse with gain
I stuffed, myself I in this purse have stown.
Stretched out at length beneath my head remain
All the simoniacs that before me went,
And flattened lie throughout the rocky vein.
I in my turn shall also make descent,
Soon as he comes who I believed thou wast,
When I asked quickly what for him was meant.
O'er me with blazing feet more time has past,
While upside down I fill the topmost room,
Than he his crimsoned feet shall upward cast;
For after him one viler still shall come,
A Pastor from the West, lawless of deed:
To cover both of us his worthy doom.
A modern Jason he, of whom we read
In Maccabees, whose King denied him nought:
With the French King so shall this man succeed.'
Perchance I ventured further than I ought,
But I spake to him in this measure free:
'Ah, tell me now what money was there sought
Of Peter by our Lord, when either key
He gave him in his guardianship to hold?
Sure He demanded nought save: "Follow me!"
Nor Peter, nor the others, asked for gold
Or silver when upon Matthias fell
The lot instead of him, the traitor-souled.
Keep then thy place, for thou art punished well,
And clutch the pelf, dishonourably gained,
Which against Charles made thee so proudly swell.
And, were it not that I am still restrained
By reverence for those tremendous keys,
Borne by thee while the glad world thee contained,
I would use words even heavier than these;
Seeing your avarice makes the world deplore,
Crushing the good, filling the bad with ease.
'Twas you, O Pastors, the Evangelist bore
In mind what time he saw her on the flood
Who with seven heads was born; and as she would
By the ten horns to her was service done,
Long as her spouse rejoiced in what was good.
Now gold and silver are your god alone:
What difference 'twixt the idolater and you,
Save that ye pray a hundred for his one?
Ah, Constantine, how many evils grew--
Not from thy change of faith, but from the gift
Wherewith thou didst the first rich Pope endue!'
While I my voice continued to uplift
To such a tune, by rage or conscience stirred
Both of his soles he made to twist and shift.
My Guide, I well believe, with pleasure heard;
Listening he stood with lips so well content
To me propounding truthful word on word.
Then round my body both his arms he bent,
And, having raised me well upon his breast,
Climbed up the path by which he made descent.
Nor was he by his burden so oppressed
But that he bore me to the bridge's crown,
Which with the fourth joins the fifth rampart's crest.
And lightly here he set his burden down,
Found light by him upon the precipice,
Up which a goat uneasily had gone.
And thence another valley met mine eyes.
 _Simon Magus_: The sin of simony consists in setting a price on
 _The trumpet_: Blown at the punishment of criminals, to call
attention to their sentence.
 _The next tomb_: The Third Bolgia, appropriately termed a tomb,
 _The prophecy_: 'The writing.' The speaker is Nicholas III., of
 _The fair Lady_: The Church. The guile is that shown by Boniface
 _As befooled_: Dante does not yet suspect that it is with a Pope
 _All the simoniacs_: All the Popes that had been guilty of the
 _Jason_: Or Joshua, who purchased the office of High Priest from
 _By reverence, etc._: Dante distinguishes between the office and
 _Her spouse_: In the preceding lines the vision of the Woman in
 _Ah, Constantine, etc._: In Dante's time, and for some centuries
Now of new torment must my verses tell,
And matter for the Twentieth Canto win
Of Lay the First, which treats of souls in Hell.
Already was I eager to begin
To peer into the visible profound,
Which tears of agony was bathed in:
And I saw people in the valley round;
Like that of penitents on earth the pace
At which they weeping came, nor uttering sound.
When I beheld them with more downcast gaze,
That each was strangely screwed about I learned,
Where chest is joined to chin. And thus the face
Of every one round to his loins was turned;
And stepping backward all were forced to go,
For nought in front could be by them discerned.
Smitten by palsy although one might show
Perhaps a shape thus twisted all awry,
I never saw, and am to think it slow.
As, Reader, God may grant thou profit by
Thy reading, for thyself consider well
If I could then preserve my visage dry
When close at hand to me was visible
Our human form so wrenched that tears, rained down
Out of the eyes, between the buttocks fell.
In very sooth I wept, leaning upon
A boss of the hard cliff, till on this wise
My Escort asked: 'Of the other fools art one?
Here piety revives as pity dies;
For who more irreligious is than he
In whom God's judgments to regret give rise?
Lift up, lift up thy head, and thou shalt see
Him for whom earth yawned as the Thebans saw,
All shouting meanwhile: "Whither dost thou flee,
Amphiaraues? Wherefore thus withdraw
From battle?" But he sinking found no rest
Till Minos clutched him with all-grasping claw.
Lo, how his shoulders serve him for a breast!
Because he wished to see too far before
Backward he looks, to backward course addressed.
Behold Tiresias, who was changed all o'er,
Till for a man a woman met the sight,
And not a limb its former semblance bore;
And he behoved a second time to smite
The same two twisted serpents with his wand,
Ere he again in manly plumes was dight.
With back to him, see Aruns next at hand,
Who up among the hills of Luni, where
Peasants of near Carrara till the land,
Among the dazzling marbles held his lair
Within a cavern, whence could be descried
The sea and stars of all obstruction bare.
The other one, whose flowing tresses hide
Her bosom, of the which thou seest nought,
And all whose hair falls on the further side,
Was Manto; who through many regions sought:
Where I was born, at last her foot she stayed.
It likes me well thou shouldst of this be taught.
When from this life her father exit made,
And Bacchus' city had become enthralled,
She for long time through many countries strayed.
'Neath mountains by which Germany is walled
And bounded at Tirol, a lake there lies
High in fair Italy, Benacus called.
The waters of a thousand springs that rise
'Twixt Val Camonica and Garda flow
Down Pennine; and their flood this lake supplies.
And from a spot midway, if they should go
And Brescia might their blessings all bestow.
Peschiera, with its strength for ornament,
Lies where the bank to lower curve is bent.
And there the waters, seeking more of ease,
For in Benacus is not room for all,
Forming a river, lapse by green degrees.
The river, from its very source, men call
No more Benacus--'tis as Mincio known,
Which into Po does at Governo fall.
A flat it reaches ere it far has run,
Spreading o'er which it feeds a marshy fen,
Whence oft in summer pestilence has grown.
Wayfaring here the cruel virgin, when
She found land girdled by the marshy flood,
Untilled and uninhabited of men,
That she might 'scape all human neighbourhood
Stayed on it with her slaves, her arts to ply;
And there her empty body was bestowed.
On this the people from the country nigh
Into that place came crowding, for the spot,
Girt by the swamp, could all attack defy,
And for the town built o'er her body sought
A name from her who made it first her seat,
Calling it Mantua, without casting lot.
The dwellers in it were in number great,
Till stupid Casalodi was befooled
And victimised by Pinamonte's cheat.
Hence, shouldst thou ever hear (now be thou schooled!)
Another story to my town assigned,
Let by no fraud the truth be overruled.'
And I: 'Thy reasonings, Master, to my mind
So cogent are, and win my faith so well,
What others say I shall black embers find.
But of this people passing onward tell,
If thou, of any, something canst declare,
For all my thoughts on that intently dwell.'
And then he said: 'The one whose bearded hair
Falls from his cheeks upon his shoulders dun,
Was, when the land of Greece of males so bare
Was grown the very cradles scarce held one,
An augur; he with Calchas gave the sign
In Aulis through the first rope knife to run.
Eurypylus was he called, and in some line
Of my high Tragedy is sung the same,
As thou know'st well, who mad'st it wholly thine.
That other, thin of flank, was known to fame
As Michael Scott; and of a verity
He knew right well the black art's inmost game.
Who mourns he ever should have parted from
His thread and leather; but too late mourns he.
Lo the unhappy women who left loom,
Spindle, and needle that they might divine;
With herb and image hastening men's doom.
But come; for where the hemispheres confine
Cain and the Thorns is falling, to alight
Underneath Seville on the ocean line.
The moon was full already yesternight;
Which to recall thou shouldst be well content,
For in the wood she somewhat helped thy plight.'
Thus spake he to me while we forward went.
 _The visible profound_: The Fourth Bolgia, where soothsayers of
 _Nor uttering, etc._: They who on earth told too much are now
 _More downcast gaze_: Standing as he does on the crown of the
 _Stepping backward_: Once they peered far into the future; now
they cannot see a step before them.
 _Of the other fools_: Dante, weeping like the sinners in the
 _Amphiaraues_: One of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes. He
 _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of sex is described
 _Benacus_: The ancient Benacus, now known as the Lake of Garda.
 _The Pastors, etc._: About half-way down the western side of the
 _An augur_: Eurypylus, mentioned in the Second _AEneid_ as being
 _Michael Scott_: Of Balwearie in Scotland, familiar to English
sciences, as they were then deemed, of astrology, alchemy, and
physiognomy. He acted for some time as astrologer to the Emperor
 _Guido Bonatti_: Was a Florentine, a tiler by trade, and was
Conversing still from bridge to bridge we went;
But what our words I in my Comedy
Care not to tell. The top of the ascent
Holding, we halted the next pit to spy
Of Malebolge, with plaints bootless all:
There, darkness full of wonder met the eye.
As the Venetians in their Arsenal
Boil the tenacious pitch at winter-tide,
To caulk the ships with for repairs that call;
For then they cannot sail; and so, instead,
One builds his bark afresh, one stops with tow
His vessel's ribs, by many a voyage tried;
One hammers at the poop, one at the prow;
Some fashion oars, and others cables twine,
And others at the jib and main sails sew:
So, not by fire, but by an art Divine,
Pitch of thick substance boiled in that low Hell,
And all the banks did as with plaster line.
I saw it, but distinguished nothing well
Except the bubbles by the boiling raised,
Now swelling up and ceasing now to swell.
While down upon it fixedly I gazed,
'Beware, beware!' my Leader to me said,
And drew me thence close to him. I, amazed,
Turned sharply round, like him who has delayed,
Fain to behold the thing he ought to flee,
Then, losing nerve, grows suddenly afraid,
Nor lingers longer what there is to see;
For a black devil I beheld advance
Over the cliff behind us rapidly.
Ah me, how fierce was he of countenance!
What bitterness he in his gesture put,
As with spread wings he o'er the ground did dance!
Upon his shoulders, prominent and acute,
Was perched a sinner fast by either hip;
And him he held by tendon of the foot.
He from our bridge: 'Ho, Malebranche! Grip
An Elder brought from Santa Zita's town:
Stuff him below; myself once more I slip
Back to the place where lack of such is none.
There, save Bonturo, barrates every man,
And No grows Yes that money may be won.'
He shot him down, and o'er the cliff began
To run; nor unchained mastiff o'er the ground,
Chasing a robber, swifter ever ran.
The other sank, then rose with back bent round;
But from beneath the bridge the devils cried:
'Not here the Sacred Countenance is found,
One swims not here as on the Serchio's tide;
So if thou wouldst not with our grapplers deal
Do not on surface of the pitch abide.'
Then he a hundred hooks was made to feel.
'Best dance down there,' they said the while to him,
'Where, if thou canst, thou on the sly mayst steal.'
So scullions by the cooks are set to trim
The caldrons and with forks the pieces steep
Down in the water, that they may not swim.
And the good Master said to me: 'Now creep
Behind a rocky splinter for a screen;
So from their knowledge thou thyself shalt keep.
And fear not thou although with outrage keen
I be opposed, for I am well prepared,
And formerly have in like contest been.'
Then passing from the bridge's crown he fared
To the sixth bank, and when thereon he stood
He needed courage doing what he dared.
In the same furious and tempestuous mood
In which the dogs upon the beggar leap,
Who, halting suddenly, seeks alms or food,
They issued forth from underneath the deep
Vault of the bridge, with grapplers 'gainst him stretched;
But he exclaimed: 'Aloof, and harmless keep!
Ere I by any of your hooks be touched,
Come one of you and to my words give ear;
And then advise you if I should be clutched.'
All cried: 'Let Malacoda then go near;'
On which one moved, the others standing still.
He coming said: 'What will this help him here?'
'O Malacoda, is it credible
That I am come,' my Master then replied,
'Secure your opposition to repel,
Without Heaven's will, and fate, upon my side?
Let me advance, for 'tis by Heaven's behest
That I on this rough road another guide.'
Then was his haughty spirit so depressed,
He let his hook drop sudden to his feet,
And, 'Strike him not!' commanded all the rest
My Leader charged me thus: 'Thou, from thy seat
Where 'mid the bridge's ribs thou crouchest low,
Rejoin me now in confidence complete.'
Whereon I to rejoin him was not slow;
And then the devils, crowding, came so near,
I feared they to their paction false might show.
So at Caprona saw I footmen fear,
Spite of their treaty, when a multitude
Of foes received them, crowding front and rear.
With all my body braced I closer stood
To him, my Leader, and intently eyed
The aspect of them, which was far from good.
Lowering their grapplers, 'mong themselves they cried:
'Shall I now tickle him upon the thigh?'
'Yea, see thou clip him deftly,' one replied.
The demon who in parley had drawn nigh
Unto my Leader, upon this turned round;
'Scarmiglione, lay thy weapon by!'
He said; and then to us: 'No way is found
Further along this cliff, because, undone,
All the sixth arch lies ruined on the ground.
But if it please you further to pass on,
Over this rocky ridge advancing climb
To the next rib, where passage may be won.
Yestreen, but five hours later than this time,
Twelve hundred sixty-six years reached an end,
Since the way lost the wholeness of its prime.
