THE DIVINE COMEDY
OF
DANTE ALIGHIERI
TRANSLATED BY
CHARLES ELIOT NORTON
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Copyright, 1891, 1892 and 1902, by Charles Eliot Norton
Copyright, 1919, by Eliot Norton
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NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION
IN the present edition of my translation I
have corrected some errors and cleared up some
obscurities which existed in it as first published,
and I have made many minor changes in the
order and rendering of words for the sake of
greater fidelity to the original, or greater clear-
ness of expression, or greater ease of diction. I
have also added largely to the number of the
notes.
In the work of revision, as originally in that
of translation, I have sought assistance from the
work of my predecessors in the same field, and
I have not hesitated to borrow a felicitous word
or phrase wherever I might find it.1
I I am thus indebted to the translations in verse of the
whole poem of my late friends Mr. Longfellow and Sir Fred-
erick Pollock, and to the translations in prose of my friend the
Hon. William Warren Vernon, and of Mr. A. J. Butler,
and also to the prose version of the Inferno by the late Dr
John Carlyle, of the Purgatorio by Mr. W. S. Dugdale, and
of the Paradiso by the Rev. P. H. Wicksteed. But this list
comprises a very small part of the works to which I am under
obligation alike in the text and in the notes.
iv NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION
I have given, perhaps, as much time to the
revision as to the original making of the trans-
lation. But a translator, in proportion to his
competence, is likely to recognize the defects of
his work, and now, as I look over the pages
of my book, I feel the desire to subject them
to a fresh revision. But it is too late ; I can-
not expect to do more hereafter for the im-
provement of my work, than, possibly, to give
it some final thumbnail touches.
In looking back over life I am not sorry to
have devoted much time to the study of Dante.
It has been far more to me than merely an
interesting literary occupation. It is especially
associated in remembrance with two dear mas-
ters and friends, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
and James Russell Lowell, and to their mem-
ory I dedicate these volumes.
SHADY HILL, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
I October, 1901.
AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE
"DIVINE COMEDY"
THE following translation is intended pri-
marily for two classes of readers : first, for those
who, unable to read the Divine Comedy in the
original, desire to obtain knowledge of its con-
tents ; second, for those who, with more or less
acquaintance with Italian, undertake to read the
poem in its original tongue, and need help in
its interpretation.
For both these classes the Dante Dictionary f
of Mr. Paget Toynbee is of especial value. It
contains the information, in concise and con-
venient form, which every student of Dante's
works requires, and is in fact a universal com-
ment of remarkable completeness and accuracy.
Beginners of the study of the Divine Comedy
in Italian will find the English Commentary 2 by
the Rev. H. F. Tozer of great service. It ex-
plains the form and meaning of words, and the
1 A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in
the Works of Dante. By Paget Toynbee, M. A. Oxford,
1898.
2 An English Commentary on Dante* s Divina Commedia
By the Rev. H. F. Tozer, M. A. Oxford, 1901.
iri AIDS TO STUDY
difficulties of construction, and gives the needed
information in respect to the matter of the
poem.
The Notes and Illustrations which accom-
pany Mr. Longfellow's Translation form an
admirable literary comment on the poem.
The essay on Dante by Mr. Lowell is the
best general introduction for a mature reader
to the life, times, and work of the poet.
With these books the beginner will find
himself sufficiently equipped for the intelligent
study of Dante. But as he advances in the
study he will require others, among the most
desirable of which are the following : —
Fay, Dr. E. A. Concordance of the Divina
Commedia. Boston, 1888.
Moore, Rev. Dr. Edward. Contributions to
the Textual Criticism of the Divina Com-
media. Cambridge, 1889.
Moore, Rev. Dr. Edward. Studies in Dante,
First and Second Series. Oxford, 1896 and
1899.
All of the works of Dr. Moore, the
chief of living Dante scholars, are of ex-
ceptional importance and interest.
Vernon, The Honble William Warren. Read-
ings on the Infernoy the Purgatorio> and tht
Paradiso of Dante. London, 1894-1 900.
In six volumes.
AIDS TO STUDY vii
These Readings consist of a Text, Trans-
lation and an elaborate and eminently use-
ful Comment.
Gardner, Edmund G- Dante s Ten Heavens.
A Study of the Paradiso. Westminster,
1898.
An interesting study of the interior
meaning of the Paradiso.
Every Italian student should possess Tutte
le Opere di Dante Alighieri, nuovamente rivedute
nel TestOy dal Dr. E. Moore, published at Ox-
ford by the University Press. This compact,
carefully edited and admirably printed volume
affords the present textus receptus of Dante's
works. It should be generally adopted for
purposes of reference. The advantage to the
scholar is great in having all the works of Dante
in a single volume, because of their close mu-
tual relations and frequent mutual illustration.
There are numerous useful editions of the
Divine Comedy with Italian notes. Two of
the best are that of Casini and that of Scartaz-
zini. The remarkable Enciclopedia Dantesca,
in two volumes, of the last-named editor is at
once a complete and elaborate vocabulary for
Dante's Italian works, and a critical and expla-
natory dictionary of all that pertains to his life
and writings. There is no other single book
which contains so large an amount of informa*
viii AIDS TO STUDY
tion indispensable to the student of Dante as
these two volumes. They are a monument to
the industry and learning of one of the most
devoted scholars of the poet.
I will not attempt to furnish a list of works
for the service of those who would become of
the familiars of Dante. Their field of study
is the omne scibile.
NOTE.
In the notes to the following version references to the
Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas are indicated by
the initials S. T., followed by numerals designating the Part,
the Question, and the Article referred to.
INTRODUCTION
EVERY fresh attempt at translating the Di-
vine Comedy affords proof of Dante's asser-
tion that " nothing harmonized by a musical
bond can be transmuted from its own speech
without losing all its sweetness and harmony."
The coalescence of the music and the meaning
of the verse, in the perfection of which the life
of poetry consists, cannot be transferred from
one tongue to another. A new harmony may
be substituted, but the difference is fatal. The
translation may have a life of its own, but it is
not the life of the original.
No poem in any language displays a more
indissoluble union of music and meaning, or is
more informed with a rhythmic life of its own
than the Divine Comedy. And yet, such is its
extraordinary distinction, no poem has an intel-
lectual and emotional substance more independ-
ent of its metrical form. Its complex structure
and its elaborate rhyme, higffly artificial as they
are, are so mastered by the genius of the poet
as to become the most natural expression of the
spirit by which the poem is inspired ; while at
the same time the thought and sentiment em*
jl, vii > 14-.
x INTRODUCTION
bodied in the verse is of such import, and the
narrative of such interest, that they do not lose
their worth when transferred to another tongue.
To preserve in its integrity what may be
thus transferred, prose is a better medium than
verse ; and it was because of my conviction to
this effect that I undertook this translation, in
which my aim has been to follow the words of
Dante as closely as our English idiom allows,
and thus to give to the reader the substance of
the poem as little altered as possible.
There are, indeed, many passages in it which
require explanation or illustration for Italian,
and, even more, for English readers. To these
I have supplied footnotes, generally brief. But
I have desired to avoid distracting attention
from the direct narrative, and have mainly left
the understanding and appreciation of it to the
intelligence and imagination of the reader.
A far deeper -lying and more pervading
source of imperfect comprehension of the poem
than any difficulty of construction, obscurity of
argument, or remoteness of allusion exists in
the double meaning that runs through it. The
account of the poet's spiritual journey is so
vivid and consistent that it has all the reality
of an account of an actual experience ; but
within and beneath runs a stream of allegory
not less consistent and hardly less continuous
INTRODUCTION »
than the narrative itself. To the illustration
and carrying out of this interior meaning even
the minutest details of external incident are
often made to contribute, with an appropriate-
ness of significance, and with a freedom from
forced interpretation such as no other writer of
allegory has succeeded in attaining. The poem
may be read with interest as a record of expe-
rience with little attention to its inner mean-
ing, but its full interest is only felt when this
inner meaning is traced, and the moral signifi-
cance of the incidents of the story apprehended
by the alert intelligence. The allegory is
the soul of the poem, — that is, in scholastic
phrase, the form of its body, giving to it its
special individuality.
Thus in order truly to understand and rightly
appreciate the poern the reader must contin-
ually seek the inner meaning of its story.
" Taken literally," as Dante declares in his
Letter to Can Grande, £^the subject is the state 1r
of the soul after death, simply considered. But
allegorically taken, its subject is man, according
as by his good orTIl deserts he renders himself
liable to the reward or punishment of Justice."
It is the allegory of human life ; and not of
human life as an abstraction, but of the individ-
ual life ; arid herein, as Mr. Lowell has said,
w lie its profound meaning and its permanent
xii INTRODUCTION
force." And herein, too, lie its perennial fresh-
ness of interest and the actuality which makes
it contemporaneous with every successive gen-
eration. The increase of knowledge, the loss
of belief in doctrines that were fundamental in
Dante's creed, the changes in the order of so-
ciety, the new thoughts of the world, have not
lessened the moral import of the poem, any
more than they have lessened its excellence as
a work of art. Its real substance is as inde-
pendent as its artistic beauty, of science, of
creed, and of institutions. Human nature does
not change from age to age ; the motives of
action remain the same, though their relative
force and the desires and ideals by which they
are inspired vary from generation to generation.
And thus it is that the moral judgments of a
great poet whose imagination penetrates to the
core of things, and who, from his very nature as
poet, conceives and sets forth the issues of life
not in a treatise of abstract morality, but by
means of sensible types and images, never lose
interest, and have a perpetual contemporane-
ousness. They deal with the permanent and
unalterable elements of the soul of man.
The scene of the poem is the spiritual world,
of which we are members even while still deni-
zens in the world of time. In the spiritual
world the results of sin or perverted love, and
INTRODUCTION xiii
of virtue or right love, in this life of probation,
are manifest. The life to come is but the ful-
filment of the life that now is.
The allegory in which Dante cloaked this
truth is of a character that distinguishes the
Divine Comedy from all other works of similar
intent. In The Pilgrim *s Progress •, for example,
the personages are types of moral qualities or
religious dispositions, mere simulacra of men
and women. They are abstractions which the
genius of Bunyan fails to inform with vitality
sufficient to kindle the imagination of the reader
with a sense of their actual, living and breath-
ing existence. But in the Divine Comedy the
personages are all from real life,, they are men~
and women with their natural passions and emo-
tions, and they are undergoing an actual expe- .
rience. The allegory consists in making their
characters and their fates, what all human char-
acters and fates really are, the types and images
of spiritual law. Virgil and Beatrice, whose
natures as depicted in the poem make nearest
approach to purely abstract and typical exist-
ence, are always consistently presented as liv-
ing individuals, exalted indeed in wisdom and
power, but with hardly less definite and concrete
humanity than that of Dante himself.
The scheme of the created Universe held by
the Christians of the Middle Ages was compar-
xiv INTRODUCTION
atively simple, and so definite that Dante, in
accepting it in its main features without modi-
fication, was provided with the limited stage re-
quisite for his design, and of which the general
disposition was familiar to all his readers. The
three spiritual realms had their local bounds
marked out as clearly as those of the earth it-
self. Their cosmography was but an extension
of the largely hypothetical geography of the
time.
The Earth was supposed to be the centre of
the Universe, and its northern hemisphere was
the abode of man. At the middle point of this
hemisphere stood Jerusalem, equidistant from
the Pillars of Hercules on the west, and the
Ganges on the east.
Within the body of this hemisphere was Hell,
shaped as a vast hollow cone, of which the apex
was the centre of the globe ; and here, accord-
ing to Dante, was the seat jqf_ Lucifer. The
concave of Hell hadTieen formed by his fall,
when a portion of the solid earth, through fear
of him, ran back to the southern uninhabited
hemisphere, and formed there, directly antipo-
dal to Jerusalem, the mountain of Purgatory,
which rose a solid cone from the waste of waters
that covered this half of the globe, and at its
summit was the Terrestrial Paradise.
Immediately surrounding the atmosphere of
INTRODUCTION xv
the Earth was the sphere of elemental fire.
Around this was the Heaven of the Moon, and
encircling this, in succession, were the Heavens
of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jove, Sat-
urn, the Fixed Stars, and the Crystalline or First
Moving Heaven. These nine concentric Hea-
vens revolved continually around the Earth,
and in proportion to their distance from it was
the greater swiftness of each. Encircling all
was the Empyrean, increate, incorporeal, mo-
tionless, unbounded in time or space, the proper
seat of God, the home of the Angels, the abode
of the Elect.
The Angelic Hierarchy consisted of nine
orders, corresponding to the nine moving Hea-
vens. Their blessedness and the swiftness
of the motion with which in unending delight
they circled around God were in proportion
to their nearness to Him, — first the Seraphs,
then in succession the Cherubs, Thrones, Dom-
inations, Virtues, Powers, Princes, Archangels,
and Angels. Through them, under the gen-
eral name of Intelligences, the Divine influence
was transmitted to the Heavens, giving to
these their circular motion, which was the ex-
pression of their longing to be united with the
source of their creation. The Heavens in
their turn streamed down upon the Earth the
Divine influence thus distributed among thems
KVI INTRODUCTION
in constantly varying proportion and power,
producing divers effects in the generation and
corruption of material things, and in the dispo-
sitions and the lives of men.
Such was the accepted general scheme of the
Universe. The intention of God in its creation
was to communicate of His perfection to the
creatures endowed with souls, that is, to men
and to angels, and the proper end of every such
/ creature was to seek its own perfection in like-
ness to the Divine. This end was attained
through that knowledge of God of which the
soul was capable, and through love which was
in proportion to knowledge. Virtue depended
on the free will of man ; it was the good use of
that will directed to a right object of love. Two
lights were given to the soul for guidance of
/ the will : the light of reason for natural things
and for the direction of the will to moral vir-
tue ; the light of grace for things supernatural,
and for the direction of the will to spiritual vir-
tue. Sin was the opposite of virtue, the choice
by the will of false objects of love; it involved
the misuse of reason and the absence of grace.
As the end of virtue was blessedness, so the
end of sin was misery.
The corner-stone of Dante's moral system
was the Freedom of the Will ; in other words,
the right of private judgment with the condition
INTRODUCTION xvii
of accountability. This is the liberty which
Dante, that is, man, goes seeking in his journey
through the spiritual world. This liberty is to
be attained through the right use of reason,
illuminated by Divine Grace ; it consists in the
perfect accord of the will of man with the will
of God.
With this view of the nature and end of man
Dante's conception of the history of the race
could not be other than that its course was
providentially ordered. The fall of man had
made him a just object of the vengeance of
God ; but the elect were to be redeemed, and
for their redemption the history of the world
from the beginning was directed. Not only in
His dealings with the Jews, but in His dealings
with the heathen was God preparing for the
reconciliation to Himself of man, to be finally
accomplished in his sacrifice of Himself for
them. The Roman Empire was foreordained
and established for this end. It was to prepare
the way for the establishment of the Roman
Church. It was the appointed instrument for
the political government of men. Empire and
Church were alike divine institutions for the
guidance of m an on_earth.__
The aim of Dante in the Divine Comedy was
to set forth these truths in such wise as to affect
the imaginations and touch the hearts of men,
xviii INTRODUCTION
so that they should turn to righteousness. His
conviction of these truths was no mere matter
of belief; it had the ardor and certainty of faith.
They had appeared to him in all their -fulness
as a revelation of the Divine wisdom. It was
his work as poet, as poet with a Divine com-
mission, to make this revelation known. His
work was a work of faith ; it was sacred ; to it
both Heaven and Earth had set their hands.
To this work, as I have said, the definiteness
and the limits of the generally accepted theory
of the Universe gave the required frame. The
very narrowness of this scheme made Dante's
design practicable. He had had the exgerience
of a man on earth. He had been lured by false
objects of desire from the pursuit of the true
good. But Divine Grace, in the form of Bea-
trice, who had when alive on earth led him
aright, now intervened and sent to his aid Vir-
gil, who, as the type of Human Reason, should
bring him safe through Hell, showing to him
the eternal consequences of sin, and then should
conduct him, penitent, up the height of Purga-
tory, till on its summit, in the Earthly Paradise,
Beatrice herself should appear once more to
him. Thence she, as the type of that know-
ledge from which comes the love of the Divine
Being, should lead him through the Heavens
up to the Empyrean, to the consummation of
his course in the actual vision of God.
HELL
CONTENTS
CANTO I
Dante, astray in a wood, reaches the foot of a hill which
he begins to ascend ; he is hindered by three beasts ;
he turns back and is met by Virgil, who proposes to
guide him into the eternal world
CANTO II
Dante, doubtful of his own powers, is discouraged at the
outset. — Virgil cheers him by telling him that he has
been sent to his aid by a blessed Spirit from Heaven,
who revealed herself as Beatrice. — Dante casts off
fear, and the poets proceed • . 9
CANTO III
The gate of Hell. — Virgil leads Dante in. — The pun-
ishment of those who had lived without infamy and
without praise. — Acheron, and the sinners on its
bank. — Charon. — Earthquake. — Dante swoons . 16
CANTO IV
The further side of Acheron. — Virgil leads Dante into
Limbo, the First Circle of Hell, containing the spirits
of those who lived virtuously but without faith in
Christ. — Greeting of Virgil by his fellow poets. —
They enter a castle, where are the shades of ancient
worthies. — After seeing them Virgil and Dante de-
part 22
xx CONTENTS
CANTO V
The Second Circle, that of Carnal Sinners. — Minos.
— Shades renowned of old. — Francesca da Rimini 29
CANTO VI
The Third Circle, that of the Gluttonous. — Cerberus.
— Ciacco 35
CANTO VII
The Fourth Circle, that of the Avaricious and the Prodi-
gal. — Pluto. — Fortune. — The Styx.
The Fifth Circle, that of the Wrathful 41
CANTO VIII
The Fifth Circle. — Phlegyas and his boat. — Passage
of the Styx. — Filippo Argenti. — The City of Dis.
— The demons refuse entrance to the poets ... 46
CANTO IX
The City of Dis. — Erichtho. — The Three Furies. —
The Heavenly Messenger.
The Sixth Circle : that of the Heretics 52
CANTO X
The Sixth Circle. — Farinata degli Uberti. — Caval-
cante Cavalcanti. — Frederick II 59
CANTO XI
The Sixth Circle. — Tomb of Pope Anastasius. —
Discourse of Virgil on the divisions of the lower Hell 66
CANTO XII
The Seventh Circle, that of the Violent, first round :
those who do violence to others. — The Minotaur.—
CONTENTS xxi
The Centaurs. — Chiron. — Nessus. — The River
of boiling blood, and the sinners in it 72
CANTO XIII
The Seventh Circle, second round : those who have
done violence to themselves and to their goods. —
The Wood of Self-murderers. — The Harpies. —
Pier delle Vigne. — Lano of Siena and others . . 79
CANTO XIV
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done
violence to God. — The Burning Sand. — Capa-
neus. — Figure of the Old Man in Crete. — The
rivers of Hell 86
CANTO XV
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done
violence to Nature. — Brunette Latini. — Prophe-
cies of misfortune to Dante 93
CANTO XVI
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done
violence to Nature. — Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Al-
dobrandi and Jacopo Rusticucci. — The roar of Phle-
gethon as it pours downward. — The cord thrown
into the abyss 99
CANTO XVII
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done
violence to Art. — Geryon. — The Usurers. — De-
scent to the Eighth Circle 105
CANTO XVIII
The Eighth Circle : that of the fraudulent ; first pouch :
pandars and seducers. — Venedico Caccianimico. —
xxii CONTENTS
Jason. — Second pouch : false flatterers. — Alessio
Interminei. — Thais in
CANTO XIX
The Eighth Circle : third pouch : simonists. — Pope
Nicholas III. . l-J -. . 119
CANTO XX
The Eighth Circle : fourth pouch : diviners, soothsayers,
and magicians. — Amphiaraus. — Tiresias. — Aruns.
— Manto. — Eurypylus. — Michael Scott. — As-
dente 127
CANTO XXI
The Eighth Circle : fifth pouch : barrators. — A mag-
istrate of Lucca. — The Malebranche. — Parley with
them 135
CANTO XXII
The Eighth Circle : fifth pouch : barrators. — Ciampolo
of Navarre. — Fra Gomita. — Michel Zanche. —
Fray of the Malebranche 142
CANTO XXIII
The Eighth Circle. — Escape from the fifth pouch. —
The sixth pouch : hypocrites, in cloaks of gilded
lead. — Jovial Friars. — Caiaphas. — Annas. — Frate
Catalano 149
CANTO XXIV
The Eighth Circle. — The poets climb from the sixth
pouch. — Seventh pouch, filled with serpents, by
which thieves are tormented. — Vanni Fucci. —
Prophecy of calamity to Dante . . • . . .156
CONTENTS xxiii
CANTO XXV
The Eighth Circle : seventh pouch : fraudulent thieves.
— Cacus. — Agnello Brunelleschi and others . . 1 64
CANTO XXVI
The Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent counsel-
lors.— Ulysses and Diomed 172
CANTO XXVII
The Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent coun-
sellors. — Guido da Montefeltro 179
CANTO XXVIII
The Eighth Circle : ninth pouch : sowers of discord
and schism. — Mahomet and AH. — Fra Dolcino. —
Pier da Medicina. — Curio. — Mosca. — Bertran de
Born 1 86
CANTO XXIX
The Eighth Circle : ninth pouch. — Geri del Bello. —
Tenth pouch : falsifiers of all sorts. — Alchemists.
— Griffolino of Arezzo. — Capocchio . . . .194
CANTO XXX
The Eighth Circle: tenth pouch : fa'se personators, false
moneyers, and the false in words. — Myrrha. —
Gianni Schicchi. — Master Adam. — Sinon of
Troy . . ;i '. . o 201
CANTO XXXI
The Eighth Circle. — Giants. — Nimrod. — Ephial-
tes. — Antaeus sets the Poets down in the Ninth
Circle . 208
xxiv CONTENTS
CANTO XXXII
The Ninth Circle : that of traitors ; first ring : Caina.
— Counts of Mangona. — Camicion de' Pazzi. —
Second ring : Antenora. — Bocca degli Abati. —
Buoso da Duera. — Count Ugolino 215
CANTO XXXIII
The Ninth Circle : second ring : Antenora. — Count
Ugolino. — Third ring : Ptolomea. — Frate Alberigo.
— Branca d' Oria 224.
CANTO XXXIV
The Ninth Circle : fourth ring : Judecca. — Lucifer.
— Judas, Brutus and Cassius. — Centre of the Uni-
verse. — Passage from Hell. — Ascent to the surface
of the Southern Hemisphere 233
HELL
CANTO I
Dante ^astray in a wood, reaches the foot of a hill which
lie begins to ascend; be is hindered^hu-three beasts, he
turns back and is met by Virgil, who proposes to guide him
into the eternal world.
MIDWAY upon the journey of our life I found
j myself in a dark wood, where the right way was
\ lost.1 Ah ! how hard a thing it is to tell what
^this wild and rough and difficult wood was,
which in thought renews my fear ! So bitter is
it that death is little more. But in order to
treat of the good that I found in it, I will tell
of the other things that I saw there.
I cannot well report how I entered it, so full
was I of slumber at that moment when I aban-
doned the true way. But after I had reached
the foot of a hill,2 where that valley ended which
1 . v. 3 . The action of the poem begins on the night before
Good Friday of the year 1300, as we learn from Canto xxi.
112-114. Dante was thirty-five years old, midway on the
road of life, or, as he says in the Convito, iv. 24, 30, at " the
summit of the arch of life." The dark wood is the forest of
the world of sense, "the erroneous wood of this life'* (Id.
L i 24), that is, the wood in which man loses his way.
2. v. 13. The hill is the type of the true course of life*
2 HELL [vv. 15-33
had pierced my heart with fear, I looked upward,
and saw its shoulders clothed already with the
rays of the planet3 which leads man aright along
every path. Then was the fear a little quieted
which had lasted in the lake of my heart through
the night that I had passed so piteously. And
even as one who with spent breath, issued forth
from the sea upon the shore, turns to the peril-
ous water and gazes, so did my mind, which still
was flying, turn back to look again upon the pass
which never left person alive.4
After I had rested a little my weary body,
I again took my way along the desert slope,5
so that the firm foot was always the lower. And
lo ! almost at the beginning of the steep a she-
leopard,6 light and very nimble, which was
opposed to the false course in the wood of the valley. The
man conscious of having lost his moral way, alarmed for his
soul, seeks to escape from the sin and cares in which he is
involved, by ascending the hill of virtue whose summit is
"lighted by day spring from on high."
3. v. 17. According to the Ptolemaic system the sun
was a planet.
4. v. 27. The pass is the dangerous road through the
dark wood, "the end whereof are the ways of death," for
he who walks therein is "dead in trespasses and sins."
5. v. 29. Desert, because "narrow is the way that
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew
vii. 14.
6. v. 32. The leopard is the type of the temptations of
the flesh, the pleasures of sense with their fair, varied out-
side seeming.
vv. 34-49] CANTO I 3
covered with a spotted coat. And she did not
withdraw from before my face, nay, hindered
so my road that I often turned to go back.
The time was the beginning of the morning,
and the Sun was mounting up with those stars
that were with him when the Love Divine first
set in motion those beautiful things ; 7 so that the
hour of the time and the sweet season were occa-
sion to me of good hope concerning that wild
beast with the dappled skin ; but not so that the
sight which appeared to me of a lion8 did not
give me fear. He appeared to be coming against
me, with his head high and with ravening
hunger, so that it appeared that the air was
affrighted at him ; and a she-wolf,9 which in her
7. v. 40. It was a common belief, which existed from
early Christian times, that the Spring was the season of the
Creation. By the Julian Calendar, March 25th was the date
of the Vernal Equinox, and it was assumed that on this day
the Sun was created and placed in the sign of the Zodiac,
Aries, to begin his course. The same date was assigned to
the Annunciation and to the Crucifixion. March 25th was
thus what may be called the ideal Good Friday. But in
the year 1300 the actual Good Friday fell on April 8th.
This is the date which Dante, following the calendar of the
Church, adopted for that of his journey. The sun was
rising on the morning of Good Friday, when Dante began
his attempt to ascend the hill.
8. v. 47. The lion is the type of pride, the disposition
which is the root of the sins of violence.
$i. v. 49. The wolf is the type of avarice, that covetous-
4 HELL [w. 50-67
leanness seemed laden with all cravings, and ere
now had made many folk to live forlorn, — she
brought on me so much heaviness, with the fear
that came from sight of her, that I lost hope of
the height. And such as is he who gains will-
ingly, and the time arrives which makes him
lose, so that in all his thoughts he laments and
is sad, such did the beast without peace make
me, which, coming on against me, was pushing
me back, little by little, thither where the Sun
is silent.
While I was falling back to the low place,
one who appeared faint-voiced through long
silence presented himself before my eyes.
When I saw him in the great desert, " Have
pity on me ! " I cried to him, " whatso thou
be, whether shade or real man." He answered
me : " Not man ; man once I was, and my
ness of earthly goods which turns the heart from seeking the
goods of heaven, and is the main source of sins of fraud.
The imagery of these three beasts seems to have been sug-
gested by Jeremiah v. 6. "A lion out of the forest shall
slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a
leopard shall watch over their cities."
These three beasts, which hinder the progress of him who
would ascend the hill of virtue, correspond with the triple
division of sins into those of incontinence, of violence, and
of fraud which Virgil makes in the eleventh. Canto, accord-
ing to which the sinners in Hell are divided into three main
classes.
vv. 68-88] CANTO I 5
parents were Lombards, and both Mantuans
by country. I was born sub Julio, though
late,10 and I lived at Rome under the good
Augustus, at the time of the false and lying
gods. I was a poet, and sang of that just son
of Anchises " who came from Troy, after proud
I lion had been burned. But thou, why dost
thou return to such great annoy ? Why dost
thou not ascend the delectable mountain which
is the source and cause of all joy ? " " Art
thou then that Virgil and that fount which
pours forth so broad a stream of speech ? " re-
plied I with bashful front to him : " O honor
and light of the other poets ! may the long
study avail me and the great love, which have
made me search thy volume ! Thou art my
master and my author ; I2 thou alone art he
from whom I took the fair style that has done
me honor. Behold the beast because of which
10. v. 70. Virgil was twenty-five years old at the time
of Caesar's death, B. c. 44.
11. v. 73. " Aeneas, than whom none was more just."
Aenetd, i. 544.
12. v. 85. In the Convito Dante says that the word
autore, here translated "author," has a double origin and
meaning. According to the one, it signifies only the poets
who practice the art of the Muses ; according to the other,
it means " every one worthy of being believed and obeyed,"
and from this is derived the word Authority. Conv. iv. 6.
14-49.
6 HELL [w. 89-109
I turned ; help me against her, famous sage,
for she makes my veins and pulses tremble."
" It behoves thee to hold another course," he
replied, when he saw me weeping, " if thou
wouldst escape from this savage place ; for this
beast, because of which thou criest out, lets not
any one pass along her way, but so hinders him
that she kills him ; and she has a nature so
malign and evil that she never sates her greedy
will, and after food has more hunger than
before. Many are the animals with which she
wives, and there shall be more yet, until the
hound I3 shall come that will make her die of
grief. He shall not feed on land or pelf,14 but
wisdom and love and valor, and his birthplace
shall be between Feltro and Feltro.15 Of that
low Italy shall he be the salvation, for which
the virgin Camilla died, and Euryalus, Turnus
and Nisus of their wounds.16 He shall hunt
13. v. 101. After centuries of controversy, it is still
doubtful of whom the hound is the symbol.
14. v. 103. Literally, "he shall not feed on land or
pewter." The word peltro, pewter, is a rhyme- word, used
in a forced meaning, perhaps analogous to our colloquial,
vulgar use of " tin."
15. v. 105. No satisfactory explanation has been given
of the meaning of " between Feltro and Feltro."
1 6. v. 1 08. Camilla and Turnus died for Italy fighting
against the Trojans, Euryalus and Nisus died on the Trojan
side. Virgil commemorates them all in the Aeneid.
w. 110-122] CANTO i 7
her through every town till he shall have put
her back again in Hell, there whence envy I?
first sent her forth. Wherefore I think and
deem it for thy best that thou follow me, and
I will be thy guide, and will lead thee hence
through the eternal place where thou shalt hear
the despairing shrieks, shalt see the ancient
spirits woeful who each proclaim the second
death.18 And then thou shalt see those who
are contented in the fire,19 because they hope
to come, whenever it may be, to the blessed
folk ; to whom if thou wouldst then ascend,
there shall be a soul 20 more worthy than I for
17. v. 1 1 1 . " The devil seeing that man through obedi-
ence might ascend whence he through pride had fallen,
envied him ; and he who first through pride had been the
devil, that is the fallen one, became through envy Satan,
that is the adversary." Petri Lombardi, Sententiae, n. 21.
1 8. v. 117. That is, who each by their misery pro-
claim the torments of the second death. The appellation
of " the second death," given to the sufferings endured by
the sinners in Hell, is derived from Revelation xx. 10, 14 ;
xxi. 8. " The souls of the good separated from the body
by death are at rest ; but those of the wicked suffer punish-
ment ; and the bodies of the good live again in eternal life,
while those of the wicked revive for eternal death, which is
called the second death." S. Augustine, De Civitate Dei,
xm. 8.
19. v. 1 1 8. " Contented in the fire," that is, contented
in the purifying pains of Purgatory, by which they are made
fit for Paradise.
20. v. 121. Beatrice.
8 HELL [vv. 123-136
that. With her I will leave thee at my depart-
ure ; for that Emperor who reigns thereabove
wills not, because I was rebellious 2I to His
law, that through me any one should come into
His city. In all parts He governs and there
He reigns : there is His city and His lofty seat.
0 happy the man whom thereto He elects ! "
And I to him : " Poet, I beseech thee by that
God whom thou didst not know, in order that
1 may escape this ill and worse, that thou lead
me thither where thou now hast said, so that 1
may see the gate of St. Peter,22 and those
whom thou reportest so afflicted."
Then he moved on, and I held behind him.
21. v. 125. Not actively rebellious, but "one who did
not duly worship God." See Canto iv. 36.
22. v. 134. The gate of St. Peter is the gate of Purga-
tory, which is unlocked by the keys of the Kingdom of"
Heaven that Christ gave to Peter. See Purgatory, Canto
ix. 127. Whoever passes through this gate is admitted tc
£hat Kingdom.
CANTO II
Dante, doubtful of his own powers, is discouraged at the
outset. — Firgil cheers him by telling him that he has been
sent to his aid by a blessed Spirit from Heaven, who
revealed herself as Beatrice. — Dante casts off fear, and
the poets proceed.
THE day was going, and the dusky air was
taking the living things that are on earth from
their fatigues, and I alone was preparing to
sustain the war alike of the journey and of
the woe, which my memory that errs not shall
retrace.
0 Muses, O lofty genius, now assist me !
O memory that didst inscribe that which I saw,
here shall thy nobility appear !
1 began : —
" Poet, who guidest me, consider my power,
if it be sufficient, before thou trust me to the
deep pass, Thou sayest1 that the parent of
Silvius while still corruptible went to the im-
mortal world and was there in the body; and
truly if the Adversary of every ill was courteous
to him, it seems not unmeet to the man of
I. v. 13. In the sixth book of rhe Aeneid*
io HELL [vv. 17-36
understanding, thinking on the high effect that
should proceed from him, and on the who and
the what 2 ; for in the empyrean heaven he was
chosen for father of revered Rome and of her
empire ; both which (would one say truth)
were ordained for the holy place3 where the
successor of the greater Peter has his seat.
Through this going, whereof thou givest him
vaunt, he learned things which were the cause
of his victory and of the papal mantle. After-
ward the Chosen Vessel 4 went thither to bring
thence comfort to that faith which is the be-
ginning of the way of salvation. But I, why
go I thither ? or who concedes it ? I am not
Aeneas, I am not Paul ; neither I nor others
believe me worthy of this ; wherefore if I yield
myself to go, I fear lest the going may be mad.
Thou art wise, thou understandest better than I
speak."
2. v. 1 8. It is not strange that God was thus gracious
to him, since he was the Father of the Roman people (the
Who), and founder of the Roman empire (the What).
3. v. 23. Rome as well as Jerusalem was a holy city,
the Empire as well as the Church a divine institution. All
profane no less than all sacred history was the divinely or-
dered course of events leading up to the Incarnation and
Redemption. See // Convito, iv. 5, and De Monarchic, ii.
4 and 5.
4. v. 28. St. Paul. See Act* ix. 15, and 2 Corin*
tbians xii. I— A.
vv. 37-62] CANTO II it
And as is he who unwills what he willed, and
by reason of new thoughts changes his purpose,
so that he withdraws wholly from what he
had begun, such I became on that dark hill-
side : because in my thought I abandoned
the enterprise which had been so hasty in its
beginning.
" If I have rightly understood thy speech,"
replied that shade of the magnanimous one,
" thy soul is hurt by cowardice, which often-
times encumbers a man so that it turns him
back from honorable enterprise, as false seeing
does a beast when it shies. In order that thou
loose thee from this fear I will tell thee why I
came, and what I heard at the first moment
that I grieved for thee. I was among those
who are suspended,5 and a Lady blessed and
beautiful called me, such that I besought her
to command. Her eyes were more shining
than the star, and she began to say to me sweet
and clear, with angelic voice, in her speech :
€ O courteous Mantuan soul ! of whom the
fame yet lasts in the world, and shall last so
long as motion continues,6 my friend, and not
of fortune, is so hindered on his road upon the
5. v. 52. In Limbo, neither in the proper Hell nor in
Heaven.
6, v. 60. That is : so long as time shall last. " Time
is the reckoning of the motion of the heavens/' // Convitos
iv. 2, 49.
12 HELL [vv. 63-86
desert hillside that he has turned for fear, and
I am afraid, through that which I have heard
of him in heaven, lest he be already so astray
that I may have risen late to his succor. Now
do thou move, and with thy ornate speech and
with whatever is needful for his deliverance,
assist him so that I may be consoled thereby.
I am Beatrice who make thee go. I come
from a place whither I desire to return. Love
moved me, that makes me speak. When I
shall be before my Lord, I will often praise thee
to Him/ Then she was silent, and thereon
I began : c O Lady of Virtue ! through whom
alone the human race excels all contained within
that heaven which has the smallest circles, 7 thy
command so pleases me that to obey it, were
it already done, were slow to me. There is no
need for thee further to open to me thy will ;
but tell me the reason why thou dost not beware
of descending down here into this centre, from
the ample place 8 whither thou burnest to re-
turn/ c Since thou wishest to know so inwardly,
I will tell thee briefly/ she replied to me,
7. v. 78. The heaven of the moon, the innermost of the
nine revolving heavens, the nearest to the earth. Through
Beatrice, as symbol of the knowledge of the things of God
revealed to man, and by reason of man's capacity to receive
the revelation, the human race is exalted above all other
created things save the angels alone.
8. v. 84. The Empyrean.
vv. 87-103] CANTO II 13
'wherefore I fear not to come here within.
One need be afraid only of those things that
have power to do one harm, of others not, for
they are not fearful. __^ am made by God,
thanks be to Him, such that your misery touches
me not,9 nor does the flame of this burning
assail me. A gentle Lady I0 is in heaven who
feels compassion for this hindrance whereto I
"send thee, so that she breaks stern judgment
there above. She summoned Lucia " in her re-
quest, and said, " Thy faithful one now has need
of thee, and I commend him to thee." Lucia,
the foe of every cruel one, moved and came to
the place where I was, seated with the ancient
Rachel.12 She said, " Beatrice, true praise of
9. v. 92. "The blessed in glory will have no compas-
sion for the damned, ... for it would impugn the justice
of God." S. T. Suppl. xciv. 2.
10. v. 94. The Virgin Mary, the fount of mercy, never
spoken of by name in Hell.
11. v. 100. Whether any real person is intended by
Lucia is doubtful, but as an allegorical figure she is the
symbol, as her name indicates, of illuminating Grace.
12. v. 1 02. Rachel was adopted by the Church, from a
very early period, as the type of the contemplative life, that
life in which the soul withdrawing itself from earthly con-
cerns, and devoting itself to the consideration of the things
of God, attains to heights above the reach of reason, and has
a foretaste of the felicity of heaven. The place of Beatrice,
the type of instruction in the divine mysteries, is therefore
rightly at the side of Rachel.
«4 HELL [vv. 104-129
God, why dost thou not succor him who so
loved thee that for thee he came forth from the
vulgar throng ? Dost thou not hear the pity
of his plaint ? Dost thou not see the death that
combats him on the stream where the sea has
no vaunt ? " I3 Never were persons in the world
swift to do their good, or to fly their harm, as
I, after these words were uttered, came down
here from my blessed seat, putting my trust in
thy upright speech, which honors thee and them
who have heard it.' After she had said this to
me, weeping she turned her lucent eyes, whereby
, she made me more quick to come. And I came
to thee thus as she willed. I withdrew thee
from before that wild beast which took from thee
the short way on the beautiful mountain. What
is it then ? Why, why dost thou hold back ?
why dost thou harbor such cowardice in thy
heart ? why hast thou not daring and assurance,
since three such blessed Ladies care for thee in
the court of Heaven, and my speech pledges
thee such good ? "
As the flowerets, bent and closed by the chill
of night, when the sun brightens them erect
themselves all open on their stem, so I became
13. v. 1 08. Dost thou not see him in danger of death
from the sins that assail him in the flood of human life, a
flood more stormy with passion and darker with evil than
the ocean with its tempests ?
vv. 130-142] CANTO II 15
with my drooping courage, and such good dar-
ing ran to my heart that I began like a person
enfreed : " O compassionate she who succored
me, and courteous thou who didst speedily
obey the true words that she addressed to thee !
Thou by^ thy words hast so disposed my heart
with desire of going, that I have returned to
my first intent. Now go, for one sole will is
in us both : thou leader, thou lord, and thou
master." Thus I said to him ; and when he
moved on, I entered along the deep and savage
road.
CANTO III
The gate of Hell.— Virgil leads Dante in.— The
punishment of those who had lived without infamy and
without praise. — Acheron^ and the sinners on its bank. —
Charon. — Earthquake. — Dante swoons.
" THROUGH me is the way into the woeful
city ; through me is the way into the eternal
woe ; through me is the way among the lost
people. Justice moved my lofty maker: the
divine Power, the supreme Wisdom and the
primal Love made me. Before me were no
things created, save eternal, and I eternal last.
Leave every hope, ye who enter ! " '
These words of obscure color I saw written
at the top of a gate ; whereat I : " Master, their
meaning is dire to me."
And he to me, like a person well advised :
" Here it behoves to leave every fear ; it be-
i. v. 8. "Creation," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "is
the joint act of the whole Trinity. " S. T. i. 45. 6.
This is indicated in these verses by the enumeration of the
attributes asciibed respectively to the three persons cf the
Trinity, according to the common teaching of the doctors of
the Church. Id. i. 39. 8.
vv-I5-39] CANTO III 17
hoves that all cowardice should here be dead.
We have come to the place where I have told
thee that thou shalt see the woeful people, who \
have lost the good of the understanding." 2
And when he had put his hand on mine with
a cheerful look, wherefrom I took courage, he
brought me within to the secret things. Here
sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resound-
ing through the starless air ; wherefore at first I
wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utter-
ances, words of woe, accents of anger, voices
high and faint, and sounds of hands with them,
were making a tumult which whirls always in
that air forever dark, like the sand when the
whirlwind breathes.
And I, who had my head girt with horror,
said : " Master, what is that which I hear ? and
what folk is it that seems so overcome with its
woe ? "
And he to me : cc The wretched souls of those
who lived without infamy and without praise ,s
maintain this miserable mode. They are min-
gled with that caitiff choir of the angels, who
were not rebels, nor were faithful to God, but
were for themselves. 3 The heavens chased
2. v. 1 8. The ultimate end and felicity of human life
is to see God and the truth in him (S. T. £#/>//. xcii. l) ;
this is the supreme good of the understanding.
3. v. 39. This class of angels seems to have been an
invention of the poet's.
i8 HELL [vv. 40-65
them out in order to be not less beautiful, nor
does the deep Hell receive them, for the
damned would have some boast of them/'
And I : " Master, what is so grievous to
them, that makes them lament so bitterly ? "
He answered : " I will tell thee very briefly.
These have not hope of death ; and their blind
life is so debased, that they are envious of every
other lot. Fame of them the world permits
not to be ; mercy and justice disdain them.
Let us not speak of them, but do thou look
and pass on."
And I, who was gazing, saw a banner, which,
whirling, ran so swiftly that it seemed to me
disdainful of any pause, and behind it came so
long a train of folk, that I should never have
believed death had undone so many. After I
had recognized some among them, I saw and
knew the shade of him who made, through
cowardice, the great refusal. 4 At once I un-
derstood and was certain, that this was the sect
of the caitiffs displeasing to God and to his
enemies. These wretches, who never were
alive, were naked, and much stung by gad-flies
4. v. 60. By him " who made the great refusal " is
probably intended Pope Celestine V., who, after having held
the papacy for five months in 1 294, abdicated. His suc-
cessor, Boniface VIII., Dante's great enemy, put Celestine
in prison, where he died in 1 296.
vv. 66-93] CANTO III 19
and by wasps that were there ; these streaked
their faces with blood, which, mingled with
tears, was gathered at their feet by loathsome
worms.
And when I gave myself to looking onward,
I saw people on the bank of a great river;
wherefore I said : " Master, now grant to me
that I may know who these are, and what rule
makes them appear so ready to pass over, as I
discern through the faint light." And he to
me : " The things will be clear to thee, when
we shall stay our steps on the sad shore of
Acheron." Then with eyes ashamed and down-
cast, fearing lest my speech might be trouble-
some to him, far as to the river I refrained
from speaking.
And behold ! coming toward us in a boat, an
old man, white with ancient hair, crying : " Woe
to you, wicked souls ! hope not ever to see
the Heavens ! I come to carry you to the other
bank, into the eternal darkness, into heat and
into frost. And thou who art there, living
soul, depart from th^se that are dead." But
when he saw that I did not depart, he said :
" By another way, by other ports thou shalt
come to the shore, not here, for passage ; a
lighter bark must carry thee." 5
5. v. 93. The boat that bears the souls of the redeemed
to Purgatory. Charon recognizes that Dante is not among
20 HELL [vv. 94-118
And my Leader to him : " Charon, vex not
thyself; it is thus willed there where is power
for that which is willed ; and ask no more."
Thereon were quiet the fleecy jaws of the ferry-
man of the livid marsh, who round about his
eyes had wheels of flame.
But those souls, who were weary and naked3
changed color and gnashed their teeth, soon as
they heard his cruel words. They blasphemed
God and their parents, the human race, the
place, the time and the seed of their sowing
and of their birth. Then, all of them bitterly
weeping, drew together to the evil bank, which
awaits every man who fears not God. Charon
the demon, with eyes of glowing coal, beckoning
to them, collects them all ; he beats with his
oar whoever lingers.
As in autumn the leaves depart one after the
other, until the bough sees all its spoils upon
the earth, in like wise the evil seed of Adam
throw themselves from that shore one by one,
at signals, as the bird at his recall. Thus they
go over the dusky wave, and before they have
the damned. The gods and other personages of heathen
mythology were held by the Church to have been demons
who had a real existence ; they were adopted into the Chris-
tian mythology, and hence appear with entire propriety as
characters in Hell. Charon and other beings of this order
were familiar to the readers of the sixth book of the Aeneid.
vv. 119-136] CANTO III 21
landed on the farther side, already on this a
new throng is assembled.
" My son," said the courteous Master, "those
who die in the wrath of God, all come together
here from every land ; and they are eager to pass
over the stream, for the divine justice spurs
them so that fear is turned to desire. A good
soul never passes this way ; and therefore if
Charon fret at thee, well mayest thou now
know what his speech signifies."
This ended, the gloomy plain trembled so
mightily, that the memory of the terror even
now bathes me with sweat. (The tearful land
gave forth a wind that flashea a crimson light
which vanquished all sensation in me, and I fell
as a man whom slumber seizes. I
CANTO IV
The further side of Acheron. — Virgil leads Dante
Into Limbo, the First Circle of Hell, containing the
spirits of those who lived virtuously but without faith in
Christ. — Greeting of Virgil by bis fellow poets. — They
enter a castle, where are the shades of ancient worthies. —
After seeing them Virgil and Dante depart.
A HEAVY thunder broke the deep sleep in
my head, so that I started up like a person who
is waked by force, and, risen erect, I moved my
rested eye round about, and looked fixedly to
distinguish the place where I was. True it is,
that I found myself on the brink of the woeful
valley of the abyss which collects a thunder of
infinite wailings. It was so dark, deep, and
cloudy, that, though I fixed my sight on the
depth, I did not discern anything there.
" Now let us descend here below into the
blind world," began the Poet all deadly pale,
" I will be first, and thou shalt be second."
And I, who had observed his color, said :
" How shall I come, if thou fearest, who art
wont to be the comfort to my doubting ? "
And he to me : " The anguish of the folk who
vv. 20-42] CANTO IV 23
are here below paints on my face that pity
which thou takest for fear. Let us go on, for
the long way urges us."
Thus he placed himself,1 and thus he made
me enter into the first circle2 that girds the
abyss. Here, as one listened, there was no
lamentation but that of sighs which made the
eternal air to tremble ; this came of the woe
without torments felt by the crowds, which were
many and great, of infants and of women and
of men.
The good Master to me : " Thou dost not
ask what spirits are these that thou seest. Now
I would have thee know, before thou goest
farther, that these did not sin; and though they
have merits it suffices not, because they did
not have baptism,3 which is part of the faith
that thou believest ; and if they were before
Christianity, they did not duly worship God:
and of such as these am I myself. For such
defects, and not for other guilt, are we lost, and
only so far harmed that without hope we live
in desire."
». v. 23. In the lead, in front of Dante.
2. v. 24. The Limbo (Lat. limbus, edge, hem, border).
3. v. 35. Such merit as they might have could not secure
salvation for them, for only he who receives baptism becomes
a member of Christ, and through His merits is freed alike
from the fault and from the penalty of original sin.
24 HELL [vv. 43-63
Great woe seized me at my heart when I
heard him, because I knew that people of
much worth were suspended in that limbo.
" Tell me, my Master, tell me, Lord," I began,
with wish to be assured of that faith which
vanquishes every error, 4 " did ever any one
who afterwards was blessed go forth from here,
either by his own or by another's merit ? "
And he, who understood my covert speech,
answered : " I was new in this state 5 when I
saw a Mighty One come hither crowned with
sign of victory. He drew out hence the shade
of the first parent, of Abel his son, and that of
Noah, of Moses the law-giver and obedient,
Abraham the patriarch, and David the King,
Israel with his father and with his offspring,
and with Rachel, for whom he did so much,
and many others ; and He made them blessed :
and I would have thee know that before these,
human spirits were not saved." 6
4. v. 48. Wishing especially to be assured in regard to
the descent of Christ into Hell.
5. v. 52. Virgil died B. c. 19.
6. v. 62. The sin of Adam infected all his descendants
with the offence of original sin, and subjected them to its eter-
nal punishment, from which none could be saved except by
faith in Christ. Adam and the fathers of the chosen people
had held implicitly the faith in Christ to come, but they were
excluded from the life of glory, until the redemption of the
human race by the passion of Christ. After his passion he
descended into Hell, to deliver them. (S. T. iii. 52. 5.)
vv. 64-93] CANTO IV 25
We ceased not going on because he spoke,
but all the while were passing through the
wood, the -wood, I mean, of crowded spirits ;
nor yet had our way been long from the place
of my slumber, when I saw a fire, which over-
came a hemisphere of darkness. 7 We were
still a little distant from it, yet not so far but
that I could in part discern that honorable
folk possessed that place. " O thou who hon-
orest both science and art, who are these, who
have such honor that it separates them from
the manner of the others ? " And he to me :
" The honorable renown of them which sounds
above in thy life wins grace in heaven which
thus advances them." At this a voice was
heard by me : " Honor the loftiest Poet ! his
shade returns which had departed." When the
voice had stopped and was quiet, I saw four
great shades coming to us ; they had a sem-
blance neither sad nor glad. The good Master
began to say : " Look at him with that sword in
hand who comes before the three, even as lord ;
he is Homer, the sovereign poet ; the next who
comes is Horace, the satirist; Ovid is the third,
and the last is Lucan. Since each shares with
me the name which the single voice sounded,
they do me honor, and in that do well."
7. v. 69. The fire may be the symbol of the partial light
afforded by philosophy to the virtuous heathen, whose abode
the poets are approaching.
*6 HELL [w. 94-1 1 1
Thus I saw assembled the fair school of that
Lord of the loftiest song who soars above the
others like an eagle. After they had discoursed
somewhat together, they turned to me with sign
of salutation ; and my Master smiled thereat.
And far more of honor yet they did me, for
they made me of their band, so that I was the
sixth amid so much wisdom. Thus we went
on as far as the light, speaking things concern-
ing which silence is becoming, even as was
speech there where I was.
We came to the foot of a noble castle, seven
times circled by high walls, 8 defended round
about by a fair streamlet. This we passed as
if hard ground ; through seven gates 9 I entered
with these sages ; we came to a meadow of fresh
8. v. 107. The castle is the symbol of the abode of
Philosophy, or human wisdom unenlightened by revelation;
its seven high walls may perhaps signify the four moral and
three intellectual virtues, — prudence, temperance, fortitude
find justice, understanding, knowledge and wisdom, all which
could be attained by the virtuous heathen. (S. T. ii. 65. 2.)
9. v. no. The seven gates may typify the seven liberal
arts of the Trivium and the ^uadrhiumt by which names
the courses of instruction in them were known in the schools
of the Middle Ages. The Trivium included Grammar,
Logic and Rhetoric ; the Quadrivium, Music, Arithmetic,
Geometry and Astronomy. The following rude mnemonic
verses set forth their order and meaning :
Gram, loqtntur, Dia. verba docet, Rhe. verba ministrat \
Mus. canit, Ar. numerat, Ge. ponderat, As. colit astra.
vv. 112-141] CANTO IV 27
verdure. People were there with slow and
grave eyes, of great authority in their looks ;
they spoke seldom, and with soft voices. There-
on we withdrew ourselves upon one side, into
an open, luminous, and high place, so that they
all could be seen. There before me upon the
green enamel were shown to me the great spirits,
whom for having seen I inwardly exalt myself.
I saw Electra with many companions, among
whom I recognized Hector and Aeneas, Caesar
in armor, with his gerfalcon eyes ; I saw Camilla
and Penthesilea, on the other side I saw the
King Latinus, who was sitting with Lavinia his
daughter. I saw that Brutus who drove out
Tarquin ; Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia ;
and alone, apart, I saw the Saladin. When I
raised my brows a little more, I saw the Master
of those who know, I0 seated amid the philo-
sophic family ; all regard him, all do him honor.
Here I saw Socrates and Plato, who in front of
the others stand nearest to him ; Democritus,
who ascribes the world to chance ; Diogenes,
Anaxagoras, and Thales, Empedocles, Hera-
clitus, and Zeno ; and I saw the good collector
of the qualities, Dioscorides, I mean ; " and I
saw Orpheus, Tully, and Linus, and moral
10. v. 131. Aristotle.
11. v. 140. Dioscorides, a physician in Cilicia, of the
first century A. D., who in his treatise de materia medica wrote
of the qualities of plants.
28 HELL [vv. 142-151
Seneca, Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemy, Hip-
pocrates, Avicenna, and Galen, and Averrhoes,
who made the great comment.12 I cannot re-
port of all in full, because the long theme so
drives me that many times the speech comes
short of the fact.
The company of six is reduced to two. By
another way the wise guide leads me out from
the quiet into the air that trembles, and I
come into a region where is nothing that can
give light.
12. v. 1 44. The great comment on Aristotle.
CANTO V
The Second Circle, that of Carnal Sinners. — Minat*
»*- Shades renowned of old. — Francesco da Rimini.
THUS I descended from the first circle down
into the second, which girdles less space, and
so much more woe that it goads to wailing.
There stands Minos horribly, and snarls; he
examines the transgressions at the entrance ; he
judges, and he sends according as he entwines
himself. I mean, that when the ill born soul
comes there before him, it confesses itself wholly,
and that discerner of the sins sees what place of
Hell is for it ; he girds himself with his tail so
many times as the grades he wills that it be
sent down. Always many of them stand before
him ; they go, in turn, each to the judgment ;
they speak and hear, and then are whirled
below.
" O thou that comest to the woeful inn,"
said Minos to me, when he saw me, leaving
the act of so great an office, " beware how thou
enterest, and to whom thou trustest thyself;
let not the amplitude of the entrance deceive
30 HELL [vv. 21-47
thee." And my Leader to him : " Wherefore
dost thou too cry out ? x Hinder not his fated
going ; thus is it willed there where is power
for that which is willed ; and ask no more."
Now the notes of woe begin to make them-
selves heard by me ; now I am come where
much wailing smites me. I had come into a
place mute of all light, that bellows as the sea
does in a tempest, if it be combated by contrary
winds. The infernal hurricane which never
rests carries along the spirits with its rapine ;
whirling and smiting it molests them.2 When
they arrive before its rush, here are the shrieks,
the complaint, and the lamentation ; here they
blaspheme the divine power. I understood
that to such torment are condemned the carnal
sinners who subject the reason to the appetite.
And as their wings bear along the starlings in
the cold season in a large and full troop, so
did that blast the evil spirits ; hither, thither,
down, up it carries them ; no hope ever com-
forts them, neither of repose, nor of less pain.
And as the cranes go singing their lays,
making in air a long line of themselves, so I
1. v. 21. As Charon had done.
2. v. 33. The storm and darkness are symbols of the
tempest of the passions. *' Wherewithal a man sinneth, by
the same alsc shall he be punished." Wisdom of Salomon
xi. 1 6.
<rv. 48-69] CANTO V 3I
saw come, uttering wails, shades borne along
by the aforesaid strife. Wherefore I said :
" Master, who are these folk whom the black
air so castigates ? " " The first of those of
whom thou wishest to have knowledge,'* said
he to me then, " was empress of many tongues.
She was so abandoned to the vice of luxury 3
that lust she made licit in her law, to take
away the blame into which she had been brought.
She is Semiramis, of whom it is read that she
succeeded Ninus and had been his wife ; she
held the land which the Sultan rules. That
other is she 4 who, for love, slew herself, and
broke faith to the ashes of Sichaeus ; next is
Cleopatra, the luxurious. See Helen, for whom
so long a time of ill revolved ; and see the great
Achilles, who fought to the end with love.5 See
Paris, Tristan, — " and more than a thousand
shades whom love had parted from our life he
showed me, and, pointing to them, named to
me.
3. v. 55. Luxury in the obsolete, Shakespearean sense
of lasciviousness.
4. v. 61. Dido.
5. v. 66. According to the post - Homeric account ol
the death of Achilles, which was current in the Middle
Ages, he was slain by Paris in the temple of Apollo in Troy,
" whither he had been lured by the promise of a meeting
with Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, with whom he wai
enamored."
33 HELL [vv. 70-92
After I had heard my Teacher name the
dames of eld and the cavaliers, pity overcame
me, and I was well nigh bewildered. I began :
" Poet, willingly would I speak with those two
that go together, and seem to be so light upon
the wind." 6 And he to me : " Thou shalt see
when they are nearer to us, and do thou then
pray them by that love which leads them, and
they will come." Soon as the wind sways them
toward us, I lifted my voice : " O wearied
souls, come to speak with us, if Another7 deny
it not.''
As doves, called by desire, with wings open
and steady, come through the air borne by their
will to their sweet nest, these issued from the
troop where Dido is, coming to us through
the malign air, so strong was the compassionate
cry.
"O living creature, gracious and benign, that
goest through the black air visiting us who
stained the world blood-red, if the King of the
universe were a friend we would pray Him for
6. v. 75. These two are Francesca da Rimini, daughter
of Guido Vecchio da Polenta, lord of Ravenna ; and her lover,
Paolo, the brother of her husband, the son of Malatesta da
Verrucchio, lord of Rimini. Their death, at the hands of
her husband, took place about 1285.
7, v, 8 1 . The name of God is never spoken by the spirits
in Hell, save once, in blasphemous defiance, by Vanni Fucci
(xxv. 3) ; nor by Dante in addressing them.
vv. 93-122] CANTO V 33
thy peace, since thou hast pity on our perverse
ill. Of what it pleases thee to hear, and what
to speak, we will hear and we will speak to
you, while the wind, as now, is hushed for us.
The city where I was born sits upon the sea-
shore, where the Po, with his followers, descends
to have peace. Love, which quickly lays hold
on gentle heart, seized this one for the fair
person that was taken from me, and the mode
still hurts me. Love, which absolves no loved
one from loving, seized me for the pleasing of
him so strongly that, as thou seest, it does not
even now abandon me. Love brought us to
one death. Cain awaits him who quenched
our life." These words were borne to us from
them.
Soon as I had heard those injured souls I
bowed my face, and held it down so long until
the Poet said to me : " What art thou think-
ing ? " When I replied, I began : " Alas ! how
many sweet thoughts, how great desire, led
these unto the woeful pass." Then I turned
me again to them, and spoke, and began :
" Francesca, thy torments make me sad and
piteous to weeping. But tell me, at the time
of the sweet sighs, by what and how did love
concede to thee to know thy dubious desires ? "
And she to me : " There is no greater woe than
the remembering in misery the happy time, and
34 HELL [vv. 123—142
that thy Teacher knows.8 But if thou hast so
great desire to know the first root of our love,
I will do like one who weeps and tells.
" We were reading one day, for delight, of
Lancelot, how love constrained him. We were
alone and without any suspicion. Many times
that reading urged our eyes, and took the color
from our faces, but only one point was it that
overcame us. When we read of the longed-for
smile being kissed by such a lover, this one,
who never shall be divided from me, kissed
my mouth all trembling. Gallehaut was the
book, and he who wrote it.9 That day we read
no farther in it."
While the one spirit said this, the other was
so weeping that through pity I swooned as if
I had been dying, and fell as a dead body falls.
8. v. 123. Thy Teacher who lives sorrowfully in Limbo
without hope, but with memory of the life lighted by the Sun.
9. v. 137. In the Romance, it was Gallehaut that pre-
vailed on Gucnever to give a kiss to Lancelot*
CANTO VI
The Third Circle, that of the Gluttonous. — Cerberus.
lacco.
AT the return of my mind, which had closed
itself before the pity of these two kinsfolk,
that wholly confounded me with sadness, I see
around me new torments and new tormented
souls wherever I move, and wherever I turn,
and wherever I gaze.
I am in the third circle, that of the eternal,
accursed, cold, and heavy rain : its rule and
quality are never new. Coarse hail, and dark
water, and snow pour down through the tene-
brous air ; the earth which receives them stinks.
Cerberus, a cruel and strange beast, with three
throats barks dogwise above the people that
are here submerged. He has red eyes, a greasy
and black beard, and a big belly, and paws
armed with nails : he claws the spirits, bites,
and rends them. The rain makes them howl
like dogs ; of one of their sides they make a
screen for the other; the wretched profane
ones ' often turn themselves.
i. v. 21. Profane, because "their God is their belly."
nlippians iii. 19.
36 HELL [vv. 22-51
When Cerberus, the great worm, observed
us, he opened his mouths, and showed his
fangs to us ; not a limb had he that he held still.
And my Leader opened wide his hands, took
some earth, and with full fists threw it into his
ravenous gullets. As is the dog that baying
craves, and becomes quiet when he bites his
food, and is intent and struggles only to devour
it, such became those filthy faces of the demon
Cerberus, who so thunders at the souls that
they would fain be deaf.
We were passing over the shades whom the
heavy rain subdues, and were setting our feet
upon their vain show which seems a body.
They all of them were lying on the ground,
except one which raised itself to sit, soon as it
saw us passing in front. " O thou who art led
through this Hell," it said to me, " recognize
me, if thou canst ; thou wast made before I
was unmade." And I to it : " The anguish
which thou hast, perchance withdraws thee from
my memory, so that it seems not that I ever
saw thee. But tell me who thou art, that art
set in a place so woeful, and with such a pun-
ishment, that if any other be greater, none is so
displeasing." And he to me : "Thy city which
is so full of envy that already the sack runs
over, held me in it, in the bright life.2 You,
2. v. 5 1 . The life lighted by the sun ; in contrast to this
dark and dismal region of Hell.
vv. 52-74] CANTO VI 37
citizens, called me Ciacco ; 3 for the pernicious
fault of gluttony, as thou seest, I am broken by
the rain : and I, wretched soul, am not alone, for
all these endure like punishment for like fault : "
and he spoke not a word more. I answered
him : " Ciacco, thy distress so weighs upon me,
that it invites me to weeping ; but tell me, if
thou knowest, to what will come the citizens of
the divided city ; if any one in it is just ; and
tell me the cause why such great discord has
assailed it."
And he to me : " After long contention they
will come to blood, and the sylvan party will
chase out the other with much injury. Then
afterwards within three suns4 it behoves that
this shall fall, and the other surmount by means
of the force of a certain one who just now is
tacking. It will hold high its front long time,
keeping the other under heavy weights, how-
ever it may lament and be shamed thereat.
There are two just men, but they are not
heeded there ; Pride, Envy, and Avarice are
3. v. 52. Ciacco, an abbreviation of Jacopo, seems, in
popular speech, to have been the term for hog. This Ciacco
figures characteristically in one of the tales of the Decameron,
(ix. 8), along with Filippo Argenti, whom we find in the
fifth circle, and with Corso Donati, referred to in the twenty-
fourth canto of the Purgatory.
4. v. 68. "Three suns," that is, three years.
38 HELL [vv. 75-90
the three sparks that have inflamed their
hearts." 5 Here he made ending of the grievous
sound.
And I to him : " I would that thou instruct
me further, and that of more speech thou make
a gift to me. Farinata and Tegghiaio who were
so worthy, Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and
Mosca, and the others who set their minds
on well-doing, tell me where they are, and
make me to know of them, for great desire
urges me to learn if Heaven sweeten them, or
Hell envenom them."
And he : " They are among the blacker
souls : different sin weighs them down toward
the bottom ; if thou descend so far, thou mayst
see them. But when thou shalt be in the
sweet world I pray thee that thou bring me to
the memory of others : more I say not to thee,
5. v. 75. This prophecy relates to the dissensions and
violence of the parties of the Whites and the Blacks by which
Florence was rent. The "sylvan party" was that of the
Whites, who were mainly Ghibellines. The significance of
the term selvaggia "sylvan" is uncertain; it may mean
'savage ' or simply « rustic.' By the " one who just now is
tacking " Dante probably refers to the Pope, Boniface VIII.,
who was playing fast and loose with both. Who the " two
just men " were is unknown. The words were grievous to
Pante not only because of their prophecy of ill to Florence,
but because in the overthrow of the Whites his own fortune*
were involved.
vv. 90-112] CANTO VI 39
and more I answer thee not." Thereon he
twisted his straight eyes awry, looked at me a
little, and then bent his head, and fell with it
level with the other blind.
And the Leader said to me: " He rouses up
no more on this side the sound of the angelic
trump. When the hostile Power shall come,
each one will find again his dismal tomb, will
resume his flesh and his shape, will hear that
which through eternity reverberates/'
Thus we passed along with slow steps through
the foul mixture of the shades and of the rain,
touching a little on the future life ; wherefore I
said : " Master, these torments will they increase
after the great Sentence, or be less, or will they
be just as burning? " And he to me : " Return
to thy science,6 which declares that in propor-
tion the thing is more perfect the more it feels
the good, and so the pain. Though this ac-
cursed folk never can attain to true perfection,
it expects thereafter to be more than now."
We took a circling course along that road,
6. v. 1 06. The teaching of Aristotle ; see Ethics, x. 4,
where the philosopher says that the exercise of every sense is
attended with pleasure, and the pleasure is the greater in
proportion to the completeness of the faculty. It seems a
correct inference that the same is the case with pain. After
the Last Judgment, when the body is reunited with the soul,
and the spirit becomes thus complete, the suffering of the
damned will be greater than before.
40 HELL [w. 113-115
speaking far more than I repeat ; and came to
the point where the descent is. Here we found
Pluto,7 the great enemy.
7. v. 1 1 5. Pluto and Plutus were not always clearly-
discriminated even by the ancients, and Pluto in Italian may
be correctly rendered by one or the other name. Either is
appropriate here, if Pluto be taken not as Hades, the god of
the lower world, but in his character as the giver of wealth.
CANTO VII
The Fourth Circle, that of the Avaricious and the.
Prodigal. — Pluto. — Fortune.
The Styx. — The Fifth Circle, that of the Wrathful.
"PAPE Sat an, f ape Satan aleppe" began Pluto
with his clucking voice. And that gentle Sage,
who knew everything, said to comfort me: "Let
not thy fear hurt thee ; for, whatever power he
have, he shall not take from thee the descent of
this rock." Then he turned to that swollen lip
and said: "Be silent, accursed wolf! r consume
thyself inwardly with thine own rage : not with-
out cause is this going to the depth ; it is willed
on high, there where Michael wrought the ven-
geance for the proud rape." 2 As sails swollen
by the wind fall in a heap when the mast
snaps, so fell to earth the cruel wild-beast.
Thus we descended into the fourth hollow>
taking more of the woeful bank which insacks
the evil of the whole universe. Ah, justice of
1. v. 8. The wolf is the symbol of avarice, here as else-
where in the poem ; see canto i. and compare Purgatory,
xx. 10.
2. v. I 2. The violence of Lucifer against God, whicn
had its root in his pride.
42 HELL [vv. 19-46
God ! who heaps up so many new travails and
penalties as I saw ? And why does our guilt
so ruin us ? As does the wave, yonder upon
Charybdis, which is broken on that which it
encounters, so needs must here the people
counterdance.
Here I saw many more people than else-
where, both on the one side and the other,
with great howls rolling weights by force of
chest. They struck against each other, and
then there each wheeled round, rolling back,
crying: "Why boldest thou ? " and "Why
flingest thou away ? " Thus they turned
through the dark circle on either hand to the
opposite point, still crying out at each other
their opprobrious measure ; then each wheeled
round, when he had come through his half
circle to the other joust.
And I, who had my heart as it were pierced
through, said : " My Master, now declare to
me what folk this is, and if all these tonsured
ones on our left were clerks."
And he to me : " Each and all of these were
so asquint in mind in the first life that they
made no spending in it with due measure.
Clearly enough their voice bays it forth, when
they come to the two points of the circle where
the contrary fault divides them. These were
clerks who have no hairy covering on their
vv. 47-74] CANTO VII 43
heads, and Popes and Cardinals, in whom ava-
rice practices its excess."
And I : " Master, among such as these I
ought surely to recognize some who were pol-
luted with these evils."
And he to me : " Thou harborest a vain
thought ; the undiscerning life that made them
foul now makes them dim to all discernment.
Forever will they come to the two buttings ;
these will rise from the sepulchre with closed
fist, and these with shorn hair. Ill-giving and
ill-keeping have taken from them the beautiful
world, and set them to this scuffle ; what that
is, I adorn not words for it. Now, son, thou
canst see the brief jest of the goods that are
committed to Fortune, for which the human
race struggle with each other ; for all the gold
that is beneath the moon, or that ever was,
could not of these weary souls make a single
one repose."
" Master," said I to him, " now tell me fur-
ther, this Fortune, on which thou touchest to
me, what is it, which has the goods of the world
so in its clutches ? "
And he to me : " O foolish creatures, how
great is that ignorance which harms you ! I
would have thee now receive my opinion con-
cerning her. He whose wisdom transcends all,
made the heavens, and gave them their guides,
44 HELL [vv. 75-103
so that every part shines on every part, dis-
tributing equally the light. In like wise for the
splendors of the world, He ordained a general
ministress and guide, who should from time to
time transfer the vain goods from race to race,
and from one blood to another, beyond the
resistance of human wit. Wherefore one race
rules, and another languishes, pursuant to her
judgment, which is hidden like the snake in
the grass. Your wisdom has no withstanding
of her : she foresees, judges, and pursues her
reign, as theirs the other gods. Her permuta-
tions have no truce ; necessity compels her to
be swift, so often comes he who obtains a turn.
This is she who is so set upon the cross, even
by those who ought to give her praise, giving
her blame amiss and ill report. But she is
blessed and hears this not : with the other
Primal Creatures glad she turns her sphere, and
blessed she rejoices. Now let us descend at
once to greater woe : already every star is sink-
ing that was rising when I set out, and too long
stay is forbidden."
We crossed the circle to the other bank,
above a fount that bubbles up and pours out
through a trench which proceeds from it. The
water was far darker than perse ; 3 and we, in
3. v. 103. " Perse is a color mixed of purple and black,
in which the black predominates." Convito, iv, 20, 14,
vv. 104-130] CANTO VII 45
company with the dusky waves, entered down
through a strange way. This dismal little
stream, when it has descended to the foot of
the malign gray slopes, makes a marsh that is
named Styx. And I, who was standing intent
to gaze, saw muddy people in that swamp, all
naked and with look of hurt. They were
smiting each other, not with hand only, but
with the head, with the chest, and with the feet,
mangling one another piecemeal with their teeth.
The good Master said : " Son, now thou
seest the souls of those whom anger overcame ;
and also I will that thou believe for certain
that under the water are folk who sigh, and
make this water bubble at the surface, as thine
eye tells thee wherever it turns. Fixed in the
slime, they say : c Sullen were we in the sweet
air that is gladdened by the Sun, bearing within
ourselves the sluggish fume ; now we are sullen
in the black mire/ This hymn they gurgle in
their throats, for they cannot speak with entire
words." 4
Thus we circled a great arc of the foul fen,
between the dry bank and the slough, with
eyes turned on those who guzzle the mire.
We came at length to the foot of a tower.
4. v. 1 26. The sinners fixed under the water in the mud
would seem to be those whose anger was suppressed, showing
itself not in acts of wrath, but in sullen and resentful gloom.
CANTO VIII
The Fifth Circle. — Pklegyas and his boat. — Passage
of the Styx. — Filippo Argentl. — The City of Dis. —
The demons refuse entrance to the poets.
I SAY, continuing, that, long before we were
at the foot of the high tower, our eyes went
upward to its top by reason of two flamelets
that we saw set there, while another was giving
signal back from so far off that the eye could
hardly catch it. And I turned me to the Sea
of all wisdom ; I said : " This one, what says
it ? and what answers that other fire ? and who
are they that made it ? " And he to me :
" Upon the turbid waves already thou mayst
discern that which is expected, if the fume of
the marsh hide it not from thee."
Bowstring never urged arrow from itself that
ran so swift a course through the air, as a little
vessel which at that instant I saw coming
through the water toward us, under the guid-
ance of a single boatman, who cried out: "Now
art thou arrived, fell soul ? "
" Phiegyas,1 Phlegyas, this time thou criest
I. v. 19. Phlegyas, a king of the Lapithae, enraged with
vv. 19-44] CANTO VIII 47
out in vain," said my Lord, " thou shalt not
have us longer than only while crossing the
slough." As one who listens to some great
deception that has been practiced on him, and
then repines thereat, such became Phlegyas in
his gathered anger.
My Leader descended into the bark and
then he made me enter after him, and only
when I was in did it seem laden. Soon as my
Leader and I were in the boat, the antique
prow goes its way, cutting more of the water
than it is wont with others.
While we were running through the dead
channel, one full of mud set himself before
me, and said : " Who art thou that comest be-
fore thine hour ? " And I to him : " If I come,
I do not stay ; but who art thou that art be-
come so foul ?" He answered: "Thou seest
that I am one who laments." And I to him,
" With lamenting and with sorrow, accursed
spirit, do thou remain, for I know thee, though
thou be all filthy." Then he stretched to the
boat both his hands, whereat the wary Master
thrust him back, saying: "Away there, with the
other dogs ! " Then he clasped my neck with
his arms, kissed my face, and said: " Indignant
Apollo for the violation of his daughter, set fire to the temple,
at Delphi, of the God, who slew him with his arrows. He
finds his appropriate place here as the type of impious wra'h.
48 HELL [w. 45-69
soul, blessed be she who bore thee ! 2 That
was an arrogant person in the world ; no good-
ness is there that adorns his memory ; so is his
shade furious here. How many now up there
are held great kings who shall lie here like
swine in mire, leaving of themselves horrible
dispraises ! " And I : " Master, I should
much like to see him soused in this broth be-
fore we depart from the lake." And he to
me : " Before the shore lets itself be seen by
thee thou shalt be satisfied ; it is fitting that
thou enjoy such a desire." A little after this
I saw such rending of him by the muddy folk
that I still praise God therefor, and thank Him
for it. All cried : "At Filippo Argenti ! " and
the raging Florentine spirit turned upon him-
self with his teeth. Here we left him ; so that
I tell no more of him.
But on my ears a wailing smote, whereat for-
ward intent I unbar my eye. And the good
Master said : " Now, son, the city draws near
that is named Dis,3 with its heavy citizens, with
2. v. 45. Virgil commends Dante's feeling toward the
pinner, because it was roused by righteous indignation at
Filippo Argenti for the misery wrought by his deeds of
cruelty. Its root was compassion for the innocent sufferers
from his mad rages.
3. v. 68. Dis was a name used by the Romans for the
god of the Infernal regions. Dante in giving the name to the
city may have had in mind the verse of Virgil, " Night and
vv. 70-87] CANTO VIII 49
its great throng.'' And I : " Master, already
in the valley therewithin I clearly discern its
mosques vermilion, as if they were issuing
from fire." And he said to me : " The eter-
nal fire that blazes there within displays them
red as thou seest in this nether Hell."
We at last arrived within the deep ditches
which encompass that disconsolate city. The
walls seemed to me to be of iron. Not with-
out first making a great circuit did we come
to a place where the boatman loudly shouted to
us : " Get ye out, here is the entrance."
Upon the gates I saw more than a thousand
of those rained down from heaven 4 who angrily
were saying : " Who is this, that without death
goes through the realm of the dead folk ? "
And my wise Master made a sign of wishing
to speak secretly with them.5 Then they shut
day the gate of dark Dis stands open" {AeneU+'n*
understanding Dis to mean the region and not the god.
The walls of Dis close in the sinners of the lower Hell,
whose sins were not those of passion or appetite, but of per-
manent evil dispositions.
4. v. 83. The fallen angels now become devils; and
here, for the first time, is resistance offered to the Divine will
by virtue of which Dante is making his journey through Hell.
5. v. 87. To use the arguments of reason with them,
which prove unavailing because of the continuance hi their
disposition of that pride which had been the occasion of their
in.
50 HELL [vv. 88-112
in a little their great scorn, and said : " Come
thou alone, and let him be gone who so boldly
entered on this realm. Alone let him return
on the mad path : let him try if he can ; for
thou, who hast escorted him through so dark
a region, shalt remain here." 6
Think, Reader, if I was discomforted at the
sound of the accursed words, for I did not
believe ever to return hither.7
" O my dear Leader, who more than seven
times hast restored to me security, and drawn
me from deep peril that stood confronting me,
leave me not," said I, " thus undone ; and, if
the passing farther onward be denied us, let us
together quickly retrace our steps." And that
Lord who had led me thither said to me :
" Fear not, for no one can take from us our
passage, by Such an one is it given to us. But
here await me, and comfort thy dejected spirit
and feed on good hope, for I will not leave
thee in the nether world."
So the sweet Father goes away, and here
abandons me, and I remain in suspense ; and
yes and no contend within my head. I could
not hear what he proffered to them, but he
6. v. 92. The demons are confident that human reason
can be baffled and perverted by the resources of that pride
of intellect which had been the cause of their own sin.
7. v. 96. To this world.
vv. 113-130] CANTO VIII 51
had not staid there with them long, when vying
with each other they ran back within. These
our adversaries closed the gates on the breast
of my Lord, who remained without, and turned
back to me with slow steps. He had his eyes
upon the ground, and his brows were shorn of
all hardihood, and he was saying with sighs :
" Who has denied to me the houses of woe ? "
And he said to me : " Because I am wroth, be
not thou dismayed, for I shall win the contest,
whoever circle round within for the defence.
This their insolence is not new, for of old they
used it at a less secret gate, which still is found
without a bolt.8 Above it thou didst see the
dead inscription ; and already, on this side of
it, is descending the steep, passing without
escort through the circles, One such that by
him the city shall be opened to us."
8. v. 126. A like resistance had been offered to Christ
on his descent to Hell.
CANTO IX
The City of Dis. — Erichtho. — The Three Furies. —
The Heavenly Messenger. — The Sixth Circle : that of
the Heresiarchs.
THAT color which cowardice painted out-
wardly on me when I saw my Guide turn back,
repressed more speedily his own new color.1
He stopped attentive, like a man that listens,
for the eye could not lead him far through the
black air, and through the dense fog.
"Yet it shall be for us to win the fight,"
began he, " unless — Such an one offered
herself to us.2 Oh how long it is to me till
Another arrive here ! " 3
I saw well how he covered up the beginning
with the rest that came after, which were words
different from the first ; but nevertheless his
speech gave me fear, because I drew his broken
1. v. 3. The pallor of Dante checked the flush on the
face of Virgil.
2. v. 8. Beatrice.
3. v. 9. The messenger from Heaven, referred to in
the last verses of the kst canto. Dante more than once uses
the indefinite " Another " for an unnamed superior power.
vv. 15-34] CANTO IX 53
phrase perchance to a worse meaning than it
held.
" Into this depth of the dismal shell does
any one ever descend from the first grade who
has for penalty only hope cut off?"4 This
question I put, and he answered me : " Seldom
it happens that any one of us makes the jour-
ney on which I am going. It is true that an-
other time I was down here, conjured by that
cruel Erichtho 5 who was wont to call back
shades into their bodies. Short while had my
flesh been bare of me, when she made me enter
within that wall, in order to draw thence a
spirit of the circle of Judas. That is the low-
est place, and the darkest, and the farthest
from the Heaven which encircles all. I know
the road well ; therefore assure thyself. This
marsh which breathes out the great stench girds
round the woeful city wherein now we cannot
enter without anger."
And more he said, but I have it not in mind,
4. v. 1 8. Dante asks for assurance that Virgil, whose
station is in Limbo, " the first grade," knows the way. In
Limbo the spirits are " only so far harmed that without
hope they live in desire." See Canto iv. 41.
5. v. 23. Erichtho, a sorceress of Thessaly, of whom
Lucan relates {Pbarsalia, vi. 506 sqq.) that, at the desire of
Sextus, the son of Pompey, on the night before the battle
of Pharsalia, she conjured up one of his dead soldiers to fore*
tell of its issue.
54 HELL [vv. 35-54
because my eye had wholly attracted me toward
the high tower with the ruddy summit, where
in an instant were uprisen suddenly three in-
fernal Furies,6 stained with blood, who had the
limbs of women and their action, and were girt
with greenest hydras. They had for hair little
serpents and cerastes,7 wherewith their savage
brows were bound.
And he, who well recognized the handmaids
of the queen 8 of the eternal lamentation, said
to me : " Behold the fell Erinnyes ; this is
Megaera on the left side, she who wails on the
right is Alecto, Tisiphone is in the middle : "
and therewith he was silent.
With her nails each was tearing her breast ;
they were beating themselves with their hands,
and crying out so loud that I pressed close to
the Poet through dread. " Let Medusa come,
so we will make him of stone/' they all said,
looking downward ; " ill was it we avenged not
on Theseus his assault." 9
6. v. 38. The Furies seem to typify the self-tormenting
malignant passions of the understanding perverted by pride
and self-will.
7. v. 41. Horned snakes. See Paradise Lost, x. 525.
8. v. 44. Proserpine.
9. v. 53. Theseus, failing in his attempt to rescue Per-
sephone, was kept in the lower world till he was delivered
by Hercules. His release had been in defiance of the power
of Hades.
w. 55-73] CANTO IX 55
"Turn thee round backwards, and keep
thy sight closed, for if the Gorgon show her-
self, and thou shouldst see her, no return up-
ward would there ever be." I0 Thus said the
Master, and he himself turned me, and trusted
not to my hands but with his own he also
blinded me.
O ye who have sound understandings, re-
gard the doctrine that is hidden under the veil
of the strange verses !
And already across the turbid waves was
coming a crash of a sound full of terror, at
which both the shores trembled. Not other-
wise it was than of a wind, impetuous by reason
of the opposing heats, which strikes the forest,
and without any stay shatters the branches,
beats down and carries them away ; forward,
laden with dust, it goes superb, and makes the
wild beasts and the shepherds fly.
My eyes he loosed, and said, " Now direct
10. v. 57. Medusa, who should turn Dante to stone,
that is, should harden his heart to the influences of the Divine
grace, may be the type of the sin of Desperatio, despair
of the mercy of God, which is not, says St. Thomas, the
gravest of sins, but the most dangerous. He cites the saying
of Isidore, " To despair is to descend into hell." S. T. ii2.
20, 3. Virgil's declaration that "no return upward would
there ever be," is illustrated by the words of St. Gregory,
who affirms that by Desperatio, "via jam reversionis abscin-
ditur," " the way of return is cut off." Moralia, viiL 52.
56 HELL [w. 74-101
the nerve of sight across that ancient scum,
there yonder where that fume is most bitter."
As the frogs before the hostile snake all
vanish through the water, till each huddles on
the ground, I saw more than a thousand de-
stroyed souls flying thus before One, who on
foot was passing over the Styx with soles
unwet. From his face he was removing that
thick air, waving his left hand oft before him,
and only with that trouble he seemed weary.
Well I perceived that he was a messenger from
Heaven, and I turned me to the Master, and
he made sign that I should stand quiet and
bow down to him. Ah, how full of disdain he
seemed to me ! He came to the gate and with
a little rod he opened it, for it had no resistance.
" O outcasts from Heaven ! folk despised,"
began he upon the horrible threshold, " whence
is this overweening harbored in you ? Where-
fore do ye kick against that Will from which
its end can never be cut short, and which many
a time has increased your woe ? What avails
it to butt against the fates ? Your Cerberus, if
ye remember well, still bears his chin and his
throat peeled therefor." " Then he turned
back over the filthy road, and said no word to
ii. v. 99. Because of his resistance to Hercules when
dragged in chains by him from the kingdom of Hades. See
Aeneidt vi. 395-6.
w. 101-126] CANTO IX 57
us, but wore the semblance of a man whom
other care constrains and stings, than that of
him who is before him.
Then we moved our feet toward the city,
secure after his holy words. We entered there
within without any strife : and I, who had desire
to observe the condition which such a strong-
hold locks in, soon as I was within, send my eye
round about, and I see on every hand a great
plain full of woe and of cruel torment.
As at Aries, where the Rhone stagnates, as
at Pola, near the Quarnaro which shuts Italy in
and bathes her borders, the sepulchres make all
the place uneven I2 ; so did they here on every
side, save that the manner was more bitter
here ; for among the tombs flames were scat-
tered, by which they were so wholly heated that
no art requires iron more so. All their lids
were lifted ; and such dire laments were issuing
forth from them as truly seemed of wretches
and of sufferers.
And I : " Master, who are these folk that,
buried within those coffers, make themselves
heard with their, woeful sighs ? " And he to
12. v. 1 1 5. The cemetery at Aries with its great tombs
of stone was a famous burial-ground from Roman days on-
ward through the Middle Ages. Though now desecrated the
ground still is uneven with the ancient graves. The tombs
at Pola have disappeared.
58 HELL [vv. 127-133
me : " Here are the heresiarchs with their fol-
lowers of every sect, and the tombs are much
more laden than thou thinkest. Like with like
is buried here, and the monuments are more
and less hot."
And after he had turned to the right hand/3
we passed between the torments and the high
battlements.
13. v. 132. The general course of the poets in their
descent through Hell is to the left, the sinister hand, symboliz-
ing the evil direction of the course of the sinner. Here, and
in one other instance (xvii. 31), they turn for a short distance
to the right. The significance of these turns to the right is
obscure, and no satisfactory solution of it has been proposed.
CANTO X
The Sixth Circle : Heresiarcbs. — Farinata degh
Uberti. — Cavalcante Cavalcanti. — - Frederick IL
Now, along a solitary path between the wall
of the city and the torments, my Master goes
on, and I behind his shoulders.
" O virtue supreme," I began, " that through
the impious circles dost turn me according to
thy pleasure, speak to me and satisfy my desires.
The folk that are lying in the sepulchres, might
they be seen ? all the lids are now lifted, and
no one keeps guard." And he to me : " All
will be locked in when they shall return here
from Jehoshaphat with the bodies which they
have left on earth.1 Upon this side Epicurus
/ with all his followers, who make the soul mor-
V tal with the body, have their burial place.
i. v. 12. The locality of the Last Judgment, when the
bodies of the dead were to be reunited with their souls, was
assumed to be the valley of Jehoshaphat, according to the
words of Joe It iii. 2, I 2 : "I will also gather all nations,
and will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and
will plead with them there ... for there will I sit to
judge."
60 HELL [w. 16-35
Therefore as to the request that thou makest
of me, thou shalt soon be satisfied here within ;
and also as to the desire of which thou art
silent to me." 2 And I : " Good Leader, I hold
not my heart hidden from thee except in order
to speak little ; and not only now hast thou
disposed me to this." 3
" O Tuscan, who goest thy way alive
through the city of fire, speaking thus mod-
estly, may it please thee to stop in this place.
Thy mode of speech makes manifest that thou
art native of that noble fatherland to which per-
chance I was too molestful." Suddenly this
sound issued from one of the coffers, wherefore
in fear I drew a little nearer to my Leader.
And he said to me : " Turn thee : what art
thou doing ? See there Farinata who has risen
erect ; all from the girdle upwards wilt thou
see him." 4
I had already fixed my face on his, and he
was straightening himself up with breast and
2. v. 1 8. Probably the wish to see Farinata, concern-
ing whom Dante had questioned Ciacco (Canto ri. 79).
3. v. 21. These words may refer to Dante's supposi-
tion that his question to Virgil as they were approaching
Acheron had been irksome to the poet (Canto iii. 79-80).
4. v. 33. Farinata degli Uberti was the head of tne
Ghibelline party in Tuscany for many years, about the middle
of the thirteenth century. He was a man of valor and of
wise counsel. He died not far from the time of Dante" s birth.
vv. 36-59] CANTO X 6 1
front as though he had Hell in great scorn.
And the bold and ready hands of my Leader
pushed me among the sepulchres to him, say-
ing : " Let thy words be clear."
When I was at the foot of his tomb, he
looked at me a little, and then, as though dis-
dainful, asked me, " Who were thy ancestors ? "
I, who was desirous to obey, concealed it not
from him, but disclosed it all to him ; whereon
he raised up his brows a little, then said :
" They were fiercely adverse to me arid to my
forefathers and to my party, so that at two
times I scattered them." 5 " If they were
driven out, they returned from every side,"
replied I to him, " both the one and the other
time, but yours have not learned well that
art."6
Then there arose to sight alongside of this
one, a shade uncovered far as to the chin : 1
think that it had risen on its knees. It looked
round about me, as if it had desire to see if
another were with me, but when its expectancy
was quite spent, weeping it said : " If through
this blind prison thou goest by reason of lofti-
5. v. 48. Dante's ancestors were Guelfs ; Farinata had
dispersed the Guelfs in 1 248 and I 260.
6. v. 51. The Guelfs had returned to Florence in 1251
and 1 266, and regaining power had finally expelled the Ghi-
bellines permanently.
62 HELL [vv. bo-8o
ness of genius, where is my son ? and why is he
not with thee ? " And I to him : " I come not
of myself; he who waits yonder is leading me
through here, whom perchance your Guido had
in disdain." 7
His words and the mode of the punishment
had already read to me the name of this one ;
wherefore my answer was so full.
Suddenly straightening up, he cried : " How
didst thou say, < he had ' ? lives he not still ?
does not the sweet light strike his eyes ? "
When he became aware of some delay that I
made before answering, he fell again supine,
and appeared no more outside.
But that other magnanimous one, at whose
instance I had stayed, changed not aspect, nor
moved his neck, nor bent his side. " And if,"
he said, continuing his first discourse, " they
have ill learned that art, it torments me more
than this bed. But the face of the Lady who
rules here 8 will not be rekindled fifty times ere
7. v. 63. Guido Cavalcanti, Dante's first friend (see
The New Life, § 3), was charged with the same sin of
unbelief as his father. Dante regards this as a sin specially
contrary to right reason, typified by Virgil. In 1 266-7,
when an attempt was made to reconcile the Guelf and Ghi-
belline parties in Florence, the daughter of Farinata was be-
trothed to Guido Cavalcanti, and they were subsequently
married.
8. v. 80. Proserpine, identified with the mystical He-
cate, and hence with the Moon.
rv. 81-106] CANTO X 63
thou shalt know how much that art weighs.
And, so mayest thou return to the sweet world,
tell me wherefore is that people so pitiless
against my party in its every law?" Thereon I
to him : " The rout and the great carnage which
colored the Arbia red cause such prayer to be
made in our temple/* After he had, sighing,
shaken his head, "In that I was not alone," he
said, " nor surely without cause would I have
moved with the others ; but I was alone there,9
where it was agreed by every one to destroy
Florence, he who defended her with open face."
" Ah ! so may your seed ever have repose," I
prayed to him, " loose for me that knot, which
has here entangled my judgment. It seems, if
I hear rightly, that ye see in advance that which
time is bringing with it, and as to the present
have another way." I0 " We see," he said, " like
him who has bad light, the things that are far
from us, so much the supreme Ruler still shines
on us ; when they draw near, or are, our intelli-
gence is wholly vain, and, if another report
not to us, we know nothing of your human
state ; wherefore thou canst comprehend that
9. v. 91. At Empoli, in 1260, after the terrible rout
of the Florentine Guelfs at Montaperti on the Arbia.
10. v. 99. That is, are ignorant of the present. Ciacco
and Farinata have foretold future events, but Cavalcante has
shown himself ignorant of present conditions.
64 HELL [w. 107-120
our knowledge will be utterly dead from that
moment when the gate of the future shall be
closed." " Then, as compunctious for my
fault, I said : " Now, then, you " will tell to that
fallen one that his son is still conjoined with
the living, and if just now I was dumb to an-
swer, make him know that I was so because I
was already thinking in the error which you
have solved for me." I3
And now my Master was recalling me, where-
fore more hastily I prayed the spirit that he
would tell me who was with him. He said to
me: "Here I lie with more than a thousand;
here within is the second Frederick I4 and the
Cardinal,15 and of the others I am silent."
11. v. 1 08. After the Last Judgment, the end of earth
and of time.
12. v. 1 10. The use of the plural you is to be noted as
indicating the respect in which Dante held Farinata, as the
" your Guido " in verse 63 shows a similar feeling toward
Cavalcante. The only other person in Hell whom he treats
with similar honor is Brunetto Latini, in Canto xv.
13. v. 114. Guido Cavalcanti died in August, 1300;
his death was an event too near at hand at the time of Dante' s
journey to be known to his father, who, probably, had him-
self died but recently.
14. v. 119. The famous Frederick II., " stupor
mundi," Emperor from 1212 to 1250 ; "he led an epicu-
rean life," says Villani, "never making account that there
would be another life." Cronica, vi. i.
15. v. 120. Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, a fierce Ghibel-
vv. 121-136] CANTO X 65
Thereon he hid himself; and I turned my
steps toward the ancient Poet, reflecting on
that speech which seemed hostile to me. He
moved on, and then, thus going, he said to me :
" Why art thou so disturbed ? " And I satis-
fied him as to his question. " Let thy memory
preserve that which thou hast heard against
thyself," that Sage bade me, " and now give
heed here — " and he raised his finger: "When
thou shalt be in presence of the sweet radiance
of her whose beautiful eye sees everything,
from her thou shalt learn the journey of thy
life." Then to the left he turned his step.
We left the wall, and went toward the middle
by a path that strikes into a valley which even
up there was making its stench displeasing.
line, who was reported as saying, "If there be a soul I have
lost it for the Ghibellines. " He died in 1273.
CANTO XI
Tie Sixth Circle : Heretics. — Tomb of Pope Anas*
tasius. - — Discourse of Virgil on the divisions of the lower
Hell.
UPON the edge of a high bank which great
rocks broken in a circle made, we came above
a more cruel pen. And here, because of the
horrible excess of the stench which the deep
abyss throws out, we drew aside behind the lid
of a great tomb, whereon I saw an inscription
which said : " I hold Pope Anastasius, whom
Photinus drew from the right way." '
"It behoves that our descent be slow, so that
the sense may first accustom itself a little to
the dismal blast, and then it will be of no con-
cern." Thus the Master, and I said to him :
" Some compensation do thou find that the
time pass not lost/' And he : " Behold, I am
thinking of that. My son, within these
rocks," he began then to say, " are three
i . v. 9 1 . A confused tradition charged Pope Anastasius II.,
496-498, with having been led by Photinus of Thessalonica
Into heretkal opinions concerning the divinity of Christ. „-
w. 16-39] CANTO XI 67
lesser circles from grade to grade, like those
which thou art leaving. All are full of ac-
cursed spirits ; but, in order that hereafter the
sight alone may suffice thee, hear how and
wherefore they are in bonds.
" Of every wickedness 2 that acquires hate in
heaven injury is the end, and every such end
afflicts others either by force or by fraud. But
because fraud is an evil peculiar to man, it more
displeases God ; and therefore the fraudulent
are the lower, and woe assails them more.
" The first circle 3 is wholly of the violent :
but because violence is done to three persons,
it is divided and constructed in three rounds.
To God, to one's self, to one's neighbor may
violence be done ; I say to them and to their be-
longings, as thou shalt hear with plain discourse.
By violence, death and grievous wounds are
inflicted on one's neighbor ; and on his sub-
stance ruins, burnings, and harmful extortions.
Wherefore the first round torments homicides,
and every one who smites wrongfully, all de-
spoilers and plunderers, in various troops.
2. v. 22. Wickedness, or deliberate sin that proceeds
from evil disposition, or fixed habit, distinguished from sins
of incontinence, due to passionate impulse or want of self-
control.
3. v. 28. The first circle below, the seventh in the order
of Hell.
68 HELL [vv. 40-60
u Man may lay violent hands upon himself
and on his goods ; and, therefore, in the second
round it behoves that he repent without avail
who deprives himself of your world, gambles
away and dissipates his property, and laments
there where he ought to be joyous.4
" Violence may be done to the Deity, by
denying and blaspheming Him in the heart,
and by contemning nature and His bounty : and
therefore the smallest round seals with its sig-
net both Sodom and Cahors,5 and him who,
contemning God, speaks from his heart.
" The fraud, by which every conscience is
stung, man may practice on one that confides
in him, or on one that has no stock of confi-
dence. This latter mode seems to destroy only
the bond of love which nature makes 6 ; where-
fore in the second circle 7 nest hypocrisy, flat-
teries, and he who bewitches, falsity, robbery,
and simony, panders, barrators, and such like
filth.
4. v. 45. Laments on earth because of violence done by
himself to what should have made him happy.
5. v. 50. Cahors, a town in southern France, on the
river Lot, noted in the Middle Ages for the usurious dispo-
sition and practice of its inhabitants, so that the term Caorsini
was in common use as a synonym for usurers.
6. v. 56. Only the common bond of man to man.
7. v. 57. The second circle below, the eighth in tn«
ordsr of Hell.
vv. 61-84] CANTO XI 69
" By the other mode that love is forgotten
which nature makes and that which is there-
after added, whereby special confidence is cre-
ated. Hence, in the smallest circle, where is
the point of the universe, upon which Dis sits,
whoso betrays is consumed forever."
And I : " Master, full clearly thy discourse
proceeds, and full well divides this pit, and
the people that possess it ; but, tell me, they
of the fat marsh, and they whom the wind
drives, and they whom the rain beats, and they
who encounter with such rough tongues, why
are they not punished within the ruddy city 8 if
God be wroth with them ? and if he be not so,
why are they in such plight ? "
And he said to me : " Why does thy wit so
wander beyond its wont ? or thy mind, where
else is it gazing ? Dost thou not remember
those words with which thy Ethics treats in full
of the three dispositions that Heaven abides
not ; incontinence, wickedness, and mad bestial-
ity, and how incontinence less offends God, and
incurs less blame ? 9 If thou consider well this
8. v. 73. In this lower Hell, within the walls of the
city of Dis.
9. v. 84. Aristotle, Ethics, vii. I . Dante does not adopt
Aristotle's classification as a whole, but, as has been pointed
out by Dr. Moore (Studies in Dante, i. 259, ii. 157-160)
follows him only "in the broad distinction between sins of
70 HELL [vv. 85-106
doctrine, and bring to mind who are those that
up above suffer punishment outside,10 thou wilt
see clearly why they are divided from these fel-
ons, and why less wroth the divine vengeance
hammers them."
" O Sun that healest every troubled vision,
thou dost content me so, when thou solvest,
that doubt, hot less than knowledge, pleases
me ; yet turn thee a little back," said I, "to
where thou sayest that usury offends the Di-
vine Goodness," and loose the knot."
" Philosophy," he said to me, " points out
to him who understands it, not only in one
part alone, how Nature takes her course from
the Divine Intellect and from Its art. And if
thou note thy Physics I2 well thou wilt find,
after not many pages, that your art follows her
so far as it can, as the disciple does the master,
so that your art is as it were grandchild of
God. From these two,13 if thou bring to mind
impulse [or appetite] and sins of habit . . . and as regards
the latter borrows from Cicero (De OJficiis, I. xiii. 41) the
distinction between such sins when carried out by violence
and when effected by fraud. ' ' Bestiality or brutishness thus
has no place in Dante's scheme.
10. v. 87. Outside the walls of the city of Dis.
11. v. 96. Virgil has not said this explicitly, but has
implied it in his reference to Cahors, v. 50.
12. v. 101. Aristotle, Physics > ii. 2.
13. v. 1 06. From the bounty of Nature, and the exer<
cise of Art.
vv. 107-115] CANTO XI 71
Genesis at its beginning,14 it behoves mankind
to gain their life and to advance. But because
the usurer holds another way, he contemns
Nature in herself, and in her follower,15 since
upon other thing he sets his hope.16 But
follow me now, for to go on pleases me ; for
the Fishes are quivering on the horizon, and
the Wain lies quite over Caurus,17 and far on-
wards is the descent of the steep."
14. v. 107. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou cat
bread.** Genesis iii. 19.
15. v. 1 10. " Her follower," that is, the arts of man-
kind.
1 6. v. J 1 1 . The usurer sets his hope on gain not de-
rived from the bounty of nature, nor won by the sweat of his
brow in the practice of any art, and thus, as Bacon says,
he " breaketh the first law that was made for mankind."
17. v. 1 14. The sign of the Fishes precedes that of the
Ram, and, as the Sun was in the latter sign, the time indicated
is about 4, or from 4 to 5 A. M. Caurus, the name of the
northwest wind, here stands for that quarter of the heavens*
CANTO XII
The Seventh Circle, first round: those who d9
violence to others. — The Minotaur. — The Centaurs.
• — Chiron. — Nessus. — The River of boiling Blood, and
the Sinners in it.
THE place where we came to descend the
bank was alpine, and, because also of what was
there, such that every eye would be shy of it.
As is that downfall which, on this side of
Trent, struck the Adige on its flank, either by
earthquake or through failure of support, — for
from the top of the mountain, whence it started,
to the plain, the cliff has so tumbled down that
it might afford some path to one that were
above — such was the descent of that ravine :
and on the edge of the broken chasm was out-
stretched the infamy of Crete, that was conceived
in the false cow. And when he saw us he bit
himself even as one whom wrath rends inwardly.
My Sage cried out toward him : " Perchance
thou believest that here is the Duke of Athens,1
I. v. 1 6. " Whylom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a clerk that highte Theseus,
Of Athens he was lord and governour."
— The Knight es Tale, 1-3.
vv. xo-43] CANTO XII 73
who up in the world gave thee thy death ? Get
thee gone, beast, for this one does not come
instructed by thy sister, but he goes to behold
your punishments."
As is that bull which breaks his halter at the
instant he has just received his mortal stroke,
and cannot go, but plunges this way and that,
I saw the Minotaur do the like.
And he 2 watchful cried : " Run to the
pass ; while he is in a rage it is well that thou
descend." So we took our way down over the
discharge of those stones, which often moved
under my feet because of the novel burden.
I was going along thinking, and he said;
f( Thou art thinking perhaps on this ruin which
is guarded by that bestial wrath which I just
now quelled. Now I would have thee know
that the other time when I descended here be-
low into the nether hell, this cliff had not yet
fallen. But in truth, if I discern aright, a little
ere He came, who levied the great spoil on Dis
from the uppermost circle,3 on all sides the
deep foul valley trembled 4 so that I thought
the universe felt love whereby, as some believe,
the world has oft-times been converted into
2. v. 26. Virgil.
3. v. 39. See Canto iv. 52-63.
4. v. 41. At the moment of the death of Jesus, whcr
"the earth did quake, and the rooks rent.*' Matthew
xxvii. 5 i .
74 HELL [vv. 44-60
chaos : 5 and, at that moment, this ancient rock
here and elsewhere made such downfall. But
fix thine eyes below, for the river of blood is
near, in which everyone who does harm by
violence to others is boiling."
Oh blind cupidity,6 both guilty and mad,
which so spurs us in the short life, and then, in
the eternal, steeps us so ill !
I saw a broad ditch, according as my Guide
had said, bent in an arc, as that which embraces
all the plain. And between the foot of the bank
and it, Centaurs were running in a file, armsd
with arrows, as they were wont in the won-*
to go to the chase. Seeing us descending, each
stopped, and from the troop three detached
themselves, with bows and darts first selected.
5. v. 43. It was the doctrine of Empedocles that Love
and Hate were powers to whose conflicting influences the
actual condition of the sensible world is due, the one striving
to unite, the other to separate and mingle the elementary sub-
stances. If one or the other gained complete supremacy,
which it was supposed might be the case at vast intervals of
time, the existing universe would undergo a total change in
all its parts. Dante may have gained imperfect knowledge
of this doctrine from Aristotle.
6. v. 49. Cupidity, the inordinate desire of temporal or
material things, destructive alike of charity and justice, is the
root of deeds of tyranny and violence such as are punished
here. Sfe Paradise, xv. 3; xxvii. 121; De Monarr.hia, i.
II, 70.
vv. 61-89] CANTO XII 75
And one cried from afar : " To what torment
are ye coming, ye who descend the slope ?
Tell it from there ; if not, I draw the bow."
My Master said : " We will make answer unto
Chiron near by there : to thy hurt was thy will
ever thus hasty."
Then he touched me, and said : " That is
Nessus, who died for the beautiful Dejanira,
and himself wrought vengeance for himself;
and that one in the middle, who is gazing on
his own breast, is the great Chiron who nurtured
Achilles ; that other is Pholus, who was so full
of wrath. Round about the ditch they go by
thousands, shooting with their arrows whatever
soul lifts itself from the blood more than its
crime has allotted to it."
W«? drew near to those fleet wild beasts.
Chiron took a shaft, and with the notch put his
beard back upon his jaws. When he had thus
uncovered his great mouth he said to his com-
panions : " Are ye aware that the one behind
moves what he touches ? thus are not wont
to do the feet of the dead." And my good
Leader, who was now at his breast, where the
two natures are conjoined, replied : " He is
indeed alive, and thus alone it behoves me to
show him the dark valley : necessity leads him
and not delight. One who withdrew from
singing hallelujah committed unto me this nevf
76 HELL [w. 90-112
duty ; he is no robber, nor I a fraudulent soul.
But, by that Power through which I move my
steps along so savage a road, give to us one of
thine, to whom we may keep close, who may
show us where the ford is, and may carry this
one on his back, who is not a spirit that can go
through the air."
Chiron turned upon his right breast, and
said to Nessus : " Turn, and guide them thus,
and if another troop encounter you, make it
give way."
We moved on with the trusty escort along
the edge of the crimson boiling, in which the
boiled were uttering loud shrieks. I saw folk
under it up to the brow, and the great Centaur
said : " These are tyrants who laid hold on
blood and plunder. Here they bewail their
merciless misdeeds : here is Alexander, and cruel
Dionysius who made Sicily have woeful years.
And that forehead which has such black hair
is Azzolino,7 and that other who is blond is
Opizzo of Este,8 who of a truth was slain by his
stepson up there in the world."
7. v. no. Azzolino or Ezzelino III. da Romano, son-
in-law of the Emperor Frederick II., and his vicar in North'
ern Italy; one of the most cruel of tyrants. He died in 1259.
8. v. in. Opizzo II. of Este, Marquis of Ferrara, a
rapacious tyrant. It was believed that he was smothered by
bis son, called by Dante his stepson, Azzo (referred to is
vv. 113-135] CANTO XII 77
Then I turned me to the Poet, and he said :
ct Let him now be first for thee, and I second."
A little further on the Centaur stopped above
a folk who far as the throat seemed to come out
from that boiling stream. He showed to us at
one side a solitary shade, and said : "He cleft,
in the bosom of God, the heart that still is
honored on the Thames." 9 Then I saw folk,
who were holding their heads, and even all their
chests, out of the stream ; and of these I recog-
nized many. Thus more and more that blood
sank down, until it cooked only the feet : and
here was our passage of the foss.
" As on this hand, thou seest that the boiling
stream continually diminishes," said the Cen-
taur, " so I would have thee believe that on this
other it lowers its bed more and more, until
it comes round again to where it behoves that
tyranny should groan. The divine justice here
goads that Attila who was a scourge on earth,
and Pyrrhus and Sextus ; and forever milks the
Hell, Canto xviii. 56 ; and Purgatory, Canto v. 77) in the
year 1293.
9. v. 1 20. In 1271, Prince Henry, son of Richard, Earl
of Cornwall, was stabbed, during the mass, in the church of
St. Sylvester at Viterbo, by Guy of Montfort, to avenge the
death of his father, Simon, Earl of Leicester, in 1265. The
heart of the young Prince was placed in a golden cup, ac-
cording to Villani (Cronica, vii. 39), on a column, at the
Head of London bridge.
7 8 HELL [w. 136-139
tears which with the boiling it unlocks from
Rinier of Corneto and from Rimer Pazzo/0
who made such warfare upon the highways."
Then he turned back and repassed the ford.
10. v. 137. Two noted highway robbers who, in the
thirteenth century, beset travellers on the roads between
Florence and Rome, and on the Roman Campagna.
CANTO XIII
The Seventh Circle, second round: those who have
done violence to themselves and to their goods. — The
Wood of Self-murjlerers. — The Harpies. — Pier delle
Vigne. — La no of Siena and others.
NESSUS had not yet reached the yonder bank
when we set forward through a wood which was
marked by no path. Not green leaves were
there, but of a dusky color, not smooth boughs
but gnarled and tangled, not fruits but thorns
with poison. Those savage wild-beasts that
hold in hate the tilled places between Cecina
and Corneto ' have no thickets so rough or so
dense.
Here the foul Harpies make their nests,
who chased the Trojans from the Strophades
with dismal announcement of future calamity.3
They have broad wings, and human necks and
faces, feet with claws, and the great belly feath-
ered. They make lament on the strange trees.
1 . v. 9. The little river Cecina and the town of Cor-
neto on the river Marta roughly designate respectively the
northern and southern limits of the Tuscan Maremma.
2. v. 12. See Aeneid, iii. 210-257.
8o HELL [w. 16-42
And the good Master began to say to me :
<c Before thou enterest farther, know that thou
art in the Second Round,3 and wilt be, till thou
shalt come to the horrible sand. Therefore
look well around, and so shalt thou see things
that would take credence from my speech." 4
I heard wailings uttered on every side, and I
saw no one who made them, wherefore, all be-
wildered, I stopped. I believe that he believed
that I believed that all these voices issued from
amid those trunks from people who because of
us had hidden themselves. Therefore said the
Master: " If thou break off any twig from one
of these plants, the thoughts thou hast will all
be cut short." Then I stretched my hand a
little forward and plucked a little branch from
a great thorn-bush, and its trunk cried out :
" Why dost thou break me ? " When it had
become dark with blood it began again to cry :
" Why dost thou tear me ? hast thou not any
spirit of pity? Men we were, and now we
are become stocks ; truly thy hand ought to
be more pitiful had we been souls of ser-
pents."
