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diff --git a/old/1001-h/1001-h.htm b/old/1001-h/1001-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e3c5d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1001-h/1001-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10377 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Divine Comedy, Hell, by Dante Alighieri</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Divine Comedy, Hell, by Dante Alighieri</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Divine Comedy<br /> +Hell</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Dante Alighieri</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Translator: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August, 1997 [eBook #1001]<br /> +[Most recently updated: April 8, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Dennis McCarthy</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY ***</div> + +<h1>The Divine Comedy</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">of Dante Alighieri</h2> + +<h3>Translated by<br />HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW<br /><br />INFERNO</h3> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.I">Canto I. The Dark Forest. The Hill of Difficulty. The Panther, the Lion, and the Wolf. Virgil.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.II">Canto II. The Descent. Dante’s Protest and Virgil’s Appeal. The Intercession of the Three Ladies Benedight.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.III">Canto III. The Gate of Hell. The Inefficient or Indifferent. Pope Celestine V. The Shores of Acheron. Charon. The Earthquake and the Swoon.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.IV">Canto IV. The First Circle, Limbo: Virtuous Pagans and the Unbaptized. The Four Poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. The Noble Castle of Philosophy.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.V">Canto V. The Second Circle: The Wanton. Minos. The Infernal Hurricane. Francesca da Rimini.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.VI">Canto VI. The Third Circle: The Gluttonous. Cerberus. The Eternal Rain. Ciacco. Florence.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.VII">Canto VII. The Fourth Circle: The Avaricious and the Prodigal. Plutus. Fortune and her Wheel. The Fifth Circle: The Irascible and the Sullen. Styx.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.VIII">Canto VIII. Phlegyas. Philippo Argenti. The Gate of the City of Dis.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.IX">Canto IX. The Furies and Medusa. The Angel. The City of Dis. The Sixth Circle: Heresiarchs.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.X">Canto X. Farinata and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti. Discourse on the Knowledge of the Damned.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XI">Canto XI. The Broken Rocks. Pope Anastasius. General Description of the Inferno and its Divisions.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XII">Canto XII. The Minotaur. The Seventh Circle: The Violent. The River Phlegethon. The Violent against their Neighbours. The Centaurs. Tyrants.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XIII">Canto XIII. The Wood of Thorns. The Harpies. The Violent against themselves. Suicides. Pier della Vigna. Lano and Jacopo da Sant’ Andrea.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XIV">Canto XIV. The Sand Waste and the Rain of Fire. The Violent against God. Capaneus. The Statue of Time, and the Four Infernal Rivers.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XV">Canto XV. The Violent against Nature. Brunetto Latini.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XVI">Canto XVI. Guidoguerra, Aldobrandi, and Rusticucci. Cataract of the River of Blood.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XVII">Canto XVII. Geryon. The Violent against Art. Usurers. Descent into the Abyss of Malebolge.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XVIII">Canto XVIII. The Eighth Circle, Malebolge: The Fraudulent and the Malicious. The First Bolgia: Seducers and Panders. Venedico Caccianimico. Jason. The Second Bolgia: Flatterers. Allessio Interminelli. Thais.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XIX">Canto XIX. The Third Bolgia: Simoniacs. Pope Nicholas III. Dante’s Reproof of corrupt Prelates.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XX">Canto XX. The Fourth Bolgia: Soothsayers. Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Eryphylus, Michael Scott, Guido Bonatti, and Asdente. Virgil reproaches Dante’s Pity. Mantua’s Foundation.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXI">Canto XXI. The Fifth Bolgia: Peculators. The Elder of Santa Zita. Malacoda and other Devils.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXII">Canto XXII. Ciampolo, Friar Gomita, and Michael Zanche. The Malabranche quarrel.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXIII">Canto XXIII. Escape from the Malabranche. The Sixth Bolgia: Hypocrites. Catalano and Loderingo. Caiaphas.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXIV">Canto XXIV. The Seventh Bolgia: Thieves. Vanni Fucci. Serpents.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXV">Canto XXV. Vanni Fucci’s Punishment. Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa de’ Donati, and Guercio Cavalcanti.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXVI">Canto XXVI. The Eighth Bolgia: Evil Counsellors. Ulysses and Diomed. Ulysses’ Last Voyage.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXVII">Canto XXVII. Guido da Montefeltro. His deception by Pope Boniface VIII.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXVIII">Canto XXVIII. The Ninth Bolgia: Schismatics. Mahomet and Ali. Pier da Medicina, Curio, Mosca, and Bertrand de Born.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXIX">Canto XXIX. Geri del Bello. The Tenth Bolgia: Alchemists. Griffolino d’ Arezzo and Capocchino.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXX">Canto XXX. Other Falsifiers or Forgers. Gianni Schicchi, Myrrha, Adam of Brescia, Potiphar’s Wife, and Sinon of Troy.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXXI">Canto XXXI. The Giants, Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus. Descent to Cocytus.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXXII">Canto XXXII. The Ninth Circle: Traitors. The Frozen Lake of Cocytus. First Division, Caina: Traitors to their Kindred. Camicion de’ Pazzi. Second Division, Antenora: Traitors to their Country. Dante questions Bocca degli Abati. Buoso da Duera.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXXIII">Canto XXXIII. Count Ugolino and the Archbishop Ruggieri. The Death of Count Ugolino’s Sons. Third Division of the Ninth Circle, Ptolomaea: Traitors to their Friends. Friar Alberigo, Branco d’ Oria.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#CantoI.XXXIV">Canto XXXIV. Fourth Division of the Ninth Circle, the Judecca: Traitors to their Lords and Benefactors. Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius. The Chasm of Lethe. The Ascent.</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.I"></a>Inferno: Canto I</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Midway upon the journey of our life<br /> + I found myself within a forest dark,<br /> + For the straightforward pathway had been lost. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say<br /> + What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,<br /> + Which in the very thought renews the fear. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So bitter is it, death is little more;<br /> + But of the good to treat, which there I found,<br /> + Speak will I of the other things I saw there. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I cannot well repeat how there I entered,<br /> + So full was I of slumber at the moment<br /> + In which I had abandoned the true way. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But after I had reached a mountain’s foot,<br /> + At that point where the valley terminated,<br /> + Which had with consternation pierced my heart, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,<br /> + Vested already with that planet’s rays<br /> + Which leadeth others right by every road. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then was the fear a little quieted<br /> + That in my heart’s lake had endured throughout<br /> + The night, which I had passed so piteously. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And even as he, who, with distressful breath,<br /> + Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,<br /> + Turns to the water perilous and gazes; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,<br /> + Turn itself back to re-behold the pass<br /> + Which never yet a living person left. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After my weary body I had rested,<br /> + The way resumed I on the desert slope,<br /> + So that the firm foot ever was the lower. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And lo! almost where the ascent began,<br /> + A panther light and swift exceedingly,<br /> + Which with a spotted skin was covered o’er! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And never moved she from before my face,<br /> + Nay, rather did impede so much my way,<br /> + That many times I to return had turned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The time was the beginning of the morning,<br /> + And up the sun was mounting with those stars<br /> + That with him were, what time the Love Divine +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +At first in motion set those beauteous things;<br /> + So were to me occasion of good hope,<br /> + The variegated skin of that wild beast, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The hour of time, and the delicious season;<br /> + But not so much, that did not give me fear<br /> + A lion’s aspect which appeared to me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He seemed as if against me he were coming<br /> + With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,<br /> + So that it seemed the air was afraid of him; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings<br /> + Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,<br /> + And many folk has caused to live forlorn! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +She brought upon me so much heaviness,<br /> + With the affright that from her aspect came,<br /> + That I the hope relinquished of the height. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as he is who willingly acquires,<br /> + And the time comes that causes him to lose,<br /> + Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +E’en such made me that beast withouten peace,<br /> + Which, coming on against me by degrees<br /> + Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While I was rushing downward to the lowland,<br /> + Before mine eyes did one present himself,<br /> + Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When I beheld him in the desert vast,<br /> + “Have pity on me,” unto him I cried,<br /> + “Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He answered me: “Not man; man once I was,<br /> + And both my parents were of Lombardy,<br /> + And Mantuans by country both of them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +‘Sub Julio’ was I born, though it was late,<br /> + And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,<br /> + During the time of false and lying gods. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A poet was I, and I sang that just<br /> + Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,<br /> + After that Ilion the superb was burned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?<br /> + Why climb’st thou not the Mount Delectable,<br /> + Which is the source and cause of every joy?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain<br /> + Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?”<br /> + I made response to him with bashful forehead. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O, of the other poets honour and light,<br /> + Avail me the long study and great love<br /> + That have impelled me to explore thy volume! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou art my master, and my author thou,<br /> + Thou art alone the one from whom I took<br /> + The beautiful style that has done honour to me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;<br /> + Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,<br /> + For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Thee it behoves to take another road,”<br /> + Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,<br /> + “If from this savage place thou wouldst escape; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because this beast, at which thou criest out,<br /> + Suffers not any one to pass her way,<br /> + But so doth harass him, that she destroys him; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And has a nature so malign and ruthless,<br /> + That never doth she glut her greedy will,<br /> + And after food is hungrier than before. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Many the animals with whom she weds,<br /> + And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound<br /> + Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,<br /> + But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;<br /> + ’Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,<br /> + On whose account the maid Camilla died,<br /> + Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Through every city shall he hunt her down,<br /> + Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,<br /> + There from whence envy first did let her loose. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore I think and judge it for thy best<br /> + Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,<br /> + And lead thee hence through the eternal place, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,<br /> + Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,<br /> + Who cry out each one for the second death; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And thou shalt see those who contented are<br /> + Within the fire, because they hope to come,<br /> + Whene’er it may be, to the blessed people; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,<br /> + A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;<br /> + With her at my departure I will leave thee; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because that Emperor, who reigns above,<br /> + In that I was rebellious to his law,<br /> + Wills that through me none come into his city. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;<br /> + There is his city and his lofty throne;<br /> + O happy he whom thereto he elects!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “Poet, I thee entreat,<br /> + By that same God whom thou didst never know,<br /> + So that I may escape this woe and worse, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,<br /> + That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,<br /> + And those thou makest so disconsolate.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he moved on, and I behind him followed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.II"></a>Inferno: Canto II</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Day was departing, and the embrowned air<br /> + Released the animals that are on earth<br /> + From their fatigues; and I the only one +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Made myself ready to sustain the war,<br /> + Both of the way and likewise of the woe,<br /> + Which memory that errs not shall retrace. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!<br /> + O memory, that didst write down what I saw,<br /> + Here thy nobility shall be manifest! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I began: “Poet, who guidest me,<br /> + Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient,<br /> + Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent,<br /> + While yet corruptible, unto the world<br /> + Immortal went, and was there bodily. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But if the adversary of all evil<br /> + Was courteous, thinking of the high effect<br /> + That issue would from him, and who, and what, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To men of intellect unmeet it seems not;<br /> + For he was of great Rome, and of her empire<br /> + In the empyreal heaven as father chosen; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The which and what, wishing to speak the truth,<br /> + Were stablished as the holy place, wherein<br /> + Sits the successor of the greatest Peter. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt,<br /> + Things did he hear, which the occasion were<br /> + Both of his victory and the papal mantle. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,<br /> + To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,<br /> + Which of salvation’s way is the beginning. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But I, why thither come, or who concedes it?<br /> + I not Aeneas am, I am not Paul,<br /> + Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore, if I resign myself to come,<br /> + I fear the coming may be ill-advised;<br /> + Thou’rt wise, and knowest better than I speak.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as he is, who unwills what he willed,<br /> + And by new thoughts doth his intention change,<br /> + So that from his design he quite withdraws, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such I became, upon that dark hillside,<br /> + Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise,<br /> + Which was so very prompt in the beginning. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If I have well thy language understood,”<br /> + Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,<br /> + “Thy soul attainted is with cowardice, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Which many times a man encumbers so,<br /> + It turns him back from honoured enterprise,<br /> + As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,<br /> + I’ll tell thee why I came, and what I heard<br /> + At the first moment when I grieved for thee. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Among those was I who are in suspense,<br /> + And a fair, saintly Lady called to me<br /> + In such wise, I besought her to command me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Her eyes where shining brighter than the Star;<br /> + And she began to say, gentle and low,<br /> + With voice angelical, in her own language: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +‘O spirit courteous of Mantua,<br /> + Of whom the fame still in the world endures,<br /> + And shall endure, long-lasting as the world; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune,<br /> + Upon the desert slope is so impeded<br /> + Upon his way, that he has turned through terror, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And may, I fear, already be so lost,<br /> + That I too late have risen to his succour,<br /> + From that which I have heard of him in Heaven. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate,<br /> + And with what needful is for his release,<br /> + Assist him so, that I may be consoled. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go;<br /> + I come from there, where I would fain return;<br /> + Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When I shall be in presence of my Lord,<br /> + Full often will I praise thee unto him.’<br /> + Then paused she, and thereafter I began: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +‘O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom<br /> + The human race exceedeth all contained<br /> + Within the heaven that has the lesser circles, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So grateful unto me is thy commandment,<br /> + To obey, if ’twere already done, were late;<br /> + No farther need’st thou ope to me thy wish. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun<br /> + The here descending down into this centre,<br /> + From the vast place thou burnest to return to.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +‘Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,<br /> + Briefly will I relate,’ she answered me,<br /> + ‘Why I am not afraid to enter here. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of those things only should one be afraid<br /> + Which have the power of doing others harm;<br /> + Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +God in his mercy such created me<br /> + That misery of yours attains me not,<br /> + Nor any flame assails me of this burning. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A gentle Lady is in Heaven, who grieves<br /> + At this impediment, to which I send thee,<br /> + So that stern judgment there above is broken. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In her entreaty she besought Lucia,<br /> + And said, “Thy faithful one now stands in need<br /> + Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Lucia, foe of all that cruel is,<br /> + Hastened away, and came unto the place<br /> + Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Beatrice” said she, “the true praise of God,<br /> + Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so,<br /> + For thee he issued from the vulgar herd? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint?<br /> + Dost thou not see the death that combats him<br /> + Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Never were persons in the world so swift<br /> + To work their weal and to escape their woe,<br /> + As I, after such words as these were uttered, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Came hither downward from my blessed seat,<br /> + Confiding in thy dignified discourse,<br /> + Which honours thee, and those who’ve listened to it.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After she thus had spoken unto me,<br /> + Weeping, her shining eyes she turned away;<br /> + Whereby she made me swifter in my coming; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And unto thee I came, as she desired;<br /> + I have delivered thee from that wild beast,<br /> + Which barred the beautiful mountain’s short ascent. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What is it, then? Why, why dost thou delay?<br /> + Why is such baseness bedded in thy heart?<br /> + Daring and hardihood why hast thou not, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Seeing that three such Ladies benedight<br /> + Are caring for thee in the court of Heaven,<br /> + And so much good my speech doth promise thee?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal chill,<br /> + Bowed down and closed, when the sun whitens them,<br /> + Uplift themselves all open on their stems; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such I became with my exhausted strength,<br /> + And such good courage to my heart there coursed,<br /> + That I began, like an intrepid person: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O she compassionate, who succoured me,<br /> + And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon<br /> + The words of truth which she addressed to thee! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou hast my heart so with desire disposed<br /> + To the adventure, with these words of thine,<br /> + That to my first intent I have returned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now go, for one sole will is in us both,<br /> + Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou.”<br /> + Thus said I to him; and when he had moved, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I entered on the deep and savage way. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.III"></a>Inferno: Canto III</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Through me the way is to the city dolent;<br /> + Through me the way is to eternal dole;<br /> + Through me the way among the people lost. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Justice incited my sublime Creator;<br /> + Created me divine Omnipotence,<br /> + The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Before me there were no created things,<br /> + Only eterne, and I eternal last.<br /> + All hope abandon, ye who enter in!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +These words in sombre colour I beheld<br /> + Written upon the summit of a gate;<br /> + Whence I: “Their sense is, Master, hard to me!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me, as one experienced:<br /> + “Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned,<br /> + All cowardice must needs be here extinct. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We to the place have come, where I have told thee<br /> + Thou shalt behold the people dolorous<br /> + Who have foregone the good of intellect.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And after he had laid his hand on mine<br /> + With joyful mien, whence I was comforted,<br /> + He led me in among the secret things. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud<br /> + Resounded through the air without a star,<br /> + Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Languages diverse, horrible dialects,<br /> + Accents of anger, words of agony,<br /> + And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Made up a tumult that goes whirling on<br /> + For ever in that air for ever black,<br /> + Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, who had my head with horror bound,<br /> + Said: “Master, what is this which now I hear?<br /> + What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “This miserable mode<br /> + Maintain the melancholy souls of those<br /> + Who lived withouten infamy or praise. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Commingled are they with that caitiff choir<br /> + Of Angels, who have not rebellious been,<br /> + Nor faithful were to God, but were for self. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;<br /> + Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,<br /> + For glory none the damned would have from them.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “O Master, what so grievous is<br /> + To these, that maketh them lament so sore?”<br /> + He answered: “I will tell thee very briefly. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +These have no longer any hope of death;<br /> + And this blind life of theirs is so debased,<br /> + They envious are of every other fate. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +No fame of them the world permits to be;<br /> + Misericord and Justice both disdain them.<br /> + Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, who looked again, beheld a banner,<br /> + Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly,<br /> + That of all pause it seemed to me indignant; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And after it there came so long a train<br /> + Of people, that I ne’er would have believed<br /> + That ever Death so many had undone. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When some among them I had recognised,<br /> + I looked, and I beheld the shade of him<br /> + Who made through cowardice the great refusal. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain,<br /> + That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches<br /> + Hateful to God and to his enemies. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +These miscreants, who never were alive,<br /> + Were naked, and were stung exceedingly<br /> + By gadflies and by hornets that were there. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +These did their faces irrigate with blood,<br /> + Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet<br /> + By the disgusting worms was gathered up. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And when to gazing farther I betook me.<br /> + People I saw on a great river’s bank;<br /> + Whence said I: “Master, now vouchsafe to me, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That I may know who these are, and what law<br /> + Makes them appear so ready to pass over,<br /> + As I discern athwart the dusky light.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “These things shall all be known<br /> + To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay<br /> + Upon the dismal shore of Acheron.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast,<br /> + Fearing my words might irksome be to him,<br /> + From speech refrained I till we reached the river. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And lo! towards us coming in a boat<br /> + An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,<br /> + Crying: “Woe unto you, ye souls depraved! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens;<br /> + I come to lead you to the other shore,<br /> + To the eternal shades in heat and frost. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And thou, that yonder standest, living soul,<br /> + Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead!”<br /> + But when he saw that I did not withdraw, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He said: “By other ways, by other ports<br /> + Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage;<br /> + A lighter vessel needs must carry thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And unto him the Guide: “Vex thee not, Charon;<br /> + It is so willed there where is power to do<br /> + That which is willed; and farther question not.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks<br /> + Of him the ferryman of the livid fen,<br /> + Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But all those souls who weary were and naked<br /> + Their colour changed and gnashed their teeth together,<br /> + As soon as they had heard those cruel words. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +God they blasphemed and their progenitors,<br /> + The human race, the place, the time, the seed<br /> + Of their engendering and of their birth! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereafter all together they drew back,<br /> + Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore,<br /> + Which waiteth every man who fears not God. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,<br /> + Beckoning to them, collects them all together,<br /> + Beats with his oar whoever lags behind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off,<br /> + First one and then another, till the branch<br /> + Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In similar wise the evil seed of Adam<br /> + Throw themselves from that margin one by one,<br /> + At signals, as a bird unto its lure. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So they depart across the dusky wave,<br /> + And ere upon the other side they land,<br /> + Again on this side a new troop assembles. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“My son,” the courteous Master said to me,<br /> + “All those who perish in the wrath of God<br /> + Here meet together out of every land; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And ready are they to pass o’er the river,<br /> + Because celestial Justice spurs them on,<br /> + So that their fear is turned into desire. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This way there never passes a good soul;<br /> + And hence if Charon doth complain of thee,<br /> + Well mayst thou know now what his speech imports.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This being finished, all the dusk champaign<br /> + Trembled so violently, that of that terror<br /> + The recollection bathes me still with sweat. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The land of tears gave forth a blast of wind,<br /> + And fulminated a vermilion light,<br /> + Which overmastered in me every sense, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.IV"></a>Inferno: Canto IV</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Broke the deep lethargy within my head<br /> + A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted,<br /> + Like to a person who by force is wakened; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And round about I moved my rested eyes,<br /> + Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed,<br /> + To recognise the place wherein I was. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +True is it, that upon the verge I found me<br /> + Of the abysmal valley dolorous,<br /> + That gathers thunder of infinite ululations. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,<br /> + So that by fixing on its depths my sight<br /> + Nothing whatever I discerned therein. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Let us descend now into the blind world,”<br /> + Began the Poet, pallid utterly;<br /> + “I will be first, and thou shalt second be.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, who of his colour was aware,<br /> + Said: “How shall I come, if thou art afraid,<br /> + Who’rt wont to be a comfort to my fears?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “The anguish of the people<br /> + Who are below here in my face depicts<br /> + That pity which for terror thou hast taken. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Let us go on, for the long way impels us.”<br /> + Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter<br /> + The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There, as it seemed to me from listening,<br /> + Were lamentations none, but only sighs,<br /> + That tremble made the everlasting air. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And this arose from sorrow without torment,<br /> + Which the crowds had, that many were and great,<br /> + Of infants and of women and of men. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To me the Master good: “Thou dost not ask<br /> + What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are?<br /> + Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That they sinned not; and if they merit had,<br /> + ’Tis not enough, because they had not baptism<br /> + Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if they were before Christianity,<br /> + In the right manner they adored not God;<br /> + And among such as these am I myself. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For such defects, and not for other guilt,<br /> + Lost are we and are only so far punished,<br /> + That without hope we live on in desire.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard,<br /> + Because some people of much worthiness<br /> + I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,”<br /> + Began I, with desire of being certain<br /> + Of that Faith which o’ercometh every error, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Came any one by his own merit hence,<br /> + Or by another’s, who was blessed thereafter?”<br /> + And he, who understood my covert speech, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Replied: “I was a novice in this state,<br /> + When I saw hither come a Mighty One,<br /> + With sign of victory incoronate. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,<br /> + And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,<br /> + Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,<br /> + Israel with his father and his children,<br /> + And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And others many, and he made them blessed;<br /> + And thou must know, that earlier than these<br /> + Never were any human spirits saved.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We ceased not to advance because he spake,<br /> + But still were passing onward through the forest,<br /> + The forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not very far as yet our way had gone<br /> + This side the summit, when I saw a fire<br /> + That overcame a hemisphere of darkness. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We were a little distant from it still,<br /> + But not so far that I in part discerned not<br /> + That honourable people held that place. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O thou who honourest every art and science,<br /> + Who may these be, which such great honour have,<br /> + That from the fashion of the rest it parts them?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “The honourable name,<br /> + That sounds of them above there in thy life,<br /> + Wins grace in Heaven, that so advances them.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In the mean time a voice was heard by me:<br /> + “All honour be to the pre-eminent Poet;<br /> + His shade returns again, that was departed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After the voice had ceased and quiet was,<br /> + Four mighty shades I saw approaching us;<br /> + Semblance had they nor sorrowful nor glad. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To say to me began my gracious Master:<br /> + “Him with that falchion in his hand behold,<br /> + Who comes before the three, even as their lord. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That one is Homer, Poet sovereign;<br /> + He who comes next is Horace, the satirist;<br /> + The third is Ovid, and the last is Lucan. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because to each of these with me applies<br /> + The name that solitary voice proclaimed,<br /> + They do me honour, and in that do well.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus I beheld assemble the fair school<br /> + Of that lord of the song pre-eminent,<br /> + Who o’er the others like an eagle soars. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When they together had discoursed somewhat,<br /> + They turned to me with signs of salutation,<br /> + And on beholding this, my Master smiled; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And more of honour still, much more, they did me,<br /> + In that they made me one of their own band;<br /> + So that the sixth was I, ’mid so much wit. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus we went on as far as to the light,<br /> + Things saying ’tis becoming to keep silent,<br /> + As was the saying of them where I was. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We came unto a noble castle’s foot,<br /> + Seven times encompassed with lofty walls,<br /> + Defended round by a fair rivulet; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This we passed over even as firm ground;<br /> + Through portals seven I entered with these Sages;<br /> + We came into a meadow of fresh verdure. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +People were there with solemn eyes and slow,<br /> + Of great authority in their countenance;<br /> + They spake but seldom, and with gentle voices. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus we withdrew ourselves upon one side<br /> + Into an opening luminous and lofty,<br /> + So that they all of them were visible. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There opposite, upon the green enamel,<br /> + Were pointed out to me the mighty spirits,<br /> + Whom to have seen I feel myself exalted. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw Electra with companions many,<br /> + ’Mongst whom I knew both Hector and Aeneas,<br /> + Caesar in armour with gerfalcon eyes; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw Camilla and Penthesilea<br /> + On the other side, and saw the King Latinus,<br /> + Who with Lavinia his daughter sat; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw that Brutus who drove Tarquin forth,<br /> + Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia,<br /> + And saw alone, apart, the Saladin. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When I had lifted up my brows a little,<br /> + The Master I beheld of those who know,<br /> + Sit with his philosophic family. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +All gaze upon him, and all do him honour.<br /> + There I beheld both Socrates and Plato,<br /> + Who nearer him before the others stand; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Democritus, who puts the world on chance,<br /> + Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales,<br /> + Zeno, Empedocles, and Heraclitus; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of qualities I saw the good collector,<br /> + Hight Dioscorides; and Orpheus saw I,<br /> + Tully and Livy, and moral Seneca, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Euclid, geometrician, and Ptolemy,<br /> + Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna,<br /> + Averroes, who the great Comment made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I cannot all of them pourtray in full,<br /> + Because so drives me onward the long theme,<br /> + That many times the word comes short of fact. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The sixfold company in two divides;<br /> + Another way my sapient Guide conducts me<br /> + Forth from the quiet to the air that trembles; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And to a place I come where nothing shines. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.V"></a>Inferno: Canto V</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus I descended out of the first circle<br /> + Down to the second, that less space begirds,<br /> + And so much greater dole, that goads to wailing. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There standeth Minos horribly, and snarls;<br /> + Examines the transgressions at the entrance;<br /> + Judges, and sends according as he girds him. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I say, that when the spirit evil-born<br /> + Cometh before him, wholly it confesses;<br /> + And this discriminator of transgressions +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Seeth what place in Hell is meet for it;<br /> + Girds himself with his tail as many times<br /> + As grades he wishes it should be thrust down. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Always before him many of them stand;<br /> + They go by turns each one unto the judgment;<br /> + They speak, and hear, and then are downward hurled. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O thou, that to this dolorous hostelry<br /> + Comest,” said Minos to me, when he saw me,<br /> + Leaving the practice of so great an office, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest;<br /> + Let not the portal’s amplitude deceive thee.”<br /> + And unto him my Guide: “Why criest thou too? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Do not impede his journey fate-ordained;<br /> + It is so willed there where is power to do<br /> + That which is willed; and ask no further question.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And now begin the dolesome notes to grow<br /> + Audible unto me; now am I come<br /> + There where much lamentation strikes upon me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I came into a place mute of all light,<br /> + Which bellows as the sea does in a tempest,<br /> + If by opposing winds ’t is combated. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The infernal hurricane that never rests<br /> + Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine;<br /> + Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When they arrive before the precipice,<br /> + There are the shrieks, the plaints, and the laments,<br /> + There they blaspheme the puissance divine. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I understood that unto such a torment<br /> + The carnal malefactors were condemned,<br /> + Who reason subjugate to appetite. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as the wings of starlings bear them on<br /> + In the cold season in large band and full,<br /> + So doth that blast the spirits maledict; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It hither, thither, downward, upward, drives them;<br /> + No hope doth comfort them for evermore,<br /> + Not of repose, but even of lesser pain. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as the cranes go chanting forth their lays,<br /> + Making in air a long line of themselves,<br /> + So saw I coming, uttering lamentations, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress.<br /> + Whereupon said I: “Master, who are those<br /> + People, whom the black air so castigates?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“The first of those, of whom intelligence<br /> + Thou fain wouldst have,” then said he unto me,<br /> + “The empress was of many languages. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To sensual vices she was so abandoned,<br /> + That lustful she made licit in her law,<br /> + To remove the blame to which she had been led. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +She is Semiramis, of whom we read<br /> + That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse;<br /> + She held the land which now the Sultan rules. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The next is she who killed herself for love,<br /> + And broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus;<br /> + Then Cleopatra the voluptuous.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Helen I saw, for whom so many ruthless<br /> + Seasons revolved; and saw the great Achilles,<br /> + Who at the last hour combated with Love. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Paris I saw, Tristan; and more than a thousand<br /> + Shades did he name and point out with his finger,<br /> + Whom Love had separated from our life. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After that I had listened to my Teacher,<br /> + Naming the dames of eld and cavaliers,<br /> + Pity prevailed, and I was nigh bewildered. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I began: “O Poet, willingly<br /> + Speak would I to those two, who go together,<br /> + And seem upon the wind to be so light.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And, he to me: “Thou’lt mark, when they shall be<br /> + Nearer to us; and then do thou implore them<br /> + By love which leadeth them, and they will come.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Soon as the wind in our direction sways them,<br /> + My voice uplift I: “O ye weary souls!<br /> + Come speak to us, if no one interdicts it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As turtle-doves, called onward by desire,<br /> + With open and steady wings to the sweet nest<br /> + Fly through the air by their volition borne, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So came they from the band where Dido is,<br /> + Approaching us athwart the air malign,<br /> + So strong was the affectionate appeal. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O living creature gracious and benignant,<br /> + Who visiting goest through the purple air<br /> + Us, who have stained the world incarnadine, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If were the King of the Universe our friend,<br /> + We would pray unto him to give thee peace,<br /> + Since thou hast pity on our woe perverse. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of what it pleases thee to hear and speak,<br /> + That will we hear, and we will speak to you,<br /> + While silent is the wind, as it is now. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Sitteth the city, wherein I was born,<br /> + Upon the sea-shore where the Po descends<br /> + To rest in peace with all his retinue. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize,<br /> + Seized this man for the person beautiful<br /> + That was ta’en from me, and still the mode offends me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving,<br /> + Seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly,<br /> + That, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Love has conducted us unto one death;<br /> + Caina waiteth him who quenched our life!”<br /> + These words were borne along from them to us. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As soon as I had heard those souls tormented,<br /> + I bowed my face, and so long held it down<br /> + Until the Poet said to me: “What thinkest?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When I made answer, I began: “Alas!<br /> + How many pleasant thoughts, how much desire,<br /> + Conducted these unto the dolorous pass!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then unto them I turned me, and I spake,<br /> + And I began: “Thine agonies, Francesca,<br /> + Sad and compassionate to weeping make me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But tell me, at the time of those sweet sighs,<br /> + By what and in what manner Love conceded,<br /> + That you should know your dubious desires?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And she to me: “There is no greater sorrow<br /> + Than to be mindful of the happy time<br /> + In misery, and that thy Teacher knows. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But, if to recognise the earliest root<br /> + Of love in us thou hast so great desire,<br /> + I will do even as he who weeps and speaks. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +One day we reading were for our delight<br /> + Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral.<br /> + Alone we were and without any fear. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Full many a time our eyes together drew<br /> + That reading, and drove the colour from our faces;<br /> + But one point only was it that o’ercame us. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When as we read of the much-longed-for smile<br /> + Being by such a noble lover kissed,<br /> + This one, who ne’er from me shall be divided, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.<br /> + Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it.<br /> + That day no farther did we read therein.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And all the while one spirit uttered this,<br /> + The other one did weep so, that, for pity,<br /> + I swooned away as if I had been dying, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And fell, even as a dead body falls. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.VI"></a>Inferno: Canto VI</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +At the return of consciousness, that closed<br /> + Before the pity of those two relations,<br /> + Which utterly with sadness had confused me, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +New torments I behold, and new tormented<br /> + Around me, whichsoever way I move,<br /> + And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In the third circle am I of the rain<br /> + Eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy;<br /> + Its law and quality are never new. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Huge hail, and water sombre-hued, and snow,<br /> + Athwart the tenebrous air pour down amain;<br /> + Noisome the earth is, that receiveth this. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Cerberus, monster cruel and uncouth,<br /> + With his three gullets like a dog is barking<br /> + Over the people that are there submerged. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,<br /> + And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;<br /> + He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Howl the rain maketh them like unto dogs;<br /> + One side they make a shelter for the other;<br /> + Oft turn themselves the wretched reprobates. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!<br /> + His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks;<br /> + Not a limb had he that was motionless. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And my Conductor, with his spans extended,<br /> + Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled,<br /> + He threw it into those rapacious gullets. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such as that dog is, who by barking craves,<br /> + And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws,<br /> + For to devour it he but thinks and struggles, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed<br /> + Of Cerberus the demon, who so thunders<br /> + Over the souls that they would fain be deaf. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We passed across the shadows, which subdues<br /> + The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet<br /> + Upon their vanity that person seems. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They all were lying prone upon the earth,<br /> + Excepting one, who sat upright as soon<br /> + As he beheld us passing on before him. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O thou that art conducted through this Hell,”<br /> + He said to me, “recall me, if thou canst;<br /> + Thyself wast made before I was unmade.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “The anguish which thou hast<br /> + Perhaps doth draw thee out of my remembrance,<br /> + So that it seems not I have ever seen thee. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But tell me who thou art, that in so doleful<br /> + A place art put, and in such punishment,<br /> + If some are greater, none is so displeasing.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Thy city, which is full<br /> + Of envy so that now the sack runs over,<br /> + Held me within it in the life serene. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco;<br /> + For the pernicious sin of gluttony<br /> + I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, sad soul, am not the only one,<br /> + For all these suffer the like penalty<br /> + For the like sin;” and word no more spake he. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I answered him: “Ciacco, thy wretchedness<br /> + Weighs on me so that it to weep invites me;<br /> + But tell me, if thou knowest, to what shall come +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The citizens of the divided city;<br /> + If any there be just; and the occasion<br /> + Tell me why so much discord has assailed it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “They, after long contention,<br /> + Will come to bloodshed; and the rustic party<br /> + Will drive the other out with much offence. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then afterwards behoves it this one fall<br /> + Within three suns, and rise again the other<br /> + By force of him who now is on the coast. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +High will it hold its forehead a long while,<br /> + Keeping the other under heavy burdens,<br /> + Howe’er it weeps thereat and is indignant. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The just are two, and are not understood there;<br /> + Envy and Arrogance and Avarice<br /> + Are the three sparks that have all hearts enkindled.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here ended he his tearful utterance;<br /> + And I to him: “I wish thee still to teach me,<br /> + And make a gift to me of further speech. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Farinata and Tegghiaio, once so worthy,<br /> + Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca,<br /> + And others who on good deeds set their thoughts, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Say where they are, and cause that I may know them;<br /> + For great desire constraineth me to learn<br /> + If Heaven doth sweeten them, or Hell envenom.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he: “They are among the blacker souls;<br /> + A different sin downweighs them to the bottom;<br /> + If thou so far descendest, thou canst see them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But when thou art again in the sweet world,<br /> + I pray thee to the mind of others bring me;<br /> + No more I tell thee and no more I answer.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then his straightforward eyes he turned askance,<br /> + Eyed me a little, and then bowed his head;<br /> + He fell therewith prone like the other blind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the Guide said to me: “He wakes no more<br /> + This side the sound of the angelic trumpet;<br /> + When shall approach the hostile Potentate, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Each one shall find again his dismal tomb,<br /> + Shall reassume his flesh and his own figure,<br /> + Shall hear what through eternity re-echoes.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So we passed onward o’er the filthy mixture<br /> + Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow,<br /> + Touching a little on the future life. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Wherefore I said: “Master, these torments here,<br /> + Will they increase after the mighty sentence,<br /> + Or lesser be, or will they be as burning?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Return unto thy science,<br /> + Which wills, that as the thing more perfect is,<br /> + The more it feels of pleasure and of pain. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Albeit that this people maledict<br /> + To true perfection never can attain,<br /> + Hereafter more than now they look to be.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Round in a circle by that road we went,<br /> + Speaking much more, which I do not repeat;<br /> + We came unto the point where the descent is; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There we found Plutus the great enemy. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.VII"></a>Inferno: Canto VII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Pape Satan, Pape Satan, Aleppe!”<br /> + Thus Plutus with his clucking voice began;<br /> + And that benignant Sage, who all things knew, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Said, to encourage me: “Let not thy fear<br /> + Harm thee; for any power that he may have<br /> + Shall not prevent thy going down this crag.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he turned round unto that bloated lip,<br /> + And said: “Be silent, thou accursed wolf;<br /> + Consume within thyself with thine own rage. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not causeless is this journey to the abyss;<br /> + Thus is it willed on high, where Michael wrought<br /> + Vengeance upon the proud adultery.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the sails inflated by the wind<br /> + Involved together fall when snaps the mast,<br /> + So fell the cruel monster to the earth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus we descended into the fourth chasm,<br /> + Gaining still farther on the dolesome shore<br /> + Which all the woe of the universe insacks. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Justice of God, ah! who heaps up so many<br /> + New toils and sufferings as I beheld?<br /> + And why doth our transgression waste us so? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As doth the billow there upon Charybdis,<br /> + That breaks itself on that which it encounters,<br /> + So here the folk must dance their roundelay. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many,<br /> + On one side and the other, with great howls,<br /> + Rolling weights forward by main force of chest. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They clashed together, and then at that point<br /> + Each one turned backward, rolling retrograde,<br /> + Crying, “Why keepest?” and, “Why squanderest thou?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus they returned along the lurid circle<br /> + On either hand unto the opposite point,<br /> + Shouting their shameful metre evermore. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then each, when he arrived there, wheeled about<br /> + Through his half-circle to another joust;<br /> + And I, who had my heart pierced as it were, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Exclaimed: “My Master, now declare to me<br /> + What people these are, and if all were clerks,<br /> + These shaven crowns upon the left of us.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “All of them were asquint<br /> + In intellect in the first life, so much<br /> + That there with measure they no spending made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Clearly enough their voices bark it forth,<br /> + Whene’er they reach the two points of the circle,<br /> + Where sunders them the opposite defect. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Clerks those were who no hairy covering<br /> + Have on the head, and Popes and Cardinals,<br /> + In whom doth Avarice practise its excess.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “My Master, among such as these<br /> + I ought forsooth to recognise some few,<br /> + Who were infected with these maladies.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Vain thought thou entertainest;<br /> + The undiscerning life which made them sordid<br /> + Now makes them unto all discernment dim. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Forever shall they come to these two buttings;<br /> + These from the sepulchre shall rise again<br /> + With the fist closed, and these with tresses shorn. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ill giving and ill keeping the fair world<br /> + Have ta’en from them, and placed them in this scuffle;<br /> + Whate’er it be, no words adorn I for it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now canst thou, Son, behold the transient farce<br /> + Of goods that are committed unto Fortune,<br /> + For which the human race each other buffet; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For all the gold that is beneath the moon,<br /> + Or ever has been, of these weary souls<br /> + Could never make a single one repose.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Master,” I said to him, “now tell me also<br /> + What is this Fortune which thou speakest of,<br /> + That has the world’s goods so within its clutches?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “O creatures imbecile,<br /> + What ignorance is this which doth beset you?<br /> + Now will I have thee learn my judgment of her. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He whose omniscience everything transcends<br /> + The heavens created, and gave who should guide them,<br /> + That every part to every part may shine, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Distributing the light in equal measure;<br /> + He in like manner to the mundane splendours<br /> + Ordained a general ministress and guide, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That she might change at times the empty treasures<br /> + From race to race, from one blood to another,<br /> + Beyond resistance of all human wisdom. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore one people triumphs, and another<br /> + Languishes, in pursuance of her judgment,<br /> + Which hidden is, as in the grass a serpent. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Your knowledge has no counterstand against her;<br /> + She makes provision, judges, and pursues<br /> + Her governance, as theirs the other gods. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Her permutations have not any truce;<br /> + Necessity makes her precipitate,<br /> + So often cometh who his turn obtains. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And this is she who is so crucified<br /> + Even by those who ought to give her praise,<br /> + Giving her blame amiss, and bad repute. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But she is blissful, and she hears it not;<br /> + Among the other primal creatures gladsome<br /> + She turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Let us descend now unto greater woe;<br /> + Already sinks each star that was ascending<br /> + When I set out, and loitering is forbidden.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We crossed the circle to the other bank,<br /> + Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself<br /> + Along a gully that runs out of it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The water was more sombre far than perse;<br /> + And we, in company with the dusky waves,<br /> + Made entrance downward by a path uncouth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx,<br /> + This tristful brooklet, when it has descended<br /> + Down to the foot of the malign gray shores. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, who stood intent upon beholding,<br /> + Saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon,<br /> + All of them naked and with angry look. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They smote each other not alone with hands,<br /> + But with the head and with the breast and feet,<br /> + Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Said the good Master: “Son, thou now beholdest<br /> + The souls of those whom anger overcame;<br /> + And likewise I would have thee know for certain +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Beneath the water people are who sigh<br /> + And make this water bubble at the surface,<br /> + As the eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turns. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fixed in the mire they say, ‘We sullen were<br /> + In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened,<br /> + Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now we are sullen in this sable mire.’<br /> + This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats,<br /> + For with unbroken words they cannot say it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus we went circling round the filthy fen<br /> + A great arc ’twixt the dry bank and the swamp,<br /> + With eyes turned unto those who gorge the mire; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Unto the foot of a tower we came at last. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.VIII"></a>Inferno: Canto VIII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +I say, continuing, that long before<br /> + We to the foot of that high tower had come,<br /> + Our eyes went upward to the summit of it, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By reason of two flamelets we saw placed there,<br /> + And from afar another answer them,<br /> + So far, that hardly could the eye attain it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And, to the sea of all discernment turned,<br /> + I said: “What sayeth this, and what respondeth<br /> + That other fire? and who are they that made it?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Across the turbid waves<br /> + What is expected thou canst now discern,<br /> + If reek of the morass conceal it not.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Cord never shot an arrow from itself<br /> + That sped away athwart the air so swift,<br /> + As I beheld a very little boat +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Come o’er the water tow’rds us at that moment,<br /> + Under the guidance of a single pilot,<br /> + Who shouted, “Now art thou arrived, fell soul?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou criest out in vain<br /> + For this once,” said my Lord; “thou shalt not have us<br /> + Longer than in the passing of the slough.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As he who listens to some great deceit<br /> + That has been done to him, and then resents it,<br /> + Such became Phlegyas, in his gathered wrath. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My Guide descended down into the boat,<br /> + And then he made me enter after him,<br /> + And only when I entered seemed it laden. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Soon as the Guide and I were in the boat,<br /> + The antique prow goes on its way, dividing<br /> + More of the water than ’tis wont with others. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While we were running through the dead canal,<br /> + Uprose in front of me one full of mire,<br /> + And said, “Who ’rt thou that comest ere the hour?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “Although I come, I stay not;<br /> + But who art thou that hast become so squalid?”<br /> + “Thou seest that I am one who weeps,” he answered. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “With weeping and with wailing,<br /> + Thou spirit maledict, do thou remain;<br /> + For thee I know, though thou art all defiled.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then stretched he both his hands unto the boat;<br /> + Whereat my wary Master thrust him back,<br /> + Saying, “Away there with the other dogs!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereafter with his arms he clasped my neck;<br /> + He kissed my face, and said: “Disdainful soul,<br /> + Blessed be she who bore thee in her bosom. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That was an arrogant person in the world;<br /> + Goodness is none, that decks his memory;<br /> + So likewise here his shade is furious. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +How many are esteemed great kings up there,<br /> + Who here shall be like unto swine in mire,<br /> + Leaving behind them horrible dispraises!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “My Master, much should I be pleased,<br /> + If I could see him soused into this broth,<br /> + Before we issue forth out of the lake.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Ere unto thee the shore<br /> + Reveal itself, thou shalt be satisfied;<br /> + Such a desire ’tis meet thou shouldst enjoy.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A little after that, I saw such havoc<br /> + Made of him by the people of the mire,<br /> + That still I praise and thank my God for it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They all were shouting, “At Philippo Argenti!”<br /> + And that exasperate spirit Florentine<br /> + Turned round upon himself with his own teeth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We left him there, and more of him I tell not;<br /> + But on mine ears there smote a lamentation,<br /> + Whence forward I intent unbar mine eyes. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the good Master said: “Even now, my Son,<br /> + The city draweth near whose name is Dis,<br /> + With the grave citizens, with the great throng.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “Its mosques already, Master, clearly<br /> + Within there in the valley I discern<br /> + Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They were.” And he to me: “The fire eternal<br /> + That kindles them within makes them look red,<br /> + As thou beholdest in this nether Hell.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then we arrived within the moats profound,<br /> + That circumvallate that disconsolate city;<br /> + The walls appeared to me to be of iron. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not without making first a circuit wide,<br /> + We came unto a place where loud the pilot<br /> + Cried out to us, “Debark, here is the entrance.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +More than a thousand at the gates I saw<br /> + Out of the Heavens rained down, who angrily<br /> + Were saying, “Who is this that without death +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Goes through the kingdom of the people dead?”<br /> + And my sagacious Master made a sign<br /> + Of wishing secretly to speak with them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A little then they quelled their great disdain,<br /> + And said: “Come thou alone, and he begone<br /> + Who has so boldly entered these dominions. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Let him return alone by his mad road;<br /> + Try, if he can; for thou shalt here remain,<br /> + Who hast escorted him through such dark regions.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Think, Reader, if I was discomforted<br /> + At utterance of the accursed words;<br /> + For never to return here I believed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O my dear Guide, who more than seven times<br /> + Hast rendered me security, and drawn me<br /> + From imminent peril that before me stood, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Do not desert me,” said I, “thus undone;<br /> + And if the going farther be denied us,<br /> + Let us retrace our steps together swiftly.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And that Lord, who had led me thitherward,<br /> + Said unto me: “Fear not; because our passage<br /> + None can take from us, it by Such is given. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But here await me, and thy weary spirit<br /> + Comfort and nourish with a better hope;<br /> + For in this nether world I will not leave thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So onward goes and there abandons me<br /> + My Father sweet, and I remain in doubt,<br /> + For No and Yes within my head contend. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I could not hear what he proposed to them;<br /> + But with them there he did not linger long,<br /> + Ere each within in rivalry ran back. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They closed the portals, those our adversaries,<br /> + On my Lord’s breast, who had remained without<br /> + And turned to me with footsteps far between. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His eyes cast down, his forehead shorn had he<br /> + Of all its boldness, and he said, with sighs,<br /> + “Who has denied to me the dolesome houses?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And unto me: “Thou, because I am angry,<br /> + Fear not, for I will conquer in the trial,<br /> + Whatever for defence within be planned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This arrogance of theirs is nothing new;<br /> + For once they used it at less secret gate,<br /> + Which finds itself without a fastening still. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O’er it didst thou behold the dead inscription;<br /> + And now this side of it descends the steep,<br /> + Passing across the circles without escort, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +One by whose means the city shall be opened.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.IX"></a>Inferno: Canto IX</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +That hue which cowardice brought out on me,<br /> + Beholding my Conductor backward turn,<br /> + Sooner repressed within him his new colour. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He stopped attentive, like a man who listens,<br /> + Because the eye could not conduct him far<br /> + Through the black air, and through the heavy fog. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Still it behoveth us to win the fight,”<br /> + Began he; “Else. . .Such offered us herself. . .<br /> + O how I long that some one here arrive!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Well I perceived, as soon as the beginning<br /> + He covered up with what came afterward,<br /> + That they were words quite different from the first; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But none the less his saying gave me fear,<br /> + Because I carried out the broken phrase,<br /> + Perhaps to a worse meaning than he had. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Into this bottom of the doleful conch<br /> + Doth any e’er descend from the first grade,<br /> + Which for its pain has only hope cut off?