Thither I some of mine will straightway send
To see that none peer forth to breathe the air:
Go on with them; you they will not offend.
You, Alichin and Calcabrin, prepare
To move,' he bade; 'Cagnazzo, thou as well;
Guiding the ten, thou, Barbariccia, fare.
With Draghignazzo, Libicocco fell,
Fanged Ciriatto, Graffiacane too,
Search on all quarters round the boiling glue.
Let these go safe, till at the bridge they be,
Which doth unbroken o'er the caverns go.'
'Alas, my Master, what is this I see?'
Said I, 'Unguided, let us forward set,
If thou know'st how. I wish no company.
If former caution thou dost not forget,
Dost thou not mark how each his teeth doth grind,
The while toward us their brows are full of threat?'
And he: 'I would not fear should fill thy mind;
Let them grin all they will, and all they can;
'Tis at the wretches in the pitch confined.'
They wheeled and down the left hand bank began
To march, but first each bit his tongue, and passed
The signal on to him who led the van.
He answered grossly as with trumpet blast.
 _From bridge to bridge_: They cross the barrier separating the
 _The Venetians_: But for this picturesque description of the old
 _A sinner_: This is the only instance in the _Inferno_ of the
 _Malebranche_: Evil Claws, the name of the devils who have the
sinners of this Bolgia in charge.
 _Santa Zita's town_: Zita was a holy serving-woman of Lucca, who
 _Save Bonturo_, _barrates, etc._: It is the barrators, those who
 _The Sacred Countenance_: An image in cedar wood, of Byzantine
 _The Serchio_: The stream which flows past Lucca.
 _A hundred hooks_: So many devils with their pronged hooks were
 _The sixth bank_: Dante remains on the crown of the arch
 _What will this, etc._: As if he said: What good will this delay
 _At Caprona_: Dante was one of the mounted militia sent by
Florence in 1289 to help the Lucchese against the Pisans, and was
 _Yestreen, etc._: This is the principal passage in the _Comedy_
 _Alichino, etc._: The names of the devils are all descriptive:
 _Unbroken_: Malacoda repeats his lie.
Horsemen I've seen in march across the field,
Hastening to charge, or, answering muster, stand,
And sometimes too when forced their ground to yield;
I have seen skirmishers upon your land,
O Aretines! and those on foray sent;
With trumpet and with bell to sound command
Have seen jousts run and well-fought tournament,
With drum, and signal from the castle shown,
And foreign music with familiar blent;
But ne'er by blast on such a trumpet blown
Beheld I horse or foot to motion brought,
Nor ship by star or landmark guided on.
With the ten demons moved we from the spot;
Ah, cruel company! but 'with the good
In church, and in the tavern with the sot.'
Still to the pitch was my attention glued
Fully to see what in the Bolgia lay,
And who were in its burning mass imbrued.
As when the dolphins vaulted backs display,
Warning to mariners they should prepare
To trim their vessel ere the storm makes way;
So, to assuage the pain he had to bear,
Some wretch would show his back above the tide,
Then swifter plunge than lightnings cleave the air.
And as the frogs close to the marsh's side
With muzzles thrust out of the water stand,
While feet and bodies carefully they hide;
So stood the sinners upon every hand.
But on beholding Barbariccia nigh
Beneath the bubbles disappeared the band.
I saw what still my heart is shaken by:
One waiting, as it sometimes comes to pass
That one frog plunges, one at rest doth lie;
And Graffiacan, who nearest to him was,
Him upward drew, clutching his pitchy hair:
To me he bore the look an otter has.
I of their names ere this was well aware,
For I gave heed unto the names of all
When they at first were chosen. 'Now prepare,
And, Rubicante, with thy talons fall
Upon him and flay well,' with many cries
And one consent the accursed ones did call.
I said: 'O Master, if in any wise
Thou canst, find out who is the wretched wight
Thus at the mercy of his enemies.'
Whereon my Guide drew full within his sight,
Asking him whence he came, and he replied:
'In kingdom of Navarre I first saw light.
Me servant to a lord my mother tied;
Through her I from a scoundrel sire did spring,
Waster of goods and of himself beside.
As servant next to Thiebault, righteous king,
I set myself to ply barratorship;
And in this heat discharge my reckoning.'
And Ciriatto, close upon whose lip
On either side a boar-like tusk did stand,
Made him to feel how one of them could rip.
The mouse had stumbled on the wild cat band;
But Barbariccia locked him in embrace,
And, 'Off while I shall hug him!' gave command.
Round to my Master then he turned his face:
'Ask more of him if more thou wouldest know,
While he against their fury yet finds grace.'
My Leader asked: 'Declare now if below
The pitch 'mong all the guilty there lies here
A Latian?' He replied: 'Short while ago
From one I parted who to them lived near;
And would that I might use him still for shield,
Then hook or claw I should no longer fear,'
Said Libicocco: 'Too much grace we yield.'
And in the sinner's arm he fixed his hook,
And from it clean a fleshy fragment peeled.
But seeing Draghignazzo also took
Aim at his legs, the leader of the Ten
Turned swiftly round on them with angry look.
On this they were a little quieted; then
Of him who still gazed on his wound my Guide
Without delay demanded thus again:
'Who was it whom, in coming to the side,
Thou say'st thou didst do ill to leave behind?'
'Gomita of Gallura,' he replied,
'A vessel full of fraud of every kind,
Who, holding in his power his master's foes,
So used them him they bear in thankful mind;
For, taking bribes, he let slip all of those,
He says; and he in other posts did worse,
And as a chieftain 'mong barrators rose.
Don Michael Zanche doth with him converse,
From Logodoro, and with endless din
They gossip of Sardinian characters.
But look, ah me! how yonder one doth grin.
More would I say, but that I am afraid
He is about to claw me on the skin.'
To Farfarel the captain turned his head,
For, as about to swoop, he rolled his eye,
And, 'Cursed hawk, preserve thy distance!' said.
'If ye would talk with, or would closer spy,'
The frighted wretch began once more to say,
'Tuscans or Lombards, I will bring them nigh.
But let the Malebranche first give way,
That of their vengeance they may not have fear,
And I to this same place where now I stay
For me, who am but one, will bring seven near
When I shall whistle as we use to do
Whenever on the surface we appear.'
On this Cagnazzo up his muzzle threw,
Shaking his head and saying: 'Hear the cheat
He has contrived, to throw himself below.'
Then he who in devices was complete:
'Far too malicious, in good sooth,' replied,
'When for my friends I plan a sorer fate.'
This, Alichin withstood not but denied
The others' counsel, saying: 'If thou fling
Thyself hence, thee I strive not to outstride.
But o'er the pitch I'll dart upon the wing.
Leave we the ridge, and be the bank a shield;
And see if thou canst all of us outspring.'
O Reader, hear a novel trick revealed.
All to the other side turned round their eyes,
He first who slowest was the boon to yield.
In choice of time the Navarrese was wise;
Taking firm stand, himself he forward flung,
Eluding thus their hostile purposes.
Then with compunction each of them was stung,
But he the most whose slackness made them fail;
Therefore he started, 'Caught!' upon his tongue.
But little it bested, nor could prevail
His wings 'gainst fear. Below the other went,
While he with upturned breast aloft did sail.
And as the falcon, when, on its descent,
The wild duck suddenly dives out of sight,
Returns outwitted back, and malcontent;
To be befooled filled Calcabrin with spite.
Hovering he followed, wishing in his mind
The wretch escaping should leave cause for fight.
When the barrator vanished, from behind
He on his comrade with his talons fell
And clawed him, 'bove the moat with him entwined.
The other was a spar-hawk terrible
To claw in turn; together then the two
Plunged in the boiling pool. The heat full well
How to unlock their fierce embraces knew;
But yet they had no power to rise again,
So were their wings all plastered o'er with glue.
Then Barbariccia, mourning with his train,
Caused four to fly forth to the other side
With all their grapplers. Swift their flight was ta'en.
Down to the place from either hand they glide,
Reaching their hooks to those who were limed fast,
And now beneath the scum were being fried.
And from them thus engaged we onward passed.
 _O Aretines_: Dante is mentioned as having taken part in the
 _Bell_: The use of the bell for martial music was common in the
 _Beneath the bubbles, etc._: As the barrators took toll of the
 _Their names_: The names of all the demons. All of them urge
 _In kingdom of Navarre, etc._: The commentators give the name of
 _Thiebault_: King of Navarre and second of that name. He
 _Gomita of Gallura_: 'Friar Gomita' was high in favour with Nino
prisoners free for bribes.
 _Don Michael Zanche_: Enzo, King of Sardinia, married Adelasia,
 _They gossip, etc._: Zanche's experience of Sardinia was of an
 _The others' counsel_: Alichino, confident in his own powers, is
 _He first, etc._: Cagnazzo. See line 106.
 _No power_: The foolish ineptitude of the devils for anything
Silent, alone, not now with company
We onward went, one first and one behind,
As Minor Friars use to make their way.
On AEsop's fable wholly was my mind
Intent, by reason of that contest new--
The fable where the frog and mouse we find;
For _Mo_ and _Issa_ are not more of hue
Than like the fable shall the fact appear,
If but considered with attention due.
And as from one thought springs the next, so here
Out of my first arose another thought,
Until within me doubled was my fear.
For thus I judged: Seeing through us were brought
Contempt upon them, hurt, and sore despite,
They needs must be to deep vexation wrought.
If anger to malevolence unite,
Then will they us more cruelly pursue
Than dog the hare which almost feels its bite.
All my hair bristled, I already knew,
With terror when I spake: 'O Master, try
To hide us quick' (and back I turned to view
What lay behind), 'for me they terrify,
These Malebranche following us; from dread
I almost fancy I can feel them nigh.'
And he: 'Were I a mirror backed with lead
I should no truer glass that form of thine,
Than all thy thought by mine is answered.
For even now thy thoughts accord with mine,
Alike in drift and featured with one face;
And to suggest one counsel they combine.
If the right bank slope downward at this place,
To the next Bolgia offering us a way,
Swiftly shall we evade the imagined chase.'
Ere he completely could his purpose say,
I saw them with their wings extended wide,
Close on us; as of us to make their prey.
Then quickly was I snatched up by my Guide:
Even as a mother when, awaked by cries,
She sees the flames are kindling at her side,
Delaying not, seizes her child and flies;
Careful for him her proper danger mocks,
Nor even with one poor shift herself supplies.
And he, stretched out upon the flinty rocks,
Himself unto the precipice resigned
Which one side of the other Bolgia blocks.
A swifter course ne'er held a stream confined,
That it may turn a mill, within its race,
Where near the buckets 'tis the most declined
Than was my Master's down that rock's sheer face;
Nor seemed I then his comrade, as we sped,
But like a son locked in a sire's embrace.
And barely had his feet struck on the bed
Of the low ground, when they were seen to stand
Upon the crest, no more a cause of dread.
For Providence supreme, who so had planned
In the Fifth Bolgia they should minister,
Them wholly from departure thence had banned.
'Neath us we saw a painted people fare,
Weeping as on their way they circled slow,
Crushed by fatigue to look at, and despair.
Cloaks had they on with hoods pulled down full low
Upon their eyes, and fashioned, as it seemed,
Like those which at Cologne for monks they sew.
The outer face was gilt so that it gleamed;
Inside was all of lead, of such a weight
Frederick's to these had been but straw esteemed.
O weary robes for an eternal state!
With them we turned to the left hand once more,
Intent upon their tears disconsolate.
But those folk, wearied with the loads they bore,
So slowly crept that still new company
Was ours at every footfall on the floor.
Whence to my Guide I said: 'Do thou now try
To find some one by name or action known,
And as we go on all sides turn thine eye.'
And one, who recognised the Tuscan tone,
Called from behind us: 'Halt, I you entreat
Who through the air obscure are hastening on;
Haply in me thou what thou seek'st shalt meet.'
Whereon my Guide turned round and said: 'Await,
And keep thou time with pacing of his feet.'
I stood, and saw two manifesting great
Desire to join me, by their countenance;
But their loads hampered them and passage strait.
And, when arrived, me with an eye askance
They gazed on long time, but no word they spoke;
Then, to each other turned, held thus parlance:
'His heaving throat proves him of living folk.
If they are of the dead, how could they gain
To walk uncovered by the heavy cloak?'
Then to me: 'Tuscan, who dost now attain
To the college of the hypocrites forlorn,
To tell us who thou art show no disdain.'
And I to them: 'I was both bred and born
In the great city by fair Arno's stream,
And wear the body I have always worn.
But who are ye, whose suffering supreme
Makes tears, as I behold, to flood the cheek;
And what your mode of pain that thus doth gleam?'
'Ah me, the yellow mantles,' one to speak
Began, 'are all of lead so thick, its weight
Maketh the scales after this manner creak.
We, Merry Friars of Bologna's state,
Were by thy town together designate,
As for the most part one is used to be,
To keep the peace within it; and around
Gardingo, what we were men still may see.'
I made beginning: 'Friars, your profound--'
But said no more, on suddenly seeing there
One crucified by three stakes to the ground,
Who, when he saw me, writhed as in despair,
Breathing into his beard with heavy sigh.
And Friar Catalan, of this aware,
Said: 'He thus fixed, on whom thou turn'st thine eye,
Counselled the Pharisees that it behoved
One man as victim for the folk should die.