As from a green log that is burning at one
of its ends, and drips from the other, and hisses
with the air that is escaping, so from that bro-
3. v. 17. Of the Seventh Circle.
4. v. 21. Things which if told would seem incredible-
vv. 43-61] CANTO XIII »!
ken twig came out words and blood together \
whereon I let the tip fall, and stood like a man
who is afraid.
"If he had been able to believe before/'
replied my Sage, " O injured soul, what he has
seen only in my verse,5 he would not have
stretched out his hand on thee ; but the incredi-
ble thing made me prompt him to an act which
weighs on me myself. But tell him who thou
wast, so that, by way of some amends, he may
refresh thy fame in the world above, whereto it
is allowed him to return."
And the trunk : 6 " Thou dost so allure me
with sweet speech, that I cannot be silent, and
may it not burden you, that I am enticed to
talk a little. I am he who held both the keys
of the heart of Frederick, and who turned
them, locking and unlocking so softly, that
from his secrets I kept almost every one.
5. v. 48. In the story of Polydorus, in the third book
of the Aeneid.
6. v. 55. The spirit who speaks is Pier delle Vigne ; of
low birth, but of great ability, he rose rapidly at the court of
Frederick II., till he became the Chancellor of the kingdom
of the Two Sicilies, and later the private secretary and confi-
dential minister of the Emperor. In I 249 he fell into dis-
grace, and, according to common report, his eyes were put out,
and he killed himself at Pisa by dashing his head against a wall.
He was one of the earliest writers of Italian verse. Dante has
placed his master as well as him in Hell. See Canto x. 1 19*
82 HELL [vv. 62-88
Fidelity so great I bore to the glorious office,
that I lost my sleep and my pulse thereby.
The harlot/ that never from the abode of Caesar
turned her strumpet eyes, — the common death
and vice of courts, — inflamed all minds against
me, and they, inflamed, did so inflame Augus-
tus that my glad honors turned to dismal sor-
rows. My mind, through scornful disgust,
thinking to escape scorn by death, made me un-
just toward my just self. By the strange roots
of this tree I swear to you, that I never broke
faith to my lord who was so worthy of honor.
And if one of you returns to the world, let him
comfort my memory which yet lies prostrate
from the blow that envy gave it."
He paused a little, and then, " Since he is
silent," said the Poet to me, "lose not the
hour, but, if more please thee, speak and en-
quire of him." Whereon I to him : " Do thou
ask him further of what thou thinkest may sat-
isfy me, for I cannot, such great pity fills my
heart."
Therefore he began again : " So may this
man do for thee freely that which thy speech
prays for, spirit incarcerate, may it please thee
yet to tell us how the soul is bound within
7. v. 64. *' Envie is lavendere of the court alway j
For she ne parteth, neither nyght ne day,
Out of the house of Cesar, — thus seith Dante. **
Legende of Good Womtnt 358-60.
vv. 89-114] CANTO XIII 83
these knots, and tell us, if thou canst, if from
such limbs any soul is ever loosed."
Then the trunk puffed strongly, and soon
the wind was changed into this voice : " Briefly
shall ye be answered. When the ferocious
soul departs from the body wherefrom itself
has torn itself, Minos sends it to the seventh
gulf. It falls into the wood, and no part is
chosen for it, but where fortune flings it there
it sprouts like a grain of spelt ; it rises in a
sapling and to a wild plant : the Harpies, feed-
ing then upon its leaves, give pain, and to the
pain a window.8 Like the others we shall go
for our spoils,9 but not, however, that any one
may revest himself with them, for it is not just
for one to have that of which he deprives him-
self. Hither shall we drag them, and through
the melancholy wood shall our bodies be sus-
pended, each on the thorn-tree of its molested
shade."
We were still attentive to the trunk, believ-
ing that it might wish to say more to us, when
we were surprised by an uproar, like one who
perceives the wild boar and the chase coming
toward his post, and hears the beasts and the
8. v. 1 02. The tearing of the leaves gives an outlet to
the woe.
9. v. 103. Like other spirits, for their bodies, at the
Last Judgment.
84 HELL [vv. 115-140
crash of the branches. And behold, two on the
left hand, naked and scratched, flying so hard
that they broke through every barrier of the
wood. The one in front was shouting : " Haste
now ! haste thee, Death ! " and the other,
who seemed to himself too slow: " Lano, thy
legs were not so nimble at the jousts of the
Toppo " : I0 and since perhaps his breath was
failing, of himself and of a bush he made a
group. Behind them the wood was full of
black bitches, ravenous and running like grey-
hounds that had been slipped from the leash.
On him who had squatted they set their teeth
and tore him piecemeal, then carried off those
woeful limbs.
My Guide then took me by the hand, and
led me to the bush, which was weeping in vain
through its bleeding fractures. " O Jacomo of
Sant' Andrea," it was saying," "what has it
vantaged thee to make of me a screen ? What
blame have I for thy wicked life ? " When the
Master had stopped above it, he said : "Who
wast thou, who through so many wounds blow-
est forth with blood a woeful speech ? " And
he to us : " O souls that are arrived to see the
10. v. 121. Lano was slain in flight at the defeat of the
Sienese by the Aretines, near the Pieve del Toppo, in I 280.
He and Jacomo were notorious spendthrifts.
11. v. 133. It is not known who this is that speaks,.
vv. 141-151] CANTO XIII 85
shameful ravage that has thus disjoined my
twigs from me, collect them at the foot of the
wretched bush. I was of the city which for the
Baptist changed her first patron ; I2 wherefore
he will always make her sorrowful with his art.
And were it not that at the passage of the Arno
some semblance of him still remains, those citi-
zens who afterwards rebuilt it upon the ashes
that were left by Attila I3 would have done the
work in vain.14 I made a gibbet for myself of
my own house."
12. v. 144. The first patron of Florence was Mars ; a
fragment of a statue of whom stood till 1333 at the head of
the Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge over the Arno. See
Paradise, xvi. 145—147.
13. v. 149. It was not Attila, but Totila, who in 542
besieged Florence, and, according to false popular tradition,
burned it. Their names and deeds were frequently con-
founded in the Dark Ages.
14. v. 150. Under these words lies a satirical reference
to the devotion of the Florentines to money making. Dante
means, says Benvenuto da Imola, " that after Florence gave up
Mars, that is, fortitude and valor in arms, and began to worship
the Baptist alone, that is, the Florin, on which is the figure
of the Baptist, they met with misfortune in their wars."
The fragment of the statue of Mars was a type of the little
that remained of their old valor.
CANTO XIV
The Seventh Circle, third round: those who have
done violence to God. — The Burning Sand. — Capaneus.
— Figure of the Old Man in Crete. — The Rivers of
Hell.
BECAUSE the love of my native place con-
strained me, I gathered up the scattered twigs
and gave them back to him who was already
faint-voiced.
Thence we came to the confine, where the
second round is divided from the third, and
where a horrible mode of justice is seen.
To make the new things clearly manifest, I
say that we had reached a plain which rejects
every plant from its bed. The woeful wood is
a garland round about it, even as the dismal
foss to that. Here, on the very edge, we
stayed our steps. The floor was an arid and
dense sand, not made in other fashion than that
which of old was trodden by the feet of Cato.1
O vengeance of God, how much shouldst
I . v. I 5 . On his march across the Libyan desert, from
Cyrene to Utica, in the year B. c. 47. See Lucan, Pbarsalia.
ix. 371-378.
vv. 16-43] CANTO XIV 87
thou be feared by every one who reads that
which was manifest to my eyes !
I saw many flocks of naked souls, that were
all weeping very miserably, and divers law
seemed imposed upon them. Some folk were
lying supine on the ground,2 some were seated
all crouched up,3 and others were going about
continually.4 Those who were going around
were the more numerous, and those the less so
who were lying down under the torment, but
they had their tongues more loosed by the
pain.
Over all the sand, with a slow falling, were
raining down dilated flakes of fire, as of snow
on alps without a wind. As the flames which
Alexander in those hot parts of India saw fall-
ing upon his host, unbroken to the ground,
wherefore he took care to trample the soil by
his troops, because the vapor was better extin-
guished while it was single ; so was descending
the eternal heat whereby the sand was kindled,
like tinder beneath the steel, for doubling of
the dole. The dance of the wretched hands
was ever without repose, now there, now here,
shaking off from them the fresh burning.
I began : tc Master, thou that overcomest
z. v. 22. Those who had done violence to God.
3. v. 23. Those who had done violence to Nature.
4. v. 24. Those who had done violence to Art.
88 HELL [vv. 44-66
everything, except the obdurate demons, who
at the entrance of the gate came out against us,
who is that great one that seems not to heed
the fire, and lies despiteful and twisted, so that
the rain seems not to ripen him ? " 5 And that
same one who was aware that I was asking my
Leader about him, cried out : " Such as I was
alive, such am I dead. Though Jove weary
out his smith, from whom in wrath he took
the sharp thunderbolt wherewith on my last
day I was smitten, or though he weary out the
others, turn by turn, in Mongibello6 at the
black forge, crying, ' Good Vulcan, help, help ! '
even as he did at the fight of Phlegra,7 and
hurl on me with all his might, he should not
have thereby glad vengeance."
Then my Leader spoke with force so great,
that I had never heard him so vehement : " O
Capaneus, in that thy pride is not extinct, art
thou the more punished ; no torment save thine
own rage would be a pain adequate to thy fury."
5. v. 48. It is Capaneus, one of the seven kings who be-
sieged Thebes. He, having mounted the walls, defied Jupiter,
who slew him with a thunderbolt. See Statius, Tbebaid, x.
898-939.
6. v. 56. Mt. ./Etna, called by the Saracens in Sicily,
Al gebelt "The Mountain"; this designation was trans-
formed by the Italians into Mongibello.
7. v. 58. The battle between the Gods and the Giants,
in the vale of Phlegra in Thessaly.
vv .67-89] CANTO XIV 89
Then he turned round to me with better
look, saying : " That was one of the Seven
Kings who besieged Thebes, and he held, and
it seems that he holds God in disdain, and it
seems that he little prizes Him ; but as I said to
him, his own despites are very due adornments
for -his breast. Now come behind me, and
take heed still not to set thy feet upon the
scorched sand, but keep them always close to
the wood/*
In silence we came to where a little brook,
the redness of which still makes me shudder,
gushes forth from the wood. As from the
Bulicame 8 a rivulet issues, which then the sinful
women share among them, so that went down
across the sand. Its bed and both its sloping
banks were made of stone, and the margins on
the side, wherefore I perceived that the cross-
ing9 was there.
" Among all else that I have shown to thee,
since we entered through the gate whose thresh-
old is denied to no one, nothing has been dis-
cerned by thine eyes so notable as is the present
8. v. 79. The Bulicame, a hot spring near Viterbo, fre-
quented as a bath, the use of a portion of which was assigned
to " sinful women."
9. v. 84. The crossing of the breadth of the round ol
burning sand, on the way inward toward the descent to the
next circle.
go HELL [vv. 90-110
stream which deadens all the flamelets above
it." 10 These words were of my Leader, where-
fore I prayed him, that he would bestow on
me the food of which he had bestowed on me
the desire.
"In mid sea lies a wasted land," said he
then, " which is named Crete, under whose
king the world of old was chaste. A moun-
tain is there which of old was glad with water
and with leaves, which is called Ida ; now it is
desert, like a thing outworn. Rhea chose it
of old for the trusty cradle of her little son,
and, the better to conceal him when he wailed,
caused cries to be made there." Within the
mountain a great old man stands upright, who
holds his shoulders turned towards Dami-
etta,12 and gazes at Rome as if his mirror. His
head is formed of fine gold, and his arms and
breast are pure silver ; then far as to the fork
he is of brass ; from there downward he is all
of chosen iron, save that his right foot is of
10. v. 90. By the steam rising from it ; see xv. 3.
11. v. 1 02. To prevent Saturn from hearing the cries of
the infant Jupiter, whom, had he known him to be alive, he
would have sought to devour, in order to avert the fulfillment
of the prophecy that he would be dethroned by one of his
children. See Ovid, Fasti, iv. 197-214.
12. v. 104. Damietta, near the chief eastern mouth of
the Nile, designates here the East, where the history of man
began.
vv. 111-125] CANTO XIV 91
baked earth, and he stands erect on that more
than on the other.13 Every part except the
gold is cleft with a fissure that drips tears,
which, collected, perforate that cavern. Their
course is from rock to rock into this valley ;
they form Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon;
then their way is down through this narrow
channel till, where there is no more descend-
ing, they form Cocytus, and what that pool is,
thou shalt see ; therefore here it is not told."
And I to him : " If the present stream flows
down thus from our world, why does it appear
to us only at this border ? " I4
And he to me : " Thou knowest that the
place is circular, and though thou art come far,
13. v. in. This image is taken directly from the dream
of Nebuchadnezzar ( Daniel ii. 3 I— 3 3 ) . It is the type of the
historic life of man, with its back to the past, its face toward
Rome, — the centre of the actual world. Its upper parts of
metal represent the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron ages,
according to the fancy of the poets. The two legs are gen-
erally interpreted as the symbols of the Empire and the
Church ; the right leg, on which the image rests the most,
being the type of the Church. There is much difference
of opinion concerning the significance of its foot of baked
earth; possibly it may refer to the element of weakness in the
Papacy from the earthly character of the Popes. The tears
of the sinful and suffering generations of man form the rivers
of Hell.
14. v. 123. This border of the third round of the
seventh circle.
92 HELL [vv. 126-142
always to the left in descending toward the
bottom, thou hast not yet turned through the
whole circle ; wherefore if a new thing appears
to us, it ought not to bring wonder to thy
face."
And I again : " Master, where are Phle-
gethon and Lethe found, for of the one thou
art silent, and the other thou sayest is formed
by this rain ? " '5
"In all thy questions truly thou pleasest
me/' he answered, " but the boiling of the red
water should well solve one that thou askest.16
Lethe thou shalt see, but outside of this ditch,
there where the souls go to lave themselves,
when the fault repented of has been removed."
Then he said, " Now it is time to quit the wood ;
take heed that thou come behind me ; the mar-
gins which are not burning afford way, and
above them every vapor is extinguished."
15. v. 132. The rain of tears.
1 6. The color and boiling of the river of blood in the first
round of this seventh circle might have told Dante that it
was Phlegethon, "rapidus flammis . . . torrentibus amnis "
(Acneid, vi. 556).
CANTO XV
Third round of the Seventh Circle : of those who have
dont violence to Nature. — Brunetto Latini. — Prophe-
cies of misfortune to Dante.
Now one of the hard margins bears us on,
and the fume of the brook overshadows so that
it saves the water and the banks from the fire.
As the Flemings, between Wissant and Bruges,
fearing the flood that rushes toward them, make
the bulwark whereby the sea may be routed ;
and as the Paduans along the Brenta, in order
to defend their towns and their castles, ere Chi-
arentana x feel the heat, — in such like were
these made, though neither so high nor so thick
had the master, whoever he was, made them.
We were now so remote from the wood that
I could not have seen where it was though I
had turned backward, when we encountered a
troop of souls which was coming alongside the
bank, and each of them was looking at us, as
a man is wont to look at another at evening
I. v. 9. The mountain regions north of the Brenta, by
the floods from which the river is swollen in the spring.
94 HELL [vv. 19-38
under the new moon ; and they so sharpened
their brows toward us as the old tailor does on
the needle's eye.
Thus eyed by that company, I was recog-
nized by one who took me by the hem, and
cried out : " What a marvel ! " And when he
stretched out his arm to me, I fixed my eyes on
his baked aspect so that his scorched visage did
not prevent the recognition of him by my in-
telligence ; and bending down my own to his
face, I answered : " Are you here, Ser Bru-
netto ? " 2 And he : " O my son, let it not dis-
please thee if Brunetto Latini turns back a little
with thee, and lets the train go on." I said to
him : " With all my power I pray this of you,
and if you will that I sit down with you I will
do so, if it please him there,3 for I go with him."
" O son," said he, " whoever of this herd stops
for an instant, lies afterwards a hundred years
2. v. 30. Brunetto Latini, one of the most learned and
able Florentines of the thirteenth century. He was ban-
ished with the other chiefs of the Guelph party, after the
battle of Montaperti, in I 260, and went to France, where
he resided for many years. After his return to Florence he
became Secretary of the Commune. His principal literary
work was Li Livres dou Tresor, written in French, an inter-
esting compend of the omne scibile. He died in 1 290.
Dante uses the plural " you " in addressing him, as a sign
of respect.
3. v. 36. Dante never speaks Virgil's name in Hell.
w. 39-63] CANTO XV 95
without fanning himself when the fire smites
him ; therefore go onward : I will come at thy
skirts, and then I will rejoin my band which
goes lamenting its eternal penalties."
I dared not descend from the road to go
level with him, but I held my head bowed like
one who goes reverently. He began : "What
fortune or destiny leads thee down here before
thy last day ? and who is this that shows the
road ? "
" There above, in the bright life," I answered
him, " I went astray in a valley, before my time
was full. Only yesterday morning I turned
my back on it : this one appeared to me as I
was returning to it, and he is leading me home-
ward again along this path."
And he to me : "If thou follow thy star,
thou canst not miss the glorious port, if, in the
fair life, I discerned aright : and if I had not so
untimely died, seeing heaven so benignant to
thee, I would have given thee cheer in thy work.
But that ungrateful malignant people which de-
scended from Fiesole of old,4 and still smacks
of the mountain and the rock, will make itself
4. v. 62. After his flight from Rome Catiline betook
himself to Faesulae (Fiesole), and here for a time held out
against the Roman forces. The popular tradition ran that,
after his defeat, Faesuiae was destroyed, and its people, to-
gether with a colony from Rome, made a settlement on the
96 HELL [vv. 64-88
hostile to thee because of thy good deeds ; and
it is right, for among the bitter sorb-trees it
befits not the sweet fig to bear fruit. Old re~
port in the world calls them blind ; it is an
avaricious, envious, and proud folk ; from their
customs take heed that thou cleanse thyself.
Thy fortune reserves such honor for thee that
the one party and the other shall have hunger
for thee : but far from the goat shall be the
grass. Let the Fiesolan beasts make litter of
themselves, and let them not touch the plant,
if any spring yet upon their dungheap, in which
the holy seed may revive of those Romans who
remained there when it became the nest of so
much wickedness."
" If my entreaty were all fulfilled," replied I
to him, " you would not yet be placed in ban-
ishment from human nature ; for in my mind
is fixed, and now fills my heart, the dear, good,
paternal image of you, when in the world hour
by hour you taught me how man makes him-
self eternal ; and how much I hold it in grati-
tude, it behoves that while I li^e should be dis-
cerned in my speech. That which you tell of
banks of the Arno, below the mountain on which Faesulae
had stood. The new town was named Fiora, siccome fosse
in fora edificata, " as though built among flowers," but
afterwards was called Fiorenza, or Florence. See G. Vil-
lani, Cronica, i. 31—38.
vv. 89-110] CANTO XV 97
my course I write, and reserve it with other \
text 5 to be glossed by a Lady, who will know ;
how, if I attain to her. Thus much would I /
have manifest to you, that I, provided my con-
science chide me not, for Fortune, as she wills,
am ready. Such earnest6 is not strange unto
my ears ; therefore let Fortune turn her wheel
as pleases her, and the churl his mattock."
My Master thereupon turned backward to
his right, and looked at me ; then said : " He
listens well who notes it." 7
Not the less for this do I go on speaking
with Ser Brunetto, and I ask, who are his most
noted and most eminent companions. And he
to me : " To know of some is good, of the
others it will be laudable for us to be silent,
for the time would be short for so much speech.
In brief, know that all were clerks, and great
men of letters and of great fame, defiled in the
world by one same sin. Priscian goes along
with that disconsolate crowd, and Francesco
d' Accorso ; 8 and thou couldst also have seen
5. v. 89. The prophecy by Ciacco of the fall of Dante's
party, Canto vi., and that by Farinata of Dante's exile,
Canto x., which Virgil had promised should be made clear
•'o him by Beatrice.
6. v. 94. Such warnings of what is to come.
7. v. 99. Who lays to heart what is said.
8. v. 109. Priscian, the famous grammarian of the sixth
98 HELL [vv. 111-124
there, hadst thou had hankering for such scurf,
him who was translated by the Servant of Ser-
vants from the Arno to the Bacchiglione,
where he left his ill-strained nerves.9 Of more
would I tell, but my going on and my speech
cannot be longer, for I see yonder a new smoke
rising from the sand-1? Folk come with whom
I must not be. Let my Treasure," in which
I still am living, be commended to thee, and
more I ask not/1
Then he turned back, and seemed of those
who run across the plain at Verona for the
green cloth,12 and of these he seemed the one
that wins, and not he that loses.
century; Francesco, a jurist of much repute in his time, who
taught at Oxford and at Bologna, and died in I 294 ; he was
son of the more eminent Accorso whose " Perpetual Com-
ment ' ' is still known to students of the Roman Law.
9. v. 1 1 4. Andrea de* Mozzi, bishop of Florence, who
because of his scandalous life was translated by Boniface
VIII. to the less conspicuous bishopric of Vicenza, through
which city the Bacchiglione runs. He died in I 296.
10. v. 117. Smoke rising from the flames that burn the
bodies of another troop of the sinners.
u. v. 119. That is, Li Livres dou Tresor, f the trea-
sure' of knowledge.
12. v. 122. The prize in the annual races at Verona.
CANTO XVI
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done
violence to Nature. — Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldo-
brandi and Jacopo Rusticucci. — The roar of Phlegethon
as it pours downward. — The cord thrown into the abyss.
I WAS now in a place where the resounding
of the water which was falling into the next
circle was heard, like that hum which the bee-
hives make, when three shades together sepa-
rated themselves, as they ran, from a troop that
was passing under the rain of the bitter tor-
ment. They came toward us, and each cried
out : " Stop thou, who by thy garb seemest to
us to be one from our wicked city ! "
Ah me ! what wounds I saw upon their
limbs, recent and old, burnt in by the flames ;
it grieves me still for them but to remember it.
My Teacher gave heed to their cries ; he
turned his face toward me, and : "Now wait,"
he said ; " to these one should be courteous,
and were it not for the fire which the nature of
the place shoots forth, I should say that haste
better befitted thee than them."
ioo HELL [w. 19-45
As we stopped, they began again the old
verse/ and when they had reached us they all
three made a wheel of themselves. As cham-
pions, naked and oiled, are wont to do, watch-
ing for their grip and their vantage, before they
exchange blows and thrusts, thus, wheeling,
each directed his face on me, so that his neck
was making continuous journey in contrary di-
rection to his feet.
" And if the wretchedness of this soft place 2
bring us and our prayers into contempt," began
one, " and our darkened and scorched aspect,
let our fame incline thy mind to tell us who
thou art, that so securely rubbest thy living
feet through Hell. He whose tracks thou
seest me trample, although he go naked and
stripped of skin, was of greater degree than
thou thinkest. He was grandson of the good
Gualdrada ; his name was Guido Guerra, and
in his life he did much with wisdom and with
the sword. The other who treads the sand
behind me is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose
reputation should be cherished in the world
above. And I, who am set with them on the
cross, was Jacopo Rusticucci,3 and surely my
ravage wife more than aught else injures me."
1. v. 20. The wonted burden of their lamentation.
See xiv. 20.
2. v. 20. Soft with its loose sand.
3. v. 44. Concerning Tegghiaio and Rusticucci Dante
vv. 46-70] CANTO XVI ioi
If I had been sheltered from the fire I should
have cast myself below among them, and I be-
lieve that the Teacher would have permitted
it ; but because I should have been burnt and
baked, fear overcame my good will which made
me greedy to embrace them, Then I began :
" Not contempt, but grief, did your condition
fix within me, such that slowly will it be all di-
vested, soon as this my Lord said to me words
by which I bethought me that such folk as ye
are were coming. I am of your city ; and I
have always rehearsed and heard with affection
your deeds and honored names. I am leaving
the gall, and going for sweet fruits promised to
me by my veracious Leader ; but far as to the
centre I needs must first descend."
cc So may thy soul long direct thy limbs,"
replied he then, " and so may thy fame shine
after thee, say if courtesy and valor abide in
our city as of wont, or if they have quite gone
forth from it ? For Guglielmo Borsiere,4 who
had enquired of Ciacco, Canto vi. 79, 80. Tegghiaio and
Guido Guerra were illustrious citizens of Florence in the
thirteenth century ; of Rusticucci little is known. The good
Gualdrada, famed for her beauty and her modesty, was the
daughter of Messer Bellincione Berti, referred to in Cantos
xv. and xvi. of Paradise as one of the early worthies of the
city. See G. Villani, Cronica, v. 37.
4. v. 70. Nothing is known from contemporary record
of Borsiere, but Boccaccio tells a good story of him in th«
Decameron, i. 8.
102 HELL [vv. 71-95
is in torment with us but short while, and is
going yonder with our companions, afflicts us
greatly with his words/'
" The new people and the sudden gains s
have engendered pride and excess, Florence, in
thee, so that already thou weepest therefor."
Thus I cried with uplifted face, and the three,
who understood this for answer, looked one at
the other, as one looks at truth.
" If other times it costs thee so little," replied
they all, " to satisfy others, happy thou if thus
thou speakest at thy pleasure.6 Wherefore, if
thou escapest from these dark places, and re-
turnest to see again the beautiful stars, when it
shall rejoice thee to say, c I have been/ mind
thou tell of us to the people." Then they
broke the wheel, and in flying their swift legs
seemed wings.
An amen could not have been said so
quickly as they had disappeared : wherefore it
seemed well to my Master to depart. I fol-
lowed him, and we had gone little way before
the sound of the water was so near to us, that
had we spoken we had scarce been heard. As
that river which first from Monte Viso holds
5. v. 73. Florence had grown rapidly in population
and in wealth during the last years of the thirteenth century.
6. v. 81. Without constraint, and without peril fion>
thy frank speech.
vv. 96-109] CANTO XVI 103
its own course toward the east, on the left flank
of the Apennine, — which is called Acquacheta
up above, before it sinks down into its low bed,
and at Forli has lost that name,7 — reverberates
in falling from the alp with a single leap there
above San Benedetto, where ought to be shelter
for a thousand ; 8 thus, down from a precipitous
bank, we found that dark water resounding, so
that in short while it would have hurt the ears.
I had a cord girt around me, and with it I
had once thought to take the leopard of the
painted skin.9 After I had loosed it wholly
7. v. 99. The river which in its upper course was called
Acquacheta, or Stillwater, when it reached Forli, was called
the Montone or Ram ; it was the first of the rivers on the
left of the Apennines that had its independent course to the
Adriatic, which it entered near Ravenna ; the others being
tributaries of the Po, which rises on Monte Viso.
8. v. 102. The fall was near the monastery of San
Benedetto, and the common explanation of these obscure
words is, that the monastery ought to have contained more
monks than it actually held.
9. v. 108. The leopard of the painted skin, which had
often turned back Dante from the Mountain to the Dark
Wood (see Canto i.) ; the type of sensual sin. The cord
symbolises the human means, the ascetic vows or whatsoever
else, on which Dante had relied to capture and subdue the
beast. But now that he has been led through the circles
in which the penalties of lust are exacted, and has learned
the lesson of resistance, the cord is no longer needed ; some
i-ignal is required to summon Geryon, and Virgil uses the
now needless cord for the purpose.
104 HELL [vv. 110-136
from me, as my Leader had commanded me5
I reached it to him gathered up and coiled.
Whereon he turned toward the right, and threw
it, somewhat far from the edge, down into that
deep gulf. " And surely/* said I to myself,
" it must be that some novelty respond to the
novel signal which the Master so follows with
his eye."
Ah ! how cautious ought men to be near
those who see not only the deed, but with their
wisdom look within the thoughts ! He said to
me : " That which I await will soon come up,
and what thy thought is dreaming must soon
discover itself to thy sight."
A man ought always to close his lips so far
as he can to that truth which has the aspect
of falsehood, because without fault it causes
shame ; I0 but here I cannot be silent, and
Reader, I swear to thee, by the notes of this
comedy, — so may they not be void of lasting
grace, — that I saw through that thick and dark
air a shape marvelous to every steadfast heart
come swimming upwards, like as he returns
who goes down sometimes to loose an anchor
that grapples either a rock or aught else which
is hidden in the sea, who stretches upward, and
draws in his feet.
10. v. 126. Because the narrator is falsely taxed with
falsehood.
CANTO XVII
Third round of the Seventh Circle : of those who bcrvt
done violence to Art. — Geryon. — The Usurers. — De~
scent to the Eighth Circle.
" BEHOLD the wild beast with the pointed
tail, that passes mountains, and breaks walls
and weapons ; behold him that infects all the
world." ' Thus began my Leader to speak to
me ; and he beckoned to him that he should
come to shore near the end of the marbles we
had walked on.2 And that loathsome image of
fraud came onward, and landed his head and
his bust, but did not draw up his tail on the
bank. His face was the face of a just man (so
benignant the skin it had outwardly), and all his
trunk was of a serpent ; he had two paws, hairy
to the armpits ; his back and his breast and
both his sides were painted with nooses and
1. v. 3. Dante makes Geryon the type and image of
Fraud, thus allegorizing the triple form (forma tricorporu
umbrae : Aeneid, vi. 289; tergemini Geryonae : Id. viii. 292)
ascribed to him by the ancient poets.
2. v. 6. The stony margin of Phlegethon- on which
Virgil and Dante have crossed the sand.
io6 HELL [vv. 16-38
rings. Tartars or Turks never made cloth with
more colors of groundwork and pattern, nor
were such webs laid on the loom by Arachne.
As sometimes boats lie on the shore, and
are partly in water and partly on the ground,
and as yonder, among the gluttonous Germans,
the beaver settles himself to make his war,3 so
lay that worst of beasts upon the edge of stone
which closes in the sand. In the void all his tail
was quivering, twisting upwards its venomous
fork, which in guise of a scorpion armed the
point.
The Leader said : " Now needs must our
way bend a little toward that wicked beast
which is couching yonder." Therefore we de-
scended on the right hand side and took ten
steps upon the verge in order completely to
avoid the sand and the flamelets. And when
we had come to him, I see, a little farther on,
people sitting upon the sand near to the empty
space.4
Here the Master said to me : " In order that
thou mayst carry away quite full experience of
3. v. 22. With his tail in the water to attract his prey,
as was popularly believed.
4. v. 36. These people seated on the edge of the pit
are of the third class of sinners punished in this round of the
Seventh Circle, those who have done violence to Art, the
usurers. (See Canto xi. 94-111.)
vv. 39-60] CANTO XVII 107
this round, now go and see their condition.
Let thy talk there be brief; until thou return-
est I will speak with this beast, that it may
concede to us its strong shoulders."
Thus, further up along the extreme head of
that seventh circle, all alone I went where the
sad people were sitting. Their woe was burst-
ing forth through their eyes ; now here, now
there they made help with their hands, some-
times against the vapors,5 and sometimes against
the hot soil. Not otherwise do the dogs in
summer, now with muzzle, now with paws, when
they are bitten either by fleas, or flies, or gad-
flies. When I set my eyes on the face of
certain of those on whom the grievous fire falls,
I did not recognize one of them ; 6 but I per-
ceived that from the neck of each was hanging
a pouch, which had a certain color and a certain
device,7 and therewith it seems their eye is fed.
And as I come gazing among them, I saw
upon a yellow purse azure which had the face
and bearing of a lion.8 Then as the current
5. v. 48. The falling flakes of flame.
6. v. 54. Dante thus indicates that they were not
worthy to be known.
7. v. 56. The blazon of their arms, by which Dante
earns who they are, not nobly borne upon the shield, but
basely on the purse.
8. v. 60. In heraldic terms, or, a lion's face azure,
io8 HELL [vv. 61-82
of my look proceeded, I saw another, red as
blood, display a goose whiter than butter.
And one, who had his little white sack marked
with an azure and gravid sow,9 said to me :
x What art thou doing in this ditch ? Now
get thee gone: and since thou art still alive,
know that my neighbor, Vitaliano, will sit here
at my left side. With these Florentines am
I, a Paduan ; often they stun my ears, shout-
ing: c Let the sovereign cavalier come who
will bring the pouch with the three beaks/ " lo
Then he twisted his mouth, and thrust out his
tongue, like an ox that licks its nose. And I,
fearing lest longer stay might vex him who had
admonished me to stay but little, turned back
from these weary souls.
I found my Leader, who had already
mounted upon the croup of the fierce animal,
and he said to me : " Now be thou strong and
courageous ; henceforth the descent is by such
the armorial bearings of the Gianfigliazzi, a Guelf family
of Florence ; the next, gules, a goose argent were those of
tne Ubriachi, Ghibellines, also of Florence.
9. v. 64. Argent, a sow in brood azure, the arms of
the Scrovigni of Padua. The sow, scrofa, is an instance
of canting heraldry.
10. v. 73. One Giovanni Buiamonte of Florence, " who
surpassed all others of the time in usury," says Benvenuto da
Imola. The shield of the Buiamonu bore three beaks of
eagles.
vv. 83-108] CANTO XVII 109
stairs ; " mount thou in front, for I wish to be
between, so that the tail cannot do harm."
As is he who has the shivering fit of the
quartan so near that his nails are already pale,
and he is all of a tremble only looking at the
shade, such I became at these uttered words :
but his exhortations wrought shame in me,
which in presence of a good lord makes a ser-
vant strong.
I seated myself on those huge shoulders.
" So do," I wished to say, but the voice came
not as I thought, " that thou embrace me."
But he who other time had succored me, in
other chance, soon as I mounted, clasped me
and sustained me with his arms ; and he said :
" Geryon, move on now ; let thy circles be wide,
and thy descending slow; consider the novel
burden that thou hast."
As the little vessel goes from its place, back-
ward, backward, so he thence withdrew; and
when he felt himself quite at play, he turned
his tail to where his breast had been, and
moved it stretched out like an eel, and with
his paws gathered the air to himself. Greater
fear I do not think there was when Phaethon
abandoned the reins, whereby heaven, as is
still apparent,12 was scorched ; nor when the
11. v. 82. Not by foot nor by boat as heretofore, but
Carried by living ministers of Hell.
12. v. 108. In the Milky Way.
no HELL [vv. 109-136
wretched Icarus felt his loins unfeathering by
the melted wax, his father crying to him : "111
way thou holdest," than mine was, when I saw
that I was in the air on every side, and saw
every sight vanished, except that of the beast.
It goes along swimming slowly, slowly, wheels
and descends, but I perceive it not, save for the
wind upon my face, and from below.
I heard now on the right hand the gulf13
making beneath us a horrible din ; wherefore I
stretch out my head, with my eyes downward.
Then I became more terrified at the precipice,
because I saw fires and heard laments ; whereat
I, trembling, all the closer cling. And I saw
then, for I had not seen them before, the de-
scending and the circling, by the great evils
which were drawing near on divers sides.14
As the falcon which has been long on wing,
that, without sight of lure or bird, makes the fal-
coner say: " Ah me, thou stoopest ! " descends
weary, whence it started swiftly, through a hun-
dred circles, and alights disdainful and sullen
far from its master ; so Geryon set us at the
bottom, at the very foot of the rough hewn
rock, and, disburdened of our persons, vanished
as arrow from the bowstring.
13. v. 1 1 1 . Into which the red stream is falling.
14. v. 126. The fires as they came into sight from dif-
ferent points, and the wailings as they struck the ear, were
terrifying signs by which the circling descent could be noted.
CANTO XVIII
Eighth Circle : the fraudulent ; the first pouch: pan-
ders and seducers. — Venedico Caccianimlco. — Jason. —
Second valley : false flatterers. — Alessio Interminei. —
Thais.
THERE is a place in Hell called Malebolge,1
all of stone and of the color of iron, as is
the circular wall that environs it. Right in the
middle of this malign field yawns a very wide
and deep pit, the structure of which I will tell of
in its place. That belt, therefore, which remains
between the pit and the foot of the high hard
bank is circular, and it has its bed divided into
ten valleys. Such a figure as where, for guard
I. v. I. In the Eighth Circle the sinners are punished
who belong to the first of the two classes of the fraudulent
(see Canto xi. 52-66), that is, those who practised deceit
upon persons who had no ground for special confidence in
them. Its bed, which slopes gradually from the wall that
environs it to the central pit of Hell, is occupied by ten deep
concentric valleys, called bolge. Bolgia signifies, literally, a
budget, or pouch ; and Malebolge, evil pouches. The term
is adopted by Dante as a contemptuous, picturesque metaphor
for these valleys in which the sinners are pouched up. Each
pouch contains one or more special orders of the fraudulent
H2 HELL [vv. 11-30
of the walls, very many moats encircle castles,
the place where they are presents, such image
did these make here. And as in such strong-
holds from their thresholds to the outer bank
are little bridges, so from the base of the cliff
ran crags which traversed the embankments and
the moats 2 far as the pit which cuts them off
and collects them.3
In this place we found ourselves, shaken
off from the back of Geryon ; and the Poet
held to the left, and I moved on behind. On
the right hand I saw new woe, new torments,
and new scourgers, with which the first pouch
was replete. At its bottom were the sinners
naked ; on this side the middle they came
facing us 4 ; on the further side along with us,
but with greater steps. As the Romans, be-
cause of the great host in the year of the Jubi-
lee,5 have taken means for the passage of the
2. v. 17. The bolge.
3. v. i 8. As the nave of a wheel collects and cuts off
the spokes.
4. v. 26. In their long circling course round the bolgia,
the panders, going in opposite direction to the poets, came
facing them ; on the further side the seducers were taking
the contrary course.
5. v. 29. The year I 299— I 300. The Jubilee was insti-
cuted by Boniface VIII. , who issued a Bull granting plenary
indulgence for a year from Christmas, I 299, to all pilgrims
xo Rome who should spend fifteen days in the city, visit the
vv. 31-42] CANTO XVIII 113
people over the bridge, so that on one side all
have their front toward the Castle,6 and go to
Saint Peter's, and on the other rim toward the
Mount.7
Along the gloomy rock, on this side and on
that, I saw horned demons with great whips,
who were beating them cruelly from behind.8
Ah, how they made them lift their heels at the
first blows ! truly not one waited for the sec-
ond, or the third.
While I was going on, my eyes were en-
countered by one, and I said straightway thus :
" Ere now for sight of him I have not fasted ; "
churches of St. Peter and St. Paul, and should confess and
repent their sins. The throng of pilgrims from all parts of
Europe was enormous, and among other precautions for their
safety was that here alluded to, a barrier erected lengthwise
along the bridge of Sant' Angelo, in order that the crowd
going to and coming from St. Peter's might pass in opposite
directions without interference.
6. v. 32. Of Sant' Angelo.
7. v. 33. The Capitoline.
8. v. 36. The fiends hitherto met with in Hell have
mainly been figures derived from classical mythology, as
Charon, the Furies, the Centaurs, Geryon, and others.
None of them, with the exception of the brute Cerberus,
have had part in the tormenting of the sinners. The Cen-
taurs shot their arrows only at those who lifted themselves
too much out of the river of blood. But in this valley, and
in the fifth and ninth, the demons are the creatures of HeU,
and administers of its torments
H4 HELL [w. 43-62
wherefore to shape him out I stayed my feet,
and the sweet Leader stopped with me, and
assented to my going somewhat back. And
that scourged one thought to conceal himself
by lowering his face, but it availed him little,
for I said : " Thou that castest thine eye upon
the ground, if the features that thou bearest
are not false, art Venedico Caccianimico ; but
what brings thee to such stinging Salse ? " 9
And he to me : " Unwillingly I tell it, but
thy plain speech compels me, which makes me
remember the old world. I was he who
brought the beautiful Ghisola I0 to do the will
of the Marquis, however the shameful tale
may be reported. And not the only Bolo-
gnese do I weep here ; nay, this place is so full
of them, that so many tongues are not now
taught between Savena and the Reno to say
sipa ; " and if of this thou wishest assurance
9. v. 51. Sahey the name of a ravine near Bologna,
into which the bodies of criminals were thrown. There IB
perhaps a play on the word salse as meaning ' sauces.'
10. v. 55. His own sister ; the unseemly tale is known
only through Dante and his fourteenth-century commenta-
tors, and the latter, while agreeing that the Marquis was
one of the Esti of Ferrara, do not agree as to which of
them he was. Venedico was a man of note, and for a time
Podesta of Pistoia, where Dante may have seen him.
11. v. 6 1 . Bologna lies between the Savena and the
Reno ; sipa is the Bolognese provincialism for sia.
vv.63-8i] CANTO XVIII 115
or testimony, bring to mind our avaricious
breasts." As he spoke thus a demon struck
him with his thong and said : " Begone, pan-
der, here are no women for coining."
I rejoined my Escort ; then with few steps
we came to where a crag jutted from the
bank.12 We ascended it easily enough, and
turning to the right13 upon its ridge, from
those eternal encircling walls M we departed.
When we were there where it is opens below
to give passage to the scourged, the Leader
said : " Wait, and let the sight strike on thee
of these others born to ill, of whom thou hast
not yet seen the face, because they have gone
along together with us."
From the old bridge we looked at the train
that was coming toward us on the other side,
and which the scourge in like manner drives
12. v. 68. Forming one of the bridges thrown like an
arch across the valley, and extending from bank to bank of
the successive bolge.
13. v. 71. Thus far in the Eighth Circle the poets had
been walking to the left between the high wall and the first
bolgiat and they consequently turn to the right to cross the
bridge.
14. v. 72. The walls enclosing the whole Eighth Cir-
cle, forming the precipice circling the gulf down which
Geryon had borne the poets.
15. v. 73. Where the craggy bridge forms an arch ovet
the bolgia.
Ii6 HELL [vv. 82-106
on. The good Master, without my asking,
said to me : " Look at that great one who is
coming, and seems not to shed a tear for pain.
What royal aspect he still retains ! He is Ja-
son, who by courage and by wit despoiled the
Colchians of their ram. He passed by the isle
of Lemnos, after the bold pitiless women had
given all their males to death. There with
tokens and with ornate words he deceived Hyp-
sipyle, the maiden, who first had deceived all
the others. There he left her big with child,
and lonely ; such guilt condemns him to such
torment ; and also for Medea is vengeance
wrought.16 With him goes whoever in such
wise deceives. And let this suffice to know of
the first valley, and of those that it holds in its
fangs."
We were now where the narrow path inter-
sects with the second embankment, and makes
of that abutments for another arch. From there
we heard people whining in the next pouch, and
puffing with their muzzles, and beating them-
selves with their palms. The banks were en-
crusted with a mould by the breath from below
1 6. v. 95. In the fifth book of the Tbebaid Statius
makes Hypsipyle tell in full her own story ; another source
of it familiar to Dante was Ovid's Heroides, ep. vi. From the
same source (ep. xii. ) and from Ovid's Metamorphoses (lib.
viii. ) he had the story of Medea.
vv. 107-132] CANTO XVIII 117
which sticks on them, and was making quarrel
with the eyes and with tht, nose. The bottom
is so hollowed out that no place suffices us for
seeing it, without mounting to the crown of the
arch where the crag rises highest. Hither we
came, and thence I saw down in the ditch peo-
ple plunged in a filth that seemed to have come
from human privies.
And while I am searching down there with
my eye, I saw one with his head so foul with
ordure that it was not apparent whether he
were layman or clerk. He shouted to me :
" Why art thou so greedy to look more at
me than at the other filthy ones ? " And I to
him : " Because, if I remember rightly, ere now
I have seen thee with dry hair, and thou art
Alessio Interminei of Lucca ; I7 therefore I eye
thee more than all the rest." And he then,
beating his pate : " Down here the flatteries
wherewith I never had my tongue cloyed have
submerged me."
Hereupon my Leader said to me : " Mind
thou push thy look a little further forwards so
that thou mayest quite reach with thine eyes the
face of that dirty and disheveled wench, who is
scratching herself there with her nasty nails, and
now is crouching down and now standing on
17. v. 122. Of him little is known but what these words
tell.
n8 HELL [w. 133-136
foot. She is Thais the harlot, who answered her
paramour when he said : c Have I great thanks
from thee ? ' — c Nay, marvelous.' l8 And here-
with let our sight be satisfied."
1 8. v. 135. These words are from Terence, Eunucbus^
iii. i, but Dante had found them in Cicero, who cites them
in his De Amicitia, cxxvi. § 98, as an example of the lan-
guage of flattery. In Cicero's citation it does not clearly
appear by whom the words are spoken, and Dante attributes
to Thais what in the play is actually spoken by Gnatho.
See Moore, Studies in Dante 3 i. 261.
CANTO XIX
Eight/) Circle : third pouch : simomsts. — Pope Nicb*
olas III.
O SIMON MAGUS/ O wretched followers,
because ye, rapacious, do prostitute for gold and
silver the things of God which ought to be the
brides of righteousness, now it behoves for you
the trumpet sound, since ye are in the third
pouch.
We were now at the next tomb,2 having
mounted on that part of the crag which hangs
plumb just over the middle of the ditch. O
Supreme Wisdom, how great is the art which
Thou dost display in heaven, on earth, and
in the evil world ! and how justly does Thy
Power apportion !
Upon the sides and upon the bottom, I saw
the livid stone full of holes all of one size, and
each was circular. They seemed to me not
less wide nor larger than those that in my
beautiful Saint John are made for place of the
See Acts viii. 9-24.
The next bolgia.
HELL [w. 19-34
baptizers ; 3 one of which, not many years ago,
I broke for the sake of one who was stifling in
it : and let this be the seal to undeceive all
men.4
Forth from the mouth of each were protrud-
ing the feet of a sinner, and his legs up to the
calf, and the rest was within. Both the soles
of all of them were on fire, because of which
their joints were twitching so hard that they
would have snapped ropes and withes. As the
flaming of things oiled is wont to move only
on the outer surface, so was it there from the
heels to the toes.
" Who is he, Master, who torments himself,
twitching more than the others his consorts,"
said I, "and whom a ruddier flame is sucking?"
And he to me : " If thou wilt that I carry thee
down there by that bank which is the more
3. v. 17. " My beautiful Saint John " is the Baptistery
of Florence. In Dante's time the infants, born during the
year, were all here baptized by immersion, mostly on the
day of St. John Baptist, the 24th of June. There was a
large circular font in the middle of the church, and around
it in its marble wall were four cylindrical standing-places,
closed by doors, to protect the ministering priests from the
pressure of the crowd.
4. v. 21. Some details of this incident are given by
Benvenuto, and in the so-called Comento Anonimo, con-
cerning which, it is to be inferred from the words of the
poet, there had been false reports to Dante's discredit.
w. 35-52] CANTO XIX 121
sloping,* from him thou shalt know of himself
and of his wrongs." And I : " Whatever pleases
thee is to my liking : thou art Lord, and know-
est that I part me not from thy will, and thou
knowest that which is unspoken."
Then we went upon the fourth embank-
ment, turned, and descended on the left hand,
down to the bottom pierced with holes, and
narrow. The good Master set me not yet
down from his haunch, till he brought me to
the cleft of him who was thus lamenting with
his shanks.
" O wretched soul, whoso thou art, that keep-
est upside down, planted like a stake," I began
to say, " say a word, if thou canst." I was
standing like the friar who confesses the per-
fidious assassin,6 who, after he is fixed, recalls
him, in order to delay his death.
And he 7 cried out : " Art thou already stand-
5. v. 35. We are told later, Canto xxiv. 37-40, that
al! Malebolge slopes toward the central pit of Hell, and
since the floor of each bolgia is level, it follows that the
inner wall of each is lower than the outer.
6. v. 50. Such criminals were sometimes punished by
being set, head downwards, in a hole in which they weie
buried alive.
7. v. 52. This is Nicholas III., pope from 1277 to
1280. " He was the first Pope, or one of the first," says
Villani, Cronica, vii. 54, "in whose court simony was
openly practised." He takes Dante to be Boniface VIII.,
122 HELL [vv. 53-69
ing there? Art thou already standing there,
Boniface ? By several years the writing lied to
me. Art thou so quickly sated with that hav-
ing, for which thou didst not fear to seize by
guile the beautiful Lady,8 and then to do her
outrage ? "
Such I became as those who, through not
comprehending that which is replied to them,
stand as if mocked, and know not what to
answer.
Then Virgil said : cc Tell him quickly, I am
not he, I am not he that thou thinkest." And
I answered as was enjoined on me ; whereat
the spirit writhed violently both his feet ; then,
sighing and with tearful voice, he said to me :
cc What then dost thou want of me ? If to know
who I am concern thee so much that thou hast
therefore come down the bank, know that I
was vested with the Great Mantle :9 and ver-
but Boniface was not to die till 1303. What Nicholas says
of the writing, that is of the book of the future, corresponds
with Farinata's statement (Canto x. 100-108), concerning
the foresight of the damned.
8. v. 57, The Church, — the Bride of Christ, — which
Boniface had seized by guile, through the deceit that he was
charged with practising on Celestine V. in order to obtain the
Papacy, and to which he had done outrage in many modes,
but especially by his simoniacal practices.
9. v. 69. The papal mantle, with which upon his elec-
tion a Pope was invested. Cf. Canto ii. 27.
vv. 70-86] CANTO XIX 123
ily I was a son of the She-Bear,10 so eager to
advance the cubs, that up there I put wealth,
and here myself, into the purse. Beneath my
head are the others that preceded me in simony,
dragged down flattened through the fissures of
the rock. Down there shall I in my turn sink,
when he shall come whom I believed that thou
wast, then when I put my sudden question ; but
already the time is longer that I have cooked my
feet, and that I have been thus upside down,
than he will stay planted with his feet red ; for
after him will come from westward, a shepherd
without law," of uglier deed, such as befits to
cover him and me. A new Jason will he be,
of whom it is read in Maccabees ; " and as to
10. v. 70. Nicholas was of the Orsini family, whose
cognizance was a she-bear, orsa.
11. v. 83. Bertrand de Goth, a native of Gascony, who
after the short pontificate of Benedict XL, the immediate suc-
cessor of Boniface VIII., was elected Pope in 1305, and who
died in 1314, a little more than ten years after the death of
Boniface. Nicholas had already, at the time of Dante's inter-
view with him, " cooked his feet " for twenty years, and was
to cook them still for more than three years before the arrival
of Boniface to take his place. The prophecy of the death of
Clement shows that this canto was not written till after 1314.
In 1309 Clement transferred the Papal See to Avignon;
this was a deed "without law," and he was beside noted
for cupidity, simony, and licentiousness. Cf. Paradise,
xxx. 142-148.
12. v. 86. Clement is compared to Jason, "that un-
124 HELL [vv. 87-103
that one his king was compliant, so to this one
he who rules France shall be."
I know not if here I was too foolhardy that
I answered him only in this strain : " Pray now
tell me, how much treasure did our Lord re-
quire of Saint Peter before he placed the keys in
his keeping? Surely he asked nothing save:
* Follow thou me/ I3 Nor did Peter or the
others take gold or silver of Matthias, when he
was chosen by lot to the place which the guilty
soul had lost.14 Therefore stay thou, for thou art
rightly punished, and guard well the ill-gotten
money that made thee bold against Charles.15
And were it not that reverence for the supreme
keys which thou heldest in the glad life even
now forbids it to me, I would use still heavier
godly wretch and no high-priest, " who bought the high-
priesthood from King Antiochus (see 2 Maccabees iv.), be-
cause in order to obtain the Papacy he, like Jason, *' laboured
underhand ' ' and secured his election by his promises to Philip
the Fair (Philip IV.) of France, who held control of the
Papal conclave.
13- v- 93° See Matthew xvi. 19, and John xxi.
19-22.
1 4. v. 96. See Acts i. I 5-26.
15. v. 99. Charles of Anjou. The Pope was charged
with having been bribed to favor the conspiracy to expel the
French from Sicily, which came to a head, more than a year
after his death, in the Sicilian Vespers, in March, 1282. It
is not the Pope's enmity to Charles for which Dante rebukes
him, but for his greed of money.
vv. 104-117] CANTO XIX 125
words ; for your l6 avarice afflicts the world,
trampling down the good and exalting the
bad. Ye shepherds the Evangelist had in mind,
when she that sitteth upon the waters was seen
by him to fornicate with kings : she that was
born with the seven heads, and from the ten
horns had argument,17 so long as virtue pleased
her spouse.18 Ye have made you a god of gold
and silver : I9 and what else is there between
you and the idolaters save that they worship
one, and ye a hundred ? Ah Constantine ! of
how much ill was mother, not thy conversion,
but that dowry which the first rich Father took
from thee ! " 20
1 6. v. 104. The plural "your" refers to the pastors
of the Church in general.
17. v. no. Argument, that is, evidence, witness, or
proof.
1 8. v. 1 1 1. Dante deals freely with the figures of the
Apocalypse : Revelation xvii. The woman here stands for
the Church ; her seven heads may be interpreted as the
Seven Sacraments, and her ten horns as the Command-
ments ; her spouse is the Pope.
19. v. 1 1 2. " Of their silver and their gold have they
made them idoh." Hosea viii. 4.
20. v. 117. The reference is to the so-called Donation
of Constantine, the authenticity of which was generally be-
lieved in, till its forgery was conclusively exposed about 1 450
by Lauren tius Valla. Milton translates these verses : —
" Ah Constantine ! of how much ill was cause
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy Pope received of thee."
Of Reformation in England^ Book L
ia6 HELL [vv. 118-133
And, while I was singing these notes to him,
whether anger or conscience stung him, he was
kicking hard with both his feet. I believe,
indeed, that it pleased my Leader, with so con-
tented look did he all the while give heed to
the sound of the true words uttered. There-
upon with both his arms he took me, and when
he had me wholly on his breast, remounted
along the way whereby he had descended.
Nor did he tire of holding me clasped to him,
till he had thus borne me up to the top of the
arch which is the passage from the fourth to
the fifth embankment. Here he gently laid
down his burden, gently because of the rugged
and steep crag, which would be a difficult pass
for goats. Thence another great valley was
discovered to me.
This passage (vv. 106—117) was> by order of the -Spanish
Inquisition, expurgated from copies of the Divine Comedy
introduced into Spanish territory.
CANTO XX
Eighth Circle : fourth pouch : diviners, soothsayers^
and magicians. — Amphiaraus. — Tiresias. — Arum.
— Manto. — Eurypylus. — Michael Scott. — Asdente.
OF a new punishment it behoves me to
make verses, and give material to the twenti-
eth canto of the first lay, which is of the sub-
merged.1
I was now wholly in position to look into the
uncovered depth which was bathed with tears
of anguish, and I saw folk come, silent and
weeping, along the great circular valley, at the
pace which the litanies2 make in this world.
As my sight descended lower on them,3 each
appeared marvelously distorted between the
chin and the beginning of the chest ; for their
face was turned toward their reins, and they
must needs go backwards, because looking for-
1. v. 3. Plunged into the misery of Hell.
2. v. 9. Religious processions chanting litanies as they
move with slow steps.
3. v. 10. As they came closer to the bridge so that
Dante saw them more nearly beneath him.
128 HELL [vv. 15-31
ward was taken from them. Perhaps indeed
by force of palsy some one has been thus com-
pletely twisted, but I never saw it, nor do I
believe it can be.
So may God let thee, Reader, gather fruit
from thy reading, now think for thyself how I
could keep my face dry, when close at hand I saw
our image so contorted that the weeping of the
eyes bathed the buttocks along the cleft. Truly
I wept, leaning on one of the rocks of the hard
crag, so that my Guide said to me : " Art thou
even yet among the other fools ?4 Here pity
Jives when it is quite dead.5 Who is moic
criminal than he who brings passion to the Di-
vine Judgment ? 6 Lift up thy head, lift up, and
4. v. 27. After all that thou hast seen.
5. v. 28. It is impossible to give the full significance of
Dante's words in a literal translation, owing to the double
meaning of pie fa in the original.
" Qui vive la pieta quando e ben morta : **
that is : " Here liveth piety when pity is quite dead." A
similar play upon the word occurs in Par. iv. 105, where
Beatrice, speaking of Alcmaeon, says : " Per non perder
pieta si fe spietato," " In order not to lose piety he pitiless
became."
6. v. 30. Who is more criminal than he in whom the
judgments of God arouse passionate feelings of pity ? St.
Thomas Aquinas (S. T. Suppl. xciv. 3) concludes that the
saints in heaven will rejoice in the sufferings of the damned
per accident, contemplating in them the divine justice and
their own deliverance from them, and cites, as authority for
w. 31-43] CANTO XX 129
see him 7 for whom the earth opened before
the eyes of the Thebans, whereat they all
shouted: 'Whither art thou rushing, Amphia-
raus ? Why dost thou leave the war ? ' And
he stopped not from falling headlong down far
as Minos, who lays hold on every one. Look,
how he has made a breast of his shoulders !
Because he wished to see too far before him,
he looks behind and goes a backward path.
" Behold Tiresias,8 who changed semblance,
when from male he became female, transform-
ing all his members ; and afterwards he was
obliged to strike again with his rod the two
this opinion, the words of Psalm Iviii. I o : " The righteous
shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance." Virgil has not
rebuked Dante for feeling compassion for individual sinners
suffering the penalty of sin (see Cantos v. 72, 93, 117;
xv. 79 ; xvi. 52), but he rebukes him here, because his
tears are shed not from sympathy with a special sinner, but
at the mere sight of the punishment, which, being the evi-
dence of the justice of God, ought not to awaken pity.
7. v. 31. Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who
besieged Thebes; he was an augur and prophet. Dante
found his story in Statius, Tbebais, vii. 690-823.
8. v. 40. The Theban soothsayer. Dante had learned
of him from Ovid, Metam., iii. 320 sqq. The story con-
cerning him to which Dante refers is that he saw a male and
female serpent together, and striking them with his staff killed
the female, wnereon he himself was transformed to a woman.
Seven years later he again saw two serpents, and now killing
the male became again a man.
130 HELL [vv. 44-66
entwined serpents, ere he could regain his mas-
culine plumage. He who has his back to this
one's belly is Aruns,9 who on the mountains of
Luni (where grubs the man of Carrara who
dwells below) had a cave for his abode among
white marbles, whence for looking at the stars
and the sea his view was not cut off.
" And she who with her loose tresses covers
her breasts, which thou dost not see, and has
on that side all her hairy skin, was Manto,10
who roamed through many lands, then settled
there where I was born ; whereof it pleases me
that thou listen a little to me. After her father
had departed from life, and the city of Bac-
chus " had become enslaved, she wandered
long while through the world. Up in fair
Italy, at foot of the alp which shuts in Ger-
many above Tyrol, lies a lake which is called
Benaco." By a thousand founts, I think, and
more, between Garda and Val Camonica, Apen-
nino I3 is bathed by the water which settles
9. v. 46. An Etruscan soothsayer of whom Lucan
tells, —
" Aruns incoluit desertae tnoenia Lunae."
Phars., i. 586.
10. v. 55. The daughter of Tiresias, and herself a
prophetess, of whom Virgil, Ovid, and Statius all tell.
11. v. 59. Thebes.
12. v. 63. Now Lago di Garda.
13. v. 65. Not the chain of the Apennines, but said
to be the proper name of a special mountain in this locality*
vv. 67-94] CANTO XX i3I
in that lake. A place is in the middle there,
where the Trentine Pastor and he of Brescia
and the Veronese might each give his blessing
if he took that road.14 Peschiera, a fair and
strong fortress, to front the Brescians and Ber-
gamasques, sits where the shore round about
is lowest. There that which in the bosom of
Benaco cannot stay must needs all pour forth,
and it becomes a river down through green
pastures. Soon as the water gathers head
to run, it is no longer called Benaco, but Min-
cio, far as Governo, where it falls into the Po.
It has no long course before it finds a flat,
on which it spreads, and makes a marsh, and
is apt at times in summer to be noisome.
Passing that way, the savage virgin saw land in
the middle of the fen, without culture and bare
of inhabitants. There, to avoid all human fel-
lowship, she stayed with her servants to practice
her arts, and lived, and left there her body
empty. Afterward the men who were scattered
round about gathered to that place, which was
strong because of the fen which it had on all
sides. They built the city over those dead
bones, and for her, who first had chosen the
place, they called it Mantua, without other
augury. Formerly its people were more thick
14. v. 69. A point in the lake where the three diocese*
meet.
I32 HELL [w. 95-113
within it, before the stupidity of Casalodi had
been tricked by Pinamonte.15 Therefore I in-
struct thee that if thou ever hearest that my
city had other origin, no falsehood may defraud
the truth."
And I : " Master, thy discourses are so cer-
tain to me, and so lay hold on my faith, that
the others would be to me as spent coals. But
tell me of the people who are going onward, if
thou seest any one of them worthy of note ; for
only to that does my mind revert."
Then he said to me : " That one, who
stretches his beard from his cheek over his
dusky shoulders, was an augur when Greece
was so emptied of males that they scarcely re-
mained for the cradles, and with Calchas he
gave the moment for cutting the first cable at
Aulis. Eurypylus was his name, and thus my
lofty Tragedy sings him in some place ; l6 well
15. v. 96. The Count of Casalodi, being lord of Man-
tua about 1270, gave ear to the treacherous counsels of
Messer Pinamonte de' Buonaccorsi, and after expelling many
of the nobles was himself driven from the city, with great
slaughter and dispersion of the chief families that had re-
mained.
16. v. 113.
" Suspensi Eurypylum scitantem oracula Phoebi
Mittimus." Ae.ne.id, ii. 1 1 a.
"In doubt we send Eurypylus to consult the oracle of
Phoebus," in regard to the departure of the Greeks from
yv. 114-125] CANTO XX 133
thou knowest this, who knowest the whole of
it. That other who is so spare in the flanks
was Michael Scot,17 who verily knew the game
of magical deceptions. Behold Guido Bo-
natti,18 behold Asdente,19 who now would wish
he had attended to his leather and his thread,
but too late repents. Behold the wretched
women who left the needle, the spool, and
the spindle, and became fortune-tellers ; they
wrought spells with herbs and with image.
" But come on now, for already Cain with
his thorns20 holds the confines of both the
Troy. Virgil makes no mention of his being associated with
Calchas in determining the moment of departure of the Greek
fleet from Aulis.
17. v. 1 1 6.
" A wizard of such dreaded fame
That, when in Salamanca's cave
Him listed his magic wand to wave,
The bells would ring in Notre Dame."
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto H.
Michael Scot's fame was great in Italy, and he lived for
many years with high distinction at the court of the Emperor
Frederick II. He died in Scotland about 1250.
1 8. v. 1 1 8. A famous astrologer of Forli, in the thir-
teenth century.
19. v. 1 1 8. Dante, in the Convito, iv. 16, says that if
noble meant being widely known, then "Asdente, the shoe-
maker of Parma, would be more noble than any of his fellow-
citizens. ' '
20. v. 126. The Man in the Moon, who, according
to the Italian version of the old popular legend, was Cam
condemned to carry forever a bundle of thorns.
134 HELL [vv. 126-130
hemispheres, and touches the wave below Se-
ville ; and already yesternight was the moon
round ; well shouldst thou remember it, for it
did thee no harm sometimes in the deep
wood." 2I Thus he spoke to me, and we went
on the while.
21. v. 129. These words suggest that the moonlight is
a symbol of the light of mere human knowledge, a pale and
cold reflection of divine truth, but still helpful because of the
virtue of its source.
CANTO XXI
Eighth Circle : fifth pouch : barrators. — A magis*
irate of Lucca. — The Malebranche. — Parley with
them.
THUS from bridge to bridge we went, talking
of other things, which my Comedy cares not to
sing, and were holding the summit,1 when we
stopped to see the next cleft of Malebolge and
the next vain lamentations ; and I saw it won-
derfully dark.
As in the Arsenal of the Venetians, in win-
ter, the sticky pitch for paying their unsound
vessels is boiling, because they cannot sail the
sea, and, instead thereof, one builds him a new
bark, and one caulks the ribs of that which has
made many a voyage ; one hammers at the
prow, and one at the stern ; another makes
oars, and another twists cordage ; and one
patches the foresail and the mainsail, — so, not
by fire, but by divine art, a thick pitch was
boiling there below, which belimed the bank on
i . v. 3 . The crown of the arch of the craggy bridge
across the fifth bolgia.
136 HELL [vv. 19-42
every side. I saw it, but saw not in it aught
but the bubbles which the boiling raised, and
all of it swelling up and again settling down
compressed.
While I was gazing down there fixedly, my
Leader, saying : " Beware ! beware ! " drew me
to himself from the place where I was standing.
Then I turned as one who is in haste to see
that from which it behoves him to fly, and
whom a sudden fear dismays^jind who for see-
ing delays not to depart, anc(\[ saw behind us a
black devil come running up along the crag, j
Ah ! how fell he was in aspect, and how bitter
he seemed to me in act, with his wings open,
and light upon his feet ! His shoulder, which
was sharp and high, was laden by a sinner with
both haunches, the sinews of whose feet he held
clutched. " O Malebranche 2 of our bridge,"
he said, " lo here, one of the Ancients of Saint
Zita ! 3 put him under, for I am returning for
still others to that city, which I have furnished
well with them ; every man there is a barrator,4
except Bonturo : 5 there, for money, out of
2. v. 37. Malebrancbe means "Evil-claws."
3. v. 38. One of the Anziani, the chief magistrates of
Lucca, whose special protectress was Santa Zita.
4. v. 41. A corrupt official, selling justice or office for
bribes.
5. v. 41. Ironical ; Bonturo was the chief barrator of
them all.
w. 43-65] CANTO XXI 137
Nay is made Ay." Down he hurled him and
turned back along the hard crag, and never
mastiff loosed was in such haste to follow a
thief.
That one sank under, and rose again doubled
up, but the demons that had cover of the
bridge cried out: "Here the Holy Face6
has no place ; here one swims otherwise than in
the Serchio ; 7 therefore, if thou dost not want
our grapples, make no show above the pitch."
Then they pricked him with more than a hun-
dred prongs, and said : " Here thou must
dance under cover, so that, if thou canst, thou
mayst swindle secretly." Not otherwise do the
cooks make their scullions plunge the meat
with their hooks into the middle of the caul-
dron, so that it may not float.
The good Master said to me : <c In order
that it be not apparent that thou art here,
squat down behind a jag, that thou mayst have
some screen for thyself, and at any offence that
may be done to me be not afraid, for I have
knowledge of these things, because once before
I was in such a wrangle."
Then he passed on beyond the head of the
bridge, and when he arrived upon the sixth bank,
6. v. 48. The Santo f^olto, an image of Christ upon the
cross, ascribed to Nicodemus, still venerated at Lucca.
7. v. 49. The river that runs not far from Lucca.
138 HELL [vv. 66-95
he had need to have a steadfast front. With
that fury and with that storm, with which dogs
run out upon the poor wretch, who where he
stops suddenly asks alms, they came forth from
under the little bridge, and turned against him
all their grapples. But he cried out : " Let no
one of you be savage ; before your hook take
hold of me, let one of you come forward that
he may hear me, and then take counsel as to
grappling me." All cried out : " Let Mala-
coda 8 go ; " whereon, while the rest stood still,
one moved and came to him, saying : " What
does this profit him ? " " Thinkest thou,
Malacoda, to see me come here," said my
Master, " safe hitherto from all your hin-
drances, except by Divine Will and propitious
fate P Let me go on, for in Heaven it is
willed that I show to another this wild road."
Then was his arrogance so fallen that he let the
hook drop at his feet, and said to the others :
" Now he may not be struck."
And my Leader to me : " O thou that sittest
asquat among the splinters of the bridge, return
now securely to me." Wherefore I moved and
came swiftly to him ; and the devils all pressed
forward, so that I feared they would not keep
compact. And thus I once saw the foot-sol-
diers afraid, who were coming out from Caprona
8. v. 76. Malacoda means " Evil-tail."
vv. 96-116] CANTO XXI 139
under pledge,9 seeing themselves among so
many enemies. I drew close with my whole
body to my Leader's side, and did not turn my
eyes from their look, which was not good. They
were lowering their forks, and one was saying
to the other: "Wilt thou that I touch him on
the rump?" and they were answering: "Yes,
see that thou nick it for him." But that demon
who was holding speech with my Leader turned
round with all haste and said: "Quiet, quiet,
Scarmiglione ! "
Then he said to us : " Further advance
alone this crag is not possible, because the
sixrn arcn lies all shattered at the bottom. AI**.
if it be still your pleasure to go forward, go on
along this ridge; near by is another crag that
affords a way.10 Yesterday, five hours later
than this, completed one thousand two hundred
and sixty-six years since the way was broken
here.11 I am sending thitherward some of these
of mine, to see if any one is airing himself; I2
- " «r. Tn August, 1290, the town of Caprona, on
the Arno, surrendered to fne Florentine troops, with whom
Dante was serving.
._,. .,.»*. Tills, as seen appears, is a lie; aii the
craggy bridges across this bolgia are broken.
11. v. 1 14. By the earthquake at the death of the Sav-
iour who, it was believed, was thirty-four years old at his
crucifixion.
12. v. 1 1 6. To see if any one of the sinners is showing
above the pitch.
140 HELL [vv. 117-135
go ye with them, for they will not be wicked.
Come forward, Alichino and Calcabrina," he
began to say, " and thou, Cagnazzo ; and Bar-
bariccia, do thou guide the ten. Let Libicoeco
go also, and Draghignazzo, tusked Ciriatto, and
Graffiacane, and Farfarello, and mad Rubi-
cante.13 Search round about the boiling pitch ;
let these be safe far as the next crag, which all
unbroken goes over these dens."
" O me ! Master, what is this that I see ? "
said I ; " pray, if thou knowest the way, let us
go alone without escort, for as for myself I crave
it not. If thou art as wary as thou art wont,
dost thou not see that they grin, and with their
brows threaten harm to us ? " And he to me :
" I would not have thee afraid ; let them grin
on at their will, for they are doing it at the
boiled sufferers."
13. v. 123. Some of the names of these demons have as
plain a significance as MaJacoda ; for example, Cagnazzo for
Cagnaccio, " wretched dog " ; Barbariccia, " crisp beard " ;
Graffiacane, f( scratch dog " ; while others suggest a meaning
by their composition or their sound, as Alicbinoy (t bent
wing"; Rubicante, "rubicund"; Scarmiglioney "dishev-
elled," and so on. All the names are intended to indicate
the semi-comic, contemptible, and yet mischievous and cruel
nature of the demons. The images and the diction of this
and the next canto are lowered, as if to indicate the extreme
contempt of the poet for the sinners in this bolgia. There
is a humorous element in the scenes, which relieves the strain
of the horror of the cantos which precede and follow.
vv. 136-139] CANTO XXI 141
Upon the left bank they took a turn, but
first each had pressed his tongue with his teeth
toward their leader as a signal, and he had
made a trumpet of his rump.
CANTO XXII
Eighth Circle : fifth pouch, continued : barrators.
• — Ciampolo of Navarre. — Fra Gomita. — Michael
Zanche. — Fray of the Malebranche.
I HAVE seen ere now horsemen moving
camp, and beginning an assault, and making
their muster, and sometimes retiring for their
escape; I have seen foragers over your land,
O Aretines, and I have seen the starting of
raids, the onset of tournaments, and the run-
ning of jousts, now with trumpets, and now
with bells, with drums, and with signals from
strongholds, and with native things and foreign,
— but never to so strange a pipe did I see
horsemen or footmen set forth, or ship by sign
of land or star.
We were going along with the ten demons.
Ah, the fell company ! but in the church with
the saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons.
My attention was only on the pitch in order to
see every condition of the pouch, and of the
people that were burning in it.
Like dolphins, when by the arching of their
vv. 20-51] CANTO XXII 143
back, they give a sign to the sailors to take heed
for the safety of their vessel, so, now and then,
to alleviate his pain, one of the sinners would
show his back and hide it in less time than it
lightens. And as at the edge of the water
of a ditch the frogs 1'e with only their muzzle
out, so that they conceal their feet and the rest
of their bulk, so on every side were the sin-
ners ; but as Barbariccia approached so did
they draw back beneath the boiling. I saw, and
still my heart shudders at it, one waiting, just
as it happens that one frog stays and another
jumps. And Graffiacane, who was nearest over
against him, hooked him by his pitchy locks,
and drew him up so that he seemed to me an
otter. (I knew now the name of every one of
them, I had so noted them when they were
chosen, and afterwards when they called each
other had listened how.) " O Rubicante, see
thou set thy claws upon his back so thou flay
him," shouted all the accursed ones together.
And I : " My Master, contrive, if thou
canst, to find out who is the luckless one come
into the hands of his adversaries." My Leader
drew up to his side, and asked him whence he
was, and he replied : " I was born in the king-
dom of Navarre ; my mother placed me in ser-
vice of a lord, for she had borne me to a ribald,
destroy er of himself and of his substance. Af :>er-
144 HELL [vv«52-75
ward I was of the household of the good King
Thibault ; 1 there I set myself to practice bar-
ratry, for which I pay reckoning in this heat."
And Ciriatto, from whose mouth protruded
on either side a tusk, as of a boar, made him
feel how one of them rips. Among evil cats
had the mouse come ; but Barbariccia clasped
him in his arms, and said : " Stand off, while I
clutch him," and turned his face to my Master.
" Ask further," said he, " if thou desirest to
know more from him, before another one undo
him." The Leader : " Then, tell now of the
other sinners ; knowest thou any one under the
pitch who is Italian ? " And he : "I parted
short while since from one who there beyond
was a neighbor ; a would that with him I still
were so covered that I should not fear claw or
hook." And Libicocco said : " We have borne
too much," and seized his arm with his grap-
ple so that, tearing, he carried off a sinew of it.
Draghignazzo, he too wished to give him a
grip down at his legs, whereat their decurion
turned round about with evil look.3
i. v. 52. Probably Thibault II., the brother-in-law of
St. Louis, who accompanied him on his last disastrous cru-
sa'1?, and died on his way home in I 270.
I. v, 67. Not an Italian proper, but a neighbor from
St-dinia.
3« v. 75. Barbariccia is annoyed at the disregard of his
vv. 76-96] CANTO XXII 145
When they were a little quieted, my Leader,
without delay, asked him who was still gaz-
ing at his wound : " Who was he from whom
thou sayst thou madest ill parting to come to
shore ? " And he replied : "It was Friar
Gomita, he of Gallura,4 vessel of every fraud,
who held the enemies of his lord in hand, and
dealt so with them that each of them praises him
for it. Money he took, and let them smoothly
off, so he says ; and in his other offices besides
he was no little barrator, but sovereign. With
him frequents Don Michael Zanche of Logo-
doro,5 and their tongues never feel tired in talk-
ing of Sardinia. O me ! see ye that other who
is grinning : I would say more, but I fear lest
he is making ready to scratch my itch." And
the grand Provost, turning to Farfarello, who
was rolling his eyes as if to strike, said : " Get
away there, wicked bird ! "
injunction (verse 60), and turns with the sinner in his arms
to secure him for the moment from attack.
4. v. 82. Gallura, one of the four divisions of Sardinia,
called judicatures, made by the Pisans, after their conquest of
the island. The lord of Gomita was the noble Judge Nino,
whom Dante meets in Purgatory, Canto viii. 53. Friar
Gomita was hung for his frauds.
5. v. 89. Logodoro was another of the judicatures of
Sardinia. Don Michael Zanche was a noted man, but of
his special sins little or nothing has been recorded by the
chroniclers. He was murdered about i 290, by his son-iu
Saw Branca d' Oria ; see Canto xxxiii. 134-147.
146 HELL [vv. 97-119
" If ye wish to see or to hear Tuscans or
Lombards," thereon began again the frightened
one, " I will make some of them come ; but let
the Malebranche stand a little withdrawn, so
that they may not be afraid of their vengeance,
and I, sitting in this very place, for one that I
am, will make seven of them come, when I shall
whistle, as is our wont to do whenever one of
us sets himself outside." Cagnazzo at this
speech raised his muzzle, shaking his head, and
said : " Hear the cunning trick he has devised
for casting himself below ! " Whereon he who
had snares in great plenty answered : " Too
cunning am I when I procure for my own com-
panions greater sorrow." Alichino held not in,
and, in opposition to the others, said to him :
" If thou plunge, I will not come after thee
at a gallop, but I will beat my wings above the
pitch; let the ridge be left, and let the bank be
a screen, to see if thou alone availest more than
we."6
O thou that readest, thou shalt hear a new
sport ! Each turned his eyes to the other side,
6. v. 1 17. We must suppose that the boiling pitch was
bordered on either side by a rocky ridge, on which the demons,
the poets, and the sinner were standing, and that there was
a space between the ridge and the wall of the bolgia, into
which, if they descended, they could not be seen from the
pitch.
rv. 120-146]- CANTO XXII 147
he first who had been most averse to doing
this.7 The Navarrese chose his time well,
planted his feet firmly on the ground, and in
an instant leaped, and from their purpose freed
himself. At this, each of them was stung with
his fault, but he most who was the cause of
the loss ; wherefore he started and cried out :
" Thou art caught.'' But it availed little, for
wings could not outstrip fear. The one went
under, and the other, flying, turned his breast
upward. Not otherwise the wild duck on a
sudden dives under when the falcon comes near,
and he returns up vexed and baffled. Calca-
brina, angry at the flout, flying kept behind
him,8 charmed that the sinner should escape,
that he might have a scuffle ; and when the bar-
rator had disappeared he at once turned his
claws upon his companion, and grappled with
him above the ditch. But the other was in-
deed a full-grown sparrowhawk for clawing him
well, and both of them fell into the middle of
the boiling pool. The heat was a sudden un-
grappler; but yet there was no rising from it,
they had their wings so beglued. Barbariccia,
in distress with the others of his troop, made
four of them fly to the other side with all their
7. v. 120. Each about to descend the bank turned his
back to the pitch, Cagnazzo first.
8. v. 134. Alichino.
HELL [vv. 147-151
forks, and very swiftly, on this side and that,
they descended to their posts, and stretched
their hooks toward the belimed ones, who were
already cooked within the crust: and we left
them thus embroiled.
CANTO XXIII
Eighth Circle. — Escape from the fifth pouch. — The
sixth pouch : hypocrites^ in cloaks of gilded lead. — Jovial
Friars. — Caiaphas. — Annas. — Frate Catalans.
SILENT, alone, and without company, we were
going on, one before, the other behind, as Mi-
nor friars go along the way. My thought was
turned by the present brawl upon the fable of
Aesop, in which he told of the frog and the
mouse ; for now and this instant are not more
alike than the one is to the other, if beginning
and end be rightly coupled by the attentive
mind.1 And as one thought bursts out from
another, so then from that was born another
I. v. 9. This fable is not among those now ascribed to
Aesop, but was included in a collection which went under
his name, and was in common use as a school-book. Ac-
cording to the fable, the frog deceitfully induced the mouse,
attached by a string to his leg, to trust himself to the water.
The mouse was drowned, and a kite, seeing the body float-
ing on the surface, seized it, and with it the frog still tied to
it, and swallowed both. The application to the demons is,
that Calcabrina, intending harm to Alichino, is involved
with him in tribulation.
150 HELL [w. 12-41
which made my first fear double. I was think-
ing in this wise : These through us have been
put to scorn, and with such harm and trick as
I believe must vex them greatly ; if anger be
added to ill-will, they will come after us more
merciless than the dog to the hare which he
snaps up.
Already I was feeling my hair all bristling
with fear, and was backwards intent, when I
said: "Master, if thou dost not speedily con-
ceal thyself and me, I am afraid of the Male-
branche ; we have them already after us ; I so
imagine them that I already feel them." And
he : " If I were of leaded glass,2 I should not
draw to me thine outward image more quickly
than I receive thine inward. Even now came
thy thoughts among mine, with like action and
like look, so that of both I made one sole
counsel. If it be that the right bank lies so
that we can descend into the next pouch, we
shall escape from the imagined chase."
He had not yet finished reporting this coun-
sel, when I saw them coming with wings spread,
not very far off, with will to take us. My
Leader on a sudden took me, as a mother who
is wakened by the noise, and sees the kindled
flames close to her, who takes her son and flies,
and, having more care of him than of herself,
2. v. 25. A mirror.
w. 42-68] CANTO XXIII 151
stays not so long as only to put on a shift : and
down from the ridge of the hard bank, he gave
himself supine to the sloping rock that closes
one of the sides of the next pouch. Never
ran water so swiftly through a duct, to turn the
wheel of a land-mill, when it approaches near-
est to the paddles, as my Master over that
border, bearing me along upon his breast as his
son and not as a companion. Hardly had his
feet reached the bed of the depth below, when
they were on the ridge right over us ; but here
there was no fear, for the high Providence that
willed to set them as ministers of the fifth ditch
deprived them all of power of departing thence.
There below we found a painted people who
were going round with very slow steps, weep-
ing, and in their semblance weary and subdued.
They had cloaks, with hoods lowered before
their eyes, fashioned of the cut which is made
for the monks in Cologne. Outwardly they
are gilded, so that it dazzles, but within all lead,
and so heavy that those Frederick used to have
put on were of straw.3 O mantle wearisome for
eternity !
We turneds still ever to the left hand, along
3. v. 66. Literally, " that Frederick put them on of
stiaw." The leaden cloaks which the Emperor Frederick
II. caused to be put on criminals, who were then burned t<J
death, were light as straw in comparison with these.
152 HELL [w. 69-91
with them, intent on their sad plaint. But be-
cause of the weight, that tired folk were coming
so slowly that we had fresh company at every
movement of the haunch. Wherefore I to my
Leader : " Contrive to find some one who may
be known by deed or name, and while thus
going move thine eyes around." And one who
heard the Tuscan speech cried out behind us :
" Stay your feet, ye who run thus through the
dusky air ; perchance thou shalt have from me
that which thou askest." Whereon my Leader
turned and said : " Wait, and then proceed
according to his pace." I stopped, and saw
two show, by their look, great haste of mind to
be with me, but their load and the narrow way
retarded them.
When they had come up, awhile, with eye
askance,4 they gazed at me without speaking a
word ; then they turned to one another, and said
one to the other : " This one seems alive by
the action of his throat ; and if they are dead,
by what privilege do they go uncovered by the
heavy stole ? " Then they said to me : " O
Tuscan, who to the college5 of the wretched
4. v. 85. They could not raise their heads for a straight
Uok.
5 . v. 9 1 . That is, to the company, — so Benedick, in
Much Ado about Nothing, speaks of "a college of wit-
crackers."
vv. 92-102] CANTO XXIII 153
hypocrites art come, hold it not in disdain to tell
who thou art." And I to them : " I was born
and grew up on the fair river of Arno, at the
great town, and I am in the body that I have
always had. But who are ye, from whom such
woe distils, as I see, down along your cheeks ?
and what penalty is it that so glitters on you?"
And one of them replied to me : " The orange
hoods are of lead so thick that the weights thus
make their scales to creak.6 Jovial Friars7
6. v. 1 02. The sinners, so heavily laden that their
heads are bent and tears fall from their eyes, are like over-
loaded scales which creak with the weights put on them.
7. v. 103. Brothers of the Military and Conventual
Order of Santa Maria, established in 1261, with knightly
vows and high intent. From the laxity of their rules and
their free life the nickname of Frati Godenti, "Jovial Friars,"
was given to the members of the Order.
After the battle of Montaperti, in 1260, the Ghibellines
held the upper hand in Florence for more than five years.
The defeat and death of Manfred early in I 266, at the battle
of Benevento, shook their power and revived the hopes of
the Guelfs. As a measure of compromise, the Florentine
Commune elected two podestas, one from each party ; the
Guelf was Catalano de' Malavolti, the Ghibelline, Loderingo
degli Andalo, both from Bologna. They were believed to
have joined hands while in office for their own gain, and to
have favored the reviving power of the Guelfs. In the trou-
bles of the year in which they had power the houses of the
Uberti, a powerful Ghibelline family, were burned ; these lay
in the region of the city called the Gardingo, close to the
Palazzo Vecchio.
154 HELL [vv. 103-127
were we, and Bolognese; I named Catalano
and he Loderingo, and together taken by thy
city, as one man alone is usually chosen, in
order to preserve its peace : and we were such
as still is apparent round about the Gardingo."
I began : " O Friars, your ills " — but more I
said not, for there struck my eye one crucified
upon the ground with three stakes. When he
saw me he writhed all over, blowing into his
beard with sighs : and the Friar Catalano, who
observed it, said to me : " That transfixed one,
whom thou lookest at, counseled the Pharisees
that it was expedient to put one man to torture
for the people.8 Traverse and naked is he on
the path, as thou seest, and he first must needs
feel how much whoever passes weighs.9 And
in like fashion his father-in-law I0 is stretched in
this ditch, and the others of that Council which
for the Jews was seed of ill." Then I saw Vir-
gil marvel " over him that was outstretched in
a cross so vilely in the eternal exile. After-
wards he addressed this speech to the Friar:
8. v. 117. Caiaphas, who said : " It is expedient for
es that one man should die for the people." John xi. 50.
9. v. i 20. The slowly moving, heavy sinners must all
step on him as they pass over him.
10. v. 121. Annas; John xviii. 13, 14, 24.
11. v. 124. Virgil was unacquainted with the Gospel
story.
vv.128-148] CANTO XXIII 155
<£ May it not displease you,12 if it be allowed
you, to tell us if any opening lies on the right
hand, whereby we two can go out hence with-
out constraining any of the Black Angels to
come to deliver us from this deep." He an-
swered then : " Nearer than thou hopest is a
rock that starts from the great encircling wall
and spans all the savage valleys, save that at
this one it is broken, and does not cover it. Ye
will be able to mount up over the ruin that lies
against the side, and heaps up at the bottom."
My Leader stood a little while with bowed
head, then said : " 111 did he who hooks the
sinners yonder report the matter." I3 And the
Friar : " Of old at Bologna I used to hear tell of
vices enough of the devil, among which I heard
that he is a liar, and the father of falsehood."
Then my Leader went on, with great steps, dis-
turbed a iittle with anger in his look; whereon I
departed from the burdened ones, following the
prints of the beloved feet.
12. v. 128. Virgil addresses the Friar with the "you,"
not as an honorary designation, but because he speaks to both
while addressing one. It is to be noted that the only hypo-
crites individually designated in this canto are two w.\o
sinned against Florence, and two who sinned against Jesus.
13. v. 141. Malacoda had told him (xxi. ni) that he
would find a bridge not far off by which to cross this sixth
bolgia.
CANTO XXIV
Eighth Circle. The poets climb from the sixth pouch.
— Seventh pouch, filed with serpents, by which thieves
are tormented. — Vannl Fucci. — Prophecy of calamity to
Dante.
IN that part of the young year when the sun
tempers his locks beneath Aquarius,1 and now
the nights are passing to the South,2 when the
hoar frost copies on the ground the image of
her white sister,3 but the temper of her pen lasts
little while, the rustic, whose provision fails,
gets up and looks, and sees the plain all white,
whereat he smites his thigh, returns indoors,
and grumbles to and fro, like the poor wretch
who knows not what to do ; then goes out
again and picks up hope, seeing the world to
1. v. 2. The sun enters the sign of Aquarius about the
twentieth of January.
2. v. 3. As the sun in his apparent motion comes north-
ward, the night, understood as the point of the heavens
opposite to the sun, moves southward, and with the lengthen-
ing day the nights shorten.
3. v. 5. The frost copies the look of the snow, but her
»Den soon loses its make, that is, the white frost soon vanishes.
vv. 13-41] CANTO XXIV 157
have changed face in short while, and takes his
crook and drives forth his sheep to pasture.
Thus my Master made me dismayed, when 1
saw his brow so disturbed, and thus speedily
arrived the plaster for the hurt. For when we
came to the ruined bridge, the Leader turned
to me with that sweet look which I first saw at
the foot of the mount.4 After taking some
counsel with himself, looking first well at the
ruin, he opened his arms, and laid hold of me.
And as one who acts and considers, and seems
always to provide in advance, so, lifting me up
toward the top of a great rock, he was taking
note of another splinter, saying : " Grapple next
on that, but try first if it be such that it can
support thee." It was no way for one clothed
in a cloak, for we with difficulty, he light and I
pushed up, could mount from jag to jag. And
had it not been that on that precinct s the bank
was shorter than on the other side, I do not
know about him, but I should have been com-
pletely vanquished. But because all Malebolge
slopes toward the opening of the lowest well,
the site of each valley imports that one side is
higher than the other.6 We came, however, at
4. v. 21. The hill of the first canto, at the foot of
which Virgil had appeared to Dante.
5. v. 34. The inner boundary wall of the bolgia.
6. v. 40. Literally, " that one side rises and the other
158 HELL [vv. 42-64
length, to the point where the last stone is
broken off. 7 The breath was so milked from
my lungs when I was up that I could no farther,
nay, sat me down on first arrival.
"Henceforth it behoves thee thus8 to put
off sloth," said the Master, "for, sitting upon
down or under quilts, one comes not to fame,
without which he who consumes his life leaves
such vestige of himself on earth as smoke in air,
or the foam on water : and therefore rise up,
conquer thy panting with the soul that wins
every battle, if it be not weighed down by its
heavy body. A longer stairway needs must be
ascended : it is not enough to have departed
from these ; 9 if thou understandest me, now act
so that it avail thee." Then I rose up, show-
ing myself better furnished with breath than I
felt, and said : " Go on, for I am strong and
resolute."
Up along the crag we took the way, which
was rugged, narrow, and difficult, and far steeper
than the one before. I was going along speak-
descends." The level of the whole circle slopes toward the
central deep, so that the inner side of each bolgia is of less
height than the outer.
7. v. 42. The last stone of the shattered bridge.
8. v. 46. By strenuous effort.
9. v. 56. It is not enough to leave sin behind; steady
and hard effort is required to attain virtue.
vv. 64-88] CANTO XXIV 159
ing in order not to seem exhausted, when a
voice, ill suited for forming words, came out
from the next ditch. I know not what it said,
though I was already upon the back of the
arch which crosses here ; but he who was speak-
ing seemed moved to anger. I had turned
downwards, but my living eyes could not go
to the bottom, through the darkness : where-
fore I said : " Master, see that thou get to the
next girth, and let us descend the wall/0 for
as from this place I hear and do not under-
stand, so I look down and shape out nothing."
" Other reply," he said, " I give thee not than
the doing, for the becoming request ought to
be followed by the deed in silence."
We descended trie bridge at its head, where
it is joined with the eighth bank, and then the
pouch was apparent to rne. And I saw within
it a terrible crowd of serpents,11 and of such
strange kind that the memory still curdles my
blood. Let Libya with her sand vaunt herself
no more ; for though she bring forth chelydri,
jaculi, and phareae, and cenchri with amphis-
boena,12 she never, with all Ethiopia, nor with
10. v. 73. The inner wall of the bolgia.
11. v. 82.
" They saw ... a crowd
Of ugly serpents 5 horror on them fell.**
Par. Lost, x. 540.
*2. V. 87. These names of the various kinds of snakd
160 HELL [vv. 89-114
the land that lies on the Red Sea, showed
either so many or so malignant plagues.
Amid this cruel and most dismal swarm were
running people naked and terrified, without
hope of hole or heliotrope.13 They had their
hands tied behind with serpents, which fixed
their tail and their head through the loins, and
were twisted up in front.
And lo ! at one, who was near our bank,
darted a serpent that transfixed him there where
the neck is knotted to the shoulders. Nor O
nor / was ever so quickly written as he took fire
and burnt, and needs must become all ashes as
he fell ; and when he was thus destroyed on the
ground, the dust drew together of itself, and in
an instant into that same one returned. Thus
by the great sages it is affirmed that the Phoe-
nix dies, and then is born again when she draws
nigh to her five-hundredth year. In her life
she feeds not on herb or grain, but only on
tears of incense and amomum ; and nard and
myrrh are her last winding-sheet.
And as he who falls, and knows not how, by
force of a demon that drags him to ground, or
of other obstruction I4 that binds the man when
are derived from Lucan's description of the plague of Libya.
P bars alia f ix. 700 seqq.
13- v* 93» A precious stone, of green color, spotted
with red, supposed to make its wearer invisible.
14. v. 114. Obstruction of "the vital spirits," "thf
vv. 115-130] CANTO XXIV 161
he rises and gazes around him, all bewildered
by the great anguish that he has suffered, and
as he looks, sighs ; such was tnat sinner after he
had risen. Oh power of God ! how severe it is,
that showers down such blows for vengeance !
My Leader then asked him who he was ;
whereon he answered : " I rained down from
Tuscany short time ago into this fell gullet.
Bestial life, and not human, pleased me, like a
mule that I was.15 I am Vanni Fucci, beast,
and Pistoia was my fitting den." And I to my
Leader : " Tell him not to slip away, and ask
what sin thrust him down here, for I have seen
him a man of blood and of rages." And the
sinner who heard did not dissemble, but directed
closing of the passages," says Bud, "between the heart and
the brain."
15. v. 125. That is, a bastard ; he was the natural son
of one of the Lazzari, a noble family of Pistoia, and grew up
to be, perhaps, the most notorious villain in the city, " vir
sceleratissimus et ad omne facinus audacissimus. " In 1293,
he with two companions broke into the Sacristy of San
Jacopo, in the church of San Zeno at Pistoia. This sacristy
was famous for the splendor of its adornments, and the wealth
in its treasury. The thieves carried off what silver and jewels
they could lay hands on, and, having concealed their booty,
remained undiscovered for many months. At length, when
an innocent man was about to be punished for the crime,
V^anni Fucci revealed the name of the receiver of the plun-
der, who was hanged for it, while he himself escaped punish
ment.
162 HELL [vv. 131-151
toward me his mind and his face, and painted
himself with dismal shame. Then he said :
"It grieves me more, that thou hast caught me
in the misery where thou seest me, than when I
was taken from the other life. I cannot refuse
that which thou askest. I am put so far down
because I was the thief in the sacristy with the
fair adornments, and it was once falsely ascribed
to another. But in order that thou enjoy not
this sight, if ever thou shalt be forth of these
dark places, open thine ears to my announce-
ment, and hear: Pistoia first strips herself of
Blacks, then Florence renovates her people and
her fashions. Mars draws a vapor from Val di
Magra which is wrapt in turbid clouds, and
with impetuous and bitter storm there shall be
fighting on the Pescian plain, whence it shall
suddenly rend the mist, so that every White
shall be smitten by it. And this I have said in
order that it may grieve thee." l6
1 6. v. 151. The dark imagery of these verses does not
admit of complete interpretation. It may be partially ex-
plained as follows : In May, 1301, '* Pistoia strips herself
of the Blacks" by expelling from her confines the members
of the Black party ; many of them were received in Florence,
and, in November of the same year, the Florentine Blacks,
thus reinforced, and supported by Charles of Valois who
bad entered Florence as a pacificator, drove the Priors of the
White party from office, chose new Priors of their own party,
tud in the following January succeeded in driving from the
CANTO XXIV 163
city the great body of the Whites, of whom Dante was one.
This is the renovation by Florence of her people and fashions.
The lightning-vapor which Mars drew from Val di Magra
was Moruello Malaspina, who was captain of the forces of
the Blacks ; for years there were turbid clouds of confusion,
and much desultory fighting, the Whites suffering defeat after
defeat. The Pescian plain (Campo Piceno) probably de-
notes a district near Pistoia, but the locality cannot be deter-
minccL
CANTO XXV
Eighth Circle : seventh pouch : fraudulent thieves. —
Cacus. — Agnello Brunelleschi and others.
AT the end of his words the thief raised his
hands with both the figs,1 crying, " Take that,
God ! for at Thee I square them." From that
time forth the serpents were my friends, for then
one coiled about his neck, as if it said : " I will
not have thee say more ; " and another about his
arms and bound him up anew,2 clinching itself
so in front that he could not give a shake with
them. Ah Pistoia ! Pistoia ! why dost thou not
decree to make ashes of thyself, so that thou
last no longer, since in evil-doing thou dost sur-
pass thine own seed ? 3 Through all the dark
circles of Hell I saw no spirit so arrogant to-
ward God, not even that one who fell down from
1. v. 2. A coarse gesture of contemptuous defiance,
made by thrusting out the fist with the thumb between the
fore and middle finger.
2. v. 7. See Canto xxiv. 94.
3. v. 1 2. According to tradition, the first settlers of
Pistoia, its seed, were the remnants of Catiline's forces after
his defeat and death, B. c. 62.
vv. 16-36] CANTO XXV 165
the walls at Thebes.4 He fled away, and spoke
not a word more.
And I saw a Centaur full of rage come cry-
ing out : " Where is he, where is the obdurate
one?" I do not believe Maremma5 has so
many snakes as he had upon his croup up to
where our semblance begins. On his shoul-
ders, behind the nape, a dragon with open
wings was lying upon him, which sets on fire
whomsoever it encounters. My Master said :
" This is Cacus, who beneath the rock of
Mount Aventine often made a lake of blood.
He goes not on one road with his brothers, be-
cause of the fraudulent theft he committed of
the great herd that he had in his neighborhood;
for which his crooked deeds ceased under the
club of Hercules, who perhaps dealt him a
hundred blows with it, and he felt not ten of
them." 6
While he was thus speaking, and that one
had run by, lo ! three spirits came below us, of
4. v. 15. Capaneus ; see Canto xiv. 46-72.
5. v. 19. The desolate and unwholesome district of Tus-
cany, bordering the sea.
6. v. 33. Cacus, according to Virgil, Aeneid,v\\\. 193
seqq. , was not a centaur, but a half- human fire-breathing mon-
ster. He stole part of the herd of Geryon, which Hercules,
having slain their master, was driving through Italy, and to
conceal his theft dragged the cattle by their tails into his
but their hiding-place was revealed by their bellowing.
1 66 HELL ]_vv. 37-63
whom neither I nor my Leader was aware till
when they cried out : " Who are ye ? " by which
our story was stopped, and we then gave heed
only to them. I did not know them, but it hap-
pened, as it usually happens by some chance,
that one had occasion to name another, saying :
" Where can Cianfa 7 have stayed ? " Where-
fore I, in order that my Leader might be atten-
tive, put my finger upward from my chin to
my nose.
If, Reader, thou art now slow to credit that
which I shall tell, it will be no marvel, for I
who saw it hardly admit it to myself. As I was
holding my eyebrows raised upon tnem, lo ! a
serpent with six feet darts in front of one, and
takes hold all over him. With its middle feet
it clasped his paunch, and with its fore feet
took his arms, then struck its teeth in one and
the other cheek ; its hind feet it spread out
upon his thighs, and put its tail between them,
and stretched it up behind along the reins. Ivy
was never so bearded to a tree, as the horrible
beast entwined its own through the other's
limbs. Then they stuck together as if they had
been of hot wax, and mingled their color ; nei-
ther the one nor the other seemed now that
which it had been ; even as in advance of the
7. v. 43. A sinner unknown but for this mention of
Mm, but said to have been a member of the Donati family.
vv. 64-88] CANTO XXV
167
flame, a dark color proceeds up along the paper
which is not yet black, and the white dies away.
The other two were looking on, and each cried :
" O me ! Agnel,8 how thou changest ! See, now
thou art neither two nor one 1 " Now were the
two heads become one, when there appeared to
us two countenances mixed in one face wherein
the two were lost. The two arms were made
of four strips ; 9 the thighs with the legs, the
belly and the chest became members that were
never seen before. Every original aspect was
there canceled ; two and none the perverted
image appeared, and such it went away with
slow step.
As the lizard under the great scourge of the
dog-days, changing from hedge to hedge, seems
a lightning-flash, if it cross the way, so seemed,
coming toward the bellies of the two others, a
little fiery serpent, livid, and black as a pepper
corn. And it transfixed in one of them that
part whereat our nourishment is first taken,10
then fell down stretched out before him. The
transfixed one gazed at it, but said nothing;
8. v. 68. According to many of the early commenta-
tors this was one Agnello de' Brunelleschi, of whom nothing
is known but that he was a thief.
9. v. 73. The two fore feet of the dragon and the two
arms of the man were melted into two strange arms.
10. v. 86. The navel.
168 HELL [vv. 89-111
nay, with feet fixed, he began to yawn, just as if
sleep or fever had assailed him. He looked at
the serpent, and that at him ; one through the
wound, the other through its mouth, were
smoking fiercely, and the smoke commingled,,
Let Lucan henceforth be silent, where he tells
of the wretched Sabellus and of Nasidius,11 and
let him wait to hear that which now is related.
Let Ovid be silent concerning Cadmus and
Arethusa," for if, poetizing, he converts him
into a serpent and her into a fountain, I grudge
it not to him ; for never did he transmute two
natures front to front, so that both the forms
were prompt to exchange their matter. They
responded to one another in such wise, that
the serpent cleft his tail into a fork, and the
wounded one drew his feet together.13 The
legs and the thighs along with them so stuck
together, that in short while the juncture made
no mark that was apparent. The cleft tail was
taking on the shape that the other was losing,14
and its skin was becoming soft, and that of the
11. v. 95. Sabellus, bitten by a little serpent in the
Libyan desert, melts away " like snow under a hot Soutn
wind," and Nasidius, stung by a snake of another kind,
swells until he bursts his armor. Pharsalia ix. 763 seqq.
12. v. 97. Metam. iv. 575 seqq.t and v. 507 seqq.
13. v. 105. To form a tail.
14. v. no. The shape of legs.
vv. 112-135] CANTO XXV 169
other hard. I saw the arms entering through
the armpits, and the two feet of the beast, which
were short, lengthening out in proportion as
the arms were shortening. Then the hinder
feet, twisted together, became the member that
man conceals, and the wretch from his had two
stretched forth.15
While the smoke veils the one and the other
with a new color, and generates hair on the one
part, and strips it from the other, the one rose
up, and the other fell down, not however turn-
ing aside their pitiless lights,16 beneath which
each was changing his muzzle. He who was
erect 17 drew his in toward the temples, and,
from the too much material that came in there,
the ears issued on the smooth cheeks ; that
which did not run back and was retained, of its
superfluity made a nose for the face, and thick-
ened the lips so much as was needful. He that
was lying down drives his muzzle forward, and
draws backward his ears into his head, as the
snail does its horns. And his tongue, which
before was united and fit for speech, cleaves it-
self, and the forked one of the other closes up ;
15. v. 1 17. The member of the wretched one is trans-
formed into two hind feet.
1 6. v. 122. Glaring steadily at each other.
17. v. 124. He who had been the serpent, now clian*
gjng back to human form.
I ;o HELL [w. 136-151
and the smoke stops. The soul that had be-
come a brute fled hissing along the valley, and
the other, speaking, sputters behind it. Then
he turned on him his new shoulders, and said
to the third,18 " I want that Buoso IQ should run$
as I have done, on his belly along this path."
Thus I saw the seventh ballast 20 change and
transmute, and here let the novelty be my ex-
cuse, if my pen straggle 2I a little. And al-
though my eyes were somewhat confused, and
my mind bewildered, those could not flee away
BO covertly but that I clearly distinguished
Puccio Sciancato : " and he it was who alone, of
the three companions that came first, was not
changed ; the other 23 was he whom thou, Ga-
ville, weepest.
i 8. v. 139. Turning his back to the soul changed into
the serpent that was fleeing, he speaks to the third of the
three spirits, the only one unchanged.
19. v. 140. Buoso, of whom nothing is known, is he
who has become a snake.
20. v. 142. The ballast, — the sinners in the seventh
bolgia.
21. v. 1 44. Run into unusual detail.
22. v. 148. This halting (sciancato^ Puccio is said to
have been a member of the Galigai family ; of his misdeeds
nothing is recorded.
23. v. 151. One Francesco Guercio de' Cavalcanti,
who was slain by men of the village of Gaville, in Valdarno,
which mourns for the cruel vengeance taken for his death.
The three who had first come were the three Florentine
CANTO XXV 171
thieves, Agnello, Buoso, and Puccio. Cianfa de* Donati had
then appeared as the serpent with six feet, and had been incor-
porated with Agnello. Lastly came Guercio (the Squinter)
de' Cavalcand as the fiery little snake, and exchanged form
with Buoso.
CANTO XXVI
Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent counselors.
»— • Ulysses and Diomed.
REJOICE, Florence, since thou art so great
that thou beatest thy wings over sea and land,
and thy name is spread through Hell ! Among
the thieves I found five such, thy citizens,
whereat shame comes to me, and thou dost not
mount unto great honor thereby. But, if near
the morning one dreams of the truth, thou shalt
feel within short time what Prato, as well as
others, craves for thee.1 And if already it were,
it would not be too soon. So were it ! since
surely it must be ; for it will weigh the more
on me as the more I age.
We departed thence, and, up along the stairs
which the bourns 2 had before made for our de-
scent, my Leader remounted and drew me. And
pursuing the solitary way among the fragments
1. v. 9. If that which I foresee is not a vain dream, the
calamities which thine enemies, even thy nearest neighbors,
crave for thee will soon be felt.
2. v. 1 4. The projections of the rocky wall.
vv. 17-37] CANTO XXVI 173
and the rocks of the craggy bridge, the foot
sped not without the hand. I sorrowed then,
and now I sorrow again when I direct my mind
to what I saw ; and I curb my genius more
than I am wont, that it may not run unless
virtue guide it ; so that if a good star, or better
thing, have given me the good, I may not
grudge it to myself.3
As many as the fireflies which, in the season
when he that brightens the world keeps his
face least hidden from us, the rustic, who is
resting on the hillside what time the fly yields
to the gnat,4 sees down in the valley, perhaps
there where he makes his vintage and ploughs,
— with so many flames all the eighth pit was
gleaming, as I perceived so soon as I was there
where the bottom became apparent. And as
he 5 who was avenged by the bears saw the cha-
riot of Elijah at its departure, when the horses
rose erect to heaven, — for he could not so fol-
3. v. 24. "That I may not grudge it to myself/'
that is, that I may not by my own fault deprive myself of it.
The sight which grieved the poet was that of men distin-
guished for their natural gifts who, by misuse of them, had
brought eternal condemnation on themselves. It turns his
thought on the risks attending the use of his own genius.
4. v. 28. That is, in the summer twilight, when the
flies, which have been busy through the day, give place to
the gnats which trouble the evening.
5. v. 34. Elisha. 2 Kings ii. 9-24.
i;4 HELL [wo 38-59
low it with his eyes as to see aught save the flame
alone, like a little cloud, mounting upward, —
thus each of those flames was moving through
the gulley of the ditch, for not one shows its
theft, and every flame steals away a sinner.6
I was standing on the bridge, risen up to
look, so that, if I had not taken hold of a
rock, I should have fallen below without being
pushed. And my Leader, who saw me thus
intent, said : " Within these fires are the spir-
its ; each is swathed by that wherewith he is
burnt." " My Master," I replied, " through
hearing thee am I more certain, but already I
deemed that it was so, and already I wished to
say to thee : Who is in that fire which comes
so divided at its top that it seems to rise from
the pyre on which Eteocles was put with his
brother ? " 7 He answered me : " Therewithin
Ulysses and Diomed are tormented, and thus
they go together in their punishment, as in their
wrath.8 And within their flame they groan for
the ambush of the horse which made the gate
6. v. 42. Within each flame a sinner was concealed.
7. v. 54. Eteocles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus and
Tocasta, who, contending at the siege of Thebes, slew each
other. Such was their mutual hate that, when their bodies
were burned on the same funeral pile, the flames divided in
two. Statius, Tbebaid, xii. 431-2.
8. v. 57. Against the Trojans.
vv. 60-75] CANTO XXVI 175
whence the noble seed of the Romans issued
forth ; within it they lament the artifice where-*
by the dead Deidamia still mourns for Achil-
les, and there they bear the penalty for the
Palladium." 9 " If they have power to speak
within those sparks," said I, " Master, much I
pray thee, and repray, that my prayer avail a
thousand, that thou make not to me denial of
waiting till the horned flame come hither : thou
seest that with desire I bend me toward it."
And he to me : " Thy prayer is worthy of
much praise, and therefore I accept it ; but mind
that thy tongue restrain itself. Leave speech
to me, for I have conceived that which thou
wishest ; for, because they were Greeks, they
would perhaps be disdainful of thy words." I0
9. v. 63. It was through the stratagem of the wooden
horse that Troy was destroyed, and Aeneas was compelled
to lead forth his followers who became the seed of the Ro-
mans. Deidamia was the daughter of Lycomedes, king in
the island of Scyros, to whom Thetis committed her son
Achilles disguised as a maiden, that he might not go to the
siege of Troy. Deidamia became the mother of a son by
Achilles, and when by the craft of Ulysses, accompanied by
Diomed, Achilles was discovered and persuaded to go to
Troy, she slew herself. The story is told in full by Statius
in his Acbilleis. The Palladium was the image of Athena,
on which the safety of Troy depended, and which was stolen
by the two heroes. Aeneid, ii. 163-170.
10. v. 75. The ancient heroes might be averse to taJk*
ing with a common man of the strange modern world.
176 HELL [vv. 76-104
When the flame had come there where it
seemed to my Leader time and place, I heard
him speak to it in this form : " O ye, who are
two within one fire, if I deserved of you while
I lived, if I deserved of you much or little,
when in the world I wrote my lofty verses,
move not, but let one of you tell, whither, being
lost, he went away to die/' The greater horn
of the ancient flame began to wag, murmur-
ing, even as a flame that the wind wearies.
Then waving its tip to and fro, as if it were the
tongue that spoke, it cast forth a voice, and
said : —
" When I departed from Circe, who had de-
tained me more than a year there near to Gaeta,
before Aeneas had so named it," neither fond-
ness for my son, nor piety for my old father,
nor the due love which should have made Pe-
nelope glad, could overcome within me the
ardor which I had to become experienced of
the world, and of the vices of men, and of their
virtue. But I put forth on the deep, open sea,
with one vessel only, and with that little com-
pany by which I had not been deserted. I saw
one shore and the other I2 as far as Spain, as far
as Morocco and the island of Sardinia, and the
11. v. 93. In memory of his nurse Caieta, who had
died there. Aeneid, vii. 1-4.