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This question put I; and he answered me:<br /> + “Seldom it comes to pass that one of us<br /> + Maketh the journey upon which I go. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +True is it, once before I here below<br /> + Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho,<br /> + Who summoned back the shades unto their bodies. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Naked of me short while the flesh had been,<br /> + Before within that wall she made me enter,<br /> + To bring a spirit from the circle of Judas; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That is the lowest region and the darkest,<br /> + And farthest from the heaven which circles all.<br /> + Well know I the way; therefore be reassured. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This fen, which a prodigious stench exhales,<br /> + Encompasses about the city dolent,<br /> + Where now we cannot enter without anger.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And more he said, but not in mind I have it;<br /> + Because mine eye had altogether drawn me<br /> + Tow’rds the high tower with the red-flaming summit, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Where in a moment saw I swift uprisen<br /> + The three infernal Furies stained with blood,<br /> + Who had the limbs of women and their mien, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And with the greenest hydras were begirt;<br /> + Small serpents and cerastes were their tresses,<br /> + Wherewith their horrid temples were entwined. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he who well the handmaids of the Queen<br /> + Of everlasting lamentation knew,<br /> + Said unto me: “Behold the fierce Erinnys. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This is Megaera, on the left-hand side;<br /> + She who is weeping on the right, Alecto;<br /> + Tisiphone is between;” and then was silent. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Each one her breast was rending with her nails;<br /> + They beat them with their palms, and cried so loud,<br /> + That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!”<br /> + All shouted looking down; “in evil hour<br /> + Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close shut,<br /> + For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it,<br /> + No more returning upward would there be.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus said the Master; and he turned me round<br /> + Himself, and trusted not unto my hands<br /> + So far as not to blind me with his own. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O ye who have undistempered intellects,<br /> + Observe the doctrine that conceals itself<br /> + Beneath the veil of the mysterious verses! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And now there came across the turbid waves<br /> + The clangour of a sound with terror fraught,<br /> + Because of which both of the margins trembled; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not otherwise it was than of a wind<br /> + Impetuous on account of adverse heats,<br /> + That smites the forest, and, without restraint, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The branches rends, beats down, and bears away;<br /> + Right onward, laden with dust, it goes superb,<br /> + And puts to flight the wild beasts and the shepherds. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Mine eyes he loosed, and said: “Direct the nerve<br /> + Of vision now along that ancient foam,<br /> + There yonder where that smoke is most intense.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the frogs before the hostile serpent<br /> + Across the water scatter all abroad,<br /> + Until each one is huddled in the earth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +More than a thousand ruined souls I saw,<br /> + Thus fleeing from before one who on foot<br /> + Was passing o’er the Styx with soles unwet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From off his face he fanned that unctuous air,<br /> + Waving his left hand oft in front of him,<br /> + And only with that anguish seemed he weary. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was he,<br /> + And to the Master turned; and he made sign<br /> + That I should quiet stand, and bow before him. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah! how disdainful he appeared to me!<br /> + He reached the gate, and with a little rod<br /> + He opened it, for there was no resistance. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O banished out of Heaven, people despised!”<br /> + Thus he began upon the horrid threshold;<br /> + “Whence is this arrogance within you couched? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Wherefore recalcitrate against that will,<br /> + From which the end can never be cut off,<br /> + And which has many times increased your pain? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What helpeth it to butt against the fates?<br /> + Your Cerberus, if you remember well,<br /> + For that still bears his chin and gullet peeled.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he returned along the miry road,<br /> + And spake no word to us, but had the look<br /> + Of one whom other care constrains and goads +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Than that of him who in his presence is;<br /> + And we our feet directed tow’rds the city,<br /> + After those holy words all confident. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Within we entered without any contest;<br /> + And I, who inclination had to see<br /> + What the condition such a fortress holds, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Soon as I was within, cast round mine eye,<br /> + And see on every hand an ample plain,<br /> + Full of distress and torment terrible. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as at Arles, where stagnant grows the Rhone,<br /> + Even as at Pola near to the Quarnaro,<br /> + That shuts in Italy and bathes its borders, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The sepulchres make all the place uneven;<br /> + So likewise did they there on every side,<br /> + Saving that there the manner was more bitter; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For flames between the sepulchres were scattered,<br /> + By which they so intensely heated were,<br /> + That iron more so asks not any art. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +All of their coverings uplifted were,<br /> + And from them issued forth such dire laments,<br /> + Sooth seemed they of the wretched and tormented. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “My Master, what are all those people<br /> + Who, having sepulture within those tombs,<br /> + Make themselves audible by doleful sighs?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Here are the Heresiarchs,<br /> + With their disciples of all sects, and much<br /> + More than thou thinkest laden are the tombs. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here like together with its like is buried;<br /> + And more and less the monuments are heated.”<br /> + And when he to the right had turned, we passed +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Between the torments and high parapets. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.X"></a>Inferno: Canto X</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now onward goes, along a narrow path<br /> + Between the torments and the city wall,<br /> + My Master, and I follow at his back. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O power supreme, that through these impious circles<br /> + Turnest me,” I began, “as pleases thee,<br /> + Speak to me, and my longings satisfy; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The people who are lying in these tombs,<br /> + Might they be seen? already are uplifted<br /> + The covers all, and no one keepeth guard.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “They all will be closed up<br /> + When from Jehoshaphat they shall return<br /> + Here with the bodies they have left above. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Their cemetery have upon this side<br /> + With Epicurus all his followers,<br /> + Who with the body mortal make the soul; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But in the question thou dost put to me,<br /> + Within here shalt thou soon be satisfied,<br /> + And likewise in the wish thou keepest silent.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “Good Leader, I but keep concealed<br /> + From thee my heart, that I may speak the less,<br /> + Nor only now hast thou thereto disposed me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O Tuscan, thou who through the city of fire<br /> + Goest alive, thus speaking modestly,<br /> + Be pleased to stay thy footsteps in this place. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thy mode of speaking makes thee manifest<br /> + A native of that noble fatherland,<br /> + To which perhaps I too molestful was.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon a sudden issued forth this sound<br /> + From out one of the tombs; wherefore I pressed,<br /> + Fearing, a little nearer to my Leader. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And unto me he said: “Turn thee; what dost thou?<br /> + Behold there Farinata who has risen;<br /> + From the waist upwards wholly shalt thou see him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I had already fixed mine eyes on his,<br /> + And he uprose erect with breast and front<br /> + E’en as if Hell he had in great despite. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And with courageous hands and prompt my Leader<br /> + Thrust me between the sepulchres towards him,<br /> + Exclaiming, “Let thy words explicit be.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As soon as I was at the foot of his tomb<br /> + Somewhat he eyed me, and, as if disdainful,<br /> + Then asked of me, “Who were thine ancestors?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I, who desirous of obeying was,<br /> + Concealed it not, but all revealed to him;<br /> + Whereat he raised his brows a little upward. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said he: “Fiercely adverse have they been<br /> + To me, and to my fathers, and my party;<br /> + So that two several times I scattered them.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If they were banished, they returned on all sides,”<br /> + I answered him, “the first time and the second;<br /> + But yours have not acquired that art aright.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then there uprose upon the sight, uncovered<br /> + Down to the chin, a shadow at his side;<br /> + I think that he had risen on his knees. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Round me he gazed, as if solicitude<br /> + He had to see if some one else were with me,<br /> + But after his suspicion was all spent, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Weeping, he said to me: “If through this blind<br /> + Prison thou goest by loftiness of genius,<br /> + Where is my son? and why is he not with thee?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “I come not of myself;<br /> + He who is waiting yonder leads me here,<br /> + Whom in disdain perhaps your Guido had.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His language and the mode of punishment<br /> + Already unto me had read his name;<br /> + On that account my answer was so full. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Up starting suddenly, he cried out: “How<br /> + Saidst thou,—he had? Is he not still alive?<br /> + Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When he became aware of some delay,<br /> + Which I before my answer made, supine<br /> + He fell again, and forth appeared no more. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But the other, magnanimous, at whose desire<br /> + I had remained, did not his aspect change,<br /> + Neither his neck he moved, nor bent his side. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And if,” continuing his first discourse,<br /> + “They have that art,” he said, “not learned aright,<br /> + That more tormenteth me, than doth this bed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But fifty times shall not rekindled be<br /> + The countenance of the Lady who reigns here,<br /> + Ere thou shalt know how heavy is that art; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as thou wouldst to the sweet world return,<br /> + Say why that people is so pitiless<br /> + Against my race in each one of its laws?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence I to him: “The slaughter and great carnage<br /> + Which have with crimson stained the Arbia, cause<br /> + Such orisons in our temple to be made.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After his head he with a sigh had shaken,<br /> + “There I was not alone,” he said, “nor surely<br /> + Without a cause had with the others moved. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But there I was alone, where every one<br /> + Consented to the laying waste of Florence,<br /> + He who defended her with open face.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,”<br /> + I him entreated, “solve for me that knot,<br /> + Which has entangled my conceptions here. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly,<br /> + Beforehand whatsoe’er time brings with it,<br /> + And in the present have another mode.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“We see, like those who have imperfect sight,<br /> + The things,” he said, “that distant are from us;<br /> + So much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain<br /> + Our intellect, and if none brings it to us,<br /> + Not anything know we of your human state. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead<br /> + Will be our knowledge from the moment when<br /> + The portal of the future shall be closed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then I, as if compunctious for my fault,<br /> + Said: “Now, then, you will tell that fallen one,<br /> + That still his son is with the living joined. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if just now, in answering, I was dumb,<br /> + Tell him I did it because I was thinking<br /> + Already of the error you have solved me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And now my Master was recalling me,<br /> + Wherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit<br /> + That he would tell me who was with him there. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He said: “With more than a thousand here I lie;<br /> + Within here is the second Frederick,<br /> + And the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereon he hid himself; and I towards<br /> + The ancient poet turned my steps, reflecting<br /> + Upon that saying, which seemed hostile to me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He moved along; and afterward thus going,<br /> + He said to me, “Why art thou so bewildered?”<br /> + And I in his inquiry satisfied him. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Let memory preserve what thou hast heard<br /> + Against thyself,” that Sage commanded me,<br /> + “And now attend here;” and he raised his finger. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“When thou shalt be before the radiance sweet<br /> + Of her whose beauteous eyes all things behold,<br /> + From her thou’lt know the journey of thy life.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Unto the left hand then he turned his feet;<br /> + We left the wall, and went towards the middle,<br /> + Along a path that strikes into a valley, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Which even up there unpleasant made its stench. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XI"></a>Inferno: Canto XI</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon the margin of a lofty bank<br /> + Which great rocks broken in a circle made,<br /> + We came upon a still more cruel throng; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And there, by reason of the horrible<br /> + Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out,<br /> + We drew ourselves aside behind the cover +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing,<br /> + Which said: “Pope Anastasius I hold,<br /> + Whom out of the right way Photinus drew.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Slow it behoveth our descent to be,<br /> + So that the sense be first a little used<br /> + To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Master thus; and unto him I said,<br /> + “Some compensation find, that the time pass not<br /> + Idly;” and he: “Thou seest I think of that. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My son, upon the inside of these rocks,”<br /> + Began he then to say, “are three small circles,<br /> + From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They all are full of spirits maledict;<br /> + But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,<br /> + Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven,<br /> + Injury is the end; and all such end<br /> + Either by force or fraud afflicteth others. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But because fraud is man’s peculiar vice,<br /> + More it displeases God; and so stand lowest<br /> + The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +All the first circle of the Violent is;<br /> + But since force may be used against three persons,<br /> + In three rounds ’tis divided and constructed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we<br /> + Use force; I say on them and on their things,<br /> + As thou shalt hear with reason manifest. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A death by violence, and painful wounds,<br /> + Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance<br /> + Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly,<br /> + Marauders, and freebooters, the first round<br /> + Tormenteth all in companies diverse. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Man may lay violent hands upon himself<br /> + And his own goods; and therefore in the second<br /> + Round must perforce without avail repent +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whoever of your world deprives himself,<br /> + Who games, and dissipates his property,<br /> + And weepeth there, where he should jocund be. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Violence can be done the Deity,<br /> + In heart denying and blaspheming Him,<br /> + And by disdaining Nature and her bounty. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And for this reason doth the smallest round<br /> + Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,<br /> + And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung,<br /> + A man may practise upon him who trusts,<br /> + And him who doth no confidence imburse. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers<br /> + Only the bond of love which Nature makes;<br /> + Wherefore within the second circle nestle +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,<br /> + Falsification, theft, and simony,<br /> + Panders, and barrators, and the like filth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By the other mode, forgotten is that love<br /> + Which Nature makes, and what is after added,<br /> + From which there is a special faith engendered. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is<br /> + Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated,<br /> + Whoe’er betrays for ever is consumed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “My Master, clear enough proceeds<br /> + Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes<br /> + This cavern and the people who possess it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But tell me, those within the fat lagoon,<br /> + Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,<br /> + And who encounter with such bitter tongues, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Wherefore are they inside of the red city<br /> + Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,<br /> + And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And unto me he said: “Why wanders so<br /> + Thine intellect from that which it is wont?<br /> + Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hast thou no recollection of those words<br /> + With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses<br /> + The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,— +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Incontinence, and Malice, and insane<br /> + Bestiality? and how Incontinence<br /> + Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If thou regardest this conclusion well,<br /> + And to thy mind recallest who they are<br /> + That up outside are undergoing penance, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons<br /> + They separated are, and why less wroth<br /> + Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,<br /> + Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,<br /> + That doubting pleases me no less than knowing! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Once more a little backward turn thee,” said I,<br /> + “There where thou sayest that usury offends<br /> + Goodness divine, and disengage the knot.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Philosophy,” he said, “to him who heeds it,<br /> + Noteth, not only in one place alone,<br /> + After what manner Nature takes her course +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From Intellect Divine, and from its art;<br /> + And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,<br /> + After not many pages shalt thou find, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That this your art as far as possible<br /> + Follows, as the disciple doth the master;<br /> + So that your art is, as it were, God’s grandchild. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind<br /> + Genesis at the beginning, it behoves<br /> + Mankind to gain their life and to advance; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And since the usurer takes another way,<br /> + Nature herself and in her follower<br /> + Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But follow, now, as I would fain go on,<br /> + For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,<br /> + And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And far beyond there we descend the crag.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XII"></a>Inferno: Canto XII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +The place where to descend the bank we came<br /> + Was alpine, and from what was there, moreover,<br /> + Of such a kind that every eye would shun it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such as that ruin is which in the flank<br /> + Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige,<br /> + Either by earthquake or by failing stay, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For from the mountain’s top, from which it moved,<br /> + Unto the plain the cliff is shattered so,<br /> + Some path ’twould give to him who was above; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even such was the descent of that ravine,<br /> + And on the border of the broken chasm<br /> + The infamy of Crete was stretched along, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Who was conceived in the fictitious cow;<br /> + And when he us beheld, he bit himself,<br /> + Even as one whom anger racks within. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My Sage towards him shouted: “Peradventure<br /> + Thou think’st that here may be the Duke of Athens,<br /> + Who in the world above brought death to thee? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Get thee gone, beast, for this one cometh not<br /> + Instructed by thy sister, but he comes<br /> + In order to behold your punishments.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As is that bull who breaks loose at the moment<br /> + In which he has received the mortal blow,<br /> + Who cannot walk, but staggers here and there, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Minotaur beheld I do the like;<br /> + And he, the wary, cried: “Run to the passage;<br /> + While he wroth, ’tis well thou shouldst descend.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus down we took our way o’er that discharge<br /> + Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves<br /> + Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thoughtful I went; and he said: “Thou art thinking<br /> + Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded<br /> + By that brute anger which just now I quenched. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now will I have thee know, the other time<br /> + I here descended to the nether Hell,<br /> + This precipice had not yet fallen down. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But truly, if I well discern, a little<br /> + Before His coming who the mighty spoil<br /> + Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley<br /> + Trembled so, that I thought the Universe<br /> + Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The world ofttimes converted into chaos;<br /> + And at that moment this primeval crag<br /> + Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near<br /> + The river of blood, within which boiling is<br /> + Whoe’er by violence doth injure others.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O blind cupidity, O wrath insane,<br /> + That spurs us onward so in our short life,<br /> + And in the eternal then so badly steeps us! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw an ample moat bent like a bow,<br /> + As one which all the plain encompasses,<br /> + Conformable to what my Guide had said. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And between this and the embankment’s foot<br /> + Centaurs in file were running, armed with arrows,<br /> + As in the world they used the chase to follow. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Beholding us descend, each one stood still,<br /> + And from the squadron three detached themselves,<br /> + With bows and arrows in advance selected; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And from afar one cried: “Unto what torment<br /> + Come ye, who down the hillside are descending?<br /> + Tell us from there; if not, I draw the bow.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My Master said: “Our answer will we make<br /> + To Chiron, near you there; in evil hour,<br /> + That will of thine was evermore so hasty.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then touched he me, and said: “This one is Nessus,<br /> + Who perished for the lovely Dejanira,<br /> + And for himself, himself did vengeance take. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he in the midst, who at his breast is gazing,<br /> + Is the great Chiron, who brought up Achilles;<br /> + That other Pholus is, who was so wrathful. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thousands and thousands go about the moat<br /> + Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges<br /> + Out of the blood, more than his crime allots.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Near we approached unto those monsters fleet;<br /> + Chiron an arrow took, and with the notch<br /> + Backward upon his jaws he put his beard. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After he had uncovered his great mouth,<br /> + He said to his companions: “Are you ware<br /> + That he behind moveth whate’er he touches? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus are not wont to do the feet of dead men.”<br /> + And my good Guide, who now was at his breast,<br /> + Where the two natures are together joined, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Replied: “Indeed he lives, and thus alone<br /> + Me it behoves to show him the dark valley;<br /> + Necessity, and not delight, impels us. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Some one withdrew from singing Halleluja,<br /> + Who unto me committed this new office;<br /> + No thief is he, nor I a thievish spirit. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But by that virtue through which I am moving<br /> + My steps along this savage thoroughfare,<br /> + Give us some one of thine, to be with us, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And who may show us where to pass the ford,<br /> + And who may carry this one on his back;<br /> + For ’tis no spirit that can walk the air.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about,<br /> + And said to Nessus: “Turn and do thou guide them,<br /> + And warn aside, if other band may meet you.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We with our faithful escort onward moved<br /> + Along the brink of the vermilion boiling,<br /> + Wherein the boiled were uttering loud laments. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +People I saw within up to the eyebrows,<br /> + And the great Centaur said: “Tyrants are these,<br /> + Who dealt in bloodshed and in pillaging. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here they lament their pitiless mischiefs; here<br /> + Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius<br /> + Who upon Sicily brought dolorous years. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That forehead there which has the hair so black<br /> + Is Azzolin; and the other who is blond,<br /> + Obizzo is of Esti, who, in truth, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Up in the world was by his stepson slain.”<br /> + Then turned I to the Poet; and he said,<br /> + “Now he be first to thee, and second I.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A little farther on the Centaur stopped<br /> + Above a folk, who far down as the throat<br /> + Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A shade he showed us on one side alone,<br /> + Saying: “He cleft asunder in God’s bosom<br /> + The heart that still upon the Thames is honoured.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then people saw I, who from out the river<br /> + Lifted their heads and also all the chest;<br /> + And many among these I recognised. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus ever more and more grew shallower<br /> + That blood, so that the feet alone it covered;<br /> + And there across the moat our passage was. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Even as thou here upon this side beholdest<br /> + The boiling stream, that aye diminishes,”<br /> + The Centaur said, “I wish thee to believe +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That on this other more and more declines<br /> + Its bed, until it reunites itself<br /> + Where it behoveth tyranny to groan. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Justice divine, upon this side, is goading<br /> + That Attila, who was a scourge on earth,<br /> + And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and for ever milks +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The tears which with the boiling it unseals<br /> + In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo,<br /> + Who made upon the highways so much war.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then back he turned, and passed again the ford. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XIII"></a>Inferno: Canto XIII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not yet had Nessus reached the other side,<br /> + When we had put ourselves within a wood,<br /> + That was not marked by any path whatever. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not foliage green, but of a dusky colour,<br /> + Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,<br /> + Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,<br /> + Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold<br /> + ’Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,<br /> + Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,<br /> + With sad announcement of impending doom; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,<br /> + And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;<br /> + They make laments upon the wondrous trees. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the good Master: “Ere thou enter farther,<br /> + Know that thou art within the second round,”<br /> + Thus he began to say, “and shalt be, till +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou comest out upon the horrible sand;<br /> + Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see<br /> + Things that will credence give unto my speech.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I heard on all sides lamentations uttered,<br /> + And person none beheld I who might make them,<br /> + Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I think he thought that I perhaps might think<br /> + So many voices issued through those trunks<br /> + From people who concealed themselves from us; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore the Master said: “If thou break off<br /> + Some little spray from any of these trees,<br /> + The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward,<br /> + And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn;<br /> + And the trunk cried, “Why dost thou mangle me?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After it had become embrowned with blood,<br /> + It recommenced its cry: “Why dost thou rend me?<br /> + Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Men once we were, and now are changed to trees;<br /> + Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful,<br /> + Even if the souls of serpents we had been.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As out of a green brand, that is on fire<br /> + At one of the ends, and from the other drips<br /> + And hisses with the wind that is escaping; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So from that splinter issued forth together<br /> + Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip<br /> + Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Had he been able sooner to believe,”<br /> + My Sage made answer, “O thou wounded soul,<br /> + What only in my verses he has seen, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not upon thee had he stretched forth his hand;<br /> + Whereas the thing incredible has caused me<br /> + To put him to an act which grieveth me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But tell him who thou wast, so that by way<br /> + Of some amends thy fame he may refresh<br /> + Up in the world, to which he can return.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the trunk said: “So thy sweet words allure me,<br /> + I cannot silent be; and you be vexed not,<br /> + That I a little to discourse am tempted. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I am the one who both keys had in keeping<br /> + Of Frederick’s heart, and turned them to and fro<br /> + So softly in unlocking and in locking, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That from his secrets most men I withheld;<br /> + Fidelity I bore the glorious office<br /> + So great, I lost thereby my sleep and pulses. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The courtesan who never from the dwelling<br /> + Of Caesar turned aside her strumpet eyes,<br /> + Death universal and the vice of courts, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Inflamed against me all the other minds,<br /> + And they, inflamed, did so inflame Augustus,<br /> + That my glad honours turned to dismal mournings. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My spirit, in disdainful exultation,<br /> + Thinking by dying to escape disdain,<br /> + Made me unjust against myself, the just. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I, by the roots unwonted of this wood,<br /> + Do swear to you that never broke I faith<br /> + Unto my lord, who was so worthy of honour; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And to the world if one of you return,<br /> + Let him my memory comfort, which is lying<br /> + Still prostrate from the blow that envy dealt it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Waited awhile, and then: “Since he is silent,”<br /> + The Poet said to me, “lose not the time,<br /> + But speak, and question him, if more may please thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence I to him: “Do thou again inquire<br /> + Concerning what thou thinks’t will satisfy me;<br /> + For I cannot, such pity is in my heart.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore he recommenced: “So may the man<br /> + Do for thee freely what thy speech implores,<br /> + Spirit incarcerate, again be pleased +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To tell us in what way the soul is bound<br /> + Within these knots; and tell us, if thou canst,<br /> + If any from such members e’er is freed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then blew the trunk amain, and afterward<br /> + The wind was into such a voice converted:<br /> + “With brevity shall be replied to you. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When the exasperated soul abandons<br /> + The body whence it rent itself away,<br /> + Minos consigns it to the seventh abyss. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It falls into the forest, and no part<br /> + Is chosen for it; but where Fortune hurls it,<br /> + There like a grain of spelt it germinates. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It springs a sapling, and a forest tree;<br /> + The Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves,<br /> + Do pain create, and for the pain an outlet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Like others for our spoils shall we return;<br /> + But not that any one may them revest,<br /> + For ’tis not just to have what one casts off. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here we shall drag them, and along the dismal<br /> + Forest our bodies shall suspended be,<br /> + Each to the thorn of his molested shade.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We were attentive still unto the trunk,<br /> + Thinking that more it yet might wish to tell us,<br /> + When by a tumult we were overtaken, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In the same way as he is who perceives<br /> + The boar and chase approaching to his stand,<br /> + Who hears the crashing of the beasts and branches; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And two behold! upon our left-hand side,<br /> + Naked and scratched, fleeing so furiously,<br /> + That of the forest, every fan they broke. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He who was in advance: “Now help, Death, help!”<br /> + And the other one, who seemed to lag too much,<br /> + Was shouting: “Lano, were not so alert +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Those legs of thine at joustings of the Toppo!”<br /> + And then, perchance because his breath was failing,<br /> + He grouped himself together with a bush. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Behind them was the forest full of black<br /> + She-mastiffs, ravenous, and swift of foot<br /> + As greyhounds, who are issuing from the chain. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +On him who had crouched down they set their teeth,<br /> + And him they lacerated piece by piece,<br /> + Thereafter bore away those aching members. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereat my Escort took me by the hand,<br /> + And led me to the bush, that all in vain<br /> + Was weeping from its bloody lacerations. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O Jacopo,” it said, “of Sant’ Andrea,<br /> + What helped it thee of me to make a screen?<br /> + What blame have I in thy nefarious life?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When near him had the Master stayed his steps,<br /> + He said: “Who wast thou, that through wounds so many<br /> + Art blowing out with blood thy dolorous speech?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to us: “O souls, that hither come<br /> + To look upon the shameful massacre<br /> + That has so rent away from me my leaves, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Gather them up beneath the dismal bush;<br /> + I of that city was which to the Baptist<br /> + Changed its first patron, wherefore he for this +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Forever with his art will make it sad.<br /> + And were it not that on the pass of Arno<br /> + Some glimpses of him are remaining still, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Those citizens, who afterwards rebuilt it<br /> + Upon the ashes left by Attila,<br /> + In vain had caused their labour to be done. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of my own house I made myself a gibbet.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XIV"></a>Inferno: Canto XIV</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because the charity of my native place<br /> + Constrained me, gathered I the scattered leaves,<br /> + And gave them back to him, who now was hoarse. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then came we to the confine, where disparted<br /> + The second round is from the third, and where<br /> + A horrible form of Justice is beheld. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Clearly to manifest these novel things,<br /> + I say that we arrived upon a plain,<br /> + Which from its bed rejecteth every plant; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The dolorous forest is a garland to it<br /> + All round about, as the sad moat to that;<br /> + There close upon the edge we stayed our feet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The soil was of an arid and thick sand,<br /> + Not of another fashion made than that<br /> + Which by the feet of Cato once was pressed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Vengeance of God, O how much oughtest thou<br /> + By each one to be dreaded, who doth read<br /> + That which was manifest unto mine eyes! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of naked souls beheld I many herds,<br /> + Who all were weeping very miserably,<br /> + And over them seemed set a law diverse. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Supine upon the ground some folk were lying;<br /> + And some were sitting all drawn up together,<br /> + And others went about continually. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Those who were going round were far the more,<br /> + And those were less who lay down to their torment,<br /> + But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O’er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall,<br /> + Were raining down dilated flakes of fire,<br /> + As of the snow on Alp without a wind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As Alexander, in those torrid parts<br /> + Of India, beheld upon his host<br /> + Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence he provided with his phalanxes<br /> + To trample down the soil, because the vapour<br /> + Better extinguished was while it was single; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus was descending the eternal heat,<br /> + Whereby the sand was set on fire, like tinder<br /> + Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Without repose forever was the dance<br /> + Of miserable hands, now there, now here,<br /> + Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Master,” began I, “thou who overcomest<br /> + All things except the demons dire, that issued<br /> + Against us at the entrance of the gate, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not<br /> + The fire, and lieth lowering and disdainful,<br /> + So that the rain seems not to ripen him?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he himself, who had become aware<br /> + That I was questioning my Guide about him,<br /> + Cried: “Such as I was living, am I, dead. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom<br /> + He seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt,<br /> + Wherewith upon the last day I was smitten, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if he wearied out by turns the others<br /> + In Mongibello at the swarthy forge,<br /> + Vociferating, ‘Help, good Vulcan, help!’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra,<br /> + And shot his bolts at me with all his might,<br /> + He would not have thereby a joyous vengeance.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then did my Leader speak with such great force,<br /> + That I had never heard him speak so loud:<br /> + “O Capaneus, in that is not extinguished +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thine arrogance, thou punished art the more;<br /> + Not any torment, saving thine own rage,<br /> + Would be unto thy fury pain complete.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he turned round to me with better lip,<br /> + Saying: “One of the Seven Kings was he<br /> + Who Thebes besieged, and held, and seems to hold +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +God in disdain, and little seems to prize him;<br /> + But, as I said to him, his own despites<br /> + Are for his breast the fittest ornaments. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now follow me, and mind thou do not place<br /> + As yet thy feet upon the burning sand,<br /> + But always keep them close unto the wood.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes<br /> + Forth from the wood a little rivulet,<br /> + Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet,<br /> + The sinful women later share among them,<br /> + So downward through the sand it went its way. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The bottom of it, and both sloping banks,<br /> + Were made of stone, and the margins at the side;<br /> + Whence I perceived that there the passage was. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“In all the rest which I have shown to thee<br /> + Since we have entered in within the gate<br /> + Whose threshold unto no one is denied, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nothing has been discovered by thine eyes<br /> + So notable as is the present river,<br /> + Which all the little flames above it quenches.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +These words were of my Leader; whence I prayed him<br /> + That he would give me largess of the food,<br /> + For which he had given me largess of desire. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“In the mid-sea there sits a wasted land,”<br /> + Said he thereafterward, “whose name is Crete,<br /> + Under whose king the world of old was chaste. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There is a mountain there, that once was glad<br /> + With waters and with leaves, which was called Ida;<br /> + Now ’tis deserted, as a thing worn out. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Rhea once chose it for the faithful cradle<br /> + Of her own son; and to conceal him better,<br /> + Whene’er he cried, she there had clamours made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A grand old man stands in the mount erect,<br /> + Who holds his shoulders turned tow’rds Damietta,<br /> + And looks at Rome as if it were his mirror. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His head is fashioned of refined gold,<br /> + And of pure silver are the arms and breast;<br /> + Then he is brass as far down as the fork. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From that point downward all is chosen iron,<br /> + Save that the right foot is of kiln-baked clay,<br /> + And more he stands on that than on the other. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Each part, except the gold, is by a fissure<br /> + Asunder cleft, that dripping is with tears,<br /> + Which gathered together perforate that cavern. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From rock to rock they fall into this valley;<br /> + Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon they form;<br /> + Then downward go along this narrow sluice +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Unto that point where is no more descending.<br /> + They form Cocytus; what that pool may be<br /> + Thou shalt behold, so here ’tis not narrated.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “If so the present runnel<br /> + Doth take its rise in this way from our world,<br /> + Why only on this verge appears it to us?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Thou knowest the place is round,<br /> + And notwithstanding thou hast journeyed far,<br /> + Still to the left descending to the bottom, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou hast not yet through all the circle turned.<br /> + Therefore if something new appear to us,<br /> + It should not bring amazement to thy face.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I again: “Master, where shall be found<br /> + Lethe and Phlegethon, for of one thou’rt silent,<br /> + And sayest the other of this rain is made?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“In all thy questions truly thou dost please me,”<br /> + Replied he; “but the boiling of the red<br /> + Water might well solve one of them thou makest. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou shalt see Lethe, but outside this moat,<br /> + There where the souls repair to lave themselves,<br /> + When sin repented of has been removed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said he: “It is time now to abandon<br /> + The wood; take heed that thou come after me;<br /> + A way the margins make that are not burning, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And over them all vapours are extinguished.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XV"></a>Inferno: Canto XV</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now bears us onward one of the hard margins,<br /> + And so the brooklet’s mist o’ershadows it,<br /> + From fire it saves the water and the dikes. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the Flemings, ’twixt Cadsand and Bruges,<br /> + Fearing the flood that tow’rds them hurls itself,<br /> + Their bulwarks build to put the sea to flight; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as the Paduans along the Brenta,<br /> + To guard their villas and their villages,<br /> + Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In such similitude had those been made,<br /> + Albeit not so lofty nor so thick,<br /> + Whoever he might be, the master made them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now were we from the forest so remote,<br /> + I could not have discovered where it was,<br /> + Even if backward I had turned myself, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When we a company of souls encountered,<br /> + Who came beside the dike, and every one<br /> + Gazed at us, as at evening we are wont +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To eye each other under a new moon,<br /> + And so towards us sharpened they their brows<br /> + As an old tailor at the needle’s eye. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus scrutinised by such a family,<br /> + By some one I was recognised, who seized<br /> + My garment’s hem, and cried out, “What a marvel!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me,<br /> + On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes,<br /> + That the scorched countenance prevented not +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His recognition by my intellect;<br /> + And bowing down my face unto his own,<br /> + I made reply, “Are you here, Ser Brunetto?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he: “May’t not displease thee, O my son,<br /> + If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini<br /> + Backward return and let the trail go on.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I said to him: “With all my power I ask it;<br /> + And if you wish me to sit down with you,<br /> + I will, if he please, for I go with him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O son,” he said, “whoever of this herd<br /> + A moment stops, lies then a hundred years,<br /> + Nor fans himself when smiteth him the fire. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come,<br /> + And afterward will I rejoin my band,<br /> + Which goes lamenting its eternal doom.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I did not dare to go down from the road<br /> + Level to walk with him; but my head bowed<br /> + I held as one who goeth reverently. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he began: “What fortune or what fate<br /> + Before the last day leadeth thee down here?<br /> + And who is this that showeth thee the way?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Up there above us in the life serene,”<br /> + I answered him, “I lost me in a valley,<br /> + Or ever yet my age had been completed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But yestermorn I turned my back upon it;<br /> + This one appeared to me, returning thither,<br /> + And homeward leadeth me along this road.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “If thou thy star do follow,<br /> + Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port,<br /> + If well I judged in the life beautiful. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if I had not died so prematurely,<br /> + Seeing Heaven thus benignant unto thee,<br /> + I would have given thee comfort in the work. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But that ungrateful and malignant people,<br /> + Which of old time from Fesole descended,<br /> + And smacks still of the mountain and the granite, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Will make itself, for thy good deeds, thy foe;<br /> + And it is right; for among crabbed sorbs<br /> + It ill befits the sweet fig to bear fruit. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Old rumour in the world proclaims them blind;<br /> + A people avaricious, envious, proud;<br /> + Take heed that of their customs thou do cleanse thee. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thy fortune so much honour doth reserve thee,<br /> + One party and the other shall be hungry<br /> + For thee; but far from goat shall be the grass. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Their litter let the beasts of Fesole<br /> + Make of themselves, nor let them touch the plant,<br /> + If any still upon their dunghill rise, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In which may yet revive the consecrated<br /> + Seed of those Romans, who remained there when<br /> + The nest of such great malice it became.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,”<br /> + Replied I to him, “not yet would you be<br /> + In banishment from human nature placed; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For in my mind is fixed, and touches now<br /> + My heart the dear and good paternal image<br /> + Of you, when in the world from hour to hour +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +You taught me how a man becomes eternal;<br /> + And how much I am grateful, while I live<br /> + Behoves that in my language be discerned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What you narrate of my career I write,<br /> + And keep it to be glossed with other text<br /> + By a Lady who can do it, if I reach her. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This much will I have manifest to you;<br /> + Provided that my conscience do not chide me,<br /> + For whatsoever Fortune I am ready. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such handsel is not new unto mine ears;<br /> + Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel around<br /> + As it may please her, and the churl his mattock.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My Master thereupon on his right cheek<br /> + Did backward turn himself, and looked at me;<br /> + Then said: “He listeneth well who noteth it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nor speaking less on that account, I go<br /> + With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are<br /> + His most known and most eminent companions. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “To know of some is well;<br /> + Of others it were laudable to be silent,<br /> + For short would be the time for so much speech. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Know them in sum, that all of them were clerks,<br /> + And men of letters great and of great fame,<br /> + In the world tainted with the selfsame sin. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd,<br /> + And Francis of Accorso; and thou hadst seen there<br /> + If thou hadst had a hankering for such scurf, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That one, who by the Servant of the Servants<br /> + From Arno was transferred to Bacchiglione,<br /> + Where he has left his sin-excited nerves. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +More would I say, but coming and discoursing<br /> + Can be no longer; for that I behold<br /> + New smoke uprising yonder from the sand. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A people comes with whom I may not be;<br /> + Commended unto thee be my Tesoro,<br /> + In which I still live, and no more I ask.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he turned round, and seemed to be of those<br /> + Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle<br /> + Across the plain; and seemed to be among them +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The one who wins, and not the one who loses. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XVI"></a>Inferno: Canto XVI</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now was I where was heard the reverberation<br /> + Of water falling into the next round,<br /> + Like to that humming which the beehives make, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When shadows three together started forth,<br /> + Running, from out a company that passed<br /> + Beneath the rain of the sharp martyrdom. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Towards us came they, and each one cried out:<br /> + “Stop, thou; for by thy garb to us thou seemest<br /> + To be some one of our depraved city.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah me! what wounds I saw upon their limbs,<br /> + Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in!<br /> + It pains me still but to remember it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive;<br /> + He turned his face towards me, and “Now wait,”<br /> + He said; “to these we should be courteous. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if it were not for the fire that darts<br /> + The nature of this region, I should say<br /> + That haste were more becoming thee than them.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As soon as we stood still, they recommenced<br /> + The old refrain, and when they overtook us,<br /> + Formed of themselves a wheel, all three of them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do,<br /> + Watching for their advantage and their hold,<br /> + Before they come to blows and thrusts between them, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage<br /> + Direct to me, so that in opposite wise<br /> + His neck and feet continual journey made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And, “If the misery of this soft place<br /> + Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties,”<br /> + Began one, “and our aspect black and blistered, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Let the renown of us thy mind incline<br /> + To tell us who thou art, who thus securely<br /> + Thy living feet dost move along through Hell. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading,<br /> + Naked and skinless though he now may go,<br /> + Was of a greater rank than thou dost think; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;<br /> + His name was Guidoguerra, and in life<br /> + Much did he with his wisdom and his sword. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The other, who close by me treads the sand,<br /> + Tegghiaio Aldobrandi is, whose fame<br /> + Above there in the world should welcome be. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, who with them on the cross am placed,<br /> + Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly<br /> + My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Could I have been protected from the fire,<br /> + Below I should have thrown myself among them,<br /> + And think the Teacher would have suffered it; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But as I should have burned and baked myself,<br /> + My terror overmastered my good will,<br /> + Which made me greedy of embracing them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then I began: “Sorrow and not disdain<br /> + Did your condition fix within me so,<br /> + That tardily it wholly is stripped off, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As soon as this my Lord said unto me<br /> + Words, on account of which I thought within me<br /> + That people such as you are were approaching. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I of your city am; and evermore<br /> + Your labours and your honourable names<br /> + I with affection have retraced and heard. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits<br /> + Promised to me by the veracious Leader;<br /> + But to the centre first I needs must plunge.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“So may the soul for a long while conduct<br /> + Those limbs of thine,” did he make answer then,<br /> + “And so may thy renown shine after thee, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell<br /> + Within our city, as they used to do,<br /> + Or if they wholly have gone out of it; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment<br /> + With us of late, and goes there with his comrades,<br /> + Doth greatly mortify us with his words.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“The new inhabitants and the sudden gains,<br /> + Pride and extravagance have in thee engendered,<br /> + Florence, so that thou weep’st thereat already!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In this wise I exclaimed with face uplifted;<br /> + And the three, taking that for my reply,<br /> + Looked at each other, as one looks at truth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If other times so little it doth cost thee,”<br /> + Replied they all, “to satisfy another,<br /> + Happy art thou, thus speaking at thy will! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places,<br /> + And come to rebehold the beauteous stars,<br /> + When it shall pleasure thee to say, ‘I was,’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +See that thou speak of us unto the people.”<br /> + Then they broke up the wheel, and in their flight<br /> + It seemed as if their agile legs were wings. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not an Amen could possibly be said<br /> + So rapidly as they had disappeared;<br /> + Wherefore the Master deemed best to depart. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I followed him, and little had we gone,<br /> + Before the sound of water was so near us,<br /> + That speaking we should hardly have been heard. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as that stream which holdeth its own course<br /> + The first from Monte Veso tow’rds the East,<br /> + Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Which is above called Acquacheta, ere<br /> + It down descendeth into its low bed,<br /> + And at Forli is vacant of that name, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Reverberates there above San Benedetto<br /> + From Alps, by falling at a single leap,<br /> + Where for a thousand there were room enough; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus downward from a bank precipitate,<br /> + We found resounding that dark-tinted water,<br /> + So that it soon the ear would have offended. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I had a cord around about me girt,<br /> + And therewithal I whilom had designed<br /> + To take the panther with the painted skin. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After I this had all from me unloosed,<br /> + As my Conductor had commanded me,<br /> + I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat he turned himself to the right side,<br /> + And at a little distance from the verge,<br /> + He cast it down into that deep abyss. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“It must needs be some novelty respond,”<br /> + I said within myself, “to the new signal<br /> + The Master with his eye is following so.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah me! how very cautious men should be<br /> + With those who not alone behold the act,<br /> + But with their wisdom look into the thoughts! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He said to me: “Soon there will upward come<br /> + What I await; and what thy thought is dreaming<br /> + Must soon reveal itself unto thy sight.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood,<br /> + A man should close his lips as far as may be,<br /> + Because without his fault it causes shame; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notes<br /> + Of this my Comedy to thee I swear,<br /> + So may they not be void of lasting favour, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Athwart that dense and darksome atmosphere<br /> + I saw a figure swimming upward come,<br /> + Marvellous unto every steadfast heart, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as he returns who goeth down<br /> + Sometimes to clear an anchor, which has grappled<br /> + Reef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Who upward stretches, and draws in his feet. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XVII"></a>Inferno: Canto XVII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Behold the monster with the pointed tail,<br /> + Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons,<br /> + Behold him who infecteth all the world.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus unto me my Guide began to say,<br /> + And beckoned him that he should come to shore,<br /> + Near to the confine of the trodden marble; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And that uncleanly image of deceit<br /> + Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust,<br /> + But on the border did not drag its tail. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The face was as the face of a just man,<br /> + Its semblance outwardly was so benign,<br /> + And of a serpent all the trunk beside. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits;<br /> + The back, and breast, and both the sides it had<br /> + Depicted o’er with nooses and with shields. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With colours more, groundwork or broidery<br /> + Never in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks,<br /> + Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore,<br /> + That part are in the water, part on land;<br /> + And as among the guzzling Germans there, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The beaver plants himself to wage his war;<br /> + So that vile monster lay upon the border,<br /> + Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His tail was wholly quivering in the void,<br /> + Contorting upwards the envenomed fork,<br /> + That in the guise of scorpion armed its point. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Guide said: “Now perforce must turn aside<br /> + Our way a little, even to that beast<br /> + Malevolent, that yonder coucheth him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We therefore on the right side descended,<br /> + And made ten steps upon the outer verge,<br /> + Completely to avoid the sand and flame; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And after we are come to him, I see<br /> + A little farther off upon the sand<br /> + A people sitting near the hollow place. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said to me the Master: “So that full<br /> + Experience of this round thou bear away,<br /> + Now go and see what their condition is. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There let thy conversation be concise;<br /> + Till thou returnest I will speak with him,<br /> + That he concede to us his stalwart shoulders.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus farther still upon the outermost<br /> + Head of that seventh circle all alone<br /> + I went, where sat the melancholy folk. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Out of their eyes was gushing forth their woe;<br /> + This way, that way, they helped them with their hands<br /> + Now from the flames and now from the hot soil. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not otherwise in summer do the dogs,<br /> + Now with the foot, now with the muzzle, when<br /> + By fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are bitten. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When I had turned mine eyes upon the faces<br /> + Of some, on whom the dolorous fire is falling,<br /> + Not one of them I knew; but I perceived +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That from the neck of each there hung a pouch,<br /> + Which certain colour had, and certain blazon;<br /> + And thereupon it seems their eyes are feeding. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as I gazing round me come among them,<br /> + Upon a yellow pouch I azure saw<br /> + That had the face and posture of a lion. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Proceeding then the current of my sight,<br /> + Another of them saw I, red as blood,<br /> + Display a goose more white than butter is. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one, who with an azure sow and gravid<br /> + Emblazoned had his little pouch of white,<br /> + Said unto me: “What dost thou in this moat? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now get thee gone; and since thou’rt still alive,<br /> + Know that a neighbour of mine, Vitaliano,<br /> + Will have his seat here on my left-hand side. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A Paduan am I with these Florentines;<br /> + Full many a time they thunder in mine ears,<br /> + Exclaiming, ‘Come the sovereign cavalier, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He who shall bring the satchel with three goats;’”<br /> + Then twisted he his mouth, and forth he thrust<br /> + His tongue, like to an ox that licks its nose. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And fearing lest my longer stay might vex<br /> + Him who had warned me not to tarry long,<br /> + Backward I turned me from those weary souls. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I found my Guide, who had already mounted<br /> + Upon the back of that wild animal,<br /> + And said to me: “Now be both strong and bold. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now we descend by stairways such as these;<br /> + Mount thou in front, for I will be midway,<br /> + So that the tail may have no power to harm thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such as he is who has so near the ague<br /> + Of quartan that his nails are blue already,<br /> + And trembles all, but looking at the shade; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even such became I at those proffered words;<br /> + But shame in me his menaces produced,<br /> + Which maketh servant strong before good master. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders;<br /> + I wished to say, and yet the voice came not<br /> + As I believed, “Take heed that thou embrace me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But he, who other times had rescued me<br /> + In other peril, soon as I had mounted,<br /> + Within his arms encircled and sustained me, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And said: “Now, Geryon, bestir thyself;<br /> + The circles large, and the descent be little;<br /> + Think of the novel burden which thou hast.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the little vessel shoves from shore,<br /> + Backward, still backward, so he thence withdrew;<br /> + And when he wholly felt himself afloat, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There where his breast had been he turned his tail,<br /> + And that extended like an eel he moved,<br /> + And with his paws drew to himself the air. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A greater fear I do not think there was<br /> + What time abandoned Phaeton the reins,<br /> + Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nor when the wretched Icarus his flanks<br /> + Felt stripped of feathers by the melting wax,<br /> + His father crying, “An ill way thou takest!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Than was my own, when I perceived myself<br /> + On all sides in the air, and saw extinguished<br /> + The sight of everything but of the monster. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly;<br /> + Wheels and descends, but I perceive it only<br /> + By wind upon my face and from below. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I heard already on the right the whirlpool<br /> + Making a horrible crashing under us;<br /> + Whence I thrust out my head with eyes cast downward. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then was I still more fearful of the abyss;<br /> + Because I fires beheld, and heard laments,<br /> + Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw then, for before I had not seen it,<br /> + The turning and descending, by great horrors<br /> + That were approaching upon divers sides. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As falcon who has long been on the wing,<br /> + Who, without seeing either lure or bird,<br /> + Maketh the falconer say, “Ah me, thou stoopest,” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Descendeth weary, whence he started swiftly,<br /> + Thorough a hundred circles, and alights<br /> + Far from his master, sullen and disdainful; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom,<br /> + Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock,<br /> + And being disencumbered of our persons, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He sped away as arrow from the string. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XVIII"></a>Inferno: Canto XVIII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,<br /> + Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,<br /> + As is the circle that around it turns. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Right in the middle of the field malign<br /> + There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,<br /> + Of which its place the structure will recount. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Round, then, is that enclosure which remains<br /> + Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,<br /> + And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As where for the protection of the walls<br /> + Many and many moats surround the castles,<br /> + The part in which they are a figure forms, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Just such an image those presented there;<br /> + And as about such strongholds from their gates<br /> + Unto the outer bank are little bridges, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So from the precipice’s base did crags<br /> + Project, which intersected dikes and moats,<br /> + Unto the well that truncates and collects them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Within this place, down shaken from the back<br /> + Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet<br /> + Held to the left, and I moved on behind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,<br /> + New torments, and new wielders of the lash,<br /> + Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;<br /> + This side the middle came they facing us,<br /> + Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,<br /> + The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,<br /> + Have chosen a mode to pass the people over; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For all upon one side towards the Castle<br /> + Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter’s;<br /> + On the other side they go towards the Mountain. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This side and that, along the livid stone<br /> + Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,<br /> + Who cruelly were beating them behind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs<br /> + At the first blows! and sooth not any one<br /> + The second waited for, nor for the third. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While I was going on, mine eyes by one<br /> + Encountered were; and straight I said: “Already<br /> + With sight of this one I am not unfed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,<br /> + And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,<br /> + And to my going somewhat back assented; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,<br /> + Lowering his face, but little it availed him;<br /> + For said I: “Thou that castest down thine eyes, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If false are not the features which thou bearest,<br /> + Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;<br /> + But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Unwillingly I tell it;<br /> + But forces me thine utterance distinct,<br /> + Which makes me recollect the ancient world. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I was the one who the fair Ghisola<br /> + Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,<br /> + Howe’er the shameless story may be told. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;<br /> + Nay, rather is this place so full of them,<br /> + That not so many tongues to-day are taught +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +’Twixt Reno and Savena to say ‘sipa;’<br /> + And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,<br /> + Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While speaking in this manner, with his scourge<br /> + A demon smote him, and said: “Get thee gone<br /> + Pander, there are no women here for coin.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I joined myself again unto mine Escort;<br /> + Thereafterward with footsteps few we came<br /> + To where a crag projected from the bank. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This very easily did we ascend,<br /> + And turning to the right along its ridge,<br /> + From those eternal circles we departed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When we were there, where it is hollowed out<br /> + Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,<br /> + The Guide said: “Wait, and see that on thee strike +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The vision of those others evil-born,<br /> + Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,<br /> + Because together with us they have gone.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From the old bridge we looked upon the train<br /> + Which tow’rds us came upon the other border,<br /> + And which the scourges in like manner smite. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the good Master, without my inquiring,<br /> + Said to me: “See that tall one who is coming,<br /> + And for his pain seems not to shed a tear; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Still what a royal aspect he retains!<br /> + That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning<br /> + The Colchians of the Ram made destitute. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He by the isle of Lemnos passed along<br /> + After the daring women pitiless<br /> + Had unto death devoted all their males. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There with his tokens and with ornate words<br /> + Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden<br /> + Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;<br /> + Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,<br /> + And also for Medea is vengeance done. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With him go those who in such wise deceive;<br /> + And this sufficient be of the first valley<br /> + To know, and those that in its jaws it holds.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We were already where the narrow path<br /> + Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms<br /> + Of that a buttress for another arch. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thence we heard people, who are making moan<br /> + In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,<br /> + And with their palms beating upon themselves +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The margins were incrusted with a mould<br /> + By exhalation from below, that sticks there,<br /> + And with the eyes and nostrils wages war. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The bottom is so deep, no place suffices<br /> + To give us sight of it, without ascending<br /> + The arch’s back, where most the crag impends. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thither we came, and thence down in the moat<br /> + I saw a people smothered in a filth<br /> + That out of human privies seemed to flow; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And whilst below there with mine eye I search,<br /> + I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,<br /> + It was not clear if he were clerk or layman. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He screamed to me: “Wherefore art thou so eager<br /> + To look at me more than the other foul ones?”<br /> + And I to him: “Because, if I remember, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I have already seen thee with dry hair,<br /> + And thou’rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;<br /> + Therefore I eye thee more than all the others.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:<br /> + “The flatteries have submerged me here below,<br /> + Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said to me the Guide: “See that thou thrust<br /> + Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,<br /> + That with thine eyes thou well the face attain +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,<br /> + Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,<br /> + And crouches now, and now on foot is standing. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thais the harlot is it, who replied<br /> + Unto her paramour, when he said, ‘Have I<br /> + Great gratitude from thee?’—‘Nay, marvellous;’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And herewith let our sight be satisfied.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XIX"></a>Inferno: Canto XIX</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples,<br /> + Ye who the things of God, which ought to be<br /> + The brides of holiness, rapaciously +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For silver and for gold do prostitute,<br /> + Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,<br /> + Because in this third Bolgia ye abide. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We had already on the following tomb<br /> + Ascended to that portion of the crag<br /> + Which o’er the middle of the moat hangs plumb. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest<br /> + In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,<br /> + And with what justice doth thy power distribute! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw upon the sides and on the bottom<br /> + The livid stone with perforations filled,<br /> + All of one size, and every one was round. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater<br /> + Than those that in my beautiful Saint John<br /> + Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one of which, not many years ago,<br /> + I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;<br /> + Be this a seal all men to undeceive. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Out of the mouth of each one there protruded<br /> + The feet of a transgressor, and the legs<br /> + Up to the calf, the rest within remained. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In all of them the soles were both on fire;<br /> + Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,<br /> + They would have snapped asunder withes and bands. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont<br /> + To move upon the outer surface only,<br /> + So likewise was it there from heel to point. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Master, who is that one who writhes himself,<br /> + More than his other comrades quivering,”<br /> + I said, “and whom a redder flame is sucking?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “If thou wilt have me bear thee<br /> + Down there along that bank which lowest lies,<br /> + From him thou’lt know his errors and himself.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “What pleases thee, to me is pleasing;<br /> + Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not<br /> + From thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived;<br /> + We turned, and on the left-hand side descended<br /> + Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the good Master yet from off his haunch<br /> + Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me<br /> + Of him who so lamented with his shanks. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Whoe’er thou art, that standest upside down,<br /> + O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,”<br /> + To say began I, “if thou canst, speak out.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I stood even as the friar who is confessing<br /> + The false assassin, who, when he is fixed,<br /> + Recalls him, so that death may be delayed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he cried out: “Dost thou stand there already,<br /> + Dost thou stand there already, Boniface?<br /> + By many years the record lied to me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Art thou so early satiate with that wealth,<br /> + For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud<br /> + The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such I became, as people are who stand,<br /> + Not comprehending what is answered them,<br /> + As if bemocked, and know not how to answer. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said Virgilius: “Say to him straightway,<br /> + ‘I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest.’”<br /> + And I replied as was imposed on me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet,<br /> + Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation<br /> + Said to me: “Then what wantest thou of me? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If who I am thou carest so much to know,<br /> + That thou on that account hast crossed the bank,<br /> + Know that I vested was with the great mantle; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And truly was I son of the She-bear,<br /> + So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth<br /> + Above, and here myself, I pocketed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Beneath my head the others are dragged down<br /> + Who have preceded me in simony,<br /> + Flattened along the fissure of the rock. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever<br /> + That one shall come who I believed thou wast,<br /> + What time the sudden question I proposed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But longer I my feet already toast,<br /> + And here have been in this way upside down,<br /> + Than he will planted stay with reddened feet; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For after him shall come of fouler deed<br /> + From tow’rds the west a Pastor without law,<br /> + Such as befits to cover him and me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +New Jason will he be, of whom we read<br /> + In Maccabees; and as his king was pliant,<br /> + So he who governs France shall be to this one.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I do not know if I were here too bold,<br /> + That him I answered only in this metre:<br /> + “I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first,<br /> + Before he put the keys into his keeping?<br /> + Truly he nothing asked but ‘Follow me.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias<br /> + Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen<br /> + Unto the place the guilty soul had lost. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished,<br /> + And keep safe guard o’er the ill-gotten money,<br /> + Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And were it not that still forbids it me<br /> + The reverence for the keys superlative<br /> + Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I would make use of words more grievous still;<br /> + Because your avarice afflicts the world,<br /> + Trampling the good and lifting the depraved. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind,<br /> + When she who sitteth upon many waters<br /> + To fornicate with kings by him was seen; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The same who with the seven heads was born,<br /> + And power and strength from the ten horns received,<br /> + So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver;<br /> + And from the idolater how differ ye,<br /> + Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother,<br /> + Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower<br /> + Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And while I sang to him such notes as these,<br /> + Either that anger or that conscience stung him,<br /> + He struggled violently with both his feet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased,<br /> + With such contented lip he listened ever<br /> + Unto the sound of the true words expressed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore with both his arms he took me up,<br /> + And when he had me all upon his breast,<br /> + Remounted by the way where he descended. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him;<br /> + But bore me to the summit of the arch<br /> + Which from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There tenderly he laid his burden down,<br /> + Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep,<br /> + That would have been hard passage for the goats: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thence was unveiled to me another valley. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XX"></a>Inferno: Canto XX</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of a new pain behoves me to make verses<br /> + And give material to the twentieth canto<br /> + Of the first song, which is of the submerged. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I was already thoroughly disposed<br /> + To peer down into the uncovered depth,<br /> + Which bathed itself with tears of agony; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And people saw I through the circular valley,<br /> + Silent and weeping, coming at the pace<br /> + Which in this world the Litanies assume. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As lower down my sight descended on them,<br /> + Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted<br /> + From chin to the beginning of the chest; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For tow’rds the reins the countenance was turned,<br /> + And backward it behoved them to advance,<br /> + As to look forward had been taken from them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Perchance indeed by violence of palsy<br /> + Some one has been thus wholly turned awry;<br /> + But I ne’er saw it, nor believe it can be. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As God may let thee, Reader, gather fruit<br /> + From this thy reading, think now for thyself<br /> + How I could ever keep my face unmoistened, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When our own image near me I beheld<br /> + Distorted so, the weeping of the eyes<br /> + Along the fissure bathed the hinder parts. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak<br /> + Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said<br /> + To me: “Art thou, too, of the other fools? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here pity lives when it is wholly dead;<br /> + Who is a greater reprobate than he<br /> + Who feels compassion at the doom divine? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Lift up, lift up thy head, and see for whom<br /> + Opened the earth before the Thebans’ eyes;<br /> + Wherefore they all cried: ‘Whither rushest thou, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Amphiaraus? Why dost leave the war?’<br /> + And downward ceased he not to fall amain<br /> + As far as Minos, who lays hold on all. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +See, he has made a bosom of his shoulders!<br /> + Because he wished to see too far before him<br /> + Behind he looks, and backward goes his way: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Behold Tiresias, who his semblance changed,<br /> + When from a male a female he became,<br /> + His members being all of them transformed; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And afterwards was forced to strike once more<br /> + The two entangled serpents with his rod,<br /> + Ere he could have again his manly plumes. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That Aruns is, who backs the other’s belly,<br /> + Who in the hills of Luni, there where grubs<br /> + The Carrarese who houses underneath, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Among the marbles white a cavern had<br /> + For his abode; whence to behold the stars<br /> + And sea, the view was not cut off from him. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And she there, who is covering up her breasts,<br /> + Which thou beholdest not, with loosened tresses,<br /> + And on that side has all the hairy skin, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Was Manto, who made quest through many lands,<br /> + Afterwards tarried there where I was born;<br /> + Whereof I would thou list to me a little. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After her father had from life departed,<br /> + And the city of Bacchus had become enslaved,<br /> + She a long season wandered through the world. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Above in beauteous Italy lies a lake<br /> + At the Alp’s foot that shuts in Germany<br /> + Over Tyrol, and has the name Benaco. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By a thousand springs, I think, and more, is bathed,<br /> + ’Twixt Garda and Val Camonica, Pennino,<br /> + With water that grows stagnant in that lake. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Midway a place is where the Trentine Pastor,<br /> + And he of Brescia, and the Veronese<br /> + Might give his blessing, if he passed that way. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and strong,<br /> + To front the Brescians and the Bergamasks,<br /> + Where round about the bank descendeth lowest. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There of necessity must fall whatever<br /> + In bosom of Benaco cannot stay,<br /> + And grows a river down through verdant pastures. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Soon as the water doth begin to run,<br /> + No more Benaco is it called, but Mincio,<br /> + Far as Governo, where it falls in Po. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not far it runs before it finds a plain<br /> + In which it spreads itself, and makes it marshy,<br /> + And oft ’tis wont in summer to be sickly. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Passing that way the virgin pitiless<br /> + Land in the middle of the fen descried,<br /> + Untilled and naked of inhabitants; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There to escape all human intercourse,<br /> + She with her servants stayed, her arts to practise<br /> + And lived, and left her empty body there. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The men, thereafter, who were scattered round,<br /> + Collected in that place, which was made strong<br /> + By the lagoon it had on every side; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They built their city over those dead bones,<br /> + And, after her who first the place selected,<br /> + Mantua named it, without other omen. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Its people once within more crowded were,<br /> + Ere the stupidity of Casalodi<br /> + From Pinamonte had received deceit. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore I caution thee, if e’er thou hearest<br /> + Originate my city otherwise,<br /> + No falsehood may the verity defraud.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “My Master, thy discourses are<br /> + To me so certain, and so take my faith,<br /> + That unto me the rest would be spent coals. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But tell me of the people who are passing,<br /> + If any one note-worthy thou beholdest,<br /> + For only unto that my mind reverts.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said he to me: “He who from the cheek<br /> + Thrusts out his beard upon his swarthy shoulders<br /> + Was, at the time when Greece was void of males, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So that there scarce remained one in the cradle,<br /> + An augur, and with Calchas gave the moment,<br /> + In Aulis, when to sever the first cable. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Eryphylus his name was, and so sings<br /> + My lofty Tragedy in some part or other;<br /> + That knowest thou well, who knowest the whole of it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The next, who is so slender in the flanks,<br /> + Was Michael Scott, who of a verity<br /> + Of magical illusions knew the game. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Behold Guido Bonatti, behold Asdente,<br /> + Who now unto his leather and his thread<br /> + Would fain have stuck, but he too late repents. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Behold the wretched ones, who left the needle,<br /> + The spool and rock, and made them fortune-tellers;<br /> + They wrought their magic spells with herb and image. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But come now, for already holds the confines<br /> + Of both the hemispheres, and under Seville<br /> + Touches the ocean-wave, Cain and the thorns, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And yesternight the moon was round already;<br /> + Thou shouldst remember well it did not harm thee<br /> + From time to time within the forest deep.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus spake he to me, and we walked the while. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXI"></a>Inferno: Canto XXI</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +From bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things<br /> + Of which my Comedy cares not to sing,<br /> + We came along, and held the summit, when +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We halted to behold another fissure<br /> + Of Malebolge and other vain laments;<br /> + And I beheld it marvellously dark. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As in the Arsenal of the Venetians<br /> + Boils in the winter the tenacious pitch<br /> + To smear their unsound vessels o’er again, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For sail they cannot; and instead thereof<br /> + One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks<br /> + The ribs of that which many a voyage has made; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +One hammers at the prow, one at the stern,<br /> + This one makes oars, and that one cordage twists,<br /> + Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine,<br /> + Was boiling down below there a dense pitch<br /> + Which upon every side the bank belimed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw it, but I did not see within it<br /> + Aught but the bubbles that the boiling raised,<br /> + And all swell up and resubside compressed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The while below there fixedly I gazed,<br /> + My Leader, crying out: “Beware, beware!”<br /> + Drew me unto himself from where I stood. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then I turned round, as one who is impatient<br /> + To see what it behoves him to escape,<br /> + And whom a sudden terror doth unman, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Who, while he looks, delays not his departure;<br /> + And I beheld behind us a black devil,<br /> + Running along upon the crag, approach. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah, how ferocious was he in his aspect!<br /> + And how he seemed to me in action ruthless,<br /> + With open wings and light upon his feet! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His shoulders, which sharp-pointed were and high,<br /> + A sinner did encumber with both haunches,<br /> + And he held clutched the sinews of the feet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From off our bridge, he said: “O Malebranche,<br /> + Behold one of the elders of Saint Zita;<br /> + Plunge him beneath, for I return for others +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Unto that town, which is well furnished with them.<br /> + All there are barrators, except Bonturo;<br /> + No into Yes for money there is changed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He hurled him down, and over the hard crag<br /> + Turned round, and never was a mastiff loosened<br /> + In so much hurry to pursue a thief. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The other sank, and rose again face downward;<br /> + But the demons, under cover of the bridge,<br /> + Cried: “Here the Santo Volto has no place! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here swims one otherwise than in the Serchio;<br /> + Therefore, if for our gaffs thou wishest not,<br /> + Do not uplift thyself above the pitch.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They seized him then with more than a hundred rakes;<br /> + They said: “It here behoves thee to dance covered,<br /> + That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not otherwise the cooks their scullions make<br /> + Immerse into the middle of the caldron<br /> + The meat with hooks, so that it may not float. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Said the good Master to me: “That it be not<br /> + Apparent thou art here, crouch thyself down<br /> + Behind a jag, that thou mayest have some screen; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And for no outrage that is done to me<br /> + Be thou afraid, because these things I know,<br /> + For once before was I in such a scuffle.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he passed on beyond the bridge’s head,<br /> + And as upon the sixth bank he arrived,<br /> + Need was for him to have a steadfast front. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With the same fury, and the same uproar,<br /> + As dogs leap out upon a mendicant,<br /> + Who on a sudden begs, where’er he stops, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They issued from beneath the little bridge,<br /> + And turned against him all their grappling-irons;<br /> + But he cried out: “Be none of you malignant! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Before those hooks of yours lay hold of me,<br /> + Let one of you step forward, who may hear me,<br /> + And then take counsel as to grappling me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They all cried out: “Let Malacoda go;”<br /> + Whereat one started, and the rest stood still,<br /> + And he came to him, saying: “What avails it?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Thinkest thou, Malacoda, to behold me<br /> + Advanced into this place,” my Master said,<br /> + “Safe hitherto from all your skill of fence, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Without the will divine, and fate auspicious?<br /> + Let me go on, for it in Heaven is willed<br /> + That I another show this savage road.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then was his arrogance so humbled in him,<br /> + That he let fall his grapnel at his feet,<br /> + And to the others said: “Now strike him not.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And unto me my Guide: “O thou, who sittest<br /> + Among the splinters of the bridge crouched down,<br /> + Securely now return to me again.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Wherefore I started and came swiftly to him;<br /> + And all the devils forward thrust themselves,<br /> + So that I feared they would not keep their compact. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And thus beheld I once afraid the soldiers<br /> + Who issued under safeguard from Caprona,<br /> + Seeing themselves among so many foes. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Close did I press myself with all my person<br /> + Beside my Leader, and turned not mine eyes<br /> + From off their countenance, which was not good. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They lowered their rakes, and “Wilt thou have me hit him,”<br /> + They said to one another, “on the rump?”<br /> + And answered: “Yes; see that thou nick him with it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But the same demon who was holding parley<br /> + With my Conductor turned him very quickly,<br /> + And said: “Be quiet, be quiet, Scarmiglione;” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said to us: “You can no farther go<br /> + Forward upon this crag, because is lying<br /> + All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth arch. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if it still doth please you to go onward,<br /> + Pursue your way along upon this rock;<br /> + Near is another crag that yields a path. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Yesterday, five hours later than this hour,<br /> + One thousand and two hundred sixty-six<br /> + Years were complete, that here the way was broken. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I send in that direction some of mine<br /> + To see if any one doth air himself;<br /> + Go ye with them; for they will not be vicious. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina,”<br /> + Began he to cry out, “and thou, Cagnazzo;<br /> + And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo,<br /> + And tusked Ciriatto and Graffiacane,<br /> + And Farfarello and mad Rubicante; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Search ye all round about the boiling pitch;<br /> + Let these be safe as far as the next crag,<br /> + That all unbroken passes o’er the dens.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O me! what is it, Master, that I see?<br /> + Pray let us go,” I said, “without an escort,<br /> + If thou knowest how, since for myself I ask none. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If thou art as observant as thy wont is,<br /> + Dost thou not see that they do gnash their teeth,<br /> + And with their brows are threatening woe to us?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “I will not have thee fear;<br /> + Let them gnash on, according to their fancy,<br /> + Because they do it for those boiling wretches.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about;<br /> + But first had each one thrust his tongue between<br /> + His teeth towards their leader for a signal; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he had made a trumpet of his rump. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXII"></a>Inferno: Canto XXII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +I have erewhile seen horsemen moving camp,<br /> + Begin the storming, and their muster make,<br /> + And sometimes starting off for their escape; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Vaunt-couriers have I seen upon your land,<br /> + O Aretines, and foragers go forth,<br /> + Tournaments stricken, and the joustings run, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Sometimes with trumpets and sometimes with bells,<br /> + With kettle-drums, and signals of the castles,<br /> + And with our own, and with outlandish things, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But never yet with bagpipe so uncouth<br /> + Did I see horsemen move, nor infantry,<br /> + Nor ship by any sign of land or star. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We went upon our way with the ten demons;<br /> + Ah, savage company! but in the church<br /> + With saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ever upon the pitch was my intent,<br /> + To see the whole condition of that Bolgia,<br /> + And of the people who therein were burned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as the dolphins, when they make a sign<br /> + To mariners by arching of the back,<br /> + That they should counsel take to save their vessel, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus sometimes, to alleviate his pain,<br /> + One of the sinners would display his back,<br /> + And in less time conceal it than it lightens. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As on the brink of water in a ditch<br /> + The frogs stand only with their muzzles out,<br /> + So that they hide their feet and other bulk, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So upon every side the sinners stood;<br /> + But ever as Barbariccia near them came,<br /> + Thus underneath the boiling they withdrew. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw, and still my heart doth shudder at it,<br /> + One waiting thus, even as it comes to pass<br /> + One frog remains, and down another dives; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And Graffiacan, who most confronted him,<br /> + Grappled him by his tresses smeared with pitch,<br /> + And drew him up, so that he seemed an otter. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I knew, before, the names of all of them,<br /> + So had I noted them when they were chosen,<br /> + And when they called each other, listened how. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O Rubicante, see that thou do lay<br /> + Thy claws upon him, so that thou mayst flay him,”<br /> + Cried all together the accursed ones. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “My Master, see to it, if thou canst,<br /> + That thou mayst know who is the luckless wight,<br /> + Thus come into his adversaries’ hands.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Near to the side of him my Leader drew,<br /> + Asked of him whence he was; and he replied:<br /> + “I in the kingdom of Navarre was born; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My mother placed me servant to a lord,<br /> + For she had borne me to a ribald knave,<br /> + Destroyer of himself and of his things. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then I domestic was of good King Thibault;<br /> + I set me there to practise barratry,<br /> + For which I pay the reckoning in this heat.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And Ciriatto, from whose mouth projected,<br /> + On either side, a tusk, as in a boar,<br /> + Caused him to feel how one of them could rip. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Among malicious cats the mouse had come;<br /> + But Barbariccia clasped him in his arms,<br /> + And said: “Stand ye aside, while I enfork him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And to my Master he turned round his head;<br /> + “Ask him again,” he said, “if more thou wish<br /> + To know from him, before some one destroy him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Guide: “Now tell then of the other culprits;<br /> + Knowest thou any one who is a Latian,<br /> + Under the pitch?” And he: “I separated +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Lately from one who was a neighbour to it;<br /> + Would that I still were covered up with him,<br /> + For I should fear not either claw nor hook!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And Libicocco: “We have borne too much;”<br /> + And with his grapnel seized him by the arm,<br /> + So that, by rending, he tore off a tendon. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Eke Draghignazzo wished to pounce upon him<br /> + Down at the legs; whence their Decurion<br /> + Turned round and round about with evil look. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When they again somewhat were pacified,<br /> + Of him, who still was looking at his wound,<br /> + Demanded my Conductor without stay: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Who was that one, from whom a luckless parting<br /> + Thou sayest thou hast made, to come ashore?”<br /> + And he replied: “It was the Friar Gomita, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He of Gallura, vessel of all fraud,<br /> + Who had the enemies of his Lord in hand,<br /> + And dealt so with them each exults thereat; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Money he took, and let them smoothly off,<br /> + As he says; and in other offices<br /> + A barrator was he, not mean but sovereign. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Foregathers with him one Don Michael Zanche<br /> + Of Logodoro; and of Sardinia<br /> + To gossip never do their tongues feel tired. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O me! see that one, how he grinds his teeth;<br /> + Still farther would I speak, but am afraid<br /> + Lest he to scratch my itch be making ready.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the grand Provost, turned to Farfarello,<br /> + Who rolled his eyes about as if to strike,<br /> + Said: “Stand aside there, thou malicious bird.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If you desire either to see or hear,”<br /> + The terror-stricken recommenced thereon,<br /> + “Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But let the Malebranche cease a little,<br /> + So that these may not their revenges fear,<br /> + And I, down sitting in this very place, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For one that I am will make seven come,<br /> + When I shall whistle, as our custom is<br /> + To do whenever one of us comes out.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Cagnazzo at these words his muzzle lifted,<br /> + Shaking his head, and said: “Just hear the trick<br /> + Which he has thought of, down to throw himself!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence he, who snares in great abundance had,<br /> + Responded: “I by far too cunning am,<br /> + When I procure for mine a greater sadness.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Alichin held not in, but running counter<br /> + Unto the rest, said to him: “If thou dive,<br /> + I will not follow thee upon the gallop, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But I will beat my wings above the pitch;<br /> + The height be left, and be the bank a shield<br /> + To see if thou alone dost countervail us.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O thou who readest, thou shalt hear new sport!<br /> + Each to the other side his eyes averted;<br /> + He first, who most reluctant was to do it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Navarrese selected well his time;<br /> + Planted his feet on land, and in a moment<br /> + Leaped, and released himself from their design. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat each one was suddenly stung with shame,<br /> + But he most who was cause of the defeat;<br /> + Therefore he moved, and cried: “Thou art o’ertakern.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But little it availed, for wings could not<br /> + Outstrip the fear; the other one went under,<br /> + And, flying, upward he his breast directed; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not otherwise the duck upon a sudden<br /> + Dives under, when the falcon is approaching,<br /> + And upward he returneth cross and weary. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Infuriate at the mockery, Calcabrina<br /> + Flying behind him followed close, desirous<br /> + The other should escape, to have a quarrel. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And when the barrator had disappeared,<br /> + He turned his talons upon his companion,<br /> + And grappled with him right above the moat. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But sooth the other was a doughty sparhawk<br /> + To clapperclaw him well; and both of them<br /> + Fell in the middle of the boiling pond. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A sudden intercessor was the heat;<br /> + But ne’ertheless of rising there was naught,<br /> + To such degree they had their wings belimed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Lamenting with the others, Barbariccia<br /> + Made four of them fly to the other side<br /> + With all their gaffs, and very speedily +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This side and that they to their posts descended;<br /> + They stretched their hooks towards the pitch-ensnared,<br /> + Who were already baked within the crust, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And in this manner busied did we leave them. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXIII"></a>Inferno: Canto XXIII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Silent, alone, and without company<br /> + We went, the one in front, the other after,<br /> + As go the Minor Friars along their way. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon the fable of Aesop was directed<br /> + My thought, by reason of the present quarrel,<br /> + Where he has spoken of the frog and mouse; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For ‘mo’ and ‘issa’ are not more alike<br /> + Than this one is to that, if well we couple<br /> + End and beginning with a steadfast mind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And even as one thought from another springs,<br /> + So afterward from that was born another,<br /> + Which the first fear within me double made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus did I ponder: “These on our account<br /> + Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff<br /> + So great, that much I think it must annoy them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If anger be engrafted on ill-will,<br /> + They will come after us more merciless<br /> + Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes,” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I felt my hair stand all on end already<br /> + With terror, and stood backwardly intent,<br /> + When said I: “Master, if thou hidest not +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thyself and me forthwith, of Malebranche<br /> + I am in dread; we have them now behind us;<br /> + I so imagine them, I already feel them.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he: “If I were made of leaded glass,<br /> + Thine outward image I should not attract<br /> + Sooner to me than I imprint the inner. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Just now thy thoughts came in among my own,<br /> + With similar attitude and similar face,<br /> + So that of both one counsel sole I made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If peradventure the right bank so slope<br /> + That we to the next Bolgia can descend,<br /> + We shall escape from the imagined chase.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not yet he finished rendering such opinion,<br /> + When I beheld them come with outstretched wings,<br /> + Not far remote, with will to seize upon us. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My Leader on a sudden seized me up,<br /> + Even as a mother who by noise is wakened,<br /> + And close beside her sees the enkindled flames, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Who takes her son, and flies, and does not stop,<br /> + Having more care of him than of herself,<br /> + So that she clothes her only with a shift; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And downward from the top of the hard bank<br /> + Supine he gave him to the pendent rock,<br /> + That one side of the other Bolgia walls. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ne’er ran so swiftly water through a sluice<br /> + To turn the wheel of any land-built mill,<br /> + When nearest to the paddles it approaches, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As did my Master down along that border,<br /> + Bearing me with him on his breast away,<br /> + As his own son, and not as a companion. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hardly the bed of the ravine below<br /> + His feet had reached, ere they had reached the hill<br /> + Right over us; but he was not afraid; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For the high Providence, which had ordained<br /> + To place them ministers of the fifth moat,<br /> + The power of thence departing took from all. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A painted people there below we found,<br /> + Who went about with footsteps very slow,<br /> + Weeping and in their semblance tired and vanquished. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They had on mantles with the hoods low down<br /> + Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut<br /> + That in Cologne they for the monks are made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles;<br /> + But inwardly all leaden and so heavy<br /> + That Frederick used to put them on of straw. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O everlastingly fatiguing mantle!<br /> + Again we turned us, still to the left hand<br /> + Along with them, intent on their sad plaint; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But owing to the weight, that weary folk<br /> + Came on so tardily, that we were new<br /> + In company at each motion of the haunch. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence I unto my Leader: “See thou find<br /> + Some one who may by deed or name be known,<br /> + And thus in going move thine eye about.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one, who understood the Tuscan speech,<br /> + Cried to us from behind: “Stay ye your feet,<br /> + Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Perhaps thou’lt have from me what thou demandest.”<br /> + Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: “Wait,<br /> + And then according to his pace proceed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I stopped, and two beheld I show great haste<br /> + Of spirit, in their faces, to be with me;<br /> + But the burden and the narrow way delayed them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When they came up, long with an eye askance<br /> + They scanned me without uttering a word.<br /> + Then to each other turned, and said together: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“He by the action of his throat seems living;<br /> + And if they dead are, by what privilege<br /> + Go they uncovered by the heavy stole?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said to me: “Tuscan, who to the college<br /> + Of miserable hypocrites art come,<br /> + Do not disdain to tell us who thou art.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to them: “Born was I, and grew up<br /> + In the great town on the fair river of Arno,<br /> + And with the body am I’ve always had. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But who are ye, in whom there trickles down<br /> + Along your cheeks such grief as I behold?<br /> + And what pain is upon you, that so sparkles?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one replied to me: “These orange cloaks<br /> + Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights<br /> + Cause in this way their balances to creak. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese;<br /> + I Catalano, and he Loderingo<br /> + Named, and together taken by thy city, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As the wont is to take one man alone,<br /> + For maintenance of its peace; and we were such<br /> + That still it is apparent round Gardingo.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O Friars,” began I, “your iniquitous. . .”<br /> + But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushed<br /> + One crucified with three stakes on the ground. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When me he saw, he writhed himself all over,<br /> + Blowing into his beard with suspirations;<br /> + And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Said to me: “This transfixed one, whom thou seest,<br /> + Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet<br /> + To put one man to torture for the people. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Crosswise and naked is he on the path,<br /> + As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel,<br /> + Whoever passes, first how much he weighs; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And in like mode his father-in-law is punished<br /> + Within this moat, and the others of the council,<br /> + Which for the Jews was a malignant seed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel<br /> + O’er him who was extended on the cross<br /> + So vilely in eternal banishment. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he directed to the Friar this voice:<br /> + “Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us<br /> + If to the right hand any pass slope down +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By which we two may issue forth from here,<br /> + Without constraining some of the black angels<br /> + To come and extricate us from this deep.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he made answer: “Nearer than thou hopest<br /> + There is a rock, that forth from the great circle<br /> + Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Save that at this ’tis broken, and does not bridge it;<br /> + You will be able to mount up the ruin,<br /> + That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down;<br /> + Then said: “The business badly he recounted<br /> + Who grapples with his hook the sinners yonder.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the Friar: “Many of the Devil’s vices<br /> + Once heard I at Bologna, and among them,<br /> + That he’s a liar and the father of lies.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereat my Leader with great strides went on,<br /> + Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks;<br /> + Whence from the heavy-laden I departed +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After the prints of his beloved feet. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXIV"></a>Inferno: Canto XXIV</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +In that part of the youthful year wherein<br /> + The Sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers,<br /> + And now the nights draw near to half the day, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What time the hoar-frost copies on the ground<br /> + The outward semblance of her sister white,<br /> + But little lasts the temper of her pen, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The husbandman, whose forage faileth him,<br /> + Rises, and looks, and seeth the champaign<br /> + All gleaming white, whereat he beats his flank, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Returns in doors, and up and down laments,<br /> + Like a poor wretch, who knows not what to do;<br /> + Then he returns and hope revives again, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Seeing the world has changed its countenance<br /> + In little time, and takes his shepherd’s crook,<br /> + And forth the little lambs to pasture drives. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus did the Master fill me with alarm,<br /> + When I beheld his forehead so disturbed,<br /> + And to the ailment came as soon the plaster. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For as we came unto the ruined bridge,<br /> + The Leader turned to me with that sweet look<br /> + Which at the mountain’s foot I first beheld. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His arms he opened, after some advisement<br /> + Within himself elected, looking first<br /> + Well at the ruin, and laid hold of me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And even as he who acts and meditates,<br /> + For aye it seems that he provides beforehand,<br /> + So upward lifting me towards the summit +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of a huge rock, he scanned another crag,<br /> + Saying: “To that one grapple afterwards,<br /> + But try first if ’tis such that it will hold thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This was no way for one clothed with a cloak;<br /> + For hardly we, he light, and I pushed upward,<br /> + Were able to ascend from jag to jag. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And had it not been, that upon that precinct<br /> + Shorter was the ascent than on the other,<br /> + He I know not, but I had been dead beat. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But because Malebolge tow’rds the mouth<br /> + Of the profoundest well is all inclining,<br /> + The structure of each valley doth import +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That one bank rises and the other sinks.<br /> + Still we arrived at length upon the point<br /> + Wherefrom the last stone breaks itself asunder. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The breath was from my lungs so milked away,<br /> + When I was up, that I could go no farther,<br /> + Nay, I sat down upon my first arrival. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Now it behoves thee thus to put off sloth,”<br /> + My Master said; “for sitting upon down,<br /> + Or under quilt, one cometh not to fame, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Withouten which whoso his life consumes<br /> + Such vestige leaveth of himself on earth,<br /> + As smoke in air or in the water foam. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And therefore raise thee up, o’ercome the anguish<br /> + With spirit that o’ercometh every battle,<br /> + If with its heavy body it sink not. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A longer stairway it behoves thee mount;<br /> + ’Tis not enough from these to have departed;<br /> + Let it avail thee, if thou understand me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then I uprose, showing myself provided<br /> + Better with breath than I did feel myself,<br /> + And said: “Go on, for I am strong and bold.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upward we took our way along the crag,<br /> + Which jagged was, and narrow, and difficult,<br /> + And more precipitous far than that before. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Speaking I went, not to appear exhausted;<br /> + Whereat a voice from the next moat came forth,<br /> + Not well adapted to articulate words. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I know not what it said, though o’er the back<br /> + I now was of the arch that passes there;<br /> + But he seemed moved to anger who was speaking. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I was bent downward, but my living eyes<br /> + Could not attain the bottom, for the dark;<br /> + Wherefore I: “Master, see that thou arrive +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +At the next round, and let us descend the wall;<br /> + For as from hence I hear and understand not,<br /> + So I look down and nothing I distinguish.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Other response,” he said, “I make thee not,<br /> + Except the doing; for the modest asking<br /> + Ought to be followed by the deed in silence.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We from the bridge descended at its head,<br /> + Where it connects itself with the eighth bank,<br /> + And then was manifest to me the Bolgia; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I beheld therein a terrible throng<br /> + Of serpents, and of such a monstrous kind,<br /> + That the remembrance still congeals my blood +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Let Libya boast no longer with her sand;<br /> + For if Chelydri, Jaculi, and Phareae<br /> + She breeds, with Cenchri and with Amphisbaena, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Neither so many plagues nor so malignant<br /> + E’er showed she with all Ethiopia,<br /> + Nor with whatever on the Red Sea is! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Among this cruel and most dismal throng<br /> + People were running naked and affrighted.<br /> + Without the hope of hole or heliotrope. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They had their hands with serpents bound behind them;<br /> + These riveted upon their reins the tail<br /> + And head, and were in front of them entwined. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And lo! at one who was upon our side<br /> + There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him<br /> + There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nor ‘O’ so quickly e’er, nor ‘I’ was written,<br /> + As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly<br /> + Behoved it that in falling he became. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And when he on the ground was thus destroyed,<br /> + The ashes drew together, and of themselves<br /> + Into himself they instantly returned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even thus by the great sages ’tis confessed<br /> + The phoenix dies, and then is born again,<br /> + When it approaches its five-hundredth year; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +On herb or grain it feeds not in its life,<br /> + But only on tears of incense and amomum,<br /> + And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as he is who falls, and knows not how,<br /> + By force of demons who to earth down drag him,<br /> + Or other oppilation that binds man, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When he arises and around him looks,<br /> + Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish<br /> + Which he has suffered, and in looking sighs; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such was that sinner after he had risen.<br /> + Justice of God! O how severe it is,<br /> + That blows like these in vengeance poureth down! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Guide thereafter asked him who he was;<br /> + Whence he replied: “I rained from Tuscany<br /> + A short time since into this cruel gorge. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A bestial life, and not a human, pleased me,<br /> + Even as the mule I was; I’m Vanni Fucci,<br /> + Beast, and Pistoia was my worthy den.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I unto the Guide: “Tell him to stir not,<br /> + And ask what crime has thrust him here below,<br /> + For once a man of blood and wrath I saw him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the sinner, who had heard, dissembled not,<br /> + But unto me directed mind and face,<br /> + And with a melancholy shame was painted. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said: “It pains me more that thou hast caught me<br /> + Amid this misery where thou seest me,<br /> + Than when I from the other life was taken. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What thou demandest I cannot deny;<br /> + So low am I put down because I robbed<br /> + The sacristy of the fair ornaments, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And falsely once ’twas laid upon another;<br /> + But that thou mayst not such a sight enjoy,<br /> + If thou shalt e’er be out of the dark places, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thine ears to my announcement ope and hear:<br /> + Pistoia first of Neri groweth meagre;<br /> + Then Florence doth renew her men and manners; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Mars draws a vapour up from Val di Magra,<br /> + Which is with turbid clouds enveloped round,<br /> + And with impetuous and bitter tempest +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Over Campo Picen shall be the battle;<br /> + When it shall suddenly rend the mist asunder,<br /> + So that each Bianco shall thereby be smitten. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And this I’ve said that it may give thee pain.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXV"></a>Inferno: Canto XXV</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +At the conclusion of his words, the thief<br /> + Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs,<br /> + Crying: “Take that, God, for at thee I aim them.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From that time forth the serpents were my friends;<br /> + For one entwined itself about his neck<br /> + As if it said: “I will not thou speak more;” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And round his arms another, and rebound him,<br /> + Clinching itself together so in front,<br /> + That with them he could not a motion make. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not<br /> + To burn thyself to ashes and so perish,<br /> + Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Through all the sombre circles of this Hell,<br /> + Spirit I saw not against God so proud,<br /> + Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He fled away, and spake no further word;<br /> + And I beheld a Centaur full of rage<br /> + Come crying out: “Where is, where is the scoffer?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I do not think Maremma has so many<br /> + Serpents as he had all along his back,<br /> + As far as where our countenance begins. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape,<br /> + With wings wide open was a dragon lying,<br /> + And he sets fire to all that he encounters. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +My Master said: “That one is Cacus, who<br /> + Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine<br /> + Created oftentimes a lake of blood. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He goes not on the same road with his brothers,<br /> + By reason of the fraudulent theft he made<br /> + Of the great herd, which he had near to him; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat his tortuous actions ceased beneath<br /> + The mace of Hercules, who peradventure<br /> + Gave him a hundred, and he felt not ten.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While he was speaking thus, he had passed by,<br /> + And spirits three had underneath us come,<br /> + Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Until what time they shouted: “Who are you?”<br /> + On which account our story made a halt,<br /> + And then we were intent on them alone. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I did not know them; but it came to pass,<br /> + As it is wont to happen by some chance,<br /> + That one to name the other was compelled, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Exclaiming: “Where can Cianfa have remained?”<br /> + Whence I, so that the Leader might attend,<br /> + Upward from chin to nose my finger laid. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe<br /> + What I shall say, it will no marvel be,<br /> + For I who saw it hardly can admit it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As I was holding raised on them my brows,<br /> + Behold! a serpent with six feet darts forth<br /> + In front of one, and fastens wholly on him. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With middle feet it bound him round the paunch,<br /> + And with the forward ones his arms it seized;<br /> + Then thrust its teeth through one cheek and the other; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The hindermost it stretched upon his thighs,<br /> + And put its tail through in between the two,<br /> + And up behind along the reins outspread it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ivy was never fastened by its barbs<br /> + Unto a tree so, as this horrible reptile<br /> + Upon the other’s limbs entwined its own. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax<br /> + They had been made, and intermixed their colour;<br /> + Nor one nor other seemed now what he was; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +E’en as proceedeth on before the flame<br /> + Upward along the paper a brown colour,<br /> + Which is not black as yet, and the white dies. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The other two looked on, and each of them<br /> + Cried out: “O me, Agnello, how thou changest!<br /> + Behold, thou now art neither two nor one.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Already the two heads had one become,<br /> + When there appeared to us two figures mingled<br /> + Into one face, wherein the two were lost. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms,<br /> + The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest<br /> + Members became that never yet were seen. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Every original aspect there was cancelled;<br /> + Two and yet none did the perverted image<br /> + Appear, and such departed with slow pace. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as a lizard, under the great scourge<br /> + Of days canicular, exchanging hedge,<br /> + Lightning appeareth if the road it cross; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus did appear, coming towards the bellies<br /> + Of the two others, a small fiery serpent,<br /> + Livid and black as is a peppercorn. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And in that part whereat is first received<br /> + Our aliment, it one of them transfixed;<br /> + Then downward fell in front of him extended. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The one transfixed looked at it, but said naught;<br /> + Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned,<br /> + Just as if sleep or fever had assailed him. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He at the serpent gazed, and it at him;<br /> + One through the wound, the other through the mouth<br /> + Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions<br /> + Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius,<br /> + And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa;<br /> + For if him to a snake, her to fountain,<br /> + Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because two natures never front to front<br /> + Has he transmuted, so that both the forms<br /> + To interchange their matter ready were. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Together they responded in such wise,<br /> + That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail,<br /> + And eke the wounded drew his feet together. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The legs together with the thighs themselves<br /> + Adhered so, that in little time the juncture<br /> + No sign whatever made that was apparent. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He with the cloven tail assumed the figure<br /> + The other one was losing, and his skin<br /> + Became elastic, and the other’s hard. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits,<br /> + And both feet of the reptile, that were short,<br /> + Lengthen as much as those contracted were. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted,<br /> + Became the member that a man conceals,<br /> + And of his own the wretch had two created. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While both of them the exhalation veils<br /> + With a new colour, and engenders hair<br /> + On one of them and depilates the other, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The one uprose and down the other fell,<br /> + Though turning not away their impious lamps,<br /> + Underneath which each one his muzzle changed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He who was standing drew it tow’rds the temples,<br /> + And from excess of matter, which came thither,<br /> + Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What did not backward run and was retained<br /> + Of that excess made to the face a nose,<br /> + And the lips thickened far as was befitting. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward,<br /> + And backward draws the ears into his head,<br /> + In the same manner as the snail its horns; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And so the tongue, which was entire and apt<br /> + For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked<br /> + In the other closes up, and the smoke ceases. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The soul, which to a reptile had been changed,<br /> + Along the valley hissing takes to flight,<br /> + And after him the other speaking sputters. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then did he turn upon him his new shoulders,<br /> + And said to the other: “I’ll have Buoso run,<br /> + Crawling as I have done, along this road.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In this way I beheld the seventh ballast<br /> + Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse<br /> + The novelty, if aught my pen transgress. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And notwithstanding that mine eyes might be<br /> + Somewhat bewildered, and my mind dismayed,<br /> + They could not flee away so secretly +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato;<br /> + And he it was who sole of three companions,<br /> + Which came in the beginning, was not changed; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXVI"></a>Inferno: Canto XXVI</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Rejoice, O Florence, since thou art so great,<br /> + That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,<br /> + And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Among the thieves five citizens of thine<br /> + Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me,<br /> + And thou thereby to no great honour risest. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But if when morn is near our dreams are true,<br /> + Feel shalt thou in a little time from now<br /> + What Prato, if none other, craves for thee. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if it now were, it were not too soon;<br /> + Would that it were, seeing it needs must be,<br /> + For ’twill aggrieve me more the more I age. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We went our way, and up along the stairs<br /> + The bourns had made us to descend before,<br /> + Remounted my Conductor and drew me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And following the solitary path<br /> + Among the rocks and ridges of the crag,<br /> + The foot without the hand sped not at all. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,<br /> + When I direct my mind to what I saw,<br /> + And more my genius curb than I am wont, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That it may run not unless virtue guide it;<br /> + So that if some good star, or better thing,<br /> + Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As many as the hind (who on the hill<br /> + Rests at the time when he who lights the world<br /> + His countenance keeps least concealed from us, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While as the fly gives place unto the gnat)<br /> + Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley,<br /> + Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With flames as manifold resplendent all<br /> + Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware<br /> + As soon as I was where the depth appeared. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And such as he who with the bears avenged him<br /> + Beheld Elijah’s chariot at departing,<br /> + What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For with his eye he could not follow it<br /> + So as to see aught else than flame alone,<br /> + Even as a little cloud ascending upward, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment<br /> + Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,<br /> + And every flame a sinner steals away. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see,<br /> + So that, if I had seized not on a rock,<br /> + Down had I fallen without being pushed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the Leader, who beheld me so attent,<br /> + Exclaimed: “Within the fires the spirits are;<br /> + Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“My Master,” I replied, “by hearing thee<br /> + I am more sure; but I surmised already<br /> + It might be so, and already wished to ask thee +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft<br /> + At top, it seems uprising from the pyre<br /> + Where was Eteocles with his brother placed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He answered me: “Within there are tormented<br /> + Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together<br /> + They unto vengeance run as unto wrath. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And there within their flame do they lament<br /> + The ambush of the horse, which made the door<br /> + Whence issued forth the Romans’ gentle seed; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead<br /> + Deidamia still deplores Achilles,<br /> + And pain for the Palladium there is borne.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If they within those sparks possess the power<br /> + To speak,” I said, “thee, Master, much I pray,<br /> + And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That thou make no denial of awaiting<br /> + Until the horned flame shall hither come;<br /> + Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Worthy is thy entreaty<br /> + Of much applause, and therefore I accept it;<br /> + But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Leave me to speak, because I have conceived<br /> + That which thou wishest; for they might disdain<br /> + Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When now the flame had come unto that point,<br /> + Where to my Leader it seemed time and place,<br /> + After this fashion did I hear him speak: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O ye, who are twofold within one fire,<br /> + If I deserved of you, while I was living,<br /> + If I deserved of you or much or little +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When in the world I wrote the lofty verses,<br /> + Do not move on, but one of you declare<br /> + Whither, being lost, he went away to die.