Naked, thou seest, he lies, and ne'er removed
From where, set 'cross the path, by him the weight
Of every one that passes by is proved.
And his wife's father shares an equal fate,
With others of the Council, in this fosse;
Meanwhile at him thus stretched upon the cross
Virgil, I saw, displayed astonishment--
At his mean exile and eternal loss.
And then this question to the Friars he sent:
'Be not displeased, but, if ye may, avow
If on the right hand there lies any vent
By which we, both of us, from hence may go,
Nor need the black angelic company
To come to help us from this valley low.'
'Nearer than what thou think'st,' he made reply,
'A rib there runs from the encircling wall,
The cruel vales in turn o'erarching high;
Save that at this 'tis rent and ruined all.
Ye can climb upward o'er the shattered heap
Where down the side the piled-up fragments fall.'
His head bent down a while my Guide did keep,
Then said: 'He warned us in imperfect wise,
Who sinners with his hook doth clutch and steep.'
The Friar: 'At Bologna many a vice
I heard the Devil charged with, and among
The rest that, false, he father is of lies.'
Then onward moved my Guide with paces long,
And some slight shade of anger on his face.
I with him parted from the burdened throng,
Stepping where those dear feet had left their trace.
 _Mo_ and _Issa_: Two words for _now_.
 _Through us_: The quarrel among the fiends arose from Dante's
insatiable desire to confer with 'Tuscan or Lombard.'
 _To the next Bolgia_: The Sixth. They are now on the top of the
 _No more a cause of dread_: There seems some incongruity between
 _Cologne_: Some make it Clugny, the great Benedictine monastery;
 _Frederick's, etc._: The Emperor Frederick II.; but that he used
 _An eye askance_: They cannot turn their heads.
 _Gardingo_: A quarter of Florence, in which many palaces were
destroyed about the time of the Podestaship of the Frati.
 _One man as victim_: _St. John_ xi. 50. Caiaphas and Annas, with
 _On the right_: As they are moving round the Bolgia to the left,
 _The encircling wall_: That which encloses all the Malebolge.
 _He warned us_: Malacoda (_Inf._ xxi. 109) had assured him that
In season of the new year, when the sun
Beneath Aquarius warms again his hair,
And somewhat on the nights the days have won;
When on the ground the hoar-frost painteth fair
A mimic image of her sister white--
But soon her brush of colour is all bare--
The clown, whose fodder is consumed outright,
Rises and looks abroad, and, all the plain
Beholding glisten, on his thigh doth smite.
Returned indoors, like wretch that seeks in vain
What he should do, restless he mourns his case;
But hope revives when, looking forth again,
He sees the earth anew has changed its face.
Then with his crook he doth himself provide,
And straightway doth his sheep to pasture chase:
So at my Master was I terrified,
His brows beholding troubled; nor more slow
To where I ailed the plaster was applied.
For when the broken bridge we stood below
My Guide turned to me with the expression sweet
Which I beneath the mountain learned to know.
His arms he opened, after counsel meet
Held with himself, and, scanning closely o'er
The fragments first, he raised me from my feet;
And like a man who, working, looks before,
With foresight still on that in front bestowed,
Me to the summit of a block he bore
And then to me another fragment showed,
Saying: 'By this thou now must clamber on;
But try it first if it will bear thy load.'
The heavy cowled this way could ne'er have gone,
For hardly we, I holpen, he so light,
Could clamber up from shattered stone to stone.
And but that on the inner bank the height
Of wall is not so great, I say not he,
But for myself I had been vanquished quite.
But Malebolge to the cavity
Of the deep central pit is planned to fall;
Hence every Bolgia in its turn must be
High on the out, low on the inner wall;
So to the summit we attained at last,
Whence breaks away the topmost stone of all.
My lungs were so with breathlessness harassed,
The summit won, I could no further go;
And, hardly there, me on the ground I cast
'Well it befits that thou shouldst from thee throw
All sloth,' the Master said; 'for stretched in down
Or under awnings none can glory know.
And he who spends his life nor wins renown
Leaves in the world no more enduring trace
Than smoke in air, or foam on water blown.
Therefore arise; o'ercome thy breathlessness
By force of will, victor in every fight
When not subservient to the body base.
Of stairs thou yet must climb a loftier flight:
'Tis not enough to have ascended these.
Up then and profit if thou hear'st aright.'
Rising I feigned to breathe with greater ease
Than what I felt, and spake: 'Now forward plod,
For with my courage now my strength agrees.'
Up o'er the rocky rib we held our road;
And rough it was and difficult and strait,
And steeper far than that we earlier trod.
Speaking I went, to hide my wearied state,
When from the neighbouring moat a voice we heard
Which seemed ill fitted to articulate.
Of what it said I knew not any word,
Though on the arch that vaults the moat set high;
But he who spake appeared by anger stirred.
Though I bent downward yet my eager eye,
So dim the depth, explored it all in vain;
I then: 'O Master, to that bank draw nigh,
And let us by the wall descent obtain,
Because I hear and do not understand,
And looking down distinguish nothing plain.'
'My sole reply to thee,' he answered bland,
'Is to perform; for it behoves,' he said,
'With silent act to answer just demand.'
Then we descended from the bridge's head,
Where with the eighth bank is its junction wrought;
And full beneath me was the Bolgia spread.
And I perceived that hideously 'twas fraught
With serpents; and such monstrous forms they bore,
Even now my blood is curdled at the thought.
Henceforth let sandy Libya boast no more!
Though she breed hydra, snake that crawls or flies,
Twy-headed, or fine-speckled, no such store
Of plagues, nor near so cruel, she supplies,
Though joined to all the land of Ethiop,
And that which by the Red Sea waters lies.
'Midst this fell throng and dismal, without hope
A naked people ran, aghast with fear--
No covert for them and no heliotrope.
Their hands were bound by serpents at their rear,
Which in their reins for head and tail did get
A holding-place: in front they knotted were.
And lo! to one who on our side was set
A serpent darted forward, him to bite
At where the neck is by the shoulders met.
Nor _O_ nor _I_ did any ever write
More quickly than he kindled, burst in flame,
And crumbled all to ashes. And when quite
He on the earth a wasted heap became,
The ashes of themselves together rolled,
Resuming suddenly their former frame.
Thus, as by mighty sages we are told,
The Phoenix dies, and then is born again,
When it is close upon five centuries old.
In all its life it eats not herb nor grain,
But only tears that from frankincense flow;
It, for a shroud, sweet nard and myrrh contain.
And as the man who falls and knows not how,
By force of demons stretched upon the ground,
Or by obstruction that makes life run low,
When risen up straight gazes all around
In deep confusion through the anguish keen
He suffered from, and stares with sighs profound:
So was the sinner, when arisen, seen.
Justice of God, how are thy terrors piled,
Showering in vengeance blows thus big with teen!
My Guide then asked of him how he was styled.
Whereon he said: 'From Tuscany I rained,
Not long ago, into this gullet wild.
From bestial life, not human, joy I gained,
Mule that I was; me, Vanni Fucci, brute,
Pistoia, fitting den, in life contained.'
I to my Guide: 'Bid him not budge a foot,
And ask what crime has plunged him here below.
In rage and blood I knew him dissolute.'
The sinner heard, nor insincere did show,
But towards me turned his face and eke his mind,
With spiteful shame his features all aglow;
Then said: 'It pains me more thou shouldst me find
And catch me steeped in all this misery,
Than when the other life I left behind.
What thou demandest I can not deny:
I'm plunged thus low because the thief I played
Within the fairly furnished sacristy;
And falsely to another's charge 'twas laid.
Lest thou shouldst joy such sight has met thy view
If e'er these dreary regions thou evade,
Give ear and hearken to my utterance true:
The Neri first out of Pistoia fail,
Her laws and parties Florence shapes anew;
Mars draws a vapour out of Magra's vale,
Which black and threatening clouds accompany:
Then bursting in a tempest terrible
Upon Piceno shall the war run high;
The mist by it shall suddenly be rent,
And every Bianco smitten be thereby:
And I have told thee that thou mayst lament.'
 _Aquarius_: The sun is in the constellation of Aquarius from the
perplexity as to how they are to escape from the Bolgia; and his
 _The broken bridge_: They are about to escape from the bottom of
 _The heavy cowled_: He finds his illustration on the spot, his
mind being still full of the grievously burdened hypocrites.
 _But Malebolge, etc._: Each Bolgia in turn lies at a lower level
 _The topmost stone_: The stone that had formed the beginning of
the arch at this end of it.
 _A loftier flight_: When he ascends the Mount of Purgatory.
 _The arch, etc._: He has gone on hiding his weariness till he is
 _Their hands, etc._: The sinners in this Bolgia are the thieves,
 _The ashes, etc._: The sufferings of the thieves, if looked
 _The Phoenix_: Dante here borrows very directly from Ovid
 _And ask, etc._: Dante wishes to find out why Fucci is placed
acquaintance and old enmity.
 _Lest thou shouldst joy_: Vanni, a _Nero_ or Black, takes his
The robber, when his words were ended so,
Made both the figs and lifted either fist,
Shouting: 'There, God! for them at thee I throw.'
Then were the snakes my friends; for one 'gan twist
And coiled itself around the sinner's throat,
As if to say: 'Now would I have thee whist.'
Another seized his arms and made a knot,
Clinching itself upon them in such wise
He had no power to move them by a jot.
Pistoia! thou, Pistoia, shouldst devise
To burn thyself to ashes, since thou hast
Outrun thy founders in iniquities.
The blackest depths of Hell through which I passed
Showed me no soul 'gainst God so filled with spite,
No, not even he who down Thebes' wall was cast.
He spake no further word, but turned to flight;
And I beheld a Centaur raging sore
Come shouting: 'Of the ribald give me sight!'
I scarce believe Maremma yieldeth more
Snakes of all kinds than what composed the load
Which on his back, far as our form, he bore.
Behind his nape, with pinions spread abroad,
A dragon couchant on his shoulders lay
To set on fire whoever bars his road.
'This one is Cacus,' did my Master say,
'Who underneath the rock of Aventine
Watered a pool with blood day after day.
Not with his brethren runs he in the line,
Because of yore the treacherous theft he wrought
Upon the neighbouring wealthy herd of kine:
Whence to his crooked course an end was brought
'Neath Hercules' club, which on him might shower down
A hundred blows; ere ten he suffered nought.'
While this he said, the other had passed on;
And under us three spirits forward pressed
Of whom my Guide and I had nothing known
But that: 'Who are ye?' they made loud request.
Whereon our tale no further could proceed;
And toward them wholly we our wits addressed.
I recognised them not, but gave good heed;
Till, as it often haps in such a case,
To name another, one discovered need,
Saying: 'Now where stopped Cianfa in the race?'
Then, that my Guide might halt and hearken well,
On chin and nose I did my finger place.
If, Reader, to believe what now I tell
Thou shouldst be slow, I wonder not, for I
Who saw it all scarce find it credible.
While I on them my brows kept lifted high
A serpent, which had six feet, suddenly flew
At one of them and held him bodily.
Its middle feet about his paunch it drew,
And with the two in front his arms clutched fast,
And bit one cheek and the other through and through.
Its hinder feet upon his thighs it cast,
Thrusting its tail between them till behind,
Distended o'er his reins, it upward passed.
The ivy to a tree could never bind
Itself so firmly as this dreadful beast
Its members with the other's intertwined.
Each lost the colour that it once possessed,
And closely they, like heated wax, unite,
The former hue of neither manifest:
Even so up o'er papyrus, when alight,
Before the flame there spreads a colour dun,
Not black as yet, though from it dies the white.
The other two meanwhile were looking on,
Crying: 'Agnello, how art thou made new!
Thou art not twain, and yet no longer one.'
A single head was moulded out of two;
And on our sight a single face arose,
Which out of both lost countenances grew.
Four separate limbs did but two arms compose;
Belly with chest, and legs with thighs did grow
To members such as nought created shows.
Their former fashion was all perished now:
The perverse shape did both, yet neither seem;
And, thus transformed, departed moving slow.
And as the lizard, which at fierce extreme
Of dog-day heat another hedge would gain,
Flits 'cross the path swift as the lightning's gleam;
Right for the bellies of the other twain
A little snake quivering with anger sped,
Livid and black as is a pepper grain,
And on the part by which we first are fed
Pierced one of them; and then upon the ground
It fell before him, and remained outspread.
The wounded gazed on it, but made no sound.
Rooted he stood and yawning, scarce awake,
As seized by fever or by sleep profound.
It closely watched him and he watched the snake,
While from its mouth and from his wound 'gan swell
Volumes of smoke which joined one cloud to make.
Of plagued Sabellus and Nassidius,
But, hearkening to what follows, mark it well.
Silent be Ovid: of him telling us
How Cadmus to a snake, and to a fount
Changed Arethuse, I am not envious;
For never of two natures front to front
In metamorphosis, while mutually
The forms their matter changed, he gives account.
'Twas thus that each to the other made reply:
Its tail into a fork the serpent split;
Bracing his feet the other pulled them nigh:
And then in one so thoroughly were knit
His legs and thighs, no searching could divine
At where the junction had been wrought in it.
The shape, of which the one lost every sign,
The cloven tail was taking; then the skin
Of one grew rough, the other's soft and fine.
I by the armpits saw the arms drawn in;
And now the monster's feet, which had been small,
What the other's lost in length appeared to win.