12. v. 103. Of the Mediterranean.
vv. 105-127] CANTO XXVI 177
others which that sea bathes round about. I
and my companions were old and slow when
we came to that narrow strait where Hercules
set up his bounds, to the end that man should
not put out beyond.13 On the right hand I
left Seville, on the other I had already left
Ceuta; c O brothers/ I said, c who through a
hundred thousand perils have reached the West,
to this so brief vigil of your senses which re-
mains wish not to deny the experience, follow-
ing the sun, of the world that has no people.
Consider your origin ; ye were not made to live
as brutes, but to pursue virtue and knowledge/
With this little speech I made my companions
so keen for the voyage that hardly afterwards
could I have held them back. And turning
our stern to the morning, with our oars we
made wings for the mad flight, always gaining
on the left hand side.14 The night saw now all
13. v. 109. Piu oltre non ; the famous Ne plus ultra,
adopted by Charles V. as his motto, with the pillars of Her-
cules for an emblem.
14. v. 126. In Dante's scheme of the Earth the south-
ern hemisphere was a vast expanse of water, in which the
only land was the Mountain of Purgatory (see xxxiv. 122—
126), the antipodes of Jerusalem (Purg. iv. 68-71). The
course of Ulysses and his companions after passing through
the Pillars of Hercules was to the southeast, «* always gaming
on the left hand," until, having sailed a distance eastward,
corresponding to that which in the northern hemisphere lay
178 HELL [vv. 128-142
the stars of the other pole, and ours so low that
it rose not forth from the ocean floor. The
light beneath the moon had been five times re-
kindled and as many quenched/5 since we had
entered on the passage of the deep, when there
appeared to us a mountain dark in the dis-
tance, and it seemed to me so high as I had
never seen one.16 We rejoiced, and soon it
turned to lamentation, for from the new land a
whirlwind rose and struck the fore part of the
vessel. Three times it made her whirl with all
the waters, the fourth it made her stern lift up
and the prow go down, as pleased Another/7
till the sea had closed over us."
between the Pillars and the Holy City, they came in sight
of the Mountain whose shore no man ever saw " who after-
wards had experience of return. " Purg. i. 132.
15. v. 130. Five changes of the moon.
1 6. v. 135. " The mount which rises highest from the
wave." Par. xxvi. 139; Purg. iii. 15.
17. v. 141. God, whose name is not spoken by any
•inner in Hell save, in the preceding canto (v. 3), by Vanni
Fucci in blasphemy.
CANTO XXVII
Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent counselors* —
Guido da Montefeltro.
THE flame was already erect and quiet, by
reason of not speaking more, and already was
going from us, with the permission of the sweet
poet, when another, which was coming behind
it, made us turn our eyes to its tip, by a confused
sound that was issuing forth from it. As the
Sicilian bull,1 which bellowed first with the plaint
of him (and that was right) who had shaped it
with his tools,2 was wont to bellow with the voice
of the sufferer, so that, although it was of brass,
yet it appeared transfixed with the pain, so,
through not at first having way or outlet from
the fire, the disconsolate words were converted
into its language.3 But when they had taken
1. v. 7. The brazen bull of Phalaris, tyrant of Agri-
gentum, made to hold criminals to be burned within it. Pe-
rillus, its inventor, was the first to suffer. So these sinners
are wrapped in the flames which their fraudulent counsels had
prepared for them.
2. v. 9. Literally, "tempered it with his file."
3. v. 15. Sounding like the murmuring breath of the
flame.
i8o HELL [w. 16-36
their course up through the point, giving to it
in their passage that vibration which the tongue
had given, we heard say : " O thou, to whom I
direct my voice, and who just now wast speak-
ing Lombard,4 saying : ' Now go thy way, no
more I urge thee : ' 5 although I may have arrived
perhaps somewhat late, let it not irk thee to
stop to speak with me; behold, it irks not me,
and I am burning. If thou art but now fallen
into this blind world from that sweet Italian
land whence I bring all my sin, tell me if the
Romagnoles 6 have peace or war ; for I was of
the mountains there, between Urbino and the
chain from which Tiber is unlocked.'* 7
I was still downward attent and leaning over,
when my Leader touched me on the side, say-
ing, " Speak thou, this is an Italian." And I,
who already had my answer ready, without de-
lay began to speak : " O soul, that art hidden
4. v. 20. Lombard, because the speech was that of
Virgil, whose "parents were Lombards," and he had used
a word peculiar to the Lombard dialect.
5. v. 2 1 . The words used by Virgil in dismissing Ulysses,
6. v. 28. The people of Romagna, the region lying
between the Po, the Apennines, the Adriatic Sea, and the
Reno. Purg. xiv. 92.
7. v. 30. The spirit who speaks is that of the Ghibelline
count, Guido da Montefeltro, the ablest and most famous man
of war of his time in Italy. The district of Montefeltro lies
at the foot of the Apennines, a little northwest of Urbino.
w. 37-48] CANTO XXVII 181
down there, thy Romagna is not, and never
was, without war in the hearts of her tyrants,
but no open war have I left there now. Ra-
venna is as it has been for many years ; the
eagle of Polenta8 is brooding there, so that he
covers Cervia with his wings. The city that
made some while ago the long struggle, and of
the French a bloody heap, finds itself again be-
neath the green paws.9 And the old mastiff and
the new of Verrucchio,10 who made the ill dispo-
sal of Montagna, make an auger of their teeth
there where they are wont. The young lion of
8. v. 41. Guido da Polenta had been lord of Ravenna
since 1275. He was father of Francesca da Rimini, and a
friend of Dante. His shield bore an eagle, half argent on a
field azure, and half gules on a field or. Cervia is a small
town on the coast, about twelve miles south of Ravenna.
9. v. 45. Forli, where in 1282 Guido da Montefeltro
had defeated, with great slaughter, a troop, largely of French
soldiers, sent against him by Pope Martin III. It was now
ruled by the Ordelaffi, whose shield, party per fess, bore on
its upper half a green demi-lion on a gold field.
10. v. 46. Verrucchio was a castle some ten miles south*
west of Rimini, which had long been in possession of tin
Malatesta family, and gave to them their designation. " Thi
old mastiff and the new " were Malatesta de' Malatesti and
his son Malatestino, lords of Rimini. In 1295 they had
treacherously overpowered and murdered Montagna de' Par-
citati, the head of the Ghibellines in the city, and they ruled
there as tyrants, sucking the blood of their subjects. They
were respectively father and half-brother of the husband w»4
of the lover of Francesca da Rimini.
182 HELL [w. 49-68
the white lair,11 who changes side from summer
to winter, rules the cities of Lamone and of San-
terno. And she I2 whose flank the Savio bathes
lives between tyranny and a free state, even
as she sits between the plain and the mountain.
Now I pray thee that thou tell us who thou
art ; be not harder than another has been/3 so
may thy name hold front in the world."
After the fire had roared for a while accord-
ing to its fashion, the sharp point moved to and
fro, and then gave forth this breath : " If I
believed that my reply were to a person who
should ever return to the world, this flame
would stand without more quiverings ; but in-
asmuch as, if I hear truth, never did any one
return alive from this depth, I answer thee with-
out fear of infamy.
" I was a man of arms, and then I was a cor-
delier/4 trusting, thus girt, to make amends ;
11. v. 50. This is Maghinardo de' Pagani da Susinana,
who bore on his shield a blue lion on a white field. He
was a Ghibelline in Romagna, and a Guelf with the Floren-
tines, says Villani. "The city of Lamone" is Faenza, near
the river Lamone, and the city of Santerno is Imola, by
which the Santerno runs.
12. v. 52. The city of Cesena.
13. v. 56. Refuse not to answer me as I have an-
swered thee.
14. v. 67. In 1296 Guido, past seventy years old,
entered the Franciscan Order, girding himself with its cord
He died in I 298 at the convent at Assisi.
vv. 69-90] CANTO XXVII 18^
and surely my trust had come full but for the
Great Priest,15 whom ill befall! who set me
back into my first sins ; and how and wherefore,
I will that thou hear from me. While I was
that shape of bone and flesh which my mother
gave me, my works were not leonine, but of
the fox. All wily practices and covert ways I
knew, and I so plied their art that the sound
went forth to the end of the earth. When I
saw me arrived at that part of my age where
every one ought to strike the sails and coil up
the ropes, what before was pleasing to me then
was irksome to me, and I yielded me l6 repent-
ant and confessed. Ah wretched, alas ! and it
would have availed. The Prince of the new
Pharisees having war near the Lateran,17 — and
not with Saracens nor with Jews, for every
enemy of his was Christian, and not one of them
had been to conquer Acre, or a trafficker in
the land of the Soldan,'8 — regarded in himself
15. v. 70. Pope Boniface VIII.
1 6. v. 83. I became a friar, giving myself to God.
1 7. v. 86. With the Colonna family, whose stronghold
was Palestrina, about twenty -four miles from Rome, on a
spur of the Apennines visible from the Lateran hill. In 1297
Boniface proclaimed a crusade against them, Palestrina was
surrendered to him on false promises, and then demolished.
1 8. v. 90. Not one had been a renegade, to help the
Saracens at the siege and capture of Acre in 1291, nor had
traded with the Mussulmans, which was forbidden under
penalty of excommunication.
184 HELL [vv. 91-112
neither his supreme office, nor his Holy Orders,
nor in me that cord which was wont to make
those girt with it more lean ; but as Constan-
tine besought Sylvester within Soracte to cure
his leprosy,19 so this one besought me as master
to cure the fever of his pride. He asked coun-
sel of me, and I kept silence, because his words
seemed drunken. And then he said to me :
4 Let not thy heart mistrust ; from this time for-
ward I absolve thee, and do thou teach me to
act so that I may throw Palestrina to the ground.
I can lock and unlock Heaven, as thou knowest ;
wherefor the keys are two, which my predeces-
sor held not dear/20 Then his weighty argu-
ments pushed me to where silence seemed to
me the worst, and I said : f Father, since thou
dost wash me of that sin wherein I now must
fall, long promise with short keeping will make
thee triumph on the High Seat/ Francis21 came
19. v. 95. It was for this service that Constantine was
supposed to have made Pope Sylvester I. (A. D. 314-355)
"the first rich Father" (Canto xix. 117), by the famous
" Donation " conveying to the Pope the sovereignty over
Italy and the whole Western empire. Sylvester, to escape
from Constantine' s previous persecution cf the Christians, had
aken refuge on Mount Soracte.
20. v. 105. Celestine V., the immediate predecessor
of Boniface, had renounced the papacy.
21. v. 112. St. Francis came lor his soul, as that of one
of the brethren of his Order.
rv, 113-136] CANTO XXVII 185
for me afterwards, when I was dead, but one of
the black Cherubim said to him : £ Bear him not
away ; do me not wrong ; he must come down
among my drudges because he gave the fraud-
ulent counsel, since which till now I have been
at his hair ; for he who does not repent cannot
be absolved, nor can repentance and will exist
together, because of the contradiction which
does not allow it.' " O me woeful ! how I shud-
dered when he took me, saying to me : f Per-
haps thou didst not think that I was a logician/
He bore me to Minos ; and he twisted his tail
eight times round his hard back,23 and, after he
had bitten it from great rage, he said : c This is
one of the sinners of the thievish fire : ' where-
fore here, where thou seest, I am lost, and going
thus robed I am afflicted." When he had thus
completed his speech the flame, sorrowing, de-
parted, twisting and flapping its sharp horn.
We passed onward, I and my Leader, over
the crag, far as to the next arch that covers the
ditch in which the fee is paid by those who
acquire their load by sundering.24
22. v. 1 20. Repentance of a sin and the will to commit
it cannot coexist.
23. v. 125. See Canto v. 11-12.
24. v. 136. Those who, sowing discord, sever the bond
which nature makes (Canto xi. 56), and thus load them'
selves with the burden of sin and its penalty.
CANTO XXVIII
Eighth Circle : ninth pouch : sowers of discord and
ism. — Mahomet and All. — Fra Dolcino. — Pier da
* — Curio. — Mo sea. — Eertran de Born.
WHO, even with words unfettered,1 could
ever tell in full, though many times narrating,
of the blood and of the wounds that I now saw ?
Every tongue assuredly would come short, by
reason of our speech and our memory which
have small capacity to comprise so much.
If all the people were again assembled, that
of old upon the storm-tossed land of Apulia
lamented for their blood shed by the Trojans,2
1. v. I. In prose.
2, v, 10, In Canto xxvi. 60 Virgil has spoken of the
Trojans led by Aeneas as <r the noble seed of the Romans,"
and here Dante uses the term Trojans as synonymous with
Romans. The sentence, complicated by parentheses, may
be paraphrased as follows : If the people who fell in Apulia
when it was conquered by the Romans, and those slain there
in the Second Punic war, and those who died opposing Robert
Guiscard, and those who perished at Benevento, were all
brought together in one assembly, and were to show their
wounds, the horrible spectacle would be nothing to that dis-
played by the ninth bolgia.
vv. 10-25] CANTO XXVIII 187
and in the long war that made such vast spoil
of the rings,3 as Livy writes, who does not err ;
together with those who, by resisting Robert
Guiscard,4 felt the pain of blows, and the others
whose bones are still heaped up at Ceperano,5
where every Apulian was false, and there by
Tagliacozzo,6 where the old Alardo conquered
without arms, — and one should show his limb
pierced through, and one his lopped off, it
would be nothing to equal the hideous mode
of the ninth pouch.
Truly a cask by losing mid-board or stave is
not so split open, as one I saw who was cleft
from the chin to where the wind is broken :
his entrails were hanging between his legs, his
3. v. ii. The spoils — three bushels and a half of rings
— of the battle of Cannae, in the second Punic war, which
lasted more than fifteen years. Livy, xxiii. 1 2.
4. v. 14. The Norman conqueror and Duke of Apulia.
He died in 1085.
5. v. 1 6. There was no battle at Ceperano, but the
defence of the bridge there aver the Garigliano was treacher-
ously abandoned, leaving the way open for Charles of Anjou
to advance to Benevento, where, on February 26, 1 26$, the
great battle was fought which ended in the defeat and death
of Manfred, king of Sicily. At this battle many of the Apu-
lian barons proved traitors.
6. v. 17. Here, in 1268, Conradin, the nephew of
Manfred, was defeated and taken prisoner by Charles
of Anjou. The victory was won, not by arms, but by a
stratagem devised by Count Erard (Alardo) de Valery.
i88 HELL [w. 26-52
pluck was visible, and the dismal sack which
makes ordure of what is swallowed. While I
fix myself all on seeing him, he looked at me,
and with his hands opened his breast, saying :
" Now see how I rend myself; see how mangled
is Mahomet. In front of me goes Ali7 weep-
ing, cleft in the face from chin to forelock ; and
all the others whom thou seest here were, when
living, sowers of scandal and of schism, and
therefore are they so cleft. A devil is here be-
hind that fashions us so cruelly, putting again
to the edge of the sword each of this throng,
when we have circled the doleful road ; because
the wounds are closed up before one passes
again before him. But who art thou that art
musing on the crag, perhaps to delay going to
the punishment that has been adjudged on
thine own accusations ? " 8 " Death has not
reached him yet," replied my Master, " nor
does guilt lead him to torment him ; but, in
order to give him full experience, it behoves me,
who am dead, to lead him down here through
Hell, from circle to circle; and this is true, as
that I speak to thee."
More than a hundred there were who, when
7. v. 32. Cousin and son-in-law of Mahomet, and him-
*-,lfthe head of a schism.
8. v. 45. When the soul appears before Minos, "it
confesses itself wholly." See Canto v. 8.
vv- 53-76] CANTO XXVIII 189
they heard him, stopped in the ditch to look at
me, forgetting the torment in their wonder.
" Now say then to Fra Dolcino,9 thou who
perhaps wilt shortly see the sun, if he wish not
speedily to follow me hither, so to arm himself
with provisions that stress of snow may not
bring the victory to the Novarese, which to
gain otherwise would not be easy." Mahomet
said to me this word, after he had lifted one
foot to go on, then to depart he stretched it on
the ground.
Another who had his throat pierced and his
nose cut off close under his brows, and had but
one ear only, having stopped to gaze, for won-
der, with the others, before the others opened
his gullet, which outwardly was all crimson, and
said : " O thou whom guilt does not condemn,
and whom I saw above in the land of Italy, if
exceeding resemblance deceive me not, if ever
thou return to see the sweet plain which slopes
from Vercelli to Marcabo,10 remember Pier da
Medicina,11 and make known to the two best
9. v. 55. A noted heretic and reformer, who for two
years maintained himself in Lombardy against the forces of
the Pope, but finally, being reduced by famine in time of
snow, in I 307, was taken captive and burnt at Vercelli.
10. v. 75. From the foot of the Alps to the Adriatic.
Marcabo was a stronghold near the mouths of the Po.
n. v. 73. Medicina is a town between Bologna and
HELL [vv. 77-89
men of Fano, to Messer Guido and likewise to
Angiolello,12 that, if our foresight here is not
vain, they will be thrown out of their vessel and
sunk near La Cattolica,13 through the treachery
of a fell tyrant. Between the islands of Cyprus
and Majorca I4 Neptune never saw so great a
crime, not of the pirates, nor of the Argolic
people.15 That traitor who sees only with one
eye, and holds the city l6 from sight of which one
who is here with me would wish he had fasted,
will make them come to parley with him ; then
will deal so that against the wind of Focara I7
Imola. Piero was a fosterer of discord among the lords of
the cities of Romagna.
12. v. 77. Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Ca-
gnano, treacherously drowned (about 1312) by order of the
one-eyed Malatestino (cf. xxvii. 46), lord of Rimini. The
word used by Dante for their drowning is the term for throw-
ing into the water a person tied in a sack weighted with stone.
13. v. 80. A small town on the coast of the Adriatic
between Rimini and Pesaro.
14. v. 82. From one end to the other of the Mediter-
ranean.
15. v. 84. "The Argolic people," as a term for the
Greeks, is borrowed from the Aeneid, ii. 78. The Greeks
were held from of old to be ruthless sea-robbers.
1 6. v. 86. Rimini, which the sinner would wish never
to have seen.
17. v. 89. A high foreland near La Cattolica, dreaded
by mariners because of the dangerous squalls which often
swept down from it.
vv. 90-106] CANTO XXVIII 191
they will not need vow or prayer." And I to
him : " Show to me and declare, if thou wishest
that I carry up news of thee, who is he of the
bitter sight ? " l8 Then he put his hand on
the jaw of one of his companions, and opened
the mouth of him, crying : " This is he, and he
does not speak ; this one, being banished, stifled
the doubt in Caesar, affirming that the man
prepared always suffered harm from delay."
Oh, how aghast, with his tongue cut off in his
throat, seemed to me Curio,19 who had been so
bold to speak !
And one who had both hands lopped off,
lifting the stumps through the murky air so
that the blood made his face foul, cried out :
" Thou shalt bear in mind Mosca,20 too, who
1 8. v. 93. He to whom the sight of Rimini had proved
bitter, so that he might wish never to have seen it.
19. v. 1 02. Curio the Tribune, banished from Rome,
fled to Cassar delaying to cross the Rubicon, which enters
the Adriatic a few miles north of Rimini, and urged him on,
with the argument, according to Lucan, " Tolle mar as y sem-
per nocuit dijferre par at is. ' ' Pbars. i. 281.
20. v. 1 06. In 1215 one of the Buondelmonti, plighted
to a maiden of the Amidei family, broke faith, and engaged
himself to a damsel of the house of the Donati. The rela-
tives of the girl who had been thus slighted took counsel how
to avenge the affront, and Mosca de* Lamberti gave the ill
advice to kill the young Buondelmonte, clenching his coun-
sel with the words, Capo ha cosafatta, " Thing done has a
192 HELL [vv. 107-133
said, alas ! c Thing done has a head/ which was
the seed of ill for the Tuscan people." And
I added for him : " And death to thine own
race." Whereat he, accumulating woe on woe,
went away like a person sorrowful and mad.
But I remained to look at the erowd, and saw
a thing which, without more proof, I should be
afraid only to tell, were it not that conscience
reassures me, the good companion which em-
boldens man under the hauberk of feeling itself
pure. I saw truly, and I seem to see it still, a
trunk without a head going along, even as the
others of the dismal herd were going. And it
was holding its cut-off head by the hair, dan-
gling it in hand like a lantern, and that was gaz-
ing on us, and saying ° " O me ! " Of itself it
was making a lamp for itself; and they were
two in one, and one in two ; how it can be He
knows who so ordains. When he was right at
foot of the bridge, he lifted his arm high with
the whole head, in order to bring its words near
to us, which were : " Now see the dire punish-
ment, thou that, breathing, goest seeing the
dead : see if any other be great as this ! And
that thou mayst carry news of me, know that
head/' it is an accomplished fact, it cannot be undone, there
is no question as to its meaning, it shows its head. The
murder was the beginning of long woe to Florence, and of
the division of her people into Guelfs and Ghibellines.
vv. 134-142] CANTO XXVIII 193
I am Bertran de Born,21 he that gave to the
young king the ill encouragements. I made
father and son rebels to each other. Ahitho-
phel did not more with Absalom and with
David by his wicked goadings. Because I
divided persons thus united, I carry my brain,
alas ! divided from its source which is in this
trunk. Thus the retribution is observed in
me."
21. v. 134. The famous troubadour who incited the
young Prince Henry to rebellion against his father, Henry IL
of England. The prince died in 1 183.
CANTO XXIX
Eighth Circle : ninth pouch. — Geri del Eelln. —
Tenth pouch : falsifiers of all sorts. — Alchemists. —
Griffolino of Arezzo. — Capocchio.
THE many people and the divers wounds
had so inebriated my eyes that they were fain
to stay for weeping ; but Virgil said to me :
" What art thou still watching ? why does thy
gaze still rest down there among the dismal
mutilated shades ? Thou hast not done so at
the other pits ; consider, if thou thinkest to
count them, that the valley circles two and
twenty miles ; ' and already the moon is be-
neath our feet ; 2 the time is little now that is
1. v. 9. Dante here, for the first time, gives a precise
measurement of one of the localities of Hell ; and in the next
canto he gives another, from which it appears that the circuit
of the tenth boigia is but half that of this the ninth, thus, as
Dr. Carlyle points out, suggesting to the imagination " the
vast dimensions and population of all the Hell above/'
2. v. 10. " This is another way of saying that it was
early in the afternoon, about I or 2 p. M. Dante very sig-
nificantly here, as in xx. 125 and elsewhere during his pas-
sage through the Inferno, avoids mention of the sun, and
vw 11-27] CANTO XXIX 195
conceded to us, and other things are to be seen
than these thou seest." " If thou hadst," re-
plied I thereupon, " given heed to the reason
why I was looking, perhaps thou wouldst have
permitted me yet to stay."
Meanwhile my Leader was going on, and I
was going behind him, now making my reply,
and adding : " Within that hollow where I was
now holding my eyes so fixedly, I believe that a
spirit of my own blood is weeping for the guilt
which costs so dear down there." Then said
the Master : " Let not thy thought henceforth
be broken upon him ; 3 attend to other thing,
and let him stay there ; for I saw him at the
foot of the little bridge, pointing thee out, and
threatening fiercely with his finger, and I heard
him called Geri del Bello.4 Thou wert then
describes the hour by referring rather to the position of ' the
face of the lady who rules here,' x. 80." Moore, Time-
References, p. 50.
3. v. 22. The meaning of this forcible metaphor, which
occurs in a rhyme-word, seems to be, hereafter let not specu-
lation about him break in upon your thought.
4. v. 27. A first cousin of Dante's father. According
to Benvenuto da Imola he was a harmful and quarrelsome
person, who, having sown discord among the members of the
Sacchetti family, was slain by one of them. After thirty
years his death was avenged by his nephews, by the killing
of one of the Sacchetti. The feud between the Alighieri and
the Sacchetti seems to have continued till 1 342, when arecon*
196 HELL [w. 28-50
so wholly occupied with him who of old held
Hautefort5 that thou didst not look that way ;
so he went off." " O my Leader," said I, " that
his violent death has not yet been avenged for
him by any one who is a partner in the shame
made him indignant ; wherefore, as I deem, he
went on without speaking to me, and thereby
he has made me the more pitiful for him."
Thus we spoke as far as the first place on
the crag which shows the next valley, if more
light were there, quite to the bottom. When
we were above the last cloister of Malebolge, so
that its lay brothers could appear to our sight,
divers lamentations pierced me, which had their
arrows barbed with woe ; wherefore I covered
my ears with my hands.
Such suffering as there would be if, between
July and September, the sick from the hospitals
of Valdichiana and of Maremma and of Sar-
dinia6 were all in one ditch together, such was
there here ; and such stench came forth there-
ciliation was formally made between the two families. The
taking vengeance for the murder of a relation was generally
recognized as a duty by the members of the family of the
victim. " Fair honor is won in doing vengeance " is the last
verse of one of Dante's Canzoni.
5. v. 29. Bertran de Born, lord of Hautefort.
6. v. 48. The marshy valley of the sluggish Chiana,
the Maremma, or flat swampy sea-coast of Tuscany, and the
fens of Sardinia were noted haunts of malarial fever.
vv. 51-77] CANTO XXIX
197
from, as is wont to come from gangrened limbs.
We descended upon the last bank of the long
crag, ever to the left hand, and then my sight
became livelier down toward the bottom, where
the ministress of the High Lord — infallible
Justice — punishes the falsifiers whom she
registers here.
I do not believe it was a greater sorrow to
see the whole people in Aegina sick, when the
air was so full of harm that the animals, even
to the little worm, all fell dead, and afterwards
the ancient people, according as the poets hold
for sure, were restored from seed of ants,7 than
it was to see the spirits languishing in different
heaps through that dark valley. One was lying
on the belly, and one on the shoulders of an-
other, and one, on all fours, was shifting himself
along the dismal path. Step by step we went
without speech, looking at and listening to the
sick, who could not lift their persons.
I saw two seated leaning on each other, as
pan is leaned against pan to warm, spotted from
head to foot with scabs ; and never did I see
currycomb plied by stable-boy for whom his
7. v. 64. Dante had the story from Ovid (Metam.
vii. 523-657) how, when the people of Aegina had perished
in a pestilence sent upon them by Juno, the island was re-
peopled by Jupiter, at the prayer of the king, Aeacus, by
changing ants into men.
198 HELL [vv. 78-105
lord is waiting, or by one who stays awake un-
willingly, as each was incessantly plying the bite
of his nails upon himself, because of the great
rage of his itching which has no other relief.
And the nails were dragging down the scab, as a
knife does the scales of bream, or of other fish
that has them larger still.
" O thou, that art dismailing thyself with thy
fingers," began my Leader unto one of them,
" and who sometimes makest pincers of them,
tell me if any Italian is among those who are
here within, so may thy nails suffice thee eter-
nally for this work." " Italians are we whom
here thou seest so spoiled, both of us," replied
one weeping, " but who art thou that askest
of us ? " And the Leader said : "I am one
that descends with this living man down from
ledge to ledge, and I intend to show Hell to
him." Then their mutual support was broken ;
and each turned trembling to me, with others
who heard him by rebound.8 The good Mas-
ter drew quite close to me, saying : " Say to
them what thou wilt ; " and I began, since he
wished it : " So may memory of you in the
first world not steal away from the minds of
men, but may it live under many suns, tell me
8. v. 99. The words, not addressed to them directly,
reached them, as it were by rebound, from him to whom
they were spoken.
vv. 106-125] CANTO XXIX 199
who ye are, and of what folk ; let not your un-
seemly and loathsome punishment fright you
from disclosing yourselves unto me." " I was
of Arezzo," replied one of them,9 " and Al-
bero of Siena had me put in the fire ; but that
for which I died does not bring me here. It
is true that I said to him, speaking in jest, that
I knew how to raise myself through the air in
flight, and he, who had lively desire and little
wit, wished that I should show him the art, and
only because I did not make him Daedalus,
caused me to be burned by one I0 who had
him for son ; but to the last pouch of the ten,
Minos, to whom it is not allowed to err,
condemned me by reason of the alchemy that
I practiced in the world."
And I said to the Poet : " Now was ever
people so vain as the Sienese ? surely not so
the French by much."
Whereon the other leprous one, who heard
me, replied to my words : " Excepting " Stricca,
9 . v. 1 1 o . This is supposed to be one Griffolino, of
whom the old commentators tell nothing more than is implied
in Dante's words.
10. v. 1 1 7. The Bishop of Siena, under whose ecclesias-
tical jurisdiction Griffolino fell as a dealer in the black art.
The Bishop was the reputed father of Albero.
11. v. 125. Ironical; these youths all being members
of a gay company at Siena known as the brtgata godereccia
or spendereccia, the "joyous " or " spendthrift brigade."
200 HE LI [w. 126-139
who knew how to make moderate spendings ;
and Niccolo, who first invented the costly use
of the clove,12 in the garden where such seed
takes root ; and excepting the brigade in which
Caccia of Asciano squandered his vineyard and
his great wood, and Abbagliato showed his wit.
But that thou mayst know who thus seconds
thee against the Sienese, sharpen thine eye to-
ward me so that my face may answer well to
thee, so wilt thou see that I am the shade of
Capocchio, who falsified the metals by alchemy ;
and thou shouldst recollect, if I descry thee
aright, how I was a good ape of nature." I3
12. v. 128. What precise extravagance is meant is un-
certain. Benvenuto da Imola says that it was the roasting
of pheasants and capons at a fire made of cloves.
13. v. 139. Capocchio was burnt alive at Siena in
1293. It would appear from his words that he and Dante
had met in " the fair life."
CANTO XXX
Eighth Circle : tenth pouch : false per sonators, false
Wioneyers, and false in words. — Myrrha. — Gianni
Schicchi. — Master Adam. — Sinon of Troy.
AT the time when Juno was wroth because
of Seme]e against the Theban blood, as she
showed more than once, Athamas became so in-
sane,1 that seeing his wife come laden on either
hand with her two sons, he cried out : " Spread
we the nets, so that I may take the lioness
and the young lions at the pass," and then he
stretched out his pitiless talons, seizing the one
who was named Learchus, and whirled him and
dashed him on a rock ; and she drowned her-
self with her other burden. And when For-
tune turned downward2 the loftiness of the
Trojans which dared all, so that together with
his kingdom the king was undone, Hecuba, sads
1. v. 4. It was from Ovid, Metam. iv. 511—529, that
Dante drew this story. Athamas was King of Orchomenos,
his wife was Nephele, but he had two children by the sister
of Semele, Ino, whom Dante here calls his wife. Both he
and Ino had incurred the resentment of Juno.
2. v. 13. On her ever-revolving wheeL
2O2 HELL [vv. 16-32
wretched, and captive, after she saw Polyxena
dead, and descried her Polydorus on the sea-
strand, she the doleful, frantic, barked like a
dog, to such degree had grief distraught her
mind.3
But neither furies of Thebes nor of Troy
were ever seen in any one so cruel, not in goad-
ing beasts much less human limbs, as those I
saw in two pale and naked shades 4 who were
running, biting, in the way that a boar does
when he is let out from the sty. One came at
Capocchio, and struck his tusks in the nape of
his neck, so that dragging him it made his belly
scratch along the solid bottom. And the Are-
tine,5 who remained trembling, said to me :
" That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi,6 and he
3. v. 21. After the fall of Troy, Hecuba, accompanied
by her daughter, Polyxena, was carried away as a slave. On
the voyage to Greece Polyxena was slain as a victim on the
tomb of Achilles, and near by, on the Thracian coast, Hec-
uba found the body of her young son Polydorus, who had
been murdered and cast into the sea by King Polymestor.
See Ovid, Metam. xiii. 404 seqq.
4. v. 25. No mad rages were ever so merciless as those
of these furious spirits.
5. v. 31. Griffolino of Arezzo.
6. v. 32. Gianni (Johnny) Schicchi was of the house
of the Cavalcanti, and an elder contemporary of Dante. He
was noted as a mimic ; his chief exploit in mimicry being that
teferred to just below.
. 33-56] CANTO XXX
203
goes rabid dressing others thus." " Oh ! " said
I to him, " so may the other not fix its teeth on
thee, let it not be weariness to thee to tell who it
is before it breaks away from here." And he
to me : " That is the ancient soul of infamous
Myrrha,7 who became loving of her father be-
yond rightful love. She came thus to sinning
with him by falsifying herself in another's form,
even as the other, who goes off there, ventured,
in order to gain the lady of the stud, to simulate
in his own person Buoso Donati, making a will
and giving to the will due form." 8
And after the two rabid ones, upon whom I
had kept my eye, had passed on, I turned it to
look at the others of the evil born. I saw one
shaped in fashion of a lute, had he only had
his groin cut short at the part where man is
forked. The heavy dropsy which, with its ill-
digested humor, so unmates the members that
the face does not correspond with the belly, was
making him hold his lips open, as the hectic
7. v. 38. The daughter of Cinyras, king of Cyprus.
Her story is told by Ovid, Me tarn. x. 293 ff.
8. v. 45. Buoso Donati had died without making a will,
whereupon his son suborned Gianni Schicchi to personate the
dead man in bed, and to dictate a will in his favor. This
Gianni did, inserting, however, several clauses with bequests
to himself, among which was that of a favorite mare or she
mule of Buoso's, reputed the best in all Tuscany.
204 HELL [vv. 57-77
does, who for thirst turns one toward his chin,
and the other upward.
" Oh ye, who are without any punishment,
and I know not why, in this dismal world,"
said he to us, cc behold and consider the misery
of Master Adam. Living, I had enough of
what I wished, and now, alas ! I long for a drop
of water. The little brooks that from the green
hills of the Casentin 9 run down into the Arno,
making their channels cool and soft, stand ever
before me, and not in vain ; for their image
dries me up far more than the malady whereby
I strip my face of flesh. The rigid justice that
scourges me draws occasion from the place
where I sinned to set my sighs the more in
flight. There is Romena, where I falsified the
coin stamped with the Baptist,10 for which on
earth I left my body burnt." But if I could
see here the miserable soul of Guido, or of Ales-
sandro, or of their brother,12 I would not give
9. v. 65. The district of the Casentino lies in the folds
of the Apennines, at the head of the valley of the Arno.
10. v. 74. The florin which bore on the obverse the
figure of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, and
on the reverse the lily-flower,_/fon>, from which the coin had
its name, far in o.
11. v. 75. A little village near the border of the Casen-
tino bears the strange name of La Consuma, perpetuating the
fact that here, in i 281, Master Adam was burnt alive by the
Florentines, jealous for the purity of their florin.
J2. v. 77. Counts of Romena.
vv. 78-99] CANTO XXX 205
the sight for Fonte Branda.13 One of them is
here within already, if the raging shades who go
around speak true ; but what does it avail me
who have my limbs bound ? If I were only still
so light that in a hundred years I could go one
inch, I should already have set out along the
path, seeking for him among this disfigured
folk, although it circles round eleven miles, and
has not here less than a half mile across. Be-
cause of them I am among such a family ; they
induced me to strike the florins which had three
carats of base-metal/' I4 And I to him : " Who
are the two poor wretches that are smoking like
wet hands in winter, lying close to thy confines
on the right ? " " Here I found them," he an-
swered, " when I rained down into this trough,
and they have not since given a turn, and I do
not believe they will give one to all eternity.
One is the false woman who accused Joseph,
the other is the false Sinon the Greek, from
Troy : IS because of their sharp fever they throw
out such great reek."
13. v. 7 8 . The noted fountain in Siena, or perhaps one
of like name in Romena.
14. v. 90. The counterfeit coins he struck contained
but twenty-one carats of gold instead of twenty-four, the
legal standard.
15. v. 98. The lying Greek who persuaded the Trojam
to admit the Wooden Horse into their city, and " broughl
Troy all utterly to sorrow." Aeneid, ii. 57 ff.
206 HELL [w. 100-129
And one of them, who took it ill perhaps to
be named so darkly, with his fist struck him
on his stiff paunch ; it sounded as if it were a
drum ; and Master Adam struck him on the
face with his arm which did not seem less hard,
saying to him : " Though moving be taken
from me because of my limbs which are heavy,
I have an arm free for such need." Whereon
he replied : " When thou wast going to the fire
thou hadst it not thus ready ; but so and more
thou hadst it when thou wast coining." And
he of the dropsy : " Thou sayest true of this,
but thou wast not so true a witness there where
thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy."
" If I said false, thou didst falsify the coin,"
said Sinon, " and I am here for a single sin,
and thou for more l6 than any other demon."
" Remember, perjurer, the horse," answered he
who had the puffed up paunch, " and be it ill
for thee that all the world knows it." " And
for thee be ill the thirst wherewith thy tongue
cracks," said the Greek, " and the putrid water
that makes thy belly thus a hedge before thine
eyes." Then the coiner : " Thy mouth gapes
thus for its own harm as it is wont, for if I
have thirst, and humor stuffs me, thou hast the
burning, and the head that pains thee, and to
lick the mirror of Narcissus thou wouldst not
want many words of invitation."
1 6. v. 117. Each coin counting for a sin.
w. 130-148] CANTO XXX
207
I was wholly fixed in listening to them, when
the Master said to me : " Now only look ! for
it wants but little that I quarrel with thee."
When I heard him speak to me with anger, I
turned me toward him with such shame that
even yet k circles through ni)t memory. And
as is he who dreams of his harm, and, dream-
ing, desires to dream, so that he longs for that
which is, as if it were not, such I became, not
being able to speak ; for I desired to excuse my-
self, and all the while I was excusing myself,
and never thought that I was doing it. " Less
shame washes away a greater fault than thine
has been," said the Master ; " therefore disbur-
den thyself of all sadness, and make reckoning
that I am always at thy side, if again it happen
that fortune find thee where people may be in
a similar wrangle ; for the wish to hear this is a
base wish."
CANTO XXXI
The Giants around the Eighth Circle. — Nimrod. —
Ephialtes. — Antaeus sets the Poets dwun in the Ninth
Circle.
ONE and the same tongue first stung me, so
that it tinged both my cheeks, and then sup-
plied the medicine to me. Thus do I hear
that the lance of Achilles and of his father was
wont to be cause first of a sad and then of a
good gift.1
We turned our backs to the wretched valley,*
up over the bank that girds it round, crossing
without any speech. Here it was less than
night and less than day, so that my sight went
little forward ; but I heard a loud horn sound-
1. v. 6. Ovid more than once refers to the magic
power of the spear which had been given to Peleus by Chi-
ron. Shakespeare makes use of it metaphorically, precisely
as Dante does, speaking of one
Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear,
Is able with the charge to kill and cure.
2 Henry VI. v. L
So, too, Chaucer, in The Sqmer's Tale, 238-240.
2. v. 7. The tenth and last bolgia.
vv- 13-33] CANTO XXXI 209
ing, so that it would have made every thunder
faint, and this directed my eyes, following its
course counter to it,3 wholly to one place.
After the dolorous rout when Charlemagne
lost the holy gest, Roland sounded not so ter-
ribly.4 Short while I carried my head turned
thitherward, when it seemed to me that I saw
many high towers ; whereon I : " Master, say,
what city is this ? " And he to me : " Because
thou dost cross through the darkness from too
far off, it happens that then thou dost err in
thy imagining. Thou wilt see well, if thou
drawest nigh there, how much the sense is de-
ceived at a distance ; therefore spur thyself on
somewhat more/' Then he took me tenderly
by the hand, and said : " Before we go further
forward, in order that the fact may seem less
strange to thee, know that these are not towers,
but giants, and they are in the pit5 round about
the bank, from the navel downward, one and
all of them."
3. v. 14. My eyes were turned by the sound in the
direction whence it came, consequently counter to it.
4. v. 1 8. At Roncesvalles.
*' Rollanz ad mis 1'olifan a sa buche,
Empeint le bien, par grant vertut le sunet.
Halt sunt li pui e la voiz est mult lunge,
Granz xxx. liwes l'oirent-il respundre,
Carles 1'oit e ses cumpaignes tutes."
Chanson de Roland, 1753-57.
5. v. 32. The central deep of Hell.
2io HELL [w. 34-59
As when the mist is dissipating, the look
little by little shapes out what the vapor that
thickens the air conceals, so, as I pierced the
gross and dark air, as we drew nearer and nearer
to the brink, error fled from me and fear grew
upon me. For as above its circular enclosure
Montereggione 6 crowns itself with towers, so
with half their bodies the horrible giants, whom
Jove still threatens from heaven when he thun-
ders, betowered the bank which surrounds the
pit.
And already I discerned the face of one of
them, his shoulders, and his breast, and great
part of his belly, and down along his sides both
his arms. Nature, surely, when she left the art
of such like living beings, did exceeding well to
take such executioners from Mars : and though
she repent not of elephants and of whales, he
who looks subtly holds her therein more just
and more discreet ; 7 for where the faculty of the
mind is added to evil will and to power, the hu-
man race can make no defense against it. His
face seemed to me long and huge as the pine-
cone 8 of St. Pete:1 ct Rome, and his other bones
6. v. 41. The towers of Montereggione in ruin still
crown its broken wall, and may be se~i from the railroad not
far from Siena, on the way to Florence.
7. v. 54. Elephants and whales, being devoid of reason,
are not dangerous "~> mankind.
8. v. 59. This cone of gilt bronze, once the crowning
vv. 60-83] CANTO XXXI 211
were in proportion with it ; so that the bank,
which was an apron from his middle downward,
showed of him fully so much above, that three
Frieslanders9 would have made ill vaunt to
reach to his hair : for I saw of him thirty great
spans down from the place where one buckles
his cloak.10
" Rafel mai amech zabi almi" the fierce
mouth, to which sweeter psalms were not be-
fitting, began to cry. And my Leader toward
him : " Foolish soul ! Keep to thy horn, and
with that vent thyself, when anger or other pas-
sion touches thee ; seek at thy neck, and thou
wilt find the cord that holds it tied, O soul
confused ! and see it lying athwart thy great
breast." Then he said to me : " He accuses
himself; this is Nimrod, because of whose evil
thought one language only is not used in the
world. Let us leave him alone, and not speak
in vain ; for such is every language to him, as
his to others which is known to no one."
Then turning to the left, we made a longer
journey, and at a crossbow-shot we found the
ornament of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, stood in Dante's
time in the fore-court of St. Peter's, and is now in the Vati-
can gardens. It is about seven feet and a half high.
9. v. 64. Reputed to be tall men.
10. v. 66. That is, something more than twenty feet
from his neck to his waist.
212 HELL [vv. 84-102
next, far more fierce and larger. Who had been
the master to bind him I cannot tell ; but he had
his right arm shackled behind, and the other in
front, by a chain which held him girt from the
neck downward, so that upon his uncovered,
part" it was wound as far as the fifth coil.
" This proud one wished to make trial of his
power against the supreme Jove," said my
Leader, "wherefore he has such requital.
Ephialtes I2 is his name, and he made his great
endeavors when the giants caused fear to the
Gods : the arms which he plied he moves
nevermore."
And I to him : " If it may be, I would that my
eyes might have experience of the measureless
Briareus." I3 Whereon he answered : " Hard
by here thou shalt see Antaeus, who speaks, and
is unfettered,14 who will set us at the bottom of
11. v. 89. His body above the bank.
12. v. 94. Iphimedeia bore to Poseidon two sons, "but
they were short-lived, godlike Otus and far-famed Ephialtes,
whom the fruitful Earth nourished to be the tallest and much
the most beautiful of mortals except renowned Orion, for at
nine years old they were nine cubits in breadth, and nine
fathoms tall. They even threatened the immortals, raising
the din of tumultuous war on Olympus, and strove to set
Ossa upon Olympus and wood-clad Pelion upon Ossa, in
order to scale heaven. But Jove destroyed them both."
Odyssey, xi. 306-317.
13. v. 98. "Immensus Briareus." Statius, Theb. ii.
596.
14. v. 101. Because he took no part in the war of his
vv. 103-125] CANTO XXXI 213
all sin.15 He whom thou wishest to see is
much farther on, and is bound and fashioned
like this one, save that he seems more ferocious
in his look."
Never was earthquake so mighty that it shook
a tower as violently as Ephialtes was quick to
shake himself. Then more than ever did I fear
death ; and for it there had been no need of
more than the fright, if I had not seen his
bonds.
We then proceeded further forward, and
came to Antaeus, who stood full five ells, be-
sides his head, above the rock. " O thou
that, in the fateful valley which made Scipio the
heir of glory, when Hannibal with his followers y
turned his back, didst once bring a thousand
lions for booty, and who hadst thou been at the
high war of thy brothers, it seems that some still
believe that the sons of the Earth would have
conquered, set us below (and disdain not to do
so) where the cold locks up Cocytus. Make us
not go to Tityus, nor to Typhon ; l6 this man
can give of that which is longed for here ; I7
brethren against the Gods. What Dante tells of him is de-
rived from Lucan, Pbarsalia, iv. 597 sqq.
15. v. 1 02. He will lower us down the pit, to the ninth
and lowest circle of Hell.
1 6. v. 124. Lucan (Pbars. iv. 600), naming these
giants, says they were less strong than Antaeus ; there is
subtle flattery in these words of Virgil.
17. v. I2C. To be remembered on earth.
HELL [w. 126-145
therefore stoop, and twist not thy muzzle. He
can yet restore fame to thee in the world ; for
he is living, and still expects long life, if Grace
does not untimely call him to itself." Thus said
the Master : and he in haste stretched out those
hands, of which Hercules once felt the mighty
grip, and took my Leader. Virgil, when he felt
himself taken up, said to me : " Come hither,
so that I may take thee : " then he did so that
he and I were one bundle. As the Carisenda l8
seems to the view, beneath its leaning side,
when a cloud is going over it so that the tower
hangs counter to it, thus seemed Antaeus to
me who was watching to see him stoop ; and
it was a moment when I could have wished to
go by another road. But lightly in the depth
that swallows Lucifer with Judas he set us
down ; nor, thus stooping, did he there make
stay, but like the mast of a ship he raised him-
self.
1 8. v. 136. The shorter but more inclined of the two
famous leaning towers at Bologna. As the cloud goes over
it, the tower seems to bend to meet it.
CANTO XXXII
Ninth Circle : traitors. First ring : Caina. —
Counts of Mangona. — Camicion di Pazzi. — Second
ring : Antenora. — Bocca dtgli Abati. — Buoso da Duera.
— Count Ugolino.
IF I had rhymes both harsh and raucous,
such as would befit the dismal hole on which
all the other rocks thrust, I would press out
more fully the juice of my conception ; but
since I have them not, not without fear I bring
myself to speak ; for to describe the bottom of
the whole universe is no enterprise to take up
in jest, nor for a tongue that cries mamma and
papa. But may those Dames ' aid my verse,
who aided Amphion to enclose Thebes, so that
the speech may not be diverse from the fact.
O ye, beyond ail others, miscreated rabble,
that are in the place whereof to speak is hard,
better had ye here 2 been sheep or goats !
1. v. 10. The Muses, who endowed the lyre of Am-
phion with such power that its sound charmed the rocks to
move from Mount Cithaeron and build themselves up for the
walls of Thebes.
2. v. 15. On earth.
216 HELL [vv. 16-34
When we were down in the dark pit beneath
the feet of the giant, far lower, and I was still
gazing at the high wall, I heard say to me :
" Take heed how thou steppest ; go so that thou
trample not with thy soles the heads of thy
wretched weary brothers." Whereat I turned,
and saw before me, and under my feet, a lake
which by reason of frost had semblance of glass
and not of water.3
The Danube in Austria never made in win-
ter so thick a veil for its current, nor the Don
yonder under the cold sky, as there was here :
for if Tambernich 4 had fallen on it, or Pietra-
pana,5 it would not have given a creak even
at the edge. And as the frog lies to croak with
muzzle out of the water, what time 6 the pea-
sant woman often dreams of gleaning, so, livid
up to where shame appears,7 were the woeful
3. v. 24. The ice in which the traitors are locked in this
lowest circle of Hell is symbolic of the cold-hearted nature of
their sin. The lake of ice has four concentric rings ; the first
is Caina, where traitors to their kindred suffer penalty ; the
second is Antenora, for traitors to their country ; the third is
Ptolomea, for traitors to their friends ; the fourth is Judecca,
for the worst of all sinners, traitors to their benefactors.
4. v. 28. A mountain, the locality of which is un-
known.
5. v. 29. One of the Tuscan Apennines.
6. v. 32. In summer : the image of the warm days in-
tensifies by contrast the sense of cold.
7. v. 34. Up to the face.
vv- 35-57] CANTO XXXII 217
shades within the ice, setting their teeth to the
note of the stork.8 Every one held his face
turned downward : from the mouth the cold,
and from the eyes the sad heart provides testi-
mony of itself among them.
When I had looked round awhile, I turned
to my feet, and saw two so close that they had
the hair of their heads mixed together. " Tell
me, ye who thus press tight your breasts," said
I, " who are ye ? " And they bent their necks,9
and after they had raised their faces to me, their
eyes, which before were moist only within,
gushed up through the lids, and the frost bound
the tears between them, and locked them up
again ; clamp never girt board to board so
strongly : and thereupon they, like two he-goats,
butted one another, such anger overcame them.
And one who had lost both his ears by the
cold, with his face still downward, said to me :
" Why dost thou so mirror thyself on us ? If
thou wouldst know who are these two, the
valley whence the Bisenzio descends belonged
to their father Albert, and to them.10 They
8. v. 36. Chattering with cold as a stork clatters with
its bill.
9. v. 44. Throwing them backwards.
10. v. 57. These brothers are the Counts Napoleone and
Alessandro degli Alberti ; one was a Ghibelline, the other a
Guelf. They quarrelled over their inheritance, and each
2i 8 HELL [w. 58-67
issued from one body ; and thou mayst search
all Caina, and thou wilt not find shade more
worthy to be fixed in ice ; not he whose breast
and shadow were broken by one self-same blow
by the hand of Arthur ; " not Focaccia ; " not
this one who so encumbers me with his head
that I see no further, and who was named Sas-
sol Mascheroni ; r3 if thou art a Tuscan, thou
now knowest well who he was. And that thou
mayst not put me to more speech, know that I
seeking treacherously to kill the other, they were both slain.
The Bisenzio, in the upper valley of which their possessions
lay, is a little stream which, after flowing close by Prato,
falls into the Arno some ten miles west below Florence.
11. v. 62, Sir Mordred, the usurping treacherous son
of King Arthur. At Dover they met in arms, and Arthur
smote Sir Mordred with such a thrust of his spear that,
on the withdrawal of the lance, a ray of light passed through
the wound. But Mordred had first drawn himself up on
Arthur's spear, and dealt him a mortal blow with his
sword,
12. v. 63. Focaccia de' Cancellieri of Pistoia, who,
according to Benvenuto, enraged by a trifling offense com-
mitted by a boy, his cousin, cut off the boy's hand, and then
treacherously killed the boy's father. From this crime sprang
the feud of the Black and the White factions, which, after
raging in Pistoia, was introduced into Florence, bringing on
both cities unnumbered woes, of which Dante himself had
full share. The story of Focaccia's crime is told differently
by other chroniclers.
13. v. 65. Sassol Mascheroni was a Florentine of the
Toschi family, who murdered his nephew for an inheritance.
vv. 68-83] CANTO XXXII 219
was Camicion de' Pazzi,14 and I await Carlino
to exculpate me."
Then I saw a thousand faces made currish I5
by the cold : whence a shudder comes to me,
and will always come, at frozen pools.
And while we were going toward the centre l6
to which all gravity collects, and I was trem-
bling in the eternal chill, whether it was will, or
destiny, or fortune I know not, but, walking
among the heads, I struck my foot hard in the
face of one. Wailing he railed at me : " Why
dost thou kick me ? If thou dost not come to
increase the vengeance of Mont' Aperti, why
dost thou molest me ? " And I : " My Master,
now wait here for me, so that by means of this
one I may free me from a doubt,17 then thou
14. v. 68. Camicion de' Pazzi is reported to have be-
trayed and killed his kinsman Ubertino. The Carlino whom
he awaits, and whose crime was such that his own would find
excuse from its comparative triviality, was a member of the
same family. In 1302 the castle of Piantravigne was held
by a body of the recently exiled " Whites" of Florence,
and with them was Carlino with a troop of soldiers. The
castle was besieged by the " Blacks," and Carlino for a bribe
opened its gates to them. Many of the chief exiles were
slain, others were held for ransom.
15. v. 70. With doglike grinning, their lips being strained
open and tightened by the cold.
1 6. v. 73. The centre of the earth.
17. v. 83. The mention of Mont* Aperti led Dante to
22O HELL [vv. 84-101
shalt make as much haste for me as thou wilt."
The Leader stopped ; and I said to that shade
who was still bitterly blaspheming : " Who art
thou that thus chidest another ? " " Now who
art thou, that goest through the Antenora," l8
he answered, " smiting the cheeks of others, so
that if thou wert alive, it would be too much ? "
" I am alive, and it may be dear to thee," was
my reply, "if thou demandest fame, that I set
thy name among my other notes." And he
to me : " For the contrary have I desire ; take
thyself hence, and give me no more trouble,
for ill thou knowest to flatter on this swamp."
Then I took him by the hair of the nape, and
said : " It shall needs be that thou name thy-
self, or that not a hair remain upon thee here."
Whereon he to me, " Though thou strip me of
hair, I will not tell thee who I am, nor show it
suspect who the sinner was, and he desires to ascertain if his
suspicion be correct, that the shade is that of Bocca degli
Abati, the most infamous of Florentine traitors, who in the
heat of the battle of Mont' Aperti, in I 260, cut off the hand
of the standard-bearer of the cavalry, so that the standard
fell, and the Guelfs of Florence, disheartened thereby, were
put to rout with frightful slaughter. Never had Florence
been cast down so low. See Canto x. 85-93.
I 8. v. 88. The second division of the ninth circle ; so
named after the Trojan who, though neither Homer nor Vir-
gil give any ground for the accusation, was charged by later
widely accepted tradition with having betrayed Troy.
vv. 102-119] CANTO XXXII 221
to thee, though thou fall a thousand times upon
my head."
I had already twisted his hair in my hand,
and had pulled out more than one tuft, he
barking, with his eyes kept close down, when
another cried out : " What ails thee, Bocca ?
Is it not enough for thee to make a noise with
thy jaws, but thou must bark too ? What
devil is at thee ? " " Now," said I, " I do not
want thee to speak, accursed traitor, for to thy
shame will I carry true news of thee." " Be-
gone," he answered, " and tell what thou wilt ;
but be not silent, if thou go forth from here
within, about him who now had his tongue so
ready. He is lamenting here the silver of the
French : I saw, thou canst say, him of Duera,19
there where the sinners stand cold. Shouldst
thou be asked who else was there, thou hast
at thy side him of the Beccheria 20 whose gorge
19. v. 1 1 6. Buoso da Duera, of Cremona, who, being
in command of a part of the Ghibelline forces in Lombardy,
assembled to oppose the troops of Charles of Anjou, on
their way to the conquest of the kingdom of Naples in I 265,
was believed to have been bribed, so as to let them pass un-
molested.
20. v. 119. Tesauro de' Beccheria, Abbot of Vallom-
brosa, and Papal Legate, beheaded by the Florentines in
1258, because of his treacherous dealings with the exiled
Ghibellines.
222 HELL [w. 120-132
Florence cut. Gianni de' Soldanier21 I think
is farther on with Ganelon," and Tribaldello 23
who opened Faenza when it was sleeping."
We had now departed from him, when I saw
two frozen in one hole, so that the head of one
was a hood for the other. And as bread is
devoured for hunger, so the upper one set his
teeth upon the other where the brain joins with
the nape. Not otherwise Tydeus gnawed for
despite the temples of Menalippus,24 than this
one was doing to the skull and the other parts.
21. v. 121. A Ghibelline of Florence, who, after the
defeat of Manfred in I 266, plotted against his own party.
22. v. 122. Ganelon, «« the traitor who brought about
the destruction of Charlemagne's rear guard at Roncesvalles,
where Roland and Oliver, and the rest of the twelve peers
were slain. His name, like that of Antenor of Troy and
Sinon the Greek, became a byword for treachery in the
Middle Ages." Toynbee.
ff O newe Scariot, newe Genelon !
False dissimulour, O Greek Sinon ! "
The Nonns Priestes Ta/ey 407—8.
23. v. 122. In order to avenge a grudge against some
of the Ghibellines of Bologna, who, being expelled from their
city, had found refuge in Faenza, Tribaldello treacherously
opened the gates of the town to their enemies, who, entering,
massacred many of them. This happened in 1280.
24. v. 130. Tydeus, one of the Seven Kings against
Thebes, mortally wounded by Menalippus, slew his adver-
sary, and then gnawed his cut-off head. Statius, Thebaid^
viii. 740-63.
w. 133-139] CANTO XXXII 223
" O thou that by so bestial a sign showest
hatred against him whom thou art eating, tell
me the wherefore," said I, " with this compact,
that if thou with reason complainest of him, I,
knowing who ye are, and his sin, may yet make
thee quits with him in the world above, if that
with which I speak be not dried up."
CANTO XXXIII
Ninth cinh : traitors. Second ring : Antenora. — •
Count Ugolino. — Third ring : Ptolomea. — Brother Al-
berigo. — Branca d* Oria.
FROM his savage repast that sinner raised
his mouth, wiping it with the hair of the head
that he had spoiled behind : then he began :
"Thou wishest that I should renew a desperate
grief which oppresses my heart already only in
thinking, ere I speak of it. But, if my words
are to be seed that may bear fruit of infamy for
the traitor whom I gnaw, thou shalt see me
speak and weep together. I know not who thou
art, nor by what mode thou art come down here,
but Florentine thou seemest to me truly when
I hear thee. Thou hast to know that I was
Count Ugolino and this one the Archbishop
Ruggieri.' Now I will tell thee why I am such
I. v. 14. Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Dono-
rabco, was for many years the most powerful citizen of Pisa,
during a period of bitter calamities, and of strife at home and
war abroad. In I 285 he was elected Podesta of Pisa for ten
years, and, whether willingly or unwillingly is not known, he
?v. 16-28] CANTO XXXIII 225
a neighbor. That, by the effect of his evil
thoughts, I, trusting to him, was taken and
then put to death, there is no need to tell ; but
what thou canst not have heard, that is, how
cruel my death was, thou shalt hear, and shalt
know if he has wronged me.
" A narrow slit in the mew, which from me
has the title of Hunger, and in which others
must yet be shut up, had already shown me
through its opening many moons, when I had
the bad dream which rent for me the veil of the
future.
" This one appeared to me master and lord,
permitted his ambitious grandson, Nino dei Visconti, the
" noble Judge Nino," whom Dante greets in the Valley of
the Princes (Purgatory, viii. 53), to share in the rule of the
city. Discord soon broke out between the old and the
young man ; each had his partisans ; there was tumult and
bloodshed in the city, and the Guelf party was rent by this
division between their leaders. The Ghibellines saw their
opportunity. Their chief, the Archbishop Ruggieri degli
Ubaldini, pretending friendship with Count Ugolino, joined
forces with him to expel his grandson with his followers.
The strength of the Guelfs in the city being thus weakened,
the Archbishop turned against the Count. There was a great
fight in the streets which ended in the defeat of the Guelfs ;
the Count and two of his sons and two of his grandsons were
taken prisoners, and were shut up in the tower of the Gua-
^andi alle Sette Vie. This was in July, 1288. In the suc-
ceeding March the keys of the tower were thrown into the
Arno, and the prisoners were starved to death.
226 HELL [vv. 29-54
chasing the wolf and his whelps upon the moun-
tain 2 because of which the Pisans cannot see
Lucca. With lean, eager, and trained hounds,
he had put before him at the front Gualandi
with Sismondi and with Lanfranchi.3 After
short course, the father and his sons seemed
to me weary, and it seemed to me I saw their
flanks ripped by the sharp fangs.
" When I awoke before the morrow, I heard
my sons, who were with me, wailing in their
sleep, and asking for bread. Truly thou art
cruel if already thou dost not grieve, at thought
of that which my heart was foreboding : and
if thou dost not weep, at what art thou wont to
weep ? They were now awake, and the hour was
drawing near at which food used to be brought
to us, and because of his dream each one was
apprehensive. And I heard the door below
of the horrible tower being nailed up ; whereat
I looked on the faces of my sons without saying
a word- I did not weep, I was so turned to
stone within. They were weeping; and my
poor little Anselm said, ' Thou lookest so,
father, what ails thee ? ' I shed no tear for
that ; nor did I answer all that day, nor the night
after, until the next sun came forth upon the
2. v. 29. Monte San Giuliano ; Lucca is about four-
teen miles northeast of Pisa.
3, v. 32. TJaree of the chief GMbelline families of Pisa.
vv. 55-80] CANTO XXXIII 227
world. When a little rav made its way into the
woeful prison, and I discerned by their four
faces my own very aspect, I bit both my hands
for woe ; and they, thinking I did it through
desire of eating, of a sudden raised themselves
up, and said : c Father, it will be far less pain
to us if thou eat of us ; thou didst clothe us
with this wretched flesh, and do thou strip it
off.' I quieted me then, not to make them more
sad : that day and the next we all stayed dumb.
Ah, thou hard earth ! why didst thou not open ?
After we had come to the fourth day, Gaddo
threw himself stretched out at my feet, saying :
' My father, why dost thou not help me ? '
Here he died : and, even as thou seest me, I
saw the three fall one by one between the fifth
day and the sixth ; then I betook me, already
blind, to groping over each, and for two days I
called them after they were dead : then fasting
was more powerful than woe."
When he had said this, with his eyes twisted,
he seized again the wretched skull with his teeth,
that were strong as a dog's upon the bone.
Ah Pisa ! reproach of the people of the fair
country where the si doth sound,4 since thy
4. v. 80. Italy, whose language Dante calls // volgare
di //, the common tongue in which si is the word for yes.
(Convito, i. 10.) ID his De vulgari Eloquio, i. 8, Dante
classifies the languages of Europe by their words of affirm-
ation.
128 HELL [w. 81-104
neighbors are slow to punish thee, let Caprara
and Gorgona5 move and make a hedge for
Arno at its mouth, so that it may drown every
person in thee : for even if Count Ugolino had
repute of having betrayed thee in thy strong-
holds, thou oughtest not to have set his sons
on such a cross. Their young age, thou mod-
ern Thebes, made Uguccione and II Brigata6
innocent, and the other two that my song names
above.
We passed onward to where the ice roughly
enswathes another folk, not turned downward,
but all reversed.7 The very weeping allows
not weeping there, and the grief, which finds a
barrier on the eyes, turns inward to increase the
anguish ; for the first tears form a block, and
like a visor of crystal fill all the cup beneath the
eyebrow.
And although, as in a callus, all feeling, be-
cause of the cold, had ceased to abide in my
face, it now seemed to me I felt some wind,
wherefore I : " My Master, who moves this ?
5. v. 82. Two little islands not far from the mouth of
the Arno, on whose banks Pisa lies.
6. v. 89. Uguccione was a son, and 11 Brigata a grand-
son of Count Ugolino ; they were in fact grown men.
7. v. 93. With faces upturned, so that the tears freeze
in their eyes,
vv. 105-121] CANTO XXXIII 229
Is not every vapor 8 quenched here below ? "
Whereon he to me, " Speedily shalt thou be
where thine eye, beholding the cause that rains
down the blast, shall make answer to thee of
this."
And one of the wretches of the cold crust
cried out to us : " O souls so cruel that the last
station has been given to you, lift from my eyes
the hard veils, so that, before the weeping re-
congeal, I may vent a little the woe which swells
my heart." Wherefore I to him : " If thou
wishest that I succor thee, tell me who thou art,
and if I relieve thee not, may I have to go to
the bottom of the ice." 9 He replied then :
" I am friar Alberigo ; I0 I am he of the fruits
of the bad garden, who here get back a date
for a fig." " " Oh ! " said I to him, " art thou
8. v. 105. Wind being supposed to be caused by the
action of the sun on the vapors of the atmosphere.
9. v. 117. Misleading words, with their double mean-
ing.
10. v. 1 1 8. Alberigo de' Manfredi, of Faenza ; one of
the Jovial Friars (see Canto xxiii. 103). Having received a
blow from his younger brother Manfred, he pretended to for-
give it, and invited him and his son to a feast. Toward the
end of the meal he gave a preconcerted signal by calling out :
" Bring the fruit," upon which his emissaries rushed in and
killed the two guests. This was in 1285. The " bad fruii:
of Brother Alberigo " became a proverb.
11. v. 1 20. Am paid with overplus for my sin ; a fig
230 HELL [vv. 122-138
then dead already ? " And he to me, " How
my body may fare in the world above I have
no knowledge. Such vantage hath this Ptolo-
mea I2 that oftentimes the soul falls down here
before Atropos has given motion to it.13 And
that thou mayst the more willingly scrape the
glassy tears from my face, know that soon as
the soul betrays, as I did, its body is taken
from it by a demon, who thereafter governs it
until its time be all revolved. It falls headlong
into such cistern as this, and perhaps the body
of the shade that is wintering here behind me
still appears above. Thou shouldst know him
if thou comest down but now ; he is Ser Branca
d' Oria,14 and many years have passed since he
is the cheapest of Tuscan fruits ; the imported date is more
costly.
12. v. 1 24. The third ring of ice, named for that Ptol-
emy, Captain of Jericho, who, having invited them to a ban-
quet, treacherously slew his father-in-law, the high-priest
Simon, and his two sons (i Maccabees xvi. 1 1-16).
13. v. 126. That is, before Atropos has cut the thread
of its life on earth. This conception may have been sug-
gested by Psalm Iv. 15, where the Psalmist, complaining of
friend turning against friend, says, " Let death seize upon
them, and let them go down quick (viventes} into hell."
Such traitors as friar Alberigo, having broken not only the
bend which nature makes between man and man, but also
the bond of love and trust in kinship (see Canto xi. 52—63),
have no longer part with mankind ; their abode is Hell.
14. v. 137. A member of the famous Genoese house
vv. 139-151] CANTO XXXII* 231
was thus shut up." " I believe," said I to him,
" that thou art deceiving me ; for Branca d' Oria
is not yet dead, and he eats, and drinks, and
sleeps, and puts on clothes." " In the ditch
of the Malebranche above," he said, " there
where the sticky pitch is boiling, Micnel
Zanche 15 had not yet arrived, when this one
left a devil in his stead in his own body, and in
that of one of his next kin, who committed the
treachery together with him. But now stretch
hither thy hand ; open my eyes for me." And
I did not open them for him, and to be churl-
ish to him was courtesy.'6
Ah Genoese ! men strange to all morality
of Doria ; murderer, in or about I 290, of his father-in-law,
Michel Zanche, Governor of Logodoro, in Sardinia. The
date of the death of Branca d' Oria is not known.
15. v. 144. Already heard of in the fifth bolgta (Canto
xxii. 88).
16. v. 150. "Courtesy and propriety of behavior
{onestade} are one and the same thing," says Dante in the
Convito, ii. 11, 60. Men who by their own act have
broken the bond of human relationship deserve no regard.
Pity or compassion may be rightly felt, according to St
Thomas Aquinas, for sinners still on earth, for they may yet
repent and turn from sin. But in the future life there is no
repentance. The punishment of the sinner is the evidence
of the justice of God ; there can be no pity for him ; charity
cannot wish the damned to be less wretched, for this wonld
be to call in question the Divine justice. S. T. Suppl.
xciv. 2.
232 HELL [vv. 152-157
and full of all corruption, why are ye not scat-
tered from the world ? For with the worst
spirit of Romagna '7 I found one of you, such
that for his deeds he is already in soul bathed
in Cocytus, and in body he appears still alive
on earth.
17. v. 154. That is, with Friar Alberigo.
CANTO XXXIV
Ninth Circle : traitors. Fourth ring : Judecca. -^»
Lucifer. — Judas, Brutus and Cassius. — Centre of the
universe. — Passage from Hell. — Ascent to the surface
of the Southern Hemisphere.
" Vexilla regis prodeunt infer ni x toward us ;
therefore look forward," said my Master ; " see
if thou discern him." As when a thick fog-
breathes, or when our hemisphere darkens to
night, a mill which the wind is turning seems
from afar, such a structure it seemed to me that
I then saw.
Then, because of the wind, I drew me be-
hind my Leader ; for no other shelter was
there. I was now (and with fear I put it into
verse), there 2 where the shades were wholly cov-
ered, and showed through like a straw in glass.
1. v. I. "• The banners of the King of Hell advance.'1
Vexilla Regin prodeunt are the first words of a hymn in
honor of the Cross, sung at vespers on the Feast cf the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross and also on Monday of Holy
Week.
2. v. ii. In the fourth, innermost ring of ice cf the
ninth circle, — the Judecca.
234 HELL [vv. 13-41
Some are lying down ; some are upright, this
one with his head, and that with his soles upper-
most ; another, like a bow, bends his face to his
feet.
When we had gone so far forward that it
pleased my Master to show me the creature
which had the fair semblance, he took himself
from before me and made me stop, saying:
" Lo Dis ! and lo the place where it is needful
that thou arm thyself with fortitude ! " How
frozen and faint I then became, ask it not,
Reader, for I do not write it, because all speech
would be little. I did not die, and did not re-
main alive : think now for thyself, if thou hast
a grain of wit, what I became, deprived of one
and the other.3
The emperor of the woeful realm issued forth
from the ice from the middle of his breast;
and I compare better with a giant, than the
giants do with his arms. See now how great
must be that whole which is conformed to such
a part. If he was as fair as he now is foul,
and lifted up his brows against his Maker, well
should all tribulation proceed from him. Oh
how great a marvel it seemed to me, when I saw
three faces on his head ! one in front, and that
was crimson ; the others were two, which were
adjoined to this above the very middle of each
3. v. 27. Deprived alike of death and of life.
vv. 42-65] CANTO XXXIV 235
shoulder, and they were joined up to the place
of the crest ; and the right seemed between
white and yellow, the left was such in appear-
ance as those who come from there whence the
Nile descends.4 Beneath each came forth two
great wings, of size befitting so great a bird ;
sails of the sea I never saw such. They had no
feathers, but their fashion was of a bat ; and he
was flapping them so that three winds were pro-
ceeding from him, whereby Cocytus was all con-
gealed. With six eyes he was weeping, and over
three chins were trickling the tears and bloody
drivel. At each mouth he was crushing a sin-
ner with his teeth, in manner of a heckle, so
that he thus was making three of them woeful.
To the one in front the biting was nothing to
the clawing, whereby sometimes his back re-
mained all stripped of the skin.
" That soul up there which has the greatest
punishment," said the Master, " is Judas Isca-
riot, who has his head within, and plies his legs
outside. Of the other two who have their
heads downwards, he who hangs from the black
4. v. 45. The three faces exhibit the devilish counter-
part of the attributes of the three persons of the Godhead,
Impotence, Ignorance, and Hate as opposed to Power, Wis-
dom, and Love (see Canto iii. 5, 6) ; Impotence scarlet
with rage, Ignorance black with its own darkness, Hate pale
yellow with jealousy and envy.
236 HELL [vv. 66-85
muzzle is Brutus ; see how he writhes and says
not a word ; and the other is Cassius, who seems
so large-limbed.5 But the night is rising again ;
and now we must depart, for we have seen the
whole."
As was his pleasure, I clasped his neck, and
he took advantage of time and place, and when
the wings were wide opened he caught hold on
the shaggy flanks ; down from shag to shag he
then descended between the matted hair and
the frozen crusts. When we were where the
thigh turns just on the thick of the haunch, my
Leader, with effort and stress of breath, turned
his head to where he had had his shanks, and
grappled to the hair like one who mounts, so
that I believed we were returning again to hell.
" Cling fast hold," said the Master, panting
like one weary, " for by such stairs must we de-
part from so great evil." Then he came forth
through the cleft of a rock, and placed me upon
5. v. 67. Judas, Brutus and Cassius are the worst of
traitors, having not only betrayed their benefactors, but also,
in doing so, having done violence to the divinely ordered
scheme for the well-being of mankind. Christ, betrayed by
Judas, was the head of the Church, the supreme spiritual
authority. Caesar, betrayed by Brutus and Cassius, was re-
garded by Dante as the founder of the Empire, the supreme
authority in temporal affairs. Church and Empire were in
Dante's scheme equally divine institutions for the government
of the world.
w. 86-101] . CANTO XXXIV 237
its edge to sit ; then stretched toward me his
cautious step.
I raised my eyes, and thought to see Luci-
fer as I had left him, and I saw him holding his
legs upward ; and if I then became perplexed,
let the dull folk suppose it, who see not what
that point is which I had passed.6
"Rise up on foot," said the Master; "the
way is long and the road is difficult, and already
the sun returns to mid-tierce." 7
It was no hallway of a palace where we were,
but a natural dungeon which had a bad floor,
and lack of light. " Before I tear myself from
the Abyss," said I when I had risen up, " my
6. v. 93. This point k the centre of the universe ; when
Virgil had turned upon the haunch of Lucifer, the passage
had been made from one hemisphere of the earth — the in-
habited and known hemisphere — to the other where no
living men dwell, and where the only land is the mountain
of Purgatory. In changing one hemisphere for the other
there is a change of time of twelve hours, from about sunset
to about sunrise. A second Saturday morning begins for the
poets, and they pass nearly as long a time as they have been
in Hell, that is, twenty-four hours, in traversing the long and
hard way that leads to the surface of the hemisphere into which
they have just entered.
7. v. 96. Tierce is the name given to the first three
hours after sunrise. Mid-tierce consequently at the equinox
is about half-past seven o'clock. In Hell Dante never men-
tions the sun to mark division of time, but now, having issued
from Hell, Virgil marks the hour by a reference to the sun-
238 HELL [w. 102-122
Master, talk a little with me to draw me out of
error. Where is the ice ? and this one, how is
he fixed thus upside down ? and how in such
short while has the sun made transit from even-
ing to morning ? " And he to me : " Thou
imaginest that thou still art on the other side
of the centre, where I laid hold on the hair of
the wicked Worm that pierces the world. On
that side thou wast so long as I descended ; when
I turned, thou didst pass the point to which
from every part all weighty things are drawn ; 8
and thou art now arrived beneath the hemi-
sphere which is opposite to that which the great
dry land covers, and beneath whose zenith the
Man was slain who was born and lived without
sin : thou hast thy feet upon a little circle 9
which forms the other face of the Judecca.
Here it is morning when it is evening there ;
and this one who made a ladder for us with his
hair is still fixed even as he was before. On
this side he fell down from heaven, and the
earth, which before was spread out on this side,
8. v. 1 1 1. The central point of the Universe, to which
all matter tends by its gravity.
9. v. 1 1 6. Literally, "upon a little sphere," but
" sphere " is a rhyme word, and the meaning seems to be,
Thou art now standing on a little circular space of rock,
which forms the other face of the Judecca, the upper or the
under side, according to whether it is viewed from tne south-
ern or the northern hemisphere.
vv. 123-136] CANTO XXXIV 239
through fear of him made of the sea a veil, and
came to our hemisphere; and perhaps to fly
from him that land which appears on this side
left here this vacant space and ran back up-
ward." I0
A place-is there below, stretching as far from
Beelzebub as his tomb extends,11 which is not
known by sight, but by the sound of a rivulet
which descends here along the hollow of a rock
that it has gnawed with its winding and gently
sloping course.12 My Leader and I entered
by that hidden road, to return into the bright
world; and without care to have any repose,
we mounted up, he first and I second, so far
10. v. 126. Dante's conception appears to be, that at
the Creation the Southern hemisphere of the Earth was occu-
pied by the dry land, while the Northern was a hemisphere
of waters, and that, at the fall of Lucifer on the Southern
hemisphere, the land recoiled in horror to the Northern,
forcing the waters of the latter to fill the place which it left
void. At the same moment the interior of the globe into
which Lucifer was hurled fled from him, and rising, amid
the waters of the Southern hemisphere, formed the solitary
Mount of Purgatory, which bore the Earthly Paradise on its
summit.
11. v. 128. Hell is his tomb ; this vacant dark passage
through the opposite hemisphere is, of course, of the same
depth as Hell from surface to centre.
12. v. 132. Literally, " with the course which it winds
and little slopes." It is the streamlet of sin from Purgatory
which finds its way back to Satan.
240 HELL [w. 137-139
that through a round opening I saw some of
the beautiful things which Heaven bears, and
thence we issued forth again to see the 'stars.13
13. v. 139. Each of the divisions of the pcem ends with
the words — "the stars."
PURGATORY
PURGATORY
CONTENTS
CANTO I
The new theme,, — Invocation to the Muses. — Dawn
of Easter on the shore of Purgatory. — The Four
Stars. — Cato. — The cleansing of Dante's face from
the stains of Hell „ . . I
CANTO II
Sunrise. — The Poets on the shore. — Coming of a
boat, guided by an angel, bearing souls to Purga-
tory. — Their landing. — Casella and his song. —
Cato hurries the souls to the mountain .... 8
CANTO III
Ante- Purgatory. — Souls of those who have died in con-
tumacy of the Church. — Manfred 15
CANTO IV \
Ante- Purgatory. — Ascent to a shelf of the mountain.
— The negligent, who postponed repentance to the
last hour. — iJelacqua 23
CANTO V
Ante- Purgatory. — Spirits who had delayed repentance,
and met with death by violence, but died repentant.
— • Jacopo del Cassero. — Buonconte da Montefeltro.
— Pia de' Toiomei 30
jfv CONTENTS
CANTO VI
Ante-Purgatory. — More spirits who had deferred re-
pentance till they were overtaken by a violent death.
— Efficacy of prayer. — Sordello. — Apostrophe to
Italy 38
CANTO VII
Virgil makes himself known to Sordello. — Sordello
leads the Poets to the Valley of the Princes who
had been negligent of salvation. — He points them
out by name 47
CANTO VIII
Valley of the Princes. — Two Guardian Angels. — Nino
Visconti. — The Serpent. — Corrado Malaspina . 56
CANTO IX
Slumber and Dream of Dante. — The Eagle. — Lucia.
— The Gate of Purgatory. — The Angelic Gate-
keeper. — Seven P's inscribed on Dante's Foreheadc
— Entrance to the First Ledge . . .... 64
CANTO X
Purgatory proper. — First Ledge : the Proud. — Exam-
ples of Humility sculptured on the rock . . . . 73
CANTO XI
First Ledge : the Proud. — Prayer. — Omberto Aldo-
brandeschi. — Oderisi d* Agubbio. — Provenzan Sal-
vani 80
CANTO XII
First Ledge : the Proud. — Instances of the punish-
CONTENTS v
ment of Pride graven on the pavement. — Meeting
with an Angel who removes one of the P's. — As-
cent to the Second Ledge 87
CANTO XIII
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Examples of Love. —
The Shades in haircloth, and with sealed eyes. —
Sapia of Siena 95
CANTO XIV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Guido del Duca. —
Rinieri de' Calboli. — Instances of the punishment
of Envy 103
CANTO XV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — An Angel removes the
second P from Dante's forehead. — Discourse con-
cerning the Sharing of Good. — Ascent to the Third
Ledge : the Wrathful. — Vision of Examples of For-
bearance ill
CANTO XVI
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Marco Lombardo. —
His discourse on Free Will, and the corruption of
the World 118
CANTO XVII
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Issue from the Smoke.
— Vision of Instances of the punishment of Anger.
— Ascent to the Fourth Ledge, where Sloth is
purged. — Second Nightfall in Purgatory. — Virgil
explains how Love is the root alike of Virtue and of
Sin 127
vi CONTENTS
CANTO XVIII
Fourth Ledge : the Slothful. — Discourse of Virgil on
Love and Free Will. — Throng of Spirits running in
haste to redeem their Sin. — Examples of Zeal. —
The Abbot of San Zeno. — Instances of the punish-
ment of Sloth. — Dante falls asleep 134
CANTO XIX
Fourth Ledge. — Dante dreams of the Siren. — The
Angel of the Pass. — Ascent to the Fifth Ledge :
the Avaricious. — Pope Adrian V 143
CANTO XX
Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — The Spirits celebrate
examples of Poverty and Bounty. — Hugh Capet. —
His discourse on his descendants. — Instances of the
punishment of Avarice. — Trembling of the Moun-
tain 151
CANTO XXI
Fifth Ledge. — The shade of Statius. — Cause of the
trembling of the Mountain. — Statius does honor to
Virgil r * ^i' . .160
CANTO XXII
Ascent to the Sixth Ledge. — Discourse of Statius and
Virgil. — Entrance to the Ledge : the Gluttonous. —
The Mystic Tree. — Examples of Temperance . .167
CANTO XXIII
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. —
Nella. — Rebuke of the women of Florence . . . 1 75
CONTENTS vif
CANTO XXIV
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. —
Piccarda Donati, — Bonagiunta of Lucca. — Pope
Martin IV. — Ubaldin dalla Pila. — Bonifazio. —
Messer Marchese. — Prophecy of Bonagiunta con-
cerning Gentucca, and of Forese concerning Corso
de' Donati. — Second Mystic Tree. — Instances of
the punishment of gluttony. — The Angel of the
Pass l8l
CANTO XXV
Ascent to the Seventh Ledge. — Discourse of Statius
on generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body,
and the corporeal semblance of Souls after death. —
The Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — The mode of
their Purification. — Examples of Chastity . . .190
CANTO XXVI
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Sinners in the fire,
going in opposite directions. — Instances of the pun-
ishment of Lust. — Guido Guinicelli. — Arnaut
Daniel 199
CANTO XXVII
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Passage through the
Flames. — Stairway in the rock. — Night upon the
stairs. — Dream of Dante. — Morning. — Ascent to
the Earthly Paradise. — Last words of Virgil . . 206
CANTO XXVIII
The Earthly Paradise. — The Forest. — A Lady gath-
ering flowers on the bank of a little stream. — Dis-
course with her concerning the nature of the place . 213
viii CONTENTS
CANTO XXIX
The Earthly Paradise., — Mystic Procession or Triumph
of the Church 220
CANTO XXX
The Earthly Paradise. — Beatrice appears. — Departure
of Virgil. — Reproof of Dante by Beatrice . . .229
CANTO XXXI
The Earthly Paradise. — Reproachful discourse of Bea-
trice, and confession of Dante. — Passage of Lethe. —
Appeal of the Virtues to Beatrice. — Her Unveiling 236
CANTO XXXII
The Earthly Paradise. — Return of the Triumphal pro-
cession. — The Chariot bound to the Mystic Tree.
— Sleep of Dante. — His waking to find the Tri-
umph departed. — Transformation of the Chariot. —
The Harlot and the Giant 243
CANTO XXXIII
The Earthly Paradise. — Prophecy of Beatrice concern-
ing one who shall restore the Empire. — Her dis-
course with Dante. — The river Eunoe. — Dante
drinks of it, and is fit to ascend to Heaven . . .252
PURGATORY
CANTO I
The new theme. — Invocation of the Muses. — •
Dawn of Easter on the shore of Purgatory. — The
Four Stars. — Cato. — The cleansing of Dante from
the stains of Hell.
To run over better waters the little vessel of
my genius now hoists her sails, as she leaves be-
hind her a sea so cruel ; and I will sing of that
second realm where the human spirit is purified,
and becomes worthy to ascend to heaven.
But here let dead poesy rise again, O holy
Muses, since I am yours, and here let Calliope
somewhat mount up, accompanying my song
with that sound of which the wretched Picae felt
the stroke such that they despaired of pardon.1
A sweet color of oriental sapphire, which was
gathering in the serene aspect of the mid sky,
pure even to the first circle,2 renewed delight to
1 . v. 1 2. The nine daughters of Pieros, king of" Ema-
thia, who, contending in song with the Muses, were for their
presumption changed to magpies.
2. v. 15. "The first circle" is the horizon, to which
the clear blue sky extended, its color undimmed by earthly
vapors.
2 PURGATORY [w. 17-33
my eyes, soon as I issued forth from the dead
air which had afflicted my eyes and my breast.
The fair planet which incites to love was making
all the Orient to smile, veiling the Fishes that
were in her train.3 I turned me to the right
hand, and gave heed to the other pole, and saw
four stars, never seen save by the first people.4
The heavens appeared to rejoice in their flame-
lets. O widowed northern region, since thou
art deprived of beholding these ! s
When I had withdrawn from regarding them,
turning me a little to the other pole,6 there
whence the Wain had already disappeared, I
saw close to me an old man alone, in aspect
worthy of so much reverence that no son owes
more to his father.7 He wore his beard long
3. v. 21, At the spring equinox Venus is in the sign of
the Pisces, which immediately precedes that of Aries, in which
is the Sun, The time indicated is therefore an hour or more
before sunrise on Easter morning, April 10.
4. v. 24, Purgatory is in the southern hemisphere, and
c< the other " is the South pole. The four stars are the
symbols of the cardinal virtues, — Prudence, Temperance,
Fortitude, and Justice, — the virtues of active life, sufficient
to guide men in the right path, but not to bring them to Par-
adise. These stars had been visible only in the golden age.
5. v. 27. Allegorically interpreted, these words signify
that the virtues of which these stars are the symbols are little
practised by mankind, whose abode is the northern hemi-
sphere.
6. v. 29. The North pole.
7» v. 3 3 . This old man, as soon appears, is the younger
vv. 34-41] CANTO I 3
and mingled with white hair, like his locks, of
which a double list fell upon his breast. The
rays of the four holy stars so adorned his face
with light, that I saw him, as though the sun
had been in front.
" Who are ye that, counter to the blind
stream, have fled from the eternal prison ? "
Cato, and the office here given to him of warden of the souls
in the outer region of Purgatory was suggested by the posi*
tion assigned to him by Virgil in the Aeneid (viii. 670).
"Secretosque pios, his dantem jura Catonem."
"And far apart the good, and Cato giving them their laws."
It has been objected to Virgil's thus putting him in Ely-
sium, that, as a suicide, his place was in the Mourning Fields.
A similar objection may be made to Dante's separating him
from the other suicides in the seventh circle of Hell (Canto
xiii.). "But," says Conington, "Virgil did not aim at
perfect consistency. It was enough for him that Cato was
one who from his character in life might be justly conceived
of as lawgiver to the dead." So Dante, using Cato as an
allegoric figure, regards him as one who, before the coming
of Christ, practised the virtues which are required to liberate
the soul from sin, and who, as he says in the De Monarcbia
(ii. 5), "that he might kindle the love of liberty in the
world, showed how precious it was, by preferring death
with liberty to life without it." This liberty is the type of
that spiritual freedom which Dante is seeking, and which,
being the perfect conformity of the human will to the will of
God, is the aim and fruition of all redeemed souls. In the
region of Purgatory outside the gate, the souls have not yet
attained this freedom ; they are on the way to it, and Cato
Is allegorically fit to warn and spur them on.
4 PURGATORY 0.42-70
said he, moving those venerable plumes. " Who
has guided you ? Or who was a lamp to you,
issuing forth from the deep night which ever
makes the infernal valley black ? Are the laws
of the abyss thus broken ? or is a new design
changed in heaven that, being damned, ye
come to my rocks ? "
My Leader then took hold of me, and with
words, and with hands, and with signs, con-
trolled to reverence my knees and brow. Then
he answered him : " Of myself I came not ; a
Lady descended from Heaven, by reason of
whose prayers I succored this man with my
company. But since it is thy will that more of
our condition be unfolded to thee, how it truly
is, mine cannot be that this be denied to thee.
This man has not yet seen his last evening,
but through his folly was so near thereto that
there was very little time to turn. Even as I
have said, I was sent to him to rescue him, and
there was no other way than this, along which
I have set myself. I have shown to him all the
guilty people ; and now I intend to show him
those spirits that purge themselves under thy
ward. How I have brought him, it would be
long to tell thee ; from on high descends power
which aids me to lead him to see thee and to
hear thee. Now may it please thee to look
graciously upon his coming. He goes seeking
w. 71-90] CANTO I 5
liberty,8 which is so dear, as he knows who for
it renounces life. This thou knowest ; for death
for its sake was not bitter to thee in Utica, where
thou didst leave the vesture which on the great
day shall be so bright.9 The eternal edicts are
not violated by us, for this one is alive, and
Minos does not bind me ; but I am of the circle
where are the chaste eyes of thy Marcia, who in
her look still prays thee, O holy breast, that for
thine own thou hold her. For her love, then,
incline thyself to us ; allow us to go on through
thy seven realms : I0 I will report this grace from
thee to her, if thou deignest to be mentioned
there below."
" Marcia so pleased my eyes while I was on
earth," said he then, " that whatsoever grace she
wished from me, I did ; now that she dwells
on the other side of the evil stream," she can
move me no more, by that law which was made
when thence I issued forth.12 But if a Lady of
8. v. 71. " The glorious liberty of the children of God."
Romans viii. 21. See the last words of Virgil to Dante, at
the end of Canto xxvii., especially verse 140.
9. v. 75. The garment of the body. The words are
interesting as indicating Dante's conviction that Cato, a
heathen, is at the Last Judgment to be among the blessed.
10. v. 82. The seven circles of Purgatory.
11. v. 88. The Acheron.
12. v. 90. The law that as one of the redeemed he
cannot be touched by other than heavenly affections.
6 PURGATORY [vv. 91-117
Heaven move and direct thee, as thou sayest,
there is no need of flatteries ; it may well suf-
fice thee that thou ask me for her sake. Go
then, and see thou gird this one with a smooth
rush, and that thou wash his face so that thou
cleanse it from all stain, for it were not befitting
to go with eye dimmed by any cloud before the
first minister that is of those of Paradise.13 This
little island, round about at its very base, down
there yonder where the wave beats it, bears
rushes upon its soft ooze. No plant of other
kind, that puts forth leaf or grows hard, can
there have life, because it yields not to the
shocks.14 Thereafter let not your return be this
way ,• the Sun, which now is rising, will show
you how to take the mountain by easier as-
cent."
On this he disappeared, and I rose up,
without speaking, and drew me quite close to
my Leader, and bent my eyes on him. He
began : " Son, follow my steps ; let us turn
back, for from here this plain slopes to its
low bounds."
The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour,
which was flying before it, so that from afar I
discerned the trembling of the sea. We went
13' v- 99- 6 rst ° e anges w° o servce n
Purgatory.
14. v. 105. Of the waves beating on the shore.
vv. 118-136] CANTO I y
along over the solitary plain like a man who
turns to the road which he has lost, and, till he
find it, seems to himself to go in vain. When
we were where the dew contends with the sun,
and, through being in a place where there is
shade, is little dispersed, my Master softly
placed both his hands outspread upon the
grass ; whereon I, who was aware of his intent,
stretched toward him my tearful cheeks : then
he wholly uncovered on me that color which
hell had concealed.15
We came, then, to the desert shore which
never saw man navigate its waters who after-
wards had experience of return. Here he girt
me, even as pleased the other.16 O marvel !
that such as he culled the humble plant, such it
instantly sprang up again there whence he had
plucked it.17
15. v. 129. Color which Hell had hidden with its
smoke and foul exhalations. Allegorically, when the soul
enters upon the way of purification, Reason, with the dew
of repentance, washes off the stain of sin, and girds the spirit
with humility.
1 6. v. 133. Cato.
17. v. 136. The goods of the spirit are not diminished
by appropriation.
CANTO II
Sunrise. — The Poets on the shore. — Coming of a boatj
guided by an angel, bearing souls to Purgatory. — Their
landing. — Casella and his song. — Cato hurries the souls
to the mountain.
THE sun had now reached the horizon whose
meridian circle covers Jerusalem with its high-
est point ; and the night which circles opposite
to him was issuing forth from the Ganges with
the Scales which fall from her hand when she ex-
ceeds ; f so that where I was the white and red
cheeks of the beautiful Aurora were becoming
orange through too much age.
We were still alongside the sea, like folk who
are thinking of their road, who go in heart and
I. v. 6. Purgatory and Jerusalem are antipodal, and the
Ganges or India was arbitrarily assumed to be their common
horizon, the Western horizon to the one, the Eastern to the
other. The night is here taken as the point of the Heavens
opposite the sun, and the sun being in Aries, the night is in
Libra. When night exceeds, that is, at the autumnal equi-
nox, when the night becomes longer than the day, the sun
enters Libra, which may therefore be said to drop from the
hand of night.
w. 13-40] CANTO II 9
in body linger; and lo ! as, at approach of the
morning, Mars glows ruddy through the dense
vapors, down in the west above the ocean floor,
such appeared to me, — so may I again behold
it! — a light along the sea coming so swiftly
that no flight equals its motion. From which
when I had a little withdrawn my eye to ask
my Leader, again I saw it, brighter become and
larger. Then on each side of it appeared to
me a something, I knew not what, white, and
beneath, little by little, another came forth from
it.2 My Master still said not a word, until
the first white things appeared as wings ; then,
when he clearly recognized the pilot, he cried
out : " Mind, mind thou bend thy knees : Lo !
the Angel of God : fold thy hands : henceforth
shalt thou see such officials. See how he scorns
human instruments, so that he wills not oar, or
other sail than his own wings, between such
distant shores. See, how he holds them straight
toward heaven, stirring the air with his eternal
feathers, which are not changed like mortal
hair."
Then, as the Bird Divine came more and
more toward us, the brighter he appeared ; so
that my eye endured him not near by, but I
bent it down : and he came on to the shore
2. v. 24. This other white thing was the boat on which
stood the glowing angel with his white wings.
io PURGATORY [vv. 41-48
with a little vessel, swift and light, so that the
water swallowed naught of it. At the stern
stood the Celestial Pilot, such that he seemed
inscribed among the blest ; 3 and more than a
hundred spirits sat within. " In exitu Israel
de Egypto " 4 they all were singing together with
one voice, with whatso of that psalm is after
3. v. 44. Literally, "blessed by inscription;" possi-
bly the meaning is, " that blessedness seemed written on his
countenance."
4. v. 46. In his letter to Can Grande in exposition of
the plan and method of the Divine Comedy , Dante says that
his poem lias many senses, the first being its literal sense, the
second its allegorical or mystical s^nse, under which he in-
cludes, besides the allegorical proper, the moral and the ana-
gogical or spiritual sense. And for illustration of the matter,
he takes the beginning of the psalm here sung by the spirits
as they approach Purgatory. The psalm is the one hundred
and thirteenth of the Vulgate, the one hundred and fourteenth
of the English version. " When Israel went out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah
was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion." " Now," says
Dante, " if we regard the letter alone, it signifies the going
out from Egypt of the children of Israel in the time of Moses ;
if the allegory, it signifies our redemption by Christ ; if the
moral meaning, it signifies the conversion of the soul from the
grief and misery of sin to the state of grace ; if the anagogi-
cal, it signifies the departure of the holy soul from the servi-
tude of this corruption to the freedom of eternal glory." § 7.
This passage not only shows the significance of the psalm
as sung by the spirits, but also affords light as to the mode u|
whida the poem should throughout be read and interpreted
vv. 49-72] CANTO II if
written. Then he made them the sign of the
Holy Cross ; whereon they all threw themselves
upon the strand ; and he went away swift as he
had come.
The crowd which remained there seemed
strange to the place, gazing round about, like
one who makes essay of new things. The Sun,
who with his bright arrows had chased the Cap-
ricorn from mid-heaven,5 was shooting forth the
day on every side, when the new people raised
their brows toward us, saying to us : "If ye
know, show us the way to go to the mountain."
And Virgil answered : " Ye perhaps believe
that we are experienced of this place, but we are
pilgrims, even as ye are. We came just now, a
little while before you, by another way, which
was so rough and difficult that the ascent hence-
forth will seem play to us."
The souls, who by my breathing had become
aware that I was still alive, marvelling, became
deadly pale. And as to hear news the folk
press to a messenger who bears an olive branch,6
and no one shows himself shy of crowding, so
5. v. 57. When Aries, in which the sun was rising,
is on the horizon, Capricorn is at the zenith.
6. v. 70. It was an old custom, which lasted till the
sixteenth century, for messengers, bearing news of victory
or of peace, to carry an olive-branch in their hand as a sign of
good tidings.
12 PURGATORY [w 73-93
all of those fortunate souls fastened themselves
on my countenance, as if forgetting to go to
make themselves fair.
I saw one of them drawing forward to em-
brace me with so great affection, that it moved
me to do the like. O shades, empty save in
aspect ! Three times I clasped my hands be-
hind it, and as often returned with them unto
my breast. With wonder, I believe, I painted
me ; whereat the shade smiled and drew back,
and I, following it, pressed forward. Gently it
said, that I should pause ; then I knew who it
was, and I prayed it that it would stay to speak
with me a little. It replied to me : " Even as
I loved thee in the mortal body, so loosed from
it I love thee ; therefore I stay ; but wherefore
art thou going ? "
" My Casella, 7 in order to return another
time to this place where I am, do I make this
journey," said I, " but from thee how has so
much time been taken ? " 8
7. v. 91. The only fact known in regard to Casella,
beyond what is implied in Dante's affectionate record of their
meeting, is learned from a record preserved in the Arcbivio
di Stato at Siena, which runs : " 1282, July I 3. Fine paid
by the musician Casella, for having been found wandering at
night through the city," and, presumably, disturbing its sleep*-
inhabitants with his songs. What a fancy-touching glimps
of the past ! See the Giornale Dantesco, i. 3 I .
8. v. 93. " How has thy coming hither been delayed
so long since thy death ? "
w. 94-112] CANTO II 13
And he to me: "No wrong has been done
me if he who9 takes both when and whom it
pleases him has many times denied to me this
passage ; for of a just will I0 his own is made.
For three months, indeed, he has taken with all
peace whoso has wished to enter. Wherefore I,
who had now turned to the seashore where the
water of Tiber becomes salt, was benignantly
received by him." To that outlet has he row
directed his wing, because always those assemble
there who towards Acheron do not descend."
And I : " If a new law take not from thee
memory or practice of the song of love which
was wont to quiet all my longings, may it please
thee therewith somewhat to comfort my soul,
which coming hither with its body is so wearied."
" Love which in my mind discourses with me" I3
9. v. 95. The Celestial Pilot.
10. v. 97. That is, of the Divine Will ; but there is no
explanation of the motive of the delay.
11. v. 102. The Tiber is the local symbol of the
Church of Rome, from whose bosom those who die at peace
with her pass to Purgatory. The Jubilee, proclaimed by
Boniface VIII., had begun at Christmas, 1289, so that for
three months now the Celestial Pilot had received graciously
all who had taken advantage of it to gain remission 01 their
sins.
12. v. 1 12. The first verse of a canzone by Dante ; it
Is the second of those upon which he comments in his Con-
vito.
14 PURGATORY [vv. 113-133
he then began so sweetly, that the sweetness still
within me sounds.13 My Master, and I, and
that folk who were with him, appeared so con-
tent as if naught else could touch the mind of
any.
We were all fast and attentive to his notes ;
and lo ! the venerable old man crying : " What
is this, ye laggard spirits ? What negligence,
what stay is this ? Run to the mountain to strip
off the slough which lets not God be manifest to
you."
As, when picking up grain or tares, the doves
assembled at their feeding, quiet, without dis-
play of their wonted pride, if aught appear of
which they are afraid, suddenly let the food
alone, because they are assailed by a greater
care, so I saw that fresh troop leave the song,
and go towards the hillside, like one that goes,
but knows not where he may come out : nor
was our departure less speedy.
13. v. 1 14. Every English reader recalls Milton's Son-
net to Mr. Henry Lawes : —
" Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher
Than his Casella, whom he woo'd to sing,
Met in the milder shades of Purgatory."
CANTO III
Ante-Purgatory. — Souls of those who have died In
Contumacy of the Church. — Manfred.
ALTHOUGH the sudden flight had scattered
them over the plain, turned to the mount
whereto reason spurs us, I drew up close to my
trusty companion. And how should I have
run without him ? Who would have led me
up over the mountain ? He seemed to me of
his own self remorseful. O conscience, upright
and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is little
fault !
When his feet left the haste which mars the
dignity of every act, my mind, which at first
had been restrained, let loose its attention, as
though eager, and I set my face against the hill
which rises highest towards heaven from the
sea. The sun, which behind was flaming
ruddy, was broken in front of me by the figure
which the staying of its rays upon me formed.
When I saw the ground darkened only in front
of me,1 I turned me to one side with fear of
i . v. 21. Dante till now has not observed that the spirits
cast no shadow.
16 PURGATORY [TV. 22-41
having been abandoned : and my Comfort,
turning wholly round to me, began to say :
" Why dost thou still distrust ? Dost thou
not believe me with thee, and that I guide thee ?
It is already evening there where the body is
buried within which I cast a shadow ; Naples
holds it, and from Brundusium it was taken :
if in front of me there is no shadow now, mar-
vel not more than at the heavens, of which the
one obstructs not the other's radiance.2 The
Power, which wills not that how it acts be re-
vealed to us, disposes bodies like this to suffer
torments both of heat and cold. Mad is he
who hopes that our reason can traverse the in-
finite way which One Substance in Three Per-
sons holds. Be content, O human race, with
the quia ; 3 for if ye had been able to see every-
thing, there had been no need for Mary to bear
child : and ye have seen desiring fruitlessly men
such that their desire would have been quieted,4
2. v. 30. The nine concentric heavens are transparent,
so that the radiance from one passes unobstructed through
the others.
3. v. 37. Quia is used here, as often in mediaeval Latin,
for quod. The meaning is, Be content to know that the
thing it., seek not to know why or bow — propter quid — it
is as it is.
4. v. 41. If mere human wisdom sufficed for attaining
to the knowledge of the things of God, the desires of the
heathen sages, whom Dante saw in Limbo, would have been
satisfied.
w. 42-66] CANTO III 17
which is given them eternally for a grief. I
speak of Aristotle and of Plato, and of many
others." And here he bowed his front, and said
no more, and remained disturbed.
We had come, meanwhile, to the foot of the
mountain ; here we found the cliff so steep, that
the legs would there be nimble in vain. Between
Lerici and Turbia 5 the most deserted, the most
secluded path is a stairway easy and open, com-
pared with that. " Now who knows on which
hand the hillside slopes," said my Master, stay-
ing his step, " so that one who goes without
wings may ascend ? "
And while he was holding his face bent down,
and was questioning his mind about the road, and
I was looking up round about the rock, a com-
pany of souls appeared to me on the left hand,
who were moving their feet towards us, and
seemed not doing so, so slowly were they com-
ing. " Lift," said I, " Master, thine eyes ; be-
hold on this side those who will give us coun-
sel, if of thyself thou canst not have it." He
looked at them, and with a relieved air replied :
" Let us go thither, for they come slowly, and
do thou confirm thy hope, sweet son."
5. v. 49. Lerici, on the Gulf" of Spezzia, and Turbia,
just above Monaco, are at the two ends of the Riviera ; be«
tween them the mountains rise steeply from the shore, along
which in Dante's time there was no road.
18 PURGATORY [vv. 67-93
That people was still as far, — I mean after a
thousand steps of ours, — as a good thrower
would cast with his hand, when they all pressed
up to the hard masses of the high bank, and
stood still and close, as one who goes in doubt
stops to look.6 " O ye who have made good
ends, O spirits already elect," Virgil began, " by
that peace which, I believe, is awaited by you all,
tell us, where the mountain lies so that the going
up is possible ; for to lose time is most displeas-
ing to him who knows most."
As the sheep come forth from the fold by
ones, and twos, and threes, and the others stand
timid, holding eye and muzzle to the ground ;
and what the first does the others also do, hud-
dling themselves to it if it stop, silly and quietj
and wherefore know not ; so I then saw the
head of that fortunate flock moving to ap-
proach, modest in countenance and dignified in
gait.
When those in front saw the light broken on
the ground at my right side, so that the shadow
was cast by me on the rock, they stopped, and
drew somewhat back ; and all the rest who were
coming behind did the like, not knowing why.
6. v. 72. They stopped, surprised, at seeing Virgil and
Dante advancing to the left, against the rule in Purgatory,
where the course is always to the right, symbolizing progress
in good. In Hell the contrary rule holds.
vv. 94-113] CANTO III 19
<c Without your asking, I confess to you that
this is a human body which ye see, whereby the
light of the sun on the ground is cleft. Mar-
vel not, but believe that not without power
which comes from heaven does he seek to sur-
mount this wall." Thus the Master : and that
worthy people said : " Turn, proceed before us,
then ; " with the backs of their hands making
sign. And one of them began : " Whoever thou
art, turn thy face as thou thus goest on ; con-
sider whether in the world thou didst ever see
me ? " I turned me toward him, and looked at
him fixedly : blond was he, and beautiful, and
of gentle aspect, but a blow had divided one of
his eyebrows.
When I had humbly disclaimed having ever
seen him, he said : " Now look ! " and showed
me a wound high upon his breast. Then he
said, smiling ; " I am Manfred,7 grandson of the
Empress Constance : wherefore I pray thee,
7. v. 112. The natural son of the Emperor Frederick
II. He was born about i 231 ; in 1258 he was crowned
King of Sicily. The Papacy was hostile to him as it had
been to his father, and Pope Urban IV. and his successor
Clement IV. offered the throne of Sicily to Charles of Anjou,
the brother of St. Louis. In 1265 Charles came with a
large force to Italy. He was crowned King of Sicily at
Rome, he then advanced toward Naples, and in February,
1 26$ , routed the forces of Manfred at Benevento. Man-
fred himself was slain in the battle.
20 PURGATORY [vv. 114-129
that when thou returnest, thou go to my beau-
tiful daughter,8 mother of the honor of Sicily
and of Aragon, and tell to her the truth 9 if
aught else be told. After I had my body
broken by two mortal stabs, I rendered myself,
weeping, to Him who pardons willingly. My
sins were horrible, but the Infinite Goodness
has such wide arms that it takes whatever turns
to it. If the Pastor of Cosenza,10 who was set
on the hunt of me by Clement, had then rightly
read this page " in God, the bones of my body
would still be at the head of the bridge near
Benevento, under the protection of the heavy
8. v. 115. Constance, the daughter of Manfred, was
married in 1262 to Peter III. of Aragon. She had three
sons, Alphonso, James, and Frederick. Alphonso succeeded
his father in Aragon, and James in Sicily, but after the death
of Alphonso, in 1291, James became King of Aragon, and
Frederick King of Sicily. Dante himself thought ill of James
and Frederick (see Canto vii., 119-120) ; and the phrase
concerning them used by Manfred is to be interpreted as
referring mereiy to their regal dignity.
9. v. 1 17. That, though I died excommunicated, I am
not among the lost souls.
10. v. 124. The Archbishop of Cosenza, at command
of the Pope, Clement IV., took the body of Manfred from
his grave near Benevento, and threw it unburied, as the corpse
of one excommunicated, on the bank of the Verde.
11. v. I 26. Had he so read the word and the works of
God which reveal His infinite mercy, as rightly to compre-
hend them.
w. 130-143] CANTO III 21
cairn. Now the rain bathes them, and the wind
moves them forth from the kingdom, hard by
the Verde,12 whither he transported them with
extinguished light.13 By their malediction I4 one
is not so lost that the Eternal Love cannot re-
turn, while hope has speck of green.15 True
is it, that whoso dies in contumacy of Holy
Church, though he repent him at the end,
needs must stay outside,16 upon this bank,
thirtyfold the whole time that he has been in
his presumption,17 if such decree become not
shortened through good prayers. See if hereafter
thou canst make me glad,18 revealing to my good
Constance how thou hast seen me, and also this
12. v. 131. By the Verde Dante seems to intend the
river now known as the Garigliano, which, for part of its
course, formed the boundary of the States of the Church and
the Kingdom of Naples.
13. v. 132. Not with candles burning, as in proper
funeral rites.
14. v. 1 3 3 . That is, of Pope or Bishop.
15. v. 135. While life lasts and man may hope by re-
pentance, however late, to obtain forgiveness of his sins.
1 6. v. 138. Outside the gate of Purgatory.
17. v. 140. This notion of a period of exclusion from
Purgatory proper for those who have died in contumacy of
Holy Church seems to be original with Dante. The power
of the prayers of the good on earth to shorten the period of
suffering of the souls in Purgatory is, however, the accepted
doctrine of the Church.
1 8. 7.142. By securing for me the prayers of the good.
22 PURGATORY [w. 144, 145
prohibition ; IQ for here by means of those on
earth much may be gained." 20
19. v. 144. The prohibition of entering within Purga-
tory proper.
20. v. 145. In what measure the dead may receive
assistance from the living is set forth by St. Thomas Aqui-
oas (S. T. Suppl. Ixiii. 2).
CANTO IV
Ante-Purgatory. — Ascent to a shelf of the mountain.
— The negligent, who postponed repentance to the last
hour. — Belacqua.
WHEN by reason of delights, or of pains
which any capacity of ours may experience, the
soul is wholly engaged by it, to any other
faculty it seems no further to give heed : and
this is counter to the error which believes that
one soul above another is kindled within us.1
And therefore, when a thing is heard or seen
which may hold the soul intently turned to it,
the time goes by, and the man perceives it not :
for one faculty is that which listens, and another
is that which keeps the soul entire ; the latter is
as it were bound, and the former is loose.
I. v. 6. When the soul is wholly engrossed by what
appeals to one of its powers, it pays no attention to what
addresses its other faculties ; in other words, when one faculty
is called into free activity, the other faculties of the soul are,
as it were, bound in inaction ; but were it true that, as ac-
cording to the Platonists, there were more than one soul in
man, he might give attention to two things at once. Dante
derives his argument from St. Thomas Aquinas (S. T. i.
76. 3)-
24 PURGATORY [w 13-39
Of this I had true experience, hearing that
spirit and wondering : for full fifty degrees had
the sun ascended,2 and I was not aware of it,
when we came where those souls with one
accord cried out to us : " Here is what you
ask."