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then of the antique flame the greater horn,<br /> + Murmuring, began to wave itself about<br /> + Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereafterward, the summit to and fro<br /> + Moving as if it were the tongue that spake,<br /> + It uttered forth a voice, and said: “When I +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +From Circe had departed, who concealed me<br /> + More than a year there near unto Gaeta,<br /> + Or ever yet Aeneas named it so, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence<br /> + For my old father, nor the due affection<br /> + Which joyous should have made Penelope, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Could overcome within me the desire<br /> + I had to be experienced of the world,<br /> + And of the vice and virtue of mankind; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But I put forth on the high open sea<br /> + With one sole ship, and that small company<br /> + By which I never had deserted been. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain,<br /> + Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes,<br /> + And the others which that sea bathes round about. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I and my company were old and slow<br /> + When at that narrow passage we arrived<br /> + Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That man no farther onward should adventure.<br /> + On the right hand behind me left I Seville,<br /> + And on the other already had left Ceuta. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +‘O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand<br /> + Perils,’ I said, ‘have come unto the West,<br /> + To this so inconsiderable vigil +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Which is remaining of your senses still<br /> + Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,<br /> + Following the sun, of the unpeopled world. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang;<br /> + Ye were not made to live like unto brutes,<br /> + But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So eager did I render my companions,<br /> + With this brief exhortation, for the voyage,<br /> + That then I hardly could have held them back. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And having turned our stern unto the morning,<br /> + We of the oars made wings for our mad flight,<br /> + Evermore gaining on the larboard side. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Already all the stars of the other pole<br /> + The night beheld, and ours so very low<br /> + It did not rise above the ocean floor. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Five times rekindled and as many quenched<br /> + Had been the splendour underneath the moon,<br /> + Since we had entered into the deep pass, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When there appeared to us a mountain, dim<br /> + From distance, and it seemed to me so high<br /> + As I had never any one beheld. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping;<br /> + For out of the new land a whirlwind rose,<br /> + And smote upon the fore part of the ship. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Three times it made her whirl with all the waters,<br /> + At the fourth time it made the stern uplift,<br /> + And the prow downward go, as pleased Another, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Until the sea above us closed again.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXVII"></a>Inferno: Canto XXVII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Already was the flame erect and quiet,<br /> + To speak no more, and now departed from us<br /> + With the permission of the gentle Poet; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When yet another, which behind it came,<br /> + Caused us to turn our eyes upon its top<br /> + By a confused sound that issued from it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first<br /> + With the lament of him, and that was right,<br /> + Who with his file had modulated it) +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted,<br /> + That, notwithstanding it was made of brass,<br /> + Still it appeared with agony transfixed; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus, by not having any way or issue<br /> + At first from out the fire, to its own language<br /> + Converted were the melancholy words. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But afterwards, when they had gathered way<br /> + Up through the point, giving it that vibration<br /> + The tongue had given them in their passage out, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We heard it said: “O thou, at whom I aim<br /> + My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard,<br /> + Saying, ‘Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because I come perchance a little late,<br /> + To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee;<br /> + Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If thou but lately into this blind world<br /> + Hast fallen down from that sweet Latian land,<br /> + Wherefrom I bring the whole of my transgression, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Say, if the Romagnuols have peace or war,<br /> + For I was from the mountains there between<br /> + Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I still was downward bent and listening,<br /> + When my Conductor touched me on the side,<br /> + Saying: “Speak thou: this one a Latian is.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I, who had beforehand my reply<br /> + In readiness, forthwith began to speak:<br /> + “O soul, that down below there art concealed, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Romagna thine is not and never has been<br /> + Without war in the bosom of its tyrants;<br /> + But open war I none have left there now. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ravenna stands as it long years has stood;<br /> + The Eagle of Polenta there is brooding,<br /> + So that she covers Cervia with her vans. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The city which once made the long resistance,<br /> + And of the French a sanguinary heap,<br /> + Beneath the Green Paws finds itself again; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Verrucchio’s ancient Mastiff and the new,<br /> + Who made such bad disposal of Montagna,<br /> + Where they are wont make wimbles of their teeth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The cities of Lamone and Santerno<br /> + Governs the Lioncel of the white lair,<br /> + Who changes sides ’twixt summer-time and winter; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And that of which the Savio bathes the flank,<br /> + Even as it lies between the plain and mountain,<br /> + Lives between tyranny and a free state. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now I entreat thee tell us who thou art;<br /> + Be not more stubborn than the rest have been,<br /> + So may thy name hold front there in the world.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After the fire a little more had roared<br /> + In its own fashion, the sharp point it moved<br /> + This way and that, and then gave forth such breath: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If I believed that my reply were made<br /> + To one who to the world would e’er return,<br /> + This flame without more flickering would stand still; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But inasmuch as never from this depth<br /> + Did any one return, if I hear true,<br /> + Without the fear of infamy I answer, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I was a man of arms, then Cordelier,<br /> + Believing thus begirt to make amends;<br /> + And truly my belief had been fulfilled +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But for the High Priest, whom may ill betide,<br /> + Who put me back into my former sins;<br /> + And how and wherefore I will have thee hear. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While I was still the form of bone and pulp<br /> + My mother gave to me, the deeds I did<br /> + Were not those of a lion, but a fox. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The machinations and the covert ways<br /> + I knew them all, and practised so their craft,<br /> + That to the ends of earth the sound went forth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When now unto that portion of mine age<br /> + I saw myself arrived, when each one ought<br /> + To lower the sails, and coil away the ropes, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That which before had pleased me then displeased me;<br /> + And penitent and confessing I surrendered,<br /> + Ah woe is me! and it would have bestead me; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Leader of the modern Pharisees<br /> + Having a war near unto Lateran,<br /> + And not with Saracens nor with the Jews, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For each one of his enemies was Christian,<br /> + And none of them had been to conquer Acre,<br /> + Nor merchandising in the Sultan’s land, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Nor the high office, nor the sacred orders,<br /> + In him regarded, nor in me that cord<br /> + Which used to make those girt with it more meagre; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester<br /> + To cure his leprosy, within Soracte,<br /> + So this one sought me out as an adept +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To cure him of the fever of his pride.<br /> + Counsel he asked of me, and I was silent,<br /> + Because his words appeared inebriate. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And then he said: ‘Be not thy heart afraid;<br /> + Henceforth I thee absolve; and thou instruct me<br /> + How to raze Palestrina to the ground. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Heaven have I power to lock and to unlock,<br /> + As thou dost know; therefore the keys are two,<br /> + The which my predecessor held not dear.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then urged me on his weighty arguments<br /> + There, where my silence was the worst advice;<br /> + And said I: ‘Father, since thou washest me +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of that sin into which I now must fall,<br /> + The promise long with the fulfilment short<br /> + Will make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Francis came afterward, when I was dead,<br /> + For me; but one of the black Cherubim<br /> + Said to him: ‘Take him not; do me no wrong; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He must come down among my servitors,<br /> + Because he gave the fraudulent advice<br /> + From which time forth I have been at his hair; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For who repents not cannot be absolved,<br /> + Nor can one both repent and will at once,<br /> + Because of the contradiction which consents not.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O miserable me! how I did shudder<br /> + When he seized on me, saying: ‘Peradventure<br /> + Thou didst not think that I was a logician!’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He bore me unto Minos, who entwined<br /> + Eight times his tail about his stubborn back,<br /> + And after he had bitten it in great rage, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Said: ‘Of the thievish fire a culprit this;’<br /> + Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost,<br /> + And vested thus in going I bemoan me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When it had thus completed its recital,<br /> + The flame departed uttering lamentations,<br /> + Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor,<br /> + Up o’er the crag above another arch,<br /> + Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By those who, sowing discord, win their burden. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXVIII"></a>Inferno: Canto XXVIII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +Who ever could, e’en with untrammelled words,<br /> + Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full<br /> + Which now I saw, by many times narrating? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Each tongue would for a certainty fall short<br /> + By reason of our speech and memory,<br /> + That have small room to comprehend so much. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If were again assembled all the people<br /> + Which formerly upon the fateful land<br /> + Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Shed by the Romans and the lingering war<br /> + That of the rings made such illustrious spoils,<br /> + As Livy has recorded, who errs not, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With those who felt the agony of blows<br /> + By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,<br /> + And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +At Ceperano, where a renegade<br /> + Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo,<br /> + Where without arms the old Alardo conquered, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off,<br /> + Should show, it would be nothing to compare<br /> + With the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A cask by losing centre-piece or cant<br /> + Was never shattered so, as I saw one<br /> + Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;<br /> + His heart was visible, and the dismal sack<br /> + That maketh excrement of what is eaten. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +While I was all absorbed in seeing him,<br /> + He looked at me, and opened with his hands<br /> + His bosom, saying: “See now how I rend me; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;<br /> + In front of me doth Ali weeping go,<br /> + Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And all the others whom thou here beholdest,<br /> + Disseminators of scandal and of schism<br /> + While living were, and therefore are cleft thus. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us<br /> + Thus cruelly, unto the falchion’s edge<br /> + Putting again each one of all this ream, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When we have gone around the doleful road;<br /> + By reason that our wounds are closed again<br /> + Ere any one in front of him repass. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But who art thou, that musest on the crag,<br /> + Perchance to postpone going to the pain<br /> + That is adjudged upon thine accusations?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him,”<br /> + My Master made reply, “to be tormented;<br /> + But to procure him full experience, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him<br /> + Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle;<br /> + And this is true as that I speak to thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +More than a hundred were there when they heard him,<br /> + Who in the moat stood still to look at me,<br /> + Through wonderment oblivious of their torture. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him,<br /> + Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun,<br /> + If soon he wish not here to follow me, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So with provisions, that no stress of snow<br /> + May give the victory to the Novarese,<br /> + Which otherwise to gain would not be easy.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After one foot to go away he lifted,<br /> + This word did Mahomet say unto me,<br /> + Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Another one, who had his throat pierced through,<br /> + And nose cut off close underneath the brows,<br /> + And had no longer but a single ear, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Staying to look in wonder with the others,<br /> + Before the others did his gullet open,<br /> + Which outwardly was red in every part, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And said: “O thou, whom guilt doth not condemn,<br /> + And whom I once saw up in Latian land,<br /> + Unless too great similitude deceive me, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Call to remembrance Pier da Medicina,<br /> + If e’er thou see again the lovely plain<br /> + That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And make it known to the best two of Fano,<br /> + To Messer Guido and Angiolello likewise,<br /> + That if foreseeing here be not in vain, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Cast over from their vessel shall they be,<br /> + And drowned near unto the Cattolica,<br /> + By the betrayal of a tyrant fell. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca<br /> + Neptune ne’er yet beheld so great a crime,<br /> + Neither of pirates nor Argolic people. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That traitor, who sees only with one eye,<br /> + And holds the land, which some one here with me<br /> + Would fain be fasting from the vision of, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Will make them come unto a parley with him;<br /> + Then will do so, that to Focara’s wind<br /> + They will not stand in need of vow or prayer.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “Show to me and declare,<br /> + If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee,<br /> + Who is this person of the bitter vision.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then did he lay his hand upon the jaw<br /> + Of one of his companions, and his mouth<br /> + Oped, crying: “This is he, and he speaks not. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This one, being banished, every doubt submerged<br /> + In Caesar by affirming the forearmed<br /> + Always with detriment allowed delay.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O how bewildered unto me appeared,<br /> + With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit,<br /> + Curio, who in speaking was so bold! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one, who both his hands dissevered had,<br /> + The stumps uplifting through the murky air,<br /> + So that the blood made horrible his face, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Cried out: “Thou shalt remember Mosca also,<br /> + Who said, alas! ‘A thing done has an end!’<br /> + Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And death unto thy race,” thereto I added;<br /> + Whence he, accumulating woe on woe,<br /> + Departed, like a person sad and crazed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But I remained to look upon the crowd;<br /> + And saw a thing which I should be afraid,<br /> + Without some further proof, even to recount, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If it were not that conscience reassures me,<br /> + That good companion which emboldens man<br /> + Beneath the hauberk of its feeling pure. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I truly saw, and still I seem to see it,<br /> + A trunk without a head walk in like manner<br /> + As walked the others of the mournful herd. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And by the hair it held the head dissevered,<br /> + Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern,<br /> + And that upon us gazed and said: “O me!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It of itself made to itself a lamp,<br /> + And they were two in one, and one in two;<br /> + How that can be, He knows who so ordains it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When it was come close to the bridge’s foot,<br /> + It lifted high its arm with all the head,<br /> + To bring more closely unto us its words, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Which were: “Behold now the sore penalty,<br /> + Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding;<br /> + Behold if any be as great as this. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And so that thou may carry news of me,<br /> + Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same<br /> + Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I made the father and the son rebellious;<br /> + Achitophel not more with Absalom<br /> + And David did with his accursed goadings. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because I parted persons so united,<br /> + Parted do I now bear my brain, alas!<br /> + From its beginning, which is in this trunk. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus is observed in me the counterpoise.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXIX"></a>Inferno: Canto XXIX</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +The many people and the divers wounds<br /> + These eyes of mine had so inebriated,<br /> + That they were wishful to stand still and weep; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But said Virgilius: “What dost thou still gaze at?<br /> + Why is thy sight still riveted down there<br /> + Among the mournful, mutilated shades? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge;<br /> + Consider, if to count them thou believest,<br /> + That two-and-twenty miles the valley winds, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And now the moon is underneath our feet;<br /> + Henceforth the time allotted us is brief,<br /> + And more is to be seen than what thou seest.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If thou hadst,” I made answer thereupon,<br /> + “Attended to the cause for which I looked,<br /> + Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have pardoned.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him<br /> + I went, already making my reply,<br /> + And superadding: “In that cavern where +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I held mine eyes with such attention fixed,<br /> + I think a spirit of my blood laments<br /> + The sin which down below there costs so much.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said the Master: “Be no longer broken<br /> + Thy thought from this time forward upon him;<br /> + Attend elsewhere, and there let him remain; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For him I saw below the little bridge,<br /> + Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger<br /> + Fiercely, and heard him called Geri del Bello. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So wholly at that time wast thou impeded<br /> + By him who formerly held Altaforte,<br /> + Thou didst not look that way; so he departed.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O my Conductor, his own violent death,<br /> + Which is not yet avenged for him,” I said,<br /> + “By any who is sharer in the shame, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Made him disdainful; whence he went away,<br /> + As I imagine, without speaking to me,<br /> + And thereby made me pity him the more.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus did we speak as far as the first place<br /> + Upon the crag, which the next valley shows<br /> + Down to the bottom, if there were more light. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When we were now right over the last cloister<br /> + Of Malebolge, so that its lay-brothers<br /> + Could manifest themselves unto our sight, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Divers lamentings pierced me through and through,<br /> + Which with compassion had their arrows barbed,<br /> + Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What pain would be, if from the hospitals<br /> + Of Valdichiana, ’twixt July and September,<br /> + And of Maremma and Sardinia +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +All the diseases in one moat were gathered,<br /> + Such was it here, and such a stench came from it<br /> + As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We had descended on the furthest bank<br /> + From the long crag, upon the left hand still,<br /> + And then more vivid was my power of sight +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Down tow’rds the bottom, where the ministress<br /> + Of the high Lord, Justice infallible,<br /> + Punishes forgers, which she here records. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I do not think a sadder sight to see<br /> + Was in Aegina the whole people sick,<br /> + (When was the air so full of pestilence, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The animals, down to the little worm,<br /> + All fell, and afterwards the ancient people,<br /> + According as the poets have affirmed, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Were from the seed of ants restored again,)<br /> + Than was it to behold through that dark valley<br /> + The spirits languishing in divers heaps. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This on the belly, that upon the back<br /> + One of the other lay, and others crawling<br /> + Shifted themselves along the dismal road. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We step by step went onward without speech,<br /> + Gazing upon and listening to the sick<br /> + Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw two sitting leaned against each other,<br /> + As leans in heating platter against platter,<br /> + From head to foot bespotted o’er with scabs; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And never saw I plied a currycomb<br /> + By stable-boy for whom his master waits,<br /> + Or him who keeps awake unwillingly, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As every one was plying fast the bite<br /> + Of nails upon himself, for the great rage<br /> + Of itching which no other succour had. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the nails downward with them dragged the scab,<br /> + In fashion as a knife the scales of bream,<br /> + Or any other fish that has them largest. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee,”<br /> + Began my Leader unto one of them,<br /> + “And makest of them pincers now and then, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Tell me if any Latian is with those<br /> + Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee<br /> + To all eternity unto this work.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest,<br /> + Both of us here,” one weeping made reply;<br /> + “But who art thou, that questionest about us?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And said the Guide: “One am I who descends<br /> + Down with this living man from cliff to cliff,<br /> + And I intend to show Hell unto him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then broken was their mutual support,<br /> + And trembling each one turned himself to me,<br /> + With others who had heard him by rebound. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Wholly to me did the good Master gather,<br /> + Saying: “Say unto them whate’er thou wishest.”<br /> + And I began, since he would have it so: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“So may your memory not steal away<br /> + In the first world from out the minds of men,<br /> + But so may it survive ’neath many suns, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Say to me who ye are, and of what people;<br /> + Let not your foul and loathsome punishment<br /> + Make you afraid to show yourselves to me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“I of Arezzo was,” one made reply,<br /> + “And Albert of Siena had me burned;<br /> + But what I died for does not bring me here. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +’Tis true I said to him, speaking in jest,<br /> + That I could rise by flight into the air,<br /> + And he who had conceit, but little wit, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Would have me show to him the art; and only<br /> + Because no Daedalus I made him, made me<br /> + Be burned by one who held him as his son. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But unto the last Bolgia of the ten,<br /> + For alchemy, which in the world I practised,<br /> + Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And to the Poet said I: “Now was ever<br /> + So vain a people as the Sienese?<br /> + Not for a certainty the French by far.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat the other leper, who had heard me,<br /> + Replied unto my speech: “Taking out Stricca,<br /> + Who knew the art of moderate expenses, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And Niccolo, who the luxurious use<br /> + Of cloves discovered earliest of all<br /> + Within that garden where such seed takes root; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And taking out the band, among whom squandered<br /> + Caccia d’Ascian his vineyards and vast woods,<br /> + And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But, that thou know who thus doth second thee<br /> + Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eye<br /> + Tow’rds me, so that my face well answer thee, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And thou shalt see I am Capocchio’s shade,<br /> + Who metals falsified by alchemy;<br /> + Thou must remember, if I well descry thee, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +How I a skilful ape of nature was.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXX"></a>Inferno: Canto XXX</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +’Twas at the time when Juno was enraged,<br /> + For Semele, against the Theban blood,<br /> + As she already more than once had shown, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So reft of reason Athamas became,<br /> + That, seeing his own wife with children twain<br /> + Walking encumbered upon either hand, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He cried: “Spread out the nets, that I may take<br /> + The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;”<br /> + And then extended his unpitying claws, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus,<br /> + And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock;<br /> + And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself;— +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And at the time when fortune downward hurled<br /> + The Trojan’s arrogance, that all things dared,<br /> + So that the king was with his kingdom crushed, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive,<br /> + When lifeless she beheld Polyxena,<br /> + And of her Polydorus on the shore +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of ocean was the dolorous one aware,<br /> + Out of her senses like a dog she barked,<br /> + So much the anguish had her mind distorted; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan<br /> + Were ever seen in any one so cruel<br /> + In goading beasts, and much more human members, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As I beheld two shadows pale and naked,<br /> + Who, biting, in the manner ran along<br /> + That a boar does, when from the sty turned loose. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +One to Capocchio came, and by the nape<br /> + Seized with its teeth his neck, so that in dragging<br /> + It made his belly grate the solid bottom. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the Aretine, who trembling had remained,<br /> + Said to me: “That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi,<br /> + And raving goes thus harrying other people.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O,” said I to him, “so may not the other<br /> + Set teeth on thee, let it not weary thee<br /> + To tell us who it is, ere it dart hence.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “That is the ancient ghost<br /> + Of the nefarious Myrrha, who became<br /> + Beyond all rightful love her father’s lover. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +She came to sin with him after this manner,<br /> + By counterfeiting of another’s form;<br /> + As he who goeth yonder undertook, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That he might gain the lady of the herd,<br /> + To counterfeit in himself Buoso Donati,<br /> + Making a will and giving it due form.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And after the two maniacs had passed<br /> + On whom I held mine eye, I turned it back<br /> + To look upon the other evil-born. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I saw one made in fashion of a lute,<br /> + If he had only had the groin cut off<br /> + Just at the point at which a man is forked. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The heavy dropsy, that so disproportions<br /> + The limbs with humours, which it ill concocts,<br /> + That the face corresponds not to the belly, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Compelled him so to hold his lips apart<br /> + As does the hectic, who because of thirst<br /> + One tow’rds the chin, the other upward turns. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O ye, who without any torment are,<br /> + And why I know not, in the world of woe,”<br /> + He said to us, “behold, and be attentive +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Unto the misery of Master Adam;<br /> + I had while living much of what I wished,<br /> + And now, alas! a drop of water crave. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The rivulets, that from the verdant hills<br /> + Of Cassentin descend down into Arno,<br /> + Making their channels to be cold and moist, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ever before me stand, and not in vain;<br /> + For far more doth their image dry me up<br /> + Than the disease which strips my face of flesh. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The rigid justice that chastises me<br /> + Draweth occasion from the place in which<br /> + I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There is Romena, where I counterfeited<br /> + The currency imprinted with the Baptist,<br /> + For which I left my body burned above. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But if I here could see the tristful soul<br /> + Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother,<br /> + For Branda’s fount I would not give the sight. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +One is within already, if the raving<br /> + Shades that are going round about speak truth;<br /> + But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If I were only still so light, that in<br /> + A hundred years I could advance one inch,<br /> + I had already started on the way, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Seeking him out among this squalid folk,<br /> + Although the circuit be eleven miles,<br /> + And be not less than half a mile across. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For them am I in such a family;<br /> + They did induce me into coining florins,<br /> + Which had three carats of impurity.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “Who are the two poor wretches<br /> + That smoke like unto a wet hand in winter,<br /> + Lying there close upon thy right-hand confines?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“I found them here,” replied he, “when I rained<br /> + Into this chasm, and since they have not turned,<br /> + Nor do I think they will for evermore. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +One the false woman is who accused Joseph,<br /> + The other the false Sinon, Greek of Troy;<br /> + From acute fever they send forth such reek.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one of them, who felt himself annoyed<br /> + At being, peradventure, named so darkly,<br /> + Smote with the fist upon his hardened paunch. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It gave a sound, as if it were a drum;<br /> + And Master Adam smote him in the face,<br /> + With arm that did not seem to be less hard, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Saying to him: “Although be taken from me<br /> + All motion, for my limbs that heavy are,<br /> + I have an arm unfettered for such need.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat he answer made: “When thou didst go<br /> + Unto the fire, thou hadst it not so ready:<br /> + But hadst it so and more when thou wast coining.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The dropsical: “Thou sayest true in that;<br /> + But thou wast not so true a witness there,<br /> + Where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If I spake false, thou falsifiedst the coin,”<br /> + Said Sinon; “and for one fault I am here,<br /> + And thou for more than any other demon.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Remember, perjurer, about the horse,”<br /> + He made reply who had the swollen belly,<br /> + “And rueful be it thee the whole world knows it.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Rueful to thee the thirst be wherewith cracks<br /> + Thy tongue,” the Greek said, “and the putrid water<br /> + That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then the false-coiner: “So is gaping wide<br /> + Thy mouth for speaking evil, as ’tis wont;<br /> + Because if I have thirst, and humour stuff me +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou hast the burning and the head that aches,<br /> + And to lick up the mirror of Narcissus<br /> + Thou wouldst not want words many to invite thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In listening to them was I wholly fixed,<br /> + When said the Master to me: “Now just look,<br /> + For little wants it that I quarrel with thee.