Together twisted, its hind feet did fall
And grew the member men are used to hide:
For his the wretch gained feet with which to crawl.
Dyed in the smoke they took on either side
A novel colour: hair unwonted grew
On one; the hair upon the other died.
The one fell prone, erect the other drew,
With cruel eyes continuing to glare,
'Neath which their muzzles metamorphose knew.
The erect to his brows drew his. Of stuff to spare
Of what he upward pulled, there was no lack;
So ears were formed on cheeks that erst were bare.
Of that which clung in front nor was drawn back,
Superfluous, on the face was formed a nose,
And lips absorbed the skin that still was slack.
His muzzle who lay prone now forward goes;
Backward into his head his ears he draws
Even as a snail appears its horns to lose.
The tongue, which had been whole and ready was
For speech, cleaves now; the forked tongue of the snake
Joins in the other: and the smoke has pause.
The soul which thus a brutish form did take,
Along the valley, hissing, swiftly fled;
The other close behind it spluttering spake,
Then, toward it turning his new shoulders, said
Unto the third: 'Now Buoso down the way
May hasten crawling, as I earlier sped.'
Ballast which in the Seventh Bolgia lay
Thus saw I shift and change. Be my excuse
The novel theme, if swerves my pen astray.
And though these things mine eyesight might confuse
A little, and my mind with fear divide,
Such secrecy they fleeing could not use
But that Puccio Sciancatto plain I spied;
And he alone of the companions three
Who came at first, was left unmodified.
For the other, tears, Gaville, are shed by thee.
 _The robber, etc._: By means of his prophecy Fucci has, after a
fashion, taken revenge on Dante for being found by him among the
 _Pistoia_: The Pistoiese bore the reputation of being hard and
 _Our tale_: Of Cacus. It is interrupted by the arrival of three
Florentine thieves of quality.
 _Cianfa_: Another Florentine gentleman, one of the Donati. Since
six-footed serpent. Immediately appearing, he darts upon Agnello.
 _On chin, etc._: A gesture by which silence is requested. The
mention of Cianfa shows Dante that he is among Florentines.
 _A little snake_: As transpires from the last line of the Canto,
 _The forms, etc._: The word _form_ is here to be taken in its
 _The novel theme_: He has lingered longer than usual on this
Bolgia, and pleads wonder of what he saw in excuse either of his
 _Gaville_: The other, and the only one of those five Florentine
serpent, comes and throws himself on Agnello, and then, grown
Rejoice, O Florence, in thy widening fame!
Thy wings thou beatest over land and sea,
And even through Inferno spreads thy name.
Burghers of thine, five such were found by me
Among the thieves; whence I ashamed grew,
Nor shall great glory thence redound to thee.
But if 'tis toward the morning dreams are true,
Thou shalt experience ere long time be gone
The doom even Prato prays for as thy due.
And came it now, it would not come too soon.
Would it were come as come it must with time:
'Twill crush me more the older I am grown.
Departing thence, my Guide began to climb
The jutting rocks by which we made descent
Some while ago, and pulled me after him.
And as upon our lonely way we went
'Mong splinters of the cliff, the feet in vain,
Without the hand to help, had labour spent.
I sorrowed, and am sorrow-smit again,
Recalling what before mine eyes there lay,
And, more than I am wont, my genius rein
From running save where virtue leads the way;
So that if happy star or holier might
Have gifted me I never mourn it may.
At time of year when he who gives earth light
His face shows to us longest visible,
When gnats replace the fly at fall of night,
Not by the peasant resting on the hill
Are seen more fire-flies in the vale below,
Where he perchance doth field and vineyard till,
Than flamelets I beheld resplendent glow
Throughout the whole Eighth Bolgia, when at last
I stood whence I the bottom plain could know.
And as he whom the bears avenged, when passed
From the earth Elijah, saw the chariot rise
With horses heavenward reared and mounting fast,
And no long time had traced it with his eyes
Till but a flash of light it all became,
Which like a rack of cloud swept to the skies:
Deep in the valley's gorge, in mode the same,
These flitted; what it held by none was shown,
And yet a sinner lurked in every flame.
To see them well I from the bridge peered down,
And if a jutting crag I had not caught
I must have fallen, though neither thrust nor thrown.
My Leader me beholding lost in thought:
'In all the fires are spirits,' said to me;
'His flame round each is for a garment wrought.'
'O Master!' I replied, 'by hearing thee
I grow assured, but yet I knew before
That thus indeed it was, and longed to be
Told who is in the flame which there doth soar,
Cloven, as if ascending from the pyre
Where with Eteocles there burned of yore
His brother.' He: 'Ulysses in that fire
And Diomedes burn; in punishment
Thus held together, as they held in ire.
And, wrapped within their flame, they now repent
The ambush of the horse, which oped the door
Through which the Romans' noble seed forth went.
For guile Deidamia makes deplore
In death her lost Achilles, tears they shed,
And bear for the Palladium vengeance sore.'
'Master, I pray thee fervently,' I said,
'If from those flames they still can utter speech--
Give ear as if a thousand times I pled!
Refuse not here to linger, I beseech,
Until the cloven fire shall hither gain:
Thou seest how toward it eagerly I reach.'
And he: 'Thy prayers are worthy to obtain
Exceeding praise; thou hast what thou dost seek:
But see that thou from speech thy tongue refrain.
I know what thou wouldst have; leave me to speak,
For they perchance would hear contemptuously
Shouldst thou address them, seeing they were Greek.'
Soon as the flame toward us had come so nigh
That to my Leader time and place seemed met,
I heard him thus adjure it to reply:
'O ye who twain within one fire are set,
If what I did your guerdon meriteth,
If much or little ye are in my debt
For the great verse I built while I had breath,
By one of you be openly confessed
Where, lost to men, at last he met with death.'
Of the ancient flame the more conspicuous crest
Murmuring began to waver up and down
Like flame that flickers, by the wind distressed.
At length by it was measured motion shown,
Like tongue that moves in speech; and by the flame
Was language uttered thus: 'When I had gone
From Circe who a long year kept me tame
Beside her, ere the near Gaeta had
Received from AEneas that new name;
No softness for my son, nor reverence sad
For my old father, nor the love I owed
Penelope with which to make her glad,
Could quench the ardour that within me glowed
A full experience of the world to gain--
Of human vice and worth. But I abroad
Launched out upon the high and open main
With but one bark and but the little band
Which ne'er deserted me. As far as Spain
I saw the sea-shore upon either hand,
And as Morocco; saw Sardinia's isle,
And all of which those waters wash the strand.
I and my comrades were grown old the while
And sluggish, ere we to the narrows came
Where Hercules of old did landmarks pile
For sign to men they should no further aim;
And Seville lay behind me on the right,
As on the left lay Ceuta. Then to them
I spake: "O Brothers, who through such a fight
Of hundred thousand dangers West have won,
In this short watch that ushers in the night
Of all your senses, ere your day be done,
Refuse not to obtain experience new
Of worlds unpeopled, yonder, past the sun.
Consider whence the seed of life ye drew;
Ye were not born to live like brutish herd,
But righteousness and wisdom to ensue."
My comrades to such eagerness were stirred
By this short speech the course to enter on,
They had no longer brooked restraining word.
Turning our poop to where the morning shone
We of the oars made wings for our mad flight,
Still tending left the further we had gone.
And of the other pole I saw at night
Now all the stars; and 'neath the watery plain
Our own familiar heavens were lost to sight.
Five times afresh had kindled, and again
The moon's face earthward was illumed no more,
Since out we sailed upon the mighty main;
Then we beheld a lofty mountain soar,
Dim in the distance; higher, as I thought,
By far than any I had seen before.
We joyed; but with despair were soon distraught
When burst a whirlwind from the new-found world
And the forequarter of the vessel caught.
With all the waters thrice it round was swirled;
At the fourth time the poop, heaved upward, rose,
The prow, as pleased Another, down was hurled;
And then above us did the ocean close.'
 _Toward the morning, etc._: There was a widespread belief in the
 _Some while ago_: See note, _Inf._ xxiv. 79.
 _'Mong splinters, etc._: They cross the wall or barrier between
 _Happy star_: See note, _Inf._ xv. 55. Dante seems to have been
 _Field and vineyard_: These lines, redolent of the sweet Tuscan
 _And yet a sinner, etc._: The false counsellors who for selfish
 _Eteocles_: Son of Oedipus and twin brother of Polynices. The
 _Deidamia_: That Achilles might be kept from joining the Greek
 _The Palladium_: The Trojan sacred image of Pallas, stolen by
 _From Circe_: It is Ulysses that speaks.
 _The open main_: The Mediterranean as distinguished from the
AEgean.
 _Which ne'er deserted me_: There seems no reason for supposing,
 _The mighty main_: The Atlantic Ocean. They bear to the left as
 _A lofty mountain_: This is the Mountain of Purgatory, according
 _As pleased Another_: Ulysses is proudly resigned to the failure
Now, having first erect and silent grown
(For it would say no more), from us the flame,
The Poet sweet consenting, had moved on;
And then our eyes were turned to one that came
Behind it on the way, by sounds that burst
Out of its crest in a confused stream.
As the Sicilian bull, which bellowed first
With his lamenting--and it was but right--
Who had prepared it with his tools accurst,
Roared with the howlings of the tortured wight,
So that although constructed all of brass
Yet seemed it pierced with anguish to the height;
So, wanting road and vent by which to pass
Up through the flame, into the flame's own speech
The woeful language all converted was.
But when the words at length contrived to reach
The top, while hither thither shook the crest
As moved the tongue at utterance of each,
We heard: 'Oh thou, to whom are now addressed
My words, who spakest now in Lombard phrase:
"Depart; of thee I nothing more request."
Though I be late arrived, yet of thy grace
Let it not irk thee here a while to stay:
It irks not me, yet, as thou seest, I blaze.
If lately to this world devoid of day
From that sweet Latian land thou art come down
Whence all my guilt I bring, declare and say
Has now Romagna peace? because my own
Native abode was in the mountain land
'Tween springs of Tiber and Urbino town.'
While I intent and bending low did stand,
My Leader, as he touched me on the side,
'Speak thou, for he is Latian,' gave command.
Whereon without delay I thus replied--
Because already was my speech prepared:
'Soul, that down there dost in concealment 'bide,
In thy Romagna wars have never spared
And spare not now in tyrants' hearts to rage;
But when I left it there was none declared.
No change has fallen Ravenna for an age.
There, covering Cervia too with outspread wing,
Polenta's Eagle guards his heritage.
Over the city which long suffering
Endured, and Frenchmen slain on Frenchmen rolled,
The Green Paws once again protection fling.
The Mastiffs of Verrucchio, young and old,
Who to Montagna brought such evil cheer,
Still clinch their fangs where they were wont to hold.
Cities, Lamone and Santerno near,
The Lion couched in white are governed by
Which changes party with the changing year.
And that to which the Savio wanders nigh
As it is set 'twixt mountain and champaign
Lives now in freedom now 'neath tyranny.
But who thou art I to be told am fain:
Be not more stubborn than we others found,
As thou on earth illustrious wouldst remain.'
When first the fire a little while had moaned
After its manner, next the pointed crest
Waved to and fro; then in this sense breathed sound:
'If I believed my answer were addressed
To one that earthward shall his course retrace,
This flame should forthwith altogether rest.
But since none ever yet out of this place
Returned alive, if all be true I hear,
I yield thee answer fearless of disgrace.
I was a warrior, then a Cordelier;
Thinking thus girt to purge away my stain:
And sure my hope had met with answer clear
Had not the High Priest--ill with him remain!
Plunged me anew into my former sin:
And why and how, I would to thee make plain.
While I the frame of bones and flesh was in
My mother gave me, all the deeds I wrought
Were fox-like and in no wise leonine.
Of every wile and hidden way I caught
The secret trick, and used them with such sleight
That all the world with fame of it was fraught.
When I perceived I had attained quite
The time of life when it behoves each one
To furl his sails and coil his cordage tight,
Sorrowing for deeds I had with pleasure done,
Contrite and shriven, I religious grew.
Ah, wretched me! and well it was begun
But for the Chieftain of the Pharisees new,
Then waging war hard by the Lateran,
For Christian were his enemies every man,
And none had at the siege of Acre been
Or trafficked in the Empire of Soldan.
His lofty office he held cheap, and e'en
His Sacred Orders and the cord I wore,
Which used to make the wearers of it lean.
As from Soracte Constantine of yore
Sylvester called to cure his leprosy,
I as a leech was called this man before
To cure him of his fever which ran high;
For drunken all his words appeared to be.
He said; "For fear be in thy heart no room;
Beforehand I absolve thee, but declare
How Palestrina I may overcome.
Heaven I unlock, as thou art well aware,
And close at will; because the keys are twin
My predecessor was averse to bear."
Then did his weighty reasoning on me win
Till to be silent seemed the worst of all;
And, "Father," I replied, "since from this sin
Thou dost absolve me into which I fall--
The scant performance of a promise wide
Will yield thee triumph in thy lofty stall."
Francis came for me soon as e'er I died;
But one of the black Cherubim was there
And "Take him not, nor rob me of him" cried,
"For him of right among my thralls I bear
Because he offered counsel fraudulent;
Since when I've had him firmly by the hair.
None is absolved unless he first repent;
Nor can repentance house with purpose ill,
For this the contradiction doth prevent."