The man of the farm, when the grape is grow-
ing dark,3 often hedges up a larger opening with
a forkful of his thorns, than was the passage
from which my Leader and I behind him as-
cended alone, when the troop departed from
us. One goes to Sanleo, and descends to Noli,
one mounts up Bismantova4 to its summit, with
only feet ; but here it behoves that one fly, I
mean with the swift wings and with the feath-
ers of great desire, behind that guide who gave
me hope and made a light for me. We ascended
through the cleft rock, and on each side the
wall pressed close on us, and the ground be-
neath required both feet and hands.
When we were upon the upper edge of the
high bank, on the open hillside: "My Master,"
said I, " what way shall we take ? " And he
to me : " Let no step of thine fall back, always
win up *behind me on the mountain, till some
sage guide appear for us."
2. v. 15. It was now about nine o'clock A. M.
3. v. 21. At the time of vintage.
4. v. 26. These all are places difficult of access.
vv. 40-64] CANTO IV 25
The summit was so high that it surpassed
the sight ; and the mountain-side far steeper
than a line from the mid quadrant to the cen-
tre.5 I was weary, when I began : " O sweet
Father, turn and regard how I remain alone if
thou stay not." " My son," said he, " far as
here drag thyself on," pointing out to me a
ledge a little above, which on that side circles
all the hill. His words so spurred me, that I
forced myself on, scrambling after him, until the
belt 6 was beneath my feet. There we both sat
down, turning toward the east, whence we had
ascended, for to look back is wont to encourage
a man. I first turned my eyes to the low shores,
then I raised them to the sun, and wondered
that we were struck by it on the left. The
Poet well perceived that I was all bewildered
at the chariot of the light, where it was enter-
ing7 between us and Aquilo. Wherefore he
to me : "If Castor and Pollux were in company
with that mirror8 which sheds its light up
and down, thou wouldst see the Zodiac revolv-
5. v. 42. A steeper inclination than that of an angle of
forty-five degrees.
6. v. 5 1 . The encircling ledge. •
7. v. 60. Dante having his face turned toward the East
was bewildered at seeing the sun on his left hand. Aquilo,
the north wind, is put for the North.
8. v. 62. The brightness of the sun is the reflection of
the Divine light.
26 PURGATORY [vv. 65-84
ing ruddy still closer to the Bears, if it went not
out of its old road.9 How this can be, if thou
wishest to be able to conceive, with collected
thought imagine Zion and this mountain to stand
upon the earth so that both have one sole hori-
zon and different hemispheres ; then thou wilt
see, if thy intelligence right clearly heed, how
the road which Phaethon, to his harm, knew
not how to drive,10 must needs pass this moun-
tain on the one side, and that " on the other."
" Surely, my Master," said I, " I never saw so
clearly as I now discern, there where my wit
seemed deficient, that the midcircle of the su-
pernal motion, which in a certain art I2 is called
Equator, and which always remains between the
sun and the winter, is distant, for the reason that
thou tellest, as far from here toward the north,
as the Hebrews saw it toward the warm region.
9. v. 66. If the sun were in the sign of the Gemini, —
Castor and Pollux, — which is nearer the constellations of the
Bears than Aries, in which the sun now is, it would make
the Zodiac ruddy still farther to the north. In Purgatory the
sun being seen from south of the equator \s on the left hand,
while at Jerusalem, its antipodes in the northern hemisphere,
it is seen on the right. ... ,-"
10. v. 72. This road is the Ecliptic, the great circle
of the Heavens round which the sun seems to travel in his
annual course.
11. v. 74. Mount Zion.
12. v. 80. Astronomy.
w. 85-115] CANTO IV 27
But, if it please thee, willingly would I know
how far we have to go, for the hill rises higher
than my eyes are able." And he to me : " This
mountain is such, that ever at the beginning
below it is hard, and the more one goes up, be-
hold ! the less it troubles him ; therefore when it
shall seem to thee so pleasant, that the going up
will be easy to thee as going down the current
in a vessel, then wilt thou be at the end of this
path ; there mayst thou expect repose from toil :
more I answer not, and this I know for true."
And as he ended his words, a voice near by
sounded : " Perchance before then thou wilt be
constrained to sit." At the sound of it each of
us turned, and we saw at the left a great stone,
of which neither he nor I had taken note before.
Thither we drew ; and there were persons who
were reposing in the shadow behind the rock,
as one through indolence sets himself to repose.
And one of them, who seemed to me weary, was
seated, and was clasping his knees, holding his
face down low between them. " O sweet my
Lord," said I, " look at him, who shows him-
self more indolent than if sloth were his sister."
Then that one turned to us and gave heed,
moving his look only up along his thigh, and
said : " Now go thou up, for thou art valiant."
I recognized then who he was, and that effort I3
13. v. 1 15. The effort of climbing up to the ledge.
28 PURGATORY [vv. 116-134
which was still quickening my breath a little,
did not hinder my going to him, and after I
had reached him, he scarcely raised his head,
saying: "Hast thou clearly seen how the sun
drives his chariot over thy left shoulder ? "
His lazy acts and his short words moved
my lips a little to a smile ; then I began : " Bel-
acqua,14 henceforth I grieve not for thee,15 but
tell me why thou art seated here ? dost thou
await a guide, or has only thy wonted mood
recaptured thee ? " And he : " Brother, what
avails the going up ? For the bird of God that
sits at the gate would not let me go to the tor-
ments.'6 It behoves that heaven first circle
around me outside the gate, as long as it did in
life, because I delayed my good sighs I7 until
the end ; unless, before then, the prayer assist
me which rises from a heart that lives in grace :
14. v. 123. Belacqua, according to Benvenuto da Imola,
was a Florentine, a maker of citherns and other musical in-
struments ; he carved with great care the necks and heads of
his citherns, and sometimes he played on them. Dante,
because of his love of music, had been well acquainted with
him.
15. v. 124. A humorous suggestion that he had feared
lest Belacqua might be in Hell.
1 6. v. 128. The angel who sits as porter at the gate
of Purgatory would not allow him yet to enter to endure the
torments by which his sins were to be purged away.
17. v. 132. Sighs of contrition and repentance.
vv- ^S-JSQ] CANTO iv 29
what avails the other, which is not heard in
heaven ? "
And already the Poet was mounting up
before me, and was saying : " Come on now :
thou seest that the meridian is touched by the
sun, and on the shore the night now covers
Morocco with her foot." l8
1 8. v. 139. Morocco is here taken for the western
verge of our hemisphere, ninety degrees from Jerusalem on
the one hand, and from Purgatory on the other. At noon
in Purgatory, it would be nightfall in Morocco.
CANTO V
Ante-Purgatory. — Spirits who had delayed repent*
ence, and met with death by violence^ but died repentant,
— "Jacopo del Cassero. — Buonconte da Montefeltro. —
Pia de Tolomei.
I HAD now parted from those shades, and
was following the footsteps of my Leader, when
behind me one, pointing his finger, cried out :
" Look how the ray seems not to shine on the
left hand of that lower one, and he seems to
bear himself as if alive." I turned my eyes at
the sound of these words, and I saw them
watching, for marvel, only me, only me, and the
light which was broken.
cc Why is thy mind so caught," said the
Master, " that thou slackenest thy going ?
What matters to thee that which is whispered
here ? Come on after me, and let the people
talk. Stand like a firm tower that never wags
its top for blowing of the winds : for always the
man in whom thought on thought wells up re-
moves from himself his mark, because one weak-
ens the force of the other." ' What could I
I. v. 1 8. Dante has allowed the talk of the spirits con-
vv. 19-39] CANTO V 31
answer, save : " I come " ? I said it, overspread
somewhat with the color, which, at times, makes
a man worthy of pardon.
And therewhile, across upon the mountain-
side, a little in front of us, were coming people,
singing " Miserere" 2 verse by verse. When
they observed that I gave no place for passage
of the rays through my body, they changed
their song into a long and hoarse Oh ! and two
of them, in form of messengers, ran to meet us,
and asked of us : " Make us acquainted with
your condition." And my Master: " Ye can go
back, and report to those who sent you, that the
body of this one is true flesh. If, as I suppose,
they stopped because of seeing his shadow,
enough is answered them : let them do him
honor and it may profit them." 3
Never did I see enkindled vapors at early
night so swiftly cleave the clear sky, or the
clouds of August at set of sun,4 that these did
cerning him so to engage his attention that, forgetting his
main object, the ascent of the mountain, he has slackened his
pace, and needs to be recalled to duty.
2. v. 24. The fiftieth Psalm in the Vulgate, the fifty-
first in our English version, which begins, " Have mercy
upon me, O God.'*
3. v. 36. Since Dante may secure for them the prayers
of the good on his return to earth.
4. v. 39. The shooting stars in a clear sky, or the light
ning in the clouds of August.
32 PURGATORY [w. 40-68
not return up in less time ; and, arrived there,
they with the others wheeled round toward us,
like a troop that runs without curb. " These
folk that press to us are many, and they come
to pray thee," said the Poet ; " yet do thou still
go on, and in going listen." " O soul," they
came crying, " that with those limbs with which
thou wast born art on thy way to be glad, a
little stay thy step. Look if thou hast ever seen
any one of us, so that thou mayst carry news
of him to earth. Pray, why dost thou go on ?
Pray, why dost thou not stop ? We all of old
were slain by violence, and sinners up to the last
hour; then light from Heaven made us mind-
ful, so that both penitent and pardoning we
issued forth from life at peace with God, who
fills our hearts with the desire of seeing Him."
And I : " Although I gaze upon your faces, I
recognize no one ; but if aught that I can do
be pleasing to you, spirits well-born,5 speak ye,
and I will do it by that peace which makes me,
following the feet of such a guide, seek it from
world to world." And one began : " Each of
us trusts in thy good service, without thy swear-
ing it, provided that want of power cut not off
the will; wherefore I, who speak alone before
the others, pray thee, if ever thou see that land
5. v. 60. Elect from birth to the joys of Paradise, in
contrast with the ill-born, damned in Hell.
vv. 69-82] CANTO V 33
which lies between Romagna and the land of
Charles,6 that thou be courteous to me with thy
prayers in Fano, so that supplication may be
well made in my behalf, that I may be able to
purge away my grave offenses. Of that place
was I ; but the deep wounds, wherefrom issued
the blood in which I had my seat,7 were dealt
me in the bosom of the Antenori,8 there where
I thought to be most secure ; he of Este had it
done, who held me in wrath far beyond what
justice willed. But if, when I was overtaken at
Oriaco, I had fled toward I^a Mira,9 I should
still be yonder where men breathe. I ran to
the marsh, and the reeds and the mire ham-
6. v. 69. The March of Ancona, between the Ro-
magna and the kingdom of Naples, then held by Charles II.
King of Naples and Count of Anjou. It is Jacopo del Cas-
sero who speaks. He was a noted and valiant member or'
the leading Guelf family in Fano. On his way to take the
place of Podesta of Milan, in 1298, he was assassinated by
the minions of Azzo VIII. of Este, whose enmity he had
incurred.
7. v. 74. " The life of all flesh is the blood thereof."
Levit. xvii. 14. Or, according to the Vulgate, " Anima
enim omnis carnis in sanguine est."
8. v. 75. That is, in the territory of the Paduans, whose
city was reputed to have been founded by Antenor.
9. v. 79. La Mira is a village on the bank of one of
the canals of the Brenta between Padua and Venice. Why
flight thither would have been safe is mere matter of conjec-
ture. Oriaco, another small town, is not far from it.
34 PURGATORY ^.83-96
pered me so that I fell, and there I saw a lake
made by my veins upon the ground."
Then said another : " Ah ! so may that de-
sire be fulfilled which draws thee to the high
mountain, with good piety do thou help mine. I
was of Montefeltro, and am Buonconte.10 Joan,
or any other, has no care for me, wherefore I go
among these with downcast front." And I
to him : " What violence, or what chance caused
thee to stray so far from Campaldino,11 that thy
burial place was never known ? " " Oh ! " re-
plied he, " at foot of the Casentino I2 crosses a
stream, named the Archiano, which rises in the
Apennine above the Hermitage.13 Where its
10. v. 88. Son of Count Guido da Montefeltro, the
treacherous counselor who had told his story to Dante in
Hell (Canto xxvii. ). Joan was the wife of Buonconte.
11. v. 92. The battle of Campaldino, in which, if we
may trust a fragment of a letter ascribed to him in Lionardo
Bruni's Life of him, Dante himself took part, was fought
on the nth of June, 1289, between the Florentine Guelfs
and the Ghibellines of Arezzo. Buonconte was the captain
of the Aretines. Campaldino is a little plain in the upper
valley of the Arno.
12. v. 94. The Casentino is a «' district in Tuscany
comprising the upper valley of the Arno, .and the slopes of
the Etruscan Apennines/' The little streams from the hills
of the Casentino were in Master Adam's memory in Hell
(xx. 65).
13. v. 96. The monastery of Carnal doli, founded by
St. Romualdo of Ravenna, in 1012, the earliest house of the
vv. 97-115] CANTO V 35
name becomes vain I4 I arrived, pierced in the
throat, flying on foot, and bloodying the plain.
Here I lost my sight, and I ended my speech
with the name of Mary, and here I fell, and
my flesh remained alone. I will tell the truth,
and do thou repeat it among the living. The
Angel of God took me, and he of Hell cried
out, c O thou from Heaven, why dost thou
rob me ? 1S Thou bearest away for thyself the
eternal part of him for one little tear which
takes him from me ; but of the rest I will make
other disposal/ Thou knowest well how in
the air that moist vapor is collected which
turns to water soon as it rises where the cold
condenses it. He l6 joined that evil will, which
seeks only evil, with intelligence, and moved
the mist and the wind by the power that his
nature gave.17 Then, when the day was spent,
Order of Reformed Benedictines which derives its name from
this locality.
14. v. 97. Being lost at its junction with the Arno.
15. v. 105. St. Francis and one of the black Cherubim
had had a similar contention, with an opposite result, as will
be remembered, over the soul of Buonconte's father {Hell,
Canto xxvii. 112-120).
1 6. v. 112. The demon from Hell.
17. v. 114. Material things, according to St. Thomas
Aquinas, are subject to spiritual things ; hence the angels may
give local motion to such things as wind and rain ( S. T.
i. 1 10. 3). The demons partake this power by their natur«
36 PURGATORY [vv. 116-133
he covered the valley with cloud, from Prato-
magno to the great chain/8 and made the sky
above so dense that the pregnant air was turned
to water. The rain fell, and what of it the
earth did not endure came to the gullies, and as
it gathered in great streams it rushed so swiftly
towards the royal river that nothing held it
back. The robust Archiano found my frozen
body near its mouth, and pushed it into the
Arno, and loosed on my breast the cross which
I made of myself 19 when the pain overcame me.
It rolled me along its banks, and along its bot-
tom, then with its spoil 20 it covered and girt
me."
" Pray, when thou shalt have returned unto
the world, and rested from the long journey,"
the third spirit followed on the second, " re-
member me, who am Pia.21 Siena made me,
as spiritual beings, unless restrained by the Divine will ( Id.
ii.1 80. 2).
i 8. v. 1 1 6. Pratomagno is the mountain ridge which
forms the western boundary of the Casendno, the upper
valley of the Arno ; "the great chain" is the main ridge
of the Apennines on the opposite side. (Toynbee, Dante
Dictionary.}
19. v. 127. By folding his arms across his breast.
20. v. i 29. The spoil of branches, weeds, gravel, and
whatever the swollen river swept along with its rushing
stream.
21. v. 133. This sad Pia is supposed to have belonged
vv. 134-136] CANTO V 37
Maremma unmade me ; he knows it, who, be-
fore wedding, had enringed me with his gem."
to the Sienese family of the Tolomei, and to have been the
wife of Nello or Paganello de' Pannocchieschi, who was re-
ported to have had her put to death in his stronghold of Pie-
tra in the Tuscan Maremma. Her fate seems the more piti-
able that she does not pray Dante to seek for her the prayers
of any living person. Her last words are obscure, and are
interpreted variously ; they may perhaps be intended " to
accentuate the fact that Pia was lawfully married, after having
received from her husband the ring of betrothal J ' ( Vernon).
CANTO VI
Ant ^Purgatory. — More spirits who had deferred
repentance till they were overtaken by a violent death. —
Efficacy of prayer. — Sordello. — Apostrophe to Italy.
WHEN the game of hazard ' is broken up,
he who loses remains sorrowful, repeating the
throws, and, saddened, learns ; with the other
all the folk go along ; one goes before, and one
plucks him from behind, and one at his side
brings himself to mind : he does not stop, and
listens to one and the other; the man to whom
he reaches forth his hand presses on him no
longer, and thus from the throng he defends
himself. Such was I in that dense crowd, turn-
ing my face to them this way and that ; and,
promising, I loosed myself from it.
Here was the Aretine, who from the fierce
arms of Ghin di Tacco had his death ; 2 and the
1. v. I. A game played with three dice.
2. v. 14. The Aretine was Messer Benincasa da Late-
rina, a learned judge, who had condemned to death for theif
crimes two relatives of Ghin di Tacco, the most famous high-
wayman of the day, whose headquarters were between Siena
and Rome, Some time after, Messer Benincasa sitting a*
vv. 15-19] CANTO VI 39
other who was drowned when running in pur-
suit.3 Here Federigo Novello 4 was praying
with hands outstretched, and he of Pisa, who
made the good Marzucco show himself strong.5
I saw Count Orso ; 6 and the soul divided from
papal auditor in Rome, Ghino entered the city with a band
of his followers, made his way to the tribunal, slew Benin-
casa, and escaped unharmed.
3. v. 15. Another Aretine, of the Tarlati family, con-
cerning whose death the early commentators are at variance.
Benvenuto da Imola says that, while pursuing or pursued by
his enemies, his horse carried him into the Arno, where he
was drowned.
4. v. 17. Frederigo, son of the Count Guido Novello,
of whom nothing is known but that he was slain in 1291,
near Bibbiena. Benvenuto says, he was juvenis . . mul-
tum pro bus, " a very good youth," and therefore Dante men-
tions him.
5. v. 1 8. Of "him of Pisa" different stories are told.
Benvenuto says, *' I have heard from the good Boccaccio,
whom I trust more than the others, that Marzucco was a
good man of the city of Pisa, who had become a Franciscan
friar, whose son was beheaded by order of Count Ugolino,
the tyrant, who commanded that his body should remain un-
buried. At a late hour his father humbly approached the
Count, and like a stranger unconcerned in the matter, and
without tears or other sign of grief, he said, ' Surely, my
lord, it would be proper and to your honor that that poor
slain man should be buried, and not left cruelly as food for
dogs.' Then the Count, recognizing him, said, astonished,
' Go, for thy patience overcomes my obduracy,' and immedi-
ately Marzucco went and buried his son."
6. v. 19. Count Orso, the son of Count Napoleone
40 PURGATORY [vv. 20-33
its body by spite and by envy, as it said, and
not for fault committed, Pierre de la Brosse,7 I
mean ; and here let the Lady of Brabant have
foresight, while she is on earth, so that for this
she be not of the worse flock.
When I was free from each and all those
shades who prayed only that someone else
should pray, so that their becoming holy may
be speeded, I began : " It seems to me, O
Light of mine, that thou deniest expressly, in
a certain text, that orison can bend decree of
Heaven, and these folk pray only for this, —
shall then their hope be vain ? or is thy saying
not rightly clear to me ? " 8
degli Alberti, was murdered by his cousin, the son of Count
Alessandro, who with the Count Napoleone is in the ice of
Caina. See Hell, Canto xxxii. 55—60. The murder of
Count Orso by his cousin was doubtless a sequel of the blood
feud of their fathers.
7. v. 22. Pierre de la Brosse was chamberlain and con-
fidant of Philip the Bold of France. He lost the king's
favor, and being convicted on charges, the nature of which is
variously reported, he was hanged. It was believed that he
had incurred the hatred of the Queen, Mary of Brabant, the
second wife of Philip, and that his death was brought about
by her. She lived till 1321, so that Dante's warning may
have reached her ears.
8. v. 33. Virgil represents Palinurus as begging to be
allowed to cross the Styx, while his body was still unburied
and without due funeral rites. To this petition the Sibyl
answers :
'< Desine fata Deum flecti sperare precando : "
vv. 34-49] CANTO VI 41
And he to me : " My writing is plain, and
the hope of these is not fallacious, if it be well
regarded with sound mind ; for top of judgment
vails not itself because a fire of love may, in
one instant, fulfil that which he who is here
installed must satisfy. And there where I af-
firmed this proposition, defect was not amended
by a prayer, because the prayer was disjoined
from God.9 However, in regard to matter of
doubt so deep decide thou not, unless she tell
it thee, who shall be a light between the truth
and the understanding.10 I know not if thou
understandest ; I speak of Beatrice : " thou shalt
see her above, smiling and happy, upon the
summit of this mountain."
And I : "My Lord, let us go on with greater
" Cease to hope that the decrees of the gods can be changed
by prayer" {Aenetd', vi. 376).
9. v. 42. The prayer of Palinurus was not heard be-
cause it was that of one not in the grace of God ; he was a
heathen, doomed to Hell. But the prayer of " a heart that
lives in grace " (Canto iv. 134) fervently interceding for a
soul in Purgatory may be accepted and secure the remission
of its penalty.
10. v. 45. The question, being one that relates to the
mysteries of the Divine will, cannot be answered with full
assurance by human reason.
11. v. 46. This is the first time in which the name of
Beatrice is spoken, since Virgil's narration to Dante of her
descent to Limbo, in the second canto of Hell. The men-
tion of her quickens Dante's ardor to ascend.
42 PURGATORY [vv. 50-75
speed, for now I am not weary as a while ago ;
and see how the hill now casts its shadow."
* We will go forward with this day," he an-
swered, " as much farther as is now possible
for us; but the fact is otherwise than thou
supposest. Before thou canst be there-above
thou wilt see him return, who is now hidden by
the hill-side so that thou dost not make his rays
to break. But see there a soul which, stationed
all alone, is looking toward us ; it will point out
to us the speediest way." We came to it. O
Lombard soul, how lofty and disdainful didst
thou hold thyself; and in the movement of thine
eyes grave and slow ! It said not anything to
us, but let us go on, only eyeing us in manner
of a lion when he is couching. Still Virgil drew
near to it, praying that it would show to us the
best ascent ; and it made no answer to his re-
quest, but of our country and life enquired of
us. And the sweet Leader began : " Mantua "
— and the shade, all in itself recluse, rose toward
him from the place where first it was, saying :
" O Mantuan, I am Sordello of thy city." "
And they embraced each other.
12. v. 74. Of Sordello, who lived in the thirteenth
century, little is positively known, though many stories are
told of him, some of them not much to his credit. He left
his native land and gave up his native tongue to live and write
as a troubadour in Provence, but his fame belonged to Italy,
vv. 76-94] CANTO VI 43
Ah, servile Italy ! hostel of grief ! ship without
pilot in great tempest ! not lady of provinces,
but a brothel ! that noble soul was so ready,
only at the sweet name of his native town, to
give glad welcome here unto his fellow-citizen ;
and now in thee thy living men exist not with-
out war, and of those whom one wall and one
moat shut in one gnaws the other. Search,
wretched one, around its shores, thy seaboard,
and then look within thy bosom, if any part in
thee enjoys peace ! What avails it that for thee
Justinian readjusted thy bridle,13 if the saddle
be empty ? '4 Without this, the shame would be
less. Ah folk,15 that oughtest to be devout and
let Caesar sit in the saddle, if thou rightly un-
derstandest what God notes for thee ! Look
how fell this wild beast has become, through
Some of the poems ascribed to him justify by their character
the esteem in which Dante seems to have held him. In the
De Vulgari Eloquio, i. 15, Dante speaks of him as tantus
elvquentiae vir.
13. v. 88. By his reform of the laws.
14. v. 89. What avails it that the law exist if there be
no Emperor to enforce it.
15. v. 9 1 . The Church-folk, the clergy, who ought to
devote themselves to things of the spirit, and to take heed
that God has said : " Render unto Caesar the things which
are Caesar's," but who, assuming the rights of civil govern-
ment which belong to the Emperor, have let Italy fall into
contusion and misery.
44 PURGATORY [w. 95-111
not being corrected by the spurs, since thou
didst put thy hand upon the rein. O German
Albert, who abandonest her that has become
untamed and savage, and oughtest to bestride
her saddle-bows, may a just judgment from the
stars fall upon thy blood, and may it be so
strange and manifest, that thy successor may
have fear thereat ! l6 For thou and thy father,
held back up there '7 by greed, have suffered the
garden of the empire to become desert. Come
thou to see the Montecchi and Cappelletti, the
Monaldi and Filippeschi,18 thou man without
care, those already wretched, and these in dread.
Come, cruel one, come, and see the distress of
thy nobility, and cure their hurts ; and thou
shalt see Santafiora19 how safe it is. Come to
1 6. v. 1 02. Albert of Hapsburg, son of the Emperor
Rudolph, was elected King of the Romans in I 298, but, like
his father, never went to Italy to be crowned. He was mur-
dered by his nephew, John, called the Parricide, in 1308,
at Konigsfelden. It is plain that the reference to him was
written after the just judgment had fallen. The successor of
Albert was Henry VII. of Luxemburg, who came to Italy
in 1311, was crowned at Rome in 1312, and died at Buon-
convento in 1313. His death ended the hopes of Dante.
17. v. 104. In your German states.
I 8. v. 107. Famous families, the first two — Montagus
and Capulets — of Verona, the last two of Orvieto, at enmity
with each other in their respective cities, types of a common
condition.
19. v. in. The Counts of Santafiora were once the
w. 112-134] CANTO VI 45
see thy Rome, that weeps, widowed and alone,
and cries day and night : cc My Caesar, where-
fore dost thou not keep me company ? " Come
to see how the people love one another ; and,
if no pity for us move thee, come to be shamed
for thine own renown ! And if it be lawful for
me, O Supreme Jove, who wast on earth cruci-
fied for us, are Thy just eyes turned aside else-
where? Or is it preparation, which in the
abyss of Thy counsel Thou art making, for
some good utterly cut off from our perception ?
For the cities of Italy are all full of tyrants,
and every churl that comes playing the partisan
becomes a Marcellus.20
My Florence ! surely thou mayst be content
with this digression, which does not touch thee,
thanks to thy people that takes such heed.21
Many have justice at heart, but shoot slowly,
through not coming to the bow without delib-
eration ; but thy people has it on the edge of its
lips. Many reject the common burden, but thy
people eagerly responds without being called,
most powerful Ghibelline nobles in the Sienese territory.
Their power had declined, and the district was full of law-
lessness and misery.
20. v. 125. That is, a bitter opponent of the Empire,
as the Consul M. Claudius Marcellus was of Caesar.
21. v. 129. The bitterness of this irony is justified by
the record of Florentine history in Dante's time.
46 PURGATORY [vv. 135-15!
and cries, " I load myself." Now make thee
glad, for thou hast truly wherefore : thou rich,
thou at peace, thou wise ! If I speak the truth,
the fact does not hide it. Athens and Lace-
daemon, that made the ancient laws and were
so civilized, made in regard to living well but
little sign, compared with thee that makest such
fine-spun provisions, that what thou spinnest in
October reaches not to mid November. How
often in the time that thou rememberest hast
thou changed law, money, office, and custom,
and renewed thy members ! And if thou mind
thee well and see the light, thou wilt see thyself
resembling that sick woman, who cannot find
repose upon the feathers, but with her tossing
seeks to ease her pain."
22. v. 151. Literally, " but with giving a turn wards
off her pain."
CANTO VII
Virgil makes himself known to Bordello. — Sordelk
leads the Poets to the Valley of the Princes who have been
negligent of salvation. — He points them out by name.
AFTER the becoming and glad salutations had
been repeated three and four times, Sordello
drew back and said : " Who are you ? " " Be-
fore the souls worthy to ascend to God were
turned to this mountain,1 my bones had been
buried by Octavian ; I am Virgil, and for no
other sin did I lose heaven, but for not having
faith : " thus then replied my Leader.
As is he who suddenly sees a thing before
him whereat he marvels, and does and does not
believe, saying : " It is, it is not," — such seemed
that shade, and then he bent down his brow,
and humbly returned toward him, and em-
braced him where the inferior lays hold.2
1. v. 4. Virgil died A. D. 19. Before the descent of
Christ to Hell "human spirits were not saved " (Hell, iv.
63). Even the Saints of the Old Dispensation and the
virtuous heathen were condemned to Limbo. Since the
redemption souls foreordained to salvation attain it by ascent
of the mount of Purgatory.
2. v. 15. Below the knees ; so Statius stoops to embrace
the feet of Virgil, Canto xxi. 130.
48 PURGATORY [w. 16-39
" O glory of the Latins," said he, " through
whom our language showed what it could do,
0 eternal honor of the place wherefrom I was,
what merit or what grace shows thee to me f If
1 am worthy to hear thy words, tell me if thou
comest from Hell, and from what cloister."
" Through all the circles of the realm of woe,"
replied he to him, " am I come hither ; the
power of Heaven moved me, and with it I come.
Not by doing, but by not doing have I lost the
sight of the high Sun which thou desirest, and
which by me was known too late. There is
a place below not sad with torments but with
darkness only, where the lamentations sound
not as wailings, but are sighs ; there I abide with
the little innocents bitten by the teeth of death
before they were exempt from human sin ; there
I abide with those whom the three holy virtues
did not invest, but who without vice knew the
others, and followed all of them.3 But if thou
knowest and canst, give us some direction
whereby we may come more speedily to where
Purgatory has its right beginning." He re-
3. v. 36. The virtuous heathen did not possess the
so-called theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity ;
but they practised the four cardinal virtues of Prudence,
Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice. Compare with Virgil's
words the description of Limbo in the fourth canto of the
Hell.
vv.40-64] CANTO VII 49
plied: "A fixed place is not assigned for us;4 it
is permitted me to go upward and around ; so
far as I can go, I join myself to thee as guide.
But see how already the day declines, and to go
up by night is not possible ; therefore it is well
to think of some fair sojourn. There are souls
yonder to the right, apart ; if thou consentest
to me I will lead thee to them, and not without
delight will they be known to thee." " How is
this ? " was the answer, " would he who might
wish to ascend by night be prevented by an-
other, or could he not ascend because he had
not the power ? " And the good Sordello drew
his finger on the ground, saying : " See, only
this line thou couldst not pass after the sun is
gone ; not, however, that aught else than the
nocturnal darkness would give hindrance to
going up ; that hampers the will with impo-
tence.5 One might, indeed, in the darkness
turn downward, and walk the hillside wandering
around, while the horizon holds the day shut
up." Thereon my Lord, as if wondering, said :
C( Lead us, then, there where thou sayest one
may have delight while waiting."
A short distance had we gone from that
4. v. 40. Here in the Ante- Purgatory.
5. v. 57. The allegory is plain : the soul can mount
the steep of purification only when illuminated by the Sun
of Divine Grace.
5o PURGATORY [vv. 65-85
place, when I perceived that the mountain was
hollowed out in like fashion as the valleys hol-
low them here on earth. " Yonder,'* said that
shade, " will we go, where the hillside makes a
lap of itself, and there will we await the new
day." Now steep, now level, was a winding
path that led us to a side of the dale, where its
border more than half dies away.6 Gold and
fine silver, and cochineal and pure white, Indian
wood bright and clear blue,7 fresh emerald at
the instant it is split, would each be vanquished
in color by the herbage and by the flowers set
within that valley, as by its greater the less is
vanquished. Nature had not only painted
there, but of sweetness of a thousand odors
she made there one unknown and blended fra-
grance.
Here I saw souls 8 who, because of the val-
ley, were not visible from without, seated upon
the green and upon the flowers, singing " Salve
Regina." 9 "Before the now diminished sun
6. v. 72. As the valley opens out on the mountain-side
its rocky rim gradually diminishes in height.
7. v. 74. Indigo.
8. v. 82. The souls of kings and other rulers who had
decayed repentance till the hour of death.
9. v. 82. The beginning of an antiphon recited, during
certain seasons of the year, at Compline, the last service of the
day, after sunset. The whole antiphon is as follows, and its
pppropriateness to the condition of these sinners is manifest:—
vv, 86-95] CANTO VII 51
sink to his nest/' began the Mantuan who had
turned us thither, " do not desire that I guide
you among these. From this bank ye will
better discern the acts and countenances of each
and all, than when received among them on the
level below. He who sits highest and has the
semblance of having neglected that which he
should have done, and who moves not his
mouth to the others' songs, was Rudolph the
Emperor,10 who might have healed the wounds
" Salve, Reglna, mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo et spes
nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exules filii Hevae. Ad te
suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrymarum valle. Eia
ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos
converte ; et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post
exilium ostende. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria,
ora pro nobis, sancta Dei genetrix, ut digni efficiamur pro-
missionibus Christi." " Hail, Queen, mother of mercy! our
life, our joy, our hope, hail ! To thee we, exiled sons of
Evev do cry ; to thee we sigh, groaning and weeping in this
valley of tears. Come then, our Advocate, turn thy pitying
eyes upon us, and show to us, after our exile, Jesus, the
blessed fruit of thy womb. O clement, O pitiful, O sweet
Virgin Mary! Pray for us, holy Mother of God, that we
may be made worthy of the promises of Christ."
10. v. 94. Rudolph of Hapsburg, first Emperor of the
House of Austria, born in 1218, crowned Emperor at Aix-
la-Chapelle in 1273, died in 1291. His neglect of Italy
(see the preceding canto, v. 103) was not to be repaired by
the vain efforts of Henry VII. As Emperor, Rudolph has
the highest seat, but the neglect of his duty weighs on him
so heavily that he cannot sing.
52 PURGATORY [vv. 96-108
that have slain Italy, so that too late is she
called back to life by another. The next, who
to appearance is comforting him, ruled the
land where the water rises which the Moldau
bears to the Elbe, and the Elbe to the sea.
His name was Ottocar,11 and in his swaddling-
clothes he was better far than bearded Wen-
ceslaus, his son, whom luxury and idleness
feed.12 And that small-nosed one,13 who seems
close in counsel with him who has so benign an
aspect,14 died in flight and disflowering the lily ;
look there, how he beats his breast : see the
next one who, sighing, has made with his hand
11. v. 100. Ottocar, King of Bohemia and Duke of
Austria, was slain in battle against Rudolph, on the March-
feld by the Donau, in 1278; "whereby Austria fell to
Rudolph." See Carlyle's Frederick the Great, book ii.
ch. 7. The two enemies on earth are friends here.
12. v. 1 02. Dante repeats his harsh judgment ofWen-
ceslaus in the nineteenth canto of Paradise, v. 125. His
first wife was the daughter of Rudolph of Hapsburg. He died
in 1305.
13. v. 103. This is Philip III., the Bold, of France.
He succeeded his father, Louis IX., St. Louis, in 1270.
Having invaded Catalonia, in a war with Peter the Third
of Aragon, he was driven back, and died, on his disastrous
retreat, at Perpignan, in 1285.
14. v. 104. Henry of Navarre, the brother of Thi-
bault, the poet-king (He/!, xxii. 52). He died in 1274.
His daughter Joan married Philip IV., the Fair, "the pest
of France/' the son of Philip the Bold.
w. 108-119] CANTO VII 53
a bed for his cheek. Father and father-in-law
are they of the Pest of France ; I5 they know his
vicious and foul life, and thence comes the grief
which so pierces them. He who looks so large-
limbed/6 and who accords in singing with him
of the masculine nose/7 wore girt the cord of
every worth, and if the youth that is sitting
behind him l8 had remained after him as king,
truly the worth had gone from vessel to vessel,
which cannot be said of the other heirs : James
and Frederick hold the realms ; I9 the better
15. v. 109. " Of all the sovereigns mentioned in the
Divina Commedia, there is none who wrought such evil to
the Church, or such harm to Italy, as Philippe le Bel, and
against none does Dante inveigh more often, or in terms of
severer censure." (Vernon. ) See Hell, xix. 87 ; Purgatory,
xx. 91 ; xxxii. 152; xxxiii. 45; Paradise, xix. 118.
Philip IV. died in 1314.
1 6. v. 112. Peter III. of Aragon, the husband of Con-
stance, daughter of Manfred (see Canto iii. 115, 143).
After the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, when the French were
driven out of Sicily, Pedro was made king of Sicily. He died
in 1285.
17. v. 113. Charles ofAnjou, the famous brother of
St. Louis, and king, by conquest, of Naples and Sicily. See
Canto xx. 67-69, for a bitterly ironical reference to Charles.
He died in January, i 28^.
1 8. v. 1 1 6. This youth is Alfonso, son of Peter of
Aragon, who succeeded his father as king of Aragon, but
died, twenty years old, in 1291.
19. v. 119. The kingdoms of Aragon and Sicily; both
54 PURGATORY [w. 120-131
heritage no one possesses. Rarely does human
goodness rise through the branches, and this
He wills who gives it, in order that it may be
claimed from Him.20 To the large-nosed one
also my words apply not less than to the other,
Peter, who is singing with him ; wherefore Apu-
lia and Provence are now grieving.21 The plant
is as inferior to its seed,22 as, more than Beatrice
and Margaret, Constance still boasts of her hus-
band.23 See the King of the simple life sitting
there alone, Henry of England ; he in his
James and Frederick, the two surviving sons of Peter of Ara-
gon, were living when Dante thus wrote of them. (See
Canto iii. 1 16). The " better heritage " was the virtue of
their father.
20. v. 123. Chaucer translates this sentence of "the
wyse poete of Florence " in his Wyf of Batbis Tale,
vv. 269-74 :
" Ful selde up ryseth by his branches smale
Prowesse of man ; for god, of his goodnesse,
Wol that of him we clayme our gentilesse. ' '
21. v. 126. Apulia and Provence were grieving under
the rule of Charles II., the degenerate son of Charles of
Anjou ; he died in 1309.
22. v. 127. That is, the son is as inferior to his father.
23. v. 129. These words are obscure; perhaps their
meaning is, that the children of Charles of Anjou and of
Peter of Aragon are as inferior to their fathers, as Charles
himself, the husband first of Beatrice of Provence and then
of Margaret of Nevers, was inferior to Peter, the husband of
Constance.
vv. 132-136] CANTO VII 55
branches has a better issue.24 That one who
lowest among them is seated on the ground,
looking upward, is William the marquis,25 for
whom Alessandria and her war make Montfer-
rat and Canavese mourn."
24. v. 132. Henry III. (died 1272), father of Ed-
ward I. * He sits alone because, perhaps, of the remoteness
of England, and the slight connection of the king with the
other princes.
25. v. 134. Guglielmo Spadalunga, William Long-
sword, was Marquis of Montferrat and Canavese, the Pied-
montese highlands and plain north of the Po. He was
Imperial vicar, and the head of the Ghibellines in this region.
In a war with the Guelfs, who had risen in revolt in i 290,
he was taken captive at Alessandria, and for two years, till
his death, was kept in an iron cage. Dante refers to him
in the Convito, iv. 1 1. 127, as " the good marquis of Mont-
ferrat."
CANTO VIII
Valley of the Princes. — Two Guardian Angels. — =»
Nino Viscanti. — The Serpent. — Corrado Malaspina.
IT was now the hour that turns back desire
in those that sail the sea, and softens their
hearts, the day when they have said to their
sweet friends farewell, and which pierces the
new pilgrim with love, if he hear from afar a
bell that seems to deplore the dying day, —
when I began to render hearing vain,1 and to
look at one of the souls who, uprisen, besought
attention with its hand. It joined and raised
both its palms, fixing its eyes toward the east,
as if it said to God, " For aught else I care
not." " Te lucis ante " 2 so devoutly issued
1. v. 8. When I began no longer to pay attention to
the words of Sordello.
2. v. 13. The opening words of a hymn sung at Com-
pline, the last service of the day : —
"Te lucis ante terminum,
Rerum Creator poscimus,
Ut tua pro dementia
Sis presul et custodia : " —
" Before the close of light, we pray thee, O Creator, that
through thy clemency, thou be our watch and guard."
vv. 14-30] CANTO VIII 57
from his mouth and with such sweet notes that
it made me issue forth from my own mind.3
And then the others sweetly and devoutly
accompanied it through all the hymn to the
end, having their eyes on the supernal wheels.
Here, reader, sharpen well thine eyes to the
truth, for surely the veil is now indeed so thin
that passing through within is easy.4
I saw that army of the gentle-born silently
thereafter gazing upward, as if in expectation,
pallid and humble ; and I saw two angels, issu-
ing from on high and descending, with two
flaming swords truncated and deprived of their
points. Green as leaflets just now born was
their raiment, which, beaten and blown by their
green pinions, they trailed behind.5 One came
3. v. 15. That I lost myself in listening.
4. v. 21. The allegory seems to be, that the soul which
has entered upon the way of repentance and purification, but
which is not yet securely advanced therein, is still exposed to
temptation. But if the soul have steadfast purpose to resist
temptation, and seek aid from God, that aid will not be want-
ing. The prayer of the Church which is recited after the
hymn just cited has these words : " Visit, we pray thee, O
Lord, this abode, and drive far from it the snares of the
enemy. Let thy holy Angels abide in it, and guard us in
peace.'* Pallid with self-distrust, humble with the sense of
need, the soul awaits the fulfilment of its prayer.
5. v. 30. The guardian angels are clad in green, the
symbolic color of hope. Their swords are truncated, because
needed only for defence.
58 PURGATORY [w. 31-53
to his station a little above us, and the other
descended on the opposite bank, so that the
people were contained between them. I clearly
discerned in them their blond heads, but on
their faces the eye was dazzled, as a faculty
which is confounded by excess. " Both come
from the bosom of Mary," said Sordello, " for
guard of the valley, because of the serpent
which will straightway come." Whereat I, who
knew not by what path, turned me round,
and, all chilled, drew close to the trusty shoul-
ders.
And Sordello again : " Now let us go down
among the great shades, and we will speak to
them ; well-pleasing will it be to them to see
you." Only three steps I think that I de-
scended and I was below ; and I saw one who
was gazing only at me as if he wished to recog-
nize me. It was already the time when the air
was darkening, but not so that between his
eyes and mine it did not reveal that which it
locked up before.6 Towards me he made, and
I made towards him. Noble Judge Nino,7 how
6. v. 5 1 . It was not yet so dark that recognition of one
near at hand was difficult, though at a distance it had been
impossible.
7. v. 53. Nino (Ugolino) de* Visconti of Pisa was the
grandson of Count Ugolino (see Hell, xxxiii., note on v.
14). Sardinia was under the dominion of Pisa, and was
vv. 54-69] CANTO VIII 59
much it pleased me when I saw that thou wast
not among the damned ! No fair salutation
was silent between us ; then he asked : "How
long is it since thou earnest to the foot of the
mountain across the far waters ? "
" Oh," said I to him, " from within the dis-
mal places I came this morning, and I am in
the first life, although in going thus I may gain
the other." And when my answer was heard,
Sordello and he drew themselves back, like folk
suddenly bewildered.8 The one turned to Vir-
gil, and the other to one who was seated there,
crying : " Up, Corrado,9 come to see what God
through grace has willed." Then, turning to
me : " By that singular gratitude thou owest
unto Him who so hides His own first where-
fore I0 that there is no ford to it, when thou
divided into four districts, each of which was governed by
one of the Pisan nobles, under the title of Judge. Nino had
held the judicature of Gallura, where Frate Gomita (see
Hell, xxii. 81) had been his vicar. Nino died in 1296.
8. v. 63. The sun was already hidden behind the
mountain when Virgil and Dante came upon Sordello. Sor-
dello had not therefore seen that Dante cast a shadow, and,
being absorbed in discourse with Virgil, had not observed
that Dante breathed as a living man.
9. v. 65. Corrado, of the great Guelf family of the
Malaspina, lords of the Lunigiana, a wide district between
Genoa and Pisa.
10. v. 69. The reason of that which He wills.
60 PURGATORY [vv. 70-89
shalt be beyond the wide, waves, say to my
Joan, that she cry for me there where answer is
made to the innocent. I do not think her
mother " loves me longer, since she changed
her white wimples,12 which she, wretched, needs
must even now long for. Through her one
may understand easily enough how long in
woman the fire of love endures, if the eye or the
touch does not often rekindle it. The viper I3
which leads afield the Milanese will not make
for her so fair a sepulture as the cock of Gal-
lura would have done." Thus he said, marked
in his aspect with the stamp of that righteous
zeal which glows with due measure in the heart.
My greedy eyes were going only to the sky,
only there where the stars are slowest, even as
a wheel nearest the axle. And my Leader:
" Son, at what art thou gazing up there ? " And
I to him : " At those three torches with which
11. v. 73. Her mother was Beatrice d' Este, who, in
1 300, married in second nuptials Galeazzo de' Visconti of
{Jilan.
12. v. 74. The white veil or wimple and black gar-
ments were worn by widows. Nothing is known of the out-
come of Beatrice d' Este's second marriage to account for the
declaration that she must needs wish for her " widow-like sad
wimples thrown away."
13. v. 80. The viper was the cognizance of the Vis-
conti, the lords of Milan ; the cock that of the Judicature of
Gallura.
vv. 90-113] CANTO VIII 61
the pole on this side is all aflame." I4 And he
to me : " The four bright stars which thou
sawest this morning15 are low on the other side,
and these are risen where those were."
As he was speaking, lo ! Sordello drew him
to himself, saying: " See there our adversary ! "
and pointed his finger that he should look
thither. At that part where the little valley has
no barrier was a snake, perhaps such as gave to
Eve the bitter food. Through the grass and
the flowers came the evil streak, turning now
and again its head to its back, licking like a
beast that sleeks itself. I did not see, and
therefore cannot tell, how the celestial falcons
moved, but I saw well both one and the other
in motion. Hearing the air cleft by their green
wings the serpent fled, and the angels wheeled
upward to their posts with equal flight.
The shade which had drawn close to the
Judge when he exclaimed, through all that
assault had not for a moment loosed its gaze
from me. " So may the lantern which is leading
thee on high find in thine own free-will so much
wax as is needed as far as to the enamelled sum-
14. v. 90. These three stars are supposed to symbolize
the theological virtues, — faith, hope, and charity, whose
light shines in the contemplative hours of night, when the foul
virtues of active life are dim.
15. v. 92. See Canto i. v. 23.
62 PURGATORY [w. 114-131
mit," l6 it began, " if thou knowest true news
of Valdimacra I7 or of the neighboring region,
tell it to me, for there I once was great. I was
called Corrado Malaspina ; I am not the elder,18
but from him I am descended ; to mine own I
bore the love which is here refined." '9 " Oh/'
said I to him, " through your lands I have
never been, but where does man dwell in all
Europe that they are not renowned ? The fame
that honors your house proclaims its lords, pro-
claims its district, so that he knows of them
who never yet was there. And I swear to you,
so may I go on high, that your honored race
does not despoil itself of the praise of the purse
and of the sword. Custom and nature so privi-
lege it that though the guilty head 20 turn the
1 6. v. 114. So may illuminating grace find the dispo-
sition in thee requisite for the support of its light, until thou
shalt arrive at the summit of the Mountain, the earthly Para-
dise, enamelled with perpetual flowers.
17. v. 1 1 6. A part of the district of Lunigiana, the
valley of the Magra, which enters the sea near the Gulf of
Spezia.
1 8. v. 119. The elder Corrado Malaspina was the hus-
band of Constance, the sister of King Manfred. He died
about the middle of the thirteenth century. The second
Corrado was his grandson.
19. v. i 20. The earthly affections are purified here,
freed from material dross.
20. v, 131. Dante probably means the Pope, Boniface
VIII.
vv. 132-139] CANTO VIII 63
world awry, alone it goes straight and scorns
the evil way." " And he : " Now go, for the
sun shall not return to rest seven times in the
bed which the Ram covers and bestrides with
all four feet,22 before this courteous opinion will
be nailed in the middle of thy head with greater
nails than the speech of another, if course of
judgment be not arrested."
21, v. 1 3 2, This magnificent eulogy of the land and
the family of Malaspina is Dante's return for the hospitality
which, during his exile, in I 306, he received from the Mar-
quis Moroello and other members of the house.
23, v. 135. Seven years shall not pass, the sun being
at this time of Dante's journey in the sign of the Ram.
CANTO IX
Slumber and Dream of Dante. — The Eagle. —
Lucia. — The Gate of Purgatory. — The Angelic Gate--
keeper. — Seven P 's inscribed on Dante9 s Forehead. —
Entrance to the First Ledge.
THE concubine of old Tithonus was now
gleaming white on the balcony of the east, forth
from the arms of her sweet friend ; her forehead
was bright with gems set in the shape of the cold
animal that strikes people with its tail.1 And
in the place where we were the night had taken
two of the steps with which she ascends, and
the third was already bending its wings down-
ward, when I, who had somewhat of Adam 2
1. v. 6. By "the concubine of old Tithonus," Dante
seems to intend the lunar Aurora, in distinction from the
proper wife of Tithonus, Aurora, who precedes the rising
Sun, and the meaning of these verses is that " the Aurora
before moonrise was lighting up the eastern sky, the brilliant
stars of the sign Scorpio were on the horizon, and, finally,
it was shortly after 8.30 p. M." (Moore.) " The steps
with which the night ascends" are the six hours of the first
half of the night, from 6 p. M. to midnight.
2. v. 10. His human body, requiring repose.
vv. 11-29] CANTO IX 65
with me, overcome by sleep, reclined upon the
grass, there where all five of us 3 were already
seated.
At the hour near the morning when the little
swallow begins her sad lays,4 perhaps in mem-
ory of her former woes, and when our mind,
more a wanderer from the flesh and less captive
to the thought, is in its visions almost divine,5
in dream I seemed to see an eagle with feathers
of gold poised in the sky, with wings spread,
and intent to stoop. And I seemed to be there6
where his own people were abandoned by Gany-
mede, when he was rapt to the supreme consis-
tory. In myself I thought, perhaps this bird
strikes only here through wont, and perhaps
from other place disdains to carry anyone up-
ward in its feet. Then it seemed to me that,
having wheeled a little, it descended terrible as
a thunderbolt, and snatched me upwards far as
3. v. 12. Dante, Virgil, Sordello, Nino, and Corrado.
4. v. 13. The allusion is to the tragic story of Progne
and Philomela, transformed the one into a swallow, the other
into a nightingale. Dante found the tale in Ovid's Meta-
morphoses, Book vi.
5. v. 1 8. Dante passes three nights in Purgatory, and
each hight his sleep is terminated by a dream towards the
hour of dawn, the time when, according to the belief of
classical antiquity, the visions of dreams are symbolic and
prophetic. (Moore.) Cf. Hell, xxvi. 7.
6. v. 22. On Mount Ida.
66 PURGATORY [vv. 30-50
the fire.7 There it seemed that it and I burned,
and the imagined fire so scorched that of neces-
sity my sleep was broken.
Not otherwise Achilles shook himself, — -
turning around his awakened eyes, and not
knowing where he was, when his mother stole
him away, sleeping in her arms, from Chiron to
Scyros, thither whence afterwards the Greeks
withdrew him,8 — than I started, as from my face
sleep fled away ; and I became pale, as does a
man who, frightened, turns to ice. At my side
was my Comforter alone, and the sun was now
more than two hours high,9 and my face was
turned toward the sea. cc Have no fear," said
my Lord ; " be reassured, for we are at a good
point ; restrain not, but put forth all thy
strength. Thou art now arrived at Purgatory ;
see there the cliff that closes it round ; see the
7. v. 30. The sphere of fire by which, according to
the mediaeval cosmography, the sphere of the air was sur-
rounded,
8. v. 39. Statius, in the first book of the Achilleid,
tells how Thetis, to prevent Achilles from going to the siege
of Troy, bore him, sleeping, away from his instructor, the
centaur Chiron, and carried him to the court of King Lyco-
rnedes, on the Island of Scyros, where, though concealed in
women's garments, Ulysses and Diomed discovered him.
Statius relates how wonderstruck Achilles was when, on
awaking, he found himself at Scyros,
9. v. 44, It is the morning of Easter Monday.
vv. 51-72] CANTO IX 67
entrance there where it appears divided. Short
while ago, in the dawn that precedes the day,
when thy soul was sleeping within thee upon
the flowers wherewith the place down yonder is
adorned, came a lady, and said : c I am Lucia ; I0
let me take this one who is sleeping ; thus will
I assist him along his way/ Sordello remained,
and the other noble forms : she took thee up,
and as the day grew bright, she came upward,
and I along her footprints. Here she laid thee
down : and first her beautiful eyes showed me
that open entrance ; then she and slumber went
away together." Like a man who in perplexity
is reassured, and who changes his fear into con-
fidence after the truth is disclosed to him, so did
I change ; and when my Leader saw me free
from disquiet, up along the cliff he moved on,
and I behind, toward the height.
Reader, thou seest well how I exalt my
theme, and therefore marvel not if I support it
with more art.11
10. v. 55. Lucia seems to be here, as in the second
canto of Helly the symbol of assisting grace, the gratia ope-
rans of the schoolmen.
11. v. 72. These words may be intended to call atten-
tion to the doctrine which underlies the imagery of the verse.
The entrance within the gate of Purgatory is the assurance
of justification, which is the change of the soul from a state
of sin to a state of justice or righteousness. Justification itself
consists, according to St. Thomas Aquinas (<S. T> ii.1 112.
68 PURGATORY [w. 73-82
We drew near to it, and reached a place such
that there, where at first there seemed to me to
be a rift, like a cleft which divides a wall, I saw
a gate, and three steps beneath for going to it,
of divers colors, and a gatekeeper who as yet
said not a word. And as I opened my eye upon
him more and more, I saw him sitting on the
upper step, such in his face that I endured it
not.12 And he had in his hand a naked sword,
6 and 8), of four parts : first, the infusion of grace ; second,
the turning of the free will to God through faith ; third, the
turning of the free will against sin ; fourth, the remission of
sin. It must be accompanied by the sacrament of penance,
which consists of contrition, confession, and satisfaction by
works of righteousness ; contrition is of the heart, confession
of the mouth, and satisfaction of the deed.
Outside the gate of Purgatory justification cannot be com-
plete. The souls in the Ante-Purgatory typify those who
have entered on the way towards justification, but have not
yet attained it. " Contingit autem quandoque quod praece-
dit aliqua deliberatio quae non est de substantia justificationis
sed via in justificationem. " S. T. I. c. 7.
12. v. 81. The Earthly Paradise forms the summit of
the Mountain of Purgatory, and the Angel at the gate of
Purgatory corresponds to the Cherubim with the flaming
sword which turned every way, whom the Lord God placed
at the east of the garden of Eden, to keep the way of the tree
of life. Genesis, iii. 24. That way was by Christ opened
to redeemed souls, and the Angel is the type of the priest to
whom the keys of the Church are committed, and to whom
alone confession is to be made, and to whom it pertains to
administer absolution. S. T. Suppl. viii. I.
vv. 83-104] CANTO IX 69
which so reflected the rays toward us that I often
raised my sight in vain. "Tell it from there,
what would ye ? " he began to say : " Where
is the guide ? Beware lest the coming up be
harmful to you."13 "A lady from Heaven
versed in these things," replied my Master to
him, " only just now said to us : c Go thither,
here is the gate/ ' " And may she speed your
steps in good," began again the courteous gate-
keeper, " come forward then unto our stairs."
Thither we came to the first great stair ; it
was of white marble so polished and smooth
that I mirrored myself in it as I appear. The
second, of deeper hue than perse,14 was of a
rough and scorched stone, cracked lengthwise
and athwart. The third, which uppermost lies
massy, seemed to me of porphyry as flaming red
as blood that spirts forth from a vein. Upon
this the Angel of God held both his feet, sit-
ting upon the threshold, which seemed to me
13. v. 87. The angel recognizes that Dante and Virgil
are not souls coming to undergo the penalties of Purgatory.
His question corresponds with Cato's, " Who has guided
you?" (i. 43). The inner meaning of his warning may-
be, that the teaching of the reason is not sufficient so to con-
vince man of his sin as to make him fit for justification ; co-
operating grace must be added ; and unless the penitence be
proportioned to the sin the penitent may lose rather than gain
in grace. S. T. iii. 89. 2.
14. v. 97. Dark purple, inclining to black.
;o PURGATORY [w. 105-119
stone of adamant.15 Up over the three steps
my Leader drew me with good will, saying:
" Beg humbly that he undo the lock." De-
voutly I threw myself at the holy feet ; I be-
sought for mercy's sake that he would open for
me ; but first upon my breast I struck three
times.16 Seven P's he inscribed upon my fore-
head with the point of his sword,17 and : " See
that thou wash these wounds when thou art
within," he said.
Ashes or earth dug out dry would be of one
color with his vestment, and from beneath that
he drew two keys. One was of gold and the
other was of silver : first with the white and
then with the yellow he so did to the gate, that
15. v. 105. The first stair is the symbol of contrition,
that compunction and humility of spirit in which man sees
himself as he actually is ; the second is the symbol of con-
fession, in which he manifests the condition of his soul ; the
third is the symbol of the satisfaction rendered by deeds
of love, the works of penitence ; the threshold of adamant
may signify the rock on which rests the authority of the
Church.
1 6. v. in. Three times, in penitence for sins in
thought, in word, and in deed.
17. v. 1 1 3. The seven P's stand for the seven so-called
mortal sins, — Peccati, — not specific acts, but the evil dis-
positions of the soul from which all evil deeds spring, — •
pride, envy, anger, sloth (accidia}, avarice, gluttony, and
lust. After justification these dispositions, which already hav«
been overcome, must be utterly removed from the sou].
vv. 120-136] CANTO IX 71
I was content.18 " Whenever one of these keys
fails, so that it turns not rightly in the lock/'
said he to us, " this narrow entrance does not
open. The one is more precious;19 but the
other requires exceeding much of art and wit
before it unlocks, because it is that which dis-
entangles the knot.20 From Peter I hold
them ; and he told me to err rather in open-
ing than in keeping shut, if but the people
prostrate themselves at my feet." Then he
pushed the valve of the sacred gate, saying:
" Enter, but I give you warning that whoso
looks backward returns outside." 2I And when
the pivots of that sacred portal, which are of
metal, sonorous and strong, were turned within
their hinges, Tarpeia roared not so loud nor
1 8. v. i 20. The golden key is typical of the power to
open, and the silver of the judgment to whom to open ; the
first is called potestas judicandiy the second scientia discernendi.
S. T. SuppL xvii. 3.
19. v. i 24. The gold, more precious because the powei1
of absolution was purchased by the death of the Saviour.
20. v. i 26. The knot is the question as to the fitness
of the suppliant to enter ; to be determined by the priest on
the confession of the sinner.
21. v. 132. For he who returns to his sins loses the
benefit of his former penitence, though he may, through the
infinite mercy of God, again repent, and again enter on the
way of salvation. S. T7. iii. 84. 10. " No man, having
put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God." Luke* ix. 62.
72 PURGATORY [vv. 137-145
showed herself so harsh, when the good Metel-
lus was taken from her, whereby she afterwards
remained lean."
I turned away attentive to the first tone,23 and
it seemed to me I heard " Te Deum laudamus " 24
in a voice mingled with the sweet sound. That
which I heard gave me just such an impression
as we are wont to receive when people stand
singing with an organ, and the words now are,
now are not heard.
22. v. 138. I know of no satisfactory explanation of
the significance of this roaring of the gates. When Caesar
forced the doors of the temple of Saturn on the Tarpeian
rock, in order to lay hands on the sacred treasure of Rome,
he was unsuccessfully resisted by the tribune Metellus.
Lucan (Pbarsalia, iii. 153-155) tells of the clamor of the
rock when Marcellus was dragged away, and (/</. 167, 168)
of the impoverishment of the treasury.
23. v. 139. The first sound within Purgatory.
f /j.. v. 140. '« We praise thee, O God," words appro*
to the entrance of a repentant and justified sinner.
CANTO X
Purgatory proper. — First Ledge : the Proud. — • Ex-
amples of Humility sculptured on the rock.
WHEN we were within the threshold of the
gate, which the evil love ' of souls disuses, be-
cause it makes the crooked way seem straight,
I heard by its resounding that it was closed
again. And, if I had turned my eyes to it,
what excuse would have been befitting for the
fault ?
We were ascending through a cloven rock,
which was moving to one side and to the other,
even as the wave which retreats and approaches.
" Here must be used a little art," began my
Leader, " in keeping close, now on this hand,
now on that, to the side which recedes." 2 And
this made our steps so scant that the waning
disk of the moon had regained its bed to go to
1. v. 2. It is Dante's doctrine that love is the motive
of every act ; rightly directed, of good deeds ; perverted, of
evil. See Canto xvii. 91-105.
2. v. 12. The path between walls of rock was a nar-
row, steep zigzag, which, as it receded on one side and the
other, afforded the better foothold.
74 PURGATORY [w. 16-43
rest, before we were out from that needle's eye.3
But when we were free and open above, where
the mountain gathers itself back,4 I weary, and
both uncertain of our way, we stopped upon a
level more solitary than roads through deserts.
From its edge, where it borders the void, to
the foot of the high bank which ever rises, a
human body three times told would measure ;
and as far as my eye could stretch its wings,
now on the left and now on the right side,
such did this cornice seem to me. Our feet
had not yet moved upon it, when I perceived
the circling bank, which, being perpendicular,
allowed no ascent, to be of white marble and
adorned with such carvings, that not only Poly-
cletus, but Nature herself would have been
shamed there.
The Angel who came to earth with the an-
nouncement of the peace, many years wept for,
which opened Heaven from its long interdict,
appeared before us, carved here so truly in a
sweet attitude, that he did not seem an image
that is silent. One would have sworn that he was
saying " Ave ; " for she was imaged there who
turned the key to open the exalted love. And
on her action she had these words impressed,
3. v. 1 6. The time is between 8 and 9 A. M.
4. v. 1 8. Leaving an open space, the first ledge of Pur-
gatory.
vv. 44-60] CANTO X 75
" Ecce ancilla Dei ! " 5 as exactly as a shape is
sealed in wax.
" Keep not thy mind only on one place," said
the sweet Master, who had me on that side
where people have their heart. Whereupon I
moved my eyes and saw, beyond Mary, upon
that side where he was who was moving me,
another story imposed upon the rock ; where-
fore I passed Virgil, and drew near so that it
might be set before my eyes. There in the
very marble were carved the cart and the oxen
drawing the holy ark, by reason of which men
fear an office not given in charge.6 In front ap-
peared people; and all of them, divided in seven
choirs, of two of my senses made the one say :
" No" the other : " Fes, they are singing:' 7 In
5. v. 44. " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ! "
Luke i. 38.
6. v. 57. " And they set the ark of God upon a new
cart, and brought it out of the house . . . and Uzzah and
Ahio . . . drave the new cart . . . and when they came
to Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the
ark of God, and took hold of it ; for the oxen shook it. And
the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God
smote him there for his error ; and there he died by the ark
of God." 2 Samuel, vi. 4-7. Dante makes a striking
reference to this presumption of Uzzah in his Letter to the
Cardinals. Ep. viii. § 5.
7. v. 60. The hearing said " No," the sight said
•' Yes. ' ' The division of the people in seven bands is told
of in the Vulgate, but not in the English version.
76 PURGATORY [/v. 61-76
like manner, by the smoke of the incense that
was imaged there, my eyes and nose were made
in Yes and No discordant. There, preceding
the blessed vessel, dancing, girt up, was the
humble Psalmist, and more and less than king
was he on that occasion. Opposite, portrayed
at a window of a great palace, Michal was look-
ing on, even as a lady scornful and troubled.8
I moved my feet from the place where I was
standing, in order to look from near at another
story which, beyond Michal, was gleaming white
to me. Here was storied the high glory of the
Roman prince, whose worth incited Gregory
to his great victory : 9 I speak of Trajan the
8. v. 69. " So David went and brought up the ark of
God . . . into the city of David with gladness. And when
they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces he sac-
rificed oxen and failings. And David danced before the
Lord with all his might ; and David was girded with a linen
ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the
ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the
trumpet. And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of
David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window,
and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord ;
and she despised him in her heart." 2 Samuel, vi. 12-16.
9. v. 75. This legend of Trajan had great vogue dur-
ing the Middle Ages. It was believed that Pope Gregory the
Great interceded for him, praying that he might be delivered
from Hell ; " then God because of these prayers drew thai
fioul from pain and put it into glory. ' * This was Gregory*!
great victory. See Paradise, xx. 106-117.
w.77-i°3] CANTO X 77
emperor ; and a poor widow was at his bridle in
attitude of weeping and of grief. Round about
him it seemed trampled and thronged with
knights, and above him the eagles in the gold
were moving in appearance in the wind. The
wretched woman among all these seemed to
be saying : " Lord, do me vengeance for my
son who is slain, whereat I am broken-hearted."
And he to answer her : " Now wait till I re-
turn ; " and she : " My Lord," — like one
in whom grief is urgent, — " if thou return
not ? " And he : " He who shall be where I
am will do it for thee." And she : " What will
the good deed of another be to thee, if thou
art unmindful of thine own ? " Whereon he :
" Now comfort thee ; for it behoves that I
discharge my duty ere I go ; justice so wills,
and pity holds me back." He who never
beheld a new thing I0 produced that visible
speech, novel to us, because it is not found on
earth.
While I was delighting myself with looking
at the images of such great humilities, and for
their Maker's sake dear to see: "Behold,"
murmured the Poet, "on this side many peo-
ple, but they make few steps ; they will put us
on the way to the lofty stairs." My eyes which
were intent on gazing, were not slow in turning
Jo. v. 94. God, to whom nothing can be new.
78 PURGATORY [w. 104-129
toward him in order to see novelties, whereof
they are fain.
I would not, indeed, Reader, that thou be
diverted from thy good purpose, through hear-
ing how God wills that the debt be paid. Heed
not the form of the suffering ; think on what
follows ; think that, at the worst, beyond the
Great Judgment it cannot go !
I began : " Master, that which I see moving
toward us does not seem to me to be persons,
but what I know not, I am so at loss in look-
ing." And he to me : " The heavy condition
of their torment bows them to earth, so that
my own eyes at first had contention with it.
But look fixedly there, and disentangle with
thy sight that which is coming beneath those
stones ; already thou canst discern how each is
stricken."
O proud Christians, wretched and weary,
who, diseased in vision of the mind, have con-
fidence in backward steps, are ye not aware that
we are worms born to form the angelic butter-
fly, which flies unto judgment without de-
fence?" Wherefore does your mind float up
aloft, since ye are as it were defective insects,
even as a worm in which formation fails ? "
11. v. 126. The soul comes bare and defenceless to
judgment.
12. v. 129. What reason to exalt yourselves, what
vv. 130-139] CANTO X 79
As to support ceiling or roof, by way of cor-
bel, a figure is sometimes seen joining its knees
to its breast, which out of the unreal gives birth
to a real distress in him who sees it, thus fash-
ioned did I see these, when I gave good heed.
True it is, that they were more or less bowed
down, according as they had more or less upon
their backs ; and he who had most patience in
his looks, weeping, appeared to say : " I can no
more."
excuse for pride have ye men, since all men are by nature un»
perfect beings ?
CANTO XI
First Ledge : the Proud. — Prayer. — Omberto Aldo-*
\rrandescbi. — Oderisi d* Agubbio. — Provenzan Salvani.
" O OUR Father, who art in Heaven, not cir-
cumscribed, but for the greater love which Thou
hast ' to the first works on high, praised be Thy
name and Thy power by every creature, as it is
meet to render thanks to Thy sweet effluence.
May the peace of Thy Kingdom come unto us,
for if it come not, we cannot unto it of our-
selves, with all our striving. As Thine angels,
singing Hosanna, make sacrifice to Thee of
t heir will, so may men make of theirs. Give us
this day the daily manna, without which, in this
rough desert, he backward goes, who toils most
to go on. And as we forgive to each the
wrong that we have suffered, even do Thou,
benignant, forgive, and regard not our desert.
Our virtue, which is easily overcome, put not
I. v. 3. Not circumscribed by Heaven, but having
Thy seat there because of the love Thou bearest to " the first
effects ' ' — the first works of creation, the angels, and the
heavens — of Thyself the First Cause.
vv, 20-38] CANTO XI 81
to proof with the old adversary, but deliver
from him who so assails it.2 This last prayer,
dear Lord, is, indeed, not made for ourselves,
for it is not needful, but for those who have
remained behind us."3
Thus praying good speed for themselves and
'US, those shades were all going under their load,
like that of which one sometimes dreams, un-
equally distressed,4 round and round and weary,
along the first cornice, purging away the sullies
of the world. If good is always asked for us
there, what can be said and done here5 for
them by those who have a good root to their
will ? Truly we ought to aid them to wash
away the marks which they bore hence, so that
pure and light they may issue forth unto the
starry wheels.6
" Ah ! so may justice and pity disburden
you speedily, that ye may be able to move the
2. v. 21. Literally, "spurs it." In this case, as in
many others, the rhyme seems to have compelled Dante to
use a word with a somewhat strained significance.
3. v. 24. Within Purgatory the Devil has no power
to urge to sin ; the penitent is safe from temptation. Com-
pare Canto xxvi. 130-132. In the Ante-purgatory the souls
are still subject to the assaults of the Devil, as appears fiom
the assault of the snake in Canto viii.
4. v. 28. More or less burdened.
5. v. 32. Here, on earth.
6. v. 36. The spheres of the heavens.
82 PURGATORY ^.39^63
wing which may lift you according to your de-
sire, show on which hand is the shortest path
toward the stairway ; and if there be more than
one passage, point out to us that which least
steeply slopes ; for this one who comes with me,
because of the burden of the flesh of Adam
wherewith he is clothed, is chary, against his will,
of mounting up." It was not manifest from
whom came the words which they returned to
these that he whom I was following had spoken,
but it was said : " Come with us to the right
hand along the bank, and ye will find the pass
possible for a living person to ascend. And
were I not hindered by the stone which tames
my proud neck, so that I needs must carry
my face low, I would look at that one who is
still alive and has not been named, to see if
I know him, and to make him pitiful of this
burden. I was an Italian, and the son of a
great Tuscan ; Guglielmo Aldobrandesco was
my father : I know not if his name was ever
with you.7 The ancient blood and the gallant
deeds of my ancestors made me so arrogant,
that, not thinking on the common mother, I
7. v. 60. The Aldobrandeschi were the counts of Santa-
fiore (see Canto vi. Hi) in the Sienese Maremma. Little
is known of them, but that they were in constant feud with
Siena. The one who speaks was murdered, in his own string-
hold of Campagnatico, in 1259.
vv. 64-88] CANTO XI 83
held every man in scorn to such extreme that I
died therefor, as the Sienese know, and every
child in Campagnatico knows it. I am Om-
berto : and not only to me pride does harm,
for all my kinsfolk has it dragged with it into
calamity ; and here must I bear this load for
it till God be satisfied, — here, among the
dead, since I did it not among the living."
Listening, I bent down my face ; and one of
them, not he who was speaking, twisted him-
self under the weight that hampers him, and
saw me, and recognized me, and called out,
keeping his eyes with effort fixed on me, who
was going along all stooping with them.8 " Oh,"
said I to him, " art thou not Oderisi, the honor
of Gubbio, and the honor of that art which in
Paris is called illuminating ? " " Brother," said
he, " more smiling are the leaves that Franco
of Bologna pencils ; the honor is now all his,
and mine in part.9 Truly I should not have
been so courteous while I lived, because of the
great desire of excelling whereon my heart was
intent. Of such pride the fee is paid here ; and
8. v. 78. This stooping, as if burdened like the sinners,
is the symbol of Dante's consciousness of pride as his own
besetting sin; see Canto xiii. 136-138.
9. v. 84. Oderisi of Gubbio and Franco of Bologna
were both eminent in the art called miniare in Italian, en'
luminer in French.
84 PURGATORY [vv. 89-108
I should not yet be here, were it not that, still
having power to sin, I turned me unto God.
O vainglory of human powers! how short while
lasts the green upon the top, if it be not fol-
lowed by dull ages.10 Cimabue thought to hold
the field in painting, and now Giotto has the
cry, so that the fame of him is obscured. In
like manner the one Guido has taken from
the other the glory of our tongue ; and he per-
haps is born who shall drive both one and the
other from the nest.11 Worldly renown is
naught but a breath of wind, which now comes
this way and now comes that, and changes
name because it changes quarter. What more
repute shalt thou have, if thou strippest thy
flesh from thee when it is old, than if thou
hadst died before thou hadst left thy pap and
thy rattle,12 ere a thousand years have passed? —
which is a shorter space compared to the eter-
nal than a movement of the eyelid to the circle
which is slowest turned in Heaven. With him
10. v. 93. Dark ages, in which there is no lustre to dim
that of the past.
11. v. 99. The first Guido is Guido Guinicelli, whom
Dante calls his father in poesy ; see Canto xxvi. 97-99.
The other, Dante's friend, Guido Cavalcanti. He who may
drive both from the nest can be no other than Dante him-
self.
12. v. 105. Dante's words are pappo and dindi, child-
ish terms corresponding to our " pap " and "chink."
vv. 109-127] CANTO XI 85
who takes so little I3 of the road in front of me,
all Tuscany resounded, and now is scarce a
whisper of him in Siena, whereof he was lord
when the Florentine rage was destroyed,14 which
at that time was proud, as now it is prostitute.
Your reputation is as the color of grass, which
comes and goes, and he 15 discolors it through
whom it came up fresh from the earth." And
I to him : " Thy true speech fills my heart with
good humility, and thou abatest a great swell-
ing in me : but who is he of whom thou now
wert speaking ? " " That," he answered, " is
Provenzan Salvani ; l6 and he is here, because
he was presumptuous in bringing all Siena to
his hands. He has gone thus — and he goes
without repose — ever since he died : such coin
does every one pay in satisfaction, who is too
daring on earth." And I : "If that spirit who
13. v. 109. Advances so slowly on the road.
14. v. 112. The mad Florentine people were utterly
defeated, with vast loss of life, in 1 260, at the battle of
Montaperti.
15. v. 11 6. As the sun causes the grass to spring up
green, and then dries it up, so Time in his course first gives
reputation to men, and then takes it away.
1 6. v. 121. Provenzano Salvani was one of the chief
supporters of the Ghibelline cause in Tuscany. He was a
man of great qualities and capacity, but proud and presump-
tuous. Defeated and taken prisoner at the battle o
in 1 269, he was beheaded.
Hfi PURGATORY [vv, 128-144
awaits the verge of life ere he repent abides
there below,17 and, if good prayer do not assist
him, ascends not hither, until as long a time
pass as he lived, how has this coming been
granted unto him?" "When he was Jiving
in greatest boast/1 said he, "laying aside all
shame, he freely stationed himself in the Campo
of Siena,'8 tad there, to deliver this friend from
the punishment he was enduring in the prison
of Charles, brought himself to tremble in every
vein, More I will not say, and I know that I
speak darkly ; but little time will pass, before
thy neighbor! will to act that thou shalt be able
to gloss it.19 This deed removed those limits
for him,""
17. v. 1 19, On the lower ilopei of the mountain, out-
ni.ir Ihr K.ilr ,,| I'm Kiii, „ y .
1 8. v, 134. The Campo of Siena if her chief public
•quire s&d marketplace, set round with palaces, The friend
or Prevensano ii laid by the old commentator! to have fought
for Conradin againit Charles of Anjou, and, being taken cap-
tive, to have been condemned to death. His ransom was
fixed at ten thousand florins. Provensano, not being able to
pay this sum from his own means, took his station in the
Campo, and humiliated himself Co beg of the passers-by.
19. v. 141, Thou wilt be able to interpret my dark
laying, for exile and poverty will compel thee to beg, and,
begging, to tremble in every vein.
20. v. 142. This deed of humility and charity relieved
him from tarrying outside the gate.
CANTO XII
First Ltdgi : tht Proud. — Instance of tbt punish"
mtnt of Pridt gravtn on tht pavtmint. — Mttting with
tin Jny/l who remove* one of the /''r. //u/-/// to tht
Stcond Lidge.
WITH even pace, like oxen that go yoked, I
went on with that burdened soul so long M the
sweet Pedagogue allowed it ; but when he said :
" Leave him, and pass on, for here it is well
for every one to urge his bark, both with the sail
and with the oars, as much as he can/1 1 strait-
ened up my body again, as is required for
walking, although my thoughts remained both
stooping and abased.
I had moved on, and was following willingly
the steps of my Master, and both were now
showing how light we were, when he said to
me : " Turn thine eyes downward ; it will be
well for thee, in order to cheer the way, to look
upon the bed of thy footsteps/' As above the
buried, so that there may be memory of them,
their tombs on the ground bear engraved what
they were before, — whence often is weeping
88 PURGATORY [w. 20-40
for them there, through the pricking of remem-
brance, which only to the pious gives the spur,
— so I saw figured there, but of better sem-
blance in respect of the workmanship, all that
for pathway juts out from the mountain.
I saw, on one side, him who was created more
noble than any other creature, falling down as
lightning from heaven.1
I saw, Briareus,2 on the other side, transfixed
by the celestial bolt, lying heavy upon the earth
in mortal chill.
I saw Thymbraeus,3 I saw Pallas and Mars,
still armed, around their father, gazing at the
scattered limbs of the giants.
I saw Nimrod at the foot of his great toil, as
if bewildered, and looking round upon the peo-
ple that had been proud with him in Shinar.
O Niobe ! with what grieving eyes did I see
thee portrayed upon the road between thy seven
and seven children slain !
O Saul ! how on thine own sword didst thou
1. v. 27. Lucifer. " I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from Heaven." Luke x. 16.
2. v. 28. Examples from classic and biblical mythology
alternate. Briareus, one of the giants who fought against the
gods. See Hell, xxxi. 98.
3 . v. 3 1 . Apollo, so called from his temple at Thym-
bra, not far from Troy, where Achilles is said to have slain
Paris. Virgil (Georgia, iv. 323) uses this epithet.
vv. 41-55] CANTO XII 89
here appear dead on Gilboa, which thereafter
felt not rain or dew ! 4
O foolish Arachne,5 so did I see thee, already
half spider, wretched on the shreds of the work
which to thy harm by thee was made !
O Rehoboam ! here thine image seems not
now to threaten, but a chariot bears it away full
of terror before anyone pursues it.6
The hard pavement showed also how costly
to his mother Alcmaeon made the ill-fated orna-
ment appear.7
It showed how his sons threw themselves
upon Sennacherib within the temple, and how,
he dead, they left him there.8
It showed the ruin and the cruel butchery
4. v. 42. i Samuel xxxi. 4. " Ye mountains of Gil-
boa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you."
2 Samuel 'i. 21.
5. v. 43. Changed to a spider by Athena, whom she
had challenged to a trial of skill at the loom.
6. v. 48. " Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who
was over the tribute ; and all Israel stoned him with stones,
that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get
him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem." I Kings xii. 1 8.
7. v. 51. Amphiaraiis, the soothsayer, foreseeing his
own death if he went to the Theban war, hid himself to
avoid being forced to go. His wife, Eriphyle, bribed by an
ill-fated golden necklace made by Vulcan, betrayed his hiding-
place, and was killed by her son Alcmaeon, for thus bringing
about his father's death.
8. v. 54. 2 Kings xix. 37.
90 PURGATORY [vv. 56-73
that Tomyris wrought, when she said to Cyrus,
" For blood thou hast thirsted, and with blood
I fill thee." 9
It showed how the Assyrians fled in rout
after Holofernes was killed, and also the rem-
nants of the victim.10
I saw Troy in ashes, and in caverns: O
Ilion, how cast down and abject did the image
which is there discerned show thee !
What Master has there been of pencil or of
style that could draw the shadows and the lines
which there would make every subtile genius
wonder ? Dead seemed the dead, and the living
alive. He who saw the truth saw not better
than I all that I trod on, while I went bent
down. — Now be ye proud, and go your way
with haughty look, ye sons of Eve, and bend
not down your face so that ye may see your
evil path !
More of the mountain had now been circled
9. v. 57. Herodotus (i. 214) tells how Tomyris,
Queen of the Massagetae, having defeated and slain Cyrus,
filled a skin full of human blood, and plunged his head in it,
with words such as Dante reports, and which he took from
Orosius, Hist. ii. 7.
10. v. 60. "Behold Holofernes lieth upon the ground
without a head. . . . And fear and trembling fell upon
them, so that .... rushing out all together, they fled into
every way of the plain, and of the hill country." Judith
xiv. 1 8 ; xv. 2.
vv. 74-97] CANTO XII 91
by us, and of the sun's course far more spent,
than my mind, not disengaged," was aware, when
he, who always went attentive in advance, be-
gan : " Lift up thy head ; there is no longer
time for going thus abstracted. See yonder an
Angel, who is making ready to come toward
us : see how the sixth hand-maiden is returning
from the service of the day.12 With rever-
ence adorn thine acts and thy face so that it
may please him to direct us upward. Think
that this day never dawns again." •
I was well used to his admonition never to
lose time,13 so that on that theme he could not
speak to me obscurely.
The beautiful creature came toward us,
clothed in white, and in his face such as seems
the tremulous morning star. His arms he
opened, and then he opened his wings ; he said :
" Come : here at hand are the steps, and easily
henceforth does one ascend. Very few come
to these tidings. O human race, born to fly
upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so
fall ? "
He led us to where the rock was cleft ; here
11. v. 75. Cf. Canto iv. 7—12.
12. v. 8 1 . The sixth hour of the day is coming to its
end, near noon.
13. v. 86. "To lose time most displeases him who
most knows," had Virgil said the day before. Canto iii. 78.
92 PURGATORY [vv. 98-109
he struck his wings across my forehead/4 then
promised me secure progress.
As on the right hand, to ascend the moun-
tain,15 where the church sits which above Ruba-
conte '6 dominates the well-guided '7 city, the
bold flight of the ascent is broken by the stairs,
which were made in an age when the record and
the stave were secure,18 so the bank which falls
here very steeply from the next round is made
easier; but on this side and that the high rock
grazes.19 *As we turned our persons thither,
14. v. 98. Removing the first P that the Angel of the
Gate had incised on Dante's brow.
15. v. 100. The hill of San Miniato, above the city of
Florence.
1 6. v. 1 02. The upper bridge at Florence across the
Arno, named after Messer Rubaconte da Mandello, podesta
of Florence, who laid the first stone of it in 1237 ; now
called the Ponte alle Grazie, after a little chapel built upon it
in 1 47 1 , and dedicated to Our Lady of Grace.
17. v. 102. Ironical.
1 8. v. 105. In the good old time when men were hon-
est. In 1299 one Messer Niccola Acciaiuoli, in order to
conceal a fraudulent transaction, had a leaf torn out from the
public notarial record ; and about the same time an officer in
charge of the revenue from salt, for the sake of private gain,
measured the salt he received with an honest measure, but
that which he sold with a measure diminished by the removal
sf a stave.
19. v. 1 08. The stairway is so narrow that the rock on
either side grazes him who mounts.
trv. 110-130] CANTO XII 93
voices sang " Beati pauper es spiritu"20 in such
wise that speech could not tell it. Ah, how
different are these passes from those of Hell !
for here one enters with songs, and there below
with fierce lamentations.
Already we were mounting up over the holy
stairs, and it seemed to me I was far more light
than I had seemed before upon the plain.
Whereon I : " Master, say, what heavy thing
has been lifted from me, so that almost no
fatigue is felt by me as I go on ? " He an-
swered : " When the P's which, almost extinct,21
still remain on thy forehead, shall be, as one is,
quite erased, thy feet will be so conquered by
good-will, that not only they will not feel fatigue
but it will be delight to them to be urged up-
ward." Then I did like those who are going
with something on their head unknown to them,
unless the signs of others make them suspect ;
wherefore the hand assists to ascertain, and
20. v. no. "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
21. v. 122. Almost extinct, because in the removal of
the P which stood for Pride, the others had grown faint, for
as St. Thomas Aquinas says, " Pride, by which we are
chiefly turned from God, is the first and the origin of all
sins." He adds, " Pride is said to be the beginning of every
sin, not because every single sin has its immediate source in
pride, but because every kind (genus~) of sin is born o£
pride." S. T. ii.2 162. 7.
94 PURGATORY [vv. 131-136
seeks and finds, and performs that office which
cannot be accomplished by the sight ; and with
the fingers of my right hand outspread, I found
six only of those letters which he of the keys
had incised upon my temples : looking at which
my Leader smiled.
CANTO XIII
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Examples of Love. —
The Shades in haircloth^ and with sealed eyes. — Sapia
of Siena.
WE were at the top of the stairway, where
the mountain, ascent of which frees one from
ill, is for the second time cut back. There a
cornice binds the hill round about, in like man-
ner as the first, except that its arc curves more
quickly.1 No figure is there, nor mark which
is apparent ; 2 thus the bank appears bare and
thus appears the path, with but the livid color
of the stone.
" If to enquire one waits here for people,"
said the Poet, " I fear that perhaps our choice 3
will have too much delay." Then he set his
eyes fixedly on the sun, made of his right
1 . v. 6. As the conical mountain rises each ledge around
it has a less circumference.
2. v. 7. No sculptured or engraved scenes are here,
because the envious, who are expiating their sin in this cor-
nice, deprived of the use of the eyes which they misused on
earth, would be unable to see them.
3. v. 12. The choice of the right path.
96 PURGATORY [vv. 14-32
side the centre for his movement, and turned
the left part of himself. " O sweet light, with
confidence in which I enter on the new road,
do thou lead us on it," he said, " as there is
need for leading here within. Thou warmest
the world, thou shinest upon it ; if other reason
prompt not to the contrary, thy rays ought
ever to be guides." 4
As far as here on earth is reckoned for a
mile, so far had we now gone on from there, in
short time because of ready will. And toward
us were heard flying, not however seen, spirits
uttering courteous invitations to the table of
love. The first voice which passed flying, said
loudly: " Vinum non habent"s and went on
behind us reiterating it. And before it had
become quite inaudible through distance, an-
other passed by, crying : "'I am Orestes," 6 and
4. v. 21. The Sun here, as elsewhere, is the symbol
of the illuminating grace of God ; and the words, " if other
reason prompt not to the contrary " may refer to the condi-
tions of the souls in Purgatory, not yet capable of following
upward the guidance of the Sun, but compelled, by their
desire for purgation, to remain upon the ledges where their
sins are expiated.
5. v. 24. " They have no wine." John\\. 3. The
words of Mary at the wedding feast of Cana, symbolic of a
kindness that is a rebuke of envy.
6. v. 32. The words of Pylades, before Aegisthus,
when contending with Orestes to be put to death in his stead.
w. 33-57] CANTO XIII 97
also did not stay. " O Father," said I, "what
voices are these ? " and even as I was asking,
lo ! the third, saying : " Love them from whom
ye have had evil." And the good Master :
" This circle scourges the sin of envy, and
therefore the lashes of the scourge are drawn
from love. The curb must be of the contrary
sound ; I believe, according to my judgment,
that thou wilt hear it, before thou arrivest at the
pass of pardon.7 But fix thine eyes intently
through the air, and thou wilt see in front of us
people sitting, and each is seated against the
cliff." Then more than before I opened my
eyes ; I looked in front of me, and saw shades
with cloaks in color not different from the
stone. And when we were a little further for-
ward, I heard cry : " Mary, pray for us ! " and
a cry on Michael, and Peter, and all the
Saints.
I do not believe there goes on earth to-day
a man so hard that he would not be pierced with
compassion at that which I then saw. For when
I had approached so near to them that their
actions came surely to me, tears were drawn from
my eyes by heavy grief.8 They seemed to me
7» v. 42. At the stair, leading to the third ledge, at the
foot of which stands the angel who cancels the sign of envy.
8. v. 57. Literally, "through my eyes I was milked
of heavy grief."
98 PURGATORY [w. 58-84
covered with coarse haircloth, and one was sup-
porting the other with his shoulder, and all
were supported by the bank. Thus the blind,
who lack subsistence, wait at pardons 9 to beg
for what they need, and one bows his head upon
another, so that pity may quickly be moved in
others, not only by the sound of their words,
but by the sight which implores no less. And as
the sun profits not the blind, so to the shades,
in that place of which I was just now speaking,
the light of Heaven wills not to make largess
of itself ; for an iron wire pierces the eyelids of
all ; even as is done to a wild hawk, because it
stays not quiet.
It seemed to me I was doing outrage in going
on, seeing others, not being seen myself, where-
fore I turned me to my sage counsellor. Well
did he know what the dumb wished to say,
and therefore waited not my asking, but said :
" Speak, and be brief and to the point."
Virgil was coming with me on that side of
the cornice from which one may fall, because it
is encircled by no rim. On the other side of
me were the devout shades, who through the
horrible suture were so pressing out their tears
that they bathed their cheeks. I turned me to
9. v. 62. On occasion of special indulgences the beg-
gars gather at the door of churches frequented by those who
seek the pardons to be obtained within.
vv. 85-107] CANTO XIII 99
them, and : " O folk," I began, " assured of
seeing the Light on high which your desire has
alone in its care, may grace speedily dissolve
the scum from off your conscience so that
the stream of memory may flow down through it
clear,10 tell me, for it will be gracious and dear
to me, if there be a soul here among you that
is Italian, and perhaps it will be good for him
if I learn it." " O my brother, each of us is a
citizen of one true city,11 but thou meanest
one who lived in Italy while a pilgrim." " It
seemed to me I heard this for answer somewhat
farther on than where I was standing ; where-
fore I made myself heard still more that way.
Among the others I saw a shade that was ex-
pectant in look ; and, if any one should wish to
ask : How? — it was lifting up its chin in the
manner of a blind man. " Spirit," said I, " that
art subduing thyself in order to ascend, if thou
art that one which answered me, make thyself
known to me either by place or by name." " I
was of Siena," it answered, " and with these
others I cleanse here my guilty life, weeping to
10. v. 90. So that purified from sin they shall retain
no memory of it.
11. v. 95. " Fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the
household of God.7' Ephesians'u.. 19.
12. v. 96. " For here have we no continuing city, but
we seek one to come. ' * Hebrews xiii. 1 4.
ioo PURGATORY [vv. 108-128
Him that He vouchsafe Himself to us. Sapi-
ent I was not, although I was called Sapia, I3 and
I was far more glad of others' harm than of my
own good fortune. And that thou mayst not
believe that I deceive thee, hear whether I was
foolish as I tell thee. When the arch of my years
was already descending, my fellow-citizens were
joined in battle near to Colle I4 with their adver-
saries, and I prayed to God for that which He
willed. They were routed there, and turned into
the bitter passes of flight; and I, seeing the pur-
suit, experienced a joy unmatched by any other ;
so much that I turned upward my audacious
face, crying out to God : c Henceforth no more
I fear thee ; ' as the blackbird does because of a
little fair weather. At the very end of my life I
desired peace with God ; and even yet my debt
would not have been lessened by penitence,15 had
it not been that Pier Pettinagno,16 who out of
13. v. 109. A lady said by Benvenuto to have been by
birth or marriage of the family of the Bigozzi, who held a
stronghold about four miles from Colle, in the territory of
Siena.
14. v. 1 1 5. This was the battle in I 269, in which the
Florentines routed the Sienese Ghibellines, at whose head was
Provenzano Salvani. See Canto xi. 121-123.
15. v. 126. I should not yet within Purgatory have di-
minished my debt of expiation, but, because I delayed repent-
ance till the hour of death, I should still be outside the gate.
16. v. 128. A poor comb-dealer, a man of kind heart,
vv. 129-151] CANTO XIII 101
charity was sorry for me, held me in memory in
his holy prayers. But who art thou that goest
asking of our conditions, and carryest thine eyes
loosed as I think, and breathing dost speak ? "
" My eyes," said I, " will yet be taken from me
here ; but for a short time, for small is the of-
fence committed through their being turned with
envy. Far greater is the fear, with which my
soul is in suspense, of the torment below, and
the load down there already weighs upon me."
And she to me : " Who then hath led thee
up here among us, if thou thinkest to re-
turn below ? " And I : " This one who is
with me, and who says not a word : and I am
alive ; and therefore ask of me, spirit elect, if
thou wouldst that on earth I should yet move
for thee my mortal feet." " Oh, this is so
strange a thing to hear," she replied, "that it is a
great sign that God loves thee ; therefore assist
me sometimes with thy prayer. And I be-
seech thee, by that which thou most desirest,
that, if ever thou tread the earth of Tuscany,
thou restore me to good fame among my kin-
dred. Thou wilt see them among that vain
people I7 which hopes in Talamone,18 and will
honest dealings, and good deeds, and still remembered for them
in Siena. He died in 1289.
17. v. 151. Cf. Hell xxix. 122.
1 8. v. 152. A little port on the coast of Tuscany, on
102 PURGATORY [vv. 152-154
there lose more hope, than in finding the
Diana ; I9 but the admirals will there lose even
more." 20
which the Sienese wasted toil and money in the vain hope
that, by strengthening and enlarging it, they could make
themselves rivals at sea of the Pisans and Genoese.
I9' v' IS3- A subterranean stream supposed to flow be-
neath the city, which the Sienese often sought in vain to find.
20. v. 154. Of these last words the meaning was ob*
scure even to the earliest commentators.
CANTO XIV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Guido del Duca. — •
Rinieri de* Calboli. — Instances of the punishment of
Envy.
" WHO is this that circles our mountain ere
death have given him flight, and opens and
shuts his eyes at his own willv? " T "I know
not who he is, but I know that he is not alone.
Do thou, who art nearer to him, ask him ;
and sweetly, so that he may speak, accost him."
Thus two spirits, leaning one to the other, dis-
coursed of me there on the right hand, then
turned their faces up to speak to me ; and one
of them said : " O soul, that still fixed in thy
body art going on toward heaven, for charity
console us, and tell us whence thou comest,
and who thou art ; for thou makest us so greatly
marvel at this thy grace, as needs must a thing
that never was before." And, I : "Through
i. v. 3. These words are spoken by Guido del Duca,
who is answered by Rinieri dej Calboli ; both of them of
illustrious family, and men of note and honor in the Ro-
magna, during the thirteenth century. Guido was a Ghibel«
line, Rinieri a Guelf.
104 PURGATORY [vv. 16-38
mid Tuscany there wanders a little stream, that
has its source on Falterona,2 and a hundred
miles of course does not suffice it. From there-
upon I bring this body. To tell you who I
am would be to speak in vain, for my name as
yet makes no great sound." " If I rightly
penetrate thy meaning with my understanding,"
then replied to me he who had spoken first,
" thou speakest of the Arno." And the other
said to him : " Why did he conceal the name
of that river, even as a man does of horrible
things ? " And the shade of whom this was
asked, delivered itself thus : " I know not, but
truly it is fit that the name of such a valley 3
perish, for from its source (where the rugged
mountain chain, from which Pelorus is cut off,
is so teeming that in. few places does it pass be-
yond that mark 4), far as there where it renders
itself to restore that which heaven sucks up
from the sea, whence the rivers have what flows
in them, virtue is driven away as an enemy by
all men, even as a serpent, either through ill-
2. v. 17. One of the highest of the Tuscan Apennines.
3. v. 30. The valley derives its name from the river.
4. v. 3 3 . The chain of the Apennines, — the backbone
of Italy, from which Pelorus, the high northeastern headland
sf Sicily, seems, as it were, cut off, — is nowhere more
teeming with waters than on Monte Falterona, where the
Tiber, as well as the Arno, has its source.
w. 39-58] CANTO XIV 105
fortune of the place, or through evil habit that
incites them. Wherefore the inhabitants of the
wretched valley have so changed their nature
that it seems as though Circe had them in her
feeding. Among foul hogs,5 more fit for acorns
than for other food made for human use, it
first directs its poor path. Then, coming down,
it finds curs,6 more snarling than their power
warrants, and from them disdainfully it twists its
muzzle.7 It goes on falling, and the more it
swells so much the more does the accursed and
ill-fated ditch find the dogs becoming wolves.8
Descending then through many hollow depths,
it finds the foxes 9 so full of fraud, that they
fear not wit which may entrap them. Nor will
I cease to speak because another may hear me :
and well it will be for this man if hereafter he
mind him of that which a spirit of truth discloses
to me.
" I see thy grandson,10 who becomes a hunter
5 . v. 43 . The people of the Casentino, the upper valley
of the Arno.
6. v. 46. The curs of Arezzo.
7. v. 48. Turning westward.
8. v. 50. The wolves of Florence.
9. v. 53. The foxes of Pisa.
10. v. 58. Fulcieri da Calboli, — grandson of Rinierv
to whom Guido del Duca is speaking, — «« a fierce and cruel
man," was made podesta of Florence in 1302. He put ta
death many of the White Guelfs, and banished more of
them.
106 PURGATORY [w. 59-85
of those wolves upon the bank of the fierce
stream, and terrifies them all. He sells their
flesh," it being yet alive ; then he slaughters
them like aged cattle ; many of life, himself
of honor he deprives. Bloody he comes forth
from the dismal wood ; I2 he leaves it such,
that from now for a thousand years it is not
rewooded in its primal state."
As at the announcement of grievous ills, the
face of him who listens is disturbed, from what
quarter soever the peril may assail him, so I
saw the other soul, that was staying turned to
hear, become disturbed and sad, when it had
gathered to itself the words.
The speech of the one and the look of the
other made me wishful to know their names,
and I made request for it, mixed with prayers.
Wherefore the spirit which had first spoken to
me began again : " Thou wishest that I conde-
scend to do for thee that which thou wilt not
do for me ; but since God wills that such great
grace of His shine through in thee, I will not
be chary to thee ; therefore know that I am
Guido del Duca. My blood was so inflamed
with envy, that had I seen a man becoming
joyful, thou wouldst have seen me overspread
with hue of spite. Of my own sowing such
11. v. 6 1 . Bribed by the opposite party.
12. v. 64. Florence, spoiled and undone.
vv. 86-100] CANTO XIV 107
straw I reap. O human race, why dost thou
set thy heart there where exclusion of a com-
panion is needful ? I3
" This one is Rinier ; this is the glory and the
honor of the house of Calboli,14 where no one
since has made himself heir of his worth. And
between the Po and the mountain, and the sea
and the Reno,15 not his race only has become
stripped of the good requisite for truth and for
delight ; for within these boundaries the land
is full of poisonous stocks, so that slowly would
they now die out through cultivation. Where
is the good Lizio, and Arrigo Mainardi, Pier
Traversaro, and Guido di Carpigna ? l6 O men
of Romagna turned to bastards ! When in
Bologna will a Fabbro take root again ? When
13. v. 87. Why dost thou set thy heart on things which
others cannot partake with thee ?
14. v. 89. The castle of Calboli, from which the fam-
ily derived their name, was not far from Forli. It was de-
stroyed by Guido da Montefeltro in 1277.
15. v. 92. That is, in all Romagna, bordered by the
Po, the Apennines, the Adriatic, and the river Reno.
1 6. v. 98. These and others named afterwards were
well-born, honorable, and courteous men in Romagna in the
thirteenth century. Benvenuto says that Guido del Duca and
Arrigo Mainardi were special friends, and when Arrigo died
Guido had the wooden seat, on which they had been accus-
tomed to sit together, sawn apart, declaring that no one re-
mained like him in liberality and honor.
io8 PURGATORY [w. 101-121
in Faenza a Bernardin di Fosco, the noble
scion of a little plant ? Marvel not, Tuscan,
if I weep, when I remember, with Guido da
Prata, Ugolin d' Azzo who lived with us, Fe-
derico Tignoso and his company, the house of
Traversara, and the Anastagi, (both the one
race and the other are without heir), the ladies
and the cavaliers, the toils and the repose for
which love and courtesy inspired us, there where
hearts have become so wicked. O Brettinoro,
why dost thou not make away with thyself,17
since thy family has gone, and many people, in
order not to become guilty? Bagnacaval does
well that it gets no more sons ; and Castro-
caro does ill, and Conio worse that it still
troubles itself to beget such counts.18 The
Pagani will do well after their Demon shall be
gone from them ; I9 yet not so that a pure tes-
timony can ever remain to them. O Ugolin
de' Fantolin, thy name is secure, since no
17. v. 112. Literally: "why dost thou not flee
away." Brettinoro is a small town near Forli. It was the
birthplace of Guido del Duca, and the family to which he
refers was, perhaps, his own.
1 8. v. 117. Bagnacavallo, Castrocaro, and Conio are
three little towns in Romagna, which had once been the
homes of worthy men.
19. v. 119. The Pagani were lords of Faenza and
Imola ; the Demon was Maghinardo, who died in 1302.
See Hell, xxvii. 49-51. &a
vv. 122-145] CANTO XIV 109
longer is one to be expected who can make it
dark by his degeneracy.20 But go thy way,
Tuscan, now ; for now it pleases me far more
to weep than to speak, so much has our dis-
course wrung my mind."
We knew that those dear souls heard us go
on ; therefore by their silence they made us confi-
dent of the road. After we had become alone
as we proceeded, a voice, that seemed like light-
ning when it cleaves the air, came counter to
us, saying : " Everyone that findeth me shall
slay me," 2I and fled like thunder which rolls
away, if suddenly the cloud is rent. Soon as
our hearing had a truce from it, lo ! now an-
other with so great a crash that it resembled a
thunder-clap which follows fast : " I am Aglau-
ros who became a stone." 22 And then to press
close to the Poet, I took a step backward and
not forward. The air was now quiet on every
side, and he said to me : " That 23 was the hard
curb which ought to hold a man within his
bound ; but ye take the bait, so that the hook
20. v. 123. Both the sons of Ugolino de' Fantolin had
died without offspring. The Fantolini were of Faenza.
21. v. 133. The words of Cain. Genesis iv. 14.
22. v. 139. The daughter of Cecrops, changed to
stone, because of envy of her sister.
23. v. 143. These examples of the fatal consequences
of the sin of envy.
no PURGATORY [vv. 146-151
of the old adversary draws you to him, and
therefore little avails bridle or lure. Heaven
calls you, and revolves around you, displaying
to you its eternal beauties, and your eye looks
only on the ground ; wherefore He who dis-
cerns all things scourges you."
CANTO XV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — An Angel removes the
second P from Dante's forehead. — Discourse concerning
the Sharing of Good. — Ascent to the Third Ledge : the
Wrathful. — Examples of Forbearance seen in Vision.
As much as, between the beginning of the day
and the close of the third hour, appears of the
sphere which is ever sporting in manner of a
child, so much of his course toward the even-
ing appeared to be now remaining for the sun.1
It was vespers2 there, and here3 midnight ; and
the rays were striking us full in the face, 4 because
the mountain had been so circled by us that we
1. v. 5. That is, in simple words, the sun was still some
three hours from his setting. By "the sphere that ever is
sportive like a child" Dante probably intends the visible
sphere of the heavens, which, by its constant apparent gyra-
tion and ever varying aspect, might suggest the image of a play-
ful and restless child.
2. v. 6. Dante uses "vespers " as the term for the last
of the four canonical divisions of the day ; that is, from three
to six P. M. See Convito, iv. 23. Three o'clock in Purga-
tory corresponds with midnight in Italy.
3. v. 6. In Italy.
4. v. 7. Literally, «' on the middle of the nose."
in PURGATORY [w. 9-31
were now going straight toward the sunset, when
I felt my forehead weighed down by the splendor
far more than at first, and the things not known
were a wonder to me : 5 wherefore I lifted my
hands toward the top of my brows, and made for
myself the visor which lessens the excess of what
is seen.
As when from water, or from a mirror, the ray
leaps to the opposite quarter, mounting up in
like manner to that in which it descends, and
at equal distance departs as much from the fall
of the stone,6 as experiment and art show ; so
it seemed to me that I was struck by light re-
flected7 there in front of me, wherefore my
sight was swift to fly. " What is that, sweet Fa-
ther, from which I cannot screen my sight so
much that it may avail me," said I, " and which
seems to be moving toward us ? " " Marvel
not if the family of Heaven still dazzle thee,"
he replied to me ; " it is a messenger that comes
to invite one to ascend. Soon will it be that to
5. v. 12. The source of this increase of brightness being
unknown, it caused Dante astonishment.
6. v. 20. The angle of reflection of a ray being equal
to that of the angle of incidence, the distance of the direct
or the reflected ray from the perpendicular — the fall of a
plummet — at a given point is the same.
7. v. 22. The light proceeding from the angel seemed
AS if reflected, because it came from a source lower than the
direct rays of the sun.
w. 32-55] CANTO XV 113
see these things will not be grievous to thee,
but will be to thee a delight as great as nature
has fitted thee to feel."
When we had reached the blessed Angel, with
a glad voice he said : "Enter ye from here on a
stairway far less steep than the others."
We were mounting, already departed thence,
and " Beati mis eric or des"* was sung behind
us, and : " Rejoice thou that overcomest."
My Master and I, we two alone, were going on
upward, and I was thinking, as we went, to win
profit from his words ; and I addressed me to
him, enquiring thus : " What did the spirit from
Romagna mean, in speaking of c exclusion ' and
a c companion ? ' " 9 Wherefore he to me : " Of
his own greatest fault he knows the harm, and
therefore it is not to be wondered at if he re-
buke it, in order that there may be less lament-
ing for it. Because your desires are directed
there, where, through companionship, a share is
lessened, envy moves the bellows for your sighs.
But if the love of the highest sphere I0 turned
your desire upward, that fear would not be in
your breast ; for the more there are who there
8. v. 38. " Blessed are the merciful."
9. v. 44. In the last canto, vv. 86-87, Guido del Duca
had exclaimed, " O human race, why dost thou
there where exclusion of a companion is needful
10. v. 52. The Empyrean.
n4 PURGATORY [vv. 56-75
say ' Ours/ so much the more of good doth each
possess, and the more of charity burns in that
cloister/'" " I am more empty of satisfaction/'"
said I, "than if I had at first been silent, and
more of doubt I gather in my mind. How can
it be that a good distributed can make more
possessors richer with itself, than if it be pos-
sessed by few ? " And he to me : " Because
thou fastenest thy mind only on earthly things,
thou gatherest darkness from the very light.
That infinite and ineffable Good which is on
high, runs to love '3 even as a sunbeam comes to
a lucid body. So much it gives itself as it finds
of ardor ; so that how far soever chanty extends,
over it does the Eternal Valor spread. And the
more the people who set their hearts on high the
more there are for loving well, and the more
love there is, and like a mirror one reflects to the
11. v. 57. " Char if as addit supra amor em perfectionent
quamdam amor is." S. T. ii.1 26. 3.
" Since good, the more
Communicated, the more abundant grows."
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 73.
" The secret of virtue is to know that the richer another
is the richer am I." Emerson, Letters to a Friend, p. 27.
" True love in this differs from gold and clay,
That to divide is not to take away."
Shelley, Epipsychidion.
12. v. 58. Literally, "I am more fasting of being
contented."
13. v. 69. Runs to meet the love which is directed to It.
/v. 76-102] CANTO XV 115
other. And if my discourse appease not thy
hunger, thou shalt see Beatrice, and she will fully
take from thee this and every other longing.
Strive only that soon may be extinct, as are the
two already, the five wounds which are closed
up by being painful."14
As I was wishing to say : " Thou dost satisfy
me : " I saw that I had arrived on the next
round,15 so that my eager eyes made me silent.
There it seemed to me I was of a sudden rapt in
an ecstatic vision, and saw many persons in a
temple, and a lady at the entrance, with the sweet
mien of a mother, saying : " My son, why hast
thou thus dealt with us ? Behold, thy father
and I have sought thee, sorrowing." And as
here she was silent, that which first appeared,
disappeared.
Then appeared to me another, with those
waters down along her cheeks which grief dis-
tils when it is born of great despite toward others,
and she was saying : " If thou art lord of the
city about whose name was such great strife
among the gods, and whence every science spar-
kles forth, avenge thyself on those audacious
arms, which have embraced our daughter, O Pi-
sistratus." And the lord appeared to me, benign
14. v. 8 1 . With the pain of penitence.
15. v. 83. The third ledge, on which the sin of angei
is expiated.
n6 PURGATORY [w. 103-130
and mild, to answer her, with temperate look :
K What shall we do to him who desires ill for
us, if he who loves us is by us condemned ? " '*
Then I saw people inflamed with fire of wrath,
killing a youth with stones, loudly crying to each
other only : " Slay, slay." And I saw him bowed
toward the ground by death, which now was
weighing on him, but in such great strife he ever
made of his eyes gates for heaven, praying to the
high Lord, with that aspect which unlocks pity,
that He would pardon his persecutors.17
When my mind returned outwardly to the
things which outside of it are true, I recognized
my not false errors. My Leader, who could
see me act like a man who looses himself from
slumber, said : " What ails thee, thatthou canst
not support thyself? but art come more than
half a league veiling thine eyes, and with thy
legs tangled like one whom wine or slumber
bends." " O my sweet Father, if thou hark-
enest to me I will tell thee," said I, " what ap-
peared to me when my legs were thus taken from
me." And he : " If thou hadst a hundred
masks upon thy face, thy thoughts, howsoever
small,would not be hidden from me. That which
thou hast seen was in order that thou excuse not
1 6. v. 105. This story is from Valerius Maximus,
Fact a et dicta mem., vi. I, § 2.
17. v. 1 1 4. See Acts vii. 5 5-60.
vv. 131-145] CANTO XV 117
thyself from opening thy heart to the waters
of peace which are poured forth from the eter-
nal fountain. I did not ask : c What ails thee ? '
for the reason that he does who looks only with
the eye which has no seeing when the body lies
inanimate ; but I asked, in order to give vigor
to thy foot ; thus it behoves to spur the slug-
gards, slow to use their wakefulness when it re-
turns."
We were going on through the vesper time,
forward intent so far as the eyes could reach
against the late and shining rays ; and, lo ! little
by little, a smoke came toward us, dark as night ;
nor was there place to shelter ourselves from
it. This took from us our eyes and the pure
air.
CANTO XVI
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Marco Lombardo. — »
His discourse on Free Will, and the corruption of the
World.