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When him I heard in anger speak to me,<br /> + I turned me round towards him with such shame<br /> + That still it eddies through my memory. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as he is who dreams of his own harm,<br /> + Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream,<br /> + So that he craves what is, as if it were not; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such I became, not having power to speak,<br /> + For to excuse myself I wished, and still<br /> + Excused myself, and did not think I did it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Less shame doth wash away a greater fault,”<br /> + The Master said, “than this of thine has been;<br /> + Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And make account that I am aye beside thee,<br /> + If e’er it come to pass that fortune bring thee<br /> + Where there are people in a like dispute; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For a base wish it is to wish to hear it.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXXI"></a>Inferno: Canto XXXI</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me,<br /> + So that it tinged the one cheek and the other,<br /> + And then held out to me the medicine; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus do I hear that once Achilles’ spear,<br /> + His and his father’s, used to be the cause<br /> + First of a sad and then a gracious boon. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We turned our backs upon the wretched valley,<br /> + Upon the bank that girds it round about,<br /> + Going across it without any speech. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There it was less than night, and less than day,<br /> + So that my sight went little in advance;<br /> + But I could hear the blare of a loud horn, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So loud it would have made each thunder faint,<br /> + Which, counter to it following its way,<br /> + Mine eyes directed wholly to one place. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After the dolorous discomfiture<br /> + When Charlemagne the holy emprise lost,<br /> + So terribly Orlando sounded not. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Short while my head turned thitherward I held<br /> + When many lofty towers I seemed to see,<br /> + Whereat I: “Master, say, what town is this?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Because thou peerest forth<br /> + Athwart the darkness at too great a distance,<br /> + It happens that thou errest in thy fancy. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest there,<br /> + How much the sense deceives itself by distance;<br /> + Therefore a little faster spur thee on.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then tenderly he took me by the hand,<br /> + And said: “Before we farther have advanced,<br /> + That the reality may seem to thee +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Less strange, know that these are not towers, but giants,<br /> + And they are in the well, around the bank,<br /> + From navel downward, one and all of them.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As, when the fog is vanishing away,<br /> + Little by little doth the sight refigure<br /> + Whate’er the mist that crowds the air conceals, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So, piercing through the dense and darksome air,<br /> + More and more near approaching tow’rd the verge,<br /> + My error fled, and fear came over me; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because as on its circular parapets<br /> + Montereggione crowns itself with towers,<br /> + E’en thus the margin which surrounds the well +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With one half of their bodies turreted<br /> + The horrible giants, whom Jove menaces<br /> + E’en now from out the heavens when he thunders. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I of one already saw the face,<br /> + Shoulders, and breast, and great part of the belly,<br /> + And down along his sides both of the arms. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Certainly Nature, when she left the making<br /> + Of animals like these, did well indeed,<br /> + By taking such executors from Mars; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if of elephants and whales she doth not<br /> + Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly<br /> + More just and more discreet will hold her for it; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For where the argument of intellect<br /> + Is added unto evil will and power,<br /> + No rampart can the people make against it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His face appeared to me as long and large<br /> + As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter’s,<br /> + And in proportion were the other bones; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So that the margin, which an apron was<br /> + Down from the middle, showed so much of him<br /> + Above it, that to reach up to his hair +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Three Frieslanders in vain had vaunted them;<br /> + For I beheld thirty great palms of him<br /> + Down from the place where man his mantle buckles. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Raphael mai amech izabi almi,”<br /> + Began to clamour the ferocious mouth,<br /> + To which were not befitting sweeter psalms. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And unto him my Guide: “Soul idiotic,<br /> + Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that,<br /> + When wrath or other passion touches thee. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt<br /> + Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul,<br /> + And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then said to me: “He doth himself accuse;<br /> + This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought<br /> + One language in the world is not still used. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here let us leave him and not speak in vain;<br /> + For even such to him is every language<br /> + As his to others, which to none is known.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Therefore a longer journey did we make,<br /> + Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft<br /> + We found another far more fierce and large. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +In binding him, who might the master be<br /> + I cannot say; but he had pinioned close<br /> + Behind the right arm, and in front the other, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With chains, that held him so begirt about<br /> + From the neck down, that on the part uncovered<br /> + It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“This proud one wished to make experiment<br /> + Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,”<br /> + My Leader said, “whence he has such a guerdon. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess.<br /> + What time the giants terrified the gods;<br /> + The arms he wielded never more he moves.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I to him: “If possible, I should wish<br /> + That of the measureless Briareus<br /> + These eyes of mine might have experience.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence he replied: “Thou shalt behold Antaeus<br /> + Close by here, who can speak and is unbound,<br /> + Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see,<br /> + And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one,<br /> + Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +There never was an earthquake of such might<br /> + That it could shake a tower so violently,<br /> + As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then was I more afraid of death than ever,<br /> + For nothing more was needful than the fear,<br /> + If I had not beheld the manacles. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then we proceeded farther in advance,<br /> + And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells<br /> + Without the head, forth issued from the cavern. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O thou, who in the valley fortunate,<br /> + Which Scipio the heir of glory made,<br /> + When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Once brought’st a thousand lions for thy prey,<br /> + And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war<br /> + Among thy brothers, some it seems still think +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The sons of Earth the victory would have gained:<br /> + Place us below, nor be disdainful of it,<br /> + There where the cold doth lock Cocytus up. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus;<br /> + This one can give of that which here is longed for;<br /> + Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Still in the world can he restore thy fame;<br /> + Because he lives, and still expects long life,<br /> + If to itself Grace call him not untimely.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So said the Master; and in haste the other<br /> + His hands extended and took up my Guide,—<br /> + Hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced,<br /> + Said unto me: “Draw nigh, that I may take thee;”<br /> + Then of himself and me one bundle made. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As seems the Carisenda, to behold<br /> + Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud<br /> + Above it so that opposite it hangs; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood<br /> + Watching to see him stoop, and then it was<br /> + I could have wished to go some other way. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up<br /> + Judas with Lucifer, he put us down;<br /> + Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXXII"></a>Inferno: Canto XXXII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +If I had rhymes both rough and stridulous,<br /> + As were appropriate to the dismal hole<br /> + Down upon which thrust all the other rocks, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I would press out the juice of my conception<br /> + More fully; but because I have them not,<br /> + Not without fear I bring myself to speak; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For ’tis no enterprise to take in jest,<br /> + To sketch the bottom of all the universe,<br /> + Nor for a tongue that cries Mamma and Babbo. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But may those Ladies help this verse of mine,<br /> + Who helped Amphion in enclosing Thebes,<br /> + That from the fact the word be not diverse. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O rabble ill-begotten above all,<br /> + Who’re in the place to speak of which is hard,<br /> + ’Twere better ye had here been sheep or goats! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When we were down within the darksome well,<br /> + Beneath the giant’s feet, but lower far,<br /> + And I was scanning still the lofty wall, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I heard it said to me: “Look how thou steppest!<br /> + Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet<br /> + The heads of the tired, miserable brothers!” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me<br /> + And underfoot a lake, that from the frost<br /> + The semblance had of glass, and not of water. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So thick a veil ne’er made upon its current<br /> + In winter-time Danube in Austria,<br /> + Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As there was here; so that if Tambernich<br /> + Had fallen upon it, or Pietrapana,<br /> + E’en at the edge ’twould not have given a creak. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as to croak the frog doth place himself<br /> + With muzzle out of water,—when is dreaming<br /> + Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl,— +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Livid, as far down as where shame appears,<br /> + Were the disconsolate shades within the ice,<br /> + Setting their teeth unto the note of storks. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Each one his countenance held downward bent;<br /> + From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart<br /> + Among them witness of itself procures. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When round about me somewhat I had looked,<br /> + I downward turned me, and saw two so close,<br /> + The hair upon their heads together mingled. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Ye who so strain your breasts together, tell me,”<br /> + I said, “who are you;” and they bent their necks,<br /> + And when to me their faces they had lifted, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Their eyes, which first were only moist within,<br /> + Gushed o’er the eyelids, and the frost congealed<br /> + The tears between, and locked them up again. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Clamp never bound together wood with wood<br /> + So strongly; whereat they, like two he-goats,<br /> + Butted together, so much wrath o’ercame them. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one, who had by reason of the cold<br /> + Lost both his ears, still with his visage downward,<br /> + Said: “Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If thou desire to know who these two are,<br /> + The valley whence Bisenzio descends<br /> + Belonged to them and to their father Albert. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They from one body came, and all Caina<br /> + Thou shalt search through, and shalt not find a shade<br /> + More worthy to be fixed in gelatine; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not he in whom were broken breast and shadow<br /> + At one and the same blow by Arthur’s hand;<br /> + Focaccia not; not he who me encumbers +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So with his head I see no farther forward,<br /> + And bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni;<br /> + Well knowest thou who he was, if thou art Tuscan. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And that thou put me not to further speech,<br /> + Know that I Camicion de’ Pazzi was,<br /> + And wait Carlino to exonerate me.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then I beheld a thousand faces, made<br /> + Purple with cold; whence o’er me comes a shudder,<br /> + And evermore will come, at frozen ponds. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And while we were advancing tow’rds the middle,<br /> + Where everything of weight unites together,<br /> + And I was shivering in the eternal shade, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whether ’twere will, or destiny, or chance,<br /> + I know not; but in walking ’mong the heads<br /> + I struck my foot hard in the face of one. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Weeping he growled: “Why dost thou trample me?<br /> + Unless thou comest to increase the vengeance<br /> + of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I: “My Master, now wait here for me,<br /> + That I through him may issue from a doubt;<br /> + Then thou mayst hurry me, as thou shalt wish.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Leader stopped; and to that one I said<br /> + Who was blaspheming vehemently still:<br /> + “Who art thou, that thus reprehendest others?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Now who art thou, that goest through Antenora<br /> + Smiting,” replied he, “other people’s cheeks,<br /> + So that, if thou wert living, ’twere too much?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Living I am, and dear to thee it may be,”<br /> + Was my response, “if thou demandest fame,<br /> + That ’mid the other notes thy name I place.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “For the reverse I long;<br /> + Take thyself hence, and give me no more trouble;<br /> + For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him,<br /> + And said: “It must needs be thou name thyself,<br /> + Or not a hair remain upon thee here.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence he to me: “Though thou strip off my hair,<br /> + I will not tell thee who I am, nor show thee,<br /> + If on my head a thousand times thou fall.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I had his hair in hand already twisted,<br /> + And more than one shock of it had pulled out,<br /> + He barking, with his eyes held firmly down, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When cried another: “What doth ail thee, Bocca?<br /> + Is’t not enough to clatter with thy jaws,<br /> + But thou must bark? what devil touches thee?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Now,” said I, “I care not to have thee speak,<br /> + Accursed traitor; for unto thy shame<br /> + I will report of thee veracious news.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Begone,” replied he, “and tell what thou wilt,<br /> + But be not silent, if thou issue hence,<br /> + Of him who had just now his tongue so prompt; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He weepeth here the silver of the French;<br /> + ‘I saw,’ thus canst thou phrase it, ‘him of Duera<br /> + There where the sinners stand out in the cold.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If thou shouldst questioned be who else was there,<br /> + Thou hast beside thee him of Beccaria,<br /> + Of whom the gorget Florence slit asunder; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Gianni del Soldanier, I think, may be<br /> + Yonder with Ganellon, and Tebaldello<br /> + Who oped Faenza when the people slep.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Already we had gone away from him,<br /> + When I beheld two frozen in one hole,<br /> + So that one head a hood was to the other; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And even as bread through hunger is devoured,<br /> + The uppermost on the other set his teeth,<br /> + There where the brain is to the nape united. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Not in another fashion Tydeus gnawed<br /> + The temples of Menalippus in disdain,<br /> + Than that one did the skull and the other things. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O thou, who showest by such bestial sign<br /> + Thy hatred against him whom thou art eating,<br /> + Tell me the wherefore,” said I, “with this compact, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That if thou rightfully of him complain,<br /> + In knowing who ye are, and his transgression,<br /> + I in the world above repay thee for it, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +If that wherewith I speak be not dried up.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXXIII"></a>Inferno: Canto XXXIII</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +His mouth uplifted from his grim repast,<br /> + That sinner, wiping it upon the hair<br /> + Of the same head that he behind had wasted. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he began: “Thou wilt that I renew<br /> + The desperate grief, which wrings my heart already<br /> + To think of only, ere I speak of it; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But if my words be seed that may bear fruit<br /> + Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw,<br /> + Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I know not who thou art, nor by what mode<br /> + Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine<br /> + Thou seemest to me truly, when I hear thee. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino,<br /> + And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop;<br /> + Now I will tell thee why I am such a neighbour. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That, by effect of his malicious thoughts,<br /> + Trusting in him I was made prisoner,<br /> + And after put to death, I need not say; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + But ne’ertheless what thou canst not have heard,<br /> + That is to say, how cruel was my death,<br /> + Hear shalt thou, and shalt know if he has wronged me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A narrow perforation in the mew,<br /> + Which bears because of me the title of Famine,<br /> + And in which others still must be locked up, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Had shown me through its opening many moons<br /> + Already, when I dreamed the evil dream<br /> + Which of the future rent for me the veil. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This one appeared to me as lord and master,<br /> + Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain<br /> + For which the Pisans cannot Lucca see. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With sleuth-hounds gaunt, and eager, and well trained,<br /> + Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfianchi<br /> + He had sent out before him to the front. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +After brief course seemed unto me forespent<br /> + The father and the sons, and with sharp tushes<br /> + It seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When I before the morrow was awake,<br /> + Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons<br /> + Who with me were, and asking after bread. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Cruel indeed art thou, if yet thou grieve not,<br /> + Thinking of what my heart foreboded me,<br /> + And weep’st thou not, what art thou wont to weep at? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +They were awake now, and the hour drew nigh<br /> + At which our food used to be brought to us,<br /> + And through his dream was each one apprehensive; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And I heard locking up the under door<br /> + Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word<br /> + I gazed into the faces of my sons. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I wept not, I within so turned to stone;<br /> + They wept; and darling little Anselm mine<br /> + Said: ‘Thou dost gaze so, father, what doth ail thee?’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Still not a tear I shed, nor answer made<br /> + All of that day, nor yet the night thereafter,<br /> + Until another sun rose on the world. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As now a little glimmer made its way<br /> + Into the dolorous prison, and I saw<br /> + Upon four faces my own very aspect, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Both of my hands in agony I bit;<br /> + And, thinking that I did it from desire<br /> + Of eating, on a sudden they uprose, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And said they: ‘Father, much less pain ’twill give us<br /> + If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us<br /> + With this poor flesh, and do thou strip it off.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I calmed me then, not to make them more sad.<br /> + That day we all were silent, and the next.<br /> + Ah! obdurate earth, wherefore didst thou not open? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When we had come unto the fourth day, Gaddo<br /> + Threw himself down outstretched before my feet,<br /> + Saying, ‘My father, why dost thou not help me?’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And there he died; and, as thou seest me,<br /> + I saw the three fall, one by one, between<br /> + The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Already blind, to groping over each,<br /> + And three days called them after they were dead;<br /> + Then hunger did what sorrow could not do.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When he had said this, with his eyes distorted,<br /> + The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth,<br /> + Which, as a dog’s, upon the bone were strong. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah! Pisa, thou opprobrium of the people<br /> + Of the fair land there where the ‘Si’ doth sound,<br /> + Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Let the Capraia and Gorgona move,<br /> + And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno<br /> + That every person in thee it may drown! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For if Count Ugolino had the fame<br /> + Of having in thy castles thee betrayed,<br /> + Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his sons. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Guiltless of any crime, thou modern Thebes!<br /> + Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata,<br /> + And the other two my song doth name above! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We passed still farther onward, where the ice<br /> + Another people ruggedly enswathes,<br /> + Not downward turned, but all of them reversed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Weeping itself there does not let them weep,<br /> + And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes<br /> + Turns itself inward to increase the anguish; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Because the earliest tears a cluster form,<br /> + And, in the manner of a crystal visor,<br /> + Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And notwithstanding that, as in a callus,<br /> + Because of cold all sensibility<br /> + Its station had abandoned in my face, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Still it appeared to me I felt some wind;<br /> + Whence I: “My Master, who sets this in motion?<br /> + Is not below here every vapour quenched?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence he to me: “Full soon shalt thou be where<br /> + Thine eye shall answer make to thee of this,<br /> + Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And one of the wretches of the frozen crust<br /> + Cried out to us: “O souls so merciless<br /> + That the last post is given unto you, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils, that I<br /> + May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart<br /> + A little, e’er the weeping recongeal.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whence I to him: “If thou wouldst have me help thee<br /> + Say who thou wast; and if I free thee not,<br /> + May I go to the bottom of the ice.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then he replied: “I am Friar Alberigo;<br /> + He am I of the fruit of the bad garden,<br /> + Who here a date am getting for my fig.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O,” said I to him, “now art thou, too, dead?”<br /> + And he to me: “How may my body fare<br /> + Up in the world, no knowledge I possess. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea,<br /> + That oftentimes the soul descendeth here<br /> + Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And, that thou mayest more willingly remove<br /> + From off my countenance these glassy tears,<br /> + Know that as soon as any soul betrays +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As I have done, his body by a demon<br /> + Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it,<br /> + Until his time has wholly been revolved. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Itself down rushes into such a cistern;<br /> + And still perchance above appears the body<br /> + Of yonder shade, that winters here behind me. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This thou shouldst know, if thou hast just come down;<br /> + It is Ser Branca d’ Oria, and many years<br /> + Have passed away since he was thus locked up.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“I think,” said I to him, “thou dost deceive me;<br /> + For Branca d’ Oria is not dead as yet,<br /> + And eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on clothes.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“In moat above,” said he, “of Malebranche,<br /> + There where is boiling the tenacious pitch,<br /> + As yet had Michel Zanche not arrived, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When this one left a devil in his stead<br /> + In his own body and one near of kin,<br /> + Who made together with him the betrayal. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith,<br /> + Open mine eyes;”—and open them I did not,<br /> + And to be rude to him was courtesy. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Ah, Genoese! ye men at variance<br /> + With every virtue, full of every vice<br /> + Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For with the vilest spirit of Romagna<br /> + I found of you one such, who for his deeds<br /> + In soul already in Cocytus bathes, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And still above in body seems alive! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CantoI.XXXIV"></a>Inferno: Canto XXXIV</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +“‘Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni’<br /> + Towards us; therefore look in front of thee,”<br /> + My Master said, “if thou discernest him.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As, when there breathes a heavy fog, or when<br /> + Our hemisphere is darkening into night,<br /> + Appears far off a mill the wind is turning, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Methought that such a building then I saw;<br /> + And, for the wind, I drew myself behind<br /> + My Guide, because there was no other shelter. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now was I, and with fear in verse I put it,<br /> + There where the shades were wholly covered up,<br /> + And glimmered through like unto straws in glass. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Some prone are lying, others stand erect,<br /> + This with the head, and that one with the soles;<br /> + Another, bow-like, face to feet inverts. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When in advance so far we had proceeded,<br /> + That it my Master pleased to show to me<br /> + The creature who once had the beauteous semblance, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He from before me moved and made me stop,<br /> + Saying: “Behold Dis, and behold the place<br /> + Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +How frozen I became and powerless then,<br /> + Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not,<br /> + Because all language would be insufficient. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I did not die, and I alive remained not;<br /> + Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit,<br /> + What I became, being of both deprived. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous<br /> + From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice;<br /> + And better with a giant I compare +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Than do the giants with those arms of his;<br /> + Consider now how great must be that whole,<br /> + Which unto such a part conforms itself. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Were he as fair once, as he now is foul,<br /> + And lifted up his brow against his Maker,<br /> + Well may proceed from him all tribulation. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O, what a marvel it appeared to me,<br /> + When I beheld three faces on his head!<br /> + The one in front, and that vermilion was; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Two were the others, that were joined with this<br /> + Above the middle part of either shoulder,<br /> + And they were joined together at the crest; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the right-hand one seemed ’twixt white and yellow;<br /> + The left was such to look upon as those<br /> + Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Underneath each came forth two mighty wings,<br /> + Such as befitting were so great a bird;<br /> + Sails of the sea I never saw so large. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + No feathers had they, but as of a bat<br /> + Their fashion was; and he was waving them,<br /> + So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thereby Cocytus wholly was congealed.<br /> + With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins<br /> + Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching<br /> + A sinner, in the manner of a brake,<br /> + So that he three of them tormented thus. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +To him in front the biting was as naught<br /> + Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine<br /> + Utterly stripped of all the skin remained. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“That soul up there which has the greatest pain,”<br /> + The Master said, “is Judas Iscariot;<br /> + With head inside, he plies his legs without. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of the two others, who head downward are,<br /> + The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;<br /> + See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.<br /> + But night is reascending, and ’tis time<br /> + That we depart, for we have seen the whole.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As seemed him good, I clasped him round the neck,<br /> + And he the vantage seized of time and place,<br /> + And when the wings were opened wide apart, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides;<br /> + From fell to fell descended downward then<br /> + Between the thick hair and the frozen crust. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When we were come to where the thigh revolves<br /> + Exactly on the thickness of the haunch,<br /> + The Guide, with labour and with hard-drawn breath, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Turned round his head where he had had his legs,<br /> + And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts,<br /> + So that to Hell I thought we were returning. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,”<br /> + The Master said, panting as one fatigued,<br /> + “Must we perforce depart from so much evil.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then through the opening of a rock he issued,<br /> + And down upon the margin seated me;<br /> + Then tow’rds me he outstretched his wary step. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see<br /> + Lucifer in the same way I had left him;<br /> + And I beheld him upward hold his legs. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And if I then became disquieted,<br /> + Let stolid people think who do not see<br /> + What the point is beyond which I had passed. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Rise up,” the Master said, “upon thy feet;<br /> + The way is long, and difficult the road,<br /> + And now the sun to middle-tierce returns.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It was not any palace corridor<br /> + There where we were, but dungeon natural,<br /> + With floor uneven and unease of light. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Ere from the abyss I tear myself away,<br /> + My Master,” said I when I had arisen,<br /> + “To draw me from an error speak a little; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Where is the ice? and how is this one fixed<br /> + Thus upside down? and how in such short time<br /> + From eve to morn has the sun made his transit?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And he to me: “Thou still imaginest<br /> + Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped<br /> + The hair of the fell worm, who mines the world. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +That side thou wast, so long as I descended;<br /> + When round I turned me, thou didst pass the point<br /> + To which things heavy draw from every side, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And now beneath the hemisphere art come<br /> + Opposite that which overhangs the vast<br /> + Dry-land, and ’neath whose cope was put to death +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Man who without sin was born and lived.<br /> + Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere<br /> + Which makes the other face of the Judecca. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here it is morn when it is evening there;<br /> + And he who with his hair a stairway made us<br /> + Still fixed remaineth as he was before. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon this side he fell down out of heaven;<br /> + And all the land, that whilom here emerged,<br /> + For fear of him made of the sea a veil, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure<br /> + To flee from him, what on this side appears<br /> + Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A place there is below, from Beelzebub<br /> + As far receding as the tomb extends,<br /> + Which not by sight is known, but by the sound +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth<br /> + Through chasm within the stone, which it has gnawed<br /> + With course that winds about and slightly falls. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The Guide and I into that hidden road<br /> + Now entered, to return to the bright world;<br /> + And without care of having any rest +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +We mounted up, he first and I the second,<br /> + Till I beheld through a round aperture<br /> + Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 1001-h.htm or 1001-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/1001/</div> +<div style='display:block; 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