Ah, wretched me! How did I shrinking thrill
When clutching me he sneered: "Perhaps of old
Thou didst not think I had in logic skill."
He carried me to Minos: Minos rolled
His tail eight times round his hard back; in ire
Biting it fiercely, ere of me he told:
"Among the sinners of the shrouding fire!"
Therefore am I, where thou beholdest, lost;
And, sore at heart, go clothed in such attire.'
What he would say thus ended by the ghost,
Away from us the moaning flame did glide
While to and fro its pointed horn was tossed.
But we passed further on, I and my Guide,
Along the cliff to where the arch is set
O'er the next moat, where paying they reside,
As schismatics who whelmed themselves in debt.
 _Consenting_: See line 21.
 _One that came_: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of
 _The Sicilian bull_: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris,
 _Accurst_: Not in the original. 'Rime in English hath such
scarcity,' as Chaucer says.
 _As moved the tongue, etc._: The shade being enclosed in the
 _Depart, etc._: One at least of the words quoted as having been
 _'Tween springs, etc._: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the
mountain where the Tiber has its source.
 _Romagna_: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of
 _Ravenna_: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in
 _The Mastiffs of Verrucchio_: Verrucchio was the castle of the
 _The High Priest_: Boniface VIII.
 _The Pharisees new_: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint
 _Which used, etc._: In former times, when the rule of the Order
 _From Soracte_: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for
the cure was the fabulous Donation. See _Inf._ xix. 115.
 _My predecessor_: Celestine v. See _Inf._ iii. 60.
 _The scant performance, etc._: That Guido gave such counsel is
 _Thou didst not think, etc._: Guido had forgot that others could
Could any, even in words unclogged by rhyme
Recount the wounds that now I saw, and blood,
Although he aimed at it time after time?
Here every tongue must fail of what it would,
Because our human speech and powers of thought
To grasp so much come short in aptitude.
If all the people were together brought
Who in Apulia, land distressed by fate,
Made lamentation for the bloodshed wrought
By Rome; and in that war procrastinate
When the large booty of the rings was won,
As Livy writes whose every word has weight;
With those on whom such direful deeds were done
When Robert Guiscard they as foes assailed;
And those of whom still turns up many a bone
At Ceperan, where each Apulian failed
In faith; and those at Tagliacozzo strewed,
Where old Alardo, not by arms, prevailed;
And each his wounds and mutilations showed,
Yet would they far behind by those be left
Who had the vile Ninth Bolgia for abode.
No cask, of middle stave or end bereft,
E'er gaped like one I saw the rest among,
Slit from the chin all downward to the cleft.
Between his legs his entrails drooping hung;
The pluck and that foul bag were evident
Which changes what is swallowed into dung.
And while I gazed upon him all intent,
Opening his breast his eyes on me he set,
Saying: 'Behold, how by myself I'm rent!
See how dismembered now is Mahomet!
Ali in front of me goes weeping too;
With visage from the chin to forelock split.
By all the others whom thou seest there grew
Scandal and schism while yet they breathed the day;
Because of which they now are cloven through.
There stands behind a devil on the way,
Us with his sword thus cruelly to trim:
He cleaves again each of our company
As soon as we complete the circuit grim;
Because the wounds of each are healed outright
Or e'er anew he goes in front of him.
But who art thou that peerest from the height,
It may be putting off to reach the pain
Which shall the crimes confessed by thee requite?'
'Death has not seized him yet, nor is he ta'en
To torment for his sins,' my Master said;
'But, that he may a full experience gain,
By me, a ghost, 'tis doomed he should be led
Down the Infernal circles, round on round;
And what I tell thee is the truth indeed.'
A hundred shades and more, to whom the sound
Had reached, stood in the moat to mark me well,
Their pangs forgot; so did the words astound.
'Let Fra Dolcin provide, thou mayst him tell--
Thou, who perchance ere long shalt sunward go--
Unless he soon would join me in this Hell,
Much food, lest aided by the siege of snow
The Novarese should o'er him victory get,
Which otherwise to win they would be slow.'
While this was said to me by Mahomet
One foot he held uplifted; to the ground
He let it fall, and so he forward set
Next, one whose throat was gaping with a wound,
Whose nose up to the brows away was sheared
And on whose head a single ear was found,
At me, with all the others, wondering peered;
And, ere the rest, an open windpipe made,
The outside of it all with crimson smeared.
'O thou, not here because of guilt,' he said;
'And whom I sure on Latian ground did know
Unless by strong similitude betrayed,
Upon Pier da Medicin bestow
A thought, shouldst thou revisit the sweet plain
That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo.
And make thou known to Fano's worthiest twain--
They, unless foresight here be wholly vain,
Thrown overboard in gyve and manacle
Shall drown fast by Cattolica, as planned
By treachery of a tyrant fierce and fell.
Between Majolica and Cyprus strand
A blacker crime did Neptune never spy
By pirates wrought, or even by Argives' hand.
The traitor who is blinded of an eye,
Lord of the town which of my comrades one
Had been far happier ne'er to have come nigh,
To parley with him will allure them on,
Then so provide, against Focara's blast
No need for them of vow or orison.'
And I: 'Point out and tell, if wish thou hast
To get news of thee to the world conveyed,
Who rues that e'er his eyes thereon were cast?'
On a companion's jaw his hand he laid,
And shouted, while the mouth he open prised:
''Tis this one here by whom no word is said.
He quenched all doubt in Caesar, and advised--
Himself an outlaw--that a man equipped
For strife ran danger if he temporised.'
Alas, to look on, how downcast and hipped
Curio, once bold in counsel, now appeared;
With gorge whence by the roots the tongue was ripped.
Another one, whose hands away were sheared,
In the dim air his stumps uplifted high
So that his visage was with blood besmeared,
And, 'Mosca, too, remember!' loud did cry,
'Who said, ah me! "A thing once done is done!"
An evil seed for all in Tuscany.'
I added: 'Yea, and death to every one
Of thine!' whence he, woe piled on woe, his way
Went like a man with grief demented grown.
But I to watch the gang made longer stay,
And something saw which I should have a fear,
Without more proof, so much as even to say,
But that my conscience bids me have good cheer--
The comrade leal whose friendship fortifies
A man beneath the mail of purpose clear.
I saw in sooth (still seems it 'fore mine eyes),
A headless trunk; with that sad company
It forward moved, and on the selfsame wise.
The severed head, clutched by the hair, swung free
Down from the fist, yea, lantern-like hung down;
Staring at us it murmured: 'Wretched me!'
A lamp he made of head-piece once his own;
And he was two in one and one in two;
But how, to Him who thus ordains is known.
Arrived beneath the bridge and full in view,
With outstretched arm his head he lifted high
To bring his words well to us. These I knew:
'Consider well my grievous penalty,
Thou who, though still alive, art visiting
The people dead; what pain with this can vie?
In order that to earth thou news mayst bring
Of me, that I'm Bertrand de Born know well,
Who gave bad counsel to the Younger King.
I son and sire made each 'gainst each rebel:
David and Absalom were fooled not more
By counsels of the false Ahithophel.
Kinsmen so close since I asunder tore,
Severed, alas! I carry now my brain
From what it grew from in this trunk of yore:
And so I prove the law of pain for pain.'
 _That now I saw_: In the Ninth Bolgia, on which he is looking
 _Apulia_: The south-eastern district of Italy, owing to its
situation a frequent battle-field in ancient and modern times.
 _War procrastinate_: The second Punic war lasted fully fifteen
years, and in the course of it the battle of Cannae was gained by
 _Guiscard_: One of the Norman conquerors of the regions which up
 _Ceperan_: In the swift and decisive campaign undertaken by
 _Tagliacozzo_: The crown Charles had won from Manfred he had to
defend against Manfred's nephew Conradin (grandson and last
 _Mahomet_: It has been objected to Dante by M. Littre that he
 _Ali_: Son-in-law of Mahomet.
 _Fra Dolcin_: At the close of the thirteenth century, Boniface
 _Majolica, etc._: On all the Mediterranean, from Cyprus in the
east to Majorca in the west.
 _The traitor, etc._: The one-eyed traitor is Malatesta, lord of
 _Focara_: The name of a promontory near Cattolica, subject to
squalls. The victims were never to double the headland.
 _Curio_: The Roman Tribune who, according to Lucan--the incident
 _Bertrand de Born_: Is mentioned by Dante in his Treatise _De
 _From what, etc._: The spinal cord, as we should now say, though
 _Pain for pain_: In the City of Dis we found the heresiarchs,
The many folk and wounds of divers kind
Had flushed mine eyes and set them on the flow,
Till I to weep and linger had a mind;
But Virgil said to me: 'Why gazing so?
Why still thy vision fastening on the crew
Of dismal shades dismembered there below?
Thou didst not thus the other Bolgias view:
Think, if to count them be thine enterprise,
The valley circles twenty miles and two.
Beneath our feet the moon already lies;
The time wears fast away to us decreed;
And greater things than these await thine eyes.'
I answered swift: 'Hadst thou but given heed
To why it was my looks were downward bent,
To yet more stay thou mightest have agreed.'
My Guide meanwhile was moving, and I went
Behind him and continued to reply,
Adding: 'Within the moat on which intent
I now was gazing with such eager eye
I trow a spirit weeps, one of my kin,
The crime whose guilt is rated there so high.'
Then said the Master: 'Henceforth hold thou in
Thy thoughts from wandering to him: new things claim
Attention now, so leave him with his sin.
Him saw I at thee from the bridge-foot aim
A threatening finger, while he made thee known;
Geri del Bello heard I named his name.
But, at the time, thou wast with him alone
Engrossed who once held Hautefort, nor the place
Didst look at where he was; so passed he on.'
'O Leader mine! death violent and base,
And not avenged as yet,' I made reply,
'By any of his partners in disgrace,
Made him disdainful; therefore went he by
And spake not with me, if I judge aright;
Which does the more my ruth intensify.'
So we conversed till from the cliff we might
Of the next valley have had prospect good
Down to the bottom, with but clearer light.
When we above the inmost Cloister stood
Of Malebolge, and discerned the crew
Of such as there compose the Brotherhood,
So many lamentations pierced me through--
And barbed with pity all the shafts were sped--
My open palms across my ears I drew.
From Valdichiana's every spital bed
All ailments to September from July,
With all in Maremma and Sardinia bred,
Heaped in one pit a sickness might supply
Like what was here; and from it rose a stink
Like that which comes from limbs that putrefy.
Then we descended by the utmost brink
Of the long ridge--leftward once more we fell--
Until my vision, quickened now, could sink
Deeper to where Justice infallible,
The minister of the Almighty Lord,
Chastises forgers doomed on earth to Hell.
AEgina could no sadder sight afford,
As I believe (when all the people ailed
And all the air was so with sickness stored,
Down to the very worms creation failed
And died, whereon the pristine folk once more,
As by the poets is for certain held,
From seed of ants their family did restore),
Than what was offered by that valley black
With plague-struck spirits heaped upon the floor.
Supine some lay, each on the other's back
Or stomach; and some crawled with crouching gait
For change of place along the doleful track.
Speechless we moved with step deliberate,
With eyes and ears on those disease crushed down
Nor left them power to lift their bodies straight.
I saw two sit, shoulder to shoulder thrown
As plate holds plate up to be warmed, from head
Down to the feet with scurf and scab o'ergrown.
Nor ever saw I curry-comb so plied
By varlet with his master standing by,
Or by one kept unwillingly from bed,
As I saw each of these his scratchers ply
Upon himself; for nought else now avails
Against the itch which plagues them furiously.
The scab they tore and loosened with their nails,
As with a knife men use the bream to strip,
Or any other fish with larger scales.
'Thou, that thy mail dost with thy fingers rip,'
My Guide to one of them began to say,
'And sometimes dost with them as pincers nip,
Tell, is there any here from Italy
Among you all, so may thy nails suffice
For this their work to all eternity.'
'Latians are both of us in this disguise
Of wretchedness,' weeping said one of those;
'But who art thou, demanding on this wise?'
My Guide made answer: 'I am one who goes
Down with this living man from steep to steep
That I to him Inferno may disclose.'
Then broke their mutual prop; trembling with deep
Amazement each turned to me, with the rest
To whom his words had echoed in the heap.
Me the good Master cordially addressed:
'Whate'er thou hast a mind to ask them, say.'
And since he wished it, thus I made request:
'So may remembrance of you not decay
Within the upper world out of the mind
Of men, but flourish still for many a day,
As ye shall tell your names and what your kind:
Let not your vile, disgusting punishment
To full confession make you disinclined.'
'An Aretine, I to the stake was sent
By Albert of Siena,' one confessed,
'But came not here through that for which I went
To death. 'Tis true I told him all in jest,
I through the air could float in upward gyre;
And he, inquisitive and dull at best,
Did full instruction in the art require:
I could not make him Daedalus, so then
His second father sent me to the fire.
But to the deepest Bolgia of the ten,
For alchemy which in the world I wrought,
The unerring Minos doomed me.' 'Now were men
E'er found,' I of the Poet asked, 'so fraught
With vanity as are the Sienese?
French vanity to theirs is surely nought.'
The other leper hearing me, to these
My words: 'Omit the Stricca,' swift did shout,
'Who knew his tastes with temperance to please;
And Nicholas, who earliest found out
The lavish custom of the clove-stuffed roast
Within the garden where such seed doth sprout.