GLOOM of hell, or of night deprived of every
planet, under a poor sky, darkened by clouds
as much as it can be, never made so thick a
veil to my sight, or of so rough a tissue to my
feeling, as that smoke which covered us there;
for it suffered not my eye to stay open : ' where-
fore my sage and trusty Escort drew to my side
and offered me his shoulder. Even as a blind
man goes behind his guide, in order not to
stray, and not to butt against anything that
may hurt or perhaps kill him, I went along,
through the bitter and foul air, listening to my
Leader, who was saying only : " Take care that
thou be not parted from me."
I heard voices, and each appeared to be pray-
ing for peace and for mercy to the Lamb of
God that taketh sins away. Only " Agnus
i. v. 7. The gloom and the smoke symbolize the effects
of anger on the soul.
vv. 19-44] CANTO XVI 119
Dei " 2 were their exordiums : one word there
was in all, and one measure ; so that there
seemed entire concord among them. "Are
these spirits, Master, that I hear?" said I.
And he to me : " Thou apprehendest truly ;
and they go loosening the knot of anger."
" Now who art thou that cleavest our smoke,
and speakest of us even as if thou didst still
divide the time by calends ? " 3 Thus was it
spoken by a single voice : whereon my Master
said : " Reply, and ask if by this way one goes
up." And I, " O creature, that art cleansing
thyself, in order to return beautiful unto Him
who made thee, a marvel shalt thou hear if thou
accompanyest me." " I will follow thee, for so
far as is permitted me," it replied, " and if the
smoke allows not seeing, in its stead hearing
shall keep us joined." Then I began : " With
that swathing band which death unbinds 4 I go
upward, and I came hither through the infer-
nal anguish ; and since God has so enclosed me
in His grace that He wills that I should see
His court by a mode wholly out of modern
usage, conceal not from me who thou wast be-
fore thy death, but tell it to me, and tell me if
2. v. 19. " The Lamb of God."
3. v. 27. By those in the eternal world time is not
reckoned by earthly divisions.
4. v. 38. With my mortal body.
120 PURGATORY [w. 45-62
I am going rightly to the pass ; and let thy
words be our escorts." " I was a Lombard,
and was called Marco ; I had knowledge of the
world, and I loved that virtue, toward which
everyone has now unbent his bow : 5 for mount-
ing upward thou art going rightly." Thus he
replied, and added : " I pray thee that thou pray
for me when thou shalt be above." And I to
him : "I pledge thee my faith to do that
which thou askest of me ; but I am bursting
inwardly with a doubt, if I free not myself of
it; at first it was single, and now it is made
double by thy opinion which makes certain to
me, here and elsewhere, that with which I
couple it.6 The world is indeed as utterly de-
serted by every virtue as thou declarest to me,
and is big and covered with iniquity ; but I
pray that thou point out to me the cause, so
that I may see it, and that I may show it to
5. v. 48. No one now aims at virtue.
6. v. 57. These words may be paraphrased as follows :
— "I long for the explanation of a question first suggested
by words heard elsewhere, . now renewed by what you have
said in confirmation of them, whereby I am made certain of
the fact of which the cause perplexes me." The doubt or
question was occasioned by Guido del Duca's discourse
f Canto xiv.), in regard to the prevalence of wickedness in
Italy. The fact of the iniquity of men was now reaffirmed
by Marco Lombardo ; Dante accepts the fact as certain, but
is in doubt as to its cause.
vv. 63-81] CANTO XVI 121
others ; for one sets it in the heavens, and one
here below.*' 7
A deep sigh which grief wrung into " Ay
me ! " he first sent forth, and then he began :
" Brother, the world is blind, and thou truly
comest from it. Ye who are living refer every
cause upward to the heavens only, as though
they moved all things with them of necessity.
If this were so, free will would be destroyed in
you, and there would be no justice in having
joy for good, and grief for evil. The heavens
initiate your movements, I do not say all of
them ; but, supposing that I said it, light for
good and for evil is given to you, and free will,
which, though it endure fatigue in the first
battles with the heavens, afterwards, if it be well
nurtured, overcomes everything. To a greater
force, and to a better nature, ye, free, are sub-
ject, and that creates the mind in you, which
the heavens have not in their charge.8 There-
7. v. 63. One attributes it to the planetary influences,
and another to the sinfulness of man's nature.
8. v. 8 1 . The soul of man is the direct creation of God,
and is in immediate subjection to His power ; it is not under
control of the heavens, for its will is free to resist their
mingled and imperfect influences. Consequently the evil in
the world is not to be ascribed to the action of the heavens,
but to the perversity of man, and Marco Lombardo now
proceeds to show the special cause of the actual evil condi^
tions which he deplores.
122 PURGATORY [w. 82-100
fore if the present world go astray, the cause is
in you, in you it is to be sought ; and of this I
will now be a true informant for thee.
" Forth from the hand of Him who delights
in it ere it exists, like to a little maid who, weep-
ing and smiling, wantons childishly, issues the
simple little soul, which knows nothing, save
that, proceeding from a glad Maker, it turns
willingly to that which allures it. At first it
tastes the savor of trivial good ; by this it is
deceived and runs after it, if guide or bridle
bend not its love. Hence it was needful to
impose law as a bridle ; needful to have a
king who should discern at least the tower of
the true city. The laws exist, but who set hand
to them ? Not one : because the shepherd who
is in advance can chew the cud, but has not his
hoofs divided : 9 wherefore the people, who see
9. v. 99. The injunction upon the children of Israel,
in respect to clean and unclean beasts, contained in the
eleventh chapter of Leviticus, verses 3—8 : " Whatever part-
eth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud
among the beasts, that shall ye eat," but the beasts which
divide the hoof and chew not the cud " are unclean to you,"
was from an early time interpreted allegorically by the doc-
tors of the church, but with various understanding. St.
Augustine, for example (Serm. 149) expounds the cloven
hoof as typical of right conduct, because it does not easily
slip, and the chewing of the cud as typical of wisdom, be-
cause Scripture says : "A treasure to be desired rests in the
vv. 101-108] CANTO XVI 123
their guide aim only at that good I0 for which
they are greedy, feed upon that, and seek no
further. Well canst thou see that the evil
guidance is the cause which has made the world
guilty, and not that nature is corrupt in you."
Rome, which made the world good, was wont
to have two Suns,12 which made visible both
one road and the other, that of the world and
mouth of the wise, but the fool swallows it. (It is not
clear what passage in Scripture the saint had in mind.)
St. Thomas Aquinas, on the other hand, explains the
cloven hoof as signifying, among other things, the distin-
guishing between good and evil, and the sound understand-
ing of them. And he adds, "Whoso is deficient in either,
is spiritually unclean." (S. T. ii. 102, 6.)
By saying that " the shepherd who is in advance can
chew the cud, but has not his hoofs divided," Marco
Lombardo seems to intend that, though the Pope may pos-
sess the true doctrine, yet in his acts he does not discrimi-
nate between good and evil, seeking temporal power and
the material goods for which all men are greedy, instead of
those spiritual gifts which he ought to seek.
10. v. 101. Goods of this world.
11. v. 105. It is not to the corruption of human nature
in general that the guilt of the world is due, but specifically to
the fault of its rulers.
12. v. 107. Pope and Emperor, each with a diverse
function and authority, the one of spiritual, the other of tem-
poral rule. This was the main principle in Dante's politica'
creed, and to set this forth is the object of his treatise on the
Monarchy. He was not Guelf nor Ghibelline, but both and
neither. He made a party by himself.
PURGATORY [w. 109-124
that of God. One has extinguished the other ;
and the sword is joined to the crozier; I3 and
the two together must perforce go ill, because,
being joined, one fears not the other. If thou
belie vest me not, consider the fruit, I4 for every
plant is known by its seed.
" In the land which the Adige and the Po
water, virtue and courtesy were wont to be
found before Frederick had his quarrel ; IS now
it may be securely traversed by anyone who,
out of shame, would avoid speaking with the
good, or drawing near them. Three old men
are indeed still there, in whom the antique age
rebukes the new, and it seems late to them ere
God remove them to a better life ; Corrado da
Palazzo,16 and the good Gherardo,17 and Guido
13. v. no. The symbol of the shepherd's crook.
14. v. 113. Literally, the spike, the ear of corn; the
meaning being, consider the results which follow from this
forced union.
15. v. 117. Before the Emperor Frederick II. had his
quarrel with the Pope Gregory the Ninth ; that is, before
Emperor and Pope had failed in their respective duties to
each other.
1 6. v. 1 24. Corrado da Palazzo was of Brescia, and in
his day of high repute for fair living and honorable character.
17. v. 1 24. Gherardo da Camino, " who was noble in
his life, and whose memory will always be noble," says
Dante in the Convito, iv. 14, 123. Gherardo was a noble
soldier of Treviso, and its ruler for many years, till his death
in 1306.
vv. 125-139] CANTO XVI 125
da Castel, who is better named, in fashion of the
French, the simple Lombard.18
" Say thou henceforth, that the Church of
Rome, through confounding in itself two modes
of rule,19 falls in the mire, and defiles itself and
its burden/'
" O my Marco," said I, " thou reasonest
well ; and now I discern why the sons of Levi
were excluded from the heritage ; 20 but what
Gherardo is that, who, thou sayest, remains for
sample of the extinct folk, in reproach of this
barbarous age ? " " Either thy speech deceives
me, or it is making trial of me," he replied to
me, " in that, speaking Tuscan to me, it seems
that thou knowest naught of the good Gherardo.
By other added name I do not know him,
1 8. v. 126. "The French," says Benvemito da
Imola, " call all Italians Lombards, and repute them very
astute." The Ottimo Comento relates that Guido da
Castello, who lived at Reggio, was accustomed to supply
generously the French men-at-arms, returning poor from
Italy, with all they needed, horses, arms, or money.
19. v. 128. The spiritual and the temporal.
20. v. 131. " The Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to
bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the
Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto
this day. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with
his brethren ; the Lord is his inheritance." Deuteronomy
x. 8—9. By this reference Dante points out why the Church
should be debarred from temporal power and material acqui-
sitions.
126 PURGATORY [vv. 140-145
unless I should take it from his daughter Gaia."
May God be with you ! for farther I come not
with you. Behold the brightness which rays
already whitening through the smoke ; and I
must needs depart — the Angel is there — be-
fore I become apparent to him." 22 So he turned,
and would not hear me more.
21. v. 140. Famed for her virtues, says Buti ; for her
vices, say the Ottimo and Benvenuto.
22. v. 144. His time of purgation is not yet finished ;
not yet is he ready to meet the Angel of the Pass, whose
effulgence pierces glimmering through the smoke.
CANTO XVII
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Issue from the Smoke.
— Vision of instances of punishment of Anger. — Ascent to
the Fourth Ledge, where Sloth is purged. — Second Night-
fall in Purgatory. — Virgil explains how Love is the root
alike of Virtue and of Sin.
RECALL to mind, reader, if ever on the alps
a cloud closed round thee, through which thou
couldst not see otherwise than the mole through
its skin, how, when the humid and dense vapors
begin to dissipate, the orb of the sun enters
feebly through them ; and thy imagination will
be swift in coming to see, how at first I saw
again the sun, which was already at its setting.
Thus matching mine to the trusty steps of my
Master, I issued forth from such a cloud to the
rays already dead on the low shores.
O faculty of imagination, that dost sometimes
so steal us from outward things that a man heeds
it not, although around him a thousand trum-
pets are sounding, who moves thee if the sense
afford thee naught ? A light, which is formed
in the heavens, moves thee by itself, or by a will
which guides it downward.1
I. v. 1 8. The imagination, if no object of sense excite it,
128 PURGATORY [vv. 19-36
In my imagination appeared the vestige of
the pitilessness of her2 who changed her form
into the bird that most delights in singing. And
here was my mind so shut up within itself that
from without came nothing which then might be
received by it. Then there rained down within
my raised fantasy, one crucified,3 despiteful and
fierce in his look, and thus was he dying.
Around him were the great Ahasuerus, Esther
his wife, and the just Mordecai, who was so
blameless in word and deed. And as this
image burst of itself, in manner of a bubble
for which the water fails, under which it was
formed, there rose in my vision a maiden,4 weep-
ing bitterly, and she was saying: "O queen,
wherefore through anger hast thou willed to be
may be roused by the influence of the stars, or directly by
the Divine will.
2. v. 19. This and the two following visions presented
to Dante's imagination are examples of the punishment of sins
committed in the passion of anger. Progne or Philomela, ac-
cording to one or the other version of the tragic myth, was
changed into the nightingale, after her anger had led her to
take cruel vengeance on Tereus.
3. v. 26. Haman, who, according to the English version,
was hanged, but according to the Vulgate, was crucified.
Esther vii.
4. v. 34. Lavinia, whose mother, Amata, the wife of
King Latinus, hanged herself in a rage at hearing a premature
report of the death of Turnus, to whom she desired that Lavi-
nia should be married. Aeneid, xii. 595—607.
w. 37-67] CANTO XVII 129
naught ? Thou hast slain thyself in order not
to lose Lavinia ; now thou hast lost me : I am
she that grieves, mother, at thy destruction,
before that of another."
As sleep is broken, when of a sudden the new
light strikes the closed eyes, and, broken, quiv-
ers before it wholly dies, so my imagining fell
down, soon as a light, greater by far than that
to which we are accustomed, struck my face. I
was turning to see where I was, when a voice
said : " Here is the ascent : " and this withdrew
me from every other object of attention, and
made my will so eager to behold who it was
that was speaking, that it never rests till it is face
to face. But, as before the sun which weighs
down our sight, and by excess veils its own
shape, so here my power failed. " This is a
divine spirit who directs us, without our asking,
on the way to go up, and with his own light
conceals himself. He so deals with us as a man
does with himself; for he who waits for asking
and sees the need, malignly sets himself already
to denial. Now let us accord our feet to such
an invitation ; let us press forward to ascend
before it grow dark, for after, it would not be
possible until the day returns." Thus said my
Leader ; and I and he turned our steps to a
stairway ; and, soon as I was on the first step,
I felt near me a motion as if of a wing, and a
I3o PURGATORY [w. 68-92
fanning on my face,5 and I heard say : " Eeati
pacificif who are without evil anger."
Already were the last sunbeams, on which the
night follows, so lifted above us, that the stars
were appearing on many sides. " O my strength,
why dost thou so melt away ? " I said to myself,
for I felt the power of my legs put in truce.
We were now where the stair no farther ascended,
and we were stayed fast, even as a ship that
arrives at the shore : and I listened for a while,
if I might hear any thing in the new circle. Then
I turned to my Master, and said : " My sweet
Father, say what offence is purged here in the
circle where we are : if our feet be stopped, let
not thy discourse be stayed." And he to me :
"The love of good, defective in its duty, is
here restored ; 7 here is plied again the ill-slack-
ened oar. But that thou mayst still more
clearly understand, turn thy mind to me, and
thou shalt gather some good fruit from our
delay.
" Neither Creator nor creature," he began,
cc my son, was ever without love, either natural,
5. v. 68. By which the angel removes the third P from
Dante's brow.
6. ¥.69. cc Blessed are the peacemakers."
7. v. 86. It is the round on which the sin of acedia, ac-
cidie, sloth, — slackness and gloom in matters of the spirit,
— is purged away.
vv. 93-107] CANTO XVII I3i
or of the mind,8 and this thou knowest. The
natural is always without error ; but the other
may err either through an evil object, or through
little, or through too much vigor. While love
is directed on the primal goods,9 and with due
measure on the secondary,10 it cannot be the
cause of ill delight. But when it is bent to
evil," or runs to good with more zeal, or
with less, than it ought, against the Creator his
own creature is working. Hence thou canst
comprehend that love is of necessity the seed
in you of every virtue, and of every action that
deserves punishment.
cc Now since love can never turn its sight
from the welfare of its subject," all things are
8. v. 93. Either native in the soul, or rational, deter-
mined by the choice, through free will, of some object of
desire in the mind. The love which is instinctive in the
nature of man is always good ; but the love determined by
choice may be evil, either by being set on a wrong object, or
by seeking a right one too eagerly, or not eagerly enough.
9. v. 97. The primal goods are God, and future blessed-
ness ; the secondary are material things. The love of the
primal is natural or instinctive ; the love of the secondary is
dependent on the mind, or reason, determining the will.
10. v. 98. Literally: "measures itself on the second-
ary."
11. v. 100. A wrong object of desire.
12. v. 107. To however wrong an object love may be
directed, the person moved by love always conceives the object
of desire to be for his own good.
132 PURGATORY [w. 108-127
secure from hatred of themselves ; and since no
being can be conceived of as divided from the
First13 and standing by itself, from hating Him
every affection is cut off. It follows, if, thus
distinguishing, I rightly judge, that the evil
which is loved is that of one's neighbor; and.
in three modes this love has its birth in your
clay. There is he who hopes to excel through
the abasement of his neighbor, and only on this
account longs that from his greatness he may be
brought low.14 There is he who fears loss of
power, favor, honor, and fame, because another
surmounts ; whereat he is so saddened that he
loves the contrary.15 And there is he who seems
so resentful for injury that he becomes greedy
of vengeance, and such a one must needs coin
harm for others.16 This triform love is wept
for down below.17
" Now I would that thou hear of the other,
— that which runs to the good in faulty mea-
sure. Every one confusedly conceives of a
13. v. 1 10. God, the First Cause, the source of being.
14. v. 117. This is the nature of pride, which is the
love of superiority to one's neighbor.
15. v. 1 20. The fear of suffering by another's rise is the
source of envy, which is the love of the ill success of one's
neighbor.
1 6. v. 123. Anger is the love of doing harm to one's
neighbor from whom one has suffered wrong.
17. v. 124. In the three lower rounds of Purgatory.
vv. 128-139] CANTO XVII 133
good l8 in which the mind may be at rest, and
desires it ; wherefore every one strives to attain
to it. If the love be slack that draws you to
look on this, or to acquire it, this cornice, after
just repentance, torments you for it. Another
good there is,19 which does not make man
happy ; it is not happiness, it is not the good
essence, the fruit and root of every good. The
love which abandons itself too much to this 20 is
wept for above us in three circles ; but how it is
reckoned tripartite, of this I am silent, in order
that thou seek it out for thyself."
1 8. v. 127. The supreme good.
19. v. 133. Sensual enjoyment.
20. v. 136. Resulting in the sins of avarice, gluttony.,
and lust.
CANTO XVIII
Fourth Ledge : The Slothful. — Discourse of Virgil
on Love and Free Will. — Throng of Spirits running in
haste to redeem their Sin. — The Abbot of San "Zeno. —
Instances of punishment of Sloth. — Dante falls asleep.
THE lofty Teacher had put an end to his dis-
course, and was looking attentive on my face to
see if I appeared content ; and I, whom a fresh
thirst was already goading, was silent outwardly,
and was saying within : " Perhaps the too much
questioning I make annoys him." But that
true Father, who perceived the timid wish which
did not disclose itself, by speaking gave me
boldness to speak. Whereupon I : " Master,
my sight is so vivified in thy light, that I dis-
cern clearly all that thy discourse imports or
describes : therefore I pray thee, sweet Father
dear, that thou expound to me the love to which
thou referrest every good deed and its con-
trary." " Direct," he said, " toward me the keen
eyes of the understanding, and the error of the
blind who make themselves leaders will be man-
ifest to thee.
vv. 19-30] CANTO XVIII 135
"The mind, which is created apt to love, is
mobile unto everything that pleases, so soon as
by pleasure it is roused to action. Your faculty
of apprehension draws an image from a real
existence, and displays it within you, so that it
makes the mind turn to it ; and if, thus turned,
the mind incline toward it, that inclination is
love ; it is nature which is bound anew in you
by pleasure.1 Then, as the fire moves upward
by virtue of its form, which is born to ascend
thither where it most abides in its own matter,2
1 . v. 2 7 . In his discourse in the preceding canto, Virgil
has declared that neither the Creator nor his creatures are ever
without love : in the creature it is either native in the soul and
directed to the highest good, or it proceeds from the attraction
of the mind toward secondary objects. Here he explains how
the mind is disposed to love, by inclination to an image within
itself of some object which gives it pleasure. This inclina-
tion is natural to it ; or in his difficult rhyme-word phrase,
" nature is bound anew " in man by the pleasure which arouses
the love. " Love," says Dante, in the Convito, iii. 2, " taken
in its true sense, and considered subtly, is nothing else than
the spiritual union of the soul and of the object beloved, to
which union the soul, of its own proper nature, runs swiftly
or slowly, according as it is free or hindered." The doc-
trine in this canto is derived directly from St. Thomas Aqui-
nas. "It is the property of every nature to have some incli-
nation, which is a natural appetite, or love." S. T1. I.
Ixxvi. i. "The first act of the will is love, says the School,
for till the will love, till it would have something, it is not a
will." Donne, Sermon xxiii.
2. v. 30. Form is here used in its scholastic meaning.
136 PURGATORY [w. 31-42
so the captive mind enters into longing, which
is a spiritual motion, and never rests until the
thing beloved makes it rejoice. Now it may be
apparent to thee, how far the truth is hidden from
the people who aver that every love is in itself
a laudable thing, because, perchance, its subject-
matter always appears to be good ; 3 but not
every seal is good although the wax be good. "
" Thy words, and my wit following them,"
replied I to him, " have revealed love to me ;
but that has made me more big with doubt. For
" The active power of anything depends on its form, which
is the principle of its action. For the form is either the na-
ture itself of the thing, as in those which are pure form ;
or it is a constituent of the nature of the thing, as in those which
are composed of matter and form." S. T. 3. xiii. i. Fire,
by virtue of its form, or active principle, seeks to return to
its source in the elemental sphere of fire, which was sup-
posed to exist between the sphere of the air and that of the
moon.
3. v. 37. Because the subject-matter, that is the object
of the love, appears good, this is no proof that it is so in
reality. An evil object may appear good and may excite
love. "Evil as evil," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "does
not move the will, but only as it is esteemed good." S. T.
Suppl. 98. I ; cf. i. 19. 9 ; i. 82. 2 ; ii.1 27. I. Dr.
Franklin, in his excellent little essay " On true Happiness,"
1735, says the same thing in words which afford a per-
fect comment on this passage : " Evil as evil can never be
chosen ; and though evil is often the effect of our choice, yet
we never desire it but under the appearance of an imaginary
good."
w.43-6o] CANTO XVIII 137
if love be offered to us from without, and if the
soul go not with other foot, it is not her own
merit if she go strait or crooked." 4 And he to
me : " So much as reason sees here can I tell
thee ; beyond that await still for Beatrice ; for
it is a work of faith. Every substantial form
that is distinct from matter, or that is united
with it,5 has a specific virtue collected in itself
which is not perceived unless in operation, nor
does it show itself save by its effect, as by green
leaves the life in a plant. Therefore, man does
not know whence the intelligence of the first
cognitions comes, nor whence the affection for
the first objects of desire, which exist in you
even as zeal in the bee for making honey ; and
this first will admits not desert of praise or
blame.6 Now in order that to this every other
4. v. 45. If love be aroused in the soul by an external
object, and if it be natural to the soul to love, how, seeing
that she has no other course, does she deserve praise or blame
for loving ?
5. v. 50. A substance, according to the Schoolmen, is
ens per se subsist ens (S. T. i. 3. 5), "a being or thing pos-
sessing individual existence ; " the substantial form dat esse
substantiale, (S. T7. i. 76. 4) "gives to the substance its
nature or mode of existence.'' Thus the soul is the sub-
stantial form of man (/«'.) ; it is distinct from the body but
united with it.
6. v. 60. This first will is the natural love of the pri-
mal goods, which is always without error, of which Virgil has
spoken in the preceding canto, vv. 91—97.
138 PURGATORY [vv. 61-78
may be gathered,7 the virtue that counsels 8 is
innate in you, and ought to hold the threshold
of assent. This is the principle wherefrom the
reckoning of desert in you is derived, accord-
ing as it gathers in and winnows good and evil
loves. Those who in reasoning went to the
foundation, took note of this innate liberty,
wherefore they bequeathed morals 9 to the world.
If we assume, then, that every love which is
kindled within you arises of necessity, in you
exists the power to restrain it. This noble
faculty Beatrice understands as free will, and
therefore see that thou have it in mind, if she
take to speaking of it with thee." I0
The moon, almost at midnight slow," shaped
like a bucket '2 that is ail ablaze, was making
7. v. 61. In order that every other will may conform
with the first, that is, with the natural love for the first objects
of desire.
8. v. 62. The innate faculty of reason, "the virtue
which counsels " and on which the direction of the free will
depends, is " the specific virtue " (v. 49) of the soul.
9. v. 68. The rules of that morality which would have
no existence were it not for freedom of the will.
10. v. 75. Beatrice discourses of Free Will in the fifth
canto of Paradise , vv. 1 9—24.
11. v. 76. The hour was toward midnight, and the
moon, now near two hours up, was to appearance moving
slowly, and, though past her full, was still so bright as to
dim the stars.
12. v. 78. Gibbous, like certain buckets still in use in
Italy.
w. 79-98] CANTO XVIII 139
the stars appear fewer to us, and was running
counter to the heavens I3 along those paths which
the sun inflames, when a man at Rome sees it at
its setting between Sardinia and Corsica ; I4 and .
that noble shade, for whom Pietola IS is more
famed than the Mantuan city, had laid down
the burden of my loading : l6 so that I, who had
harvested his open and plain discourse upon my
questions, remained like a man, who, drowsy,
wanders. But this drowsiness was taken from
me suddenly by folk, who, behind our backs,
had now come round to us. And such a fury
and a throng as Ismenus and Asopus saw of
old along their banks at night if but the The-
bans were in need of Bacchus,17 such curves its
way along that circle, according to what I saw,
of those coming on whom good will and right
love are riding. They were soon upon us ;
because all that great crowd was moving at a
13' v- 79' These words describe the daily "backing
of the moon through the signs from west to east." Moore,
Time References, p. 104.
14. v. 8 1. These islands are invisible from Rome, but
the line that runs from Rome between them is a little south
of east.
15. v. 83. The modern name of Andes, the birthplace
of Virgil, and therefore more famous than Mantua itself.
1 6. v. 84. With which I had laden him.
I7- v- 93- The rivers Ismenus and Asopus ran not far
from Thebes, the birthplace of Bacchus, who was its tutelary
deity.
PURGATORY [vv. 99-120
run ; and two in front, weeping, were crying
out : " Mary ran with haste unto the moun-
tain ; " l8 and : " Caesar, to subdue Ilerda, thrust
at Marseilles, and then ran on to Spain." I9
" Swift, swift, that time be not lost by little
love," the others were crying as they followed,
"so that zeal in well-doing may make grace
green again." 20 " O people, in whom keen fer-
vor now perhaps redeems negligence and delay,
shown by you through lukewarmness in well-
doing, this one who is alive (and surely I do not
lie to you) wishes to go up, if but the sun may
shine again for us ; therefore tell us where is
the opening near at hand." These words were
of my Leader ; and one of those spirits said :
" Come thou behind us, and thou wilt find the
gap. We are so full of will to move on that we
cannot stay ; therefore pardon, if thou hold our
duty for churlishness. I was Abbot21 of San
Zeno at Verona, under the empire of the good
Barbarossa,22 of whom Milan, still grieving,
1 8. v. 100. "And Mary . . . went into the hill coun-
try with haste." Luke i. 39.
19. v. 1 02. Examples of righteous zeal, and, as usual,
taken one from sacred and one from profane history.
20. v. 105. That grace which negligence had with-
ered.
21. v. 1 1 8. Unknown, save for this mention of him.
22. v. 119. The epithet " good," applied here to the
Emperor Frederick I. Barbarossa, belongs to him as the repre-
vv. 121-135] CANTO XVIII 141
talks. And one there is who has one foot al-
ready in the grave, 23 who soon shall lament on
account of that monastery, and will be sorry for
having had power over it; because in place of
its true shepherd he has put his son, ill in his
whole body and worse in mind, and who was
evil-born." I know not if he said more, or if
he were silent, so far beyond us had he already
run on ; but this I heard, and to retain it pleased
me.
And he who was at every need my succor,
said : " Turn thee this way ; see two of them
coming, giving a bite to sloth." In rear of all
they were saying : " The people for whom the
sea was opened were dead before the Jordan
beheld his inheritors ; " 24 and : " They who
sentative in Dante's mind of the Empire, established by
God to rule the earth with justice and in peace. It was
in March, 1 1 6|, that Barbarossa captured and destroyed
Milan.
23. v. 121. Alberto della Scala, lord of Verona ; he
died in 1301. He had forced upon the monastery for its
abbot his deformed and depraved illegitimate son. It is the
rule of the Church, based on the injunction of the Lord to
Moses (Leviticus xxi. 16—23), tnat no deformed person
shall be admitted to the priesthood.
24. v. 135. Numbers xiv. 23-33. " For the children
of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the
people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were
consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord."
Joshua v. 6.
142 PURGATORY [w. 136-145
endured not the toil even to the end with the
son of Anchises, offered themselves to a life
without glory." 2S
Then when those shades were so far parted
from us that they could no more be seen, a new
thought set itself within me, from which many
others and diverse were born ; and I so ram-
bled from one to another that, with the wan-
dering, I closed my eyes, and transmuted my
meditation into dream.
25. v. 138. Those of the Trojans who, weary of the
trials of the long voyage, and fearing the dangers of the way,
— animos nil magnte laudis egentes ; "souls that cared not
for great praise," — left Aeneas, to remain with Acestes in
Sicily. Aeneid, v. 700-778.
CANTO XIX
Fourth Ledge : the Slothful. — Dante dreams of the
Siren. — The Angel of the Pass. — Ascent to the Fifth
Ledge. • — The Avaricious. — Pope Adrian V.
AT the hour when the heat of day, vanquished
by the Earth or sometimes by Saturn/ can
no longer warm the coldness of the moon, —
when the geomancers see in the east, before the
dawn, their Greater Fortune 2 rising along a path
which short while stays dark for it, — there came
to me in dream3 a woman, stammering, with
1 . v. 3 . Toward dawn, when the warmth of the pre-
ceding day is exhausted, and when Saturn may exert its sup-
posed frigid influence.
2. v. 4. Geomancy is divination by an arrangement of
points on the ground, or of pebbles, in certain figures which
have special names. One of them, in this form, ' \ • • , was
called the Greater Fortune; and a figure, more or less resem-
bling this, is formed by some of the last stars of Aquarius and
some of the first of Pisces. These are the signs that imme-
diately precede Aries, in which the Sun now was, and the
stars forming the figure of the Greater Fortune would be in
the east about two hours before sunrise.
3. v. 7. The hour when this dream comes to Dante is
"post mediam no c tern . . . cum somnia veraj* — toward
144 PURGATORY [vv. 8-27
eyes asquint, and crooked on her feet, with
hands lopped off, and pallid in her color. I
gazed at her ; and as the sun comforts the cold
limbs which the night benumbs, so did my
look make her tongue nimble, and then in short
while set her wholly straight, and so colored
her wan face as love requires. Then, when
thus she had her speech unloosed, she began
to sing, so that with difficulty should I have
turned my attention from her. " I am," she
sang, " I am the sweet Siren, who bewitch the
mariners in mid sea, so full am I of pleasantness
to hear. I turned Ulysses from his wandering
way by my song;4 and whoso customs himself
with me seldom departs, so wholly do I satisfy
him."
Not yet was her mouth closed, when at my
side a Lady5 appeared, holy and ready to put
the morning, in which it was believed that dreams have a true
meaning (compare Hell, xxvi. 7). The woman seen by
Dante is the deceitful Siren, who symbolizes the temptation
to those sins of sense from which the spirits are purified in
the three upper rounds of Purgatory. At first the temptation
is recognized in its true features, then the fancy decks it with
the allurements of sensual delight, and finally, under the in-
fluence of Grace, the Reason reveals the essential foulness
of the sin.
4. v. 22. There is no classical authority for this claim
of the Siren.
5. v. 26. This lady may be the type of the conscience,
vv. 28-42] CANTO XIX 145
her to confusion. " O Virgil, O Virgil, who is
this ? " she sternly said ; and he came with his
eyes fixe'd only on that modest one. She took
hold of the other, and in front she opened her,
rending her garments, and showed me her belly ;
this waked me with the stench that issued from
it. 1 turned my eyes to the good Master:
" At least three calls have I given thee," he
said ; " arise and come on ; let us find the gate
through which thou mayst enter."
I rose up, and all the circles of the sacred
mountain were already full of the high day, and
we went on with the new sun at our backs.6
Following him, I was bearing my forehead like
one who has it laden with thought, and who
makes of himself a half arch of a bridge, when I
heard : " Come ye ! here is the passage," spoken
virtus intellectualiSy that calls reason to rescue the tempted
soul.
6. v. 39. It is full daylight as the poets are about to
enter on the fifth ledge, where Avarice and Prodigality are
punished. " Observe here the admirable fitness with which
Dante times his progress, so that the time spent in the cornice
where Accidia, or Spiritual Sloth, is punished is exactly coin-
cident with the hours of night — ' the night when no man
can work.* He enters it as darkness comes on (as we read
in xvii. 70—72) and leaves it next morning, as soon as he
awakes with the nuovo sol (xix. 39), being mildly chided by
Virgil for the length of his slumbers (xix. 34). . . . In
each of the other cornices he spends from three to five hours. **
Moore, Time References, p. 106.
146 PURGATORY [vv. 43-61
in a mode soft and benign, such as is not heard
in this mortal region. With open wings, which
seemed as of a swan, he who had thus spoken
to us turned us upward, between two walls of
the hard rock. Then he moved his pinions,
and fanned us, affirming qui lugenf to be
blessed, for they shall have their souls mistresses
of consolation.8
" What ails thee that thou gazest only on
the ground ? " my Guide began to say to me,
both of us having mounted up a little from the
Angel. And I : " With such mistrust a recent
vision makes me go, which bends me to itself
so that I cannot withdraw me from the thought
of it." " Hast thou seen," said he, " that ancient
sorceress, who above us henceforth is alone
lamented ? 9 Hast thou seen how from her man
is unbound ? Let it suffice thee, and strike
thy heels on the ground ; I0 turn upward thine
7. v. 50. " They that mourn/'
8. v. 51. The meaning seems to be, "they shall be
possessed of comfort." Donne (Lat. dominae, i. e. "mis-
tresses ' ' ) is a rhyme-word, and affords an instance of a
straining of the meaning compelled by the rhyme.
9. v. 59. The sorceress who symbolises the pleasures
of the senses, the lust for which is purged away in the three
upper rounds of Purgatory which the poets have yet to
traverse.
10. v. 61. Hasten thy steps, bending not thy head to
earth.
vv. 62-84] CANTO XIX 147
eyes to the lure which the eternal King whirls
with the great circles." "
Even as the falcon that first looks at his feet,
then turns at the cry, and stretches forward,
through desire of the food that draws him
thither ; such I became, and such, so far as the
rock is cleft to afford a way to him who goes
up, did I go on to where the circling is begun. "
When I had come forth on the fifth round, I
saw people upon it who were weeping, lying
on the earth all turned downwards. "Adhacsit
pavimento anima mea" '3 I heard them saying
with such deep sighs that the words were hardly
understood. " O elect of God, whose suffer-
ings both justice and hope make less hard, di-
rect us toward the high ascents." "If ye come
secure from the lying down, and wish to find
the way most speedily, let your right hands be
always outermost." I4 Thus the Poet prayed,
and thus was answer made to us from a little in
advance of us; wherefore I, in his speaking,
marked the one who was hidden ; I5 and then I
11. v. 63. Compare xiv. 148—150.
12. v. 69. The level of the fifth cornice.
13- v- 73- " My soul cleaveth unto the dust. " Psalm
cxix. 25.
14. v. 61. That is, keep steadily to the right, so that
your right hands will be toward the outer edge of the cornice.
15. v. 84. The face of the speaker, turned to the ground,
was concealed.
148 PURGATORY [w. 85-104
turned my eyes to my Lord : whereon he granted
me, with cheerful sign, that which my look of
desire was asking.
Then, when I could do with myself accord-
ing to my pleasure, I drew me above that
creature, whose words had first made me note
him, saying : " Spirit, in whom weeping matures
that l6 without which one can not turn to God,
suspend a little for me thy greater care. Tell
me who thou wast ; and why ye have your backs
turned upward ; and if thou wouldst have me
obtain aught for thee there whence I alive set
forth." And he to me : " Why heaven turns
to itself our backs thou shalt know ; but first,
scias quod ego fui successor Petri.17 Between
Sestri and Chiaveri l8 descends a beautiful
stream, I9 and of its name the title of my race
makes its boast. 20 One month and little more
I proved how the great mantle weighs on him
who guards it from the mire, so that all the
1 6. v. 92. The fruit of repentance in the purgation of
the soul.
17. v. 99. " Know that I was a successor of Peter."
This was the Pope Adrian V., Ottobono de' Fieschi, who
died in 1276, having been Pope for thirty-eight days.
1 8. v. 100. Little towns on the Genoese sea-coast.
19. v. 101. The Lavagna, from which stream the Fies-
chi derived their title of Counts of Lavagna.
20. v. 103. Literally, "makes its summit." The
forced image seems compelled by the need of the rhyme.
vv. 108-133] CANTO XIX 149
other burdens seem a feather. My conversion,
alas ! was tardy ; but when I became the Roman
Shepherd, then I discovered how false is life.
I saw that there the heart was not at rest ; nor
was it possible to rise higher in that life ; where-
fore the love of this was kindled in me. Up
to that time I had been a wretched soul and
parted from God, wholly avaricious ; now, as
thou seest, I am punished for it here. That
which avarice does is displayed here in the pur-
gation of these converted souls, and the Moun-
tain has no more bitter penalty.21 Even as
our eye, fixed upon earthly things, was not lifted
on high, so justice here has sunk it to earth.
As avarice quenched our love for every good,
whereby our working was lost, so justice here
holds us close, bound and captive in feet and
hands ; and, so long as it shall be the pleasure
of the just Lord, so long shall we stay immov-
able and outstretched."
I had knelt down and was about to speak ;
but as I began, and he became aware, only by
listening, of my reverence : " What cause,"
said he, cc has bent thee thus downward ? "
And I to him : " Because of your dignity my
conscience stung me for standing." " Straighten
thy legs, lift thee up, brother," he replied;
21. v. 117. Others may be greater, but none more
humiliating.
150 PURGATORY ^.134-145
w err not, I am fellow servant of One Power
with thee and with the rest.22 If ever thou
hast understood that holy gospel sound which
says neque nubent^ thou mayst well see why I
speak thus. Now go thy way ; I wish not that
thou tarry longer ; for thy stay hinders my
weeping, with which I mature that which thou
hast said.24 A niece I have on earth who is
named Alagia,25 good in herself, if only our
house make her not wicked by example ; and
she alone remains to me yonder." 26
22. v. 135. "And I fell at his feet to worship him.
And he said unto me, See thou do it not : I am thy fellow
servant." Revelation xix. 10.
23. v. 137. *' They neither marry. " Matthew xxii.
30. The distinctions of earth do not exist in the spiritual
world.
24. v. 141. "That without which one cannot turn
to God," v. 92.
25. v. 142. Alagia was the wife of the Marquis Moroello
Malaspina. See Canto viii. 118—132. Dante had probably
seen her in 1306, when he was a guest of the house, in the
Lunigiana.
26. v. 145. Not that she was his only living relative, but
the only one whose prayers, coming from a good heart, woulc
avail him.
CANTO XX
Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — The Spirits celebrate
examples of Poverty and Bounty. — Hugh Capet. — His
discourse on his descendants. — Trembling of the Moun-
tain.
AGAINST a better will the will fights ill :
wherefore against my own pleasure, in order to
please him, I drew from the water the sponge
not full.
I moved on ; and my Leader moved on
through the spaces vacant only alongside of the
rock, as upon a wall one goes close to the battle-
ments ; for, on the other side, the folk, who
through their eyes are pouring out drop by
drop the evil that possesses all the world, ap-
proach too near the edge.1
Accursed be thou, old she-wolf, that more
than all the other beasts hast prey, because of
thy hunger hollow without end ! O Heaven ! by
whose revolution it seems that some believe
conditions here below are transmuted, when
I. v. 9. Too close to the outer edge of the cornice to
leave a space for walking.
152 PURGATORY [vv. 15-32
will he come through whom she shall de-
part ? 2
We were going on with slow and scanty steps,
and I attentive to the shades whom I heard pite-
ously lamenting and bewailing ; and by chance I
heard : " Sweet Mary," cried out in front of us
in the lament, just as a woman does who is in
travail ; and in continuance : " So poor wast
thou as may be seen by that inn where thou
didst lay down thy holy burden." Following
this I heard : " O good Fabricius,3 thou didst
wish rather for virtue with poverty, than to
possess great riches with vice." These words
were so pleasing to me that I drew myself far-
ther on, to have acquaintance with that spirit
from whom they seemed to come. It was
speaking now of the largess which Nicholas 4
2. v. 14. The old she-wolf is avarice, the same who at
the outset (//>//, i. 49—54) had driven Dante back and
made him lose hope of the height. The He whose coming
is longed for is the hound who shall chase her back to Hell.
{Id. i. i o I — in.) The likeness of the two passages is
striking.
3. v. 25. Caius Fabricius, the famous poor and incorrupti-
ble Roman consul, who rejected the bribes of the Samnites,
B. c. 282. Dante extols his worth also in the Convito, iv. 5.
4. v. 32. St. Nicholas, Bishop of Mira, who, according
to the legend, knowing that, because of the poverty of their
father, three maidens were exposed to the risk of leading lives
of dishonor, threw secretly, at night, into the window of
their house, money enough to provide each with a dowrj.
w. 33-53] CANTO XX 153
made to the damsels in order to lead theif
youth to honor. " O soul that speakest so
much good," said I, " tell me who thou wast,
and why thou alone dost renew these worthy
praises ? Thy words will not be without meed,
if I return to complete the short journey of that
life which is flying to its end." And he : " I
will tell thee, not for comfort that I may ex-
pect from yonder,5 but because so great grace
shines in thee ere thou art dead. I was the
root of the evil plant which overshadows all
the Christian land,6 so that good fruit is seldom
plucked from it. But if Douai, Lille, Ghent,
and Bruges had power, there would soon be
vengeance on it;7 and I implore it from him
who judges all things. Yonder I was called
Hugh Capet : of me are born the Philips and
the Louises, by whom of late France has been
ruled. I was the son of a butcher of Paris.8
When the ancient kings had all died out, save
5. v. 41. The earth.
6. v. 44. The spirit which is speaking is that of Hugh
Capet, whose descendants in 1300 were ruling France, Spain,
and Naples.
7. v. 47. Philip the Fair gained possession of Flanders,
by force and fraud, in 1299 ; but in 1302 the French were
driven out of the country, after the fatal defeat at Courtrai,
here dimly prophesied.
8. v. 52. Dante here follows the incorrect popular tradi-
tion.
154 PURGATORY [w. 54-68
one, betaken to gray vestments,9 I found the
bridle of the government of the realm fast in
my hands, and so much power of new acquest,
and such fullness of friends, that to the widowed
crown the head of my son was promoted, from
whom the consecrated bones I0 of these began.
" So long as the great dowry of Provence "
took not shame away from my race, it was little
worth, but still it did not ill. Then it began
its rapine with force and with falsehood ; and,
after, for amends,12 it took Ponthieu and Nor-
mandy and Gascony ; Charles13 came to Italy,
and, for amends, made a victim of Conradin,14
9. v. 54. Who had become a monk. The reference
is obscure, and, indeed, throughout the speech of Capet,
there is a confusion of personages and events which affords a
field for the industry of commentators.
10. v. 60. An ironical reference to the ceremony of
consecration at the coronation of the kings.
11. v. 6 1 . This territory came to the royal family of
France through the marriage in 1246 of Charles of Anjou,
brother of St. Louis (Louis IX.), with Beatrice, the heir-
ess of Raymond Berenger IV., Count of Provence. See
Paradise, vi. 133-135.
12. v. 65. The bitterness of Dante's irony is explained
by the evil part which France had played in Italian affairs.
13. v. 67. Of Anjou.
14. v. 68. The youthful grandson of Frederick II.,
who, striving to wrest Naples and Sicily, his hereditary pos-
sessions, from the hands of Charles of Anjou, was defeated
and taken prisoner by him in 1 267, and put to death by him
in 1268. His fate excited great compassion.
vv. 69-82] CANTO XX 155
and then pushed Thomas IS back to heaven, for
amends. A time I see, not long after this
day, which draws another Charles l6 forth from
France to make both himself and his the better
known. Unarmed he goes out thence alone,
but with the lance with which Judas jousted ; I7
and that he thrusts so that he makes the paunch
of Florence burst. Thereby he will gain not
land,18 but sin and shame so much the heavier
for himself, as he the lighter reckons such harm.
The other,19 who once went forth a prisoner
from his ship, I see selling his daughter, and bar-
gaining over her, as do the corsairs with other
female slaves. O Avarice, what more canst thou
15. v. 69. Charles was believed to have had St. Thomas
Aquinas poisoned, on his journey from Naples to the Council
of Lyons, in 1274.
1 6. v. 7 i . Charles of Valois, brother of Philip the Fair,
sent by Boniface VIII., in 1301, to Florence as peacemaker.
But there he wrought great harm, and siding with the Black
party against the Whites, many of the latter, including Dante,
were driven into exile.
17. v. 74. The lance of treachery.
1 8. v. 76. A reference to his nickname of Senza
terra, or Lackland.
19. v. 79. The other Charles, Charles II., son of
Charles of Anjou. In 1284 he was made captive in a sea
fight, off Naples, by Ruggieri di Loria, the Admiral of Peter
III. of Aragon. In 1300, or 1305, according to common
report, he sold his young daughter in marriage to the old
Azzo, Marquis of Este.
156 PURGATORY [w. 83-96
do with us, since thou hast so drawn my race
unto thyselt that it cares not for its own flesh ?
In order that the ill to come and that already
done may seem the less, I see the Fleur-de-lis
entering Alagna, and in his Vicar Christ made
captive.20 I see him mocked a second time ; I
see the vinegar and the gall renewed, and, be-
tween living thieves,21 Him put to death. I see
the new Pilate " so cruel that this does not sate
him, but, without decretal, he bears his covetous
sails into the Temple.23 O my Lord, when shall
I be glad in seeing the vengeance which, hidden
in thy secret, makes thine anger sweet?
20. v. 87. Notwithstanding Dante's hostility to Boni-
face VIII., the worst crime of the house of France was, in
his eyes, the seizure of the Pope at Anagni, in 1303, by
Guillaume de Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna, the emissaries of
Philip the Fair.
21. v. 90. Put to death between living thieves repre-
sents "to us Boniface as it were crucified between Nogaret
and Sciarra Colonna, who were standing on either side of
him, mocking and insulting him, yet still vivi." Moore,
Textual Criticism, p. 396. Boniface died about a month
after being made captive.
22. v. 91. Dante thus terms Philip, because through
his means Boniface was delivered into the hands of his deadly
enemies.
23- v- 93* The suppression of the Order of the Temple,
in 1312 ; "without decretal," that is, without legitimate
authority, but instigated by covetous desire to get possession
of the wealth of the order.
vv. 97-115] CANTO XX 157
" That which I was saying of that only bride
of the Holy Spirit,24 and which made thee turn
toward me for some gloss, is the response to all
our prayers 2S so long as the day lasts, but when
the night comes, we take up instead thereof a con-
trary sound. Then we rehearse Pygmalion,26
whom his gluttonous longing for gold made a
traitor and a thief and a parricide ; and the misery
of the avaricious Midas, which followed on his
greedy demand, at which one needs must always
laugh.27 Then of the foolish Achan each be-
thinks himself, how he stole the spoils, so that
the anger of Joshua seems still to sting him
here.28 Then we accuse Sapphira with her hus-
band; 29 we praise the kicks that Heliodorus re-
ceived,30 and in infamy Polymnestor who slew
Polydorus 3I circles the whole mountain. Finally
24. v. 98. The Virgin, when Dante first heard him.
25. v. 100. The words, which like the chanted re
sponse, follow all our prayers.
26. v. 103. The brother of Dido, and the murderer of
her husband for the sake of his riches. Aeneid, i. 353-54.
27. v. 1 08. Midas, the king of Phrygia, whose prayer
to Bacchus was granted, that everything he touched should
turn to gold. Ovid, Met. xi. 85-145.
28. v. ill. Achan stole and hid part of the accursed
spoils of Jericho. Joshua vii.
29. v. 112. Acts v. i-l I.
30. v. 113. For his attempt to plunder the treasury of
the Temple. Maccabees iii. 25.
31. v. 115. Priam had entrusted Polydorus, his young
158 PURGATORY [w. 116-133
our cry here is : £ Crassus, tell us, for thou know-
est, what is the taste of gold ? ' 32 Sometimes
one speaks loud, and another low, according to
the affection which spurs us to speak now at a
greater, and now at a less pace. Therefore in
the good which by day is discoursed of here,
I was not alone just now, but here near by no
other person was raising his voice."
We had already departed from him, and
were striving to master the road so far as was
permitted to our power, when I felt the moun-
tain tremble, like a thing that is falling ; where-
upon a chill seized me, such as is wont to seize
him who is going to death. Surely Delos was
not shaken so violently, before Latona made
her nest therein, to give birth to the two eyes of
heaven.33 Then from all sides such a cry began
est son, to Polymnestor, King of Thrace, who, when the
fortunes of Troy declined, slew Polydorus, that he might
take possession of the treasure sent with him. Cf. Hell,
xxx. 1 8.
32. v. 117. Marcus Licinius Crassus, triumvir with
Caesar and Pompey, B. c. 60 ; famed as the richest and most
avaricious of men ; having been defeated by the Parthians,
B. c. 53, he was slain, and their king is reported to have
poured molten gold down his throat in derision, with the
words : " Thou hast thirsted for gold, now drink it."
33. v. 132. Delos was a floating island, tossed upon
the waves, until Jupiter fixed it that it might serve for the
birthplace of Apollo and Diana, the divinities of Sun and
Moon. Ovid, Met. vi. 187-191.
vv. 134-151] CANTO XX 159
that the Master drew towards me, saying:
" Distrust not, while I guide thee." " Gloria
in excelsis Deo," 34 all were saying, by what I
comprehended from near at hand where the
cry could be understood. We stood, motion-
less and in suspense, like the shepherds who
first heard that song, until the trembling ceased,
and the song was ended. Then we resumed our
holy journey, looking at the shades that were
lying on the ground, returned already to their
wonted plaint. No ignorance ever with so great
•a war made me desirous of knowing 3S — if my
memory err not in this — as that which I
seemed then to have in my thought : nor, for
our haste, did I dare to ask, nor of myself
could I discern anything there : so I went on
timid and thoughtful.
34. v. 136. " Glory to God in the highest."
35. v. 146. Dante seems to have had in mind the
words in the Wisdom of Solomon xiv. 22. " They lived
in the great war of ignorance," or, according to the Vulgate.
*f magno viventcs insdentiae bello.
CANTO XXI
Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious . — Statius. — Cause of
the trembling of the Mountain. — Statius does honor to
Virgil.
THE natural thirst/ which is never satisfied
save with the water 2 whereof the poor woman *
of Samaria besought the grace, was tormenting
me, and haste was goading me along the en-
cumbered way behind my Leader, and I was
grieving at the just vengeance : and lo ! as
Luke writes for us that Christ, now risen forth
from the sepulchral cave, appeared to the two
who were on the way, a shade appeared to us ;
and it was coming behind us who were looking
at the crowd that lay at our feet : nor were
we aware of it, so it spoke first, saying, "My
brothers, may God give you peace!'* We
1 . v. i . " According to that buoyant and immortal sen-
tence with which Aristotle begins his Metaphysics, ' Al)
mankind naturally desire knowledge.' ' Matthew Arnold,
God and the Bible, ch. iv. This sentence of Aristotle i»
cited by Dante in the first chapter of the Convito.
2. v. 2. The living water of truth. John'w. 13-15.
vv. 14-35] CANTO XXI 161
turned suddenly, and Virgil gave back to it the
salutation which corresponds thereto ; * then he
began : " In the assembly of the blest, may the
righteous court, which relegates me into eternal
exile, place thee in peace/' " How/* said it, —
and meanwhile we went on steadily, — " if ye
are shades that God deigns not on high, who
has guided you so far along his stairs ? " And
my Teacher: "If thou regard the marks which
this one bears, and which the Angel traces, thou
wilt clearly see that he is to reign with the good.
But, because she who spins day and night4 had
not for him yet drawn the distaff off, which
Clotho loads for each one and compacts, his
soul, which is thy sister and mine, coming up-
wards, could not come alone, because it sees not
after our fashion Wherefore I was drawn from
out the ample throat of Hell to show him, and
I shall show him so far on as my teaching can
lead him. But tell us, if thou knowest, why
just now the mountain gave such shocks, and
why all seemed to cry with one voice,5 even
3. v. I £. To the salutation, "Peace be rrkh you/'
the due answer is, " And with thy spirit."
4. v. 25. Lachesis, that one of the Fates who spins the
thread of life from off the distaff, on which CJotho kys and
compacts the flax.
5. v. 35. All the spirits seeming to join in the Gloria in
Excehis.
162 PURGATORY 0.36-55
down to its moist feet." Thus asking he shot
for me through the needle's eye of my desire,
so that only with the hope my thirst became
less craving.
The shade began : " The sacred rule of the
mountain can feel nothing which is without due
order, or which is beyond its wont. This place
is free from every alteration ; that which from
itself heaven receives into itself, and naught else,
can be the cause of this 6 : because neither rain,
nor hail, nor snow, nor dew, nor frost, falls
higher up than the little stairway of the three
short steps ; 7 clouds, thick or thin, appear not ;
nor lightning, nor the daughter of Thaumas8
who yonder often changes her quarter; dry
vapor does not rise farther up than to the high-
est of the three steps of which I spoke, whereon
the vicar of Peter has his feet. It trembles per-
haps lower down, little or much ; but up here
6. v. 45. The meaning of these obscure words is ex-
plained by what the spirit who is speaking goes on to say :
No earthly influence is felt here, but the cause of the trem-
bling and the cry is the ascent of a soul from here to Heaven.
Heaven is said to receive it from itself, because originally the
soul proceeded from it, issuing from the hand of God, and
now Heaven receives back again that which properly belongs
to it.
7. v. 48, At the gate of Purgatory.
8. v. 50. The daughter of Thaumas was Iris, the rain
bow, seen now to the west, now to the east.
vv. 56-69] CANTO XXI 163
it never trembled because of wind that is hidden,
I know not how, in the earth.9 It trembles
here when some soul feels itself pure, so that
it rises, or moves to ascend ; and such a cry
seconds it. Of the purity the will alone gives
proof, which surprises the soul wholly free to
change its company, and rejoices it with willing.
It wills from the first indeed, but the desire, —
which, contrary to the will, Divine Justice sets
to the torment, as it had been to the sin, —
allows it not.10 And I who have lain in this woe
five hundred years and more, only just now
felt a free volition for a better seat. Because of
9. v. 57. Aristotle had taught, and it was the common
belief, that the movement of wind confined within the earth
was the cause of earthquakes.
" As when the wind, imprison'd in the ground,
Struggling for passage, earth's foundation shakes."
Venus and Adonis, 1046-47.
10. v. 66. The distinction here made between the will
and the desire is one familiar to the Schoolmen, under the
terms of the absolute and the conditioned will. The absolute
will, the will which is native in the soul for its own ultimate
salvation, always exists ; but in the exercise of his free will
man may yield to the temptation of subordinate, and often
sinful, objects of desire ; and until the soul in Purgatory is
wholly purified from its sinful disposition, its desire, or con-
ditioned will, is for the punishment through which its purifica-
tion is accomplished, as it had originally been for the object of
its sin. But when the soul becomes pure, then the absolute
will possesses it to mount to Heaven, and becomes effective.
See S. T. Supp'. 72. 2.
164 PURGATORY [w. 70-90
this didst thou feel the earthquake, and hear the
pious spirits upon the Mountain render praise
to that Lord, who, may He speed them upward
soon ! "
Thus he said to us, and since one enjoys
drinking in proportion as the thirst is great, I
could not say how much he did me good. And
the sage Leader : " Now I see the net which
snares you here, and how it is unmeshed ; and
why it trembles here ; and for what ye rejoice
together. Now may it please thee that I may
know who thou wast, and may it be disclosed to
me in thy words why for so many centuries thou
hast lain here ? " " At the time when the good
Titus, with the aid of the Most High King,
avenged the wounds wherefrom issued the blood
sold by Judas," I was famous enough on earth
with the name which lasts longest, and honors
most," replied that spirit, " but not as yet with
faith.12 So sweet was the spirit of my voice, that
me of Toulouse 13 Rome drew to itself, where
I earned the right to adorn my temples with
n. v. 84. Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem in
A. D. 70. Statius was born between A. D. 60 and 65, an</
probably died about the end of the first century. Virgil died
B. C. 19.
12. v. 87. I had the name of Poet, but was not yet a
Christian.
13. v. 89. Statius was actually born at Naples. But
his Silvaet in which he mentions his birthplace, had not been
vv. 91-1*2] CANTO XXI 165
myrtle. Statius the people still name me yon-
der : I sang of Thebes, and then of the great
Achilles, but I fell on the way with my second
load.14 Seed of my ardor were the sparks that
warmed me of the divine flame whereby more
than a thousand have been kindled ; I speak
of the Aeneid, which was mother to me, and was
nurse to me in poesy : without it I balanced not
the weight of a drachm ; and to have lived yon-
der, when Virgil lived, I would agree to one
sun more than I owe for my issue from ban." IS
These words turned Virgil to me with a
look which, silent, said : " Be silent : " but
the power that wills cannot do everything ; for
smiles and tears are such followers on the pas-
sion from which each springs, that in the most
truthful they least follow the will. I only
smiled, like a man who makes a sign ; whereat
the shade became silent, and looked at me in
the eyes where the expression is most fixed.
And it said : " So mayst thou bring to a good
recovered in Dante's time, and there was a confusion be-
tween him and a rhetorician of Toulouse who bore the same
name.
14. v. 93. Statius died before completing his Acbilleid.
15. v. 101. " One sun," that is, one year more in Pur-
gatory than is due for my punishment. This eulogy of Virgil
and the Aeneid, is an echo of the words with which Statiuf
ends his The bat d, in which he bids his own poem " follow
the divine Aeneid at a distance, and ever adore its steps."
i66 PURGATORY [w. 113-136
end so great a labor, why did thy face just now
display to me a flash of a smile? " Now am
I caught on one side and the other ; one bids
me be silent, the other conjures me to speak :
wherefore I sigh, and am understood by my
Master, and : " Have no fear to speak," he
said to me, " but speak, and tell him what he
asks so earnestly." Whereon I : " Perhaps
thou marvellest, ancient spirit, at the smile I
gave ; but I would have more wonder seize thee.
This one, who guides my eyes on high, is that
Virgil from whom thou didst derive the strength
to sing of men and of the gods. If thou didst
believe other cause for my smile, leave it as not
being true, and believe it was those words which
thou saidst of him." Already he was stooping
to embrace the feet of my Teacher, but he said
to him : " Brother, do it not, for thou art a
shade, and thou seest a shade." And he ris-
ing : " Now canst thou comprehend the sum
of the love that warms me to thee, when I for-
get our emptiness, treating the shades as if a
solid thing." l6
16. v. 136. Sordello and Virgil (Canto vi. 75) em-
braced each other. The shades could thus express their
mutual affection. Perhaps it is out of modesty that Virgil
here represses Statius, and possibly there may be the under
meaning that an act of reverence is not becoming from a sou!
redeemed, to one banned in eternal exile.
CANTO XXII
jf scent to the Sixth Ledge. — Discourse of Statius and.
Virgil. — Entrance to the Ledge : the Gluttonous. —
The Mystic Tree. — Examples of Temperance.
ALREADY was the Angel left behind us, —
the Angel who had turned us to the sixth
round, having erased a stroke z from my face ;
and he had said to us that those who have their
desire set on justice are Beati, and his words
completed this with sitiunt, without the rest. a
1. v. 3. The fifth P.
2. v. 6. That is, the Angel had not recited all the words
of the Beatitude, which are as follows in the Vulgate :
Bead qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam : quoniam ipsi satura-
buntur. He had omitted esuriunt, and said only, " Blessed
are they which do thirst after righteousness," contrasting
this thirst with the thirst for riches. "In order to supply
the required number of appropriate Beatitudes for the several
Cornici, this one had to be divided, and a separation intro-
duced between * hungering * and ' thirsting ' after righteous-
ness. The former is reserved for the sixth Cornice, where
k affords a natural contrast to the sin of Gluttony, while the
Utter offers an equally natural antithesis in the fifth Cornice
to the sin of avarice, which is so constantly described as
a ' thirst ' for gold that we are scarcely conscious of the
metaphor." Moore, Textual Criticism, p. 409.
i6S PURGATORY [vv. 7-34
And I, more light than through the other
passes, was so going on, that without any fatigue
I was following upward the swift spirits, when
Virgil began : " Love kindled by virtue always
kindles another, provided that its flame appear
outwardly ; wherefore from the hour when
Juvenal descended among us in the limbo of
Hell,3 and made known to me thy affection,
my own good will toward thee has been such
that more never bound one to an unseen person ;
so that these stairs will now seem short to me.
But tell me — and as a friend pardon me, if too
great confidence let loose my rein, and as a
friend henceforth talk with me — how could
avarice find a place within thy breast, amid
wisdom so great as that wherewith through thy
diligence thou wast filled ? "
These words made Statius at first incline a
little to a smile ; then he replied : " Every word
of thine is to me a dear token of love. Truly
often things are apparent which give false ma-
teriai for suspicion, because the true reasons are
hidden. Thy question assures me that it is thy
belief, perhaps because of that circle where I was,
that I was avaricious in the other life ; know
then that avarice was too far removed from me,
3. v. 14. Juvenal died before the middle of the second
century of our era. In a famous passage of his Seventh
Satire, vv. 81-87, he speaks of Statins with high praise.
rv. 35-52] CANTO XXII 169
and this want of measure 4 thousands of courses
of the moon have punished. And had it not
been that I set right my care, when I understood
the passage where thou dost exclaim, as if indig-
nant with human nature, ' O accursed hunger
of gold, through what5 dost thou not impel the
appetite of mortals?'6 I, rolling, should feel
the dismal jousts.7 Then I perceived that the
hands could spread their wings too much in
spending ; and I repented as well of that as of
my other sins. How many shall rise with
cropped hair8 through ignorance, which during
life and in the last hours prevents repentance
for this sin ! And know, that the fault which
rebuts any sin with direct opposition,9 together
with it dries up its verdure here. Wherefore
if for my purgation I have been among that
4. v. 35. The extravagance of prodigality.
5. v. 40. Through what evil courses.
6. v. 41.
** Quid non mortalia pectora cogis
Auri sacra fames ? " Aenti^ iii. 56-57.
7. v. 42. I should be in Hell among the prodigals roll-
ing heavy weights, and striking them against those rolled by
the avaricious. See Hell, vii. 25—35.
8. €v. 46. A reference to the symbolic short hair of the
prodigals. See Hell, vii. 57.
9. v. 50. The sin of prodigality is the direct opposite
of avarice, and both are purged on the same ledge of Purga-
tory, as both are punished in the same circle of Hell.
i;o PURGATORY [w. 53-73
people who lament their avarice, by reason of
its contrary this has befallen me."
" Now when thou wast singing the cruel strife
of the twofold affliction of Jocasta," 10 said the
Singer of the Bucolic songs, " it does not appear
by that which Clio touches with thee there,"
that the Faith, without which good works do
not suffice, had as yet made thee faithful. If
this be so, what Sun, or what candles,12 did
so disperse thy darkness that thou didst there-
after set thy sails behind the Fisherman ? " I3
And he to him, " Thou first didst direct me on
the way toward Parnassus to drink in its grots,
and then, on the way to God, thou didst en-
lighten me. Thou didst like him, who goes
by night, and carries the light behind him, and
profits not himself, but makes the persons fol-
lowing him wise, when thou saidst, c The world
is renewed ; Justice returns, and the primeval
time of man, and a new progeny descends from
heaven/ I4 Through thee I became a poet,
10. v. 56. In the eleventh book of his Thebaid, Statius
recounts the strife and death of Eteocles and Polynices, the
two sons of Jocasta. See He//, xxvi. 52-54.
11. v. 5 8. Statius invokes Clio as her " in whose power
tre the ages and ancient times ranged in order.'* Tlpebaid,
x. 625.
12. v. 61. What light from Heaven or from earth.
13. v. 63. St. Peter.
14. v. 72. The famous prophecy of the Cumaean Sibyl
vv. 74-97] CANTO XXII 171
through thee a Christian. But in order that
thou mayst better see that which I outline, I,
will stretch my hand to color it. Already was
the whole world teeming with the true belief,
sown by the messengers of the eternal realm ;
and thy words just mentioned were so in har-
mony with the new preachers, that I adopted
the practice of visiting them. Then they came
to seem to me so holy, that, when Domittan per-
secuted them, their lamentations were not with-
out my tears. And so long as I remained in
yonder world, I succored them ; and their up-
right customs made me scorn all other sects.
And before I had led the Greeks to the rivers
of Thebes in my verse, I received baptism ;
but through fear I was a secret Christian, for a
long while making show of paganism : and
this lukewarmness made me circle round the
fourth circle,15 longer than to the fourth cen-
tury. Thou, therefore, that didst lift for me
the covering that was hiding from me such great
good as I say, tell me, while we have remain-
der of ascent, where is our ancient Terence,
in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, which was applied, as early as
the fourth century, to the coming of Christ : —
" Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.
Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna :
Jam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto."
Ecloga iv. 5— 7»
15. v. 92. Where love too slack is punished.
172 PURGATORY [w. 98-114.
Caecilius, Plautus, and Varro, if thou knowest
it ; tell me if they are damned, and in what re-
gion ? " " They, and Persius, and I, and many
others," replied my Leader, " are with that
Greek whom the Muses suckled more than ever
any other, in the first girdle of the blind prison.
Often we discourse of the mountain l6 that has
our nurses17 always with itself. Euripides is
there with us, and Antiphon, Simonides, Aga-
thon, and many other Greeks who of old
adorned their brows with laurel. There of thine
own people are seen Antigone, Deiphile and
Argia, and Ismene sad as she lived.18 There
she is seen who showed Langia ; I9 there is the
daughter ofTiresias and Thetis,20 and Deidamia
with her sisters/' 2I
1 6. v. 104. Parnassus.
17. v. 105. The Muses.
1 8. v. in. Of the people celebrated in thy poems are
seen the sisters Antigone and Ismene, daughters of Oedipus
and Jocasta, Ismene sad as she was on earth ; together with
Deiphile and Argia, also sisters, daughters of Adrastus, King
of Argos.
19. v. 112. Hypsipyle, who showed the fountain Lan-
gia to Adrastus and the other kings, when their soldiers were
perishing with thirst. See Hell, xviii. 92—95, and Purga-
tory, xxvi. 94-96.
20. v. 113. Manto is the only daughter of Tiresias who
is mentioned by Statius ; but Manto is in the eighth circle hi
Hell.
21. v. 1 1 4. Deidamia, the daughter of Lycomedes, king
TV. 115^137] CANTO XXII 173
Now both the poets became silent, intent
afresh on looking around, free from the ascent
and from the walls ; " and four of the handmaids
of the day were now remaining behind,23 and
the fifth was at the pole,24 directing still upward
its blazing horn, when my Leader : " 1 think
that it behoves us to turn our right shoulders
to the outer edge, circling the Mount as we are
wont to do." Thus usage was there our guide,
and we took the way with less doubt because
of the assent of that worthy soul.25
They were going on in front, and I solitary
behind, and I was listening to their speech which
was giving me understanding for poesy. But
soon the pleasant converse was interrupted by
a tree which we found in the mid road, with
apples sweet and good to smell. And as a fir-
tree tapers upward from branch to branch, so
downward did that, I think in order that no
one may go up. On the side upon which our
way was closed, a limpid water was falling from
in Scyros, and beloved by Achilles while he was in hiding
there. See Hell, xxvi. 62.
22. v. 117. Having reached the ledge where gluttony
is purged away.
23. v. 1 1 9. The first four hours of the day were spent.
It was between ten and eleven o'clock.
24. v. 119. Of the car of the day.
25. v. 126. Because Statius, who might be supposed to
be rightly inspired as to the way, assented.
174 PURGATORY [vv. 138-154
the high rock and spreading itself over the
foliage above. The two poets approached the
tree, and a voice from within the leaves cried :
" Of this food ye shall have dearth." Then it
said: " Mary thought more, how the wedding26
should be honorable and complete, than of her
own mouth,27 which answers now for you ; and
the ancient Roman women were content with
water for their drink ; 28 and Daniel despised
food and gained wisdom.29 The primal age
was beautiful as gold ; with hunger it made
acorns savory, and with thirst every streamlet
nectar. Honey and locusts were the viands
which nourished the Baptist in the desert, where-
fore he is in glory, and so great as by the Gos-
pel is revealed to you." 3°
26. v. 143. At Cana. See Canto xiii. 29.
27. v. 144. Than of gratifying her appetite.
28. v. 146. "According to Valerius Maximus the
women of old among the Romans did not drink wine."
S. T. ii.2 149. 4.
29. v. 147. See Daniel i. 8—17.
30. v. 1 54. " Verily I say unto you, Among them thai
Are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John
the Baptist." Matthew xi. n. See, also, Luke vii. 28.
CANTO XXIII
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. — >«
Nella. — Rebuke of the women of Florence.
WHILE I was fixing my eyes upon the green
leafage, just as he who wastes his life following
the little bird is wont to do, my more than
Father said to me : " Son, come on now, for
the time that is assigned to us must be more
usefully apportioned." I turned my eyes, and
no less quickly my step after the Sages, who
were speaking so that they made the going of
no cost to me ; and lo ! a lament and song were
heard : " Labia mea, Domine" l in such fashion
that it gave birth to delight and pain. " O
sweet Father, what is that which I hear ? " I
began, and he : " Shades which go, perhaps
loosing the knot of their debt."
Even as do pilgrims rapt in thought, who,
i. v. ii. "O Lord, open thou my lips." Psalm li.
i 5. This Psalm is the so-called Miserere, from its first word
in the Vulgate ; in the English version " Have mercy upon
me, O God." The words sung here are appropriate, as
suggestive of the misuse of the lips in gluttony.
176 PURGATORY [w. 17-38
overtaking on the road unknown folk, turn
themselves to them, and stay not ; so behind
us, moving more quickly, coming up and pass-
ing by, a crowd of souls, silent and devout,
was gazing at us. Each was dark and hollow
in the eyes, pallid in the face, and so wasted that
the skin took its shape from the bones. I do
not think that Erisichthon 2 was so dried up
to utter rind by hunger, when he had most fear
of it. I said to myself in thought : " Behold
the people who lost Jerusalem, when Mary
struck her beak into her son." 3 The sockets
of their eyes seemed rings without gems.
Whoso in the face of men reads OMO,4 would
surely there have recognized the M. Who
would believe that the scent of an apple, and
that of a water, begetting a longing, could so
control, if he knew not how ?
I was still wondering what so famished them,
the cause of their meagreness and of their
2. v. 26. Punished for sacrilege by Ceres with insatiable
hunger, so that at last he turned his teeth upon himself. See
Ovid, Metam., viii. 738 sqq.
3. v. 30. The story of this wretched woman is told by
Josephus in his narrative of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus :
De Bella Jud., vi. 3.
4. v. 32. Finding in each eye an O, and an M in the
lines of the brows and nose, making the word for "man.'*
5< Dante's characters are to be found in skulls as well as faces,"
says Sir Thomas Browne, in his Urn Burial, ch. Hi.
vv. 39-62] CANTO XXIII 177
wretched scurf5 not yet being manifest, and lo !
from the depth of its head, a shade turned his
eyes on me, and looked fixedly, then cried out
loudly : " What grace to me is this ! " Never
should I have recognized him by his face ; but
in his voice was manifest to me that which his
aspect had annulled in itself.6 This spark re-
kindled in me all my knowledge of the altered
visage, and I recognized the face of Forese.7
"Ah, strive not8 with the dry scab that
discolors my skin," he prayed, " nor with my
lack of flesh, but tell me the truth about thy-
self; and who are those two souls, who yonder
make an escort for thee : stay not thou from
speaking to me." "Thy face," replied I to
him, " which once I wept for dead, now gives
me no less a grief for weeping seeing it so dis-
figured ; therefore, tell me, for God's sake, what
so despoils you; make me not speak while I
am marvelling, for ill can he speak who is full
of other wish." And he to me : " By the eter-
nal counsel a virtue falls into the water and upon
5. v. 39. The scurf, or scaliness of the skin is one of
the signs of extreme starvation.
6. v. 45. His voice revealed who he was, which his
actual aspect concealed.
7. v. 48. Brother of the famous Corso Donati, and re-
lated to Dante's wife, Gemma de' Donati.
8. v. 51. Do not, for striving to see me through my
changed look, delay to speak.
178 PURGATORY [vv. 63-85
the plant, now left behind, whereby I grow so
lean. All this folk who sing weeping, because
of following their appetite beyond measure,
are here in hunger and in thirst making them-
selves holy again. The odor which issues
from the fruit and from the spray which is
spread over the verdure, kindles in us desire to
eat and drink. And not once only, as we circle
this floor, is our pain renewed ; I say pain, and
ought to say solace, for that will leads us to the
tree, which led Christ with joy to say: 'Eli/9
when with his blood he delivered us." And I
to him : " Forese, from that day on which thou
didst change world to a better life, up to this
time, five years have not rolled round. If the
power of sinning further had ended in thee,
before the hour supervened of the good sorrow
which re-weds us to God, how hast thou come
up hither ? I thought to find thee still down
there below, where time is made good by
time." I0 Whereon he to me : " My Nella with
her bursting tears has brought me thus speedily
9. v. 74. Rejoicing to accept his suffering, even when
he exclaimed : " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me ? " Matthew xxvii. 46.
10. v. 82. If thou didst delay repentance until thou
couldst sin no more, how is it that thou hast arrived here
so speedily without spending, outside the gate of Purgatory,
a time equal to that spent on earth. See Canto iv. 130-
vv. 86-114] CANTO XXIII 179
to drink of the sweet wormwood of these tor-
ments. With her devout prayers and with sighs
has she drawn me from the hill-side where one
waits, and has delivered me from the other cir-
cles. So much the more dear and more precious
to God is my poor widow, whom I loved so well,
as she is the more solitary in good conduct ; for
cne Barbagia " of Sardinia is far more modest
in its women than the Barbagia where I left her.
O sweet brother, what wouldst thou that I say ?
A future time is already in my sight, to which
this hour will not be very old, when from the
pulpit it shall be interdicted to the brazen-faced
dames of Florence to go about displaying the
bosom with the paps. What barbarian, what
Saracen women were there ever for whom either
spiritual or other discipline was needed to make
them go covered ? But if the shameless ones
were assured of that which the swift heaven is
preparing for them, already would they have
their mouths open for howling. For if my
foresight here does not deceive me, they will
be sad before he who is now consoled with the
lullaby shall have bearded cheeks. Ah brother,
now no longer conceal thyself from me ; thou
seest that not only I, but all these people are
gazing there where thou dost veil the sun."
ii. v. 94. A mountainous district in Sardinia, inhabited
by people of barbarous customs.
180 PURGATORY 0.115-133
Whereon I to him : " If thou bring back to
mind what thou wast with me, and what I was
with thee, the present remembrance will even
now be grievous. From that life he who goes
in front of me turned me the other day, when
the sister of him," I2 and I pointed to the
sun, " there showed herself round. Through
the deep night, from the truly dead, he has
led me, with this real flesh which follows him.
Thence his encouragements have drawn me
upward, ascending and circling the mountain
that sets you straight whom the world made
crooked. He says that he will bear me company
so long till I shall be there where Beatrice will
be ; there it behoves that I remain without him.
Virgil is this one who says thus to me," and I
pointed to him, " and this other is that shade for
whom just now your realm, which from itself
releases him, shook every slope."
12. v. 1 20. The Moon, Diana, twin child of Leda,
with Apollo, the Sun.
CANTO XXIV
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. —
Piccarda Donati. — Bonagiunta of Lucca. — Pope Mar-
tin IF. — Ubaldin dalla Pila. — Bonifazio. — Messer
Marchese. — Prophecy of Bonagiunta concerning Gentucca,
and of Forese concerning Corso de* Donati. — Second
Mystic Tree. — The Angel of the Pass.
SPEECH made not the going, nor did the
going make that more slow ; but, talking, we
went on apace, even as a ship urged by a good
wind. And the shades, that seemed things
doubly dead, through the pits of their eyes drew
in wonder at me, perceiving that I was alive.
And I, continuing my talk, said : " He ' goes
up for the sake of another perchance more
slowly than he would do. But, tell me, if thou
knowest, where is Piccarda ; 2 tell me if I see any
person to be noted among this folk that so gazes
at me." " My sister, who, between fair and good,
1. v. 8. Statius ; more slowly, for the sake of remain-
ing with Virgil.
2. v. 10. The sister of Forese, whom Dante meets in
Paradise, Canto iii.
i82 PURGATORY [w. 14-30
was I know not which the most, triumphs al-
ready rejoicing in her crown on high Olympus."
So he said first, and then : " Here it is not for-
bidden to name each one, since our semblance
is so milked away by the diet. 3 This/' and he
pointed with his finger, "is Bonagiunta,4 Bona-
giunta of Lucca ; and that face beyond him,
more pricked through than the others, had the
Holy Church in his arms : 5 he was from Tours ;
and by fasting he purges the eels of Bolsena, and
the Vernaccia wine." Many others he named to
me, one by one, and at their naming all appeared
content; so that for this I saw not one dark
mien. I saw, using their teeth through hunger
on emptiness, Ubaldin dalla Pila,6 and Boni-
face, 7 who shepherded many people with his
3. v. 1 8. Recognition by the looks was thus impossible.
4. v. 19. Bonagiunta Urbiciani, a poet of Lucca who
lived and wrote in the last half of the thirteenth century. In
the De Vulgari Eloquio, i. 13, Dante speaks of him as one
of the Tuscan poets who used the local dialect and not the
courtly and illustrious tongue of Italy in their rhymes.
5. v. 22. " Had the Church in his arms/* that is, was
Pope. It is Martin IV., native of Tours, Pope from 1281
to I 284 ; as Frenchman he used the Papal power to promote
the interests in Sicily and Italy of Charles of Anjou. He is
said to have died from a surfeit at Orvieto.
6. v. 29. Of this Ubaldino little is known with cer-
tainty.
7. v. 29. Bonifazio de' Fieschi, Archbishop of Ravenna
from 1274 to 1294.
vv. 31-49] CANTO XXIV 183
crook. I saw Messer Marchese,8 who once
had leisure for drinking at Forli with less thirst,
and even so was such that he felt not sated.
But as one does who looks, and then makes
more account of one than of another, so did I
of him of Lucca, who seemed most to wish ac-
quaintance with me. He was murmuring, and
I heard something like " Gentucca " from there9
where he felt the chastisement of the justice
which so strips them. " O soul," said I, " who
seemest so desirous to speak with me, do so that
I can understand thee, and satisfy both thyself
and me by thy speech." cc A woman is born,
and wears not yet the veil," I0 he began, " who
will make my city pleasant to thee, however
men may blame it. " Thou shalt go on with
this prevision : if from my murmuring thou hast
conceived error, the true things will hereafter
clear it up for thee. But tell me, if I here see
8. v. 31. A man of note in his day, of one of the chief
families of Forli.
9. v. 38. Literally, "and I know not what Gentucca
I heard," that is, "from his mouth I heard an indistinct
murmur in which I seemed to catch the name Gentucca."
10. v. 43. The veil of a married woman.
11. v. 45. This honorable and delightful reference to
the otherwise unknown maiden, Gentucca of Lucca, has
given occasion to much worthless comment. Dante was at
Lucca, during his exile, in 1314. He himself was one of
those who blamed the city ; see Hell, Canto xxi. 40—42.
184 PURGATORY [w. 50-69
him, who drew forth the new rhymes, begin-
ning : c Ladies who have intelligence of Love ' ? " I3
And I to him : " I am one who, when Love
inspires me, notes, and in that mode which he
dictates within, I go uttering." " O brother,
now I see," said he, " the knot which held back
the Notary, I3 and Guittone, '4 and me short of
the sweet new style which I hear. I see clearly
how your pens go on close following the dicta-
tor, which surely was not the case with ours.
And he who most sets himself to look farther
sees nothing more between one style and the
other." IS And, as if contented, he was silent.
As the birds that winter along the Nile some-
times make a troop in the air, then fly in greater
haste, and go in file, so all the folk that were
there, light both through leanness and through
12. v. 5 1 . The first verse of the first canzone of The
New Life.
13. v. 56. The Sicilian poet, Jacopo da Lentino.
14. v. 56. Guittone d' Arezzo, commonly called Fra
Guittone, as one of the order of the Frati Gaudenti, mentioned
in Hell, xxiii. 103. Dante refers to him again in Canto
xxvi. 124. He died probably in 1293.
15. v. 62. He who seeks for other reason does not find
it. — The poems of Bonagiunta, of the Notary, and of Guit-
.tone, which have come down to us, justify this criticism.
Dante alone had learned the lesson which the Muse taught
Sidney, " ' Fool,' said my Muse to me, ' look in thy heart
and write.' J>
vv. 70-90] CANTO XXIV 185
will, turning away their faces, quickened again
their pace. And as the man who is weary of
running lets his companions go on, and then
walks, until the panting of his chest be abated,
so Forese let the holy flock pass on and came
along behind with me, saying : " When shall it
be that I see thee again ? " " I know not," 1
replied to him, " how long I may live ; but
truly my return will not be so speedy, that I
shall not in desire be sooner at the shore ; l6 be-
cause the place where 1 was set to live, strips
itself more of good from day to day, and seems
ordained to dismal ruin." " Now go," said he,
" for I see him who is most to blame for this l?
dragged at the tail of a beast, toward the val-
ley l8 where never is there exculpation. The
beast at every step goes faster, with ever increas-
ing speed, till it strikes him, and leaves his body
vilely undone. Those wheels have not far to
turn," and he raised his eyes to heaven, " ere
that will be clear to thee which my speech may
1 6. v. 78. Of Purgatory.
17. v. 8 2. Corso de' Donati, the leader of the Black
Guelphs, and chief cause of the evils of the city. On the
1 5th September, 1308, his enemies having risen against
him, he was compelled to fly from Florence. Near the city
he was thrown from his horse and dragged along, till he was
overtaken and killed by his pursuers.
1 8. v. 84. " The woful valley of the abyss." Hell*
if. 8.
186 PURGATORY [w. 91-110
not further declare. Now do thou stay behind,
for time is so precious in this kingdom, that I
lose too much coming thus at even pace with
thee."
As a cavalier sometimes sets forth at a gal-
lop from a troop which is riding, and goes to
win the honor of the first encounter,19 so with
longer strides did he depart from us ; and I
remained on the way with only those two who
were such great marshals of the world.20 And
when he had passed on so far before us that my
eyes became such followers of him as my mind
was of his words, 2I there appeared to me the
laden and living branches of another apple-tree,
and not far distant, because only then had I
turned thitherward.22 I saw people beneath it
raising their hands and crying, I know not what,
toward the leaves, like eager and fond little
children who pray, and he to whom they pray
does not answer, but, to make their longing the
19. v. 96. This essay of honor was not infrequent with
the young cavaliers, desirous to win their spurs.
20. v. 99. "A marshal is a governor of the court and
of the army under the emperor, . . . and should know how
to command what ought to be done, as those two poets knew
what it was befitting to do in the world in respect to moral
and civil life." Bud.
21. v. 1 02. Could no longer follow him distinctly.
22. v. 105. In the circling course around the moun-
tain.
vv.iii-126] CANTO XXIV 187
more keen, holds aloft their desire, and conceals
it not. Then they departed as if undeceived : 23
and upon this we came to the great tree which
rejects so many prayers and tears. " Pass ye
farther onward, without drawing near ; the tree 24
which was eaten of by Eve is higher up, and
this plant was raised from it." Thus said I
know not who among the branches ; wherefore
Virgil and Statius and I, drawing close together,
proceeded onward along the side that rises.25
" Bethink ye," the voice was saying, " of the
accursed ones, 26 formed in the clouds, who,
when glutted, strove against Theseus with their
double breasts; and of the Hebrews, who,
at the drinking, showed themselves weak,27
wherefore Gideon had them not for compan-
ions, when he went down the hills toward
Midian."
23. v. 112. Having found vain the hope of reaching the
fruit.
24. v. 1 1 6. The tree of knowledge, in the Earthly-
Paradise : Canto xxxii. 38 ff.
25. v. i 20. Along the inner side, by the wall of the
mountain.
26. v. 121. The centaurs, who were said to have been
born of Ixion and a phantom cloud, and who fought with
Theseus at the marriage feast of Peirithous.
27. v. 124. Literally :" Showed themselves soft," that
is, did not resist the impulse to drink too eagerly. Judges
vii. 4-7.
i88 PURGATORY [vv. 127-152
Thus keeping close to that one of the two mar-
gins, 28 we passed by, hearing of sins of gluttony
followed, indeed, by miserable gains. Then
going at large along the lonely road, full a
thousand steps and more had carried us on-
ward, each of us in meditation without a word.
" Why go ye thus in thought, ye three alone ? "
said a sudden voice ; whereat I started, as do
terrified and timid beasts. I lifted up my head
to see who it might be, and never were glass or
metals in a furnace seen so shining and ruddy,
as one I saw who said : " If it please you to
mount upward, here there is need to turn ; this
way he goes who would go for peace." His
aspect had taken my sight from me, wherefore I
turned to go behind my teachers, like one who
goes according as he hears.29
And as the breeze of May, a herald of the
dawn, stirs and smells sweet, all impregnate with
the herbage and with the flowers, such a wind
I felt strike upon the middle of my forehead,
and I clearly felt the motion of the plumage,
which made me perceive the odor of ambrosia.
And I heard say : " Blessed are they whom so
much grace illumines, that the love of taste
28. v. 127. The inner margin of the ledge.
29. v. 144. Blinded for the moment by the dazzling
brightness of the angel, Dante drops behind his teachers to
follow them as one guided by hearing only.
w. 153, 154] CANTO XXIV 189
kindles not too great desire in their breasts,
hungering always so much as is right." 3°
30. v. 154. "Blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness." Matthew v. 6.
Dante has already cited this Beatitude (Canto xxii. 5—
6), applying it to those who are purging themselves from the
inordinate desire for riches ; there omitting the word " hun-
ger," as here he omits "and thirst."
CANTO XXV
Ascent to the Seventh Ledge. — Discourse of Statins on
generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body, and
the corporeal semblance of Souls after death. — The
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — The mode of their Puri-
fication.
IT was the hour in which the ascent allowed
no delay ; for the Sun had left the meridian circle
to the Bull, and the Night to the Scorpion ; *
wherefore as does the man who, whatever may
appear to him, does not stop, if the goad of ne-
cessity prick him, but goes on his way, so did
we enter through the gap, one before the other,
taking the stairway which by its narrowness un-
pairs the climbers.
And as the little stork that lifts its wing
through will to fly, and dares not abandon the
i . v. 3 . The Bull follows on the Ram in the Zodiac,
BO that the hour indicated is about 2 p. M. The " Night,
here and elsewhere, when spoken of generally as being in any
spot, naturally stands for midnight as its central point."
Moore, Time- References, p. 70. When the Sun is in the
Sign of the Ram, the Night is in that of the Scales, which
precedes that of the Scorpion.
vv. 12-34] CANTO XXV 191
nest, and lets it drop, so was I, with will to ask
kindled and quenched, coming as far as to the
motion that he makes who proposes to speak.
Nor, though our going was swift, did my sweet
Father forbear, but he said : " Discharge the
bow of speech which up to the iron 2 thou hast
drawn." Then I opened my mouth confidently,
and began : " How can one become lean, where
the need of nourishment is not felt ? " " If
thou wouldst call to mind," he said, " how
Meleager was consumed by the consuming of
a brand, this would not be so difficult to thee ;
and if thou wouldst think, how at your quiver-
ing your image quivers within the mirror, that
which seems hard would seem easy to thee.
But in order that thou mayst be inwardly at
ease in respect to thy wish, lo, here is Statius,
and I call on him, and pray that he be now the
healer of thy wounds." " If I explain to him
the eternal view," 3 replied Statius, " where thou
art present, let it excuse me that to thee I can-
not make denial." 4
Then he began, " If, son, thy mind regards
2. v. 1 8. Up to the arrow-head.
3 . ¥.31. What is seen here in the eternal world con*
cerning the nature of the soul.
4. v. 33. Here and elsewhere Statius seems to represent
allegorically human philosophy enlightened by Christian teach"
ing dealing with questions of knowledge, not of faith.
I92 PURGATORY [w. 35-50
and receives my words, they will be for thee a
light unto the f How/ which thou askest.5 Per-
fect blood, which is never drunk up by the
thirsty veins, but remains like the food which
thou removest from the table, takes in the heart
a virtue informative of all the human members,
as being that which goes through the veins to be-
come them.6 Digested still further, it descends
to the part whereof it is more becoming to be
silent than to speak; and from there, afterwards,
it drops upon another's blood in the natural
vessel. There one and the other meet together ;
the one ordained to be passive, and the other7
to be active because of the perfect place 8 where-
from it is pressed out ; and, conjoined with the
former, the latter begins to operate, first by
coagulating, and then it quickens that to which
5. v. 36. The doctrine set forth by Statius in regard
to generation is derived from St. Thomas Aquinas, S. T.9
i. 1 1 8, 119, who, in his turn, drew much of it from Aris-
totle. It is to be found, more briefly stated, in the Convito,
iv. 21.
6. v. 42. The perfect blood, which constitutes the semen,
remains over and above that blood which is requisite for the
nourishment of the body, and acquires in the heart the virtue
by which, after it has been still further digested, it finally
gives form to the various bodily organs.
7. v. 47. The one is the female blood, the other the
male blood.
8. v. 48. The heart.
vv. 51-61] CANTO XXV. 193
it gives consistency for its own material. 9 The
active virtue having become a soul, like that of
a plant I0 (in so far different that this is on the
way, and that already arrived),11 then so works,
that now it moves and feels, as a sea-fungus
does ; I2 and then it proceeds to organize the
powers of which it is the germ. I3 Now, son, the
virtue is displayed, now it is diffused, which
issues from the heart of the begetter, where na-
ture is intent on all the members. But how
from an animal it becomes a rational being, I4
9. v. 5 1 . It quickens to life the material to be shaped
by the informative virtue into a human body.
10. v. 53. The doctrine of S. Thomas Aquinas, which
Dante here follows, is that of the three natures of souls, the
vegetative or nutritive, the sensitive, and the intellective ; the
first two are not created directly by God, but proceed from
the active virtue of the begetter of the body in which they
exist. They are corruptible. But the anima intellectivay pro-
ceeding directly from God, is breathed into the human embryo,
is incorruptible, and includes in itself the faculties of the lower
corruptible souls of beasts and plants.
11. v. 54. The soul in the plant has attained its full
development, "has arrived ; " while in the human embryo
this vegetative soul is "on the way," is but a stage in the
development of being.
12. v. 56. From the vegetative, the soul becomes the
sensitive, — anima sensitiva.
1 3' v- 57- That virtue which the blood acquired in the
heart of the begetter now begins to show itself in. the forma-
tion of the limbs and organs of the body.
14. v. 61. Literally, "a speaking being.*' Thou dod
I94 -PURGATORY [w. 62-69
thou as yet seest not ; this is such a point that
once it made one wiser than thou to err, so that
in his teaching he separated from the soul the
potential intellect, because he saw no organ as-
sumed by it. l5 Open thy breast to the truth
which is coming, and know that, so soon as the
articulation of the brain is perfect in the embryo,
not yet see, how from a mere animal, with a soul dependent
on its material existence, it becomes a speaking, that is a
rational being, possessed of an anima intellectiva, an intellec-
tual and immortal soul.
15. v. 66. The "one wiser than thou" who fell into
error, is generally understood to refer to Averroes, whose
error was in his exposition of Aristotle's doctrine as set forth
in the third book of his treatise On the Soul. Aristotle there
distinguishes two intellectual principles, in other words two
intellects, the one material or passive, the other formal or
active. The passive, the so-called possible intellect, was
adapted to receive passively impressions or images ; the active
intellect rendered these images intelligible, and formed ideas.
The active intellect is separate, impassible, imperishable ; the
passive intellect is perishable, and cannot dispense with the
active intellect. " Now the true intellect is the separate in-
tellect, and that alone is eternal and immortal." This doc-
trine led Averroes to the conclusion that the active intellect
was undivided and impersonal, and united not formally but
instrumentally only with the individual. Hence it was but
a step to the denial of the immortality of the individual soul.
Dante seems to have fallen into the error of believing that
Averroes separated the potential or possible intellect from the
soul, whereas it was really to the active intellect that he
ascribed unity and separateness.
vv. 70-84] CANTO XXV 195
the Primal Motor l6 turns to it with joy over
such art of nature, and breathes into it a new
spirit replete with virtue, which draws into its
own substance that which it finds active there,17
and becomes one single soul which lives and
feels and circles on itself. And that thou mayst
the less wonder at my words, consider the
warmth of the sun which, combining with the
juice that flows from the vine, becomes wine. l8
And when Lachesis has no more thread, this
soul is loosed from the flesh, and virtually bears
away with itself both the human and the di-
vine ; '9 the other faculties all of them mute,20
but memory, understanding, and will 2I far more
acute in action than before. Without a stop,
1 6. v. 70. The Primal Motor, that is, God.
*7* v* 73* The vegetative and the sensitive soul.
1 8. v. 78. The fact that the spirit breathed into the
foetus, in other words the intellectual soul, absorbs the sensi-
tive and vegetative souls, or, in the words of St. Thomas
Aquinas, S. T. i. 76. 4, tf contains in its own virtue what-
ever the sensitive soul of brutes and the nutritive soul of plants
possess," — this fact is illustrated, imperfectly indeed, by the
action of the Sun upon the juice of the grape, converting the
raw juice into wine.
19. v. 8 1. The human, that is, the bodily faculties ;
the divine, that is, the inteilectual or spiritual faculties.
20. v. 82. The faculties of sense mute because their
organs no longer exist.
21. v. 83. The spiritual faculties, independent of the
lenses.
ig6 PURGATORY [w. 85-109
it falls of itself, marvellously, to one of the
banks.22 Here it first knows its own roads.
Soon as the place there23 circumscribes it, the
formative virtue rays out around it, in like
shape and size, as in the living members.
And a? the air when it is full of rain becomes
adorned with divers colors, by reason of the rays
of another 24 which are reflected in it, so here the
neighboring air shapes itself in that form which
the soul that has stopped 2S virtually imprints
upon it. And then like the flamelet which fol-
lows the fire whithersoever it shifts, so does its
new form follow the spirit. Since thereafter it
has its aspect from this, it is called a shade ; and
thence it organizes every sense even to the
sight; thence we speak, and thence we laugh,
thence we make the tears and the sighs, which
thou mayst have heard on the mountain. Ac-
cording as our desires and our other affections
impress us, the shade is shaped ; and this is
the cause of that at which thou wonderest." 26
And now we had come to the last circuit,
22. v. 86. Of Acheron (see Hell, iii. 78), or of Tiber
(see Purgatory, ii. 100-105), according as the soul is
damned or saved.
23. v. 88. Whether Purgatory or Hell.
24. v. 92. " Another," that is, the Sun.
25. v. 96. Stopped in the place allotted to it.
26. v. 1 08. The emaciation of the spirits on this ledge,
vv. 110-130] CANTO XXV 197
and had turned to the right hand, and were in-
tent upon another care. Here the bank shoots
forth flame, and the ledge breathes a blast up-
ward which drives it back, and sequesters a path
from it.27 Wherefore it was needful to go one
by one along the open side ; and on the one
hand I was afraid of the fire, and on the other
I was afraid of falling off. My Leader said,
" Along this place, one must keep tight the
rein upon the eyes, because for little one might
go astray." " Summae Deus clementiae" 28 I then
heard being sung, in the bosom of the great
burning, which made me care not less to turn.2'
And I saw spirits going through the flame ;
wherefore I looked at them and at my own
steps, apportioning to each my sight from mo-
ment to moment. After the end that is made
to that hymn, they loudly cried : " Virum non
cognosco ; " 3° then began again the hymn with
low voice ; this finished, they cried anew : " To
the wood Diana kept herself, and drove there-
27. v. 1 14. Secures a safe pathway along the outer edge
of the ledge.
28. v. 121. "God of clemency supreme," the begin-
ning of a hymn, sung at Matins on Saturday, containing a
prayer for purity.
29. v. 123. Caring not less to see who was singing, than
to keep his eyes fixed on the narrow way.
30. v. 128. " I know not a man," the words of Mary
to the angel. Luke i. 34.
198 PURGATORY [w. 131-139
from Helice,31 who had tasted the poison of
Venus." Then they returned to their singing ;
then they cried aloud wives and husbands who
were chaste, as virtue and marriage enjoin upon
us. And I believe this mode suffices them for
all the time that the fire burns them. With
such cure it is needful, and with such diet, that
the last wound of all 32 should be closed up.
31. v. 1 3 1 . Helice, or Callisto, the nymph who bore
a son to Jupiter, and, having been changed to a bear by Juno,
was by Jove transferred with her child to the heavens, where
they are seen as the Great and Little Bear.
32. v. 1 39. The last of the mortal sins, the last P.
CANTO XXVI
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Sinners in the fre^
going in opposite directions. — Guido Guinicelli. — Ar-
naut Daniel.
WHILE we were thus going on along the
edge, one before the other, the good Master
was often saying : " Take heed ! let it avail that
I warn thee." The sun, which now, with his
radiance, was changing all the west from azure
to a white aspect, was striking me on the right
shoulder ; and with my shadow I was making
the flame appear more ruddy, and only to that
indication ' I saw many shades, as they went
on, giving heed. This was the occasion which
gave them a beginning to speak of me, and
they began to say : " He does not seem a ficti-
tious body ; " then certain of them came toward
me, so far as they could do so, always with re-
gard not to come out where they would not be
burned.
" O thou, who goest behind the others, not
i. v. 8. At this sign that Dante's body was that of a
fiving man.
200 PURGATORY [w. 17-45
from being slower, but perhaps from reverence,
reply to me, who am burning in thirst and fire :
nor by me only is thy reply needed, for all these
have a greater thirst for it than Indian or Ethiop
for cold water. Tell us how it is that thou
makest of thyself a wall to the sun, as if thou
hadst not yet entered within the net of death/'
Thus spoke one of them to me ; and I should
at once have made myself known, if I had not
given attention to another new thing which
then appeared ; for along the middle of the
burning road were coming people with their
faces opposite to these, which held me engaged
to look at them. There I see, on either side,
each shade making haste and one kissing the
other, without stopping, content with a brief
greeting. Thus within their brown troop one
ant touches muzzle with another, perchance to
spy out their way and their fortune.
Soon as they end the friendly salutation, be-
fore the first step runs onward by, each strives
to outcry the other ; the new-come folk : " So-
dom and Gomorrah," and the other: " Into
the cow enters Pasiphae, that the bull may run
to her lust." Then like cranes, which should
fly part to the Riphaean mountains,2 and part
toward the sands,3 these shunning the frost and
2. v. 43. Mountains vaguely placed by the early geo-
graphers in the far North.
3. v. 44. The deserts of Libya.
*v. 46-69] CANTO XXVI 201
those the sun, the one folk goes, the other
comes on, and, weeping, they return to their
first chants,4 and to the cry which most befits
them.
And those same who had prayed me drew
near to me as before, intent in their looks to
listen. I, who twice had seen their desire, be-
gan : " O souls, secure of having, whenever it
may be, a state of peace, my limbs have not
remained yonder, either unripe nor mature, but
are here with me, with their blood, and with
their joints. I go hence upward in order to
be no longer blind. A Lady is on high who
wins grace for us,5 whereby I bring my mortal
body through your world. But so may your
greatest wish soon become satisfied, in such wise
that that heaven may harbor you which is full
of love, and most amply spreads,6 tell me, in
order that I may yet rule the paper for it, who
are ye, and who are that crowd which go their
way behind your backs."
Not otherwise is the astonished mountain-
eer confused, and gazing round is dumb, when
rough and rustic he enters the town, than each
4. v. 47. Summae Deus clementiae. Canto xxv. 121.
5. v. 59. The Virgin Mary ; see Hell, ii. 94-96,
" who wins grace for us," that is, for all for whom she in-
tercedes, not for Dante alone.
6. ¥.63. The Empyrean, the seat of Paradise.
202 PURGATORY [vv. 70-93
shade became in its appearance ; but, after they
were unburdened of their astonishment, which
in high hearts is quickly abated : " Blessed
thou," began again the one who first had ques-
tioned me, " who, in order the better to die, dost,
ship experience of our regions. The people
who do not come with us offended in that for
which once Caesar in his triumph heard c Queen '
shouted out against him ; therefore they go off
crying c Sodom,' upbraiding themselves, as thou
hast heard, and they help the burning by their
shame. Our sin was hermaphrodite ; but be-
cause, following our appetite like beasts, we
did not observe human law, when we part from
them we recite, in opprobrium of ourselves, the
name of her who bestialized herself in the beast-
shaped planks. Now thou knowest our deeds,
and of what we were guilty ; if, perchance, thou
wishest to know by name who we are, there is
not time to tell, and I should not know. I will
indeed make thee short of wish about myself;
I am Guido Guinicelli ; 7 and I am purging
myself already, because I truly repented before
my last hour."
7. v. 92. Of Bologna; the most illustrious of the Ital-
ian poets before Dante ; the date of his death is uncertain,
but he was living in 1274. Of his life little is known, but
tome of his verses survive and justify Dante's words concern-
ing them. See Canto xi. 97.
w. 94-1 13] CANTO XXVI 203
Such as in the frenzy of Lycurgus her two
sons became at seeing again their mother,8 such
I became, but I rise not so far,9 when I hear
name himself the father of me, and of the
others my betters who ever used sweet and gra-
cious rhymes of love; and without hearing or
speaking, full of thought, I went on, gazing a
long time upon him ; nor, for the fire, did I
draw nearer to him. When I was fed with look-
ing, I offered myself wholly ready for his ser-
vice, with the affirmation which makes another
believe. And he to me : " By what I hear, thou
leavest such impression on me, and so clear,10
that Lethe cannot take it away nor make it
dim. But, if thy words just now swore truth, tell
me what is the reason why thou displayest in
speech and look that thou dost hold me dear? "
And I to him, " The sweet ditties of yours,
which, so long as the modern use " shall en-
8. v. 95. "Lycurgus, King of Nemea, enraged with
Hypsipyle for leaving his infant child, who was killed by a
serpent, while she was showing the river Langia to the Ar-
gives. (see Canto xxii. 112), was about to kill her, when she
was found and rescued by her own sons." (Pollock.) The
story is told by Statius in the fifth book of his Tbebaid.
9. v. 96. I was more restrained than they, not rushing
forward as they did.
10. v. 107. That is, " Thy words so convince me of
thy affection for me.'*
11. v. 113, The modern use of the vulgar tongue in
poetry.
204 PURGATORY [w. 114-135
dure, will still make dear their ink." " O bro-
ther," said he, " this one whom I point out to
thee with my finger," and he pointed to a spirit
in advance,12 " was a better smith of his mother
tongue. In verses of love and proses of ro-
mances he surpassed all ; and let the foolish talk
who think that he of Limoges I3 excels him ; to
rumor more than to the truth they turn their
faces, and thus establish their opinion, before
art or reason is listened to by them. Thus did
many of old concerning Guittone,14 from cry to
cry giving the prize only to him, until the truth
prevailed with more persons. Now if thou hast
such ample privilege that it is permitted thee
to go unto the cloister in which Christ is abbot
of the college, say to him for me one pater-
noster, so far as is needful for us in this world,
where power to sin is no longer ours." IS
Then, perhaps to give place to one who was
near behind him, he disappeared through the
fire, like a fish going through the water to the
12. v. 1 1 6. Arnaut Daniel, a famous Provencal trouba-
dour of the end of the 1 2th century. Modern judgment does
not confirm Dante's opinion of his excellence as a poet.
13. v. 1 20. Giraut de Borneil, another famous poet,
contemporary with Arnaut Daniel.
14. v. 124. Guittone d' Arezzo ; see Canto xxiv. 56.
15. v. 132. The words in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead
as not into temptation," are not needed for the spirits in Pur*
gatory.
w. 136-148] CANTO XXVI 205
bottom. I moved forward a little to him who
had been pointed out to me, and said, that for
his name my desire was preparing a gracious
place. He readily began to say : l6 " Your
courteous request so pleases me that I cannot,
nor do I wish to hide me from you. I am Ar-
naut, who weep and go singing ; contrite I see
my past folly, and glad I see before me the joy
1 hope for. Now I pray you, by that Power
which guides you to the summit of this stair-
way, at due time be mindful of my pain." Then
he hid himself in the fire which refines them.
1 6. v. 139. Tne words of Arnaut are in the Provencal
tongue.
CANTO XXVII
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Passage through the
Flames. — Stairway in the rock. — Night upon the stairs.
' — Dream of Dante. — Morning. — Ascent to the
Earthly Paradise. — Last words of Virgil.
As when he darts forth his first rays there
where his Maker shed His blood (Ebro falling
under the lofty Scales, and the waves in the
Ganges scorched by noon) so the sun was now
standing ; * and thus the day was departing,
when the glad Angel of God appeared to us.
Outside the flame he was standing on the bank,
and was singing : Beati mundo corde? in a voice
far more living than ours. Then : " No one
goes farther, ye holy souls, if first the fire sting
not : enter into it, and to the song beyond be
ye not deaf," he said to us, as we drew near to
him : whereat I became such, when I heard him,
1. v. 5. It was near sunrise at Jerusalem, and conse-
quently near sunset in Purgatory, midnight in Spain, and mid-
day at the Ganges.
2. y. 8. " Blessed are the pure in heart."
vv. 15-41] CANTO XXVII 207
as is he who is put in the pit.3 I stretched
forward above my clasped hands, looking at
the fire, and vividly imagining human bodies
I had once seen burnt. My good Escorts
turned toward me, and Virgil said to me :
" My son, here may be torment, but not death.
Bethink thee ! bethink thee ! . . . lo, if I even
upon Geryon guided thee safe, what shall I
do now that I am nearer God ? Believe for
certain that if within the belly of this flame
thou shouldst stand full a thousand years it
could not make thee bald of a single hair. And
if perchance thou believest that I am deceiving
thee, draw towards it, and make trial for thyself
with thine own hands upon the hem of thy gar-
ments. Put aside now, put aside every fear,
turn hitherward, and come on secure."
And I still motionless and against con-
science !
When he saw me still stand motionless and
obdurate, he said, disturbed a little : " Now see,
son, between Beatrice and thee is this wall. "
As at the name of Thisbe, Pyramus, at point
of death, opened his eyelids and looked at her,
what time the mulberry became dark red, so,
my obduracy becoming softened, I turned to
my wise Leader, hearing the name that in my
3. v. 15. As the criminal who is about to be buried
alive.
208 PURGATORY [vv. 42-67
memory is ever welling up. Whereat he nodded
his head, and said : " How? do we want to stay
on this side ? " then he smiled as one does at a
child who is conquered by an apple.
Then within the fire he set himself in front
of me, praying Statius, that he would come be-
hind, who previously, for a long way, had di-
vided us. When I was within, I would have
thrown myself into boiling glass to cool me, so
without measure was the burning there. My
sweet Father, to encourage me, went talking
only of Beatrice, saying : " I seem already to
see her eyes."
A voice which was singing on the other side
was guiding us, and we, attentive ever to it, came
forth where the ascent began. " Venite, benedicti
patris met,"4 sounded within a light that was
there such that it overcame me, and I could
not look on it. " The sun is going," it added,
" and the evening comes ; tarry not, but hasten
your steps so long as the west grows not dark."
The way mounted straight, through the rock,
in such direction 5 that in front of me I cut
off the rays of the sun which was already low.
And of few stairs had we made essay ere, by the
4. v. 58. " Come, ye blessed of my Father.'* Mat'
tbew xxv. 34.
5. v. 65. Toward the east, so that Dante's shadow fell
in front of him.
vv. 68-96] CANTO XXVII 209
vanishing of my shadow, both I and my Sages
perceived the setting of the sun behind us.
And before the horizon in all its immeasurable
regions had become of one aspect, and night
had all her dispensations, each of us made his
bed of a stair ; for the nature of the mountain
took from us the power, more than the delight,
of ascending.
As goats, that have been swift and wanton
on the peaks ere they were fed, become tranquil
while they ruminate, hushed in the shade so
long as the sun is hot, watched by the shepherd,
who on his staff is leaning and, leaning, tends
them ; and as the herdsman, who lodges out of
doors, passes the night beside his quiet flock,
watching that the wild beast may not scatter it :
such were we all three then, I like a goat, and
they like shepherds, hemmed in on this side
and on that by the high rock. Little of the
outside could there be seen, but in that little I
saw the stars both brighter and larger than their
wont. Thus ruminating, and thus gazing upon
them, sleep overcame me, sleep which oft before
the deed be done knows news thereof.
At the hour, I think, when from the east
Cytherea, who with fire of love seems always
burning, first beamed upon the mountain,6 I
6. v. 95. In the dawn, when Cytherea, that is, Venus, the
morning star, was rising. Cf. Canto i. 1 9, 20. Cytherea,
2io PURGATORY [vv. 97-117
seemed in dream to see a lady, young and beau-
tiful, going through a meadow gathering flow-
ers, and singing she was saying: "Let him
know, whoso asks my name, that I am Leah,
and I go moving my fair hands around to make
me a garland. To please me at the mirror I
here adorn me, but my sister Rachel never
departs from her looking-glass, and sits all day.
She is as fain to look at her fair eyes as I to
adorn me with my hands. Her, seeing, and
me, doing satisfies.'* 7
And now before the splendors which precede
the sun, and rise the more grateful unto pil-
grims as in returning they lodge less far away,8
the shadows were fleeing on every side, and my
sleep with them ; whereupon I rose, seeing the
great Masters already risen. " That sweet fruit
which the care of mortals goes seeking upon so
many branches, to-day shall set at peace thy
as an epithet of Venus, was derived from the name of the
island, Cythera (now Cerigo), off the southeastern point of
Laconia, the spot where the goddess landed after her birth
from the foam of the sea.
7. v. 1 08. Leah and Rachel are the types of the active
and the contemplative life. The seeing which contents Ra-
chel is the contemplation of the Divine mysteries, the doing
which contents Leah is work according to the Divine will.
Rachel gazes at her own fair eyes in the mirror because they
reflect to her the vision of God.
8. v. 1 1 1 . As they come nearer home.
vv. 118-135] CANTO XXVII 211
hungerings." 9 These words did Virgil use to-
ward me, and never were there gifts which for
pleasure were equal to these. Such great wish
upon wish came to me to be above, that at
every step thereafter I felt my wings growing
for the flight.
When beneath us all the stairway had been run
over, and we were on the topmost step, Virgil
fixed his eyes on me, and said : " The temporal
fire and the eternal I0 thou hast seen, Son, and
art come to a place where of myself I discern no
farther. " I have brought thee here with under-
standing and with art ; thine own pleasure take
thou henceforward for guide: forth art thou from
the steep ways, forth art thou from the narrow.
See there the sun, which is shining on thy front ;
see the young grass, the flowers, and the shrubs,
which here the earth of itself alone produces.
9. v. 117. In his De Monarcbia, iii. 16, Dante says,
Providence set before man two ends to be striven for, of
which the first is beatitude in this life, which consists in the
activity of his own virtue, and is figured by the terrestrial
Paradise.
10. Y. 127. The temporal fire is that of Purgatory, the
eternal that of Hell.
11. v. 129. Human reason, rightly exercised, suffices
to guide through the difficult paths of earthly life, to the at-
tainment of its beatitude ; but for the attainment of the beati-
tude of eternal life there is need of the illumination of Divine
grace.
212 PURGATORY [w, 136-142
Until the beautiful eyes come rejoicing, which
weeping made me come to thee, thou canst sit
down and thou canst go among them. Expect
no more or word or sign from me. Free, up-
right, and sound is thine own will, and it would
be wrong not to act according to its choice ;
wherefore thee over thyself I crown and
mitre." "
12. v. 142. The crown is the symbol of temporal
power, the mitre of spiritual.
CANTO XXVIII
The Earthly Paradise. — The Forest. — A Lady
gathering flowers on the bank of a little stream. — - Z)/V-
course with her concerning the nature of the place.
FAIN now to search within and round about
the divine forest dense and living, which was
tempering the new day to my eyes, without
longer waiting I left the bank,1 taking the level
ground very slowly, over the soil which on
every side breathed fragrance. A sweet breeze
that had no variation in itself smote me on the
brow, not with heavier stroke than a soft wind ;
at which the branches, readily trembling, one
and all were bending toward the quarter where
the holy mountain casts its first shadow ; 2 yet
not so swayed from their uprightness, that the
little birds among the tops had to leave the
practice of their every art ; but, singing with full
joy, they received the early breezes among the
1 . v. 4. The outer edge of the mountain.
2. v. 12. The branches bent toward the West, for the
breeze was the movement of the air produced by the revolu-
tion of the spheres from East to West. (See verse 103.)
214 PURGATORY [w. 18-43
leaves, which were keeping a burden to their
rhymes, such as gathers from bough to bough
through the pine forest on the shore ofChiassi,3
when Aeolus lets forth the Scirocco.4
Now had my slow steps carried me within
the ancient wood so far that I could not see
back to where I had entered it : and lo, a stream
took from me further progress, which with its
little waves was bending toward the left the grass
that sprang up on its bank. All the waters,
that are purest here on the earth, would seem to
have some mixture in them, compared with that
which hides nothing, although it moves along
dusky under the perpetual shadow,5 which never
lets the sun or moon shine there.
With my feet I stood still, and with my eyes
I passed to the other side of the streamlet, to
gaze at the great variety of the fresh blossoms ;
and there, even as a thing appears suddenly
which turns aside through wonder every other
thought, appeared to me a solitary lady, who
was going along, singing, and culling flower
from flower, wherewith all her path was painted.
" Ah, fair Lady,6 who warmest thyself in the
3. v. 20. Classe, the old port of Ravenna, from which
the sea long since receded.
4. v. 21. The southeast wind.
5. v. 32. Of the dense wood.
6. v. 43. This lady corresponds to Leah as the type of
vv. 44-68] CANTO XXVIII 215
rays of love, if I may trust to looks which are
wont to be witnesses of the heart, may the will
come to thee," said I to her, " to draw forward
toward this stream, so far that I may hear what
thou art singing. Thou makest me remember
where and what was Proserpine, at the time
when her mother lost her,. and she the spring."
As a lady who is dancing turns, with feet
close to the ground and to each other, and
hardly sets foot before foot, she turned on the
red and the yellow flowerets toward me, not
otherwise than a virgin who lowers her modest
eyes, and made my prayers content, approach-
ing so that the sweet sound came to me with its
meaning. So soon as she was there where the
grasses are just bathed by the waves of the fair
stream, she gave me the boon of lifting her
eyes. I do not believe that so great a light
shone beneath the eyelids of Venus, when trans-
fixed by her son quite out of his custom.7 She
was smiling upon the right bank opposite,
gathering with her hands the many colors which
the life of virtuous activity. Her name, as appears later, is
Matilda. Why this name was chosen for her, and whether
she stands for any earthly personage, has been the subject of
vast and still open debate.
7. v. 66. According to Ovid, Metam. x. 525, 526,
Cupid wounded his mother unintentionally, thereby causing
her to love Adonis.
216 PURGATORY ^.69-87
that high land brings forth without seed. The
stream made us three paces apart ; but the
Hellespont where Xerxes passed it — still a
curb on all human pride — endured not more
hatred from Leander for swelling between Sestos
and Abydos, than that from me because it did
not then open. " Ye are new come," she be-
gan, " and, perchance, why I smile in this place
chosen for human nature as its nest, some doubt
holds you marvelling ; but the psalm ' De/ec-
tasti ' 8 affords light which may uncloud your
understanding. And thou who art in front,9 and
didst pray to me, say, if aught else thou wouldst
hear, for I came ready for every question of
thine, so far as may suffice." " The water,"
said I, " and the sound of the forest, impugn
within me recent faith in something which I
heard contrary to this." I0 Whereon she : " I
8. v. 80. Psalm xcii. 4. " Deiectasti me, Domine, in
factura tua, et in operibus mamium tuarum exultabo." " For
thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work ; I will
triumph in the works of thy hands." Delight in the work
of the Lord is the motive of the lady's smile.
9. v. 82. Dante is now preceding his former guides.
10. v. 87. Statius had told Dante (Canto xxi. 43—53)
that the exhalations of water or of earth, which are the cause of
wind and the source of streams, do not rise above the gate of
Purgatory, but the rivulet by which they are standing, and
the breeze which sounds through the forest seem to contradict
his statement.
vv. 88-107] CANTO XXVIII 217
will tell how that which makes thee wonder
proceeds from its own cause ; and I will clear
away the mist which falls upon thee.
" The supreme Good, which Itself alone is
pleasing to Itself, made man good, and for good,
and gave to him this place for earnest of eternal
peace. Through his own default he dwelt here
little while; through his own default he changed
honest laughter and sweet sport to tears and to
toil. In order that the disturbance, which the
exhalations of the water and of the earth (that
follow after the heat so far as they can) produce
down below, should not make any war on man,
this mountain rose so high toward heaven, and
is free from them, from there where it is locked
in. Now because the whole air revolves in a
circuit with the primal revolution," if its circling
be not broken by some obstacle,12 upon this
height, which is wholly disengaged in the living
air, this motion strikes, and makes the wood,
n. v. 1 04. With the movement given to it by the revo-
lution of the crystalline heaven, the so-called Primum Mobile,
from which the other heavenly spheres derive their motion.
iz. v. 105. Literally, «< by some corner." The steady
revolution of the air is broken on the Mount of Purgatory,
which rises free toward the heavens, and thus the breeze is
caused which, stirring the plants that are brought forth with-
out seed, in the Terrestrial Paradise, then carries their virtue
to the inhabited parts of the earth, where, if the soil be fit
and the climate favorable, the trees and the flowers spring up.
218 PURGATORY [w. 108-131
because it is thick-set, resound ; and the plant
thus struck has such power that with its virtue
it impregnates the breeze, and this in its whirl-
ing then scatters it around ; and the rest of the
earth, according as it is fit in itself, or through
its sky, conceives and brings forth divers trees
of divers virtues. It should not then, this
being heard, appear a marvel on earth, when
some plant takes root there without apparent
seed. And thou must know that the holy plain
where thou art is full of every seed, and has
within itself fruit which is never gathered yonder
upon earth.
" The water which thou seest does not rise
from a vein which vapor condensed by the frost
restores, like a stream that gains and loses breath;
but it issues from a constant and sure fountain,
which by the will of God regains as much as it
pours forth open on two sides. On this side
it descends with virtue that takes from one the
memory of sin ; on the other it restores that
of every good deed. On this side it is called
Lethe,13 so on the other Eunoe ; and it works
13. v. 130. Lethe, after flowing through the 'Earthly
Paradise, must be supposed to fall to the foot of the Mountain,
and there to enter the earth, thence wearing its way down to
the centre, bearing thither that which it has washed from
the memory of the purified sinner. It is the little stream the
sound of whose winding course had guided Dante and Virgil
yv. 132-148] CANTO XXVIII 219
not if first it be not tasted on this side then on
that.14 To all other savors this is superior.
" And though thy thirst may be fully sated
even if I reveal no more to thee, I will yet give
thee a corollary as a favor ; nor do I think my
speech will be less dear to thee, if it extend with
thee beyond my promise. Those who in old
time sang of the Golden Age, and of its happy
state, perchance, upon Parnassus, dreamed of
this place : here was the root of mankind in-
nocent ; here is always spring, and every fruit ;
this is the nectar of which each one of them
tells."
I turned me backward then wholly to my
Poets, and saw that with a smile they had heard
the last words ; then to the beautiful Lady I
turned again my eyes.
through the dark cavernous passage by which they passed
from Hell to Purgatory. See Hell, xxxiv. 127-132.
14. v. 132. The water does not produce its full effect
unless both streams be tasted.
CANTO XXIX
The Earthly Paradise. — Mystic Procession or Tri-
umph of the Church.
SINGING like a lady enamored, she, at the
ending of her words, continued : " Beati, quorum
tecta sunt peccata" r And, like the nymphs who
were wont to go solitary through the sylvan
shades, one desiring to see and one to avoid the
sun, she then moved on counter to the stream,
going up along the bank, and I at even pace
with her, following her little step with little.
Of her steps and mine there were not a hundred,
when the banks both alike gave a turn, in such
wise that I faced again toward the east. Nor
even thus had our way been long, when the
lady turned wholly round to me, saying: "My
brother, look and listen." And lo ! a sudden
lustre ran through the great forest on every side,
so that it made me question if it were lightning.
But because the lightning stays even as it comes,2
1. v. 3. " Blessed are they whose transgressions are for'
given." Psalm xxxii. I.
2. v. 19. Its stay is but for the moment of its coming.
vv. 20-45] CANTO XXIX 221
and this, lasting, became more and more re-
splendent, in my thought I said, " What thing
is this ? " And a sweet melody ran through
the luminous air ; whereupon a righteous zeal
made me reproach the hardihood of Eve, who,
there, where the earth and the heavens were
obedient, the only woman, and but just now
formed, did not endure to stay under any veil ;
under which if she had stayed devout, I should
have tasted those ineffable delights before, and
for a longer time. While I was going on amid
so many first fruits of the eternal pleasure, all
enrapt, and still desirous of more joys,3 in front
of us the air, beneath the green branches, be-
came like a blazing fire, and the sweet sound
was now heard as a song.
O Virgins sacrosanct ! if for you I have ever
endured hunger, cold, or vigils, the occasion
spurs me that I claim reward therefor. Now
it behoves that Helicon pour forth for me, and
that Urania aid me with her choir to put into
verse things difficult to think.
A little farther on, the long tract of space
which was still between us and them shewed
3. v. 33. Virgil had told Dante that he should see
Beatrice upon the summit of the Mountain. See Canto vi.
46-48.
222 PURGATORY [w. 46-61
falsely in their seeming seven trees of gold.
But when I had come so near to them that the
common object, which deceives the sense,4 lost
not through distance any of its attributes, the
power which supplies discourse to reason 5 dis-
tinguished them as candlesticks,6 and in the
voices of the song, " Hosanna" On high the
fair array was flaming, brighter by far than
the moon in the clear sky at midnight, in the
middle of her month. I turned me round full
of wonder to the good Virgil, and he replied to
me with a look charged not less with amaze-
ment. Then I turned back my gaze to the
high things, which were moving toward us so
slowly that they would have been outstripped
by new-made brides. The lady chided me :
4. v. 47. An object which has properties common to
many things, so that at a distance the sight cannot distinguish
its specific nature.
5. v. 49. The faculty of perception or apprehension.
See Canto xviii. 22.
6. v. 50. The imagery of the Triumph of the Church
here described is largely taken from the Apocalypse. " And
I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being
turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks." Revelation i.
12. "And there were seven lamps of fire burning before
the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.*' Id. iv.
5. " And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord."
Isaiah xi. 2.
vv. 62-83] CANTO XXIX 223
" Why art thou only thus ardent in gazing on
the living lights, and dost not look at that which
comes behind them ? " Then I saw folk com-
ing behind, as if after their leaders, clothed in
white, and such whiteness there never was on
earth.7 The water was resplendent on the left
flank, and reflected to me my left side, if I
looked in it, even as a mirror. When I had
such position on my bank that only the stream
separated me, in order to see better, I gave halt
to my steps, and I saw the flamelets go for-
ward leaving the air behind them painted, and
they had the semblance of streaming pennons,
so that it remained divided overhead by seven
stripes, all in those colors whereof the sun makes
his bow, and Delia her girdle.8 These banners
stretched to the rear beyond my sight, and ac-
cording to my judgment the outermost were
ten paces apart. Under so fair a sky as I de-
scribe, twenty-four elders,9 two by two, were
7. v. 66. " And his raiment became shining, exceeding
white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white them."
Mark ix. 3.
8. v. 78. Delia, the moon, and her girdle the halo.
9. v. 83. "And round about the throne were four and
twenty seats : and upon the seats I saw four and twenty
elders sitting, clothed in white raiment." Revelation iv. 4.
These four and twenty elders in white raiment, and crowned
with white lilies, white being the color of faith, symbolize
the books of the Old Testament. The reckoning of the
224 PURGATORY [w. 84-105
coming crowned with flower-de-luce. All were
singing : " Blessed art thou among the daugh-
ters of Adam, and blessed forever be thy beau-
ties."
After the flowers and the other fresh herbage,
opposite to me on the other bank, were free
from those folk elect, there came behind them,
even as light follows light in heaven, four liv-
ing creatures, each crowned with green leaves.
Each was feathered with six wings, the feathers
full of eyes ; and the eyes of Argus, if they
were living, would be such. I0 To describe
their forms, Reader, I scatter rhymes no more,
for other spending so constrains me that in this
I cannot be liberal. But read Ezekiel, who de-
picts them as he saw them coming from the cold
quarter with wind, with cloud, and with fire ;
and such as thou wilt find them in his pages
such were they here, save that as to the wings
John is with me, and differs from him,11
number of these books as twenty-four is made by St.
Jerome in his preface to the Scriptures, called Prologus gale-
atusy by counting five books of Moses, eight of the prophets
(those of the twelve minor prophets being reckoned as one),
and eleven of the historical and other books; and these
twenty-four books are symbolized, according to the Saint, by
the four and twenty elders of the Apocalypse.
10. v. 96. The eyes were keen and vigilant as those of
the living Argus.
11. v. 105. These four living creatures, which represent
rv. 106-119] CANTO XXIX 225
The space between these four contained a tri-
umphal chariot upon two wheels, which came
drawn along by the neck of a Griffon.12 And
he stretched up the one and the other of his
wings between the midmost stripe, and the three
and three others, so that he did harm to no one
of them by cleaving it : so high they rose that
they were lost to sight. His members were of
gold so far as he was bird, and the rest were
white mixed with crimson. Not Africanus, or
indeed Augustus, gladdened Rome with so
beautiful a chariot ; I3 but even that of the Sun
would be poor to it, — that of the Sun, which,
going astray,14 was consumed at the prayer of
the four Evangelists, are described by Ezekiel (i. 6) as having
four wings, but in the Revelation (iv. 8) John gives to each
of them six wings : " and they were full of eyes within."
They are crowned with green, as the color of hope ; their
wings may indicate the heavenly nature of the truth of which
they are the messengers, and the eyes their spiritual in-
sight.
12. v. 1 08. The griffon, half eagle and half lion, repre-
sents Christ in his double nature, divine and human. His
head and neck and wings, the parts of him symbolizing his
divine nature, are of gold, while his body, symbolizing his
human nature, is white and crimson, the colors of flesh and
blood. " My beloved is white and ruddy, . . . his head is
as the most fine gold." Song of Solomon v. 10, 11. The
chariot which he draws is the Church.
13. v. 1 1 6. On occasion of their Triumphs.
14. v. 1 1 8. When driven by Phaethon.
226 PURGATORY [w. 120-138
the devout Earth, when Jove in his secrecy was
just. Three ladies/5 at the right wheel, came
dancing in a circle ; one so ruddy that hardly
would she have been noted within the fire ;
the next was as if her flesh and bones had been
made of emerald ; the third seemed as snow
fresh fallen. And now they seemed led by the
white, now by the red,16 and the others took
their step both slow and swift from the song
of her who led. On the left, four,17 robed in
purple, made festival, following the measure
of one of them who had three eyes in her
head.
Behind all the group thus described, I saw
two old men, unlike in dress, but like in de-
meanor, both dignified and staid. The one
showed himself one of the familiars of that su-
preme Hippocrates whom Nature made for the
creatures that she holds most dear; l8 the other
15. v. 121. The theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and
Charity, of the colors respectively appropriate to them.
1 6. v. 128. Hope must always follow Faith or Love.
17. v. 130. The four cardinal Virtues, in purple, the
imperial color, typifying their rule over human conduct, —
Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude : Prudence has
three eyes, as looking at the past, the present, and the future,
and she leads the others because she is *' the directress of all
die moral virtues." S. T. iii. 85. 3.
1 8. v. 138. The book of Acts, represented under the
type of its author, St. Luke, called " the beloved physi-
w. 139-154] CANTO XXIX 227
showed the contrary care/9 with a shining and
sharp sword, such that it caused me fear on the
hither side of the stream. Then I saw four of
humble aspect, and behind all an old man alone,
coming asleep with a keen countenance.20 And
these seven were robed like the first band ;21 but
they made not a crown of lilies round their
heads, rather of roses, and of other red flowers.22
The sight at little distance would have sworn
that all were aflame above their brows.
And when the chariot was abreast of me, a
peal of thunder was heard, and those worthy
people seemed to have their farther progress in-
terdicted, stopping there with the first ensigns.23
dan." Cclossians iv. 14. Man is the creature whom
Nature holds dearest.
19. v. 139. The Pauline Epistles, typified by their
writer, whose sword is the symbol of war and martyrdom, a
''contrary care" to the healing of men.
20. v. 144. The four "humble in appearance" are
the representatives in their writers of the minor Epistles, and
they are followed by St. John, as the writer of the Reve-
lation, asleep, and yet with lively countenance, because he
was " in the Spirit " when he beheld his vision.
21. v. 146. In white raiment.
22. v. 148. The red flowers are symbolic of the fires
of Christian love.
23. v. 154. The seven candlesticks with their pennons.
Veliutello has pointed out that the procession of the Church
is in the form of a cross : the candlesticks forming its foot,
the four and twenty elders its lower limb, the chariot with tne
228 PURGATORY [v. 154
Virtues on either side fashioning its crossing and arms, and the
seven "apparelled like the first band " its upper limb.
The allegory of the procession itself seems to be that the
Church, the Divine institution for bringing sinful men to
God, comes to meet the penitent sinner, manifesting to him
its sublime nature, and receiving him finally (see Canto xxxii.
29) as one of its own members.
CANTO XXX
The Earthly Paradise. — Beatrice appears. — De-
parture of Virgil. — Reproof of Dante by Beatrice.
WHEN the Septentrion of the first heaven x
(which never knew setting nor rising, nor veil
of other cloud than sin, and which was making
every one there acquainted with his duty, as the
lower2 makes him who turns the helm to come
to port) stopped still, the truthful people3 who
had come first between the Griffon and it,4
turned to the chariot as to their peace, and one
of them, as if sent from heaven, singing, cried
thrice: "Veni> sponsa> de Libano"* and all the
others after.
1 . v. i . The seven candlesticks, symbols of the seven-
fold spirit of the Lord, whose abode is the first heaven, the
Empyrean.
2. v. 5. The lower septentrion, or the seven stars of
the Great Bear.
3. v. 7. The personifications of the truthful books of the
Old Testament.
4. v. 8. The septentrion of the first heaven.
5. v. 1 1. " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse."
The Song of Solomon iv. 8. In the Vulgate the Veni is
230 PURGATORY [vv. 13-27
As the blessed at the last trump will arise
swiftly, each from his tomb, singing Hallelujah
with reinvested voice,6 so, upon the divine
wagon, ad vocem tanti senis,7 rose up a hundred
ministers and messengers of life eternal. All
were saying: " Benedictus, qui veniSy' 8 and, scat-
tering flowers above and around, Manibus o date
lilia plenis?
I have seen ere now at the beginning of the
day the eastern region all rosy, and the rest of
heaven beautiful with fair clear sky, and the
face of the sun rising shaded, so that through
the tempering of vapors I0 the eye sustained it
thrice repeated, " Veni de Libano, sponsa mea, veni de Li-
bano, veni."
6. v. 1 5. " And after these things I heard a great voice
of much people in Heaven, saying, Alleluia." Revelation
xix. i.
7. v. 17. " At the voice of so great an elder ; }> these
words are in Latin apparently for the sake of matching the
rhyme with that of the two following verses.
8. v. 19. " Blessed thou that comest," words derived
from Psalm cxviii. 26, and shouted by the multitude at the en-
trance of Jesus to Jerusalem (Matthew xxi. 9), but here used
with a change in the verb from the third to the second person.
9. v. 21. «« Oh, give lilies with full hands;" words
from the Aeneid, vi. 884 ; and whether they are to be taken
as sung by the angels, or as descriptive of the angelic action,
supreme honor is paid to Virgil by their introduction in this
sacred scene.
10. v. 26. The mists at the horizon.
vv. 28-52] CANTO XXX 231
a long while ; thus within a cloud of flowers,
which was ascending from the angelic hands and
falling down again within and without, a lady,
with wreath of olive over a white veil, appeared
to me, robed with the color of living flame
under a green mantle.11 And my spirit which
now for so long a time had not been broken
down, trembling with awe at her presence,
without having more knowledge by the eyes,
through occult virtue that proceeded from her,
felt the great potency of ancient love.
Soon as the lofty virtue smote my sight,
which already had transfixed me ere I was out
of boyhood, I turned me to the left, with the
confidence with which the little child runs to
his mother when he is frightened, or when he
is troubled, to say to Virgil : " Less than a
drachm of blood remains in me that does not
tremble ; I recognize the signals of the ancient
flame." 12 But Virgil had left us deprived of
himself; Virgil, sweetest Father; Virgil, to
whom for my salvation I gave me. Nor did
ill which the ancient mother lost I3 avail unto
11. v. 3 3 . The olive is the symbol of wisdom and of
peace ; the three colors are those of Faith, Charity, and Hope.
12. v. 48. "Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae."
Aeneid iv. 28.
13- v' 53- All the beauty of the Earthly Paradise whicb
Eve lost and which now surrounded Dante.
232 PURGATORY [w. 53-79
rny cheeks, cleansed with dew,14 that they should
not turn dark again with tears.
" Dante,15 though Virgil be gone away, weep
not yet, weep not yet, for by another sword
thou needst must weep."
Like an admiral who, on poop or on prow,
comes to see the people that are serving on the
other ships, and encourages them to do well,
upon the left-hand border of the chariot —
when I turned me at the sound of my own
name, which of necessity is registered here, —
I saw the Lady, who had first appeared to me
veiled beneath the angelic festival, directing her
eyes toward me across the stream. Although
the veil, which descended from her head, circled
by the leaf of Minerva, did not allow her to
appear distinctly, royally, still severe in her
mien, she went on, as one who speaks, and
keeps back his warmest words : " Look at me
well : I am, indeed, I am, indeed, Beatrice.
How hast thou deigned to approach the moun-
tain ? Didst thou not know that here man is
happy ? " My eyes fell down to the clear
fount ; but seeing myself in it I drew them to
the grass, such great shame weighed on my
brow. As to her son the mother seems
14. v. 53. See Canto i. 121—129.
15. v. 55. The only mention of Dante's name in the
poem.
vv, 80-93] CANTOXXX 233
haughty, so she seemed to me ; for somewhat
bitter tastes the savor of tart pity.
She was silent, and the angels sang of a sud-
den : " In tey Domine, speravi ; " but beyond
" pedes meos"16 they did not pass. Even as
the snow, among the living rafters upon the
back of Italy,17 is congealed, blown and packed
by Sclavonian winds, then melting, trickles
through itself, if only the land which loses sha-
dow breathe,18 so that it seems as fire melting
the candle : thus was I without tears and sighs
before the song of them who always sing fol-
lowing the notes of the eternal spheres ; but
1 6. v. 84. " In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust ; let
me never be ashamed : deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow
down thine ear to me ; deliver me speedily : be thou my
strong rock, for an house of defence to save me. For thou art
my rock and my fortress ; therefore for thy name's sake lead
me, and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they have
laid privily for me : for thou art my strength. Into thine hand
I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God
of truth. I have hated them that regard lying vanities : but
I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy :
for thou hast considered my trouble ; thou hast known my
soul in adversities. And hast not shut me up into the hand
of the enemy : thou hast set my feet in a large room."
Psalm xxxi. 1-8.
17. v. 86. The forests upon the Apennines.
1 8. v. 89. The snow, frozen by the winds from the
north, melts when the wind blows from Africa, which, with
advance of the Spring, loses shadow.
234 PURGATORY [vv. 94-116
when I heard in their sweet melodies their com-
passion for me, more than if they had said:
" Lady, why dost thou so confound him ? " the
ice that was bound tight around my heart be-
came breath and water, and with anguish issued
from my breast, through my mouth and through
my eyes.
She, still standing motionless on the afore-
said side of the chariot, then turned her words
to those pious I<? beings thus : " Ye watch in
the eternal day, so that nor night nor slumber
robs from you one step the world may make
along its ways ; wherefore my reply is with
greater care, that he who is weeping yonder
may understand me,20 in order that fault and
grief may be of one measure. Not only through
the working of the great wheels,21 which direct
every seed to some end according as the stars
are its companions, but through largess of di-
vine graces, which have for their rain " vapors
so lofty that our sight goes not near thereto, —
this man was virtually such in his new life,23
that every right disposition would have made
19. v. 101. Both devout and piteous.
20. v. 107. My reply is, for his sake, fuller than is need*
ful for you who know everything that happens in the world.
21. v. 109. The circling heavens.
22. v. 113. As source of their rain.
23. v. 115. In his youth.
vv. 117-145] CANTO XXX 235
admirable proof in him. But so much the
more malign and wild does the ground become
with bad seed and unfilled, as it has the more
of good earthly vigor. Some time did I sustain
him with my face ; showing my youthful eyes
to him, I led him with me turned in right direc-
tion. So soon as I was on the threshold of
my second age, and had changed life, he took
himself from me, and gave himself to others.
When I had risen from flesh to spirit, and
beauty and virtue were increased in me, I was
less dear and less pleasing to him ; and he turned
his steps along a way not true, following false
images of good, which pay no promise in full.
Nor did it avail me to obtain 24 inspirations with
which, both in dream and otherwise, I called
him back ; so little did he heed them. So low
he fell that all means for his salvation were
already short, save showing him the lost peo-
ple. For this I visited the gate of the dead,
and to him, who has conducted him up hither,
my prayers were borne with weeping. The
high decree of God would be broken, if Lethe
should be passed, and such viand25 should be
tasted, without some scot of repentance which
may pour forth tears."
24. v. 133. Through the grace of God.
25. v. 143. The living water of Lethe, which takes
away the memory of committed sin.
CANTO XXXI
The Earthly Paradise. — Reproachful discourse of
Beatrice, and confession of Dante. — Passage of Lethe.
— Appeal of the Virtues to Beatrice. — Her Unveiling.
" O THOU, who art on the farther side of the
sacred river," turning her speech to me with
the point, which only with the edge had seemed
to me keen, she began anew, going on without
delay, " Say, say, if this is true : to so heavy a
charge thine own confession must needs be con-
joined." My faculties were so confused, that
the voice moved, and became extinct before it
had been released from its organs. A little
while she waited, then said : " What thinkesf
thou ? Reply to me ; for the sad memories in
thee are not yet injured by the water." ' Con-
fusion and fear mingled together forced such a
" Yes " from out my mouth, that the eyes were
needed for the hearing of it.
As a cross-bow breaks its cord and its bow
when it shoots with too great tension, and the
shaft hits the mark with less force, so did I
i. v. 12. Are still vivid, not yet obliterated by the
water of Lethe.
vv. 19-43] CANTO XXXI 237
burst under that heavy load, pouring forth tears
and sighs, and the voice slackened along its
passage. Whereupon she to me : " Within
those desires of mine 2 that were leading thee
to love the Good beyond which there is no-
thing to which one may aspire, what trenches
running traverse, or what chains didst thou find,
for which thou shouldst thus have despoiled
thyself of the hope of passing onward ? And
what satisfactions, or what advantages were dis-
played on the brow of the others, for which
thou shouldst have lingered before them ? "
After the drawing of a bitter sigh, hardly had
I the voice to make answer, and the lips with
difficulty gave it form. Weeping, I said :
" The present things with their false pleasure
turned my steps, soon as your face was hid-
den/' And she : " Hadst thou been silent, or
hadst thou denied that which thou dost confess,
thy fault would not be less known, by such a
Judge is it known. But when the accusation
of the sin bursts from one's own mouth, in our
court the wheel turns itself back against the
edge.3 Yet still, that thou mayst now bear
2. v. 22. Inspired by me.
3. v. 42. The grindstone turns back against that which
is being sharpened, and blunts its edge. The edge of the
sword of Divine justice is blunted by Divine mercy for the
penitent sinner.
238 PURGATORY [vv. 44-67
shame for thy error, and that another time,
hearing the Sirens, thou mayst be stronger, lay
aside the sowing of tears,4 and listen ; so shalt
thou hear how my buried flesh should have
moved thee in opposite direction. Never did
nature or art present to thee pleasure such as
the fair limbs wherein I was enclosed, and which
are scattered in earth. And if the supreme
pleasure 3 thus failed thee through my death,
what mortal thing should afterward have drawn
thee into its desire ? Forsooth thou oughtest,
at the first arrow of things fallacious, have risen
upward after me, who was no longer such.
Nor oughtest thou to have weighed thy wings
downward to await more blows, either of some
young girl or other vanity of so brief a use.
The young bird awaits two or three ; but before
the eyes of the full-fledged, the net is spread
in vain, or the arrow shot." 6
As children, silent in shame, with their eyes
upon the ground, stand listening and conscience-
stricken and repentant, so was I standing. And
4. v. 46. " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy."
Psalm cxxvi. 5.
5. v. 52. The beauty of Beatrice was as a miracle lift-
ing the heart, not only of her lover but also of all who saw
her, toward God. See The New Life, xxvii., xxx.
6. v. 63. " Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight
Pf any bird." Proverbs \. 17.
vv. 68-88J CANTO XXXI 239
she said : " Since thou art grieved through hear-
ing, lift up thy beard, and thou shalt take
greater grief from seeing." With less resistance
is a sturdy oak uprooted by a native wind, or
by one from the land of larbas,7 than I raised
my chin at her command ; and when by the
beard she asked for my eyes, truly I recognized
the venom of the argument.8 And when my face
was lifted up, my sight perceived that those pri-
mal creatures were resting from their strewing,9
and my eyes, still little assured, saw Beatrice
turned toward the animal that is one person
only in two natures.10 Beneath her veil, and
beyond the stream, she seemed to me more to
surpass her ancient self, than she seemed to sur-
pass all others here when she was here. So
pricked me there the nettle of repentance, that
of all other things the one which most had
turned me to its love became the most my foe."
Such self-conviction stung my heart that 1
7. v. 72. From the South; the land of larbas, the son
of Jupiter Ammon, was Libya, of which he was king.
Aeneid, iv. 196.
8. v. 75. Because indicating the lack of that wisdom
which should pertain to manhood.
9. v. 78. Of flowers.
10. v. 81. The Griifon, the type of Chrst, God and
Man.
11. v. 87. That object which had most seduced me
from the love of Beatrice was now the most hateful to me.
240 PURGATORY [w. 89-108
fell overcome ; and what I then became she
knows who afforded me the cause.
Then, when my heart restored my outward
faculties, I saw above me the lady whom I had
found alone,12 and she was saying : " Hold me,
hold me." She had drawn me into the stream
up to the throat, and dragging me after her was
moving over the water, light as a shuttle. When
I was near the blessed shore,13 I heard " Asper-
ges me " 14 so sweetly that I cannot remember
it, far less can write it. The beautiful lady
opened her arms, clasped my head, and im-
mersed me where I had perforce to swallow
of the water. Then she took me, and pre-
sented me, thus bathed, within the dance of the
four beautiful ones,15 and each of them covered
me with her arm. " Here we are nymphs, and
in heaven we are stars : l6 before Beatrice had
descended to the world we were ordained unto
her for her handmaids. We will lead thee
12. v. 92. On his entrance to the Earthly Paradise.
*3- v* 97- The blessed bank, because on that side of
the stream was Beatrice, and because when Dante reaches it,
having drunk of the water of Lethe, he will have lost the
bitter memories of sin.
14. v. 98. The first words of the seventh verse of the
fifty-first Psalm : " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean : wash me, and 1 shall be whiter than snow. ' '
15. v. 104. The four Cardinal Virtues.
1 6. v. 1 06. See Canto i. 23.
vv. 109-133] CANTO XXXI
to her eyes ; but for the joyous light which is
within them, the three yonder who look more
deeply shall sharpen thine own." I? Thus sing-
ing, they began ; and then to the breast of the
Griffon they led me with them, where Beatrice
was standing turned toward us. They said :
" See that thou spare not thy sight : we have
placed thee before the emeralds, whence Love
of old drew his darts against thee." A thou-
sand desires hotter than flame bound fast my
eyes to the relucent eyes which ever stayed
fixed upon the Griffon. Not otherwise than as
the sun in a mirror, was the twofold animal
gleaming therewithin, now with one, now with
the other mode of being.18
Think, Reader, if I marvelled when I saw the
thing stay quiet in itself, and in its image trans-
muting itself.
While, full of awe and glad, my soul was
tasting that food which, sating in itself, causes
longing for itself, the other three, showing
themselves of the loftier order in their bearing,
came forward dancing to their angelic carol.
" Turn, Beatrice, turn thy holy eyes," was their
17. v. 1 1 1 . The Cardinal Virtues lead up to Theology,
or the revealed knowledge of Divine things, but the Evangelic
Virtues are needed to penetrate within them.
1 8. v. 123. The divine and the human, united in tho
Griffon.
242 PURGATORY [vv. 134-145
song, " upon thy faithful one, who to see thee
has taken so many steps. Of thy grace do us
the grace that thou unveil to him thy mouth,
so that he may discern the second beauty which
thou dost conceal." I9
O splendor of living light eternal ! Who
has become so pallid under the shadow of Par-
nassus, or has so drunk at its cistern, that he
would not seem to have his mind encumbered,
trying to render thee as thou didst appear there
where with its harmony the heaven hangs over
thee, when in the open air thou didst thyself
disclose ?
19. v. 138. "The eyes of Wisdom archer demonstra-
tions by which one sees the truth most surely ; and her smile
is her persuasions in which the interior light of Wisdom is
displayed without any veil ; and in these two is felt that
loftiest pleasure of Beatitude, which is the chief good in
Paradise." Convito, iii. 15.
CANTO XXXII
The Earthly Paradise. — Return of the Triumphal
procession. — The Chariot bound to the Mystic Tree. —
Sleep of Dante. — His waking to find the Triumph de~
parted. — Transformation of the Chariot. — The Harlot
and the Giant.
So fixed and intent were my eyes to relieve
their ten years' thirst, that my other senses were
all extinct : and they themselves, on one side
and the other, had a wall of indifference, so did
the holy smile draw them to itself with the
ancient net ; when perforce my sight was turned
toward my left by those goddesses,1 because I
heard from them a " Too fixedly."2 And the
condition which exists for seeing, in eyes but
just now smitten by the sun, caused me to be
for a while without sight. But when my vision
reshaped itself to the lesser sensation (I say to
the lesser, in respect to the great one where-
1. v. 8. The three heavenly Virtues.
2. v. 9. " Thou lookest too intently ; thou hast yet to
learn much before thou canst penetrate to the depths of the
Divine mysteries.'*
244 PURGATORY [vv. 15-34
from by force I had removed myself),3 I saw
that the glorious army had wheeled upon its
right flank, and was returning with the sun and
with the seven flames in its face.
As under its shields to protect itself a troop
turns and wheels with its banner, before it all
can change about,4 that soldiery of the celestial
realm which was in advance had wholly gone
past us, before its front beam 5 had bent the
chariot round. Then to the wheels the ladies
returned,6 and the Griffon moved his blessed
burden, in such wise however that no feather of
him shook. The beautiful lady who had drawn
me at the ford, and Statius and I were following
the wheel which made its orbit with the smaller
arc.7 Thus passing through the lofty wood,
empty through fault of her who trusted to the
serpent, an angelic song set the time to our
steps. Perhaps an arrow loosed from the
3 . v. I 5 . The splendor of the procession was not to be
compared with the dazzling brightness of Beatrice.
4. v. 21. The vanguard with the banner turns before
the rear faces about.
5. v. 24. Its pole.
6. v. 25. The four ladies had come from the left wheel
of the chariot to lead Dante to the eyes of Beatrice, and the
other three had advanced from the right wheel to pray her to
unveil her smile to him.
7. v. 30. The right-hand wheel, the turn being made
(v. 1 6) to the right.
^v- 35-49] CANTO XXXII 245
string had traversed in three flights as great a
distance as we had advanced, when Beatrice
descended. I heard " Adam ! " murmured by
all : 8 then they encircled a plant despoiled of
flowers and of other leafage on every bough.9
Its tresses, which the wider spread the higher
up they are,10 would be wondered at for height
by the Indians in their woods.
" Blessed art thou, Griffon, that thou dost
not break off with thy beak of this wood sweet to
the taste, since the belly is ill racked thereby/'
Thus around the sturdy tree the others cried ;
and the animal of two natures : " Thus is pre-
served the seed of all righteousness." " And
turning to the pole which he had drawn, he
8. v. 37. In reproach of him who had in disobedience
tasted of the fruit of this tree. " O thou Adam, what hast
thou done ? For though it was thou that sinned, thou art not
fallen alone, but we all that come of thee." 2 Esdras vii.
48.
9. v. 39. By the disobedience of Adam the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, the type of the law of God, was
despoiled of virtue until the obedience of Christ restored it.
10. v. 41. The branches of the Tree of Knowledge
spread widest as they are nearest to the Divine Source of
truth.
11. v. 45. "For as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous." "That as sin had reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life, by Jesus Christ, our Lord." Romans v. 19, 21.
446 PURGATORY [vv. 50-64
dragged it to the foot of the widowed trunk,
and that which was of it I2 he left bound to it.
As when the great light falls downward
mingled with that which shines behind the
celestial Carp,13 our plants become swollen, and
then renew themselves, each in its own color,
before the sun yokes his coursers under another
star, so, disclosing a color less than of roses and
more than of violets, the plant renewed itself,
which at first had its boughs so bare.14 I did
not understand, nor here I5 is sung, the hymn
which that folk then sang, nor did I bear the
melody to the end.
If I could portray how the pitiless eyes x*
12. v. 51. The pole, the mystic type of the cross of
Christ, which was, according to an old legend, made of the
wood of this tree. The fastening of the Chariot, the type
of the Church, to the tree seems intended to symbolize the
bestowal by God upon the Church of such knowledge of
good and evil as was requisite for the discharge of its functions
upon earth, and also the fact that these functions could only
be fulfilled by obedience to the law of God.
13. v. 54. In the spring, when the Sun is in the sign
of the Ram, which follows that of the Fishes, here termed the
Carp, and its great light is mingled with that of the constel-
lation.
14. v. 60. The obedience of Christ restores the flowers
and foliage to the tree, for through his life and teaching was the
Law of God revealed, as through his death it was vindicated.
15. v. 61. On earth.
1 6. v. 65. The hundred eyes of Argus, who, when
vv. 65-80] CANTO XXXII 247
sank to slumber, while hearing of Syrinx, — •
the eyes to which much watching cost so dear,
— like a painter who paints from a model
I would depict how I fell asleep ; but whoso
would, let him be one who can represent slum-
ber well.17 Therefore I pass on to when I
awoke, and I say that a splendor rent for me
the veil of sleep, and a call : " Arise, what doest
thou ? "
As, to see some of the flowerets of the apple-
tree l8 which makes the Angels greedy for its
fruit,19 and makes perpetual marriage feasts in
Heaven,20 Peter and John and James were led,21
and being overcome, came to themselves at the
word by which greater slumbers 22 were broken,
and saw their band diminished alike by Moses
watching lo, fell asleep while listening to the tale of the loves
of Pan and Syrinx, and was then slain by Mercury. See
Ovid, Metam., i. 568—721.
17. v. 69. The sleep of Dante may signify the impo-
tency of human reason to explain the mysteries of redemption.
1 8. v. 73. "As the apple-tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the sons/' The Song of
Solomon ii. 3.
19. v. 74. The full glory of Christ in Heaven.
20. v. 75. The marriage supper of the Lamb. Rev-
elation xix. 9.
21. v. 76. To behold at the Transfiguration Moses and
Elias, flowerets of the apple-tree. Matthew xvii. I— 8.
22. v. 78. Those of the dead called back to life by
Jesus.
248 PURGATORY [vv. 81-103
and Elias, and the raiment of their Master
changed, so I came to myself, and saw that
compassionate one standing above me, who had
before been conductress of my steps along the
stream ; and all in doubt I said : " Where is
Beatrice ? " And she : " Behold her under the
new leafage, sitting upon its root. Behold the
company which surrounds her ; the rest are
going on high behind the Griffon, with sweeter
song and more profound." 23 And if her speech
was further poured forth I know not, because
already in my eyes was she who from attending
to aught else had closed me in. She was sit-
ting alone upon the bare ground, like a guard
left there of the chariot which I had seen bound
by the biform animal. In a circle the seven
Nymphs were making of themselves an enclo-
sure for her, with those lights in their hands
which are secure from Aquilo and from Aus-
ter.**
"Here shalt thou be short time a forester;
and thou shalt be with me without end a citizen
of that Rome whereof Christ is a Roman.
Therefore for profit of the world which lives
23. v. 90. Christ having ascended, Beatrice, the type
of Theology, or the knowledge of the things of God, is left
seated by the chariot, the type of the Church on earth.
24. v. 99. From the north wind or the south ; that is,
from any earthly blast.
vv. 104-126] CANTO XXXII 249
ill, keep now thine eyes upon the chariot ; and
what thou seest, mind that thou write when thou
hast returned to earth." Thus Beatrice ; and I,
who at the feet of her commands was all devout,
gave my mind and my eyes where she willed.
Never with so swift a motion did fire descend
from a dense cloud, when it falls from that re-
gion which stretches most remote, as I saw the
bird of Jove swoop down through the tree,
breaking the bark, as well as the flowers and
new leaves ; and he struck the chariot with all
his force, whereat it reeled, like a ship in a tem-
pest beaten by the waves now to starboard, now
to larboard.25 Then I saw a she fox,26 which
seemed fasting from all good food, leap into
the body of the triumphal vehicle ; but, rebuk-
ing her for her ugly sins, my Lady turned her
to such flight as her fleshless bones allowed.27
Then, from there whence he had first come, I
saw the eagle descend down into the ark of
the car and leave it feathered from himself.28
25. v. 1 1 7 . The descent of the eagle, — the type of the
Empire, — breaking the tree, symbolizes the disobedience of
the emperors to the law of God ; and the attack on the char-
iot their persecution of the Church.
26. v. 1 19. The fox represents the early heresies.
27. v. 123. Heresy is refuted by that knowledge of
divine things which is held by the Church, and of which
Beatrice is the type.
28. v. 1 26. The feathering of the car is the type of the
250 PURGATORY 0^.127-147
And a voice, such as issues from a heart that is
afflicted, issued from Heaven, and thus spoke :
" O little bark of mine, how ill art thou laden ! "
Then it seemed to me that the earth opened be-
tween the two wheels, and I saw a dragon issue
from it, who fixed his tail upward through the
chariot : and, like a wasp that retracts its sting,
drawing to himself his malignant tail, he drew
out part of the floor, and went wandering
away.29 That which remained covered itself
again, as lively soil with grass, with the plum-
age, offered perhaps with sane and benign in-
tention ; and both one and the other wheel and
the pole were again covered with it in such time
that a sigh holds the mouth open longer.30
Thus transformed, the holy structure put forth
heads upon its parts, three upon the pole, and
one on each corner.31 The first were horned
like oxen, but the four had a single horn upon
the forehead.32 A like monster was never seen
donation of Constantine, — the temporal endowment of the
Church.
29. v. 135. The dragging off by the dragon of a part
of the car may figure the schism of the Greek Church in the
9th century.
30. v. 141. This new feathering signifies the fresh and
fapidly growing endowments of the Church.
31. v. 144. The imagery is derived, as before, from
the Apocalypse. "And behold a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns." Revelation xii. 3.
32. v. 146. The seven heads have been interpreted as
vv. 148-160] CANTO XXXII 251
before. Secure, as a fortress on a high moun-
tain, there appeared to me a dishevelled har-
lot sitting upon it, with bold brows glancing
round.33 And, as if in order that she should
not be taken from him, I saw a giant standing
at her side, and now and then they kissed each
other. But because she turned her lustful and
roving eye on me that fierce paramour scourged
her from head to foot. Then full of jealousy,
and cruel with anger, he loosed the monster,
and dragged it through the wood so far, that he
made of that alone a shield from me for the
harlot and for the strange beast.34
the seven mortal sins, which grew up in the transformed
church, the result of its wealth and temporal power. Pride,
Envy, and Anger are two-horned as being sins against others,
Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust have each a single horn
as sins against one's self alone.
33. v. 150. "I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-col-
oured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads
and ten horns.'* Revelation xvii. 3.
34. v. 1 60. The harlot and the giant stand respectively
for the Pope and the king of France. The meaning of the
turning of her eyes upon Dante by the harlot is obscure, and
no satisfactory interpretation of it has been proposed ; the
dragging of the car, transformed into a monster, through the
wood, so far as to hide it from the poet, may be taken as
typifying the removal of the seat of the Papacy from Rome
to Avignon, in 1305.
CANTO XXXIII
The Earthly Paradise. — Prophecy of Beatrice con-
cerning one who shall restore the Empire. — Her dis-
course with Dante. — The river Eunoe. — Dante drinks
of //, and is fit to ascend to Heaven.
" Deus, venerunt gentes" ' the ladies began,
alternating, now three now four, a sweet psalm-
ody, and weeping ; and Beatrice, sighing and
pitiful, was listening to them with such as-
pect that scarce was Mary at the cross more
changed. But when the other virgins gave
place to her to speak, risen upright upon her
feet, she answered, colored like fire : " Modi-
cum, et non videbitis me, et iterum, my beloved
Sisters, modicum^ et vos videbitis me." 2 Then
she set all the seven in front of her; and behind
1 . v. I . The first words of the seventy-ninth Psalm :
" O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance ; thy
holy temple have they defiled ; they have laid Jerusalem on
heaps." The whole Psalm, picturing the actual desolation
of the Church, but closing with confident prayer to the Lord
to restore his people, is sung by the holy ladies.
2. v. 12. "A little while and ye shall not see me : and
again, a little while and ye shall see me." John xvi. 16.
An answer and promise corresponding to the complaint and
the petition of the Psalm.
vv. 13-36] CANTO XXXIII 253
her, by a sign only, she placed me, and the Lady,
and the Sage who had remained.3 Thus she
moved on ; and I do not think her tenth step
had been set upon the ground, when with her
eyes she smote mine, and with tranquil aspect
said to me : " Come more forward, so that if
I speak with thee, thou mayst be well placed
for listening to me." So soon as I was with
her as I should be, she said to me : " Brother,
why dost thou not venture to question me, now
thou art coming with me ? "
As befalls those who with exceeding rever-
ence are speaking in presence of their superiors,
that they drag not their voice living to the
teeth,4 it befell me that without perfect utter-
ance I began : " My Lady, you know my need,
and that which is good for it." And she to
me : " From fear and from shame I wish that
thou henceforth disentangle thyself, so that thou
mayst speak no more like one who dreams.
Know thou, that the vessel which the serpent
broke 5 was, and is not ; 6 but let him who has
the blame thereof7 think that the vengeance of
3. v. 15. The lady, Matilda, and the sage, Statius.
4. v. 27. Are unable to speak with distinct words.
5. v. 34. The body of the chariot broken by the dragon.
6. v. 35. "The beast that thou sawest was, and is
not." Revelation xvii. 8.
7. v. 35. For the disappearance of the chariot.
254 PURGATORY [vv. 37-47
God fears not sops.8 The eagle that left its
feathers on the car, whereby it became a mon-
ster, and then a prey, shall not be for all time
without an heir ; for I see surely, and therefore
I tell it, stars already close at hand, secure from
every obstacle and from every hindrance, to
give to us a time in which a Five hundred, Ten,
and Five sent by God shall slay the abandoned
woman together with that giant who is sinning
with her.9 And perchance my narration, dark
like that of Themis and the Sphinx,10 less per-
8. v. 36. According to a belief, which the old com-
mentators report as commonly held by the Florentines, if a
murderer could contrive, within nine days of the murder, to
eat a sop of bread dipped in wine, above the grave of his
victim, he would escape from the vengeance of the family of
the murdered man. The meaning of the words is, Let not
him who has carried away the chariot, now become a mon-
ster, fancy that any means he may take can avert the ven-
geance of God for the wrong.
9. v. 45. This dark prophecy does not admit of a com-
plete interpretation. Beatrice declares that the empire, which
had been in Dante's view practically vacant, should not re-
main so indefinitely. She sees near at hand a 515, in Ro-
man numerals a DXV, which letters by transposition form
DVX, "a leader,'' sent by God, who shall reestablish the
Divine order upon earth. The prophecy is so positive that
it seems probable that it was written when Dante's hopes
were high as to the results of Henry VII. 's expedition to Italy
in 1310.
10. v. 47. Obscure as the oracles of Themis or the
enigmas of the Sphinx.
vv. 48-66] CANTO XXXIII 255
suades thee, because after their fashion it clouds
the understanding. But soon the facts will be
the Naiades " which shall solve this difficult
enigma, without harm of flocks or of harvest.
Do thou note ; and even as these words are
uttered by me, so do thou teach them to those
alive with that life which is a running unto
death ; and bear in mind when thou writest
them, not to conceal what thou hast seen the
plant, which here has now been twice de-
spoiled.12 Whoever robs or breaks it, with
blasphemy of deed offends God, who for His
own use alone created it holy. For biting it, the
first soul, in pain and in desire, for five thou-
sand years and more, longed for Him who pun-
ished on Himself the bite. Thy wit sleeps, if
it deem not that for a special reason it is so
lofty and so inverted at its top.13 And if thy
11. v. 49. According to a blunder in the manuscripts
of Ovid's Me tarn., vii. 759, the Naiades solved the riddles of
the oracles, at which Themis, offended, sent forth a wild
beast to ravage the flocks and fields. The correct reading is
Laiades, that is, Oedipus, the son of Laius ; but this emen-
dation was not made till the seventeenth century.
12. v. 57. First by Adam, secondly by the giant who
took from it "that which was of it." Canto xxxii. 51,
158.
13. v. 66. Inverted at its top, that is, with its upper
branches more wide-spread than its lower. See Canto xxxii.
40-41.
256 PURGATORY [w. 67-89
vain thoughts had not been as water of Elsa M
round about thy mind, and their pleasantness
as Pyramus to the mulberry,15 by so many cir-
cumstances alone thou wouldst have recognized
morally the justice of God in the interdict upon
the tree. But though I see thee in thy under-
standing made of stone, and thus stony, dark,
so that the light of my speech dazzles thee,
I yet would have thee bear it hence within
thee, even if not written, at least depicted, for
the reason that the pilgrim's staff is carried
wreathed with palm." "6 And I : " Even as wax,
which does not change the figure imprinted by
a seal, is my brain now stamped by you. But
why do your desired words fly so far above
my sight, that the more it strives the more it
loses them ? " "In order that thou mayst
know," she said, " that school which thou hast
followed, and mayst see how its doctrine can
follow my word;17 and mayst see that your
way is distant so far from the divine, as the
14. v. 67. A river of Tuscany, whose waters have a
petrifying quality.
15. v. 69. Darkening thy mind as the blood of Pyra-
mus dyed the mulberry.
1 6. v. 78. If not clearly inscribed, at least so imprinted
on the mind, that, like the palm on the returning pilgrim's
staff, it may be a sign of where thou hast been and of what
thou hast seen.
17. v. 87. How far its doctrine is from my teaching.
vv. 90-112] CANTO XXXIII 257
heaven which highest hastens on is remote
from earth." l8 Whereon I replied to her : " I
do not remember that I ever estranged myself
from you, nor have I conscience of it that re-
proaches me/' "And if thou canst not remem-
ber it," she replied smiling, " now call to mind
how this very day thou hast drunk of Lethe;
and if from the smoke fire is inferred, this thy
forgetfulness clearly proves fault in thy will
intent elsewhere.10 Truly my words shall
henceforth be naked so far as it is befitting to
uncover them to thy rude sight."
And more flashing, and with slower steps,
the sun was holding the circle of the meridian,
which appears here or there according to the
point of view,20 when, as he, who goes in ad-
vance of people as a guide, halts if he find
some strange thing on his track, the seven ladies
halted at the edge of a pale shadow, such as
beneath green leaves and black boughs the Alp
casts over its cold streams. In front of them,
it seemed to me I saw Euphrates and Tigris
1 8. v. 90. " For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah iv. 9.
19. v. 96. The having been obliged to drink of Lethe
is the proof that thou hadst sin to be forgotten, and that thy
will had turned thee to other things than me.
20. v. 105. Which shifts as seen from one place at
another.
258 PURGATORY [vv. 113-136
issue from one fountain, and, like friends, depart
slowly from one another.
" O light, O glory of the human race, what
water is this which here pours forth from one
source, and from itself divides itself away ? "
To this prayer answer was made to me : " Pray
Matilda21 that she tell it to thee." And here-
upon the beautiful Lady answered, as one who
frees himself from blame : " This and other
things have been told to him by me; and I am
sure that the water of Lethe has not hidden
them from him." And Beatrice : " Perhaps a
greater care, which oftentimes takes the memory
away, has darkened the eyes of his mind. But
behold Eunoe,22 which flows forth yonder, lead
him to it, and, as thou art wont, revive his life-
less power." As a gentle soul which makes not
excuse, but makes its own will of another's will,
soon as by a sign it is outwardly disclosed, even
so, when I had been taken by her, the beautiful
Lady moved on, and to Statius she said, with
manner of a lady, " Come with him."
If I had, Reader, longer space for writing, I
21. v. 119= Here for the first and only time is the
beautiful Lady called by name.
22. v. 127. Eunoe, "the memory of good," whicn
its waters restore to the purified soul. See Canto xxviii.
1 29— 1 3 1 . The poetic conception of this fair stream is exciu«
sively Dante's own.
vv. 137-145] CANTO XXXIII 259
would in part at least sing of the sweet draught
which never would have sated me ; but, be-
cause all the leaves destined for this second
canticle are full, the curb of my art lets me go
no farther.
I returned from the most holy wave, reani-
mate, even as new plants renewed with new
foliage, pure and disposed to mount unto the
stars.
PARADISE
CONTENTS
CANTO I
Proem. — Invocation. — Beatrice, and Dante trans-
humanized, ascend through the Sphere of Fire toward
the Moon. — Beatrice explains the cause of then- as-
cent 1
CANTO II
Proem. — Ascent to the Moon. — The cause of Spots
on the Moon. — Influence of the Heavens . . I o
CANTO III
The Heaven of the Moon. — Spirits whose vows had
been broken. — Piccarda Donati. — The Empress
Constance 19
CANTO IV
Doubts of Dante, respecting the justice of Heaven and
the abode of the blessed, solved by Beatrice. — Ques-
tion of Dante as to the possibility of reparation for
broken vows . ... - V • .... . • . 26
CANTO V
The sanctity of vows, and the seriousness with which
they are to be made or changed. — Ascent to the
Heaven of Mercury. — The shade of Justinian . . 34
iv CONTENTS
CANTO VI
Justinian tells of his own life. — The story of the Ro-
man Eagle. — Spirits in the planet Mercury. —
Romeo 41
CANTO VII
Discourse of Beatrice. — The Fall of Man. — The
scheme of his Redemption 49
CANTO VIII
Ascent to the Heaven of Venus. — Spirits of Lovers.
— Charles Martel. — His discourse on the order and
the varieties in mortal things . 56
CANTO IX
The planet Venus. — Conversation of Dante with
Cunizza da Romano. — With Folco of Marseilles. —
Rahab. — Avarice of the Papal Court .... 66
CANTO X
Ascent to the Sun. — Spirits of the wise, and the learned
in theology. — St. Thomas Aquinas. — He names
to Dante those who surround him 76
CANTO XI
The Vanity of worldly desires. — St. Thomas Aquinas
undertakes to solve two doubts perplexing Dante. —
He narrates the life of St. Francis of Assisi ... 85
CANTO XII
Second circle of the spirits of wise religious men, doc-
tors of the Church and teachers. — St. Bonaventura
CONTENTS v
narrates the life of St. Dominic, and tells the names
of those who form the circle with him . . . . 93
CANTO XIII
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks again, and explains the
relation of the wisdom of Solomon to that of Adam
and of Christ, and declares the vanity of human
judgment IO2
CANTO XIV
At the prayer of Beatrice, Solomon tells of the glori-
fied body of the blessed after the Last Judgment. —
Ascent to the Heaven of Mars. — Spirits of the Sol-
diery of Christ in the form of a Cross with the figure
of Christ thereon. — Hymn of the Spirits . . .ill
CANTO XV
Dante is welcomed by his ancestor, Cacciaguida. — Cac-
ciaguida tells of his family, and of the simple life of
Florence in the old days 1 1 8
CANTO XVI
The boast of blood. — Cacciaguida continues his dis-
course concerning the old and the new Florence . .126
CANTO XVII
Dante questions Cacciaguida as to his fortunes. — Cac-
ciaguida replies, foretelling the exile of Dante, and
the renown of his Poem 137
CANTO XVIII
The Spirits in the Cross of Mars. — Ascent to the
Heaven of Jupiter. — Words shaped in light upon
vi CONTENTS
the planet by the Spirits. — Denunciation of the ava-
rice of the Popes 1 44
CANTO XIX
The voice of the Eagle. — It speaks of the mysteries of
Divine justice ; of the necessity of Faith for salva-
tion ; of the sins of certain kings 151
CANTO XX
The song of the Just. — Princes who have loved right-
eousness, in the eye of the Eagle. — Spirits, once
Pagans, in bliss. — Faith and Salvation. — Predesti-
nation 159
CANTO XXI
Ascent to the Heaven of Saturn. — Spirits of those who
had given themselves to devout contemplation. — The
Golden Stairway. — St. Peter Damian. — Predesti-
nation. — The luxury of modern Prelates. — Dante
alarmed by a cry of the spirits 1 66
CANTO XXII
Beatrice reassures Dante. — St. Benedict appears. —
He tells of the founding of his Order, and of the
falling away of its brethren. — Beatrice and Dante
ascend to the Starry Heaven. — The constellation of
the Twins. — Sight of the Earth . . • . . .173
CANTO XXIII
The Triumph of Christ . . . c'V 1 80
CANTO XXIV
St. Peter examines Dante concerning Faith, and ap-
proves his answer 186
CONTENTS vii
CANTO XXV
St. James examines Dante concerning Hope. — St. John
appears, with a brightness so dazzling as to deprive
Dante, for the time, of sight 193
CANTO XXVI
St. John examines Dante concerning Love. — Dante's
sight restored. — Adam appears, and answers ques-
tions put to him by Dante 201
CANTO XXVII
Denunciation by St. Peter of his degenerate successors.
— Dante gazes upon the Earth. — Ascent of Bea-
trice and Dante to the Crystalline Heaven. — Its
nature. — Beatrice rebukes the covetousness of mor-
tals 208
CANTO XXVIII
The Heavenly Hierarchy 216
CANTO XXIX
Discourse of Beatrice concerning the creation and nature
of the Angels. — She reproves the presumption and
foolishness of preachers 223
CANTO XXX
Ascent to the Empyrean. — The River of Light. —
The celestial Rose. — The seat of Henry VII. —
The last words of Beatrice . . 231
CANTO XXXI
The Rose of Paradise. — St. Bernard. — Prayer to Bea-
trice. — The glory of the Blessed Virgin . . .238
viii CONTENTS
CANTO XXXII
St. Bernard describes the order of the Rose, and points
out many of the Saints. — The children in Para-
dise. — The angelic festival. — The patricians of
the Court of Heaven 244
CANTO XXXIII
Prayer to the Virgin. — The Beatific Vision. — The
Ultimate Salvation .......... 252
PARADISE
CANTO I
Proem. — Invocation. — Beatrice, and Dante trans*
humanized, ascend through the Sphere of Fire toward the
Moon. — Beatrice explains the cause of their ascent.
THE glory of Him who moves everything
penetrates through the universe, and is resplen-
dent in one part more and in another less. In
the heaven which receives most of His light I
have been,1 and have seen things which he who
descends from thereabove neither knows how
nor has power to recount ; because, drawing
near to its own desire,2 our intellect enters so
deep, that the memory cannot follow after.
Truly whatever of the Holy Realm I could
treasure up in my mind shall now be the theme
of my song.
O good Apollo, for this last labor make me
such a vessel of thy worth as thou demandest
1. v. 5. The Empyrean. See Dante's Letter to Can
Grande, §§ 24, 25.
2. v. 7. The innate desire of the soul is to attain the
vision of God, in which " ultimate and perfect beatitude con-
sists." S. T. ii.1 3. 8.
2 PARADISE [vv. 15-32
for the gift of the beloved laurel.3 Thus far
one summit of Parnassus has been enough for
me, but now with both4 I need to enter the
remaining arena. Enter into my breast, and
breathe thou in such wise as when thou drew-
est Marsyas from out the sheath of his limbs.5
O divine Power, if thou lend thyself to me so
that I may make manifest the image of the
Blessed Realm imprinted within my head, thou
shalt see me come to thy chosen tree, and
crown myself then with those leaves of which
the theme and thou will make me worthy. So
rarely, Father, are they gathered for triumph or
of Caesar or of poet, (fault and shame of
human wills,) that the Peneian leaf6 should
bring forth joy unto the joyous Delphic deity,
3. v. 15. So inspire me in this labor that I may de-
serve the gift of the laurel.
4. v. 17. Parnassus (see Lucan, Phars. v. 72) was
supposed to have two peaks, and Dante here assumes that the
Muses dwelt upon one, Apollo upon the other. At the
opening of the preceding parts of his poem Dante has in-
voked the Muses only. The allegorical meaning seems to be
that the teaching of the reason and the light of Philosophy
have sufficed for him thus far in his poem, but that now, in
treating of things supersensual, he requires also the Divine
grace and the guidance of Theology.
5. v. 21. As thou drewest Marsyas from the sheath of
his limbs, so draw me from human limitations.
6. v. 32. Daphne, who was changed to the laurel, was
the daughter of Peneus.
w. 33-44] CANTO I 3
whenever it makes any one to long for it. Great
flame follows a little spark : perhaps after me
prayer shall be made with better voices, whereto
Cyrrha 7 may respond.
The lamp of the world rises to mortals
through different passages, but from that which
joins four circles with three crosses it issues
with better course and conjoined with a better
star, and it tempers and seals the mundane wax
more after its own fashion.8 Almost such a
passage had made morning there and evening
here ; 9 and there all that hemisphere was white,
7. v. 36. Cyrrha, a city on the Crissaean gulf, sacred
to Apollo, not far from the foot of Parnassus, and here used
as synonymous with Delphi, of which it was the port.
8. v. 42. At the vernal equinox the sun rises from a
point on the horizon where the four great circles, namely,
the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial co-
lure, meet, and, cutting each other, form three crosses. The
sun is in the sign of Aries, " a better star," because the in-
fluence of this constellation was supposed to be benignant,
and under it the earth reclothes itself. It was the season
assigned to the Creation and to the Annunciation.
9. v. 44. There, in the Earthly Paradise ; here, on
earth. The vernal equinox (according to the calendar) be-
ing a few days passed, the sun had entered not by the pre-
cise passage described in the preceding verses, but " almost "
by it.
The last indication of time given in the Purgatory is in tne
last canto, in the words : «« the sun was holding the circle
4 PARADISE [vv. 45-49
and the other part black, when I saw Beatrice
turned to her left side, and gazing upon the
sun : never did eagle so fix himself upon it.
And even as a second ray is wont to issue from
of the meridian, " v. 104, at the moment when the seven
ladies stopped before the fount from which the Euphrates and
the Tigris were issuing. Then follows a brief conversation,
after which Matilda takes Dante to the Eunoe, of which he
drinks, and whence he returns to Beatrice " pure and dis-
posed to mount unto the stars." It would seem natural that
the ascent to them should at once begin. But the verses
in this canto, describing the passage of the sun at its rising,
have led many interpreters of the poem to believe that they in-
dicate sunrise as the hour of the ascent, and that, consequently,
a period of about eighteen hours elapses, unaccounted for, be-
tween the last scene of Purgatory and the first of Paradise.
This view seems to derive confirmation from the words,
" such a passage had made morning here and evening there."
But it is perhaps better to hold with other commentators,
that no long interval passed between the draught of Eunoe
and the ascent to Paradise ; that the description of the pas-
sage of the sun is not to be taken as defining the hour, but
simply as indicating the favorable season ; and that by morn-
ing and evening are meant the time from sunrise to noon, and
from sunset to midnight. If this be the correct interpreta-
tion, the ascent of Dante and Beatrice to the Heavens was
at noon, the appropriate hour for the entrance to Paradise.
The entrance to Hell had been at nightfall ; to Purgatory at
dawn, the hour of hope ; and now the entrance to Paradise
is at noon, when the Sun is in full glory. " The sixth hour,
that is, midday," says Dante in the Convitf (iv. 23, 145),
"is the most noble hour of the whole day, and has thf most
power."
VVt 50-71] CANTO I 5
the first, and mount upward again, like a pil-
grim who wishes to return ; so from her action,
infused through the eyes into my imagination,
mine was made, and I fixed my eyes upon
the sun beyond our wont. Much is permitted
there which here is not permitted to our facul-
ties, by virtue of the place made for the human
race as its proper seat.10 Not long did I en-
dure it, nor so little that I did not see it sparkle
round about, like iron that issues boiling from
the fire. And on a sudden,11 day seemed to be
added to day, as if He who has the power had
adorned the heaven with another sun.
Beatrice was standing with her eyes wholly
fixed on the eternal wheels, and on her I fixed
my eyes from thereabove removed. Looking
at her I inwardly became such as Glaucus I2 be-
came on tasting of the grass which made him
consort in the sea of the other gods. Trans-
humanizing cannot be signified in words ; there-
fore let the example I3 suffice him for whom
10. v. 57. The Earthly Paradise, made for man in his
original excellence as his proper abode.
11. v. 6 1 . So rapid was his ascent as he was drawn up-
ward, following Beatrice, through the gleaming sphere of fire,
which was supposed to be between the sphere of the air and
that of the moon.
12. v. 68. A fisherman changed to a sea-god. The
story is in Ovid (Metamorphoses, xiii. 943—949).
13. v. 71. Just cited, ofGiaucus.
6 PARADISE [w. 72-89
grace reserves the experience. If I was only
that of me which thou didst the last create/4 O
Love that governest the heavens, Thou know-
est, who with Thy light didst lift me. When
the revolution which Thou, being desired,
makest eternal,15 made me attent unto itself
with the harmony which Thou dost attune and
modulate, so much of the heaven then seemed
to me enkindled by the flame of the sun,
that rain or river never made so widespread a
lake.
The novelty of the sound and the great light
kindled in me a desire concerning their cause,
never before felt with such keenness. Whereon
she, who saw me as I see myself, to quiet my
perturbed mind opened her mouth, ere I mine
to ask, and began : " Thou thyself makest thy-
self dull with false imagining, so that thou seest
14. v. 73. In the twenty-fifth Canto of Purgatory,
Dante has said that when the articulation of the brain is per-
fect God breathes into it a new spirit, the living soul ; and
he means here that, like St. Paul, he was caught up into
Heaven, and cannot tell " whether in the body or out of
the body" (2 Corinthians xii. 3).
15. v. 76. The desire to be united with God is the
scarce of the eternal revolution of the heavens. " The
Empyrean ... is the cause of the most swift motion of the
First Moving Heaven, because of the most ardent desire of
every part of the latter to be conjoined with every part of that
naost divine and quiet heaven." Convito, ii. 4, 19-25.
w. 90-110] CANTO I 7
not what thou wouldst see, if thou hadst shaken
it off. Thou art not on earth, as thou believ-
est ; but lightning, flying from its proper site,
never ran as thou who art returning there-
unto." '6
If I was divested of my first doubt by these
brief little smiled-out words, within a new one
was I the more enmeshed. And I said : " Al-
ready I rested content concerning a great won-
der ; but now I wonder how I can transcend
these light bodies." Whereon she, after a
pitying sigh, directed her eyes toward me, with
that look which a mother turns on her deliri-
ous child, and she began : " All things whatso-
ever have order among themselves ; and this is
the form which makes the universe like unto
God.17 Herein the exalted creatures l8 see the im-
print of the Eternal Power, which is the end for
which the aforesaid rule is made. In the order
of which I speak, all natures are disposed, by
1 6. v. 93. To thine own proper site, — Heaven, the
true home of the soul.
17. v. 105. The order of the created universe is the
outward manifestation of the ideas of God, and that which
God chiefly intends in created things is the good which con-
sists in likeness to Himself. See S. T. i. 45. 3 ; 50. I. The
whole of this discourse of Beatrice is closely conformed to the
teaching of the Summa Theologiae.
1 8. v. 1 06. The created beings endowed with souls, —
angels and men.
8 PARADISE [w. 111-131
diverse lots, more or less near to their source ; I9
wherefore they are moved to different ports
over the great sea of being, and each with the
instinct given to it which bears it on. This
bears the fire upward toward the moon ; this
is the motive force in mortal hearts ; this binds
together and unites the earth. Nor does this
bow shoot forth 20 only the created things which
are without intelligence, but also those which
have understanding and love. The Provi-
dence that ordains all this, makes always quiet
with its own light the heaven 2I within which
that one which has the greatest speed revolves.
And thither now, as to a site decreed, the vir-
tue of that bowstring is bearing us on, which
directs to a joyful mark whatever it shoots.
It is true, that as the form often does not ac-
cord with the intention of the art, because the
material is deaf to respond, so the creature
sometimes deviates from this course ; for it has
19. v. 1 1 1. The likeness to God is participated by dif-
ferent things in different modes, and their common inclination
to the universal good varies with their different modes of
being. See S. T. i. 45. 3 ; 49. i.
20. v. 119. This instinct directs to their proper end
animate as well as inanimate things, as the bow shoots the
arrow to its mark.
2\. v. 122. The Empyrean, within which the Crys-
talline heaven, the Primum Mobile, the first and swiftest of
the moving heavens, revolves.
vv. 132-142] CANTO I 9
power, though thus impelled, to bend in an-
other direction (even as the fire of a cloud may
be seen to fall22), if the first impetus, diverted
by false pleasure, turn it earthwards. Thou
shouldst not, if I deem aright, wonder more at
thy ascent, than at a stream if it descends from
a high mountain to the base. It would be a
marvel in thee, if, deprived of hindrance, thou
hadst sat below, even as quiet in living fire on
earth would be."
Thereon she turned again her face toward
heaven.
22. v. 133. Contrary to its true nature.
CANTO II
Proem. — Ascent to the Moon. — The cause of Spots
on the Moon. — Influence of the Heavens.
O YE who in a little bark, desirous to listen,
have followed behind my craft which singing
passes on, turn to see again your shores ; put
not out upon the deep ; for haply, losing me,
ye would remain astray. The water which I
take was never crossed. Minerva breathes,1 and
Apollo guides me, and nine Muses point out
to me the Bears.
Ye other few, who have lifted up your necks
betimes for the bread of the Angels, on which
one here subsists,2 but never becomes sated of
it, ye may well put forth your vessel over the
deep brine, keeping my wake before you on
the water which turns smooth again. Those
glorious ones who passed over to Colchos
wondered not when they saw Jason become a
ploughman, as ye shall do.3
1. v. 8. The breath of Minerva fills the sails.
2. v. 12. Here on earth this bread is the true food of
the soul. " Oh, blessed those few who sit at that table
where the bread of the Angels is eaten." Convito, i. i. 51.
3. v. 1 8. When, to obtain the golden fleece, Jason
w. 19-37] CANTO II ii
The concreate and perpetual thirst for the
deiform realm 4 was bearing us on swift almost
as ye see the heavens. Beatrice was gazing up-
ward, and I upon her, and perhaps in such time
as a quarrel 5 rests, and flies, and from the notch
is unlocked,6 1 saw myself arrived where a won-
derful thing drew my sight to itself; and there-
fore she, from whom the working of my mind
could not be hid, turning toward me, glad as
beautiful, said to me : " Uplift thy grateful mind
to God, who has united us with the first star." 7
It seemed to me that a cloud had covered
us, lucid, dense, solid, and polished, as if a dia-
mond which the sun had struck. Within itself
the eternal pearl had received us, even as water
receives a ray of light, remaining undivided. If
I was body (and here 8 it is not conceivable how
yoked the two fire-breathing oxen, and ploughed with them,
sowing the dragon's teeth in the furrows. See Ovid, Me tarn.
vii. 104—122.
4. v. 20. That instinct of which Beatrice has spoken in
the preceding canto.
5. v. 23. The bolt for a cross-bow.
6. v. 24. The inverse order indicates the instantaneous-
ness of the act.
7. v. 30. The moon.
8. v. 37. On earth, by mortal faculties. "The body
in glory will pass through the spheres of the heavens, without
division of them, not because of its subtility, but by divine
virtue." S. T. Suppl. 85. 2.
12 PARADISE [w. 38-54.
one dimension brooked another, which needs
must be if body enter body), the desire ought
the more to kindle us to see that Essence, in
which is seen how our nature and God were
united. There will be seen that which we hold
by faith, not demonstrated, but it will be known
of itself like the first truth which man believes.9
I replied : " My Lady, devoutly, to the ut-
most that I can, do I thank Him who has re-
moved me from the mortal world. But tell
me, what are the dusky marks of this body,
which there below on earth make people fable
about Cain ? " '°
She smiled a little, and then she said to me :
" If the opinion of mortals errs where the key
of sense does not unlock, surely the shafts of
9. v. 45. Not demonstrated by argument,, but known
by direct cognition, like the self-evident primary truths, first
principles, per se nota.
i o. v. 5 1 . Fancying the dark spaces on the surface of
the moon to represent Cain carrying a thorn-bush for the
fire of his sacrifice. In the ascent to the Empyrean each
sphere is, as it were, a step in the attainment of knowledge of
divine things, in which Dante is instructed by Beatrice, or by
the spirits that appear to him. The questions solved are
not asked casually, but are appropriate to the nature of the
sphere and its place in the scheme of the universe. In this
lowest sphere the question relates to a mere physical phenom-
enon, but the explanation of it gives opportunity to Beatrice
to expound the whole doctrine of the influences of the hea-
vens.
vv. 55-71] CANTO II 13
wonder ought not to pierce thee now, since
thou seest that the reason following the senses
has short wings. But tell me what thou thy-
self thinkest of it." And I : " That which up
here appears to us diverse, I believe is caused
by bodies rare and dense/' And she: "Surely
thou shaft see that thy belief is quite sub-
merged in error, if thou listen well to the argu-
ment that I shall make against it. The eighth
sphere " displays to you many lights, which
may be noted of different aspects in quality
and quantity. If rarity and density effected all
this,12 one single virtue, more or less or equally
distributed, would be in all. Different virtues
must needs be fruits of formal principles;13 and
n. v. 64. The heaven of the fixed stars.
12. v. 67. If all this difference in the stars were caused
merely by difference in rarity and density, which Dante had
supposed to be the cause of the difference in the aspect of the
moon.
13. v. 71. The argument, which is much condensed,
is as follows : The stars differ in quality and quantity of
brightness one from another ; if the rarity and density of their
substance were the exclusive cause of this difference there
would be but one virtue in them. But they exercise various
influences, their virtues differ. These virtues result from
formal principles, that is, from the principles which determine
the form or specific being of their material substance. Hence,
their virtues being various, the formal principles must be
various, and it follows that differences in aspect cannot be
accounted for solely by the principles of rarity and density.
14 PARADISE [vv. 72-91
these, all but one, would, in pursuance of thy
reasoning, be destroyed. Further, if rarity were
the cause of that duskiness about which you
ask,14 this planet would either be thus deficient
of its matter in part quite through and through,
or else, as a body divides the fat and the lean,
so this would interchange the leaves in its
volume. If the first were the case, it would
be manifest in the eclipses of the sun, by the
shining through of the light, as when it is
poured upon any other rare body. This is not
so ; therefore we must look at the other sup-
position, and if it happen that I quash this,
thy opinion will be proved false. If it be that
this rarity does not pass through,15 there must
needs be a limit, beyond which its contrary
allows it not to pass farther; and thence the
ray from another body is thrown back, just as
color returns through a glass which hides lead
behind itself. Now thou wilt say that the ray
14. v. 74. The reason why the rarity was supposed
to be the cause of the dark spots in the moon is stated by
Dante in the Convito (ii. 14. 70—77) : "If the Moon be
well observed two things are seen peculiar to it. ... One
is the shadow in it which is nothing but the rarity of its body,
in which the rays of the sun cannot terminate, and be reflected
as in the other parts. The other is the variation of its bright-
ness."
15. v. 85. Does not extend quite through the substance
of the moon.
vv. 92-113] CANTO II 15
shows itself dimmer there than in the other
parts, because it is reflected there from farther
back. From this objection experiment, which
is wont to be the fountain to the streams of
your arts, may deliver thee, if ever thou try it.
Thou shalt take three mirrors, and set two
of them at an equal distance from thee, and
let the other, more remote, meet thine eyes
between the first two. Turning toward them,
cause a light to be placed behind thy back,
which may shine upon the three mirrors, and
return to thee reflected from all. Although
the more distant image may not reach thee
so great in quantity, thou wilt there see how
it must needs be of equal brightness with the
others.
" Now, as beneath the blows of the warm
rays that which lies under the snow remains
bare both of the former color and the cold/6
thee, thus remaining in thy intellect, will I
inform with light so living that it shall tremble
in its aspect to thee.17
" Within the heaven of the divine peace re-
volves a body, in whose virtue lies the being
1 6. v. 1 08. The color of the snow and the cold dis-
appear from the earth.
17. v. 1 1 1 . My argument has removed the error which
covered thy mind, and now I will tell thee the true cause of
the variety in the aspect of the moon.
16 PARADISE [vv. 114-127
of all that it contains.18 The following heaven,19
which has so many sights, distributes that be-
ing through divers essences20 distinct from it,
and contained by it. The other circles, by va-
rious differences, dispose the distinctions which
they have within themselves unto their ends
and their sowings.21 These organs of the world
thus proceed, as thou now seest, from grade
to grade ; for they receive from above, and
operate below. Observe me well, how I ad-
vance through this place to the truth which
thou desirest, so that hereafter thou mayst
know to keep the ford alone. The motion and
the virtue of the holy spheres must needs be
1 8. v. 114. Within the motionless Empyrean revolves
the Crystalline Heaven, the Primum Mobile ', from whose vir-
tue, communicated to it from the Empyrean, all the inferior
spheres contained within it derive their special mode of being.
19. v. 115. The heaven of the Fixed Stars. "Al-
though the Starry Heaven is uniform in its substance it has
multiplicity in its virtue, by reason of which it must needs
have that diversity in its parts which we see, in order that
through different organs it may exert the influence of differ-
ent virtues.'* Quaestio de Aqua et Terra, §21.
20. v. 1 1 6. Through the planets, called essences be-
cause each has a specific mode of being.
21. v. 120. Each of the seven inferior heavens distri-
butes its specific virtues in such wise as to secure their due
ends, and to make them seed for the production of further
effects. " The rays of the heavens are the way by which
their virtue descends to the things below." Convito> ii. 7,90,
vv. 128-141] CANTO II 17
inspired by blessed motors,22 as the work of the
hammer by the smith. And the heaven, which
so many lights make beautiful, takes its image
from the deep mind 23 which revolves it, and
makes thereof a seal. And as the soul within
your dust is diffused through different mem-
bers, and conformed to divers potencies, so does
the Intelligence24 display its goodness multi-
plied through the stars, itself circling upon its
own unity. Divers virtue makes divers alloy
with the precious body that it quickens, where-
in it is bound, even as life in you.25 Be-
cause of the glad nature whence it flows, the
mingled virtue shines through the body, as glad-
ness through the living pupil. From this *
comes what seems different between light and
22. v. 129. The blessed motors are the Orders of the
angels, which are called Intelligences, as being the instruments
through which the Divine Intelligence is transmitted to the
created universe.
23. v. 1 3 1 . The deep mind of the angelic motors, be-
cause it reflects the mind of God, and is actuated by it.
24. v. 136. The Angelic Intelligence. Intelligence is,
probably, to be interpreted here a collective noun, used for
the Order of the Angels who are the motors of the Heaven
of the Fixed Stars. Cf. xxviii. 78.
25. v. 141. The divers virtues proceeding from God,
through the instrumentality of the blessed motors or angelic
Intelligences, produce different results in the different bodies
which they quicken.
26. v. 145. From this diversity of virtues diversely
diffused through the stars and the planets.
i8 PARADISE [vv. 142-148
light, not from density and rarity ; this is the for-
mal principle which produces, conformably with
its own goodness, the dark and the bright." 27
27. v. 148. It may seem surprising to the reader on
first becoming acquainted with the preceding canto, which has
so little poetic charm, that Dante's first enquiry of Beatrice,
after his overwhelming experience in entering the superterres-
trial world, and his marvellous reception into the sphere of the
Moon, should be concerning a mere physical phenomenon,
and especially a matter so apparently trivial as the cause of
the light and dark spots on the face of the Moon, and seem-
ingly suggested to him only by finding himself in the body
of the planet. But the surprise will vanish, and the inten-
tion of the poet will become manifest, on consideration of
the full significance of the reply made by Beatrice. She
begins with the lesson that in the supersensual world the evi-
dence of the senses is not to be trusted, since even in the
world of sense conclusions drawn from their evidence are
often erroneous (vv. 52—105). She then proceeds to set
forth the mode of operation of the Heavens, begun in the
Crystalline Heaven, — the Primum Mobile, — and thence
transmitted to the inferior spheres (vv. 112-123). But
" their motion and their virtue," from which the differences
in themselves and the differences in the natures and aspects
of mortal things proceed, are not inherent in themselves, but
are inspired by angelic Intelligences, ministers of the Divine
Will to carry out the Divine plan in the order of the Uni-
verse, and to impress upon it the image of the Divine idea
(vv. 127-148).
Thus the apparently trivial question asked by Dante has
Jed to an exposition of the Divine scheme of the Universe,
requisite for the understanding of the nature of the realm into
which the poet has been uplifted.
CANTO III
The Heaven of the Moon. — Spirits whose vows had
been broken. — Pice ar da Donati. — The Empress Con-
stance.
THAT sun which first had heated my breast
with love had uncovered to me, proving and
disproving, the sweet aspect of fair truth ; and I,
to confess myself corrected and assured, so far as
was needful raised my head more erect to speak.
But a sight appeared which held me so fast to
itself, to look on it, that I did not bethink me
of my confession.
As through transparent and polished glasses,
or through clear and tranquil waters, not so
deep that their bed be lost, the lineaments of
our faces return so faintly, that a pearl on a white
brow comes not less readily to our eyes, such I
saw many faces eager to speak ; wherefore I ran
into the contrary error to that which kindled love
between the man and the fountain.1 At once,
I. v. 1 8. Narcissus conceived the image to be a true
face ; Dante takes the real faces to be reflections of persons
behind him. The spirits which appear here, and in the other
20 PARADISE [w. 19-30
as soon as I was aware of them, supposing them
mirrored faces, I turned round my eyes to see
of whom they were, and saw nothing ; and I
turned them forward again, straight into the
light of my sweet guide who, with a smile, was
glowing in her holy eyes. " Do not wonder
that I smile," she said to me, " at thy childish
thought, since thy foot does not trust itself yet
upon the truth, but turns thee, as it is wont, to
emptiness. These which thou seest are real
substances/ relegated here for failure in their
heavens successively, to welcome Dante, have temporarily left
their seats in the Empyrean, in order to reveal to him the
truths of utility or delight (see Letter to Can Grande, § 33)
concerning which he needs or desires instruction. These
truths deal mainly with relations of things human to things
divine, not to the mysteries of heaven. In this the lowest
sphere of all, typifying the lowest grade of bliss, the spirits
are visible like fair ghosts, not wholly concealed by the radi-
ance of their joy ; in the next heaven, that of Mercury, the
shining forms of the spirits are at first seen, but the one of
them who speaks with Dante becomes hidden in the in-
creasing effulgence which proceeds from the joy of love dis-
played in act toward the poet. In the heaven of Venus the
spirits are completely swathed m light, and so from heaven
to heaven their radiance becomes more and more dazzling and
resplendent.
2. v. 29. These are not images, but real persons. A
substance was, according to the schoolmen, a created being
or thing possessing independent existence, " essentia cui corn-
petit per se esse," S. T. \. 3. 5.
w. 31-52] CANTO III 21
vows. Therefore speak with them, and hear,
and believe ; for the veracious light which satis-
fies them does not allow them to turn their feet
from itself."
And I directed myself to the shade that
seemed most eager to speak, and I began, like
a man whom an excessive desire confuses : " O
well-created spirit, who in the rays of life eternal
art tasting the sweetness, which if not tasted is
never understood, it will be gracious to me, if
thou content me with thy name, and with your
lot." 3 Whereon she promptly, and with smil-
ing eyes : " Our charity does not lock its door
to a just wish, any more than that 4 which wills
that all its court be like itself. In the world I
was a virgin Sister,5 and if thy memory look
back well, my being more beautiful will not con-
ceal me from thee ; but thou wilt recognize that
I am Piccarda,6 who, placed here with these
other blessed ones, am blessed in the slowest
sphere. Our affections, which are inflamed onl^
5. v. 41. " Your lot ; rr the "your" includes all the
spirits who have presented themselves in the Moon.
4. v, 44. The Divine charity.
5. v. 46. A nun, of the order of St. Clare,
6. v. 49. The sister of COTSO Donati and of Forese :
see Purgatory, Canto xxiv. 10-15. ^ may not ^e without
intention that the first blessed spirit whom Dante sees in Par*
idise is a relative of his own wife, Gemma dei Donati.
22 PARADISE [vv. 53-73
in the pleasure of the Holy Spirit, rejoice in
being formed according to His order ; 7 and
this lot, which appears so far down, is given
to us, because our vows were neglected and
void in some particular." Whereon I to her :
" In your marvellous aspects there shines I
know not what divine which transmutes you
from our former conceptions ; therefore I was
not swift in remembering ;8 but now that which
thou sayest to me assists me, so that to reshape
is easier to me. But tell me, ye who are happy
here, do ye desire a more exalted place, in order
to see more, or to make for yourselves more
friends ? " With those other shades she first
smiled a little, then answered me so glad, that
she seemed to burn in the first fire of love:
" Brother, virtue of charity 9 quiets our will, and
makes us wish only for that which we have, and
quickens not our thirst for aught else. If we
desired to be more on high, our desires would
7. v. 54. Rejoice in whatever grade of bliss is assigned
to them in that order of the universe which is the form that
— akes it like unto God.
8. v. 61. Compare Dante* s words to Ciacco, Helly
Canto vi. 43—45. In Hell anguish, in Paradise joy trans-
figures the spirits and makes recognition of them difficult.
9. v. 71. Charity, in the sense of love, quiets their
will. ' * There is no envy among the saints, for each attains
the end of his desire, which is proportioned to the goodness
of his nature." Convito, iii. 15, 101-104.
vv. 74-98] CANTO III 23
be discordant with the will of Him who assigns
us here, which thou wilt see is not possible in
these circles, if to exist in charity is here of ne-
cessity, and if thou dost well consider its nature.
Nay, it is the essence of this blessed existence to
hold itself within the divine will, whereby our
wills themselves are made one. So that as we
are, from seat to seat throughout this realm, to
all the realm is pleasing, as to the King who
inwills us with His will; and His will is our
peace ; it is that sea whereunto everything is
moving which It creates and which nature
makes/'
Then was it clear to me, how everywhere in
Heaven is Paradise, even if the grace of the
Supreme Good does not there rain down in
one measure.
But as it happens, if one food sates, and for
another the appetite still remains, that this is
asked for, and thanks returned for that ; even
thus did I, with act and with word, to learn
from her, what was the web wherein she had not
drawn the shuttle to the end.10 " Perfect life
and high desert enheaven a lady " higher up,"
10. v. 96. To learn from her what was the vow whiclj
she did not fulfil.
11. v. 98. Santa Clara, the friend of St. Francis, who,
in 1 21 2, established under his direction a religious order for
virgins, of extreme austerity. The order bore her name, and
24. PARADISE [vv. 99-118
she said to me, " according to whose rule, in
your world below, there are who vest and veil
themselves, in order that, even till death, they
may wake and sleep with that Spouse who ac-
cepts every vow which love conforms unto His
pleasure. A young girl, I fled from the world
to follow her, and in her garb I enclosed my-
self, and pledged me to the pathway of her
Order. Afterward men, more used to ill than
good, dragged me forth from the sweet clois-
ter ; I2 and God knows what then my life be-
came. And this other splendor, which shows
itself to thee at my right side, and which is en-
kindled with all the light of our sphere, under-
stands of herself that which I say of me.13 She
was a Sister ; and from her head in like manner
the shadow of the sacred veil was taken. But
after she too was returned unto the world,
against her liking and against good usage, she
was never loosed from the veil of the heart.14
This is the light of the great Constance/5 who
spread widely through Europe. She died in 1253, and was
canonized in 1255.
12. v. 107. According to the old commentators, her
brother Corso forced Ficcarda by violence to leave the con-
vent, in order to make a marriage which he desired for her.
13. v. 112. Her experience was similar to that of Pic-
carda.
14. v. 1 17. She remained a nun at heart.
15. v. 1 1 8. Constance, daughter of the king of Sicily,
TV. 119-130] CANTO III 25
from the second wind l6 of Swabia conceived
the third and the last power."
Thus she spoke to me, and then began sing-
ing "Ave Maria" and singing vanished, as
through deep water some heavy thing. My
sight, that followed her so far as was possible,
after it lost her, turned to the mark of greater
desire, and wholly reverted to Beatrice ; but
she so flashed upon my gaze that at first my
sight endured it not : and this made me more
slow in questioning.
Roger I. ; married, in 1186, to the Emperor, Henry VI.,
the son of Frederick Barbarossa, and father of Frederick II.,
who died in 1250, the last Emperor of his line.
1 6. v. 119. The significance of this metaphor is not
clear. It, perhaps, refers to the stormy natures or lives of
the Swabian emperors, so that "wind "stands for "blast"
or •"« whirl wind. "
CANTO IV
Doubts of Dante, respecting the justice of Heaven and
the abode of the blessed, solved by Beatrice. — Question oj
Dante as to the possibility of reparation for broken vows.
BETWEEN two viands, distant and attractive
in equal measure, a free man would die of hun-
ger, before he would bring one of them to his
teeth.1 Thus a lamb would stand between two
ravenings of fierce wolves, fearing both alike ;
thus would stand a dog between two does.
Wherefore if, urged in equal measure by my
doubts, I was silent, I do not blame myself;
nor, since it was necessary, do I commend.
I was silent, but my desire was depicted on
my face, and my questioning with that far more
fervent than by distinct speech. Beatrice did
what Daniel did,2 when he lifted Nebuchad-
1 . v. 3 . This is the same sophism that became widely
known, later in the fourteenth century, under the name of the
Ass of Buridan. Buridan was one of the chief nominalists of
the generation after Dante.
2. v. 13. As the dream of Nebuchadnezzar had been
revealed to Daniel, as well as the interpretation of it by which
he quenched the anger of the king, so, the unuttered questions
vv. 14-27] CANTO IV 27
nezzar from anger, which had made him un-
justly cruel, and she said : " I see well how
one and another desire draws thee, so that thy
care so binds itself that it breathes not forth.3
Thou reasonest: ' If the good will endure, by
what reckoning does the violence of others
lessen for me the measure of desert ? ' Fur-
ther, that the souls appear to return to the
stars, in accordance with the opinion of Plato,
gives thee occasion for doubt.4 These are the
questions that thrust equally upon thy wish ;
and therefore I will treat first of that which has
the most venom.5
which perplexed Dante being visible to Beatrice, she pro-
ceeded to quench his thirst for their solution.
3. v. 1 8. Dante's equal eagerness to have each question
solved hampered his power of expression of either.
4. v. 24. Plato, in his Timaeus (41, 42), says that
the creator of the universe assigned each soul to a star, whence
they were to be sown in the vessels of time. "He who
lived well during his appointed time was to return to the stal
which was his habitation, and there he would have a blessed
and suitable existence." Jowett's translation. — Dante's
doubt has arisen from the words of Piccarda (Canto iii. 50,
51), which implied that her station was in the sphere of the
Moon.
5. v. 27. This question has the most poison, becausf
the belief that the souls returned to the stars would be con«
trary to the faith that the true end of the soul is the attain-
ment of bliss in the vision of God in the Empyrean, and woul^
tend to divert the soul from its effort to make itself worthy ot
28 PARADISE [vv. 28-48
" Of the Seraphim he who is most in God,
Moses, Samuel, and whichever John thou wilt
take, I say even Mary, have not their seats
in another heaven than those spirits who just
now appeared to thee, nor have they more or
fewer years for their existence ; but all make
the first circle beautiful, yet have sweet life di-
versely, through feeling more or less the eter-
nal breath.6 These showed themselves here,
not because this sphere is allotted to them,
but to afford sign of the celestial grade which
is least exalted. It is needful to speak thus
to your wit, since only through objects of sense
does it apprehend that which it afterward makes
worthy of the intellect. For this the Scripture
condescends to your capacity, and attributes
feet and hands to God, and means otherwise ;
and Holy Church represents to you Gabriel
and Michael with human aspect, and the other
who made Tobias whole again.7 That which
this bliss. It also involved the theory, condemned as heresy
by the council of Constantinople, in 540, that the soul was
created separate from the body.
6. v. 36. The abode of all the blessed is the Empyrean,
— the first circle, counting from above ; but there are degrees
in blessedness, each spirit enjoying according to its capacity ;
no one is conscious of any lack.
7. v. 48. The archangel Raphael, who restored sight to
the old Tobias, so named in the Vulgate, but named Tobk
in the English version of the book of Tobit.
vv. 49-69] CANTOIV 29
Timaeus argues of the souls is not like this
which is seen here, since it seems that he thinks
as he says.8 He says that the soul returns to
its own star, believing it to have been severed
thence, when nature gave it for form.9 But
perhaps his opinion is of other guise than his
words sound, and may be of a meaning not to
be derided. If he means that the honor of their
influence and the blame return to these wheels,,
perhaps his bow hits some truth. This prin-
ciple, ill understood, formerly turned awry
almost the whole world, so that it ran astray in
naming Jove, Mercury, and Mars.10
" The other dubitation which disturbs thee
has less venom, for its malice could not lead
thee from me elsewhere. That our justice
seems unjust in the eyes of mortals is argument
of faith," and not of heretical iniquity. But
8. ¥.51. It seems that his words are the expression oi
his real opinion.
9. v. 54. The intellectual soul is united with the body
as its substantial form. The form of anything is that by
means of which it performs its functions (operatur). The
soul is that by which the body lives, and hence is its form.
S. T. i. 76. i.
10. v. 63. Men were led astray so far as to ascribe the
influence of the stars to the gods after whom they were named.
n. v. 69. Mortals would not trouble themselves con-
cerning the justice of God, unless they had faith in it. These
perplexities are then arguments or proofs of faith ; as St.
30 PARADISE [w. 70-83
because your intelligence can well penetrate to
this truth, I will make thee content, as thou
desirest. If it be violence when he who suffers
contributes nothing to what forces him, these
souls were not by reason of that excused ; for
will, unless it wills, is not quenched,12 but does
as nature does in fire, though violence a thou-
sand times may wrest it ; I3 because if it bend
much or little,14 it follows the force ; and thus
did these, when they had power to return to
the holy place. If their will had been entire,
such as held Lawrence 1S on the gridiron, and
Thomas Aquinas says, " The merit of faith consists in this,
that man, out of obedience to God, assents to what he does
not see." S. T. iii. 7. 3. But in this case, as Beatrice
goes on to show, mere human intelligence is sufficient to see
that the injustice is only apparent.
12. v. 76. Violence has no power over the will if the
will be opposed to it.
13. v. 78. These souls who were drawn by violence
from the cloister were not by that relieved from their vow,
but the moment constraint was removed should have returned
to their original course, as fire which cannot be kept by any
restraint from mounting upward.
14. v. 79. If it give way to what Shakespeare calls
"accessary yiel dings." Lucre ce, v. 1658.
15. v. 83. St. Lawrence, who suffered martyrdom
A. D. 258. " His love of Christ was not to be overcome
by the flame, and the fire which burned without was weaker
than that which glowed within." Breviarium Rom. Die
10. Aug.
w. 84-105] CANTO IV 31
made Mucius l6 severe to his own hand, it would
have urged them back, so soon as they were
loosed, along the road on which they had been
dragged ; but will so firm is too rare. And by
these words, if thou hast gathered them up as
thou shouldst, is the argument quashed which
would have given thee annoy yet many times.
" But now another pass runs traverse before
thine eyes, such that by thyself thou wouldst
not issue from it ere thou wert weary. I have
put it in thy mind for certain, that a soul in
bliss cannot lie, since it is always near to the
Primal Truth ; and then thou mightst hear
from Piccarda that Constance retained affection
for the veil ; so that she seems in this to con-
tradict me.17 Many a time ere now, brother,
has it happened that, in order to escape peril,
that which it was not meet to do has been done
against one's liking; even as Alcmaeon (who,
thereto entreated by his father, slew his own
mother), not to lose piety, pitiless became.18 On
1 6. v. 84. " Who shall say that it was without Divine
inspiration . . . that Mucius burned his own hand, because
he had missed the blow which he thought should deliver
Rome." Convito, iv. 5, 107-118.
17. v. 99. The difficulty is this : if Constance "was
never in her heart loosed from the veil " (iii. 117) how is
it that she did not return to the cloister ?
1 8. v. 105. Amphiaraus, the seer, having been betrayed
to his death at the siege of Thebes by his wife Eriphyle,
32 PARADISE [vv. 106-129
this point, I wish thee to think that the force
mingles itself with the will, and they so act
that the offences cannot be excused. Will ab-
solute does not consent to the wrong ; but it
consents in so far thereto, as it fears, if it draw
back, to fall into greater trouble. Therefore
when Piccarda says this, she means it of the
absolute will ; and I of the other : I9 so that
we both speak truth together."
Such was the rippling of the holy stream
which issued from the fount whence every truth
flows forth ; and such it set at rest one and the
other desire.
" O beloved of the First Lover, O divine
one," said I then, " whose speech overflows me
and warms, so that it quickens me more and
more, my affection is not so deep that it can
suffice to render to you grace for grace,20 but
may He who sees and can, respond for this.
I clearly see that our intellect is never satis-
fied unless the Truth illume it, beyond which
nothing true extends. In that it reposes, as
a wild beast in his lair, so soon as it has reached
it : and it can reach it ; otherwise every desire
would be in vain. Because of this, doubt
enjoined on his son Alcmaeon to avenge him by slaying her.
See Purgatory, xii. 49—51.
19. v. 114. The other, that is, the qualified will.
20. v. 122. Thanks equivalent to the favor.
vv. 130-142] CANTO IV 33
springs up like a shoot, at the foot of the
truth ; and it is nature which urges us to the
summit from height to height.21 This invites
me, this gives me assurance, Lady, with rever-
ence to question you of another truth which is
obscure to me. I wish to know if man can so
make satisfaction to you22 for defective vows
with other goods, that in your scales they may
not be light ? " Beatrice looked at me with
eyes so divine, full of the sparks of love,
that my power, vanquished, turned its back,
and I almost lost myself with eyes cast down.
21. v. 132. Because of this constant desire for truth,
there springs up naturally in man, with the attainment of each
new truth, a doubt or question which urges him in the pur-
suit of that further truth which may solve it.
22. v. 136. To you ; that is, to the court of Heaven.
CANTO V
The sanctity of vows, and the seriousness with which
they are to be made or changed. — Ascent to the Heaven
of Mercury. — The shade of "Justinian.
" IF I flame upon thee in the heat of love,
beyond the measure that is seen on earth, so that
I vanquish the valor of thine eyes, marvel not,
for it proceeds from perfect vision, which, ac-
cording as it apprehends, so does it move its
foot to the apprehended good.1 I see clearly
how already in thy intellect is shining the eter-
nal light,2 which, only seen, always enkindles
love ; and if any other thing seduce your love,
M: is naught but some vestige of that light,
ill-recognized, which therein shines through.3
1. v. 6. The heat of love which dazzles thine eyes
proceeds from the vision of God which, in proportion as it
illuminates the soul with knowledge of Him, quickens its love
for Him.
2. v. 8. Dante's words in the last canto (vv. 124—
126) have shown this.
3. v. 12. This corresponds with the doctrine concern-
ing love set forth in the seventeenth and eighteenth cantos
of Purgatory.
™. I3-33J CANTO V 35
Thou wishest to know if for an unfulfilled vow
so much can be paid with other service as may
secure the soul from suit." 4
So Beatrice began this chant, and as one
who breaks not off his speech, she thus con-
tinued her holy discourse : " The greatest gift
which God in His bounty bestowed in creating,
and the most conformed to His own good-
ness, and that which He prizes the most, was
the freedom of the will, with which the creatures
that have intelligence, they all and they alone,
were and are endowed. Now, if thou argue
from this, the high worth of the vow will ap-
pear to thee, if it be such that God consent
when thou consentest ;s for, in closing the com-
pact between God and man, victim is made of
this treasure, such as I say,6 and made by its
own act. What then can be rendered in com-
pensation? If thou think to make good use
of that which thou hast offered, thou wishest to
do good work with ill-gotten gain.7
4. v. 1 5. Brought by God for the fulfilment of the
claim established by the original vow.
5. v. 27. If the vow be valid through its acceptance
by God.
6. v. 29. This treasure of the freedom of the will, so
precious as Beatrice has just declared it to be.
7. v. 33. The intent to put what had been vowed to
another, though good, use, affords no excuse for the breaking
of the vow.
36 PARADISE [w. 34-55'
" Thou art now assured as to the greater
point;8 but since Holy Church in this grants
dispensation, which seems contrary to the truth
that I have disclosed to thee, it behoves thee
still to sit a little at table, because the tough
food which thou hast taken requires still some
aid for thy digestion. Open thy mind to that
which I reveal to thee, and shut it therewithin ;
for to have heard without retaining does not
make knowledge.
" Two things combine in the essence of this
sacrifice ; the one is that in respect to which it
is made, the other is the covenant. This last
is never cancelled if not kept ; and concern-
ing this was my preceding speech so precise.
Therefore it was only imperative on the He-
brews to make offering, while the special thing
offered might be changed, as thou shouldst
know.9 The other, which is known to thee
as the matter,10 may indeed be such that there
is no fault if it be exchanged for some other
matter. But let not any one shift the load
8. v. 34. That no other service can be substituted for
a broken vow, for nothing can be offered comparable to the
sacrifice of the free will.
9. v. 51. See Leviticus xxvii., in respect to commuta-
tion allowed.
10. v. 52. That is, as the subject-matter of the vow,
the thing offered.
vv. 56-68] CANTO V 37
upon his shoulder at his own will, without the
turning both of the white and of the yellow
key." And let him deem every permutation
foolish, if the thing laid down be not contained
in that which is taken up, as four in six.12 There-
fore whatever thing weighs so much, through
its own worth, that it can drag down every bal-
ance, cannot be made good with other spending.
" Let not mortals take a vow as a trifle :
be faithful, and not awry in so doing, as Jeph-
thah was in his first offering ; I3 to whom it
rather behoved to say : < I have done ill,' than,
by keeping his vow, to do worse.14 And thou
11. v. 57. Without the turning of the keys of St. Peter,
that is, without clerical dispensation ; the key of gold signi-
fying authority, that of silver, knowledge. See Purgatory,
ix. 118-126.
12. v. 60. The matter substituted must exceed in
worth that of the original vow, but not necessarily in a defi-
nite proportion. The injunction in Leviticus xxvii. is to add
a fifth part of the money of the estimation.
13. v. 66. Be faithful in the keeping of the vow, but
keep it not in any mistaken fashion, as Jephthah did ; see
Judges xi. 30—39. "In his first offering" is explained
by the words of the Vulgate (verse 31), " quicunque primus
fuerit egressus foribus domus meae . . . eum holocausturn
offeram Domino.'*
14. v. 68.
" For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss
Is but amiss when it is truly done ;
And being not done, where doing tends to ill,
The truth is then most done not doing it." — King John, Hi. I.
38 PARADISE [vv. 69-94
mayst find the great leader of the Greeks in
like manner foolish ; IS wherefore Iphigenia
wept for her fair face, and made weep for her
both the simple and the wise, who heard tell
of such like observance. Be ye, Christians,
more grave in moving ; be not like a feather to
every wind, and think not that every water may
wash you. Ye have the Old and the New Tes-
tament, and the Shepherd of the Church who
guides you ; let this suffice you for your salva-
tion. If evil covetousness cry aught else to
you, be ye men, and not silly sheep, so that the
Jew among you may not laugh at you. Do
not ye as the lamb, which leaves its mother's
milk, and, simple and wanton, at its own plea-
sure combats with itself."
Thus Beatrice to me, even as I write ; then
all desireful turned again to that region where
the world is most alive.16 Her silence and
her changed look imposed silence on my eager
mind, which already had new questions in ad-
vance. And as an arrow that hits the mark
before the bowstring is quiet, so we ran into
the second realm.17 Here I saw my lady so
15. v. 69. Thus foolish was Agamemnon in keeping the
vow which resulted in the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia.
1 6. v. 87. Looking upward, toward the Empyrean.
!?• v- 93- The Heaven of Mercury, where blessed
spirits who have been active in the pursuit of honor and fame
show themselves. The shadow of the earth still reaches
vv. 95-117] CANTO V 39
joyous as she entered into the light of that hea-
ven, that the planet itself became the brighter
for it. And if the star was changed and smiled,
what did I become, who even by my nature
am transmutable in every wise !
As in a fishpond, which is still and clear,
the fish draw to that which comes in such man-
ner from without that they deem it their food,
so I saw full more than a thousand splendors
drawing toward us, and in each was heard :
" Lo, one who shall increase our loves ! " l8
And as each one came to us, the shade was
seen full of joy by the bright effulgence that
issued from it.
Think, Reader, if that which is here begun
should not proceed, how thou wouldst have a
grievous craving to know more ; and by thy-
self thou wilt see what my desire was to hear
from these of their conditions, soon as they
became manifest to mine eyes.
" O well-born,19 to whom Grace concedes to
see the thrones of the eternal triumph ere
the warfare is abandoned,20 with the light which
here, and the low grade in Heaven of the spirits who appear
here is assigned to them because the love of earthly glory-
diverted their affections too much from the glory of Heaven.
1 8. v. 105. By giving us occasion to manifest our love.
19. v. 1 1 5. That is, born to good, to attain blessedness.
20. v. 117. Ere thy life on earth, as a member of the
Church Militant, is ended.