Nor count the club where Caccia d' Ascian lost
Vineyards and woods; 'mid whom away did throw
His wit the Abbagliato. But whose ghost
It is, that thou mayst weet, that backs thee so
Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eyes
That thou my countenance mayst surely know.
In me Capocchio's shade thou'lt recognise,
Who forged false coin by means of alchemy:
Thou must remember, if I well surmise,
How I of nature very ape could be.'
 _Twenty miles and two_: The Ninth Bolgia has a circumference of
 _The moon_: It is now some time after noon on the Saturday. The
last indication of time was at Canto xxi. 112.
 _The time, etc._: Before nightfall they are to complete their
 _Geri del Bello_: One of the Alighieri, a full cousin of Dante's
 _Hautefort_: Bertrand de Born's castle in Gascony.
 _My ruth_: Enlightened moralist though Dante is, he yet shows
 _With but clearer light_: They have crossed the rampart dividing
 _The Brotherhood_: The word used properly describes the Lay
 _Valdichiana_: The district lying between Arezzo and Chiusi; in
 _Sardinia_: Had in the middle ages an evil reputation for its
 _The long ridge_: One of the ribs of rock which, like the spokes
 _AEgina_: The description is taken from Ovid (_Metam._ vii.).
 _The scab, etc._: As if by an infernal alchemy the matter of the
 _An Aretine_: Called Griffolino, and burned at Florence or Siena
 _The Sienese_: The comparison of these to the French would have
light-headedness; also, it ought to be added, of great urbanity.
 _The club_: The commentators tell that the two young Sienese
 _The Abbagliato_: Nothing is known, though a great deal is
Because of Semele when Juno's ire
Was fierce 'gainst all that were to Thebes allied,
As had been proved by many an instance dire;
So mad grew Athamas that when he spied
His wife as she with children twain drew near,
Each hand by one encumbered, loud he cried:
'Be now the nets outspread, that I may snare
Cubs with the lioness at yon strait ground!'
And stretching claws of all compassion bare
He on Learchus seized and swung him round,
And shattered him upon a flinty stone;
Then she herself and the other burden drowned.
And when by fortune was all overthrown
The Trojans' pride, inordinate before--
Monarch and kingdom equally undone--
Hecuba, sad and captive, mourning o'er
Polyxena, when dolorous she beheld
The body of her darling Polydore
Upon the coast, out of her wits she yelled,
And spent herself in barking like a hound;
So by her sorrow was her reason quelled.
But never yet was Trojan fury found,
Nor that of Thebes, to sting so cruelly
Brute beasts, far less the human form to wound,
As two pale naked shades were stung, whom I
Saw biting run, like swine when they escape
Famished and eager from the empty sty.
Capocchio coming up to, in his nape
One fixed his fangs, and hauling at him made
His belly on the stony pavement scrape.
The Aretine who stood, still trembling, said:
'That imp is Gianni Schicchi, and he goes
Rabid, thus trimming others.' 'O!' I prayed,
'So may the teeth of the other one of those
Not meet in thee, as, ere she pass from sight,
Thou freely shalt the name of her disclose.'
And he to me: 'That is the ancient sprite
Of shameless Myrrha, who let liking rise
For him who got her, past all bounds of right.
As, to transgress with him, she in disguise
Came near to him deception to maintain;
So he, departing yonder from our eyes,
That he the Lady of the herd might gain,
Bequeathed his goods by formal testament
While he Buoso Donate's form did feign.'
And when the rabid couple from us went,
Who all this time by me were being eyed,
Upon the rest ill-starred I grew intent;
And, fashioned like a lute, I one espied,
Had he been only severed at the place
Where at the groin men's lower limbs divide.
The grievous dropsy, swol'n with humours base,
Which every part of true proportion strips
Till paunch grows out of keeping with the face,
Compelled him widely ope to hold his lips
Like one in fever who, by thirst possessed,
Has one drawn up while the other chinward slips.
'O ye! who by no punishment distressed,
Nor know I why, are in this world of dool,'
He said; 'a while let your attention rest
On Master Adam here of misery full.
Living, I all I wished enjoyed at will;
Now lust I for a drop of water cool.
The water-brooks that down each grassy hill
Of Casentino to the Arno fall
And with cool moisture all their courses fill--
Always, and not in vain, I see them all;
Because the vision of them dries me more
Than the disease 'neath which my face grows small.
For rigid justice, me chastising sore,
Can in the place I sinned at motive find
To swell the sighs in which I now deplore.
There lies Romena, where of the money coined
With the Baptist's image I made counterfeit,
And therefore left my body burnt behind.
But could I see here Guido's wretched sprite,
Or Alexander's, or their brother's, I
For Fonte Branda would not give the sight.
One is already here, unless they lie--
Mad souls with power to wander through the crowd--
What boots it me, whose limbs diseases tie?
But were I yet so nimble that I could
Creep one poor inch a century, some while
Ago had I begun to take the road
Searching for him among this people vile;
And that although eleven miles 'tis long,
And has a width of more than half a mile.
Because of them am I in such a throng;
For to forge florins I by them was led,
Which by three carats of alloy were wrong,'
'Who are the wretches twain,' I to him said,
'Who smoke like hand in winter-time fresh brought
From water, on thy right together spread?'
'Here found I them, nor have they budged a jot,'
He said, 'since I was hurled into this vale;
And, as I deem, eternally they'll not.
One with false charges Joseph did assail;
False Sinon, Greek from Troy, is the other wight.
Burning with fever they this stink exhale.'
Then one of them, perchance o'ercome with spite
Because he thus contemptuously was named,
Smote with his fist upon the belly tight.
It sounded like a drum; and then was aimed
A blow by Master Adam at his face
With arm no whit less hard, while he exclaimed:
'What though I can no longer shift my place
Because my members by disease are weighed!
I have an arm still free for such a case.'
To which was answered: 'When thou wast conveyed
Unto the fire 'twas not thus good at need,
But even more so when the coiner's trade
Was plied by thee.' The swol'n one: 'True indeed!
But thou didst not bear witness half so true
When Trojans at thee for the truth did plead.'
'If I spake falsely, thou didst oft renew
False coin,' said Sinon; 'one fault brought me here;
Thee more than any devil of the crew.'
'Bethink thee of the horse, thou perjurer,'
He of the swol'n paunch answered; 'and that by
All men 'tis known should anguish in thee stir.'
'Be thirst that cracks thy tongue thy penalty,
And putrid water,' so the Greek replied,
'Which 'fore thine eyes thy stomach moundeth high.'
The coiner then: 'Thy mouth thou openest wide,
As thou art used, thy slanderous words to vent;
But if I thirst and humours plump my hide
Thy head throbs with the fire within thee pent.
To lap Narcissus' mirror, to implore
And urge thee on would need no argument.'
While I to hear them did attentive pore
My Master said: 'Thy fill of staring take!
To rouse my anger needs but little more.'
And when I heard that he in anger spake
Toward him I turned with such a shame inspired,
Recalled, it seems afresh on me to break.
And, as the man who dreams of hurt is fired
With wish that he might know his dream a dream,
And so what is, as 'twere not, is desired;
Craving to find excuse, unwittingly
The meanwhile made the apology supreme.
'Less shame,' my Master said, 'would nullify
A greater fault, for greater guilt atone;
All sadness for it, therefore, lay thou by.
But bear in mind that thou art not alone,
If fortune hap again to bring thee near
Where people such debate are carrying on.
To things like these 'tis shame to lend an ear.'
 _Trojan fury, etc._: It was by the agency of a Fury that Athamas
 _Capocchio_: See close of the preceding Canto. Here as elsewhere
 _The Aretine_: Griffolino, who boasted he could fly; already
represented as trembling (_Inf._ xxix. 97).
 _Myrrha_: This is a striking example of Dante's detestation of
 _Buoso Donati_: Introduced as a thief in the Seventh Bolgia
 _O ye, etc._: The speaker has heard and noted Virgil's words of
explanation given in the previous Canto, line 94.
 _The money coined, etc._: The gold florin, afterwards adopted in
 _Guido, etc._: The Guidi of Romena were a branch of the great
 _Fonte Branda_: A celebrated fountain in the city of Siena. Near
 _One, etc._: Potiphar's wife.
 _When Trojans, etc._: When King Priam sought to know for what
purpose the wooden horse was really constructed.
 _Narcissus' mirror_: The pool in which Narcissus saw his form
reflected.
 _'Tis shame_: Dante knows that Virgil would have scorned to
The very tongue that first had caused me pain,
Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o'er,
With healing medicine me restored again.
So have I heard, the lance Achilles bore,
Which earlier was his father's, first would wound
And then to health the wounded part restore.
From that sad valley we our backs turned round,
Up the encircling rampart making way
Nor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound.
Here was it less than night and less than day,
And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead;
But of a trumpet the sonorous bray--
No thunder-peal were heard beside it--led
Mine eyes along the line by which it passed,
Till on one spot their gaze concentrated.
When by the dolorous rout was overcast
The sacred enterprise of Charlemagne
Roland blew not so terrible a blast.
Short time my head was that way turned, when plain
I many lofty towers appeared to see.
'Master, what town is this?' I asked. 'Since fain
Thou art,' he said, 'to pierce the obscurity
While yet through distance 'tis inscrutable,
Thou must of error needs the victim be.
Arriving there thou shalt distinguish well
How much by distance was thy sense betrayed;
Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.'
Then tenderly he took my hand, and said:
'Ere we pass further I would have thee know,
That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed,
These are not towers but giants; in a row
Set round the brink each in the pit abides,
His navel hidden and the parts below.'
And even as when the veil of mist divides
Little by little dawns upon the sight
What the obscuring vapour earlier hides;
So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light,
As I step after step drew near the bound
My error fled, but I was filled with fright.
As Montereggion with towers is crowned
Which from the walls encircling it arise;
So, rising from the pit's encircling mound,
Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes--
Dread giants, still by Jupiter defied
From Heaven whene'er it thunders in the skies.
The face of one already I descried,
His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far,
And both his arms dependent by his side.
When Nature ceased such creatures as these are
To form, she of a surety wisely wrought
Wresting from Mars such ministers of war.
And though she rue not that to life she brought
The whale and elephant, who deep shall read
Will justify her wisdom in his thought;
For when the powers of intellect are wed
To strength and evil will, with them made one,
The race of man is helpless left indeed.
As large and long as is St. Peter's cone
At Rome, the face appeared; of every limb
On scale like this was fashioned every bone.
So that the bank, which covered half of him
As might a tunic, left uncovered yet
So much that if to his hair they sought to climb
Three Frisians end on end their match had met;
For thirty great palms I of him could see,
Counting from where a man's cloak-clasp is set.
_Rafel mai amech zabi almi!_
Out of the bestial mouth began to roll,
Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody.
And then my Leader charged him: 'Stupid soul,
Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mind
When rage or other passions pass control.
Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twined
O puzzle-headed wretch! from which 'tis slung;
Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.'
And then to me: 'From his own mouth is wrung
Whim hindered men from speaking in one tongue.
Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain;
For words to him in any language said,
As unto others his, no sense contain.'
Turned to the left, we on our journey sped,
And at the distance of an arrow's flight
We found another huger and more dread.
By what artificer thus pinioned tight
I cannot tell, but his left arm was bound
In front, as at his back was bound the right,
By a chain which girt him firmly round and round;
About what of his frame there was displayed
Below the neck, in fivefold gyre 'twas wound.
'Incited by ambition this one made
Trial of prowess 'gainst Almighty Jove,'
My Leader told, 'and he is thus repaid.
'Tis Ephialtes, mightily who strove
What time the giants to the gods caused fright:
The arms he wielded then no more will move.'
And I to him: 'Fain would I, if I might,
On the enormous Briareus set eye,
And know the truth by holding him in sight.'
'Antaeus thou shalt see,' he made reply,
'Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains.
Us to the depth of all iniquity
He shall let down. The one thou'dst see remains
Far off, like this one bound and like in make,
But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.'
Never when earth most terribly did quake
Shook any tower so much as what all o'er
And suddenly did Ephialtes shake.
Terror of death possessed me more and more;
The fear alone had served my turn indeed,
But that I marked the ligatures he wore.
Then did we somewhat further on proceed,
Reaching Antaeus who for good five ell,
His head not counted, from the pit was freed.
'O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell--
Where Scipio of glory was made heir
When with his host to flight turned Hannibal--
A thousand lions didst for booty bear
Away, and who, hadst thou but joined the host
And like thy brethren fought, some even aver
The victory to earth's sons had not been lost,
Lower us now, nor disobliging show,
To where Cocytus fettered is by frost.
To Tityus nor to Typhon make us go.
To grant what here is longed for he hath power,
Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low.
He can for wage thy name on earth restore;
He lives, and still expecteth to live long,
If Grace recall him not before his hour.'
So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung
Downward and seized my Leader in all haste--
Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung.
And Virgil when he felt them round him cast
Said: 'That I may embrace thee, hither tend,'
And in one bundle with him made me fast.
And as to him that under Carisend
Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds fly
Counter its slope, the tower appears to bend;
Even so to me who stood attentive by
Antaeus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed,
Had gladly sought another road to try.
But us in the abyss he gently laid,
Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain;
Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed,
But like a ship's mast raised himself again.
 _From that sad valley_: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they
 _Roland_: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating
 _Montereggioni_: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which
 _St. Peter's cone_: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to
 _Three Frisians_: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to
 _Rafel, etc._: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh
 _Antaeus_: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because,
unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike
 _Cocytus_: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See
Canto xiv. at the end.