40 PARADISE [vv. 118-139
spreads through the whole heaven we are
enkindled, and therefore if thou desirest to
enlighten thyself by means of us, sate thyself
at thy pleasure." Thus was it said to me by
one of those pious spirits ; and by Beatrice :
" Speak, speak securely, and trust even as to
gods."21 "I see clearly, how thou dost nest
thyself in thine own light, and that thou draw-
est it through thine eyes, because they sparkle
as thou smilest ; 22 but I know not who thou art,
nor why, O worthy soul, thou hast the grade
of the sphere which is veiled to mortals by an-
other's rays." 23 This I said, addressed to the
light which first had spoken to me ; whereon it
became far more lucent than it had been. Even
as the sun, which, when the heat has consumed
the tempering of the dense vapors, conceals it-
self by excess of light, so, by reason of more
joy, did the holy shape hide itself from me
within its own radiance, and thus close enclosed,
it answered me in the fashion which the follow-
ing canto sings.
21. v. 123. "Even as all holy men are called gods."
S. T. iii. 16. i.
22. v. 125. This is the last occasion, till he reaches the
Empyrean, on which the features of the blessed are visible
to Dante. In the succeeding spheres they are completely
hidden in the radiance within which the spirits are enclosed
23. v. i 29. Mercury is veiled by the Sun.
CANTO VI
^Justinian tells of his own life. — The story of the Ro
man Eagle. — Spirits in the planet Mercury. — Romeo.
" AFTER Constantine turned the Eagle coun-
ter to the course of the heavens which it had
followed behind the ancient who took to wife
Lavinia,1 a hundred and a hundred years and
more 2 the bird of God held itself on the verge
of Europe, near to the mountains3 from which it
first came forth, and there it governed the world
beneath the shadow of its sacred wings, from
hand to hand, and thus changing, descended
unto mine. Caesar I was,4 and am Justinian,
1. v. 3. Constantine, transferring the seat of Empire
from Rome to Byzantium, carried the Eagle from West to
East, counter to the course which it took with Aeneas from
Troy to Italy, where he was to become the father of the
Roman people, and the founder of the Empire of whose
power the bird of God was the symbol.
2. v. 4. From A. D. 324, when the transfer was begun,
to 527, when Justinian became Emperor.
3. v. 6. Of the Troad, opposite Byzantium.
4. v. 10. On earth Emperor, but in Heaven earthlj
dignities exist no longer.
42 PARADISE [vv, 11-27
who, by will of the primal Love which I feel,
drew out from among the laws the super-
fluous and the vain.5 And before I was intent
on this work, I believed one nature to be in
Christ, not more,6 and with such faith was I
content ; but the blessed Agapetus, who was the
supreme pastor, directed me to the pure faith
with his words. I believed him ; and that which
was in his faith I now see clearly, even as thou
seest that every contradiction is both false and
true.'7 Soon as with the Church I moved my
feet, it pleased God, through grace, to inspire
me with this high task, and I gave myself
wholly to it. And I entrusted my arms to my
Belisarius, with whom the right hand of Heaven
was so conjoined that it was a sign that I should
rest me.
5. v. 12. The allusion is to Justinian's codification of
the Roman Law.
6. v. 14. The divine nature only; this was known
as the Monophysite or Eutychian heresy. Agapetus was
Pope for only ten months, in 535—536. He was sent to
Constantinople by the Gothic King Theodahad, to en-
deavor to make peace for him with the Emperor. In this
errand the Pope failed ; but he induced Justinian to depose
the Patriarch of Constantinople, on the ground of his hold-
ing the Monophysite doctrine, and thus confirmed the claim
of the Roman Papacy over the Church of the East as well
as over that of the West.
7. v. 26. Of the two terms of a contradictory proposi<
don one must be true, the other false.
vv. 28-43] CANTO VI 43
" Now here to the first question 8 my answer
comes to the stop ; but its condition constrains
me to add a sequel to it, in order that thou
mayst see with how much reason9 he moves
against the sacrosanct ensign, who appropriates
it to himself,10 and he too who opposes himself
to it." See how great virtue has made it worthy
of reverence." And he began from the hour
when Pallas I2 died to give it a kingdom. " Thou
knowest that it made its abode in Alba for three
hundred years and more, till at the end when
the three against the three I3 fought for it still.
And thou knowest what it did, from the wrong
of the Sabine women down to the woe of Lu-
cretia, in seven kings, conquering the neighbor-
ing peoples round about. Thou knowest what
it did when borne by the illustrious Romans
8. v. 28. The question contained in the words, "I
know not who thou art " (v. 127). The condition attached
to the answer was, that Justinian, having said that he was
emperor, is constrained to speak of the nature and authority
of the Empire, as symbolized by the eagle its standard.
9. v. 31. Ironical. The meaning is, " how wrongly."
10. v. 32. The Ghibelline.
11. v. 33. The Guelf.
12. v. 36. Son of Evander, King of Latium, sent by
his father to aid Aeneas. His death in battle against Turnus
led to that of Turnus himself, and to the possession of the
Latin kingdom by Aeneas.
13> v» 39- The Horatii and Curiatii.
44 PARADISE [w. 44-65
against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, and against
the other princes and confederates ; whereby
Torquatus, and Quinctius who was named from
his neglected locks, the Decii and the Fabii
acquired the fame which willingly I embalm. It
struck to earth the pride of the Arabs,14 who,
following Hannibal, passed the Alpine rocks
from which thou, Po, dost glide. Under it, in
their youth, Scipioand Pompey triumphed, and
to that hill beneath which thou wast born, it
seemed bitter.15 Afterward, near the time when
all Heaven willed to bring the world to its own
serene mood, Caesar, by the will of Rome, took
it ; and what it did from the Var even to the
Rhine, the Isere beheld, and the Saone, and
the Seine beheld, and every valley whence the
Rhone is rilled. That which it did after it came
forth from Ravenna, and leaped the Rubicon,
was of such flight that neither tongue nor pen
could follow it. Toward Spain it wheeled its
troop ; then toward Durazzo, and smote Phar-
14. v. 49. In Dante's time the territory of Carthage
was held by the Arabs, and, with characteristic disregard of
the anachronism, ne calls the Carthaginians of old by the
name of the modern race, which happens to suit the rhyme.
15. v. 54. According to popular tradition, recorded by
Giovanni Villani, Cronica, i. 37, Fiesole, which lies on a hill
overlooking Florence, had been the headquarters of Catiline's
army, and was destroyed by the Romans after his defeat and
death.
vv. 66-83] CANTO VI 45
salia so that to the warm Nile the pain was felt.
It saw again Antandros and the Simois, whence
it had set forth, and there where Hector lies ; l6
and ill for Ptolemy then it shook itself. Thence
it swooped flashing down on Juba; then wheeled
again unto your west, where it heard the Pom-
peian trumpet. Of what it did with its next
standard-bearer,17 Brutus with Cassius howls in
Hell; and it made Modena and Perugia woful.
Because of it the sad Cleopatra is still weeping,
who, fleeing before it, took from the asp sudden
and black death. With him it ran far as the
Red Sea shore ; with him it set the world in
such peace that his temple was locked up on
Janus.18
" But what the ensign which makes me speak
had done before, and after was to do, through
1 6. v. 68. It was from Antandros, on the coast of
Troas, that Aeneas set sail with his followers for Italy.
Aeneidy iii. 5. The Simois ran not far off.
I7- v« 73- Augustus.
1 8. v. 8 1. The temple of Janus — of which the doors
were closed only in time of peace, for in time of war the
god was supposed to be absent with the armies — had been
locked up but twice during the whole life of the Roman Re-
public. But under Augustus they were closed three times ;
and in one of those periods when " Heaven willed to bring
the world to its own serene mood" (v. 56) it has been sup-
posed that Christ was born ; and then, "no war, or battle's
eound was heard the world around."
46 PARADISE [vv. 84-105
the mortal realm which is subject to it, becomes
in appearance little and obscure, if it be looked
on in the hand of the third Caesar I9 with clear
eye and with pure affection ; for the Living
Justice which inspires me granted to it, in the
hand of him of whom I speak, the glory of
doing vengeance for Its own wrath.20 Now mar-
vel here at that which I unfold to thee : after-
ward with Titus it sped to do vengeance for the
vengeance of the ancient sin.21
"And when the Lombard tooth bit the Holy
Church, under its wings Charlemagne, conquer-
ing, succored her.
" Now canst thou judge of such as those
whom I accused above, and of their misdeeds,
which are the cause of all your ills. To the
public ensign one opposes the yellow lilies,22
and the other appropriates it to a party, so that
it is hard to see which is most at fault. Let
the Ghibellines practice, let them practice their
art under another ensign, for this one he ever
follows ill who parts justice and it. And let
19. v. 86. Tiberius.
20. v. 90. It was under the authority of Rome that
Christ was crucified, whereby the sin of Adam was avenged.
21. v. 93. Vengeance was taken on the Jews for the
vengeance which they had wrought for the sin of Adam, be-
cause, although the death of Christ was divinely ordained*
their crime in it was none the less.
22. v. 100. The fleur-de-lys of France-
w. 106-127] CANTO VI 47
not this new Charles 23 strike it down with his
Guelfs, but let him fear the talons, which have
stripped the fell from a loftier lion. Many a
time ere now the sons have wept for the sin of
the father ; and let him not believe that for his
lilies God will change His arms.24
" This little star is adorned with good spirits
who have been active in order that honor and
fame may follow them. And when the desires
thus deviating mount thitherward, the rays of
the true love must needs mount upward less
living.25 But in the equal measure of our wages
with our desert is part of our joy, because we
see them neither less nor greater. Hereby the
Living Justice makes our affection so sweet
within us, that it can never be bent aside to
any iniquity. Divers voices make sweet melo-
dies ; thus in our life divers seats render sweet
harmony among these wheels.26
" And within the present pearl shines the
23. v. 1 06. Charles II., King of Naples, son of Charles
of Anjou.
24. v. in. That God will change the emblem or-
dained by Him as the armorial ensign of the Empire which
was His instrument for the government of men on earth.
25. v. 117. When the desires are set on fame and
worldly honors the love of things divine is less living in the
heart.
26. v. 125. The different grades of the blessed mani-
fest in the circling spheres.
48 PARADISE [vv. 120-142
light of Romeo, whose beautiful and great work
was ill requited.27 But the Provencals who
wrought against him have not the laugh ; and
forsooth he goes an ill road who makes harm
for himself28 of another's good deed. Four
daughters, and each a queen, had Raymond
Berenger, and Romeo, a humble person and a
pilgrim, did this 29 for him. And then crooked
words moved him to demand a reckoning of
this just man, who had rendered to him seven
and five for ten. Thereon he departed, poor
and old, and if the world but knew the heart
he had, while begging his livelihood bit by bit,
much as it lauds him it would laud him more."
27. v. 129. According to Giovanni Villani (vi. 90),
one Romeo, a pilgrim to Rome (whence, perhaps, his appel-
lation), came to the court of Raymond Berenger IV., Count
of Provence (who died in 1245), and winning the count's
favor, served him with such wisdom and fidelity that by his
means his master's revenues were greatly increased, and his
four daughters married to four kings, — Margaret, to Louis
IX., St. Louis, of France ; Eleanor, to Henry III. of Eng-
land ; Sanzia, to Richard, Earl of Cornwall (brother of
Henry III.), elected King of the Romans ; and Beatrice, to
Charles of Anjou (brother of Louis IX. ), King of Naples and
Sicily. The Prove^al nobles, jealous of Romeo, procured
his dismissal, and he departed, with his mule and his pil-
grim's staff and scrip, and was never seen more.
28. v. 132. By envy or calumny.
29. v. 134. The making each a queen.
CANTO VII
Discourse of Beatrice. — The Fall of Man. — Tbi
Scheme of his Redemption.
" OSANNA sanctus Deus Sabaoth, sup erillus trans
claritate tua felices ignes horum malachoth ! " x —
thus, revolving to its own melody, that sub-
stance,2 upon which a double light is twinned,3
was seen by me to sing ; and it and the others
moved in their dance, and like swiftest sparks
veiled themselves to me with sudden distance.4
I was in doubt, and was saying : " Tell her, tell
her," within myself, " tell her," I was saying,
1. v. 3. " Hosanna ! Holy God of Sabaoth, illumina-
ting from above with thy brightness the blessed fires of these
realms." The Hebrew word malachoth Dante found, in-
terpreted as regnorum, in St. Jerome's so-called Prologus
galeatust prefixed to the Vulgate.
2. v. 5. Substance, as a scholastic term, signifies a be-
ing subsisting by itself with a quiddity, or specific nature, of
its own. " Substantias nomen significat essentiam cui corn-
petit sic esse, id est per se esse ; quod tamen esse non est
ipsa ejus essentia." S. T. i. 3. 5.
3. v. 6. The light of his beatitude doubled by that of
nis joy in enlightening Dante ; see Canto v. 131—137.
4. v. 9. Returning to the Empyrean, their abode.
50 PARADISE [vv. 12-34
" my Lady, who slakes my thirst with her sweet
distillings ; " but that reverence which is wholly
mistress of me, only by BE and by ICE,S bowed
me again like one who drowses. Short while
did Beatrice suffer me thus, and she began, irra-
diating me with a smile such as would make a
man in the fire happy : "According to my infal-
lible advisement,6 how a just vengeance could
be justly avenged has set thee thinking ; but I
will quickly loose thy mind : and do thou listen,
for my words will make thee the gift of a great
doctrine.
" By not enduring a curb for his own good
upon the power which wills, that man who was
not born, damning himself, damned all his off-
spring; wherefore the human race lay sick down
there7 for many centuries, in great error, until
it pleased the Word of God to descend where
He, by the sole act of His eternal love, united
with Himself in person the nature which had
estranged itself from its Maker.
" Now turn thy sight to that which now I
5. v. 14. Only by the sound of her name.
6. v. 19. Beatrice sees Dante's thoughts reflected in the
mind of God on which she is gazing, gaining therefrom un-
erring information of the perplexity to which the words of
Justinian (Canto vi. 90-93), concerning the vengeance taken
for the vengeance, had occasioned.
7. v. 29. On earth.
w. 35-61] CANTO VII 51
say : This nature, thus united with its Maker,
was pure and good such as it was created; but
by itself it had been banished from Paradise,
because it turned aside from the way of truth
and from its own life. The penalty therefore
which the cross afforded, if it be measured by
the nature assumed, — none ever so justly
stung ; and, so, none was ever of such great
wrong, if we regard the Person who suffered,
in whom this nature was contracted. There-
fore from one act issued things diverse; for
one death was pleasing to God and to the
Jews : at it the earth trembled and the heaven
was opened. Henceforth it ought no longer
to seem difficult to thee, when it is said that
a just vengeance was afterward avenged by a
just court.8
" But I see now thy mind bound up, from
thought to thought, within a knot, the loosing
of which is awaited with great desire. Thou
sayest : c I discern clearly that which I hear ;
but why God willed only this mode for our re-
demption is hidden from me/ This decree,
brother, lies buried to the eyes of every one
whose wit is not matured in the flame of love.
Yet, inasmuch as on this mark there is much
8. v. 51. The court of the Empire, with rightful juris-
diction over all mankind, " for the whole human race was
punished in the flesh of Christ." De Monarchia, ii. 13, 42.
52 PARADISE [vv. 62-82
gazing, and little is discerned, I will tell why
such mode was the most worthy. The Divine
Goodness, which from > Itself spurns all envy,9
burning in Itself so sparkles that It displays the
eternal beauties. That wrhich distils immedi-
ately I0 from It, thereafter has no end, for when
It seals Its imprint can never be removed.
That which rains down immediately from It is
wholly free, because it is not subject to the
power of the new things.11 It I2 is the most con-
formed to It, and therefore pleases It the most;
for the Holy Ardor which irradiates everything
is most living in what is most like Itself. With
all these things I3 the human creature is advan-
taged, and if one fail, he needs must fall from
his nobility. Sin alone is that which disfran-
chises him, and makes him unlike the Supreme
Good, so that he is little illumined by Its light ;
and to his dignity he never returns, unless,
9. v. 65. " Envy " signifies here the contrary of love.
10. v. 67. Without the intervention of a second cause.
11. v. 72. That is, not subject to the power of the
heavens moved by the angelic Intelligences, which are new
things in comparison with that First Cause by which they
themselves were created.
12. v. 73. That which proceeds immediately from the
Divine Goodness.
13. v. 76. That is, with immediate creation, with im-
mortality, with free will, with likeness to God, and the love
of God for it. Compare Canto v. 1 9—24.
w. 83-106] CANTO VII 53
where fault empties, he fill up with just penal-
ties against evil delight. Your nature, when
it sinned totally in its seed,14 was removed from
these dignities, even as from Paradise ; nor
could it recover them, if thou considerest full
subtly, by any way, without passing by one of
these fords : — either that God, solely by His
courtesy, should have remitted ; or that man
by himself should have made satisfaction for his
folly.15 Fix now thine eye within the abyss of
the eternal counsel, as closely fastened on my
words as thou art able. Man within his own
limits could never make satisfaction, through
not being able to descend in humility, by sub-
sequent obedience, so far as in his disobedience
he had intended to ascend ; and this is the rea-
son why man was shut off from power to make
satisfaction by himself. Therefore it was need-
ful for God with His own ways l6 to restore man
to his perfect life, — I mean with one way, or
else with both. But because the deed of the
14. v. 86. Its seed was Adam, and all human nature
sinned in his fall.
15. v. 93. "I applied my heart ... to know tl
wickedness of folly." Ecclesiastes vii. 25.
1 6. v. 103. " All the paths of the Lord are mercy ano
truth." Psalm xxv. 10. Truth is to be understood here
as justice. " The justice of God which establishes the ordei
ji things conformed to rule of his wisdom, which is his law,
is properly named truth." S. T.\. 21. 2.
54 PARADISE [vv. 107-132
doer is so much the more prized, the more it
displays of the goodness of the heart whence
it issues, the Divine Goodness which sets its
impress on the world was content to proceed
by all Its ways I7 to lift you up again ; nor be-
tween the last night and the first day has there
been or will there be so exalted and so magni-
ficent a procedure either by the one way or by
the other. For God was more bounteous l8 in
giving Himself to make man sufficient to up-
lift himself, than if He only of Himself had
remitted ; and all the other modes were scanty
in respect to justice, if the Son of God had not
humbled Himself to become incarnate.
" Now to fulfil for thee every desire, I return
to a certain place to make it clear, in order that
there thou mayst see as I do. Thou sayest :
c I see the water, I see the fire, the air, and the
earth, and all their mixtures come to corrup-
tion, and endure short while, and yet these
things were created things ; ' so that, if what I
have said I9 has been true, they ought to be se-
cure against corruption. The Angels, brother,
and the pure country in which thou art, may
be called created, just as they are, in their
17. v. 1 10. Its paths of mercy and of justice.
1 8. v. 115. Showed greater mercy.
19. v. 128. In regard to that which distils immediately
<rom God. See v. 67.
wv. 133-148] CANTO VII 55
entire being; but the elements which thou hast
named, and those things which are made of
them, are informed by a created virtue.20 The
matter of which they consist was created ; the
informing virtue in these stars which go round
about them was created. The ray and the mo-
tion of the holy lights draw out from its poten-
tiate elements 2I the soul of every brute and of
the plants ; but the Supreme Benignity inspires
your life without intermediary, and enamors it
of Itself so that ever after it desires It. And
hence 22 thou further canst infer your resurrec-
tion, if thou reflect how the human flesh was
made when the first parents were both made."
20. v. 135. The elements are informed, that is, receive
their specific being, not immediately from God, but mediately
through the angelic Intelligences from whom the spheres de-
rive the virtue which informs them.
21. v. 140. Literally, "from potentiate compound"
{complession potenziata), that is, from the various matter
endowed with the potentiality of becoming informed by the
vegetative and the sensitive soul. In the Convito (iv. 25,
36) Dante explains complessione as gli element! legati, " the
united elements."
22. v. I45.( From the principle that what proceeds im-
mediately from God is immortal, the resurrection of the body
is to be inferred, God having Himself created the flesh a*
well as the spirit of man.
CANTO VIII
Ascent to the Heaven of Venus. — Spirits of Lovers.
»•— Source of the order and the varieties in mortal things.
THE world in its peril x was wont to believe
that the beautiful Cyprian2 revolving in the
third epicycle 3 rayed out mad love ; wherefore
the ancient people in their ancient error not
only unto her did honor with sacrifice and with
votive cry, but they honored Dione4 also and
Cupid, the one as her mother, the other as her
son, and they said that he had sat in Dido's
lap ; 5 and from her, from whom I take my be-
ginning, they took the name of the star which
1. v. i. In heathen times.
2. v. 2. Venus, so called from her birth in Cyprus.
3 . v. 3 . In the astronomy of the ancients the term epi-
cycle designated a circle having its centre on the circumfer-
ence of another circle. In order to account for the apparent
motions of the planets, Ptolemy, whose astronomical system
prevailed till overthrown by the discoveries of Copernicus
adopted the hypothesis that each planet moved in an epicycle
upon the great circle of the heavens, which revolved arouru,.
the earth.
4. v. 7. Dione, daughter of Oceanus and Thetis,
mother of Venus.
5. v. 9. Under the semblance of Ascanius, as Virgii
tells in the first book of the Aeneid.
rv. 12-33] CANTO VIII 57
the sun woos, now behind her now before.6 I
;vas not aware of the ascent to it ; but of being
in it, my Lady gave me full assurance, whom I
saw become more beautiful.
And as a spark is seen within a flame, and as
within a voice a voice is distinguished when one
is steady and the other goes and returns, I saw
within that light other lamps moving in a circle,
speeding more or less, according to the mea-
sure, I believe, of their eternal vision. From
a cold cloud winds, whether visible or not,7
never descended so swiftly, that they would not
seem impeded and slow to him who had seen
these divine lights coming to us, leaving the
circling begun first in the exalted Seraphim.8
And within those who appeared most in front
was sounding Hosanna, in such wise that never
since have I been without desire of hearing it
again. Then one drew nearer to us, and alone
began : " We all are ready at thy pleasure, that
thou mayst have joy of us. With one circle,
6. v. 12. According as Venus is morning or evening
star. Literally, "now at her nape, now at her brow."
7. v. 23. Whether visible as lightning, according to
Aristotle's doctrine "that lightning was simply wind ren-
dered visible by ignition" (Moore, Studies, i. 132) ; or
invisible blasts.
8. v. 27. The circling of these spirits corresponds with
the circular dance of the Seraphim, the most exalted of thfl
Orders of the Angels, in the Empyrean.
58 PARADISE [vv. 34-49
with one circling, and with one thirst,9 we re-
volve with the celestial Princes,10 to whom thou
in the world once didst say : c Te whose intelli-
gence moves the third heaven ; ' " and we are so
full of love that, in order to please thee, a little
quiet will not be less sweet to us."
After my eyes had offered themselves rever-
ently to my Lady, and she had made them of
herself contented and assured, they turned again
to the light which had promised so much ; and :
" Say who ye are," was my utterance, imprinted
with great affection. Ah ! how much greater
in quantity and quality12 did I see it become,
through the new gladness which was added to
its gladnesses when I spoke ! Thus become,
it said to me : I3 " The world held me below
9. v. 35. One circle in space, one circling in eternity,
one thirst for the vision of God.
10. v. 34. The third in ascending order of the hierarchy
of the Angels, the Intelligences or motors of the heaven of
Venus.
11. v. 37. This is the first verse of the first Canzone
of the Convito.
12. v. 46. That is, in size and brightness.
13. v. 49. It is Charles Martel, eldest son of Charles
II. of Naples, who speaks. He was born probably in 1271 ;
he married in 1291 Clemence the daughter of the Emperol
Rudolph I. ; in the spring of I 29^ he was at Florence for
more than twenty days, and at this time he may have be-
come acquainted with Dante. Great honor was done him
by the Florentines, and he showed much love to them, so
vv. 50-62] CANTO VIII 59
but short while ; and had it been longer much
evil had not been which will befall.14 My joy,
which rays around me, holds me concealed from
thee, and hides me like a creature swathed in its
own silk. Much didst thou love me, and hadst
good reason why ; for had I stayed below I had
shown thee of my love more than the leaves.
That left bank which is bathed by the Rhone,
after it has mingled with the Sorgue, awaited
me in due time for its lord ; I§ as well as that
horn of Ausonia l6 which has for suburbs Bari,
and Gaeta, and Catona,17 from where the Tronto
that he won favor from everybody, says Villani. He died
in 1295.
14. v. 51. Literally, "had it been more, much of ill
shall be which should not be." These words probably refer
to the fact that, on the death of Charles II. in 1309, the
kingdom of Naples, to which Charles Martel would have
succeeded, was secured, to the exclusion of his son, Carlo
Roberto, by his brother Robert, who brought many ills upon
the country. See verses 76—84.
15. v. 60. Charles of Anjou, grandfather of Charles
Martel, had received that part of Provence which lies east
of the Rhone as dowry of his wife Beatrice, the youngest
daughter of Raymond Berenger. Cf. vi. 133—136.
1 6. v. 61. A name for Italy of uncertain derivation,
used in classical times only by the poets.
17. v. 62. Bari on the Adriatic, Gaeta on the Medi-
terranean, and Catona at the toe of Italy, together with the
two rivers named, give roughly the boundaries of the King-
dom of Naples.
60 PARADISE [w. 63-75
and the Verde disgorge into the sea. Already
was shining on my brow the crown of that land
which the Danube waters after it abandons its
German banks ; l8 and the fair Trinacria IQ (which
between Pachynus and Pelorus, on the gulf
which receives greatest annoy from Eurus, is
darkened, not by Typhoeus but by nascent sul-
phur) would be still awaiting its kings sprung
through me from Charles and Rudolph,20 if
evil rule, which always embitters the subject
people, had not moved Palermo to shout:
' Die ! Die ! ' " And if my brother had forenoted
18. v. 66. The mother of Charles Martel was sister of
Ladislaus IV. , King of Hungary. He died without offspring,
and Charles II. claimed the kingdom by right of his wife.
19. v. 67. Sicily ; the gulf darkened by sulphurous
fiimes is the Bay of Calabria, which lying between Cape
Pachynus, the extreme southeastern point of the island, and
Cape Pelorus, the extreme northeastern, is exposed to the
full violence of Eurus or the East wind. Clouds of smoke
from Aetna sometimes darken it. The eruptions of Aetna
were ascribed by Ovid (Metam., v. 346—353) to the strug-
gles of Typhoeus, one of the Giants who made war upon
the Gods, and who, being overthrown by Zeus with a thun-
derbolt, was buried under Mount Aetna. Ovid's verses
suggested this description.
20. v. 72. From his father, Charles II., or his grand-
father, Charles of Anjou, and from the Emperor Rudolph of
Hapsburg, the father of his wife.
21. v. 75. By the insurrection which began at Palermo
in 1282, — the famous Sicilian Vespers, — the French were
vv. 76-89] CANTO VIII 61
this,22 he would ere now be flying from the
greedy poverty of Catalonia, in order that it
might not do him harm : for truly it is needful
for him or for some other to provide, so that
on his laden bark more load be not put. His
own nature, which descended niggardly from a
liberal one, would have need of such a soldiery
as should not care for putting into a chest/' 23
" Because I believe that the deep joy which
thy speech, my lord, infuses in me, is seen by
thee there where every good has end and has
beginning,24 even as I see it, it is the more
grateful to me ; and this also I hold dear, that
driven from the island, and the rule over it of Charles of
Anjou was brought to an end. The sovereignty, thus vacant,
was conferred by the people on Peter III. of Aragon, as
being the husband of the daughter of Manfred, the illegiti-
mate son of the Emperor Frederick II.
22. v. 76. " Had my brother, before coming to the
throne, noted how evil rule sets the hearts of the people
against their rulers, he would already be getting rid of the
greedy crowd of his impoverished followers." This brother
was Robert, the third son of Charles II. He had been kept
as a hostage in Catalonia from 1288 to 1295, and when he
became King of Naples in 1 309 he introduced into his ser-
vice many Catalonian officials. The words of Charles Mat-
tel are prophetic of the evils resulting from the avarice of
King Robert and the greed of his courtiers.
23. v. 84. Officials who would not, by oppression of
the subjects, seek to fill their own coffers.
24. v. 87. Is seen in the mind of God.
62 PARADISE [vv. 90-110
thou discernest it, gazing upon God.25 Thou
hast made me glad ; and so now do thou make
clear to me (since in speaking thou hast moved
me to doubt) how from sweet seed can issue
bitterness." This I to him ; and he to me :
" If I can make one truth plain to thee, thou
wilt hold thy face toward that which thou ask-
est, as thou dost now hold thy back. The Good
which revolves and contents all the realm that
thou art ascending, makes its foresight to be a
power in these great bodies.26 And not only are
the natures foreseen in the Mind which by it-
self is perfect, but they together with their well-
being.27 Wherefore whatsoever this bow shoots
falls disposed to its foreseen end, even as a
thing directed to its aim. Were this not so,
the heaven through which thou art journeying
would produce its effects in such wise that they
would not be works of art but ruins ; and that
cannot be, if the Intelligences which move these
stars are not defective, and defective the Prime
25. v. 90. It is also dear to me, that thou discernest
that my joy is the greater because thou knowest it.
26. v. 99. God causes his foresight, or providence, to
become a power in the spheres of Heaven, by which their
respective influences, acting upon the objects or natures sub-
ject to them, operate to produce the foreordained effects.
27. v. 103. Not only are all natures — that is, all created
things — foreseen, but also the order of nature by which all
things are disposed to their respective ends.
vv. 111-124] CANTO VIII 63
Intelligence in that it did not make them per-
fect.28 Dost thou wish that this truth be made
still clearer to thee ? " And I : " No, truly ;
because I see it to be impossible that Nature
should weary in that which is needful." 29
Whereupon he again : " Now, say, would it be
worse for man on earth if he were not a citi-
zen ? " 3° " Yes/' answered I, " and here I ask
not the reason." 3I " And can he be so, unless
he live there below diversely for diverse du-
ties?32 No; if your master33 writes well of
this." Thus he came deducing far as here ;
then he concluded : " Therefore the roots of
your works must needs be diverse ; 34 on which
account one is born Solon, and another Xerxes,
28. v. in. Defect in the subordinate Intelligences
would imply defect in God, which is impossible.
29. v. 114. It is impossible that the order of nature
should fail, that order being the design of God in creation.
30. v. 1 1 6. That is, united with other men in society.
31. v. 1 17. For the fact is evident that man is by na-
ture a social animal, and cannot attain his true end except as
a member of a community.
32. v. 119. Society cannot exist without diversity in
the functions of its members.
33. v. 120. Aristotle, " the master of human reason."
The whole of this discourse is derived from various passages
in the Ethics and Politics of Aristotle.
34. v. 123. Human dispositions, the roots of human
works, must be diverse in order that those works may be
different.
64 PARADISE [vv. 125-144
another Melchisedech, and another he who, fly-
ing through the air, lost his son.35 The circu-
lar nature, which is the seal of the mortal wax,
performs its art well, but does not distinguish
one inn from another.36 Hence it happens that
Esau differs in seed from Jacob, and Quirinus
comes from so mean a father that he is ascribed
to Mars. A begotten nature would always
make its course like its begetters, if the divine
foresight did not overcome.
" Now that which was behind thee is before
thee, but that thou mayst know that I have
joy in thee, I will that thou cloak thyself with
a corollary.37 Ever does a nature, if it find
fortune discordant with itself, like every other
seed out of its region, come to ill result. And
if the world there below would fix attention
on the foundation which Nature lays, following
that, it would have its people good.38 But ye
35. v. 126. Daedalus and Icarus.
36. v. 129. The circular nature, that is, the world of
the spheres, pours down in its revolutions its various influ-
ences without discrimination of the individuals upon whom
they fall ; hence sons differ in their dispositions from their
fathers.
37. v. 138. This additional statement completes the
instruction, as a cloak completes the clothing of a body.
38. v. 144. If men were but brought up and employed
in accordance with their natural dispositions, the world would
be the better off.
vv. 145-148] CANTO VIII 65
wrest to religion one who shall have been born
to gird on the sword, and ye make a king of
one who is for preaching ; so that your track is
outside of the road." 39
39. v. 148. The path you follow is not the way of
nature. The condensed argument of the reply of Charles
Martel to Dante's question is made the more difficult to fol-
low, because of the various meanings in which the word
nature is employed. First, in v. 100 natures signify the
products of Nature in its generic sense; in v. 114 Na-
ture stands for the personified order of the created world ;
in v. 127 "the circular nature " is equivalent to the system
of the spheres; in vv. 133 and 139 nature is used for the
individual creature, though in the latter instance it is held
by many commentators to signify Nature with the same
meaning which it has in v. 142, where the word is employed
in its generic and personified sense.
CANTO IX
The Heaven of Venus. — Conversation of Dante with
Cunizza da Romano. — With Folco of Marseilles. —
Rabab. — Avarice of the Papal Court.
AFTER thy Charles, O beautiful Clemence,1
had enlightened me, he told me of the frauds
which his seed must experience ; 2 but he said :
" Keep silence, and let the years revolve ; "
so that I can say nothing, except that just
lamentation shall follow on your wrongs.3
And now the life of that holy light had
turned again unto the Sun which fills it, as that
Good which suffices for every thing. Ah, souls
deceived, and creatures impious, who from such
Good turn away your hearts, directing your
foreheads unto vanity !
And lo ! another of those splendors made to-
wards me, and by brightening outwardly was
signifying its will to please me. The eyes of
1 . v.i. The widow of Charles Martel.
2. v. 2. Frauds by which his son Caroberto was de-
prived of his rights of succession to the throne of Naples.
3. v. 8. Those who have done the wrong shall justly
lament therefor. This seems to be a mere general affirms
tion, for no special facts are known to justify it in this case
vv. 16-35] CANTO IX 67
Beatrice, which were fixed upon me, as before,4
made me assured of dear assent to my desire.
" Pray, blessed spirit," I said, " afford speedy
satisfaction to my wish, and give me proof that
what I think I can reflect on thee." 5 Whereon
the light which was still new to me, from out
its depth, wherein before6 it was singing, pro-
ceeded, as one whom doing good delights :
" In that part 7 of the wicked Italian land which
lies between Rialto and the founts of the Brenta
and the Piave, rises a hill,8 and mounts not very
high, wherefrom a torch descended which made
a great assault upon that district. From one
root both I and it were born ; I was called
Cunizza ; and I am refulgent here because the
light of this star overcame me. But gladly do
I grant myself indulgence for the occasion of
my lot, and it does not trouble me ; 9 which per-
4. v. 17. See Canto viii. 42.
5. v. 21. That thou, gazing on the mind of God, seest
therein my thoughts reflected from it.
6. v. 23. See Canto viii. 28—30.
7. v. 25. The March of Treviso, lying between Ven-
ice (Rialto) and the Alps.
8. v. 28. The hill on which stood the little stronghold
of Romano, the birthplace of the tyrant Azzolino, or Ezze-
lino (1194-1259), whom Dante had seen in Hell (Cantc
xii. 109) punished for his horrible misdeeds in the river of
boiling blood, Cunizza was his sister.
Q. v. 35. The sin which has limited the capacity a
68 PARADISE [vv. 36-50
haps would seem a hard saying to your vulgar.
Of this resplendent and precious jewel of our
kingdom,10 which is nearest to me, great fame
has remained, and ere it die away this hundredth
year shall yet come round five times. See if
man ought to make himself excellent, so that
the first life may leave another ! " And this
the present crowd, which the Tagliamento and
the Adige shut in,12 considers not ; nor yet,
though it be scourged, does it repent. But it
will soon come to pass that because her people
are stubborn against duty,13 Padua at the marsh
will change the water which bathes Vicenza.
And where the Sile and the Cagnano unite, one
lords it, and goes with his head high, for catch-
bliss, and has determined the low grade of Cunizza in Para-
dise, is pardoned to herself and forgotten, and she, like Pio
carda, wishes only for that blessedness which she has.
10. v. 38. Folco, or Folquet, of Marseilles, once a dis-
solute and famous troubadour, then bishop of Toulouse.
He died in 1231.
11. v. 42. Another, that is, the enduring life of good
fame.
12. v. 44. The people of the region where Cunizza
lived.
13. v. 48. During the years in which Dante was writ-
ing his poem the Paduan Guelfs, resisting the Emperor, to
whom they owed duty, were defeated more than once, near
Vicenza, by Can Grande, the Imperial Vicar, staining with
their blood the waters of the marsh which the Bacchiglione
forms near Verona.
w. 51-62] CANTO IX 69
ing whom the web is already made.14 Feltro
will yet weep the crime of its impious shepherd,
which will be so shameful, that, for a like, none
ever entered Malta.15 Too large would be the
vat which should receive the Ferrarese blood,
and weary he who should weigh it ounce by
ounce, which this courteous priest will give to
show himself of his party ; l6 and such gifts will
be conformed to the living of the country.
Above are mirrors, ye call them Thrones,1'
wherefrom God in judgment shines on us, so
14. v. 5 1 . The Sile and the Cagnano unite at Treviso,
whose lord, Riccardo da Camino, was assassinated in 1312.
Riccardo was the son of*' the good Gherardo," mentioned
in Purgatory, xvi. 121—138 ; and by some early authori-
ties he is said to have married Giovanna, the daughter of
Nino de' Visconti, of whom her father speaks, Purgatory,
viii. 70-72.
15. v. 54. An act of treachery in 1314 on the part of
Alessandro Novello, the Bishop and Lord of Feltre, in de-
livering up certain Ghibelline refugees from Ferrara, whence
they had fled after failing in a conspiracy. Some of them
were beheaded and others hanged. This breach of faith was
so vile that in the prison called Malta no such crime as his
was ever punished. There is great difference among the
early commentators as to the locality of Malta.
1 6. v. 59. The designation of" The Party " was ap-
propriated by the Guelfs.
17. v. 61. The Thrones were the third order of the
Angelic Hierarchy, and according to St. Gregory
34), that through which God executes his judgments.
70 PARADISE [vv- 63'-Sl
that these words seem good to us." l8 Here she
was silent, and had to me the semblance of
being turned elsewhither by the wheel in which
she set herself as she was before.19
The other joy, which was already known
to me as an illustrious thing,20 became to my
sight like a fine ruby whereon the sun should
strike. Through joy effulgence is gained there
on high, even as a smile here ; but below 2I
the shade darkens outwardly, as the mind is
sad.
" God sees everything, and thy vision, blessed
spirit, is in Him," said I, " so that no wish can
steal itself away from thee. Thy voice, then,
which forever charms the heavens, together with
the song of those devout fires which make a
cowl for themselves with their six wings,22 why
does it not satisfy my desires ? Surely I should
not wait for thy request if I in-theed myself,
as thou thyself in-meest." 23 " The greatest
1 8. v. 63. Because we see reflected from the Thrones
the judgment of God about to fall on the guilty.
19. v. 66. See Canto viii. 19—21, and 34—35.
20. v. 68. By the words of Cunizza, verses 37-40.
21. v. 71. In Hell.
22. v. 78. The Seraphim, who with their wings cover
themselves. See Isaiah vi. 2.
23. v. 81. If .1 saw thee inwardly as thou seest me.
Dante invents the words he uses here, and they are no less
unfamiliar in Italian than in English.
vv. 82-98] CANTO IX 71
valley in which the water spreads," 24 began then
his words, " except of that sea which garlands
the earth, extends between its discordant shores
so far counter to the sun, that it makes a meri-
dian where first it is wont to make the hori-
zon.25 I was a dweller on the shore of that
valley, between the Ebro and the Macra,26
which, with short course, divides the Genoese
from the Tuscan. With almost the same sun-
set and the same sunrise sit Buggea and the city
whence I was, which once made its harbor warm
with its own blood.27 That people to whom
my name was known called me Folco, and this
heaven is imprinted by me, as I was by it. For
the daughter of Belus,28 wronging both Sichaeus
and Creiisa, burned not more than I, so long
24. v. 82. The Mediterranean.
25. v. 87. In the rude system of geography current in
Dante's day the Mediterranean was held to extend from west
to east, " counter to the sun/' from the Pillars of Hercules
to Jerusalem, over ninety degrees of longitude. Hence its
western end, which formed the horizon at sunrise, would be
under the zenith at noon.
26. v. 89. Between the Ebro in Spain and the Macra
in Italy lies Marseilles, under almost the same meridian as
Buggea (now Bougie), on the African coast, which was for
a time during the Middle Ages an important port.
2 7* v* 93« When the fleet of Caesar defeated that of
Pompey with its contingent of vessels and soldiers of Mar-
seilles, B. c. 49.
28. v. 97. Dido, who by her passion for Aeneas
72 PARADISE [vv. 99-108
as it befitted my locks ; 29 nor she of Rhodope
who was deluded by Demophoon ; 3° nor Alci-
des when he had enclosed lole in his heart.31
Yet here we repent not, but smile ; not for the
fault, which does not return to the memory,
but for the Power which ordained and foresaw0
Here we gaze on the art which adorns so great
a work,32 and we discern the good whereby the
world below turns to that above.33
wronged alike her dead husband Sichaeus, and Creiisa the
dead wife of Aeneas.
29. v. 99. So long as youth lasted.
30. v. 100. Phyllis, daughter of the king of Thrace,
who hanged herself, believing herself to have been deserted
by Demophoon, the son of Theseus. Rhodope was the name
of the chain of mountains between Thrace and Macedonia.
31. v. 1 02. lole was the daughter of a king of Thes-
saly, and the love of Hercules for her so excited the jealousy
of his wife Dejaneira that she brought about his death.
32. v. 107. Which makes the created universe beautiful.
33. v. 108. The doctrine of this canto, which, as Cu-
nizza says, may "appear difficult to the common herd"
(v. 36), is expressed, although somewhat obscurely, in
verses 103—108. The mere sensual passion of love, such as
that which possessed Cunizza and Folco, is in itself a fault ;
but, under the providence of God exerted through the good
influences of the Heavens, it may be transmuted into that
pure love which fills the spirits who manifest themselves in the
heaven of Venus. The fire of the earthly passion is the type
of the ardent flame of the spiritual. The spirits, after due
repentance, having purged away their fault in Purgatory,
Have forgotten it as fault, and smile at recognizing how the
vv. 109-121] CANTO IX 73
" But in order that thou mayst bear away all
fulfilled thy wishes which have been born in
this sphere, I must needs proceed still further.
Thou wouldst know who is in this light, which
beside me here so sparkles, as a sunbeam on
clear water. Now know that therewithin Ra-
hab 34 is at rest, and being joined with our order
it is sealed by her in the supreme degree.35 By
this heaven, in which the shadow that your
world makes comes to a point,36 she was taken
up before any other soul of the triumph of
Christ. It was well befitting to leave her in
Divine power ordained it to be, as it were, the indication and
measure of their capacity of heavenly love ; and they gaze
upon the art which makes the creation beautiful, discerning
the working of the good influences by which the earth, the
lower world, is brought into harmony with the world on
high, and that which was imperfect and faulty upon earth
is turned to good.
34. v. 1 1 6. " By faith the harlot Rahab perished not
with them that believed not." Hebrews xi. 31. See
Joshua ii. 1—21 ; vi. 17 ; James ii. 25.
35. v. 117. Our ranks are brightened by her splendor
more than by any other.
36. v. 1 1 8. The conical shadow of the earth ended,
according to Ptolemy, at the heaven of Venus. The refer-
ence to it has an allegorical meaning, the moral shadow of the
earth being shown in the feebleness of will, the worldly
ambition, and the inordinate love, which have allotted the
souls who appear in the three shadowed spheres to the lowest
grades in Paradise.
74 PARADISE [w. 122-136
some heaven, as a palm of the high victory
which was acquired with one palm and the
other,37 because she favored the first glory of
Joshua in the Holy Land,38 which little touches
the memory of the Pope.39
" Thy city, which was planted by him who
first turned his back on his Maker, and whose
envy has been so bewept,40 produces and scat-
ters the accursed flower41 which has caused the
sheep and the lambs to stray, because it has
made a wolf of the shepherd. For this the
Gospel and the great Doctors are deserted, and
there is study only of the Decretals,42 as is
37. v. 122. By the hands nailed to the cross.
38. v. 125. The first glory of Joshua was the taking
and destruction of Jericho, to which Rahab lent assistance by
hiding the messengers whom he had sent to spy out the city.
See Joshua ii. vi. Joshua was often held by the mediaeval
expositors of Scripture to be a type of the Saviour, and
Rahab a type of the Church saved by the blood of Christ,
of which the scarlet thread which she bound in the window
was typical.
39. v. 126. The Pope, Boniface VIII., gave little
thought to the recovery of the Holy Land. Cf. Hell,
xxvii. 85-87.
40. v. 129. "Through envy of the devil came death
into the world." Wisdom of Solomon ii. 24.
41. v. 130. The lily on the florin.
42. v. 134. The books of the Canon Law, by means
of the study of which wealth may be acquired. Their mar-
gins are covered with notes, and soiled by continual use,,
vv. 137-142] CANTO IX 75
apparent by their margins. On this the Pope
and the Cardinals are intent ; their thoughts go
not to Nazareth, there where Gabriel spread his
wings. But the Vatican, and the other chosen
parts of Rome, which have been the burial
place for the soldiery that followed Peter, shall
soon be free from this adultery." 43
43. v. 142. By the removal in 1 305 of the Papal Court
to Avignon. Possibly, however, this prophecy may refer to
the coming of that unnamed leader who was to be the libera-
tor of Italy.
CANTO X
Ascent to the Sun. — Spirits of the wise, and tbt
learned in theology. — St. Thomas Aquinas. — He names
to Dante those who surround. him.
LOOKING upon His Son with the Love which
the one and the other eternally breathe forth,
the primal and ineffable Power made every-
thing which revolves through the mind or
through space with such order that he who
contemplates it cannot be without taste of
Him.1 Lift then thy sight, Reader, with me to
the lofty wheels, straight to that region where
the one motion strikes on the other ; 2 and there
1. v. 6. All things, as well the spiritual and invisible
objects of the intelligence as the corporeal and visible objects
of sense, were made by God the Father, operating through
the Son, with the love of the Holy Spirit, and made in such
order that he who contemplates the creation beholds the par-
tial image of the Creator.
2. v. 9. At the equinox, the season of Dante* s journey,
the sun in Aries is at the intersection of the ecliptic and the
equator of the celestial sphere, and his apparent movement, in
his annual revolution in the zodiac, cuts his apparent diurnal
motion, which is parallel to the equator.
vv. 10-33] CANTO X 77
begin to gaze with delight on the art of that
Master who within Himself so loves it that His
eye never departs from it. See how from that
point the oblique circle which bears the plan-
ets 3 branches off, to satisfy the world which
calls on them ; 4 and if their road were not bent,
much virtue in the heavens would be in vain,
and well-nigh every potency dead here below ; *
and if its departure were more or less distant
from the straight line, much of the order of the
world, both below and above, would be defec-
tive. Now remain, Reader, upon thy bench,6
pursuing in thought that which is foretasted if
thou wouldst be glad far sooner than weary. I
have set before thee ; henceforth feed thou thy-
self, for that theme whereof I have been made
the scribe wrests all my care unto itself.
The greatest minister of nature, which im-
prints the world with the worth of the hea-
vens, and with his light measures the time for
us, conjoined with that region which is men-
tioned above, was circling through the spirals in
which from day to day he earlier presents him-
3. v. 14. The zodiac, which branches off from the
equator at the equinoctial point.
4. v. 15. Which invokes their influence.
5. v. 1 8. Because on the obliquity of their path depends
Ac variety of their influence.
6. v. 22. As a scholar.
78 PARADISE [vv. 34-52
self.7 And I was with him ; but of the ascent I
was not aware, otherwise than is a man, before
his first thought, aware of its coming. It is
Beatrice who thus conducts from good to bet-
ter, so instantaneously that her act does not
extend through time.
How lucent in itself must that have been
which was apparent not by color but by light
within the sun where I had entered ! Though I
should call on genius, art, and use, I could not
tell it so that it could ever be imagined ; but
one may believe it, and let him long to see it.
And if our fancies are low for such loftiness, it
is no marvel, for beyond the sun there was
never eye could go. Such 8 was here the fourth
family of the exalted Father, who always sat-
isfies it, showing how He breathes forth, and
how He begets.9 And Beatrice began : " Give
7. v. 33. In that region which has been mentioned
above, where the equator and the zodiac intersect, the sun
was pursuing his spiral course, according to the Ptolemaic
system, in which, after the vernal equinox, he rises every
day a little earlier and a little farther north. So Donne : — •
" Where the Sun rose to-day
He comes no more, but with a cozening line,
Steals by that point, and so is serpentine."
An Anatomie of the World.
8. v. 49. So lucent, brighter than the sun.
9. ¥.51. Showing himself in the Holy Spirit and in the
Son.
vv. 53-80] CANTO X 79
thanks, give thanks to the Sun of the Angels,
who to this visible one has raised thee by His
grace." Heart of mortal was never so disposed
to devotion, and so ready, with its whole will,
to render itself up to God, as I became at those
words ; and all my love was so set on Him
that it eclipsed Beatrice in oblivion. It did not
displease her ; but she so smiled thereat that
the splendor of her smiling eyes divided upon
many things my mind intent on one.
I saw many living and surpassing effulgences
make of us a centre, and make of themselves a
crown ; more sweet in voice than shining in as-
pect. Thus girt we sometimes see the daugh-
ter of Latona, when the air is so impregnate
that it holds the thread which makes her zone.10
In the court of Heaven, wherefrom I return,
are found many jewels so precious and beauti-
ful that they cannot be brought from the king-
dom, and of these was the song of those lights.
Let him who does not wing himself so that he
may fly up thither, await tidings thence from
the dumb.
After those blazing suns, thus singing, had
circled three times round about us, like stars
near to the fixed poles, they seemed to me as
ladies not released from a dance, but who stop
10. v. 69. When the air is so full of vapor that it forma
& halo.
8o PARADISE [vv. 81-99
silent, listening till they have caught the new
notes. And within one I heard begin : " Since
the ray of grace, by which true love is kindled,
and which then in loving grows multiplied, so
shines on thee that it conducts thee upward by
that stair which, without reascending, no one
descends," he who should deny to thee the wine
of his flask for thy thirst, would not be more at
liberty than water which descends not to the
sea." Thou wishest to know with what plants
this garland is enflowered, which, round about
her, gazes with delight upon the beautiful Lady
who strengthens thee for heaven. I was of the
lambs of the holy flock which Dominic leads
along the way I3 where they fatten well if they
do not stray.14 This one who is nearest to me
on the right was my brother and master ; and
he was Albert of Cologne,15 and I Thomas of
II. v. 87. Once received into Paradise no one can de-
scend from it but to ascend again : so in the second canto of
Purgatory, vv. 91,92, Dante says to Casella, " In order to
return another time there where I am, I make this journey."
I 2. v. 90. He would be restrained against his nature,
as water prevented from seeking the level of the sea.
13' v* 95« That is, he was of the Order of St. Dominic.
14. v. 96. Where one acquires spiritual good, if he be
not distracted by the allurement of worldly things.
15. v. 98. So famed for his learning that he became
known as Albertus Magnus, and was styled Doctor Univer*
sails. He was born in 1 193 and died in 1280.
vv. 100-109] CANTO X 81
Aquino.16 If thus of all the rest thou wouldst
be informed, come, following my speech, with
thy sight circling around upon the blessed
wreath. That next flaming issues from the
smile of Gratian, who so aided one court and
the other that it pleases in Paradise.17 The
next, who at his side adorns our choir, was that
Peter who, like the poor woman, offered his
treasure to Holy Church.18 The fifth light,
which is most beautiful among us,19 breathes
1 6. v. 99. St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Angelicus,
whose Sum-ma Theologiae is the chief source of Dante's theo-
logical doctrine, and is still the authorized doctrinal text-book
of the Roman Church. He was born about 1225 and died
in 1274.
17. v. 105. Gratian was an Italian Benedictine monk,
who lived in the twelfth century, and compiled the famous
work known as the Decretum Gratiani, composed of texts
of Scripture, of the Canons of the Church, of Decretals of
the Popes, and of extracts from the Fathers, designed to
establish the agreement of the civil and canon law, — a work
pleasing in Paradise because promoting concord between the
two authorities.
1 8. v. 1 08. Peter Lombard, a theologian of the twelfth
century, known as Magister Sententiarum, from his compi-
lation of extracts from the works of the Fathers relating to
the chief doctrines of the Church, under the title of Senten-
tiarum Libri IV. In the proem to his work he says that he
desired, "like the poor widow" {Luke xxi. 1-4), " to
cast something from his penury into the treasury of the
Lord. ' ' His book was for a long time the favorite manual
of theology in the Schools.
19. v. 109. Solomon.
82 PARADISE [vv. 110-123
from such love that all the world there below
is greedy to know tidings of it : 20 within it is
the lofty mind wherein wisdom so profound
was put, that, if the truth be true, to see so
much no second has arisen.21 At its side be-
hold the light of that candle which, below in
the flesh, saw most inwardly the angelic nature,
and its ministry.22 In the next little light smiles
that advocate of the Christian times, with whose
discourse Augustine provided himself.23 Now
if thou leadest the eye of the mind, following
my praises, from light to light, thou stayest
already thirsting for the eighth. Therewithin,
20. v. 1 1 1 . It was matter of debate among the doctors
of the Church, whether Solomon was among the blessed or
the damned.
21. v. 114. " Lo, I have given thee a wise and an
understanding heart ; so that there was none like thee be-
fore thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee."
I Kings iii. 12.
22. v. 117. Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of
St. Paul {Acts xvii. 34), to whom was ascribed a book of
great repute, written by an unknown author, probably in the
fifth or sixth century, On the Celestial Hierarchy.
23. v. 120. Paulus Orosius, who lived in the fourth
and fifth centuries, and wrote at the request of St. Augustine,
his History against the Pagans, to defend Christianity from
the charge brought against it by the Gentiles of being the
source of the calamities which had befallen the Roman world.
His work might be regarded as a supplement to St. Augus-
tine's De Civitate Dei.
w. 124-138] CANTO X 83
through seeing every good, the holy soul re-
joices which makes the fallacious world mani-
fest to him who hearkens to it well.24 The
body whence it was chased out lies below in
Cieldauro,25 and from martyrdom and from
exile it came to this peace. Beyond, see flam-
ing the glowing breath of Isidore, of Bede, and
of Richard who in contemplation was more
than man.26 This one from whom thy look
returns to me is the light of a spirit to whom,
in his grave thoughts, it seemed that death
came slow. It is the eternal light of Siger,27
who, reading in the Street of Straw, syllogized
invidious truths."
24. v. 126. Boethius, statesman and philosopher, who
was born about 475, and died in 525 ; his work, De Conso-
latione Pbilosopbiae, was one of the books held in highest
esteem by Dante. He cites it frequently in the Convito ;
see especially, ii. 13, and 16.
25. v. 128. Boethius, who was put to death hi Pavia,
in 525, was buried in the church of S. Pietro in Cielo d' Oro
— St. Peter's of the Golden Ceiling.
26. v. 132. Isidore, bishop of Seville, died 636 ; the
Venerable Bede, died 735 ; Richard, prior of the Monastery
of St. Victor, at Paris, a mystic of the twelfth century ; all
eminent theologians.
27. v. 136. Siger of Brabant, who in the last half ot
the thirteenth century, as doctor in the University of Paris,
gave instruction in the Rue du Fouarre. The meaning of the
words veri invidiosiy "invidious truths" or "truths which
were hated," is uncertain ; but he took an active part in th«
84 PARADISE ^.139-148
Then, as a horologe which calls us at the
hour when the Bride of God28 rises to sing
matins to her Bridegroom that he may love
her, in which the one part draws and urges the
other, sounding ting! ting! with such sweet
note that the well-disposed spirit swells with
love, so did I see the glorious wheel move, and
render voice to voice in concord and in sweet-
ness which cannot be known save there where
joy is everlasting.
disputes in the University, and it is stated, on somewhat un-
certain authority, that he was put to death by the Court of
Rome, at Orvieto.
zS. v. 140. The Church.
CANTO XI
The Vanity of worldly desires. — St. Thomas Aquina\
undertakes to solve two doubts perplexing Dante. — He
narrates the life of St. Francis of Assist.
O INSENSATE care of mortals ! how defective
are those syllogisms which make thee down-
ward beat thy wings \ One was going after the
laws, and one after the aphorisms/ and one fol-
lowing the priesthood, and one to reign by
force or by sophisms, and one to rob, and one
to civic business, one, involved in pleasure of
the flesh, was wearying himself, and one was
giving himself to idleness, when I, loosed from
all these things, with Beatrice, up in Heaven
was thus gloriously received.
After each2 had returned to that point of
the circle at which it was at first, it stayed still,
as a candle in a candlestick. And within that
light which first had spoken to me 1 heard,
1. v. 4. The Aphorisms of Hippocrates, meaning here,
the study of medicine.
2. v. 13. Each of the lights which had encircled Bea-
trice and Dante*
86 PARADISE [w. 18-39
as making itself more clear, it smiling began :
tc Even as I am resplendent with its radiance,
so, looking into the Eternal Light, I apprehend
whence is the occasion of thy thoughts. Thou
art perplexed, and hast the wish that my speech
be explained in language so open and so full
that it may be level to thy sense, where I said
just now : c Where they fatten well,' 3 and there
where I said: c No second has been born;*4
and here is need that one distinguish well.
" The Providence which governs the world
with that counsel, in which every created vision
is vanquished ere it reach its depth, in order
that the Bride5 of Him, who with loud cries6
espoused her with His blessed blood, might go
toward her beloved, secure in herself and also
more faithful to Him, ordained two princes in
her favor, who on this side and that should be
to her for guides./ The one was all seraphic
in ardor,7 the other, through wisdom, was on
earth a splendor of cherubic light.8 I will speak
3. v. 25. Canto x. 96.
4. v. 26. Canto x. 114. The phrase is slightly changed.
5. v. 32. The Church.
6. v. 3 2. «« And Jesus [on the cross] cried with a loud
voice." Matthew xxvii. 46 and 50.
7. v. 37. St. Francis of Assisi. The seraphs burn with
ardent love, the cherubs shine with the splendor of the radi«
wice of knowledge of God.
8. v. 39. St. Dominic. ;„**
w. 40-56] CANTO XI 87
of one, because in praising one whichever be
taken, both are spoken of, for to one end were
their works.
" Between the Tupino and the water9 which
descends from the hill chosen by the blessed
Ubald, hangs the fertile slope of a high moun-
tain, wherefrom Perugia at Porta Sole I0 feels cold
and heat, while behind it Nocera and Gualdo
weep because of their heavy yoke.11 From
this slope, where it most breaks its steepness,
a Sun rose upon the world, as this one some-
times does from the Ganges. Wherefore let
him who talks of this place not say Ascesi,12
which were to speak short, but Orient,13 if he
would speak properly. He was not yet very
far from his rising when he began to make the
9. v. 43. The Chiassi, which flows from the hill near
Gubbio chosen for his hermitage by St. Ubald.
10. v. 47. The gate of Perugia, which fronts Monte
Subasio, on which Assisi lies, some fifteen miles to the south.
The mountain makes it hot in summer, and cold in winter.
11. v. 48. Little towns, southeast of Assisi, held in sub-
jection by Perugia.
12. v. 53. So the name of Assisi was sometimes spelled,
and here with a play on ascesi (as if from ascendere} "I
rose."
13. v. 54. As the sun at the vernal equinox, the sacred
season of the Creation and the Incarnation, rises in the due
east or orient, represented in the geographical system of the
time by the Ganges, so the place where this new Sun of
righteousness arose should be called Orient or dayspring.
88 PARADISE [w. 57-76
earth feel some comfort from his great virtue s
for, while still a youth, he ran into strife with
his father '4 for sake of a lady such as to whom,
as unto death, no one unlocks the gate of plea-
sure ; and before his spiritual court et cor am
patre I5 he was united to her ; and thereafter
from day to day he loved her more ardently.
She, deprived of her first husband,16 for eleven
hundred years and more, despised and obscure,
even till him had remained unwooed ; I7 nor
had it availed l8 to hear, that he, who caused
fear to all the world, found her undisturbed
with Amyclas at the sound of his voice ; I9 nor
had it availed to have been constant and un~
daunted, so that, where Mary remained below,
she mounted on the cross with Christ.
But that I may not proceed too obscurely,
henceforth in my diffuse speech take Francis
and Poverty for these lovers. Their concord
and their glad semblances made love, and won-
14. v. 59. Devoting himself to Poverty against his
father's will.
15. v. 62. Before the Bishop of Assisi, and "in pre-
sence of his father," he renounced his worldly possessions.
1 6. v. 64. Christ.
17. v. 66. St. Francis was born in 1182.
1 8. v. 67. To procure suitors for her.
19. v. 69. When Caesar knocked at the door of Amy-
clas his voice caused no alarm, because Poverty made the
fisherman secure. Lucan, Pbarsalia, v. 515 ff.
v. 77-94] CANTO XI 89
der, and sweet regard 20 to be the cause of holy
thoughts ; so that the venerable Bernard first
bared his feet,21 and ran following such great
peace3 and, running, it seemed to him that he
was slow. O unknown riches ! O fertile good !
Egidius bares his feet and Sylvester bares his
feet,22 following the bridegroom ; so pleasing is
the bride. Then that father and that master
goes on his way with his lady, and with that
family which the humble cord was now gird-
ing.23 Nor did baseness of heart weigh down
his brow for being the son of Pietro Bernar-
done,24 nor for appearing marvellously despised;
but royally he opened his hard intention to
Innocent, and from him received the first
seal for his Order.*5 After the poor folk had
20. v. 77. In the hearts of those who beheld them.
21. v. 80. The followers of Francis imitated him in
going barefoot. Bernard, a wealthy citizen of Assisi, was his
first disciple. He distributed his goods among the poor, and
embracing the rule of poverty gave his life to deeds of mercy.
After the death of Francis he was chosen head of the Order.
22. v. 83. Egidius, the blessed Giles of Assisi, and
Sylvester were not only two of the first, but also two of the
most devoted followers of their master.
23. v. 87. The cord for their girdle, instead of the
leathern belt commonly worn by the monastic orders ;
whence the Franciscans were called Cordeliers.
24. v. 89. For being the son of a rich father, and
being scoffed at for his own abject indigence.
25. v. 93. In or about 1210 Pope Innocent III. ap-
proved the Rule of St. Francis.
90 PARADISE [95-1 n
increased behind him, whose marvellous life
would be better sung in the glory of the hea-
vens, the holy purpose of this archimandrite26
was adorned with a second crown by the Eter-
nal Spirit, through Honorius.27 And after that,
through thirst for martyrdom, he had preached
Christ and the others who followed him, in the
proud presence of the Sultan,28 and because he
found the people too unripe for conversion,
and in order not to stay in vain, had returned
to the fruit of the Italian herbage,29 on the harsh
rock,30 between the Tiber and the Arno, he re-
ceived from Christ the last seal,31 which his
limbs bore for two years. When it pleased
Him, who had allotted him to such great good,
to draw him up to the reward which he had
gained in making himself lowly,33 he com-
26. v. 99. "The head of the fold:*' a term of the
Greek Church, designating the head of one or more monas-
teries.
27. v. 98. In 1223, Honorius III. confirmed the sanc-
tion of the Order.
28. v. 101. Francis, with some of his followers, accom-
panied the crusaders of the fifth crusade to Egypt in 1219,
and is said to have been sent for by the Sultan of the land
and to have preached before him.
29. v. 105. To the harvest of good grain in Italy.
30. v. 1 06. Mount Alvernia, in the Casentino, thff
Upper valley of the Arno.
31. v, 107. The Stigmata.
32. v. 1 1 1 . The word in the original which I translate
vv. 112-134] CANTO XI 91
mended his most dear lady to his brethren as
to rightful heirs, and commanded them to love
her faithfully ; and from her bosom his illus-
trious soul willed to depart, returning to its
realm, and for his body he willed no other
bier.33
" Think now what he was,34 who was a wor-
thy colleague to keep the bark of Peter on
the deep sea to its right aim ! And this was
our Patriarch : 3S wherefore thou canst see that
whoever follows him as he commands loads
good merchandise. But his flock has become
so greedy of strange food 36 that it cannot but
be scattered over diverse meadows : and the
farther his sheep, remote and vagabond, go from
him, the more empty of milk do they return
to the fold. Some of them indeed there are
who fear the harm, and keep close to the shep-
herd ; but they are so few that little cloth fur-
nishes their cowls. Now if my words are not
faint, if thy hearing has been attentive, if thou
«' lowly " is pu silk, which in its Latin form pusillus is used
in the Vulgate in passages where in the English version we
find "little one" or "little." See Matthew xviii. 6, 10,
II ; Mark ix. 41 ; Luke xii. 32, xvii. 2.
33. v. 117. St. Francis died in 1226.
34. v. 1 1 8. How holy he must have been.
35. v. 121. St. Dominic.
36. v. 124. The food of riches and ecclesiastical digni-
ties, strange to the true flock.
92 PARADISE [vv. 135-139
recallest to mind that which I have said, thy
wish will be content in part, because thou wilt
see the plant wherefrom they are hewn,37 and
thou wilt see how the wearer of the thong rea-
sons — ' Where they fatten well if they do not
stray/ "
37. v. 1 3 7* The plant of which the words are splinters
or chips ; in other terms, " thou wilt understand the whole
ground of my assertion, and thou wilt see what St. Thomas
Aquinas, wearer of the leathern thong of the Dominican
Order, means, when he says that the flock of Dominic fatten,
if they stray not from the road on which he leads them."
CANTO XII
Second circle of the spirits of wise religious men, doc-
tors of the Church and teachers. — St. Bonaventura nar-
rates the life of St. Dominic, and tells the names of those
who form the circle with him.
SOON as the blessed flame took to speaking
its last word the holy mill-stone ' began to re-
volve, and had not wholly turned in its gyra-
tion before another enclosed it with a circle,
and matched motion with motion, song with
song ; song which in those sweet pipes as much
surpasses our Muses, our Sirens, as a primal
splendor that which it reflected.2 As two bows
parallel and like in colors are turned across a
thin cloud, when Juno gives the order to her
handmaid,3 the one without born of the one
within (in manner of the speech of that wander-
ing one4 whom love consumed, as the sun does
1. v. 3. The circle of spirits surrounding Beatrice and
Dante.
2. v. 9. As an original ray is brighter than one re»
fleeted.
3. v. 12. Iris.
4. v. 14. The nymph Echo.
94 PARADISE [w. 16-38
vapors), and make the people here5 to be pre-
sageful, by reason of the covenant which God
established with Noah concerning the world,
that it shall nevermore be flooded ; so the two
garlands of those sempiternal roses were turn-
ing around us, and so did the outer correspond
to the inner. After the dance and the exalted
great festivity, alike of the singing and of the
flaming, light with light joyous and bland, had
become quiet together at one instant and with
one will, even as the eyes which must needs close
and lift themselves together at the pleasure that
moves them, from the heart of one of the new
lights there came a voice, which made me seem
as the needle to the star in turning me to its
whereabout ; and it began : 6 " The love which
makes me beautiful draws me to discourse of
the other leader, by whom 7 so well it has been
spoken here of mine. It is fit that where one
is the other be led in, so that as they waged
war united, so together may their glory shine.
" The army of Christ, which it cost so dear
to arm afresh,8 was moving behind the stand-
5. v. 1 6. On earth.
6. v. 31. It is St. Bonaventura, the biographer of Sf
Francis, who speaks. He became General of the Order in
1256, and died in 1276.
7. v. 33. By whom, through one of his brethren, St.
Thomas Aquinas.
8. v. 38. The elect, who had lost grace through Adam's
w. 39-60] CANTO XII 95
ard,9 slow, mistrustful, and scanty, when the
Emperor who forever reigns made provision
for his soldiery that were in peril, of His grace
only, not because it was worthy, and, as has
been said, succored His Bride with two cham-
pions, by whose deeds, by whose words, the
people gone astray were brought back.
"In that region where the sweet Zephyr rises
to open the new leaves wherewith Europe is
seen to reclothe herself, not very far from the
beating of the waves behind which, over their
long course, the sun sometimes hides himself
from every man,10 sits the fortunate Callaroga,
under the protection of the great shield on
which the Lion is subject and subjugates.11
Therein was born the amorous lover of the
Christian faith, the holy athlete, benignant to
his own, and harsh to his enemies ; ia and so
soon as it was created, his mind was so replete
with living virtue, that in his mother it made
sin, were armed afresh by the costly sacrifice of the Son of
God.
9. v. 38. The Cross.
10. v. 51. The sun sinking in the West rises over the
Southern hemisphere, "the world without people. " Hell,
xxvi. 117.
11. v. 54. Callaroga, now Calahorra, a city in Old
Castile. On the shield of Castile two lions and two castles
are quartered, one lion below and one above.
12. v. 57. St. Dominic, born in 1170.
96 PARADISE (Vv. 61-71
her a prophetess.13 After the espousals be-
tween him and the Faith I4 were completed at
the sacred font, where they dowered each other
with mutual salvation, the lady who gave the
assent for him saw in a dream the marvellous
fruit which should issue from him and from
his heirs ; IS and in order that he might be con-
strued as he was,16 a spirit went forth from
here I? to name him with the possessive of Him
whose he wholly was. Dominic l8 was he called ;
and I speak of him as of the husbandman
13. v. 60. His mother dreamed that she gave birth to a
dog, black and white in color, with a lighted torch in its
mouth, which set the world on fire ; symbols of the black arid
white robe of the Order, and of the flaming zeal of its breth-
ren. Hence arose a play of words on their name, Domini-
can?, as if Domini canes, t( the dogs of the Lord."
14. v. 62. As Poverty became the bride of Francis, so
the Faith becomes the bride of Dominic.
15. v. 66. The godmother of Dominic saw in dream a
star on the forehead and another on the back of the head of
the child, signifying the light that should stream from him
over East and West.
1 6. v. 67. Literally, "in order that he might be what
he was in construing ; " costrutto is a forced rhyme, and
makes the interpretation of the verse difficult, but the mean-
ing is, " in order that when he was spoken of (in construing)
his name might truly express his nature."
17. v. 68. From heaven.
1 8. v. 69. Dominicusy the possessive of Dominus, "Be-
longing to the Lord."
vv. 72-88] CANTO XII 97
whom Christ elected to His garden to assist
Him. Truly he seemed the messenger and
familiar of Christ ; for the first love that was
manifest in him was for the first counsel which
Christ gave.19 Oftentimes was he found by his
nurse upon the ground silent and awake, as
though he would say : f I am come for this/
O father of him truly Felix ! O mother of
him truly Joanna, if this, being interpreted,
means as is said ! 20
"Not for the world,21 for which men now
toil, following him of Ostia and Thaddeus,22 but
for love of the true manna, he became in short
time a great teacher, such that he set himself
to go about the vineyard, which quickly grows
white if the vinedresser be at fault ; and of the
Seat,2' which was formerly more benign unto the
19. v. 75. " Sell that thou hast and give to the poor."
Matthew xix. 21.
20. v. 8 1. Felix, signifying "happy/* and Joanna,
said to mean, "the grace of the Lord/*
21. v. 82. The goods of this world,
22. v. 83. Henry of Susa, cardinal of Ostia (d.
1271) who wrote a much studied commentary on the
Decretals, and Taddeo d* Alderotto of Bologna, who, says
Giovanni Villani, recording his death in 1303, "was the
greatest physician in Christendom.*' The thought is the
same as that at the beginning of Canto xi., where Dante
speaks of " one following the laws, and one the aphorisms.'
23. v. 88. The Papal throne.
98 PARADISE [vv. 89-106
righteous poor (not by reason of itself but by
reason of him who sits there and is degener-
ate 24), he asked not to dispense or two or three
for six,25 not the fortune of the first vacancy,
non decimas, quae sunt pauperum Dei,26 but leave
to fight against the errant world for that seed 2?
of which four and twenty plants surround thee.28
Then with doctrine and with will, together with
the apostolic office,29 he went forth like a torrent
which a lofty vein presses out, and on the heret-
ical stocks his onset smote with most vigor there
where the resistance was the greatest. From
him proceeded thereafter divers rills whereby
the catholic garden is watered, so that its bushes
are more living.
" If such was the one wheel of the chariot on
. 24. v. 90 The meaning is, that the change in the tem-
per of the See of Rome is due not to the fault of the Papal
dignity itself, but to that of the degenerate Pope.
25. v. 9 1 . Not for license to compound for unjust ac-
quisitions by devoting a part of them to pious uses, to take
six and give but two or three.
26. v. 93. "Not the tithes which belong to God's
poor."
27. v. 95. The true faith ; "the seed is the word oj
God." Luke viii. 1 1.
28. v. 96. The twenty-four blessed spirits of the tw»,
garlands.
29. v. 98. The authority conferred on him by Inno-
cent III.
w. 107-125] CANTO XII 99
which the Holy Church defended herself and
vanquished in the field her civil strife,30 surely
the excellence of the other should be very plain
to thee, concerning whom Thomas before my
coming was so courteous. But the track which
the highest part of its circumference made is
derelict ; 3I so that there is mould where the
crust was.32 His household, which set out
aright with their feet upon his footprints, are
so turned round that they set the forward foot
on that behind ; 33 and soon shall there be sight
of the harvest of the ill culture, when the tare
will complain that the bin is taken from it.34
Nevertheless I say, he who should search our
volume leaf by leaf35 might still find a page
where he would read : c I am that which I am
wont/ But it will not be from Casale nor
from Acquasparta,36 whence come such to the
30. v. 1 08. The heresies within her own borders.
31. v. 1 13. The track made by St. Francis is deserted.
32. v. 114. The change of metaphor is sudden ; good
wine makes a crust, bad wine makes mould in the cask.
33. v. 117. They go in an opposite direction from that
followed by the saint.
34. v. 1 20. That it is thrown out from the bin in the
granary. See Matthew xiii. 30.
35. v. 122. The volume is the Franciscan Order, the
leaves are its members.
36. v. 1 24. Frate Ubertino of Casale, the leader of a
party of zealots among the Franciscans, enforced the " writ-
ioo PARADISE [vv. 126-136
writing that one evades it, and the other con-
tracts it.
" I am the life of Bonaventura of Bagnoregio,
who in great offices always set the sinister37 care
behind. Illuminate and Augustin are here,
who were among the first barefoot poor that
in the cord made themselves friends to Gcd.
Hugh of St. Victor38 is here with them, and
Peter Mangiadore, and Peter of Spain,39 who
down below shines in twelve books; Nathan
the prophet, and the Metropolitan Chryso-
ing," that is, the written Rule of the Order, with excessive
strictness ; Matteo of Acquasparta, general of the Francis-
cans in 1257, relaxed it.
37. v. 129. The sinister, that is, the left hand care ;
care for temporal things ; so in Proverbs iii. 16 ; "in sinistra
illius divitiae et gloria," " in her left hand riches and honor."
38. v. 133. Hugh (1097—1141), a noted theologian
of the mystic school, of the famous abbey of St. Victor at
Paris.
39. v. 134. Peter Mangiador, or Comestor, "the
Eater," so called as being a devourer of books. He himself
wrote a book famous in its time, the His tor ia Scbo^astica.
He was canon of St. Victor and chancellor of the University
of Paris, and died toward the end of the twelfth century.
Peter of Spain was born at Lisbon. His compendium
of Logic, Summae logicalesy in twelve books, was long held
in high repute. He was made Cardinal Bishop of Tuscu'lum in
1 27 3, and was chosen Pope in 1276, taking the name of
John XXI. He was killed in May, i 277, by the fall of the
ceiling of the chamber in which he was sleeping, in the Papal
palace at Viterbo. He is the only contemporary Pope wnom
Dante meets in Paradise.
vv. 137-145] CANTO XII 101
stom,40 and Anselm,41 and that Donatus 42 who
deigned to set his hand to the first art ; Raban 43
is here, and at my side shines the Calabrian
abbot Joachim,44 endowed with prophetic spirit.
" The flaming courtesy of Brother Thomas,
and his well advised discourse, moved me to
envy 4S so great a paladin ; and with me moved
this company."
40. v. 137. The Greek golden-mouth father of the
Church, patriarch of Constantinople.
41. v. 137. Born about 1033 at Aosta in Piedmont,
consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, died 1109 ;
" magnus et subtilis doctor in theologia."
42. v. 137. The compiler of the treatise on Grammar
(the first of the seven arts of the Trivium and the Quadri-
vium) which was in use throughout the Middle Ages.
43. v. 139. Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz,
in the ninth century ; a great scholar and writer, " cui
similem suo tempore non habuit Ecclesia."
"44. v. 140. Joachim, Abbot of Flora, in Calabria. He
died in 1202. He wrote apocalyptic and prophetic treatises,
in which he expounded in mystic terms the " Everlasting
Gospel " of Revelation xiv. 6. His doctrine was that the
dispensation of the Father and of the Son, contained in the
Old and the New Testament, was to be speedily followed
by that of the Holy Spirit, the consummation of the Divine
revelation for the redemption of the world. During the
thirteenth century this doctrine had a widespread influence.
45. v. 142. The meaning is, that the courtesy of
Brother Thomas, a Dominican, in praising St. Francis, the
founder of a rival Order, and the nature of his discourse moved
me, a Franciscan, to a noble envy of his master St. Dominic,
and hence to celebrate him.
CANTO XIII
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks again, and explains the re-
lation of the wisdom of Solomon to that of Adam and of
Christ , and declares the vanity of human judgment.
LET him imagine,1 who desires to understand
well that which I now saw (and let him retain
the image like a firm rock, while I am speak-
ing), fifteen stars which in different regions viv-
ify the heaven with brightness so great that it
overcomes every thickness of the air ; let him
imagine that Wain 2 for which the bosom of our
heaven suffices both night and day, so that with
the turning of its pole it does not disappear ; let
him imagine the mouth of that horn3 which
1 . v. I . To form an idea of the brightness and the mo-
tion of the two circles of spirits, let the reader, says the poet,
imagine fifteen of the brightest separate stars, joined with the
seven stars of the Great Bear, and with the two brightest of
the Lesser Bear, to form two constellations like Ariadne's
Crown, and to revolve one within the other, one following
the movement of the other.
2. v. 7. Charles's Wain, the Great Bear, which never
sets.
3. v. 10. The Lesser Bear may be imagined as having
the shape of a horn, of which the small end is near the pole
of the heavens around which the Primum Mobile revolves.
vv. 11-30] CANTO XIII 103
begins at the point of the axle on which the
primal wheel goes round, — to have made of
themselves two signs in the heavens, like chat
which the daughter of Minos made, when she
felt the frost of death,4 and one to have its rays
within the other, and both to revolve in such
manner that one should go first and the other
after ; and he will have as it were the shadow
of the true constellation, and of the double
dance, which was circling round the point where
I was ; since it is as much beyond our wont
as the motion of the heaven which outspeeds
all the rest is swifter than the movement of the
Chiana.5 There was sung not Bacchus, not
Paean, but three Persons in the divine nature,
and It and the human in one Person. The
singing and the revolving completed each its
measure, and those holy lights gave heed to us,
making themselves happy from care to care.6
4. v. 15. Dionysus bore Ariadne, deserted by Theseus,
to heaven, and changed her crown into a constellation.
If the reader imagine these twenty-four most brilliant stars
to form two circular constellations, like Ariadne's crown,
moving with the revolution of the Heavens, he will have a
faint image of the two bright garlands of twelve saints each
which were revolving around Dante and Beatrice.
5. v. 23. The Chiana was one of the most sluggish of
the streams of Tuscany.
6. v. 30. Rejoicing in the change from dance and song
to tranquillity, for the sake of giving satisfaction to Dante.
104 PARADISE [vv. 31-^48
Then the light 7 within which the marvellous
life of the poor man of God had been narrated
to me broke the silence among those concor-
dant divinities,8 and said : " Since one straw is
threshed, since its seed is now garnered, sweet
iove invites me to beat out the other.9 Thou
believest that into the breast, wherefrom the rib
was drawn to form the beautiful cheek of her
whose palate costs dear to all the world, and into
that which, pierced by the lance, both after and
before made such satisfaction that it overcomes
the balance of all sin,10 whatever of light it is
allowed to human nature to have was all infused
by that Power which made one and the other ;
and therefore thou wonderest at that which I
said above, when I told that the good which is
inclosed in the fifth light had no second. Now
7. v. 32. The light of St. Thomas Aquinas.
8. v. 31. Filled with the Divine Grace, " they are, as
it were, gods." See Convito, iv. 20, 26.
9. v. 36. The saint has already explained the meaning
of his saying, " Where they fatten well if they do not stray "
(Canto x. 96 and xi. 139), and now proceeds to explain
how it could properly be said of Solomon that " to see so
much no second has arisen " (Canto x. 114), inasmuch as
both Adam and Christ were endowed with fulness of know-
ledge, so far as was possible for human nature.
10. v. 42. Balanced against the sins of mankind, the
life and the death of the Saviour made such satisfaction as to
outweigh them all.
vv. 49-67] CANTO XIII 105
open thine eyes to that which I answer to thee,
and thou wilt see thy belief and my speech be-
come in the truth as the centre in a circle.
" That which dies not and that which can
die are naught but the splendor of that idea
which in His love our Sire brings to birth ; " for
that living Light, which so streams from its
Lucent Source that It is not disunited from It,
nor from the Love which with them is intrined,
doth of Its own goodness collect Its rays, as it
were mirrored, in nine subsistences, Itself eter-
nally remaining one. Thence It descends to
the ultimate potentialities, downward from act
to act becoming such, that finally It makes
naught save brief contingencies: and these con-
tingencies I understand to be the generated
things which the moving heavens produce with
seed and without it.12 The wax of these, and
11. v. 54. The creation of things eternal and of things
temporal alike is the resplendent manifestation of the idea which
the triune God, in His love, generates. The living light in
the Son, emanating from its lucent source in the Father, in
union with the love of the Holy Spirit, the three remaining
always one, pours out its radiance through the nine orders of
the Angelic Hierarchy, who distribute it by means of the
Heavens of which they are the Intelligences.
12. v. 66. Through the various movements and con-
junctions of the Heavens, the creative light descends to the
lowest elements, producing all the varieties of contingent
things.
Io6 PARADISE [vv. 68-82
that which moulds it, are not of one mode, and
therefore under the signet of the idea It more or
less shines through ; I3 whence it comes to pass
that one same plant in respect to species bears
better or worse fruit, and that ye are born with
diverse dispositions. If the wax were exactly
worked,14 and the heavens were supreme in
their power, the whole light of the seal would
be apparent. But nature always gives it defec-
tive,15 working like the artist who has the prac-
tice of his art and a hand that trembles. Yet
if the fervent Love disposes and imprints the
clear Vision of the primal Power, complete
perfection is acquired there.16 Thus of old
the earth was made worthy of the complete
13. v. 69. The material of contingent or temporal
things, and the influences of the Heavens which shape them,
are of various sort, so that under the signet or impress of the
idea, that is, in the specific shape which they receive accord-
ing to the idea of God, the living Light shines through them
more or less, and is apparent in them in different degree.
14. v. 73. If the material were always fit to receive
the impression.
15. v. 76. Nature never affords the material perfect and
capable of giving an exact impression of the idea.
1 6. v. 8 1 . If, however, the Creator acts directly, — the
fervent Love of the Holy Spirit imprinting the clear Vision
of the Son which emanates from the primal Power of the
Father, — there can be no imperfection in the created thing ;
it answers to the Divine idea, that is, to " the clear Vision "
in the mind of God.
w. 83-99] CANTO XIII 107
perfection of the living being ; I7 thus was the
Virgin made impregnate ; l8 so that I com-
mend thy opinion that human nature never
was, nor will be, what it was in those two per-
sons.
" Now, if I should not proceed farther,
c How then was that one without a peer ? ' would
thy words begin. But, in order that that which
is not apparent may clearly appear, consider
who he was, and the cause which moved him to
make request, when it was said to him : c Ask.' I9
I have not so spoken that thou canst not clearly
see that he was a king, who asked for wisdom,
in order that he might be a worthy king ; not
to know the number of the motors here on
high,20 or if necesse with a contingent ever made
17. v. 83. Thus, by the immediate action of the Cre-
ator, the earth of which Adam was formed was made the
perfect material for the complete perfection of the creature
with a living soul.
1 8. v. 84. In like manner, by the direct act of the
Creator.
19- v* 93- "In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon
in a dream by night : and God said, Ask what I shall give
thee. And Solomon said, . . . Thou hast made thy servant
king . . . and I am but a little child. . . . Give therefore thy
servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I
may discern between good and bad." I Kings iii. 5-9.
20. v. 98. The number of the Angelic Intelligences
who move the Heavens.
io8 PARADISE [vv. 100-114
necesse ; 2I non si esf dare primum motum esse,22
or if in the semicircle a triangle can be made
so that it should not have one right angle.23
Wherefore if thou notest what I said and also
this, a kingly prudence is that peerless seeing,
on which the arrow of my intention strikes.24
And if thou directest clear eyes to the c has
arisen/ thou wilt see it has respect only to kings,
who are many, and the good are rare. With
this distinction 25 take thou my saying, and thus
it can stand with that which thou believest of
the first father, and of our Beloved one.26 And
let this ever be as lead to thy feet, to make
thee move slowly as a weary man, both to the
yea and to the nay which thou seest not ; for he
21. v. 99. If from two premises, one necessary and one
contingent, a necessary conclusion is to be deduced.
22. v. 100. "If a prime motion is to be granted,'*
that is, a motion not the effect of another.
23. v. 1 02. He did not ask through idle curiosity to
know the number of the Angels ; nor for the solution of a
logical puzzle; nor for that of a question in metaphysics, or
of a problem in geometry.
24. v. 104. " If thou understandest this comment on
my former words, "to see so much no second has arisen, "
my meaning will be clear that his vision was unmatched in
respect to the wisdom which it behoves a king to possess.
25. v. 109. Thus distinguishing, it is apparent that Solo-
mon is not brought into comparison, in respect to perfection
of wisdom, with Adam or with Christ.
26. v. in. The Lord Jesus.
vv. 115-136] CANTO XIII 109
is very low down among the fools who affirms or
denies without distinction, alike in the one and
in the other case : because it happens, that often-
times the hasty opinion bends in false direc-
tion, and then self love binds the intelligence.27
Far more than in vain does he leave the bank,
since he returns not such as he sets out, who
fishes for the truth, and has not the art ; 2& and
of this Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson/9 are
manifest proofs to the world, and many others
who went on and knew not whither. Thus did
Sabellius, and Arius,30 and those fouls who were
as swords unto the Scriptures in making their
straight faces crooked. Let not the folk be
yet too confident in judgment, like him who
reckons up the ears in the field ere they are
ripe ; for I have seen the briar first show itself
stiff and rugged all winter long, then bear the
rose upon its top ; and once I saw a bark run
27. v. 1 20. The natural predilection for one's own
opinion prevents the unprejudiced action of the intelligence.
28. v. 123. He who seeks the truth without regard to
the method and means of obtaining it, ends his search in-
volved in greater error than that in which he was at first ; as
the fisherman who goes to fish without the required means
returns empty-handed and exhausted.
29. v. 125. Heathen philosophers who went astray in
seeking for the truth.
30. v. 127. Sabellius denied the Trinity, Arius denied
the Consubstantiality of the Father and the Son.
no PARADISE [vv. 137-142
straight and swift over the sea through all her
course, and perish at last at entrance of the
harbor. Let not dame Bertha or master Mar-
tin, seeing one rob, and another make offering,
believe to see them within the Divine coun-
sel : 3I for the one may rise and the other may
fall."
31. v. 141. Let not any wiseacre fancy to understand
the judgments of God, hidden in the mystery of predestina-
tion.
CANTO XIV
At the prayer of Beatrice, Solomon tells of the glorified
bodies of the blessed after the Last 'Judgment. — Ascent to
the Heaven of Mars. — Souls of the Soldiery of Christ in
the form of a Cross with the figure of Christ thereon. —
Hymn of the Spirits.
FROM the centre to the rim, and so from the
rim to the centre, the water in a round vessel
moves, according as it is struck from without or
within. This which I say fell suddenly into my
mind as the glorious life of Thomas became
silent, because of the similitude which was born
of his speech and that of Beatrice, whom after
him it pleased thus to begin : ' " This man has
need, and he tells it not to you, neither with
his voice nor as yet in thought, of going to the
root of another truth. Tell him if the light
I. v. 9. The " glorious life," that is, the glorified spirit
of St. Thomas, had spoken from his place in the ring of
saints which formed a circle around Beatrice and Dante ;
Beatrice begins now to speak from the centre where she stood ;
and as the voice of the Saint had *snoved from the circum-
ference to the centre, so hers proceeds from the centre to the
circumference.
112 PARADISE [vv. 13-36
wherewith your substance blossoms will remain
with you eternally even as it is now ; and if it
remain, tell how, after ye shall be again made
visible,2 it can be that it will not hurt your
sight."
As, when urged and drawn on by increase of
delight, those who are dancing in a ring all at
once lift their voice and gladden their mo-
tions, so, at that ready and devout petition,
the holy circles showed new joy in their turning
and in their marvellous melody. Whoso
laments because we die here to live there on
high, has rot seen here the refreshment of the
eternal rain.3
That One and Two and Three which ever
lives, and ever reigns in Three and Two and
One, uncircumscribed, and circumscribing all
things, was thrice sung by each of those spirits
with such a melody that for every merit it would
be adequate reward. And I heard in the
divinest light of the smaller circle a modest
voice,4 perhaps such as was that of the Angel
2. v. 1 8. The souls of the blessed are hidden in the
light which emanates from them ; after the resurrection of the
body they will become visible, but how will the eyes endure
such brightness as will then be that of the saints ?
3. v. 27. He who on earth laments having to die has
never duly taken account of the joy of the perpetual effluence
of the Grace of God upon the soul in Heaven.
4. v. 35. Probably that of Solomon, who in the tenth
w. 37-61] CANTO XIV 113
to Mary, make answer : " As long as the festi-
val of Paradise shall be, so long will our love
radiate around us such a garment. Its bright-
ness will follow our ardor, the ardor our vision,
and that is great in proportion as it receives of
grace above its own worth.5 When the flesh,
glorious and sanctified, shall be clothed on us
again, our • persons will be more acceptable
through being all complete ; wherefore whatever
of gratuitous light the Supreme Good gives us
will be increased, — light which enables us to
see Him ; so that our vision must needs in-
crease, our ardor increase which by that is kin-
dled, our radiance increase which comes from this.
But even as a coal which gives forth flame, and
by a vivid glow surpasses it, so that its own
aspect is defended,6 thus this effulgence, which
already encircles us, will be vanquished in ap-
pearance by the flesh which all this while the
earth covers ; nor will so great a light have,
power to fatigue us, for the organs of the body
will be strong for everything which can delight
us." So sudden and ready both one and the
Canto, v. 109, is said to be "the light which is the most
beautiful among us."
5. v. 42. The brightness of the garment of light pro-
ceeds from and is proportioned to the fervency of love, and
that to the vision of God.
6. v. 54. The coal is seen glowing through the flame.
H4 PARADISE [vv. 62-84
other choir seemed to me in saying " Amen/'
that truly they showed desire for their dead
bodies, perhaps not only for themselves, but
also for their mothers, for their fathers, and for
the others who were dear before they became
sempiternal flames.
And lo ! round about, of a uniform bright-
ness, arose a lustre, beyond that which was
there, like an horizon which is growing bright.
And as at rise of early evening new appearances
begin in the heavens, so that the sight seems
and seems not true, it seemed to me that there
I began to see new subsistences, and a circle
forming outside the other two circumferences.7
O true sparkling of the Holy Spirit ! how sud-
den and glowing it became to my eyes, which,
vanquished, endured it not ! But Beatrice
showed herself to me so beautiful and smiling
that it must be left among those sights which
followed not my memory.
Therefrom my eyes regained power to raise
themselves again, and I saw myself, alone with
my Lady, translated to more exalted salvation.8
7. v. 29. This new circle, vast in circumference, like
the horizon, is composed of the multitude of the spirits of the
wise in the things of the Spirit, who now display themselves,
shining in this sphere as the brightness of the firmament.
8. v. 84. To a higher grade of blessedness, that of the
Fifth Heaven, the sphere of Mars.
vv. 85-106] CANTO XIV 115
That I was more uplifted I perceived clearly by
the fiery smile of the star, which seemed to me
ruddier than its wont. With all my heart and
with that speech which is one in all men,9 I
made to God a holocaust such as was befitting
to the new grace ; and the ardor of the sacrifice
was not yet exhausted in my breast before I
knew that offering had been accepted and pro-
pitious ; for with such a glow and such a ruddi-
ness splendors appeared to me within two rays,
that I said : " O Helios,10 who dost so adorn
them ! "
Even as, distinct with less and greater lights,
the Galaxy so whitens between the poles of
the world that it makes even the wise to ques-
tion," thus, constellated in the depth of Mars,
those rays made the venerable sign which join-
ings of quadrants in a circle make.12 Here
my memory overcomes my genius, for that
Cross was flashing forth Christ, so that I know
not to find worthy example. But he who
takes his cross and follows Christ shall yet
9. v. 89. The unuttered voice of the soul.
10. v. 96. Whether Dante forms this word from the
Hebrew Eli (my God), or adopts the Greek ^Atos (sun),
is uncertain.
11. v. 99. " Concerning the Galaxy philosophers have
held different opinions." Convito, ii. 15.
12. v. 102. The cross formed by the intersection of
two diameters of a circle, at a right angle one with the other
H6 PARADISE [vv. 107-134
excuse me for that which I omit, when he
beholds Christ lightening in that glow.
From horn to horn/3 and between the top
and the base, lights were moving, brightly scin-
tillating as they met together and in their pass-
ing by. Thus here I4 are seen the atoms of
bodies, straight and athwart, swift and slow,
changing appearance, long and short, moving
through the sunbeam, wherewith sometimes the
shade is striped which people with skill and art
contrive for their protection. And as a viol or
harp, strung in accord of many strings, makes
a sweet tinkling to one by whom the tune is
not caught, thus from the lights which there
appeared to me a melody was gathered through
the Cross, which rapt me without my under-
standing the hymn. I was indeed aware that
it was of lofty praise, because there came to
me : " Arise and conquer ! " as to one who
understands not, and yet hears. I was so en-
amoured therewith that until then there had
not been anything which had fettered me with
such sweet bonds. Perchance my word ap-
pears too daring, in setting lower the pleasure
from the beautiful eyes, gazing into which my
desire has repose. But he who considers that
the living seals 1S of every beauty have more
13. v. 109. From arm to arm of the cross.
14. v. 112. On earth.
15. v. 133. The Heavens, which are "the seal ot
w. 135-139] CANTO XIV 117
effect the higher they are, and that I had not
there turned round to those eyes, may excuse
me for that whereof I accuse myself in order to
excuse myself, and may see that I speak truth ;
for the holy pleasure is not excluded here, be-
cause it becomes the purer as it mounts.
mortal wax" (Canto viii. 127), increase in power as they
are respectively nearer the Empyrean, so that every joy in
each, as it is higher up, is greater than any in the heavens
below. To this time Dante had felt no joy equal to that
afforded him by this song, not even that which the eyes of
Beatrice had afforded him in the preceding spheres. But now
a still greater joy awaited him in turning to those eyes, to
which, since he entered the Fifth Heaven, the Sphere of
Mars, he had not yet turned, but which there, as elsewhere,
were to afford the supreme delight.
The ascent from sphere to sphere is the type of the ad-
vance of the purified soul in knowledge of divine things, and
of its deeper entrance into the mysteries of the faith. With
each step the vision becomes clearer, but the things seen re-
quire interpretation, and the chief element in this spiritual pro-
gress is the revelation by Theology of the significance of these
things. This is the joy which the eyes of Beatrice afford,
For "the eyes of this Lady/* says Dante, speaking in the
Canvito of Philosophy, '« are her demonstrations, whicn, di-
rected to the eyes of the understanding, enamour the deliv-
ered soul. O sweetest and ineffable looks, the sudden captors
of the minds of men, which appear in the demonstrations in
the eyes of Philosophy when she discourses with her lovers !
Truly in you is the salvation by which he is made blessed
who looks on you, and is saved from the death of ignorance
and sin." Convito, iL 16, 27—37.
CANTO XV
Dante is welcomed by his ancestor, Cacciaguida.~-~
Cacciaguida tells of bis family , and of the simple life of
Florence in the old days.
A BENIGN will, wherein the love which right-
eously inspires always manifests itself, as cupid-
ity * does in the evil will, imposed silence on
that sweet lyre, and quieted the holy strings
which the right hand of heaven slackens and
draws tight. How shall those beings be deaf
to righteous prayers, who, in order to give me
the will to pray to them, were concordant in
silence ? 2 Well is it that he should grieve with-
out end, who, for the love of thing which does
not last, despoils himself forever of this love.
As, through the tranquil and pure evening
skies, a sudden fire shoots from time to time,
moving the eyes which were steady, and seems
to be a star which changes place, save that from
the region whence it was kindled nothing is
1. v. 3. Cupidity, that is, inordinate and ill-directed
Jove. See Purgatory, xviii. 62-75.
2. v. 9. Leaving the joy of their song.
vv. 18-36] CANTO XV 119
lost, and it lasts short while ; so from the arm
which extends on the right, ran a star of the
constellation which is resplendent there, down
to the foot of that Cross. Nor from its ribbon
did the gem depart, but through the radial strip
it ran along and seemed like fire behind ala-
baster. With like affection did the shade of
Anchises stretch forward (if our greatest Muse
merits belief), when in Elysium he perceived
his son.3
" O sanguis meus ! o superinfusa gratia Dei !
sicut tibi) cui bis unquam coeli janua reclusa ? "4
Thus that light ; whereat I gave heed to it ;
then I turned back my sight to my Lady, and
on the one side and the other I was awestruck ;
for within her eyes was glowing such a smile,
that with my own I thought to touch the depth
of my grace and of my Paradise.
3. v. 27. "And he (Anchises), when he saw Aeneas
advancing to meet him over the grass, stretched forth both
hands eagerly, and the tears poured down his cheeks, and
he- cried out, * Art thou come at length ? ' ' ' Aeneidy vi.
684-7.
4. v. 30. " O blood of mine ! O overflowing grace
of God ! To whom, as to thee, was ever the gate of Hea-
ven twice opened?" "Twice opened," once now, and
\Q be a second time opened after death. It is the spirit of
Cacciaguida, the great- great-grandfather of Dante, who thus
speaks. Nothing is known of him but what the poet tells
in this and the next canto.
120 PARADISE [vv. 37-57
Then, joyous to hearing and to sight, the
spirit added to his beginning things which I did
not understand, so deep was his speech. Nor
did he hide himself from me by choice, but by
necessity, for his conception was set above the
irrark of mortals. And when the bow of his
ardent affection was so relaxed that his speech
descended towards the mark of our understand-
ing, the first thing that was understood by me
was : " Blessed be Thou, Trine and One, who
art so greatly courteous in my seed." And he
went on : "A pleasing and long-felt hunger,
derived from reading in the great volume where
wliite or dark is never changed,5 thou hast re-
lieved, my son, within this light6 in which I
speak to thee, thanks to her who clothed thee
with plumes for the lofty flight. Thou be-
lievest that thy thought flows to me from Him
who is First, even as from the unit, if that be
known, ray out the five and six ; 7 and there-
5. v. 51. In the mind of God, in which there is no
change, as there is in the books of men by erasures or addi-
tions.
6. v. 52. His own radiance.
7. v. 57. The thought of man rays out, reflected from
the mind of God, the prime Unity, as all numbers proceed
from the unit ; and the thought thus becomes known to th<
blessed gazing upon God. See Canto ix. 73-75. This is
what Donne (Sermon xxiii. ) calls " Gregory's wild specu-
lation, Qui videt videntem omnia, omnia videty because we
vv. 58-81] CANTO XV 121
fore who I am, and why I appear to thee
more joyful than any other in this blithe throng,
thou askest me not. Thou believest the truth ;
for the lesser and the great of this life gaze
upon the mirror in which, before thou thinkest,
thou dost display thy thought. But in order
that the sacred Love, in which I watch with
perpetual vision, and which makes me thirst
with sweet desire, may be fulfilled the better,
let thy voice, secure, bold, and glad, sound
forth the will, sound forth the desire, to which
my answer is already decreed."
I turned me to Beatrice, and she heard before
I spoke, and granted me a sign which made grow
the wings to my desire. Then I began thus :
" When the Prime Equality 8 appeared to you,
the affection and the intelligence became of one
weight for each of you ; because the Sun which
illumined and warmed you with its heat and
with its light is of such equality that all simili-
tudes are defective. But will and discourse in
mortals, for the reason which is manifest to you,
are diversely feathered in their wings.9 Where-
shall see him that sees all things, we shall see all things uj
him, for then we should see the thoughts of men."
8. v. 74. God, all whose attributes are in perfect
equality.
9. v. 81. But will and the discourse of reason, corre-
sponding to affection and intelligence (v. 73), are unequal in
122 PARADISE [vv. 82-99
fore I, who am mortal, feel myself in this in-
equality, and therefore I give not thanks, save
with my heart, for thy paternal welcome. Truly
I beseech thee, living topaz, that dost ingem
this precious jewel, that thou make me content
with thy name ? " " O leaf of -mine, in whom,
while only awaiting, I took pleasure, I was thy
root." Such a beginning he, answering, made
to me. Then he said to me : " He from whom
thy family is named,10 and who for a hundred
years and more has circled the mountain on the
first ledge, was my son and was thy great-grand-
sire ; truly it behoves that thou shorten for
him his long fatigue with thy works." Florence,
within the ancient circuit of her walls where-
from she still takes both tierce and nones,12 was
abiding in peace, sober and modest. She had
mortals, by reason of their human imperfection ; the affection
is greater than the capacity to express it.
10. v. 92. Alighiero, from whom, it would appear
from his station in Purgatory, Dante inherited the sin of
pride, as well as his name.
11. v. 96. By thy prayers.
12. v. 90. The bell of the church called the Badia or
Abbey, which stood close to the old walls of Florence and,
rebuilt, still stands in the Piazza San Firenze, rang daily the
hours for labor and for worship, and measured the time for
the Florentines. Tierce is the first division of the canonical
hours of the day, from six to nine ; nones, the third, from
twelve to three.
vv. i oo-n 5] CANTO XV 123
not necklace .nor coronal, nor dames with orna-
mented shoes, nor girdle which was more to be
looked at than the person. Not yet did the
daughter at her birth cause fear to the father, for
the time and dowry did not outrun due mea-
sure on this side and that.13 She had not houses
empty of families;14 nor had Sardanapalus yet
arrived there to show what may be done in a
chamber.15 Not yet by your Uccellatoio was
Montemalo surpassed, which, as it has been
surpassed in its rise, shall be so in its fall.16 I
saw Bellincion Berti 1? go girt with leather and
bone,18 and his dame come from her mirror
without a painted face. And I saw him of the
Nerli, and him of the Vecchio,19 contented with
13. v. 105. Fear lest the age of the bride should be too
young, her dowry too large.
14. v. 1 06. Palaces too large for their occupants, built
for ostentation.
15. v. 107. The luxury and effeminacy of Sardanapalus
were proverbial.
1 6. v. ill. The view from Montemalo, better known as
Monte Mario, of Rome in its splendor was not yet surpassed
by that of Florence from the height of Uccellatoio ; and the
fall of Florence shall be greater even than that of Rome.
17. v. 112. Bellincion Berti was " an honorable citizen
of Florence," says Giovanni Villani ; "a noble soldier,"
adds Benvenuto da Imola. He was father of the *' good
Gualdrada." See He//, xvi. 37.
1 8. v. 113. With a plain leathern belt fastened with a
clasp of bone.
19. v. 1 1 5. Two ancient and honored families.
124 PARADISE [vv. 116-132
the unlined skin,20 and theit dames with the
spindle and the thread. O fortunate women !
Each one was sure of her burial place ; 2I and
as yet no one was deserted in her bed for
France.22 One over the cradle kept her care-
ful watch, and, comforting, she used the idiom
which first amuses fathers and mothers.23 An-
other, drawing the tresses from her distaff, told
to her household tales of the Trojans, of
Fiesole, and of Rome.24 A Cianghella, a Lapo
Salterello 2* would then have been held as great
a marvel as Cincinnatus or Cornelia would be
now.
" To so reposeful, to so fair a life of citizens,
to such a trusty community, to such a sweet
20. v. 1 1 6. Clothed in garments of plain dressed skin
not covered or lined with cloth.
21. v. 119. Not fearing to die in exile.
22. v. 1 20. Left by her husband gone to seek fortune in
France, or other foreign lands.
23. v. 123. The playful and soothing baby-talk.
24. v. 126. These old tales may be read in the first
book of Villani's Chronicle.
25. v. 128. Cianghella was a contemporary of Dante ;
"a. most arrogant and intolerable woman, and very wanton hi
her life," says Benvenuto da Imola. Lapo Salterello was a
lawyer and judge, whom Benvenuto describes as «' a rash and
bad citizen, a litigious and tonguy (finguosus) man." He
was banished from Florence at the same time with Dante,
March 10, 1302, his name standing third on the list. Cf
XviL 61—63.
vv. 133-148] CANTO XV 125
inn, Mary, called on with loud cries,26 gave
me ; and in your ancient Baptistery I became
at once a Christian and Cacciaguida. Mo-
ronto was my brother, and Eliseo ; my dame
came to me from the valley of the Po, and
thence was thy surname. Afterward I fol-
lowed the emperor Conrad,27 and he belted me
of his soldiery,28 so much by good deeds did
I come into his favor. Behind him I went
against the iniquity of that law ^ whose people
usurp your jurisdiction,30 through fault of the
Pastors. There by that foul folk was I re-
leased from the deceitful world, the love of
which debases many souls, and I came from
martyrdom to this peace."
26. v. 133. The Virgin, called on in the pains of
childbirth. Cf. Purgatory, xx. 19-21.
27. v. 139. Conrad III. of Suabia. In 1 1 47 he joined
in the disastrous second Crusade.
28. v. 140. Made me a belted knight.
29. v. 143. The law of Mahomet.
30. v. 144. The Holy Land, by right belonging to the
Christians, but. of which they are dispossessed by the Saracens,
through the fault of the Popes.
CANTO XVI
The boast of blood. — Cacciaguida continues bis dis-
course concerning the old and the new Florence.
O OUR petty nobility of blood ! If thou
makest folk glory in thee down here, where our
affection languishes, it will nevermore be a
marvel to me ; for there, where appetite is not
perverted, I mean in Heaven, I myself gloried
in thee. Truly art thou a cloak which quickly
shortens, so that, if naught be added from day
to day, Time goes round about thee with his
shears.
With the TOK* which Rome was first to tol-
erate, in which her family least perseveres,2 my
words began again. Whereat Beatrice, who
was a little withdrawn, smiling, seemed like
her, who coughed at the first fault that is writ-
ten of Guenever.3 I began : " You are my
1. v. 10. The plura pronoun, used as a mark of re-
spect. This usage was introduced in the later Roman Empire.
2. v. 1 1. The Romans no longer show respect to those
Worthy of it.
3. v. 15. Beatrice stands a little aside, theology Laving
vv. 17-37] CANTO XVI 127
fatner, you give me all confidence to speak ;
you uplift me so that I am more than I.
By so many streams is my mind filled with
gladness that it makes of itself a joy, in that
it can bear this and not burst.4 Tell me then,
my beloved forefather, who were your ances-
tors, and what were the years that were reck-
oned in your boyhood. Tell me of the sheep-
fold of St. John,5 how large it was then, and
who were the people within it worthy of the
highest seats."
As a coal is quickened into flame at the breath-
ing of the winds, so I saw that light glow at my
blandishments; and as it became more beautiful
to my eyes, so with voice more sweet and soft,
but not with this modern speech, it said to me:
" From that day on which A ve was said,6 unto
the child-birth in which my mother, who now
is sainted, was lightened of me with whom she
had been burdened, this fire had come to its
no part in this colloquy. She smiles at Dante's vainglory,
observant, like the Dame de Malehaut, who coughed at seeing
the first kiss received by Queen Guenever from Sir Lance-
lot.
4. v. 2 1 . It rejoices that it has capacity to endure such
great joy.
5. v. 25. Florence, whose patron saint was St. John the
Baptist.
d v. 34. From the day of the Annunciation.
128 PARADISE [w. 38-50
Lion 7 five hundred, fifty, and thirty times to
reinflame itself beneath his paw.8 My ances-
tors and I were born in the place where the
last ward is first reached by him who runs in
your annual game.9 Let it suffice thee to hear
this of my elders ; as to who they were, and
whence they came hither, silence is more be-
coming than speech.
" All those able to bear arms who at that
time were there, between Mars and the Bap-
tist,10 were the fifth of them who are living.
But the citizenship, which is now mixed with
Campi, with Certaldo and with Fighine/1 was
7. v. 37. The Lion is the sign Leo in the Zodiac, ap-
propriate to Mars by supposed conformity of disposition : —
"Mars
As he glow'd like a ruddy shield on the Lion's breast."
Tennyson, Maud, part III.
8. v. 39. Five hundred and eighty revolutions of Mars
are accomplished in a few months more than ten hundred and
ninety years.
9. v. 42. The place designated was the boundary of
the division of the city called that of "the Gate of St.
Peter," where the Corso passes by the Mercato Vecchio or
" Old Market." The races were run along the Corso on the
24th June, the festival of St. John the Baptist.
10. v. 47. Between the Ponte Vecchio, at the head of
which stood the statue of Mars, and the Baptistery, — two
points marking the circuit of the ancient walls.
n. v. 50. Small towns in the territory of Florence,
rv. 51-61] CANTO XVI 129
LO be seen pure in the lowest artisan. Oh,
how much better it would be that those folk
of whom I speak were neighbors, and to have
your boundary at Galluzzo and at Trespiano,12
than to have them within, and to endure the
stench of the churl of Aguglione,13 and of him
of Signa, who already has his eye sharp for bar-
ratry !