 _Tityus, etc._: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be
 _Carisenda_: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the
Had I sonorous rough rhymes at command,
Such as would suit the cavern terrible
Rooted on which all the other ramparts stand,
The sap of fancies which within me swell
Closer I'd press; but since I have not these,
With some misgiving I go on to tell.
For 'tis no task to play with as you please,
Of all the world the bottom to portray,
Nor one that with a baby speech agrees.
But let those ladies help me with my lay
Who helped Amphion walls round Thebes to pile,
And faithful to the facts my words shall stay.
O 'bove all creatures wretched, for whose vile
Abode 'tis hard to find a language fit,
As sheep or goats ye had been happier! While
We still were standing in the murky pit--
Beneath the giant's feet set far below--
And at the high wall I was staring yet,
When this I heard: 'Heed to thy steps bestow,
Lest haply by thy soles the heads be spurned
Of wretched brothers wearied in their woe.'
Before me, as on hearing this I turned,
Beneath my feet a frozen lake, its guise
Rather of glass than water, I discerned.
In all its course on Austrian Danube lies
No veil in time of winter near so thick,
Nor on the Don beneath its frigid skies,
As this was here; on which if Tabernicch
Or Mount Pietrapana should alight
Not even the edge would answer with a creak.
And as the croaking frog holds well in sight
Its muzzle from the pool, what time of year
The peasant girl of gleaning dreams at night;
The mourning shades in ice were covered here,
Seen livid up to where we blush with shame.
In stork-like music their teeth chattering were.
With downcast face stood every one of them:
To cold from every mouth, and to despair
From every eye, an ample witness came.
And having somewhat gazed around me there
I to my feet looked down, and saw two pressed
So close together, tangled was their hair,
'Say, who are you with breast thus strained to breast?'
I asked; whereon their necks they backward bent,
And when their upturned faces lay at rest
Their eyes, which earlier were but moistened, sent
Tears o'er their eyelids: these the frost congealed
And fettered fast before they further went.
Plank set to plank no rivet ever held
More firmly; wherefore, goat-like, either ghost
Butted the other; so their wrath prevailed.
And one who wanted both ears, which the frost
Had bitten off, with face still downward thrown,
Asked: 'Why with us art thou so long engrossed?
If who that couple are thou'dst have made known--
The vale down which Bisenzio's floods decline
Was once their father Albert's and their own.
One body bore them: search the whole malign
Caina, and thou shalt not any see
More worthy to be fixed in gelatine;
Not he whose breast and shadow equally
Were by one thrust of Arthur's lance pierced through:
Nor yet Focaccia; nor the one that me
With his head hampers, blocking out my view,
Whose name was Sassol Mascheroni: well
Thou must him know if thou art Tuscan too.
And that thou need'st not make me further tell--
I weary for, whose guilt shall mine excel.'
A thousand faces saw I dog-like grin,
Frost-bound; whence I, as now, shall always shake
Whenever sight of frozen pools I win.
While to the centre we our way did make
To which all things converging gravitate,
And me that chill eternal caused to quake;
Whether by fortune, providence, or fate,
I know not, but as 'mong the heads I went
I kicked one full in the face; who therefore straight
'Why trample on me?' snarled and made lament,
'Unless thou com'st to heap the vengeance high
For Montaperti, why so virulent
'Gainst me?' I said: 'Await me here till I
By him, O Master, shall be cleared of doubt;
Then let my pace thy will be guided by.'
My Guide delayed, and I to him spake out,
While he continued uttering curses shrill:
'Say, what art thou, at others thus to shout?'
'But who art thou, that goest at thy will
Through Antenora, trampling on the face
Of others? 'Twere too much if thou wert still
In life.' 'I live, and it may help thy case,'
Was my reply, 'if thou renown wouldst gain,
Should I thy name upon my tablets place.'
And he: 'I for the opposite am fain.
Depart thou hence, nor work me further dool;
Within this swamp thou flatterest all in vain.'
Then I began him by the scalp to pull,
And 'Thou must tell how thou art called,' I said,
'Or soon thy hair will not be plentiful.'
And he: 'Though every hair thou from me shred
I will not tell thee, nor my face turn round;
No, though a thousand times thou spurn my head.'
His locks ere this about my fist were wound,
And many a tuft I tore, while dog-like wails
Burst from him, and his eyes still sought the ground.
Then called another: 'Bocca, what now ails?
Is't not enough thy teeth go chattering there,
But thou must bark? What devil thee assails?'
'Ah! now,' said I, 'thou need'st not aught declare,
Accursed traitor; and true news of thee
To thy disgrace I to the world will bear.'
'Begone, tell what thou wilt,' he answered me;
'But, if thou issue hence, not silent keep
Of him whose tongue but lately wagged so free.
He for the Frenchmen's money here doth weep.
Him of Duera saw I, mayst thou tell,
Where sinners shiver in the frozen deep.
Shouldst thou be asked who else within it dwell--
Thou hast the Beccheria at thy side;
Across whose neck the knife at Florence fell.
John Soldanieri may be yonder spied
With Ganellon, and Tribaldell who threw
Faenza's gates, when slept the city, wide.'
Him had we left, our journey to pursue,
When frozen in a hole a pair I saw;
One's head like the other's hat showed to the view.
And, as their bread men hunger-driven gnaw,
The uppermost tore fiercely at his mate
Where nape and brain-pan to a junction draw.
No worse by Tydeus in his scornful hate
Were Menalippus' temples gnawed and hacked
Than skull and all were torn by him irate.
'O thou who provest by such bestial act
Hatred of him who by thy teeth is chewed,
Declare thy motive,' said I, 'on this pact--
That if with reason thou with him hast feud,
Knowing your names and manner of his crime
I in the world to thee will make it good;
If what I speak with dry not ere the time.'
 _The giant's feet_: Antaeus. A bank slopes from where the giants
 _Tabernicch_: It is not certain what mountain is here meant;
 _Pietrapana_: A mountain between Modena and Lucca, visible from
 _Time of year_: At harvest-time, when in the warm summer nights
the wearied gleaner dreams of her day's work.
 _To where we blush_: The bodies of the shades are seen buried in
 _With breast, etc._: As could be seen through the clear ice.
 _Fettered fast_: Binding up their eyes. In the punishment of
 _Their father Albert's_: Albert, of the family of the Counts
 _Arthur's lance_: Mordred, natural son of King Arthur, was slain
 _Focaccia_: A member of the Pistoiese family of Cancellieri, in
 _Sassol Mascheroni_: Of the Florentine family of the Toschi. He
 _Camicion de' Pazzi_: To distinguish the Pazzi to whom Camicione
 _The centre_: The bottom of Inferno is the centre of the earth,
and, on the system of Ptolemy, the central point of the universe.
 _Cleared of doubt_: The mention of Montaperti in this place of
 _Not silent keep, etc._: Like all the other traitors Bocca finds
 _Beccheria_: Tesauro of the Pavian family Beccheria, Abbot of
 _Soldanieri_: Deserted from the Florentine Ghibelines after the
defeat of Manfred.
 _Tribaldello_: A noble of Faenza, who, as one account says, to
 _Frozen in a hole, etc._: The two are the Count Ugolino and the
 _Tydeus_: One of the Seven against Thebes, who, having been
 _I in the world, etc._: Dante has learned from Bocca that the
His mouth uplifting from the savage feast,
The sinner rubbed and wiped it free of gore
On the hair of the head he from behind laid waste;
And then began: 'Thou'dst have me wake once more
A desperate grief, of which to think alone,
Ere I have spoken, wrings me to the core.
But if my words shall be as seed that sown
May fructify unto the traitor's shame
Whom thus I gnaw, I mingle speech and groan.
Of how thou earnest hither or thy name
I nothing know, but that a Florentine
In very sooth thou art, thy words proclaim.
Thou then must know I was Count Ugolin,
The Archbishop Roger he. Now hearken well
Why I prove such a neighbour. How in fine,
And flowing from his ill designs, it fell
That I, confiding in his words, was caught
Then done to death, were waste of time to tell.
But that of which as yet thou heardest nought
Is how the death was cruel which I met:
Hearken and judge if wrong to me he wrought.
Scant window in the mew whose epithet
Of Famine came from me its resident,
And cooped in which shall many languish yet,
Had shown me through its slit how there were spent
Full many moons, ere that bad dream I dreamed
When of my future was the curtain rent.
Lord of the hunt and master this one seemed,
Chasing the wolf and wolf-cubs on the height
By which from Pisan eyes is Lucca hemmed.
With famished hounds well trained and swift of flight,
Lanfranchi and Gualandi in the van,
And Sismond he had set. Within my sight
Both sire and sons--nor long the chase--began
To grow (so seemed it) weary as they fled;
Then through their flanks fangs sharp and eager ran.
When I awoke before the morning spread
I heard my sons all weeping in their sleep--
For they were with me--and they asked for bread.
Ah! cruel if thou canst from pity keep
At the bare thought of what my heart foreknew;
And if thou weep'st not, what could make thee weep?
Now were they 'wake, and near the moment drew
At which 'twas used to bring us our repast;
But each was fearful lest his dream came true.
And then I heard the under gate made fast
Of the horrible tower, and thereupon I gazed
In my sons' faces, silent and aghast.
I did not weep, for I to stone was dazed:
They wept, and darling Anselm me besought:
"What ails thee, father? Wherefore thus amazed?"
And yet I did not weep, and answered not
The whole day, and that night made answer none,
Till on the world another sun shone out.
Soon as a feeble ray of light had won
Into our doleful prison, made aware
Of the four faces featured like my own,
Both of my hands I bit at in despair;
And they, imagining that I was fain
To eat, arose before me with the prayer:
"O father, 'twere for us an easier pain
If thou wouldst eat us. Thou didst us array
In this poor flesh: unclothe us now again."
I calmed me, not to swell their woe. That day
And the next day no single word we said.
Ah! pitiless earth, that didst unyawning stay!
When we had reached the fourth day, Gaddo, spread
Out at my feet, fell prone; and made demand:
"Why, O my father, offering us no aid?"
There died he. Plain as I before thee stand
I saw the three as one by one they failed,
The fifth day and the sixth; then with my hand,
Blind now, I groped for each of them, and wailed
On them for two days after they were gone.
Famine at last, more strong than grief, prevailed,'
When he had uttered this, his eyes all thrown
Awry, upon the hapless skull he fell
With teeth that, dog-like, rasped upon the bone.
Ah, Pisa! byword of the folk that dwell
In the sweet country where the Si doth sound,
Since slow thy neighbours to reward thee well
Let now Gorgona and Capraia mound
Themselves where Arno with the sea is blent,
Till every one within thy walls be drowned.
For though report of Ugolino went
That he betrayed thy castles, thou didst wrong
Thus cruelly his children to torment.
These were not guilty, for they were but young,
Thou modern Thebes! Brigata and young Hugh,
And the other twain of whom above 'tis sung.
We onward passed to where another crew
Of shades the thick-ribbed ice doth fettered keep;
Their heads not downward these, but backward threw.
Their very weeping will not let them weep,
And grief, encountering barriers at their eyes,
Swells, flowing inward, their affliction deep;
For the first tears that issue crystallise,
And fill, like vizor fashioned out of glass,
The hollow cup o'er which the eyebrows rise.
And though, as 'twere a callus, now my face
By reason of the frost was wholly grown
Benumbed and dead to feeling, I could trace
(So it appeared), a breeze against it blown,
And asked: 'O Master, whence comes this? So low
As where we are is any vapour known?'
And he replied: 'Thou ere long while shalt go
Where touching this thine eye shall answer true,
Discovering that which makes the wind to blow.'
Then from the cold crust one of that sad crew
Demanded loud: 'Spirits, for whom they hold
The inmost room, so truculent were you,
Back from my face let these hard veils be rolled,
That I may vent the woe which chokes my heart,
Ere tears again solidify with cold.'
And I to him: 'First tell me who thou art
If thou'dst have help; then if I help not quick
To the bottom of the ice let me depart.'
He answered: 'I am Friar Alberic--
He of the fruit grown in the orchard fell--
And here am I repaid with date for fig.'
'Ah!' said I to him, 'art thou dead as well?'
'How now my body fares,' he answered me,
'Up in the world, I have no skill to tell;
For Ptolomaea has this quality--
The soul oft plunges hither to its place
Ere it has been by Atropos set free.
And that more willingly from off my face
Thou mayst remove the glassy tears, know, soon
As ever any soul of man betrays
As I betrayed, the body once his own
A demon takes and governs until all
The span allotted for his life be run.
Into this tank headlong the soul doth fall;
And on the earth his body yet may show
Whose shade behind me wintry frosts enthral.
But thou canst tell, if newly come below:
It is Ser Branca d'Oria, and complete
Is many a year since he was fettered so.'
'It seems,' I answered, 'that thou wouldst me cheat,
For Branca d'Oria never can have died:
He sleeps, puts clothes on, swallows drink and meat.'
'Or e'er to the tenacious pitchy tide
Which boils in Malebranche's moat had come
The shade of Michael Zanche,' he replied,
'That soul had left a devil in its room
Within its body; of his kinsmen one
Treacherous with him experienced equal doom.
But stretch thy hand and be its work begun
Of setting free mine eyes.' This did not I.
Twas highest courtesy to yield him none.
Ah, Genoese, strange to morality!
Ye men infected with all sorts of sin!
Out of the world 'tis time that ye should die.
Here, to Romagna's blackest soul akin,
I chanced on one of you; for doing ill
His soul o'erwhelmed Cocytus' floods within,
Though in the flesh he seems surviving still.
 _The sinner_: Count Ugolino. See note at the end of the Canto.
 _Mingle speech, etc._: A comparison of these words with those of
 _The Archbishop Roger_: Ruggieri, of the Tuscan family of the
 _Many moons_: The imprisonment having already lasted for eight
months.
 _The height, etc._: Lucca is about twelve miles from Pisa, Mount
 _Lanfranchi, etc._: In the dream, these, the chief Ghibeline
 _My sons_: According to Dante, taken literally, four of Ugo were
grandsons by their mother of King Enzo, natural son of Frederick
 _The under gate, etc._: The word translated _made fast_
 _Where the Si, etc._: Italy, _Si_ being the Italian for _Yes_.
In his _De Vulg. El._, i. 8, Dante distinguishes the Latin
 _That he betrayed, etc._: Dante seems here to throw doubt on the
 _Another crew_: They are in Ptolomaea, the third division of the
 _Is any vapour_: Has the sun, so low down as this, any influence
 _To the bottom, etc._: Dante is going there in any case, and his
 _Ptolomaea_: This division is named from the Hebrew Ptolemy, who
 _Branca d'Oria_: A Genoese noble who in 1275 slew his
treacherous host and not as a treacherous kinsman that Branca is
 _Of his kinsmen one_: A cousin or nephew of Branca was engaged
 _To yield him none_: Alberigo being so unworthy of courtesy. See
 _Romagna's blackest soul_: Friar Alberigo.
'_Vexilla_ _Regis prodeunt Inferni_
Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,'
My Master bade, 'if trace of him thou spy.'
As, when the exhalations dense have been,
Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night,
A windmill from afar is sometimes seen,
I seemed to catch of such a structure sight;
And then to 'scape the blast did backward draw
Behind my Guide--sole shelter in my plight.
Now was I where (I versify with awe)
The shades were wholly covered, and did show
Visible as in glass are bits of straw.
Some stood upright and some were lying low,
Some with head topmost, others with their feet;
And some with face to feet bent like a bow.
But we kept going on till it seemed meet
Unto my Master that I should behold
The creature once of countenance so sweet.
He stepped aside and stopped me as he told:
'Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last
Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,'
How I hereon stood shivering and aghast,
Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write;
So much the fact all reach of words surpassed.
I was not dead, yet living was not quite:
Think for thyself, if gifted with the power,
What, life and death denied me, was my plight.
Of that tormented realm the Emperor
Out of the ice stood free to middle breast;
And me a giant less would overtower
Than would his arm a giant. By such test
Judge then what bulk the whole of him must show,
Of true proportion with such limb possessed.
If he was fair of old as hideous now,
And yet his brows against his Maker raised,
Meetly from him doth all affliction flow.
O how it made me horribly amazed
When on his head I saw three faces grew!
The one vermilion which straight forward gazed;
And joining on to it were other two,
One rising up from either shoulder-bone,
Till to a junction on the crest they drew.
'Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one;
The left resembled them whose country lies
Where valleywards the floods of Nile flow down.
Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise,
Such as this bird tremendous might demand:
Sails of sea-ships ne'er saw I of such size.
Not feathered were they, but in style were planned
Like a bat's wing: by them a threefold breeze--
For still he flapped them--evermore was fanned,
And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze.
Down three chins tears for ever made descent
From his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these.
In every mouth there was a sinner rent
By teeth that shred him as a heckle would;
Thus three at once compelled he to lament.
To the one in front 'twas little to be chewed
Compared with being clawed and clawed again,
Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.
'The soul up yonder in the greater pain
Is Judas 'Scariot, with his head among
The teeth,' my Master said, 'while outward strain
His legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung,
Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous:
See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue.
The other, great of thew, is Cassius:
But night is rising and we must be gone;
For everything hath now been seen by us.'
Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on
While he the time and place of vantage chose;
And when the wings enough were open thrown
He grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close,
And so from tuft to tuft he downward went
Between the tangled hair and crust which froze.
We to the bulging haunch had made descent,
To where the hip-joint lies in it; and then
My Guide, with painful twist and violent,
Turned round his head to where his feet had been,
And like a climber closely clutched the hair:
I thought to Hell that we returned again.
'Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,'
Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone,
'That we from all that wretchedness repair.'
Right through a hole in a rock when he had won,
The edge of it he gave me for a seat
And deftly then to join me clambered on.
I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meet
With Lucifer as I beheld him last,
But saw instead his upturned legs and feet.
If in perplexity I then was cast,
Let ignorant people think who do not see
What point it was that I had lately passed.
'Rise to thy feet,' my Master said to me;
'The way is long and rugged the ascent,
And at mid tierce the sun must almost be.'
'Twas not as if on palace floors we went:
A dungeon fresh from nature's hand was this;
Rough underfoot, and of light indigent.
'Or ever I escape from the abyss,
O Master,' said I, standing now upright,
'Correct in few words where I think amiss.
Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sight
Set upside down? The sun, how had it skill
In so short while to pass to morn from night?'
And he: 'In fancy thou art standing, still,
On yon side of the centre, where I caught
The vile worm's hair which through the world doth drill.
There wast thou while our downward course I wrought;
But when I turned, the centre was passed by
Which by all weights from every point is sought.
And now thou standest 'neath the other sky,
Opposed to that which vaults the great dry ground
And 'neath whose summit there did whilom die
The Man whose birth and life were sinless found.
Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere,
On this side answering to Judecca's round.
'Tis evening yonder when 'tis morning here;
And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied.
Fixed as he was continues to appear.
Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side;
Whereon the land, protuberant here before,
For fear of him did in the ocean hide,
And 'neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore
Still on this side, perhaps that it might shun
His fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.'
From Belzebub still widening up and on,
Far-stretching as the sepulchre, extends
A region not beheld, but only known
By murmur of a brook which through it wends,
Declining by a channel eaten through
The flinty rock; and gently it descends.
My Guide and I, our journey to pursue
To the bright world, upon this road concealed
Made entrance, and no thought of resting knew.
He first, I second, still ascending held
Our way until the fair celestial train
Was through an opening round to me revealed:
And, issuing thence, we saw the stars again.
arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca.
fellow-sinners.
 _The creature once, etc._: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against
 _Three faces_: By the three faces are represented the three
 _A bat's wing_: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome
 _A heckle_: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of
flax from the woody substance mixed with it.
 _Sometimes nude_: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is
being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn.
 _Night is rising_: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours
 _I thought to Hell, etc._: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer's hairy
 _Mid tierce_: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of
which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about
 _To morn from night_: Dante's knowledge of the time of day is
 _The Man_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the _Inferno_.
 _The sepulchre_: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked.
 _A brook_: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the
Abati, Bocca degli, xxxii. 106.
Agnello Brunelleschi, xxv. 68.
Alberigo, Friar, xxxiii. 118.
Alberto of Siena, xxix. 110.
Alchemists, xxix. 43, etc.
Alexander, Count of Romena, xxx. 77.
Alessio Interminei, xviii. 122.
Andrea, Jacopo da Sant', xiii. 133.
Anger, those guilty of, vii. 110, etc.
Angiolello, xxviii. 77.
Anselmuccio, xxxiii. 50.
Apulia, xxviii. 8.
Apulians, xxviii. 16.
Aquarius, xxiv. 2.
Argenti, Philip, viii. 61.
Arrogance, viii. 46, etc.
Arsenal of Venice, xxi. 7.
Aulis, xx. III.
Barrators, xxi. xxii.
Beccheria, Abbot, xxxii. 119.
Bello, Geri del, xxix. 27.
Benedict, Abbey of St., xvi. 100.
Bertrand de Born, xxviii. 134.
Bianchi, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150.
Bocca degli Abati, xxxii. 106.
Born, Bertrand de, xxviii. 134.
Borsieri, William, xvi. 70.
Bridge of St. Angelo, xviii. 29.
Brunelleschi, Agnello, xxv. 68.
Brunetto Latini, xv. 30, etc.
Buoso da Duera, xxxii. 116.
Caccia D' Asciano, xxix. 130.
Caccianimico Venedico, xviii. 50.
Caesar, Frederick II, xiii. 65.
Camicion de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68.
Cancellieri, xxxii. 63.
Carlino de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68.
Carnal sinners, v.
Cassero, Guido del, xxviii. 77.
Castle of St. Angelo, xviii. 31.
Cato of Utica, xiv. 15.
Cattolica, xxviii. 80.
Centre of the universe, xxxiv. 110.
Ceperano, xxviii. 16.
Charlemagne, xxxi. 17.
Chiana, Val di, xxix. 46.
Cianfa de' Donati, xxv. 43.
City of Dis, viii. 68, etc.
Coiners, false, xxix.
Colchians, xviii. 87.
Colonna, family, xxvii. 86.
Corneto, xiii. 8.
Counsellors, false, xxvi. xxvii.
Counterfeiters of all kinds, xxix. xxx.
Dolcino, Fra, xxviii. 55.
Elder of Lucca, xxi. 38.
False coiners, xxix. xxx.
---- counsellors, xxvi. xxvii.
Flatterers, xviii.
Foccaccia, xxxii. 63.
Francis of Assisi, xxvii. 112.
Friars, Merry--Frati Godenti, xxiii. 103.
Gallura, Gomita of, xxii. 81.
Gate of Inferno, iii. 1.
Geri del Bello, xxix. 27.
Giants, xxxi.
Gualandi, xxxiii. 32.
Guido of Montefeltro, xxvii. 4, etc.
Guidoguerra, xvi. 38.
Guiscard, Robert, xxviii. 14.
Guy of Montfort, xii. 119.
Heathen, the virtuous, iv. 37.
Henry of England, the Young King, xxviii. 135.
Heretics, x. and xxviii.
Homicides, xii.
Hypocrites, xxiii.
Hypsipyle, xviii. 92.
Infants, unbaptized, iv. 29.
Interminei, Alessio, xviii. 122.
Irascible, the, vii. and viii.
Jacopo da Sant' Andrea (James of St. Andrews), xiii. 133.
Jubilee, year of, xviii. 29.
Lanfranchi, xxxiii. 32.
Latini, Brunetto, xv. 30, etc.
Loderingo, Friar, xxiii. 104.
Lombardy, xxviii. 74.
Magus, Simon, xix. 1.
Mahomet, xxviii. 31, etc.
Mainardo Pagani, xxvii. 50.
Manfredi, Alberigo, xxxiii. 118.
Marquis of Este, xviii. 56.
Mascheroni, Sassol, xxxii. 65.
Matthias, Apostle, xix. 95.
Medicina, Pier da, xxviii. 73.
Messenger of heaven, ix. 85.
Michael, Archangel, vii. 11.
Montereggione, xxxi. 40.
Murderers, xii.
Napoleone Degli Alberti, xxxii. 55.
Neptune, xxviii 83.
Nicholas of Siena, xxix. 127.
Novarese, xxviii. 59.
Ordelaffi, xxvii. 45.
Pagani, Mainardo, xxvii. 50.
Panders, xviii.
Pazzi, Camicion de', xxxii. 68.
Peculators, xxi. xxii.
Perillus, xxvii. 8.
Phalaris, xxvii. 7.
Philip Argenti, viii. 61.
Pier da Medicina, xxviii. 73.
Pietrapana, xxxii. 29.
Pine cone of St. Peter's, xxxi. 59.
Potiphar's wife, xxx. 97.
Priest, the High, Boniface VIII., xxvii. 70.
Puccio Sciancato, xxv. 148.
Refusal, the great, iii. 60.
Rinier da Corneto, xii. 136.
Robert Guiscard, xxviii. 14.
Roger, the Archbishop, xxxiii. 14.
Roman Church, xix. 57.
Roncesvalles, xxxi. 17.
Sassol Mascheroni, xxxii. 65.
Schicchi, Gianni, xxx. 32.
Schismatics, xxviii.
Sciancatto, Puccio, xxv. 148.
Seducers, xviii.
Seven Kings against Thebes, xiv. 68.
Sicilian Bull, xxvii. 7.
Simon Magus, xix. 1.
Simoniacs, xix.
Sismondi, xxxiii. 33.
Soldanieri, Gianni del, xxii. 121.
Spendthrifts, vii.
Statue of Time, xiv. 103.
Strophades, xiii. 11.
Suicides, xiii.
Tabernicch, xxxii. 28.
Tagliacozzo, xxviii. 17.
Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, vi. 79, xvi. 42.
Thieves, xxiv. xxv.
Traitors, xxxii., etc.
Trojan Furies, xxx. 22.
Uguccione, xxxiii. 89.
Valdichiana, xxix. 46.
Vendetta, the, and Dante, xxix. 32.
Venetians, xxi. 7.
Vercelli, xxviii. 75.
Verucchio, xxvii. 46.
Vigne, Pier delle, xiii. 58.
Violent, the, against others, xii.;
against themselves, xiii.;
against God and Nature, xiv., etc.
And elsewhere in the _Inferno_ mentioned by name, though usually
by some title, as, _e.g._ Master, Leader, or Lord.
Volto, the Santo, xxi. 48.
Wanton, the, v.
Witches and wizards, xx.