" If the folk who are the most degenerate in
the world I4 had not been as a stepdame unto
Caesar, but like a mother benignant to her son,
there is one who has become a Florentine,15 and
from which, as from many others, there had been emigration
to the thriving city, to the harm of its own people.
12. v. 54. It would have been better to keep these
people at a distance, as neighbors, not to admit them as fellow-
citizens, and to have narrow bounds for the territory of the
city. Galluzzo and Trespiano are villages some two or three
miles only from Florence.
13. v. 56. The churl of Aguglione was, according to
Benvenuto da Imola, a lawyer named Baldo, " qui fuit mag-
nus canis." He became one of the priors of Florence in
1311. He of Signa is supposed to have been one Bonifazio,
who, says Bud, "sold his favors and offices."
14. v. 58. That is, the priesthood or the rulers of the
Church : if they had not quarrelled with the Emperor,
bringing about factions and disturbances in the world, there
would not have been such shifting of population and of rank.
15. v. 61. "I have not discovered who this is," says
Buti. Simifonti was a stronghold in the Val d' Elsa, which
ivas destroyed by the Florentines in 1302.
130 PARADISE [vv. 62-81
is a money-changer and trader, who would have
been turned back to Simifonti, where his grand-
sire used to go about begging ; Montemurlo
would still belong to its Counts, the Cerchi
would be in the parish of Acone, and perhaps
the Buondelmonti in Valdigreve.16 The inter-
mingling of persons was ever the beginning of
harm to the city, as the food which is loaded
on is to the body.17 And a blind bull falls
more headlong than the blind lamb ; and often-
times one sword cuts more and better than five.
If thou regard Luni and Urbisaglia,18 how
they have gone, and how Chiusi and Siniga-
glia are going their way after them, it will not
appear to thee a strange thing or a hard, to
hear how families are undone, since even cities
have their term. All things of yours have
their death even as yourselves ; but it is con-
cealed in some that last long, while lives are
1 6. v. 66. The Conti Guidi, unable to defend then
stronghold of Montemurlo from the Pistoians, had been com-
pelled to sell it to the Florentines. The Cerchi and the
Buondelmonti had been forced by the Florentine Com-
mune to surrender their fortresses and to take up their abode
in the city, where they became powerful, and where the
bitterness of intestine discord and party strife had been greatly
enhanced by their quarrels.
17. v. 69. Food added to that already in process o'
digestion and which is consequently not assimilated.
1 8. v. 73. Cities once great, now fallen.
vv. 82-99] CANTO XVI 13:
short. And as the revolution of the heaven
of the Moon covers and uncovers the shores
without a pause, so Fortune does with Flo-
rence. Wherefore what I shall tell of the high
Florentines, whose fame is hidden by time,
should not appear to thee a marvellous thing.
I saw the Ughi, and I saw the Catellini, Filippi,
Greci, Ormanni, and Alberichi, even in their
decline, illustrious citizens ; and I saw, as great
as they were old, with him of La Sannella, him
of L' Area., and Soldanieri, and Ardinghi, and
Bostichi.19 Over the gate (which at present is
laden with new felony 20 of such great weight
that soon there will be jettison from the bark21),
were the Ravignani, from whom the Count
Guido is descended, and whosoever has since
taken the name of the high Bellincione.22 He
*9' v* 93' All once great families, but now extinct, or
fallen. It is of interest to note how many of these names are
of Teutonic origin.
20. v. 95. Above the Gate of St. Peter rose the walls
of the abode of the Cerchi, who, though not one of the old
families of the city, had acquired great wealth and power,
and making themselves the head of the White faction, became
chief promoters of the civil strife which brought misery to
Florence.
21. v. 96. The casting overboard was the exile in 1302
of many of the Cerchi with other leaders of the Whites.
22. v. 99. The Count Guido married Gualdrada the
daughter of Btiiincione Berti. See Canto xv. 1 1 2. and
Hell, xvi. 37.
132 PARADISE [w. 100-113
of La Pressa knew already how one should rule,
and Galigaio already had in his house the gilded
hilt and pummel.23 Great were already the
column of the Vair,24 the Sacchetti, Giuochi,
Fifanti, and Barucci, and Galli, and they who
blush for the bushel.25 The stock from which
the Calfucci sprang was already great,26 and
already the Sizii and Arrigucci had been drawn
to the curule chairs.27 Oh, how great did I
see those who have been undone by their
pride !28 and the balls of gold29 made Florence
flourish with all their great deeds. So did the
fathers of those who whenever your church is
23. v. 102. Symbols of knighthood ; the use of gold in
their accoutrements being reserved for knights.
24. v. 103. The family of the Pigli, whose scutcheon
was, in heraldic terms, gules, a pale, vair ; in other words,
a red shield divided longitudinally by a stripe of the heraldic
representation of the fur called vair.
25. v. 105. The Chiaramontesi, one of whom in the
old days, being the officer in charge of the sale of salt for the
Commune, had cheated both the Commune and the people
by using a false measure. See Purgatory, xii. 104, 105.
26. v. 107. This stock was the house of the Donati.
27. v. 1 08. To high civic office.
28. v. no. The Uberti, the great family of which
Farinata (see Hell, Canto x.) was the most renowned mem-
ber.
29. v. no. The Lamberti, who bore golden balls on
tneir shields. For Mosca de' Lamberti, see Hell, xxviliu
103-111
vv. 114-126] CANTO XVI 133
vacant, become fat by staying in consistory.30
The overweening race which is as a dragon
behind him who flies, and to him who shows
tooth or purse is gentle as a lamb,31 already
was coming up, but from small folk, so that it
did not please Ubertin Donate that his father-
in-law afterward made him their kinsman.32
Already had Caponsacco descended into the
market place down from Fiesole, and already
was Giuda a good citizen, and Infangato.33 I
will tell a thing incredible and true : into the
little circle one entered by a gate which was
named for those of La Pera.34 Every one who
30. v. 114. The Visdomini, and the Tosinghi, guard-
ians of the Bishopric of Florence, who had the right, during
any vacancy of the See, of administering its revenues, and
thus after the death of a bishop, by securing delay in dis-
appointment of his successor, grew fat on the episcopal reve-
nues.
31. v. 117. The Adimari. Benvenuto da Imola re-
ports that one Boccacino of this family, after Dante's banish-
ment, got possession of his property, and always afterward
was his bitter enemy.
32. v. 1 20. Ubertino de' Donati married a daughter of
Bellincione Berti, and was displeased when her sister was
afterwards given to one of the humble stock of the Ad;_
mari.
33. v. 123. There seems to be a touch of humor in
these three names of " Head in bag," " Judas," and '« Be-
mired."
34. v. 126. The Peruzzi, who bore the pear as &
PARADISE [vv. 127-136
bears the beautiful ensign of the great baron35
whose name and whose worth the feast of
Thomas keeps fresh, from him had knighthood
and privilege ; although to-day he who binds it
with a border unites himself with the populace.36
Already there were Gualterotti and Importuni ;
and the Eorgo 37 would even now be more quiet,
if they had gone fasting of new neighbors.
The house of which was born your weeping,38
charge upon their scutcheon. The incredible thing may have
been that one of the gates of the city should have been named
for a family now sunk so low as the Peruzzi. The " little
circle " was the circle of the old walls.
35. v. 128. Hugh, imperial vicar of Tuscany in the
time of Otho II. and Otho III., was "the great baron."
He died on St. Thomas's Day, December 2 1st, 1006, and
was buried in the Badia, the foundation of which is ascribed
to him ; there his monument is still to be seen, and there of
old, on the anniversary of his death, a discourse in his praise
was delivered. Several families, whose heads were knighted
by him, adopted his arms, with some distinctive addition*
His scutcheon was paly of four, argent and gules.
36. v. 132. Giano della Bella, the great leader of
the Florentine commonalty in the latter years of the I3th
century. He bore the arms of Hugh with a border of
gold.
37. v. 134. The Borgo Sant' Apostolo, the quarter of
the city in which these families lived, would have been more
tranquil if the Buondelmonti had not come to take up their
abode in it after the destruction of their stronghold of Monte-
buono in 1135.
38. v. 136. The Amidei, who were the source of muci
vv. 137-152] CANTO XVI 135
by reason of its just indignation which has slain
you, and put an end to your glad living, was
honored, both itself and its consorts. Oh Buon-
delmonte, how ill didst thou flee its nuptials
through the persuasions of another ! 39 Many
would be glad who now are sorrowful, if God
had conceded thee to the Ema4° the first time
that thou earnest to the city. But it behoved
that Florence in her last hour of peace should
offer a victim to that mutilated stone which
guards the bridge.41
" With these families, and with others with
them, I saw Florence in such repose that she
had no occasion why she should weep. With
these families I saw her people so glorious
and so just, that the lily was never set reversed
of the misery of Florence, through their long and bitter feud
with the Buondelmonti, by which the whole city was di-
vided.
39. v. 141. The quarrel between the Amidei and the
Buondelmonti arose from the slighting by Buondelmonte del
Buondelmonti of a daughter of the former house, to whom he
was betrothed, for a daughter of the Donati, induced thereto
by her mother. This was in 1215.
40. v. 143. The Ema, a little stream that has to be
crossed in coming from Montebuono to Florence.
41. v. 147. That victim was Buondelmonte himself,
slain by the outraged Amidei, at the foot of the mutilated
statue of Mars, which stood at the end of the Ponte Vecchio j
and since that murder Florence had had no peace.
136 PARADISE [vv. 153-154
upon the staff, nor made vermilion by divi-
sions." 42
42. v. 154. The banner of Florence had never fallen
into the hands of her enemies, to be reversed by them in
scoff. Of old it had borne a white lily in a red field, but
in 1250, when the Ghibellines were expelled, the Guelfs
adopted a red lily in a white field, and this became the en-
«ign of the Commune.
CANTO XVII
Dante questions Gacciaguida as to his fortunes. — Cac-
ciaguida replies, foretelling the exile of Dante, and the
renown of his Poem.
As he who still makes fathers chary toward
their sons came to Clymene, to ascertain con-
cerning that which he had heard against him-
self; x such was I, and such was I perceived to
be both by Beatrice, and by the holy lamp
which previously for my sake had changed its
station. Wherefore my Lady said to me :
" Send forth the flame of thy desire in such
wise that it may issue imprinted well by the
internal stamp ; not in order that our know-
ledge may increase through thy speech, but in
order that thou accustom thyself to tell thy
thirst, so that one may give thee drink."
i. v. 3. Phaethon, son of Clymene by Apollo, having
been told that Apollo was not his father, went to his mother
to ascertain the truth. He makes fathers chary toward their
sons, by reason of the calamitous result of Apollo's granting
his prayer to be allowed to drive the horses of the chariot of
the Sun.
138 PARADISE [w. 13-33
" O dear root of me, who so upliftest thyself
that, even as earthly minds see that two obtuse
angles can not be contained in a triangle, so
thou, gazing upon the Point to which all times
are present, dost see contingent things, ere in
themselves they are;2 while I was conjoined
with Virgil, up over the mountain which cures
the souls, and while descending in the dead
world, grave words were said to me of my
future life ; although I feel myself truly four-
square against the blows of chance. Where-
fore my wish would be contented by hearing
what fortune is drawing near for me ; for arrow
foreseen comes more slack." 3 Thus said I unto
that same light which had spoken to me before,
and, as Beatrice willed, was my wish confessed.
Not with ambiguous terms in which the fool-
ish folk of old were entangled,4 before the Lamb
of God which taketh away sins had been slain,
2. v. 17. Dost see contingent events, that is, events
which may or may not happen, with not less certitude than
that of a geometrical axiom.
3. v. 27. This seems to have been a proverbial expres-
sion. The commentators cite a verse attributed to Ovid, but
said not to be found in his works : — " Nam previsa minus
laedete tela solent."
In the Chronicle of Fra Salimbene, A. D. 1286, we find :
— " Minus enim jacula feriunt quae praevidentur. ' '
4. v. 3 2 . Not with riddles such as the oracles gave out
before they fell silent at the coming of Christ.
vv. 34-59] CANTO XVII 139
but with clear words and with plain speech that
paternal love, enclosed and made manifest by
its own smile, made answer : " Contingency,
which does not extend outside the volume of
your matter,5 is all depicted in the Eternal
Vision. Yet thence it does not take necessity,6
more than does a ship which is going down the
stream from the eye in which it is mirrored.
Therefrom,7 even as sweet harmony comes to
the ear from an organ, comes to my sight the
time that is preparing for thee. As Hippolytus
departed from Athens, by reason of his pitiless
and perfidious stepmother, so from Florence
thou must needs depart. This is willed, this
is already sought for, and will soon be brought
to pass, by him 8 who meditates it there where
every day Christ is bought and sold. The
blame will follow the injured party, in outcry,
as is wont ; but the vengeance will be testi-
mony to the truth which dispenses it. Thou
shalt leave everything beloved most dearly;
and this is the arrow which the bow of exile
shoots first. Thou shalt make proof how the
bread of others savors of salt, and how hard a
5. v. 38. The material world.
6. v. 40. From its being seen in the Eternal Vision.
7. v. 43. From the Eternal Vision.
8. v. 50. Boniface VIII., in Rome, where, day in,
day out, there is traffic in the things of God.
140 , PARADISE [vv. 60-77
path is the descending and the mounting of
another's stairs. And that which will weigh
heaviest upon thy shoulders will be the evil and
senseless company 9 with which thou wilt fall
into this valley ; I0 which all ungrateful, all mad
and malevolent will turn against thee ; but
short while after, it, not thou, shall have the
forehead red therefor. Of its bestiality, its own
procedure will afford the proof; so that it will
be well-becoming for thee to have made thee a
party by thyself.
" Thy first refuge and first inn shall be the
courtesy of the great Lombard " who bears the
holy bird upon the ladder, who will have for
thee such benign regard that, in doing and in
asking, between you two, that will be first,
which between others is the slowest. With him
shalt thou see one,12 who was so impressed, at
his birth, by this strong star,13 that his deeds
9. v. 62. The other Florentine exiles of the party of the
Whites.
10. v. 63. This valley of exile and misfortune.
11. ¥.71. Bartolommeo della Scala, lord of Verona,
whose armorial bearings were the imperial eagle upon a ladder
(scala} .
12. v. 76. Can Grande della Scala, the youngest bro-
ther of Bartolommeo, and in 1312, his successor as lord of
Verona. He was made Imperial Vicar in 1311, and ou
him the hopes of the Ghibellines rested.
13. v. 77. The planet Mars.
vv. 78-99] CANTO XVII I4I
will be notable. Not yet are the people aware
of him, because of his young age ; for these
wheels have revolved around him only nine
years. But ere the Gascon cheat the lofty
Henry14 some sparkles of his virtue shall ap-
pear, in his caring not for money nor for toils.
His magnificences shall hereafter be so known,
that his enemies will not be able to keep their
tongues mute about them. Look thou to him,
and to his benefits ; by him shall many people
be transformed, rich and mendicant changing
condition. And thou shalt bear hence written
of him in thy mind, but thou shalt not tell it,"
— and he told things incredible to those who
shall be present.15 Then he added : " Son, these
are the glosses on what was said to thee ; be-
hold the snares which are hidden behind few
revolutions.16 Yet I would not that thou hate
thy neighbors, because thy life has a future far
beyond the punishment of their perfidies."
14. v. 82. Before the Gascon Pope Clement V., under
whom the Papal see was established at Avignon, shall deceive
the Emperor, Henry VII. , by professions of support, while
secretly promoting opposition to his expedition to Italy in
1310.
!5' v- 93- He told of deeds such that they shall seem
past belief even to those who witness them.
1 6. v. 96. These are the explanations of the predictions
of which thou hast sought the interpretation ; few revolutions
of the spheres will pass before thy trcvubles will begin.
142 PARADISE [vv. 100-127
When by its silence that holy soul showed
it had finished putting the woof into that
web which I had held out to it, warped/7 I
began, as he who, in doubt, longs for counsel
from a person who sees, and wills uprightly, and
loves : " I see well, my Father, how the time
spurs on toward me to give me such a blow as
is heaviest to him who most deserts himself;
wherefore it is good that I arm me with fore-
sight, so that if the place most dear be taken
from me, I may not lose the others by my
songs. Down through the world of endless
bitterness, and over the mountain from whose
fair summit the eyes of my Lady uplifted me,
and then through heaven from light to light, I
have learned that which, if I tell again, will
have for many a savor of great bitterness ; and
if I am a timid friend to the truth, I fear to lose
life among those who will call this time an-
cient." The light, within which my treasure
that I had found there was smiling, first be-
came flashing as a mirror of gold in the sun-
beam ; then it replied : " A conscience dark,
either with its own or with another's shame,
will indeed feel thy speech to be harsh ; but
nevertheless, all falsehood laid aside, make thy
17. v. 1 02. Cacciaguida had, as it were, woven in the
pattern of the cloth, in telling of the future course of Dante'a
fife.
vv. 1 28-142] CANTO XVII 143
whole vision manifest, and let then the scratch-
ing be where the itch is ; for if at the first taste
thy voice shall be molestful, afterwards, when
it shall be digested, it will leave vital nourish-
ment. This cry of thine shall do as the wind,
which strikes hardest the loftiest summits ; and
that is no little argument of honor. Therefore
only the souls which are known of fame have
'been shown to thee within these wheels, upon
the mountain, and in the woeful valley ; for the
mind of him who hears rests not, nor confirms
its faith, by an example which has its root un-
known and hidden, nor by other argument
which is not apparent." l8
1 8. v. 142. Only the souls of personages well known
have been shown to thee, to the end that their examples,
when thou tellest of them, may be efficacious ; for examples
of unknown persons, or arguments drawn from obscure facts,
have little weight.
CANTO XVIII
The Spirits in the Cross of Mars. — Ascent to the
Heaven of 'Jupiter. — Words shaped in light upon the
planet by the Spirits. — Denunciation of the avarice of
the Popes.
Now was that blessed mirror enjoying only its
own thoughts,1 and I was tasting mine, temper-
ing the bitter with the sweet, and that Lady
who was leading me to God said : " Change
thy thought; think that I am near to Him who
lightens the burden of every wrong." I turned
me round at the loving sound of my Comfort,
and what love I then saw in the holy eyes, I
here leave it ; not only because I distrust my
own speech,2 but because of the memory which
1. v. I. Literally, "its own word"; "the interior
conception of the mind is called the word " («£. T. i. 34, l).
Dante speaks of Cacciaguida as "that blessed mirror/' be-
cause the blessed spirits reflect the splendor of the Divine glory,
and gazing upon the mind of God reflect also what they be-
hold therein.
2. v. 10. " The tongue is not capable of completely fol-
iowing that which the understanding sees.'* Convito, iii. 3.
126. See also Ibid. iii. 4. 18.
w. 11-36] CANTO XVIII 145
cannot return so far above itself, unless another
guide it. Thus much of that moment can I
recount, that, again beholding her, my affection
was free from every other desire.
While the Eternal Pleasure, which was ray-
ing directly upon Beatrice, was contenting me
with its second aspect3 from her fair face, van-
quishing me with the light of a smile, she said
to me : " Turn thee, and listen, for not only in
my eyes is Paradise."
As sometimes here the affection is seen in
the countenance, if it be so great that the whole
soul is taken up by it, so in the flaming of the
holy effulgence to which I turned me, I recog-
nized the will in it still to discourse somewhat
with me. It began: "In this fifth seat4 of the
tree, which has life from its top, and always
bears fruit, and never loses leaf, are blessed
spirits, who below, before they came to heaven,
were of great renown, so that every Muse
would be rich with them.5 Therefore gaze
upon the arms of the Cross ; he, whom I shall
name, will there do the act which in a cloud its
own swift fire does." At the naming of Joshua,
3. v. 1 8. Its aspect reflected from the eyes of Beatrice.
4. v. 28. Mars, the fifth resting-place in the ascent of
Heaven.
5. v. 33. "Every Muse," that is, every poet; so in
Canto xv. 26, Dante calls Virgil "our greatest Muse."
146 PARADISE [vv. 37-60
even as it was done, I saw a light drawn along
the Cross ; nor was the word noted by me be-
fore the fact. And at the name of the lofty
Maccabeus 6 I saw another move revolving, and
gladness was the whip of the top. Thus for
Charlemagne and for Roland my attentive gaze
followed two of them, as the eye follows its
falcon as he flies. Afterward William, and
Renouard,7 and the duke Godfrey,8 and Robert
Guiscard9 drew my sight along that Cross.
Then, moving, and mingling among the other
lights, the soul which had spoken with me
showed me how great an artist it was among
the singers of the heaven.
I turned me round to my right side to see
in Beatrice my duty signified either by speech
or by act, and I saw her eyes so clear, so joy-
ous, that her semblance surpassed her other
and her latest wont. And even as, through
feeling more delight in doing well, a man
from day to day becomes aware that his virtue
6. v. 42. Judas Maccabeus, who " was renowned to the
utmost part of the earth." See I Maccabees ii.— ix.
7. v. 46. Two heroes of romance, William, Count of
Orange, and Renouard his companion in arms, paladins of
Charlemagne.
8. v. 47. Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the first
crusade.
9. v. 48. The founder of the Norman kingdom of
Naples.
vv.6i-82] CANTO XVIII 147
makes advance, so I, seeing that miracle more
adorned, became aware that my circling round
together with the heaven had increased its arc.
And such as is the change, in brief passage
of time, in a pale lady, when her countenance
discharges itself of the load of bashfulness, such
was there to my eyes, when I turned, because
of the whiteness of the temperate sixth star
which had received me within itself.10 1 saw,
within that torch of Jove, the sparkling of the
love which was there, shaping out our speech to
my eyes. And as birds, risen from the shore,
as if rejoicing together at their pasture, make
of themselves a troop now round, now of other
shape, so within the lights " holy creatures
were singing as they flew, and in their figures
made of themselves now D, now I, now L."
At first, as they sang, they moved to their own
notes, then as they became one of these char-
acters, they stopped a little, and were silent.
O divine Pegasea,13 who makest the wits
10. v. 69. The change, quick as the disappearance of a
blush, was from the red light of Mars to the white light of
Jupiter, a planet called by astrologers the " temperate " star,
PS lying between the heat of Mars and the coldness of Saturn,
ijee Convito, ii. 14. 195—202.
11. v. 76. The sparkles of the love which was there.
12. v. 78. Th« first letters of Diligite, " Love ye/' as
shortly appears.
13. v. 82. An appellation appropriate to the Muses in
148 PARADISE [w. 83-108
of men glorious, and renderest them Jong-
lived, as they, through thee, the cities and the
kingdoms, illumine me with thyself that I
may set forth their shapes, as I have conceived
them ; let thy power appear in these brief
verses !
They showed themselves then in five times
seven vowels and consonants ; and I noted the
parts as they seemed as if spoken to me.
Diligite justitiam were the first verb and noun
of all the picture ; qui judicatis terram I4 were
the last. Then in the M of the fifth word they
remained arranged, so that Jove seemed silver
patterned there with gold. And I saw other
lights descending where the top of the M was;
•and become quiet there, singing, I believe, the
Good which moves them to Itself. Then, as
on the striking of burning logs rise innumerable
sparks, wherefrom the foolish are wont to draw
auguries, so thence there seemed to rise again
more than a thousand lights, and mount, some
much and some little, according as the Sun
which kindles them allotted to them ; and, each
having become quiet in its place, I saw the head
and the neck of an eagle represented by that
general, whose fountain, Hippocrene, sprang up at the stamp
of Pegasus.
14. v. 93. "Love righteousness, ye that be judges of
the earth." Wisdom of Solomon i. i.
*v. 109-127] CANTO XVIII 149
patterned fire. He who paints there, has none
who may guide Him, but He Himself guides,
and from Him is recognized that virtue which
is form for the nests.15 The rest of the blessed
spirits, which at first seemed content to lily
themselves*6 on the M, with a slight motion
followed out the imprint.
O sweet star, what and how many gems
made plain to me that our justice is the effect
of that heaven which thou dost ingem ! Where-
fore I pray the Mind, in which thy motion and
thy virtue have beginning, that It look down
there whence issues the smoke which vitiates thy
radiance, so that now, a second time, It may be
wroth at the buying and the selling in the temple,
which was built up with blood and martyrdoms.
O soldiery of Heaven whom I contemplate,
pray ye for those on earth who are all gone
astray after the bad example ! Of old it was
the wont to make war with swords, but now it
15. v. in. The words are obscure; they may mean
that a virtue, or instinct, inspired by Gody similar to that
in the bird which teaches it to build its ne&t, iopelled the
spirits in the shaping of these letters.
16. v. 1 1 3. Ingigliare9 a word invented \>y Dante, and
used only by him. The meaning is that these spirits seemed
first like lilies on the M, then moved to join in forming the
head and neck of an eagle. The eagle is the emblem of the
Empire, which Dante held to be the Divine institution fo*
maintaining justice upon earth.
150 PARADISE [vv. 128-130
is made by taking away, now here now there,17
the bread which the pitying Father locks up
from none.
But thou that writest only in order to cancel,18
bethink thee that Peter and Paul, who died for
the vineyard which thou art laying waste, are
still alive. Thou canst say indeed : " I have
my desire set so on him who willed to live alone,
and for a dance was dragged to martyrdom,19
that I know not the Fisherman nor Paul."
17. v. 128. Making war by depriving men of the sac-
raments of the Church by means of excommunication and in-
terdict.
1 8. v. 130. The Pope, who writes censures, excom-
munications, and the like, only that he may be paid to cancel
&em.
19. v. 135. The image of St. John Baptist was on the
florin, which was the chief object of desire of the Pope.
CANTO XIX
The voice of the Eagle. — It speaks of the mysteries of
Divine justice ; of the necessity of Faith for salvation ; of
the sins of certain kings.
WITH outspread wings appeared before me
the beautiful image which the interwoven souls,
joyful in their sweet fruition, were making.
Each of them appeared as a little ruby on which
a ray of the sun should glow so enkindled as to
reflect him into my eyes. And that which it
now behoves me to retrace, never did voice re-
port, nor ink write, nor was it ever comprised
by fancy ; for I saw, and also heard the beak
speaking, and uttering with its voice both / and
My, when in conception it was We and Our.1
And it began : " Through being just and
pious am I here exalted to that glory which
allows not itself to be surpassed by desire ; and
on earth I left my memory such that the evil
people there commend it, but follow not its
story." Thus one sole heat makes itself felt
I. v. 12. An image of the concordant will of the Just
and of the unity of Justice under the Empire. •
152 PARADISE [w. 19-44
from many embers, even as from many loves one
sole sound issued from that image. Whereon
I at once : " O perpetual flowers of the eternal
gladness, ye which make all your odors seem to
me only one, solve for me, by your breath, the
great fast which long has held me hungering,
not finding for it any food on earth. Well do
I know that if the Divine Justice makes another
realm in heaven its mirror,2 yours does not
apprehend it through a veil. Ye know how
intently I prepare myself to listen ; ye know
what is that doubt3 which is so old a fast to
me."
As a falcon which, issuing from the hood,
moves its head, and claps its wings, showing its
will, and making itself fine; so I saw this em-
blem, which was woven of praise of the Divine
Grace, become, with songs such as he knows
who thereabove rejoices. Then it began : " He
who turned the compasses at the verge of the
world, and distributed within it so much occult
and manifest, could not so imprint His Power
on all the universe that His Word should not
2. v. 29. The reference is to the Order of the Thrones,
the Intelligences who presided over the sphere of Saturn. In
the ninth canto, verses 61, 62, Cunizza says : "Above are
mirrors, ye call them Thrones, whence God in his judg-
ments shines to us.'*
3. v. 33." Concerning the Divine Justice.
. 45-65] CANTO XIX
'53
remain in infinite excess.4 And this makes cer-
tain that the first proud one, who was the top
of every creature, through not awaiting light,
fell immature.5 And hence it appears, that
every lesser nature is a scant receptacle for that
Good which has no end, and measures Itself
by Itself. Therefore our vision, which must
needs be one of the rays of the Mind with which
all things are replete, cannot in its own nature be
so potent as not to discern its origin far beyond
that which is apparent to it.6 Therefore the
sight into the Eternal Justice which your world
receives 7 penetrates within as the eye into the
sea; which, though from the shore it can see
the bottom, on the main it sees it not, and
nevertheless it is there, but the depth conceals
it. There is no light but that which comes
from the serene which is never clouded ; nay,
rather there is darkness, either shadow of the
4. v. 45. The Word, that is, the thought or wisdom
of God, must infinitely exceed the expression of it in the
creation.
5. v. 48. Lucifer fell through pride, fancying himself,
though a created being, equal to his Creator. Had he awaited
the full light of Divine grace, he would have recognized his
own inferiority.
6. v. 57. Our vision is not powerful enough to reach to
the source from which it proceeds, for reach as far as it may,
it must still see its source in God to be far beyond its range,
?• Vt 59- It 'ls ^e &
I54 PARADISE [vv. 66-85
flesh, or its poison.8 The hiding-place is now
open enough to thee, which concealed from
thee the living Justice concerning which thou
didst make such frequent question ; 9 for thou
saidst : ' A man is born on the bank of the
Indus, and no one is there who may tell of
Christ, nor who may read, nor who may write;
and all his wishes and acts are good, so far as
human reason sees, without sin in life or in
speech. He dies unbaptized, and without faith;
where is this Justice which condemns him?
where is his sin if he does not believe ? ' Now
who art thou, that, with the short vision of a
single span, wouldst sit upon a bench to judge
a thousand miles away ? Assuredly, for him
who subtilizes with me,10 if the Scripture were
not above you, there would be marvelous
occasion for doubting. Oh earthly animals?
oh gross minds ! "
8. v. 66. There is no light but that which proceeds from
God, the light of Revelation. Lacking this, man is in the
darkness of ignorance, which is the shadow of the flesh, or of
sin, which is its poison.
9. v. 69. The hiding-place is the insufficiency of the
human intellect to penetrate to the depth of the Divine de-
crees, the justice of which man, in his self-confidence, under*,
takes to question.
10. v. 82. Who questions concerning the mysteries of
the Divine Justice of which I am the symbol.
11. v. 85. The Scriptures teach you that "the judg-
vv. 86-no] CANTO XIX 155
"The primal Will, which of Itself is good,
has never moved from Itself, which is the
Supreme Good. So much is just as is conso-
nant with It; no created good draws It to
itself, but It, raying forth, is the cause of that
good."
As the stork circles above her nest, after she
has fed her brood, and as the one that has
been fed looks up at her, such became the
blessed image, which impelled by so many
counsels " moved its wings, and I so raised
my brows. Wheeling it sang, and said : " As
are my notes to thee who understandest them
not, such is the Eternal Judgment to you
mortals."
After those shining flames of the Holy Spirit
became quiet, still in the sign which made the
Romans reverend to the world, it began again :
" To this kingdom no one ever ascended, who
had not believed in Christ either before or after
he was nailed to the tree. But behold, many cry
Christ, Christ, who, at the Judgment, shall be
far less near to him, than some one who knows
not Christ ; and the Ethiop will condemn such
Christians when the two companies shall be
ments of God are unsearchable, and His ways past finding
out ; " why, foolish, do ye disregard them ?
12. v. 96. The counsels of the multitude of spirits
composing it, uniting in a single will.
156 PARADISE [vv. 111-125
separated, the one forever rich, and the other
poor. What may the Persians say to your
kings, when they shall see that volume open in
which are written all their dispraises ? I3 There
shall be seen among the deeds of Albert that
which will soon set the pen in motion, by which
the kingdom of Prague shall be made a desert.14
There shall be seen the woe which he who shall
die by the blow of a wild boar is bringing upon
the Seine by falsifying the coin/5 There shall
be «een the pride that quickens thirst, which
makes the Scot and the Englishman mad, so
that neither can keep within his own bounds.16
The luxury shall be seen, and the effeminate
living of him of Spain, and of him of Bohemia,
13. v. 114. The Persians, who know not Christ, will
rebuke the sins of kings professedly Christians, when the book
of life shall be opened at the Last Judgment.
14. v. 117. The devastation of Bohemia in 1303, by
Albert of Austria (the " German Albert " of the sixth canto
of Purgatory}, will soon set in motion the pen of the record-
ing angel.
15. v. 119. After his terrible defeat at Courtray, in
1302, Philip the Fair, to provide himself with means,debased
the coin of the realm. He died in 1314 from the effects of
a fall from his horse, overthrown by a wild boar in the forest
of Fontainebleau.
1 6. v. 123. The wars of Edward I. and Edward II.
with the Scotch under Wallace and Bruce were carried on
with little intermission during the first twenty years of the
fourteenth century.
vv. 126-137] CANTO XIX 157
who never knew valor, nor wished it.17 The
goodness of the cripple of Jerusalem shall be
seen marked with an I, while an M shall mark
the contrary.18 The avarice and the cowardice
shall be seen of him who guards the island of
the fire, where Anchises ended his long life ;
and, to give to understand how paltry he is,
the writing for him shall be in abridged letters
which shall note much in little space.19 And
to every one shall be apparent the foul deeds
of his uncle and of his brother,20 who have
17. v. 126. By "him of Spain/' Ferdinand IV. of
Castile (1295-1312) seems to be intended ; and by "him
of Bohemia,** Wenceslaus IV., "whom luxury and idleness
feed;*' see Purgatory, vii. 102.
1 8. v. 129. The virtues of the lame Charles II., King
of Naples, 1285-1309, titular king of Jerusalem, shall be
marked in Roman numerals with a one, but his vices with a
thousand. The one virtue of Charles seems to have been his
liberality ; see Canto viii. 82.
19. v. 135. Frederick of Aragon, King of Sicily, 1296—
1337, too worthless to have his many misdeeds written out
m full; see Purgatory, vii. 119. Charles II. from 1296
to 1302 vainly attempted to dispossess Frederick of Sicily.
When finally peace was made between them, Frederick mar-
ried a daughter of Charles. Dante's scorn of Frederick was
doubtless enhanced by his desertion of the Ghibellines after
the death of Henry VII.
20. v. 137. James, King of Majorca and Minorca, and
James, King of Aragon, whose worthlessness is referred to
in Purgatory, vii. 120.
158 PARADISE [vv. 138-148
dishonored so eminent a race and two crowns.
And he of Portugal,21 and he of Norway " shall
be known there ; and he of Rascia,23 who, to
his harm, has seen the coin of Venice. Oh
happy Hungary, if she allow herself no longer
to be maltreated ! and happy Navarre, if she
arm herself with the mountains which bind her
round ! 24 And all should believe that, for ear-
nest of this, Nicosia and Famagosta are now
lamenting and complaining because of their
beast which departs not from the side of the
others." 2S
21. v. 139. Dionysius, King of Portugal, 1279— 1325,
to whom a base love of money-getting was ascribed.
22. v. 139. Hakon IV. , misnamed Longshanks, 1299—
1319, of whose cruel wars with Denmark Dante may have
.heard.
23. v. 140. Rascia, so called from a Slavonic tribe,
which occupied a region south of the Danube, embracing a
part of the modern Servia and Bosnia. The kingdom was
established in 1 170. One of its kings, Stephen Ouros, who
died in i 307, imitated the coin of Venice with a debased
coinage.
24. v. 144. If she would make the Pyrenees her de-
fence against France, into the hands of whose kings Navarre
fell in 1304.
25. v. 148. The lot of these cities in Cyprus, which
are now lamenting under the rule of Henry II. of the house
of Lusignan, a beast who goes along with the rest in evil doing,
is a proof in advance of what sort of fate falls to those who
do not defend themselves.
CANTO XX
The song of the Just. — Princes who have hv±j
righteousness, in the eye of the Eagle. — Spirits, once
Pagans, in bliss. — Faith and Salvation. — Predestina-
tion.
WHEN he who illumines all the world de-
scends from our hemisphere so that the day on
every side is spent, the heaven, which before is
enkindled by him alone, suddenly makes itself
again conspicuous with many lights, wherein one
alone is shining.1 And this act of heaven came
to my mind when the ensign of the world and
of its leaders became silent in its blessed beak ;
because all those living lights, shining far more,
began songs which have lapsed and fallen from
my memory.
O sweet Love, that mantlest thyself with a
smile, how ardent didst thou appear in those
flutes2 which had the breath alone of holy
thoughts !
1. v. 6. One, that is, the sun, supposed to be the source
of the light of the stars.
2. v. 14. That is, in those singers.
160 PARADISE fvv. 16-41
After the precious and shining stones, where-
with I saw the sixth luminary 3 ingemmed, im-
posed silence on their angelic chime, I seemed
to hear the murmur of a stream which falls down
clear from rock to rock, showing the abundance
of its mountain source. And as the sound takes
its form at the cithern's neck, and as at the vent
of the bagpipe wind which enters it, thus, with-
out pause cf waiting, that murmur of the Eagle
rose up through its neck, as if it were hollow.
There it became voice, and thence it issued
through its beak in form of words, such as the
heart whereon I wrote them was awaiting.
" The part in me which in mortal eagles sees
and endures the sun," it began to me, " must
now be gazed at fixedly, because of the fires
whereof I make my shape, those with which the
eye in my head is sparkling are the chief of all
their grades. He who shines in the middle,
as the pupil, was the singer of the Holy Spirit,
who bore about the ark from town to town ; 4
now he knows the merit of his song, so far as
it was the effect of his own counsel,5 by the
remuneration which is proportioned to it. Of
3. v. 17. The sixth planet, Jupiter.
4. v. 39. David. See 2 Samuel vi. ; cf. Purgatory^
x. 64-67.
5. v. 41. So far as it proceeded from his own free will
open to the inspiration of grace.
rv. 43-61] CANTO XX 161
the five which make a circle for my brow, he
who is nearest to my beak consoled the poor
widow for her son ; 6 now he knows, by the
experience of this sweet life and of its opposite,
how dear it costs not to follow Christ. And he
who on the rising arc comes next in the cir-
cumference of which I speak, by true penitence
delayed death ; 7 now he knows that the eternal
judgment is not transmuted, when worthy
prayer there below makes to-morrow's that
which was to-day's. The next who follows,8
with a good intention which bore bad fruit,
made himself Greek, together with the laws
and me, in order to give place to the Pastor ; 9
now he knows how the ill deduced from his
good action is not hurtful to him, although
thereby the world be destroyed. And he
whom thou seest in the down-bent arc was
6. v. 45. Trajan. See Purgatory, x. 73—93.
7. v. 51. King Hezekiah was sick unto death, and the
prophet Isaiah declared to him that the Lord said : '< Thou
shalt die." And Hezekiah wept sore. And the Lord came
again to Isaiah saying : " Turn again, and tell Hezekiah that
I have heard his prayer and seen his tears, and will heal him,
and will add unto his days fifteen years.*5 See 2 Kings xx.
1—6 ; Isaiah xxxviii. 1—5.
8. v. 55. The Emperor Constantine.
9. v. 57. Constantine, by ceding Rome to the PopC|
and by transferring the seat of empire to Constantinople^
made himself, the laws, and the eagle, Greek.
l6v PARADISE [vv. 62-79
William,10 whom that land deplores which weeps
for Charles and Frederick living ; " now he
knows how heaven is enamoured of a just king,
and by the aspect of his effulgence makes it still
seen. Who, down in the erring world, would
believe that Rhipeus the Trojan I2 was the fifth
of the holy lights in this circle ? Now he knows
much of that which the world cannot see of the
divine grace, although his sight cannot discern
the bottom."
Like a little lark that in the air expatiates,
first singing, and then is silent, content with
the last sweetness which satisfies her, such
seemed to me the image of the imprint of the
Eternal Pleasure, according to whose desire
everything becomes that which it is.13
And though I was there, in respect to my
10. v. 62. William II., called "the Good," King of
Sicily and Apulia, 1 166— 1 169.
11. v. 63. The same Charles and Frederick whom thfl
Eagle has reproached in the last canto, vv. 1 27—135.
12. v. 68.
" Rhipeus, iustissimus unus
Qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi." Aeneid^ \\. 426—427.
" Rhipeus, the one justest man and heedfullest of right among
the Trojans."
13. v. 78. So seemed the image (that is, the eagle),
satiated with its bliss, whether in the speech or the silence
imposed upon it by the Eternal Pleasure, in accoi dance with
which all things fulfil their ends.
w. 80-104] CANTO XX iO>
doubt/4 Jike glass to the color which it clothes,
it15 endured not to bide its time in silence, but
with the force of its own weight urged from my
mouth : " What things are these ? " whereat I
saw great festival of flashing. Then at once,
with its eye more enkindled, the blessed en-
sign answered me, in order not to keep me in
wondering suspense : " I see that thou believ-
est these things because I say them, but thou
seest not how ; so that, although believed in,
they are hidden. Thou dost as one who fully
apprehends a thing by name, but cannot see its
quiddity unless another explain it. Regnum
coelorum l6 suffers violence from fervent love,
and from living hope which vanquishes the di-
vine will ; not in such wise as man overcomes
man, but vanquishes it, because it wills to be
vanquished, and, vanquished, vanquishes with
its own benignity. The first life of the eyebrow
and the fifth make thee marvel, because thou
seest the region of the Angels painted with them.
From their bodies they did not issue Gentiles,
as thou believest, but Christians, with firm faith,
14. v. 79. How Trajan and Rhipeus could be in Para-
dise, since none but those who had believed in Christ were
there. See Canto xix. 103—105.
15. v. 80. My doubt.
1 6. v. 94. "The kingdom of Heaven." Matthetf
id. 12.
164 PARADISE [vv. 105-127
one in the Feet that were to suffer, one in the
Feet that had suffered.17 For the one came
back unto his bones from Hell, where there is
never return to righteous will ; and that was
the reward of living hope ; of living hope,
which put its power into the prayers made to
God to raise him up, so that it might be pos-
sible for his will to be moved.18 The glorious
soul, of whom I speak, returning to the flesh,
in which it was but little while, believed in
Him who had power to aid it ; and in believ-
ing was kindled to such fire of true love, that
at its second death it was worthy to come unto
this festivity. The other, through grace which
distils from a fount so deep that creature never
pushed the eye far as its primal wave, there
below set all his love on righteousness ; where-
fore from grace to grace God opened his eye to
our future redemption, so that he believed in
it, and thenceforth endured no more the stench
of paganism, and reproved therefor the perverse
folk. Those three Ladies whom thou hast seen
17. v. 105. Rhipeus died before the coming of Christ ;
Trajan after.
1 8. v. 1 1 1 . In Hell there can be neither repentance nor
a righteous will ; and therefore, according to the legend, St.
Gregory the Great prayed that the soul of Trajan, because of
his great worth, might be restored to his body in life long
enough for his will to turn to righteousness, and for him to
profess his faith in Christ.
vv. 128^-148] CANTO XX 165
at the right wheel I9 were to him for baptism,
more than a thousand years before baptizing.20
O predestination, how remote is thy root from
the vision of those who see not the First Cause
entire ! And ye, mortals, keep yourselves re-
strained in judging; for we who see God know
not yet all the elect ; and to us such defect is
sweet, for our good is perfected in this good,
— that what God wills we also will."
Thus, to make my short sight clear, sweet
medicine was given to me by that divine image.
And as a good lutanist makes the vibration of
the string accompany a good singer, whereby
the song acquires more pleasantness, so I re-
member that, while it spake, I saw the two
blessed lights 2I moving their flamelets to the
words, just as the winking of the eyes concords.
19. v. 128. Of the Chariot drawn by the Griffon. See
Purgatory, xxix. 121.
20. v. 129. Before the divine institution of the rite of
baptism, his faith, hope, and charity served him in lieu
thereof.
21. v. 1 06. Trajan and Rhipeus.
CANTO XXI
Ascent to the Heaven of Saturn. — Spirits of those
who had given themselves to devout contemplation. — The
Golden Stairway. — St. Peter Damian. — Predestina-
tion. — The luxury of modern Prelates.
ALREADY were my eyes fixed again upon the
countenance of my Lady, and my mind with
them, and from every other intent it was with-
drawn ; and she was not smiling, but: " If I
should smile," she began to me, " thou wouldst
become such as Semele was when she became
ashes ; for my beauty, which along the stairs of
the eternal palace is kindled the more, as thou
hast seen, the higher the ascent, is so resplen-
dent that, were it not tempered, at its effulgence
thy mortal power would be as a bough shattered
by thunder. We are lifted to the seventh splen-
dor, which beneath the breast of the burning
Lion now radiates downward mingled with his
strength.1 Fix thy mind behind thine eyes, and
make of them mirrors for the figure which in
this mirror shall be apparent to thee."
I. v. 15. The seventh splendor is Saturn, which was
in the sign of the Lion, whence its rays fell to earth mingled
with the strong influences of the sien.
vv. 19-43] CANTO XXI 167
He who should know what was the pasture
of my sight in her blessed aspect, when I trans-
ferred me to another care, would know, by
counterpoising one side with the other, how
pleasing it was to me to obey my celestial
escort.
Within the crystal which, circling round the
world, bears the name of its illustrious leader,
under whom all wickedness lay dead,2 I saw, of
the color of gold on which a sunbeam is shin-
ing, a ladder rising up so high that my eye
followed it not. I saw, moreover, so many
splendors descending along the steps, that I
thought every light which appears in heaven
had been poured down from it.
And as, by their natural custom, the daws, at
the beginning of the day, move about together,
in order to warm their cold feathers ; then
some go away without return, others wheel
round to whence they started, and others, cir-
cling, make a stay ; 3 such fashion it seemed
to, me was here in that sparkling which came
together, so soon as it struck on a certain
step;4 and that one which stopped nearest to
2. v. 27. Saturn, in the golden age.
3. v. 39. Keep flying in a circle.
4. v. 42. The splendors descending together when they
reached a certain step divided, like the daws, in various com*
panics, and moved in various directions.
168 PARADISE [vv. 44-72
us became so bright that I said in my thought :
" I see well the love which thou dost signify to
me. But she, from whom I await the how and
the when of speech and of silence, stays still ;
wherefore I, contrary to desire, do well not to
ask." Whereupon she, who saw my silence,
in the sight of Him who sees everything, said
to me : " Let loose thy warm desire."
And I began : " My own merit does not
make me worthy of thy answer ; but for her
sake who concedes to me the asking, O blessed
life, that art hidden within thine own joy,
make known to me the cause which has
placed thee so near me ; and tell why in
this wheel the sweet symphony of Paradise is
silent, which below through the others so de-
voutly sounds." " Thou hast thy hearing mor-
tal, as thy sight," it replied to me ; " therefore
no song is here for the same reason that Beatrice
has no smile. Down over the steps of the holy
stairway I have descended so far, only to give
thee glad welcome with my speech and with the
light that mantles me; nor has more love made
me to be more ready, for as much and more
love is burning up there, even as the flaming
manifests to thee ; but the high charity, which
makes us prompt servants to the Counsel that
governs the world, allots here,5 even as thou
5. v, 72. The high charity, that is the deep love which
. 73-93] CANTO XXI
169
observest." " I see well," said I, " O sacred
lamp, how free love suffices in this Court for
following the eternal Providence ; but this is
what seems to me hard to discern, why thou
alone among thy consorts wert predestined to
this office/' 6 I had not come to the last word
before the light made a centre of its middle,
whirling itself like a swift millstone. Then the
love that was within it answered : " A divine
light is directed on me, penetrating through
this wherein I embosom me ; the virtue of
which, conjoined with my vision, lifts me above
myself so far that I see the Supreme Essence
from which it emanates.7 Thence comes the
joy wherewith I flame, because to my vision, in
proportion as it is clear, I match the clearness
of my flame. But that soul in Heaven which
is most enlightened, 8 that Seraph who has his
eye most fixed on God, could not satisfy thy
inspires us, in accordance with the will of God, assigns its
part to each spirit.
6. v. 78. At his first entrance into Paradise Dante had
learned from Piccarda (Canto iii. 52-87) that the love with
which the spirits in Heaven are filled made their wills one
with the will of God ; but concerning the question of pre-
destination, which what he had seen in the sphere of Jupiter,
tnd the discourse of the Eagle thereupon, had brought vividly
to his mind, he is perplexed.
7. v. 87. Literally, " from which it is milked.*'
8. v. 91. With the Divine light.
170 PARADISE [w. 94-119
demand ; because that which them askest lies so
deep within the abyss of the eternal statute, that
from every created sight it is cut off. And
when thou returnest to the mortal world, carry
this back, so that it may no longer presume to
move its feet toward such a goal. The mind
which shines here, on earth is smoky ; where-
fore consider how can it do there below that
which it cannot do though Heaven assume it."
So did its words prescribe to me, that I left
the question, and drew me back to ask it hum-
bly who it was. " Between the two shores of
Italy, and not very distant from thy native land,
rise rocks so high that the thunders sound far
lower down, and they form a ridge which is
called Catria, beneath which a hermitage is con-
secrated which was wont to be devoted to wor-
ship only." 9 Thus it began again to me with
its third speech, and then, continuing, said :
"There in the service of God I became so
steadfast, that, only with food of olive juice,
lightly I used to pass the heats and frosts, con-
tent in contemplative thoughts. That cloister
was wont to render in abundance to these hea-
vens ; and now it is become so empty as needs
9. v. 1 1 1 . Catria is a high offshoot to the east from the
chain of the Apennines, between Urbino and Gubbio. Fal
up on its side was the monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte.
Avellana, belonging to the order of the Camaldolites.
vv. 120-135] CANTO XXI
171
must soon be revealed. In that place was I
Peter Damian,10 and Peter the sinner had I been
in the house of Our Lady on the Adriatic
shore.11 Little of mortal life was remaining for
me, when I was sought for and dragged to that
hat " which ever is passed down from bad to
worse. Cephas I3 came, and the great vessel of
the Holy Spirit '4 came, lean and barefoot, taking
the food of whatsoever inn. Now the modern
pastors require one to prop them up on this
side and that, and one to lead them, so heavy
are they, and one to hold up their trains behind.
They cover their palfreys with their mantles, so
that two beasts go under one hide. O Patience,
that dost endure so much ! "
I o. v. 121. A famous doctor of the Church in the
eleventh century, chiefly noted for his endeavors to improve
the discipline of the Church. He was for many years abbot
of the monastery of Fonte Avellana.
n. v. 123. These last words are obscure, and have
given occasion to much discussion, after which they remain no
clearer than before. It is uncertain what house of Our Lady
on the Adriatic shore is here referred to.
12. v. 125. The Cardinal's hat. In 1058 St. Peter
Damian, much against his will, was made Cardinal Bishop
of Ostia ; he died in 1072.
13. v. 127. St. Peter. " Thou art Simon the son of
Jona : thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpreta-
tion, a stone." John i. 42.
14. v. 128. St. Paul. "He is a chosen vessel unto
me." Acts ix. 15.
172 PARADISE [w. 136-142
At these words I saw more flamelets from
step to step descending and whirling, and every
whirl made them more beautiful. Round about
this one they came, and stopped, and uttered a
cry of such deep sound that here could be none
like it ; nor did I understand it, the thunder so
overcame me.
CANTO XXII
Beatrice reassures Dante. — St. Benedict appears. — »
He tells of the founding of bis Order , and of the falling
away of its brethren. — Beatrice and Dante ascend to
the Starry Heaven. — The constellation of the Twins." —
Sight of the Earth.
OPPRESSED with amazement, I turned me to
my Guide, like a little child who always runs
back thither where he most confides ; and she,
like a mother who quickly succors her pale and
breathless son with her voice, which is wont
to reassure him, said to me : " Knowst thou
not that thou art in Heaven ? and knowst thou
not that Heaven is all holy, and whatever is
done here comes from righteous zeal ? How
the song would have transformed thee, and I by
smiling, thou canst now conceive, since the cry
has so greatly moved thee; in which, if thou
hadst understood its prayers, already would be
known to thee the vengeance which thou shalt
see before thou diest. The sword of here on
high cuts not in haste, nor tardily, save to the
seeming of him who, desiring or fearing, awaits
174 PARADISE [w. 19-44
it. But turn thee round now toward the others ;
for many illustrious spirits thou shalt see., if, as
I bid, thou carry back thy look."
As was her pleasure I directed my eyes, and
saw a hundred little spheres, which together
were making themselves more beautiful with
their mutual rays. I was standing as one who
within himself represses the point of his desire,
and attempts not to ask, he so fears the too-
much. And the largest and most lustrous of
those pearls came forward to make my wish
concerning itself content. Then within it I
heard : " If thou couldst see, as I do, the char-
ity which burns among us, thy thoughts would
be expressed; but that thou, by waiting, mayst
not retard thy high end, I will make answer to
thee, even to the thought about which thou
so restrainest thyself.
" That mountain x on whose slope Cassino is,
was of old frequented on its summit by the
deluded and ill-disposed people, and I am he
who first bore up there the name of Him
who brought to earth the truth which so high
exalts us : and such grace shone upon me that
I drew away the surrounding villages from the
I. v. 37. Monte Cassino, in the Kingdom of Naples,
on which a temple of Apollo had stood, was chosen by St.
Benedict (480—543) as his abode, and became the site, in
5 29, of the parent and most famous monastery of his Order.
rv. 45-68] CANTO XXII 175
impious worship which seduced the world. All
these other fires were contemplative men, kin-
dled by that heat which brings to birth holy
flowers and fruits. Here is Macarius, here is
Romualdus,2 here are my brothers, who fixed
their feet within the cloisters, and held their
heart steadfast." And I to him : " The affec-
tion which thou displayest in speaking with
me, and the good semblance which I see and
note in all your ardors, have expanded my con-
fidence as the sun does the rose, when she
becomes open as wide as she has power to be.
Therefore I pray thee, and do thou, Father,
assure me if I am capable of receiving so great
grace, that I may see thee with uncovered
shape." Whereon he : " Brother, thy high
desire shall be fulfilled up in the last sphere,
where are fulfilled all others and my own.
There every desire is perfect, mature, and
whole ; in that alone is every part there where it
always was : for it is not in space, and it has not
poles ; 3 and our ladder reaches up to it, so that
2. v. 49. There was more than one St. Macarius ; but
St. Benedict probably here refers to St. Macarius of Alexan-
dria, a disciple of St. Antony, who did much to promote the
monastic rule in the East. He died in 405, St. Romualdus
was the founder of the Order of Camaldoli in 1012.
3. v. 67. The Empyrean is immovable, having no axis
with poles upon which it revolves, like the created spheres.
176 PARADISE [vv. 69-94
thus from thy sight it steals itself. Far up
as there the patriarch Jacob saw it stretch its
upper part, when it appeared to him so laden
with Angels. But no one now lifts his feet from
earth to ascend it ; and my Rule remains for
waste of paper. The walls, which used to be an
abbey, have become dens, and the cowls are
sacks full of bad meal. But heavy usury is not
levied so counter to God's pleasure, as that fruit
which makes the heart of the monks so mad ;
for whatsoever the Church has in keeping is all
for the folk that ask it in God's name, not for
kindred, or for others more vile.4 The flesh of
mortals is so soft that on earth a good beginning
does not suffice from the springing of the oak to
the forming of the acorn.5 Peter began with-
out gold and without silver, and I with prayers
and with fasting, and Francis his convent with
humility ; and if thou lookest at the beginning
of each, and then lookest again to where it has
run astray, thou wilt see the white changed to
dark. Truly, Jordan turned back, and the sea
4. v. 84. The sm of usury is not so displeasing to God
as the misappropriation by the monks of the alms given for
pious uses, to the enriching of their relatives, or even their
paramours.
5. v. 87. This general reflection refers especially to
the rapid relaxation of monastic rules from their original strict*
ness. .
rv.gs-nS] CANTO XXII 177
fleeing when God willed, were more marvellous
to behold than to see succor here." 6
Thus he said to me, and then drew back to
his company, and the company closed together ;
then like a whirlwind all gathered itself upward.
The sweet Lady urged me behind them, with
only a sign, up over that ladder ; so did her
virtue overcome my nature. But never here
below, where one mounts and descends natur-
ally, was there motion so rapid that it could
be compared unto my wing. So may I return,
Reader, to that devout triumph, for the sake
of which I often bewail my sins and beat my
breast, thou hadst not drawn out and put thy
finger in the fire so quickly as I saw the sign
which follows the Bull,7 and was within it.
O glorious stars, O light impregnate with
great virtue, from which I acknowledge all my
genius, whatever it may be ; with you was born
and with you was hiding himself8 he who is
father of every mortal life, when I first felt the
Tuscan air ; 9 and then, when grace was bestowed
6. v. 96. Were God now to interpose to correct the
evils of the Church, the marvel would be less than that of the
miracles of old, because the need is greater.
7. v. 1 10. The sign of the Gemini, or Twins, in the
Heaven of the Fixed Stars.
8. v. 115. That is, " was rising and was setting. ' '
9. v. 117. At the time of Dante's birth the sun was in
the sign of the Twins.
178 PARADISE [w. 119-141
on me to enter within the lofty wheel which turns
you, your region was allotted to me. To you
my soul now devoutly sighs that it may acquire
virtue for the hard pass which draws her to it-
self.10
" Thou art so near the ultimate salvation,"
began Beatrice, " that thou oughtest to have
thine eyes clear and keen. And therefore ere
thou enter farther into it, look back down-
ward, and see how great a world I have already
set beneath thy feet, in order that thy heart
may present itself joyous to its utmost unto the
triumphant throng which comes glad through
this round ether." With my sight I returned
through all and each of the seven spheres, and
saw this globe " such that I smiled at its mean
semblance ; and that counsel I approve as best
which holds it of least account ; and he who
thinks of other things may be called truly
righteous. I saw the daughter of Latona en-
kindled without that shadow which had been
the cause why I once believed her rare and
10. v. 123. The order of the Angelic Intelligences who
are the movers of the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, is that
of the Cherubim, whose name signifies Plenitude of Know-
ledge. It is their light which Dante craves to enable him
fitly to complete his task in the description of his vision of
God.
11. v. 134. The earth.
vv. 142-154] CANTO XXII
179
dense.12 The aspect of thy son, Hyperion,13
here I endured, and I saw how Maia and Dione '4
move around and near him. Then appeared to
me the temperateness of Jove, between his
father and his son,15 and then was clear to me
the varying which they make in their position.
And all the seven were displayed to me, — how
great they are and how swift they are, and how
far apart they are in their abodes. While I was
revolving with the eternal Twins, the little
threshing-floor l6 which makes us so fierce all
appeared to me, from its hills to its river-
mouths.
Then I turned back my eyes to the beautiful
eyes.
12. v. 141. From his station in the Heaven of the Fixed
Stars Dante saw the other face of the moon than that which
is seen from the earth, so that its dusky marks were not appar-
ent to him. Cf. Canto ii. 49—148.
13. v. 142. The Titan Hyperion was held to be the
father of Helios, the Sun.
14. v. 144. Maia and Dione were respectively the
mothers of Mercury and Venus, and by their names these
planets are here designated.
15. v. 146. Saturn and Mars.
1 6. v. 151. The inhabited earth.
CANTO XXIII
The Triumph of Christ.
As the bird, among the beloved leaves, hav-
ing reposed on the nest of her sweet brood
through the night which hides things from us,
who, in order to see their longed-for looks and
to find the food wherewith she may feed them,
in which her heavy toils are pleasing to her, an-
ticipates the time, upon the open twig, and with
ardent affection awaits the sun, fixedly looking
till the dawn may break ; so was my Lady,
standing erect and expectant, turned toward
the region beneath which the sun shows least
haste ; ' so that I, seeing her rapt and eager,
became such as he who in desire would fain
have something else and in hope is satisfied.
But short while was there between one and the
other when ; of my awaiting, I mean, and of
my seeing the heavens become more and more
resplendent. And Beatrice said : " Behold the
hosts of the Triumph of Christ, and all the fruit
harvested by the revolution of these spheres."*
1. v. 12. The meridian.
2. v. 21. By the beneficent influences of the planet*.
vv. 22-47] CANTO XXIII 181
It seemed to me her face was all aflame, and her
eyes were so full of joy that I must needs pass
on without description.
As in the clear skies at the full moon Trivia3
smiles among the eternal nymphs who paint
the heaven through all its depths, I saw, above
thousands of lamps, a Sun that was enkindling
each and all of them, as ours kindles the super-
nal shows ; 4 and through its living light the
lucent Substance s gleamed so bright upon my
face that I sustained it not.
Oh Beatrice, sweet guide and dear !
She said to me : " That which overcomes thee
is a virtue against which naught defends itself.
Here is the Wisdom and the Power that opened
the roads between heaven and earth, for which
there erst had been such long desire."
As fire is unlocked from a cloud, by dilating
so that it has not room there, and contrary to
its own nature falls down to earth, so my mind,
becoming greater amid those feasts, issued from
itself, and what it became it cannot remember.
" Open thine eyes and look on what I am ;
thou hast seen things such that thou art become
3. v. 26. An appellation of Diana, and hence of the
moon.
4. v. 30. " With the light of the Sun all the other
stars are informed. " Convito,\\. 14. 125.
5. v. 32. Christ in his glorified body.
i82 PARADISE [vv. 48-75
able to sustain my smile." I was as one who
comes to himself from a forgotten vision and
endeavors in vain to bring it back to mind,
when 1 heard this invitation, worthy of such
gratitude that it is never to be effaced from the
book which records the past. If now all those
tongues which Polyhymnia and her sisters made
most rich with their sweetest milk should sound
to aid me, it would not come to a thousandth
of the truth in singing the holy smile and how
it lighted up the holy face. And thus, depict-
ing Paradise, the consecrated poem must needs
make a leap, even as one who finds his way cut
off. But whoso should consider the ponderous
theme and the mortal shoulder which is laden
therewith would not blame it if under this it
tremble. It is no voyage for a little barque,
this which my venturous prow goes cleaving,
nor for a pilot who would spare himself.
cc Why does my face so enamour thee that
thou turnest not to the fair garden which blos-
soms beneath the rays of Christ ? Here is the
Rose,6 in which the Divine Word became flesh :
here are the lilies 7 by whose odor the good way
was taken."
6. v. 73. The Virgin.
7. v. 74. The Apostles and Saints. The image is de-
rived from St. Paul (2 Corinthians ii. 14) . "Now thanki
be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ,
w. 76-95] CANTO XXIII 183
Thus Beatrice : and I, who to her counsels
was wholly ready, again gave myself up to the
battle of the feeble brows.
As my eyes, covered with a shadow, have ere
now seen a meadow of flowers under a sunbeam
which streams bright through a rifted cloud,
so saw I many throngs of splendors flashed
upon from above by burning rays, though I saw
not the source of the gleams. O benignant
Power which dost so imprint them, thou didst
raise thyself on high to bestow scope there for
my eyes, which were powerless.8
The name of the fair flower which I ever in^
voke, both morning and evening, wholly con-
strained my mind to gaze upon the greater fire.9
And when the brightness and the magnitude I0
of the living star, which up there conquers
as it conquered here below, were depicted in
both my eyes, from within the mid heavens a
torch, formed in a circle in fashion of a crown,
and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in
every place." In the Vulgate the words are, " odorem
notitiae suae manifestat per nos."
8. v. 87. The eyes of Dante, incapable of enduring the
sight of the glorified body of Christ, are able, when that is
withdrawn on high, to look upon those whom the light of
Christ illumines.
9. v. 90. The Virgin, — Rosa mtstica, — the brightest
of all the host that remained.
10. v. 92. Literally, " the quality and the quantity*"
184 PARADISE ^.96-123
descended, and engirt her, and revolved around
her. Whatever melody sounds sweetest here
below, and to itself most draws the soul, would
seem a cloud which, being rent, thunders, com-
pared with the sound of that lyre wherewith was
crowned the beauteous sapphire by which the
brightest Heaven is ensapphired. " I am An-
gelic Love, and I circle round the lofty joy
which breathes from out the womb which was
the hostelry of our Desire ; and I shall circle,
Lady of Heaven, until thou shalt follow thy
Son and make the supreme sphere more divine
because thou enterest it." Thus the circling
melody sealed itself, and all the other lights
made the name of Mary resound.
The royal mantle " of all the revolutions of
the world, which is most fervid and most quick-
ened in the breath of God and in His ways, had
its inner shore so distant above us that sight
of it, there where I was, did not yet appear
to me. Therefore my eyes had not power to
follow the crowned flame, which mounted up-
ward after her offspring. And as an infant
which, when it has taken the milk, stretches its
arms toward its mother, because of its affection
which flames up outwardly, each of these splen-
ii. v. 112. The Primum Mobile, the ninth Heaven,
which, enveloping the other spheres, revolves around them
and causes them to revolve.
?v. 124-139] CANTO XXIII 185
dors stretched upward with its flame, so that the
exalted love which they had for Mary was mani-
fest to me. Then they remained there in my
sight, singing Regina coeli I2 so sweetly that never
has the delight departed from me. Oh how
great is the abundance which is heaped up in
those most rich coffers which were good fields
for sowing here below ! I3 Here they live and
enjoy the treasure which was acquired while
they wept in the exile of Babylon, where the
gold was left aside.14 Here, under the exalted
Son of God and of Mary, together with the
ancient and with the new council, he triumphs
in his victory who holds the keys of such
glory.15
12. v. 128. " O Queen of Heaven ; " the first words
of an antiphon sung in the office of the Virgin at Compline
on certain days after Easter. It is as follows, and its ap-
propriateness here is manifest : " O Queen of Heaven, re-
joice, for He whom thou wert worthy to bear rose as he
promised ; pray to God for us. Hallelujah."
13. v. 132. " Those most rich coffers," those blessed
souls, now in the full enjoyment of Heaven, which were
good ground for the seed of righteousness on earth.
14. v. 1 3 5. Despising the treasures of the world, in the
Babylonish exile of this life, they laid up for themselves
treasures in Heaven.
15. v. 139. Here St. Peter, in company with the saints
of the Old and of the New Covenant, triumphs in the victory
of the Churcn.
CANTO XXIV
St. Peter examines Dante concerning Faith, and ap-
proves his answer.
" O FELLOWSHIP elect to the great supper of
the blessed Lamb, who feeds you so that your
desire is always full, since by grace of God this
man foretastes of that which falls from your
table, before death prescribe the time for him,
give heed to his immense longing, and somewhat
bedew him ; ye drink ever of the fount whence
comes that' of which he is thinking." ' Thus
Beatrice ; and those glad souls made themselves
spheres upon fixed poles, flaming brightly after
the manner of comets. And as wheels within
the fittings of clocks revolve, so that to him
who gives heed the first seems quiet, and the
last to fly, so these carols,2 differently dancing,
swift and slow, made me rate their riches.
1. v. 9. " Ye drink ever from the Divine source of the
truth on which his mind is set, and concerning which he
needs the enlightenment which ye can give him."
2. v. 1 6. A carol was a dance with song; here used
for the revolving circles of the spirits, the difference in the
speed of which gave to Dante the measure of the respective
blessedness of the saints who composed them.
rv. 19-45] CANTO XXIV 187
From the one which I noted of greatest
beauty, I saw issue a fire so happy that it left
there none of greater brightness ; and it re-
volved three times round Beatrice with a song
so divine that my fancy repeats it not to me ;
wherefore my pen makes a leap, and I write it
not, for our imagination, much more our speech,
is of too vivid color for such folds.3 " O holy
sister mine, who dost so devoutly pray to us,
by thine ardent affection thou dost unloose me
from that fair sphere : " after it had stopped,
the blessed fire directed to my Lady its breath,
which spoke thus as I have said. And she :
" O light eternal of the great man to whom our
Lord left the keys, which he bore below, of this
marvellous joy, test this man on points light
and grave, as pleases thee, concerning the Faith,
through which thou didst walk upon the sea.
If he loves rightly, and hopes rightly, and be-
lieves, is not hidden from thee, for thou hast
thy sight there where everything is seen de-
picted. But since this realm has made citi-
zens by the true faith, it is well that to glorify
it speech of it should fall to him."4
3. v. 27. The metaphor is a little obscure ; the mean-
ing seems to be, that our imagination and our speech are in-
capable of describing such delights as this divine song, even
as too lively colors are unfit for depicting the folds in drapery.
4. v. 45. The meaning seems to be : Thou knowest
i88 PARADISE [vv. 46-64
Even as the bachelor arms himself, — and
dost not speak, until the master propounds
the question, — in order to adduce the proof,
not to decide it,5 so, while she was speaking, I
was arming me with every reason, in order to
be ready for such a questioner, and for such a
profession.
"Speak, good Christian, declare thyself;
Faith, what is it ? " Whereon I raised my brow
to that light whence this was breathed forth,
then turned me to Beatrice, and she made
prompt signals to me that I should pour the
water fortK from my internal fount. " May
the Grace," I began, " which grants to me that
I confess myself to the chief centurion cause my
conceptions to be well expressed." And I went
on : " As the veracious pen, Father, of thy dear
brother 6 (who with thee set Rome on the good
track) wrote of it, Faith is the substance of things
that he has true faith, and since by faith one becomes a citi-
zen of this realm, it is well that he should celebrate it.
5. v. 48. The bachelor at a university before proceed-
ing to the Degree of Doctor was required to pass an exami-
nation or maintain a thesis propounded by a Master. Du-
cange cites from the old Statute of the University of Paris
words which afford a good illustration of Dante's verses : — •
" Quilibet Baccalaureus in Theologia . . . tenebitur respondere
in Theologia ad minus semel de disputatione tentadva sub
Magistro."
6. v. 62. St. Paul.
rv. 65-85] CANTO XXIV 189
hoped for, and evidence of things not seen : *
and this appears to me its essence." Then I
heard : " Rightly dost thou think, if thou un-
derstandest weJl why he placed it among the
substances, and then among the evidences."
And I thereon : " The deep things which grant
unto me here the sight of themselves, are so
hidden to eyes below that there their existence
is in belief alone, upon which the lofty hope is
founded, and therefore it takes the designation
of substance ; and from this belief we needs
must syllogize, without having other sight,
wherefore it receives the designation of evi-
dence."8 Then I heard: "If all that is ac-
quired down below for doctrine, were so under-
stood, the wit of sophist would have no place
there." These words were breathed forth from
that enkindled love ; then it added : " Very well
have the alloy and the weight of this coin been
now gone over, but tell me if thou hast it in thy
7. v. 65. Hebrews xi. i.
8. v. 78. The argument is as follows : The things of
the spiritual world having no visible existence upon earth, the
hope of blessedness rests only on belief unsupported by mate-
rial proof ; this belief is Faith, and since on it alone does our
high hope rest, it is properly called its substance, that is,
what stands under it, its support. See, for this signification of
substance, S. T. \. 29. 2. And since our belief supplies all
our material for reasoning concerning spiritual things, Faith is
tlso properly called evidence.
190 PARADISE [vv. 86-102
purse ? " Whereupon I : " Yes, I have it so
shining and so round that in its stamp nothing
is doubtful to me." Then issued from the
deep light which was shining there : " This pre-
cious jewel, whereon every virtue is founded,
whence came it to thee ? " And I : " The abun-
dant rain of the Heavenly Spirit, which is shed
over the Old and over the New parchments, is
a syllogism which has proved it to me with such
acuteness, that in comparison with this every
demonstration seems to me obtuse/' 9 I heard
then : " The Old proposition and the New
which are so conclusive to thee, — why dost
thou hold them for Divine speech ? " I0 And I :
" The proof which discloses the truth to me are
the works that followed, for which nature never
heated iron, nor beat anvil/'" It was replied
9. v. 96. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit manifest in
the Old and the New Testament is an irresistible argument
for our Faith.
10. v. 98. "The Old and the New Testament being
thus the two propositions or premises from which thou ciraw-
est thy conclusion, what proof hast thou that thy conclusion
that they are the word of God is correct ? ' '
11. v. I o i . The miracles afford proof that the Bible is
the word of God. But, replies St. Peter, it is from the
Bible that you learn of the miracles. How then do they afford
proof of its inspiration ? To which Dante answers, that the
conversion of the world to Christianity without miracles
would have been a miracle so much more marvellous than
vv. 103-125] CANTO XXIV 191
to me : " Say, what assures thee that these
works were ? The very thing itself which re-
quires to be proved, naught else, affirms it to
thee." " If the world were converted to Chris-
tianity," said I, " without miracles, this alone is
such that the others are not the hundredth part ;
for thou didst enter poor and fasting into the
field to sow the good plant, which once was a
vine and now has become a bramble."
This ended, the high holy Court resounded
through the spheres a " We praise thee,
O God," in the melody which up there is
sung.
And that Baron I2 who thus from branch to
branch, examining, had now drawn me on, so
that we were approaching the last leaves, began
again : " The Grace that holds courteous con-
verse with thy mind has opened thy mouth thus
far as it should be opened, so that I approve
that which has issued forth, but now it is befit-
ting to express what thou believest, and whence
it was offered to thy belief." " O holy father,
spirit who seest that which thou didst so believe
that thou, toward the sepulchre, didst outdo
those reported in the Scriptures, that the latter must be
believed.
12. v. 115. During the Middle Ages this term of high
dignity was not infrequently applied to the most eminent
among the Saints, and even to Christ himself.
192 PARADISE [vv. 126-154
younger feet," I3 began I, " thou wishest that
I should here declare the form of my ready
belief, and also thou hast asked the cause of it.
And I answer : I believe in one God, sole and
eternal, who, unmoved, moves all the Heavens
with love and with desire ; and for such belief
I have not only proofs physical and metaphy-
sical, but that truth also gives it to me which
hence rains down through Moses, through
Prophets, and through Psalms, through the
Gospel, and through you who wrote after the
fiery Spirit made you reverend. And I believe
in three Eternal Persons, and these I believe to
be one essence, so one and so threefold that it
will admit to be conjoined with are and is. Of
the profound divine condition on which I touch,
the evangelic doctrine many times sets the seal
upon my mind. This is the beginning, this
is the spark which afterwards dilates into a
vivid flame, and like a star in heaven scintil-
lates within me."
Even as a lord who hears what pleases him,
thereon, rejoicing in the news, embraces his ser-
vant, soon as he is silent, thus, blessing me as
he sang, the apostolic light, at whose command
I had spoken, thrice encircled me when I was
silent; so had I pleased him in my speech.
13. v. 126. " The other disciple did outrun Peter," but
Peter first " went into the sepulchre/' See "John xx. 4—6-
CANTO XXV
St. 'James examines t)ante concerning Hope. — S'U
John appears, with a brightness so dazzling as to deprive
Dante, for the time, of sight.
IF it ever happen that the sacred poem to
which both heaven and earth have so set hand,
that it has made me lean for many years, should
overcome the cruelty which bars me out of the
fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slept, foe to the
wolves that give it war, then with other voice,
with other fleece, a Poet will I return, and on
the font of my baptism will I take the crown ;
because there I entered into the Faith which
makes the souls known to God ; and afterward
Peter, for its sake, thus encircled my brow.
Then a light moved toward us from that
sphere whence had issued the first-fruit which
Christ left of His vicars ; and my Lady, full
of gladness, said to me : " Look, look ! behold
the Baron for whose sake there below Galicia is
visited." '
I. v. 1 3. It was believed that St. James, the brother of
194 PARADISE [w. 19-34
As when the dove alights near his mate, and
each, circling and cooing, displays its affection
to the other, so by the one great Prince glorious
I saw the other greeted, praising the food which
feeds them thereabove. But after their gratu-
lation was completed, silent cor am me 2 each
stopped, so blazing that it overcame my sight.
Then Beatrice, smiling, said : " Illustrious life,
by whom the bounty of our basilica was writ-
ten,3 do thou make Hope resound upon this
height ; thou knowest that thou dost represent
it as many times as Jesus displayed most bright-
ness to the three." 4 " Lift up thy head, and
St. John, was buried at Compostella, in Galicia. His shrine
was one of the chief objects of pilgrimage during the Middle
Ages. Froissart says (iii. 30) : "Or eurent ils affection
et devotion d'aller en pelerinage au Baron Saint Jacques."
2. v. 26. "Before me." Here, as sometimes else-
where, it is not evident why Dante uses Latin words.
3. v. 30. The reference is to the Epistle of James,
which Dante, falling into a common error, attributes to St.
James the Greater. The special words he had in mind may
have been : " God, that giveth to all men liberally," i. 5 ;
and " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights," i. 17. By
"basilica " is meant the royal court of heaven.
4. v. 33. Peter, James, and John were chosen by theif
Master to be present at the raising of the daughter of Jairus,
at his Transfiguration, and at his Agony in the Garden. As
Peter personified Faith, and John Love, James was held to be
the personification of Hope.
^v. 35-57] CANTO XXV 195
mind thou reassure thyself; for that which
comes up here from the mortal world needs
must be ripened in our rays." This comfort
came to me from the second fire ; whereon I
lifted up my eyes unto the mountains which
had bent them down before with excess of
weight.
" Since, through grace, our Emperor wills
that thou, before thy death, come face to face
with his Counts in Hi? most secret hall, so that,
having seen the truth of this Court, thou may-
est therewith confirm in thyself and others the
Hope which there below rightly enamours, say
what it is, and how thy mind blossoms with it,
and say whence it came to thee ; " thus further
did the second light proceed. And that com-
passionate one, who guided the feathers of my
wings to such lofty flight, thus in the reply an-
ticipated me : 5 " The Church militant has not
any child possessed of more hope, as is written
in the Sun which irradiates all our band ; there-
fore it is conceded to him, that from Egypt he
should come to Jerusalem, to behold, before
his term of warfare is completed.6 The other
5. v. ^i. Beatrice answers the question to which the
reply, had it been left to Dante, might seem to involve self-
praise.
6. v. 57. Before his term of service in the Church mil-
itant on earth has expired.
<96 PARADISE [vv. 58-80
two points which are asked not for sake of
knowing, but that he may report how greatly
this virtue is pleasing to thee, I leave to him,
for they will not be difficult to him, nor of
vainglory, and let him answer thereto, and may
the grace of God accord this to him."
As a scholar who follows his teacher, prompt
and glad in that wherein he is expert, so that
his worth may be disclosed : " Hope," said I,
" is a sure expectation of future glory, which
divine grace produces, and preceding merit.7
From many stars this light comes to me, but
he first instilled it into jny heart who was the
supreme singer of the Supreme Leader. c Let
them hope in Thee, who know Thy name/ he
says in his theody ; 8 and who knows it not, if
he has my faith ? Thou afterwards in thy
Epistle9 didst instil it into me together with his
instilling, so that I am full, and upon others
shower down your rain.'*
While I was speaking, within the living
bosom of that fire a flash was trembling, sud-
7. v. 69. These words are taken directly from Peter
Lombard, Liber Sententiarum, iii. 26.
8. v. 73. Divine song: "And they that know thy
name will put their trust in thee." Psalm ix. 10.
9. v. 77. There is no direct mention of hope in the
Epistle of James, but much which breathes its spirit, as, ib*
instance, "Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts ; for the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh." v. 8.
vv. 81-98] CANTO XXV 197
den and frequent, in the manner of lightning.
Then it breathed : " The love wherewith I still
glow toward the virtue which followed me even
to the palm, and to the issue of the field, wills
that I breathe again to thee, who dost delight
in it ; and it is my pleasure, that thou tell that
which Hope promises to thee." And I : " The
new and the old Scriptures set up the mark, and
that points it out to me.10 Of the souls whom
God hath made his friends, Isaiah says that
each one shall be clothed in his own land with
a double garment," and his own land is this
sweet life ; and thy brother, far more explicitly,
there where he treats of the white robes, makes
manifest to us this revelation." I2
At first, close on the end of these words,
<k Sperent in te " I3 was heard above us, to which
10. v. 89. These obscure words may perhaps be inter-
preted, the Scriptures indicate in symbolic terms that which
we are to hope for, and these symbols point it out to me.
In the next sentence Dante mentions two of the symbols,
and declares their meaning.
11. v. 92. "Therefore in their land they shall possess
the double : everlasting joy shall be unto them.'* Isaiah
Jxi. 7. In the possession by the friends of God of the
double vesture of the glorified natural body and of the spir-
itual body, will be the fulness of their capacity of enjoyment
of the bliss of Heaven.
12. v. 96. Revelation vii. 9—17.
13. v. 98. " Et sperent in te, qui noverunt nomen
198 PARADISE [w. 99-1 A 7
all the carols made answer ; then among them
a light became so bright that, if the Crab had
one such crystal, winter would have a month of
one sole day.14 And as a glad maiden rises and
goes and enters in the dance, only to do honor
to the new bride, and not for any failing,15 so
did I see the brightened splendor come to the
two who were turning in a wheel, such as was
befitting their ardent love. It set itself there
into the song and into the measure, and my
Lady kept her gaze upon them, even as a bride
silent and motionless. " This is he who lay
upon the breast of our Pelican,16 and who was
chosen from upon the cross for the great office." 1?
Thus my Lady ; but no more after than before
her words did she move her look from its fixed
titum," is the Vulgate rendering of the first words of Psalm
«, 10 ; in the English version : " They that know thy name
will put their trust in thee."
14. v. 1 02. If the sign of Cancer, which rises at sunset
i* early winter, had a star as bright as this light, the night
would be light as day. It is the light with which St. John
is clothed.
15. v. 105. Not for vanity, or love of display.
1 6. v. 113. A common type of Christ during the Mid-
dk Ages, because of the popular belief that the pelican killed
iti brood, and then revived them with its blood.
17. v. 1 14. " Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy
mother ! and from that hour that disciple took her unto his
own home." John xix. 27.
vv. 118-134] CANTO XXV 199
attention. As is he who gazes and endeavors
to see the sun a little eclipsed, and who through
seeing becomes sightless, so did I become in
respect to that last fire, till it was said : " Why
dost thou dazzle thyself in order to see a thing
which has no place here ? l8 On earth my body
is earth ; and it will be there with the others
until our number corresponds with the eternal
purpose.19 With the two robes in the blessed
cloister are only those two lights which as-
cended : 20 and this thou shalt carry back unto
your world."
At this word the flaming gyre became quiet,
together with the sweet mingling made of the
sound of the trinal breath,21 even as, for avoid-
ing of fatigue or danger, the oars, erst driven
1 8. v. 123. Dante seeks to see whether St. John is pre-
sent in the earthly as well as the spiritual body ; his desire
having its source in the words of the Gospel : "Jesus saith
unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to
thee ? . . . Then went this saying abroad among the breth-
ren, that that disciple should not die." John xxi. 22, 23.
From these words arose a legend that, immediately on his
apparent death, St. John, still hi the body, was taken up to
heaven.
19. v. 126. Till the predestined number of the elect is
complete.
20. v. 128. Jesus and Mary, who had been seen to
ascend. See Canto xxiii. vv. 86, 120.
21. v. 132. The voices of the three apostles.
200 PARADISE [vv. 135-139
through the water, all stop at the sound of a
whistle.
Ah ! how greatly was I disturbed in mind,
when I turned to see Beatrice, at not being able
to see her,22 although I was near her, and in
the happy world.
22. v. 138. Because blinded by the excess of ligM
shining out from St. John.
CANTO XXVI
St. "John examines Dante concerning Love. — Dante*$
light restored. — Adam appears, and answers questions,
^ut to him by Dante.
WHILE I was apprehensive because of my
quenched sight, a breath which made me atten-
tive issued from the effulgent flame that had
quenched it, saying : " While thou art regain-
ing the sense of sight which thou hast consumed
on me, it is well that thou make up for it by
discourse. Begin then, and tell at what thy soul
is aimed, and make thy reckoning that thy sight
is confounded in theeand not dead; because the
Lady who conducts thee through this divine
region has in her look the virtue which the
hand of Ananias had/' x I said : " At her
pleasure, or soon or late, let the cure come to
the eyes which were the gates when she entered
with the fire wherewith I ever burn. The
Good which makes this court content is Alpha
and Omega of every scripture that Love reads
I. v. 12. The power of restoring sight. See Acts\x*
1 8.
202 PARADISE [vv. 18-41
to me, either low or loud." 2 That same voice
which had taken from me fear in regard to the
sudden dazzling, laid on me the charge to speak
further, and said : " Surely with a finer sieve it
behoves thee to sift ; it behoves thee to tell who
directed thy bow to such a target." And I :
" By philosophic arguments and by authority
that descends from here, such love must needs
be impressed on me ; for the good, inasmuch
as it is good, as soon as it is understood, kindles
love ; and so much the greater as the more of
goodness it comprises in itself. Therefore, to
the Essence (wherein is such supremacy that
every good which is found outside of It is
naught else than a beam of Its own radiance),
more than to any other, the mind of every one
who discerns the truth on which this argument
is founded must needs be moved in love.3 This
truth does he make plain to my intelligence,
who demonstrates to me the first love of all the
sempiternal substances.4 The voice of the true
Author makes it plain who, speaking of Him-
2. v. 1 6. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the ending, saith the Lord." Revelation i. 8.
3. v. 36. The argument is : Whatever is good kindles
love for itself; the greater the good the greater the love ; God
is the supreme good and therefore the chief object of love.
4. v. 39. Aristotle is meant, who taught that the eternal
and unmoved First Cause is the source of the motion of the
heavens, " the sempiternal substances," by their desire for it
vv. 42-60] CANTO XXVI 205
self, says to Moses : c I will make thee see all
goodness/ 5 Thou, too, makest it plain to me,
beginning the lofty announcement which below
on earth, above all other trump, proclaims the
secret of this place on high." 6 And I heard :
" By human understanding, and by authorities
concordant with it,7 thy sovran love looks unto
God ; but say, further, if thou feelest other
cords draw thee towards Him, so that thou
mayst declare with how many teeth this love
doth bite thee."
The holy intention of the Eagle of Christ
was not latent to me ; nay, rather I perceived
whither he wished to lead my profession ; there-
fore, I began again : " All those bitings which
can make the heart turn to God have been con-
current unto my love ; for the existence of the
world, and my own existence, the death which
He endured that I may live, and that which all
the faithful hope even as I do, together with the
5. v. 42. "I will make all my goodness pass before
thee." Exodus xxxiii. 19.
6. v. 45. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and
which is to come, the Almighty.'* These words of the
eighth verse of the first chapter of Revelation are perhaps
those to which Dante here refers. The Almighty, the
source of all good, is of necessity the chief object of love.
7. v. 47. By reason of philosophic arguments, and of
the authority of the Holy Scriptures.
204 PARADISE [vv. 61-84
aforesaid living consciousness,8 have drawn me
from the sea of perverted love, and have set
me on the shore of the right. The leaves,
wherewith all the garden of the Eternal Gar-
dener is enleaved, I love in measure of the
good borne unto them from Him."
Soon as I was silent a most sweet song re-
sounded through the heavens, and my Lady
said with the others : " Holy, Holy, Holy."
And as at a keen light sleep is broken by the
spirit of sight, which runs to the splendor that
goes from coat to coat,9 and he who awakes
shrinks from what he sees, so ignorant is his
sudden wakening, until his judgment comes
to his aid ; I0 thus Beatrice chased away every
mote from my eyes with the radiance of her
own, which were refulgent more than a thousand
miles ; so that I then saw better than before ;
and, as one amazed, I asked concerning a fourth
light which I saw with us. And my Lady:
" Within those rays the first soul which the
First Power ever created gazes with joy upon
its Maker."
8. v. 61. That God is the supreme good, and therefore
the supreme object of love.
9. v. 72. The spirit of the sight runs to meet the light
which flashes through the successive coats of the eye.
10. v. 74. Waked of a sudden he knows not at first
what has awaked him.
vv. 85-108] CANTO XXVI 205
As the bough which bends its top at passing
of the wind, and then uplifts itself by its own
virtue which raises it, so did I, in amazement,
while she was speaking ; and then a desire to
speak, wherewith I was burning, gave me again
assurance, and I began : " O fruit, that wast
alone produced mature, O ancient Father, to
whom every bride is daughter and daughter-
in-law, devoutly as I can, I supplicate thee
that thou speak to me ; thou seest my wish,
and that I may hear thee speedily, I do not
tell it."
Sometimes an animal, when covered up, so
stirs, that its impulse must needs be apparent
because of the corresponding movement which
its wrapping makes ; and in like manner the
first soul made evident to me, through its cov-
ering, how gladly it came to do me pleasure.
Then it breathed forth : " Without its being
uttered to me by thee, I better discern thy wish,
than thou whatever thing is most certain to thee ;
because I see it in the truthful Mirror which
makes of Itself a reflection of other things, while
nothing makes of itself a reflection of It." Thou
ii. v. 1 08. All things are seen in God as if reflected
in a mirror, the image of them is in Him ; but nothing can
reflect an image of God. " In the eternal Idea, as in a glass,
the works of God are more perfectly seen than in themselves.
, . . But it is impossible for a thing created to represent that
206 PARADISE [vv. 109-134
wouldst hear how long it is since God placed
me in the lofty 'garden where this Lady made
rhee ready for so long a stairway ; and how long
it was a delight to rny eyes ; and the proper cause
of the great wrath ; and of the idiom which I used
and which I made. Now, my son, the tasting
of the tree was not by itself the cause of so great
an exile, but only the overpassing of the bound.
In that place whence thy Lady moved Virgil,
I longed for this assembly during four thousand
three hundred and two revolutions of the sun ;
and while I was on earth I saw him return to
all the lights of his path " nine hundred and
thirty times. The tongue which I spoke was
all extinct long before the people of Nimrod
attempted their unaccomplishable work ; for
never was any product of the reason durable
for ever, because of human liking, which alters,
following the heavens.13 That man speaks is
work of nature ; but, thus or thus, nature then
leaves to you to do according as it pleases you.
Before I descended to the infernal anguish, the
Supreme Good, whence comes the gladness that
which is increated." John Norton, The Orthodox Evangel"
ist, 1654, P- 332-
12. v. 122. In his course through the Zodiac.
13. v. i 29. Speech, a product of human reason, changes
iccording to the pleasure of man, which alters from time to
time under the influence of the heavens.
vv. 135-142] CANTO XXVI 207
swathes me, was on earth called /; afterwards
it was called El ; I4 and that must needs be,15 for
the custom of mortals is as a leaf on a branch,
which goes away and another comes. On the
mountain which rises highest from the wave I
was, with pure life and sinful, from the first
hour to that which follows the sixth, when the
sun changes quadrant." l6
14. v. 136. /is here to be pronounced jah, and the
meaning is, that God was known in the primitive language
by a letter corresponding to the Hebrew letter Jod, the initial
of the name Jah : <« Sing unto God . . . extol Him ... by
his name Jah." Psalm Ixviii. 4.
15. v. 136. Such change in the name was inevitable,
because of the changing customs of thought and speech.
1 6. v. 142. Adam's stay in the Earthly Paradise, on the
summit of the mount of Purgatory, was thus a little more than
six hours ; the sun changes quadrant, that is, completes his
course through the fourth part of a circle, with every six hours.
CANTO XXVII
Denunciation by St. Peter of bis degenerate successor s<
— Dante gazes upon the Earth. — Ascent of Beatrice,
and Dante to the Crystalline Heaven. — Its nature. —
Beatrice rebukes the covetousness of mortals.
" To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit be glory," all Paradise began, so that the
sweet song was inebriating me. That which I
was seeing seemed to me a smile of the uni-
verse ; for my inebriation was entering through
the hearing and through the sight. O joy ! O
ineffable gladness ! O life entire of love and
of peace ! O riches secure, without longing ! *
Before my eyes the four torches were stand-
ing enkindled, and that which had come first
began to make itself more vivid, and in its sem-
blance became such as Jupiter would become,
if he and Mars were birds, and should ex-
change plumage.2 The Providence which here
assigns turn and office, had imposed silence on
the blessed choir on every side, when I heard :
1 . v. 9. Which leave nothing for desire.
2. v. 15. The pure white light becoming red, as if th«
planet Jupiter were to change color with Mars.
w. 19-45] CANTO XXVII 209
" If I change color, marvel not ; for, as I speak,
thou shalt see all these change color. He who
on earth usurps my place, my place, my place,
which is vacant in the presence of the Son of
God,3 has made of my cemetery a sewer of
blood and of filth, wherewith the Perverse One
who fell from here above, below there is pla-
cated."
With that color which, by reason of the op-
posite sun, paints the cloud at evening and at
morning, I then saw the whole Heaven over-
spread. And as a modest lady who abides sure
of herself, and at the fault of another, on only
hearing of it, becomes timid, thus did Beatrice
change semblance ; and such eclipse, I believe,
there was in heaven when the Supreme Power
suffered.
Then his words proceeded, in a voice so trans-
muted from itself that his countenance was not
more changed : " The Bride 6f Christ was not
nurtured on my blood, and that of Linus and of
Cietus, to be employed for acquist of gold ; but
for acquist of this glad life Sixtus and Pius and
Calixtus and Urban4 shed their blood after
j). v. 24. Dante held that Boniface VIII. had no right
to the Papal throne, because his election to it lacked validity,
having taken place while Celestine V., his predecessor, was
still alive, and having been secured by bribery and deception.
4. v. 44. Early Popes, martyred for the faith.
210 PARADISE [vv. 46-68
much weeping. It was not our intention that
part of the Christian people should sit on the
right hand of our successors, and part on the
other ; nor that the keys which were entrusted
to me should become a device upon a banner
which should fight against the baptized;5 nor
that I should be made a figure on a seal to venal
and mendacious privileges, whereat I often red-
den and flash. Rapacious wolves, in garb of
shepherd, are seen from here on high over all the
pastures : O defence of God, why dost thou yet
lie still ! To drink our blood Cahorsines and
Gascons are making ready;6 O good begin-
ning, to what vile end must thou fall ! But
the high Providence, which with Scipio defended
for Rome the glory of the world, will succor
speedily, as I conceive. And thou, son, who
because of thy mortal weight wilt again return
below, open thy mouth, and conceal not that
which I conceal not."
Even as our air snows down flakes of frozen
vapors, when the horn of the Goat of heaven
5. v. 51. A reference to the war which Boniface VIII
waged against the Colonna family. See Inferno, Canto xxvii.
85-111.
6. v. 59. John XXII. , Pope from 1316 to 1334, was
a native of Cahors ; his immediate predecessor, Clement V. ,
1305-1314, was a Gascon. The passage is interesting as
showing that this portion of the poem was Li hand during
the last years of Dante's life.
<rv.69-82] CANTO XXVII 211
is touched by the sun,7 so I saw the aether
ebecome adorned, and flaked upward with the tri-
umphant vapors which had made sojourn there
with us.8 My sight was following their sem-
blances, and followed, till the intermediate space
by its vastness took from it the power of pass-
ing farther onward. Whereon my Lady, who
saw me freed from gazing upward, said to me :
" Cast down thy sight, and look how thou hast
revolved."
I saw that, since the hour when I had first
looked, I had moved through the whole arc
which the first climate makes from its middle
to its end ; 9 so that beyond Cadiz I saw the
7. v. 69. In midwinter, when the sun is in Capricorn.
8. v. 72. As in winter the flakes of snow descend, so
now the host of triumphant souls rise upward to the higher
heaven, like flakes of flame.
9. v. 81. The old geographers divided the earth into
seven zones, called climates, by circles parallel to the equator.
The first climate extended twenty degrees to the north of the
equator. The sign of the Gemini, in which Dante was re-
volving in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, is in the zone of the
Heavens corresponding to the first climate, and from his first
look downward from the Heavens (see Canto xxii. 133-153)
to the present moment, he had, he says, moved over the arc
which the first climate describes from its middle to its end.
As each climate extended on the habitable hemisphere for
one hundred and eighty degrees, the arc from its middle to its
end would be of ninety degrees, a distance supposed to be
comprised between Jerusalem and Cadiz, and the time required
212 PARADISE [vv. 83-99
mad track of Ulysses, and on the other side
almost the shore10 on which Europa became a
sweet burden. And more of the site of this little
threshing-floor would have been discovered to
me, but the sun was proceeding beneath my feet,
a sign and more removed."
My enamoured mind, that ever pays court
to my Lady, was more than ever burning to
bring back my eyes to her. And if nature
or art has made bait in human flesh or in
paintings of it, to catch the eyes in order to
possess the mind, all united would seem naught
compared to the divine pleasure which shone
upon me when I turned me to her smiling face.
And the virtue which that look vouchsafed to
me, tore me from the fair nest of Leda,12 and
impelled me to the swiftest heaven.13
for passing through it would be six hours, one fourth of the
diurnal revolution of the Heavens.
10. v. 83. On the one side, to the West, Dante saw
the ocean, — the mad track of Ulysses ; on the other side
almost the coast of Phoenicia, whence Europa was carried off
by Jupiter.
n. v. 87. The sun in Aries, being separated by Taurus
from Gemini, was some three hours in advance to the West,
and therefore the extreme eastern part of the hemisphere of
the earth as seen from Gemini was not illuminated by it, so
that the coast of Phoenicia and the region beyond it were in
the shadow of night.
1 2. v. 98. From Gemini, the constellation of Castor and
Pollux, the twin sons of Leda.
13. v. 99. The Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven.
rv. 100-117] CANTO XXVII 213
Its parts, most living and lofty, are so uni-
form that I cannot tell which of them Beatrice
chose for a place for me. But she, who saw
my desire, began, smiling so glad that God
seemed to rejoice in her countenance : " The
nature of the universe which holds the centre
quiet, and moves all the rest around it, begins
here as from its starting-point.14 And this
heaven has no other Where than the Divine
Mind, wherein is kindled the love that revolves
it, and the virtue which it rains down. Light
and love enclose it with one circle, even as it
does the others, and of that cincture He who
girds it is the sole Intelligence.15 The motion
of this heaven is not marked out by another,
but the others are measured by this, just as ten
by its half and by its fifth.16 And how time can
14. v. 1 08. The properties inherent in the universe,
by virtue of which its centre, the earth, is immovable while all
the rest of the material creation revolves around it, have their
origin here.
15. v. 114. The Angelic Intelligences are the agents
who move the lower Heavens, but over the Empyrean, the
cincture of light and love by which the First Moving Hea-
ven is enclosed, God himself immediately presides.
1 6. v. 117. The fixed unit of time is the cay, which
is established by the revolution of the Crystalline Heaven,
the swiftest of all. It determines the slower motions of the
Heavens below it, and fixes their proportionate measure.
The verse " as ten by the half and the fifth " seems reversed
as an illustration.
\
214 PARADISE [vv. 118-139
have its roots in such a flower-pot, and in the
others its leaves, may now be manifest to thee.
" O covetousness,17 which dost so whelm
mortals beneath thee, that no one has power to
withdraw his eyes from out thy waves ! Well
does the will blossom in men, but the contin-
ual rain converts the true plums into blighted
fruit. Faith and innocence are found only in
children ; then each flies away before the cheeks
are covered. One, so long as he lisps, keeps
the fasts, who afterward, when his tongue is
loosed, devours whatever food under what-
ever moon ; and one, while he lisps, loves his
mother and listens to her, who afterward, when
his speech is perfect, desires to see her buried.
So the skin of the fair daughter of him who
brings morning and leaves evening, white in its
first aspect, becomes black.18 Do thou, in order
17. v. 121. The connection of the preceding ideas with
this denunciation of covetousness, or selfishness, is not at first
apparent. But the transition is not unnatural, from the con-
sideration of the Heaven which pours down Divine influence,
to the thought of the engrossment of men in the pursuit of
their selfish and transitory ends, in which they are blinded to
heavenly and eternal good.
1 8. v. 138. By ' the fair daughter of the sun* Dante
seems to mean ' human nature,' probably having in mind a
saying of Aristotle, which he cites in De Monarchia, i. ix.,
where he says, "The human race is the child of heaven . . .
for man and the sun beget man according to [Ar.istotle»
vv. 140-148] CANTO XXVII 215
that thou make no marvel of it, reflect that on
earth there is no one who governs ; wherefore
the human family goes thus astray. But ere
January be all un-wintered by that hundredth
part which is down there neglected,19 these su-
pernal circles shall so roar that the storm which
has been so long awaited shall turn round the
sterns to where the prows are, so that the fleet
shall run straight, and true fruit shall come' after
the flower/' 20
Phys. ii. 2]." The meaning is that the nature of man, fair
in infancy, degenerates as life goes on.
19. v. 143. Before January falls in spring, owing to the
error in the calendar, by which the year was lengthened by
about a day in each century. It is as if the poet said :
Before a thousand years shall pass ; meaning : Within short
while. The error was not corrected till 1582, when the
reformed calendar was established by Pope Gregory XIII.
20. v. 148. This last verse is a recurrence to the image
in w. 125, 126.
CANTO XXVII!
The Heavenly Hierarchy
AFTER she who imparadises my mind had
disclosed the truth counter to the present life
of wretched mortals ; as one who sees in a mir-
ror the flame of a torch which is lighted behind
him, ere he has it in sight or in thought, and
turns round to see if the glass tell him the
truth, and sees that it accords with it as the
note with its measure ; ' so my memory recol-
lects that I did, looking into the beautiful eyes,
wherewith Love made the cord to capture me.a
And when I turned, and mine were touched
by what is apparent in that sphere whenever
one gazes fixedly on its circling,3 I saw a Point
1 . v. 9. As the notes of the song with the metre of the
verse.
2. v. 12. The eyes of Beatrice reflected, as a mirror,
.he light which shone from God, and Dante, seeing the reflec-
tion, turns to gaze on the Light itself.
3 . v. 1 5 . The word translated by « sphere ' is volume.
Dante uses this word nine times in the Divine Comedy ; ia
six instances it has the meaning of « volume ' in its simpk
sense ; once, Paradise, xxvi. 119, it means « revolutions/
/v. 16-36] CANTO XXVIII 217
which was raying out light so keen that the
sight on which it blazes must needs close be-
cause of its intense keenness.4 And whatever
star seems smallest from here 5 would seem a
moon if placed beside it, as star with star is
placed. Perhaps as near as a halo seems to
girdle the light which paints it, when the vapor
that bears it is most dense, at such distance
around the Point a circle of fire was whirling
so rapidly that it would have surpassed that
motion which most swiftly girds the world ;
and this was girt around by another, and that
by the third, and the third then by the fourth, by
the fifth the fourth, and then by the sixth the
fifth. Thereon the seventh followed, so wide-
spread now in compass that the messenger of
Juno entire 6 would be narrow to contain it. So
the eighth and the ninth ; and each was moving
more slowly, according as it was in number
more distant from the unit.7 And that one had
once, Paradise, xxiii. 112, it is equivalent to 'revolving
spheres.' Here it signifies the Crystalline Heaven, the Pri-
mum Mobile, which in its revolution displays the light and
love that enclose it.
4. v. 1 8. This Point is the Glory of God, and the type,
in its indivisibility, of the Unity of the Godhead.
5. v. 19. From here on earth.
6. v. 32. The complete circle of Iris, the rainbow.
7. v. 36. These circles of fire are the nine Orders of
ihe Angels.
2i8 PARADISE [vv. 37-61
the clearest flame from which the Pure Spark
was least distant ; I believe because it partakes
more of Its truth.
My Lady, who saw me deeply suspense in
heed, said: "On that Point Heaven and all
nature are dependent. Look on that circle
which is most conjoined to It, and know that
its motion is so swift because of the burning
love whereby it is spurred." And I to her:
f< If the world were disposed in the order which
I see in those wheels, that which is set before
me would have satisfied me ; but in the world
of sense the revolutions may be seen so much
the more divine as they are more remote from
the centre.8 Wherefore if my desire is to have
end in this marvellous and angelic temple, which
has for confine only love and light, I need yet
to hear why the example and the exemplar go
not in one fashion, because by myself I con-
template this in vain." 9 " If thy fingers are
insufficient for such a knot, it is no wonder, so
hard has it become through not being tried/'
Thus my Lady ; then she said : " Take that
8. v. 51. The spheres of the created universe partake
more of the divine nature, and move more swiftly, the more
distant they are from the earth, their centre ; but these circles
of fire in the Empyrean show a reverse condition.
9. v. 57. The angelic circles are the example, or patternj
the spheres of the material universe are the exemplar, or copy.
rv. 62-81] CANTO XXVIII 2x9
which I shall tell thee, if thou wouldest be satis-
fied, and sharpen thy wit about it. The cor-
poreal circles are wide or narrow according co
the more or less of virtue which is diffused
through all their parts. Greater goodness must
work greater weal ; the greater body, if it has
its parts equally complete, contains the greater
weal.10 Hence this one, which sweeps along
with itself all the rest of the universe, corre-
sponds to the circle which loves most, and
knows most." Therefore, if thou draw thy
measure round the virtue, not round the appear-
ance of the beings which seem circular to thee,
thou wilt see in each heaven a marvellous agree-
ment with its Intelligence, of greater to more
and of smaller to less." ia
As the hemisphere of the air remains splen-
did and serene when Boreas blows from that
cheek wherewith he is mildest,13 whereby the
10. v. 69. In this sentence 'goodness* corresponds
with the "virtue" of the preceding sentence. The greater
body, if it be perfect in its parts, possesses greater virtue than
the smaller, and consequently works more salutary influence.
11. v. 72. The ninth sphere, the greatest of all, corre-
sponds in its superior virtue with the first and innermost circle
of the angelic hierarchy, that of the Seraphim.
12. v. 78. Each sphere of the material heavens in pro-
portion to its size corresponds to each circle of the angelic In-
telligences in proportion to the nearness of the latter to God.
13. v. 8 1. When Boreas blows the north wind moro
220 PARADISE [vv. 82-98
mist which before troubled it is cleared and dis-
solved, so that the heaven smiles to us with the
beauties of its every region, so I became after
my Lady had provided me with her clear an-
swer, and, like a star in heaven, the truth was
seen.
And after her words had stopped, not other-
wise does molten iron throw out sparks than
the circles sparkled. Every scintillation fol-
lowed its blaze,14 and they were so many that
their number was of more thousands than the
doubling of the chess.15 I heard Hosannah
sung from choir to choir to the fixed Point that
holds them, and will forever hold them, at the
Ubi^ in which they have ever been. And she,
who saw the questioning thoughts within my
mind/7 said : " The first circles have shown to
from the east than from the west. The north-east wind was
held to clear the sky of clouds.
14. v. 91. The innumerable sparks each kept to its
flaming circle, revolving with it.
15. v. 93. The doubling of the chess alludes to the
story that the inventor of the game asked, as his reward from
the King of Persia, a grain of wheat for the first square of the
board, two for the second, four for the third, and so on with
successive duplication to the last or sixty-fourth square. The
number reached by this process extends to twenty figures.
1 6. v. 95. The where y the appointed place.
17. v. 98. The questioning thoughts of Dante were in
regard to the arrangement of the Orders of the Heavemj>
rv. 99-114] CANTO XXVIII 221
thee the Seraphim and the Cherubim. Thus
swiftly they follow their own bonds,18 in order
to liken themselves to the Point as most they
can, and they can in proportion as they are ex-
ulted to see. Those other loves, which go
around them, are called Thrones of the divine
aspect, because they terminated the first triad.19
And thou shouldst know that all have delight
in proportion as their vision penetrates into the
Truth in which every understanding is at rest.
Hence may be seen how beatitude is founded
on the act which sees, not on that which loves,
which follows after. And the merit, to which
grace and good-will give birth, is the measure
of this seeing ; thus is the progress from grade
to grade.
Hierarchy, which Beatrice now proceeds to declare to him,
following in her account the teaching of the treatise Concern-
ing the Heavenly Hierarchy, which was generally ascribed
during the Middle Ages to Dionysius the Areopagite (see
Acts xvii. 34 ) to whom, it was believed, St. Paul communi-
cated the knowledge concerning heavenly things which he hac?
gained when caught up to Heaven ; see 2 Cor. xii. 2—4.
1 8. v. loo. The course of their respective circles tc
which they are bound.
19. v. 105. Called Thrones of the divine aspect, be-
cause at the Creation God completed the first ternary of the
Angelic host with them, constituting them the mirrors whence
his judgments shine upon the world below. See Canto ix.
6l
122 PARADISE fvv. 115-139
" The next triad, that in like manner bour-
geons in this sempiternal spring which the
nightly Aries despoils not,20 perpetually sing
Hosannah with three melodies, which sound
in the three orders of joy wherewith it is three-
fold. In this hierarchy are the three divinities,
first Dominations, and then Virtues ; the third
order is of Powers. Then, in the two penul-
timate dances, the Principalities and Archan-
gels circle; the last is wholly of Angelic sports.
These orders all gaze upward, and downward so
prevail, that toward God all are drawn, and all
draw. And Dionysius with such great desire
set himself to contemplate these orders, that he
named and divided them, as I. But Gregory21
afterward separated from him ; wherefore, so
soon as he opened his eyes in this Heaven, he
smiled at himself. And if a mortal declared on
earth so much of secret truth, I would not have
thee wonder, for he who saw it here on high
disclosed it to him, with much else of the truth
of these circles."
20. v. 117. At the autumnal equinox, the time of frosts,
Aries — the Ram — is the sign in which the night rises.
21. v. 1 3 3 . The Pope, St. Gregory, who differs slightly
from Dionysius in his arrangement of the Orders of the Hea
venly host.
CANTO XXIX
Discourse of Beatrice concerning the creation and nature,
9f the Angeh. — She reproves the presumption and foolish-
ness of preachers.
WHEN the two children of Latona, covered
by the Ram and by the Scales, both at one mo-
ment make a zone of the horizon, as long as
from the instant the zenith holds them in bal-
ance, till one and the other, changing their
hemisphere, are unbalanced from that girdle,1
so long, with her countenance painted with a
smile, was Beatrice silent, looking fixedly upon
the Point which had overcome me. Then she
began : " I tell, not ask, what thou wishest
to hear, for I have seen it where every where
and every when are centred. Not for the gain
of good unto Himself, which cannot be, but
that His splendor might, in resplendence, say,
I. v. 6. When at the spring equinox, the sun (Apollo)
heing in the sign of Aries or the Ram, and the moon (Diana)
in that of Libra or the Scales, are opposite to each other on the
horizon, the one just rising and the other setting, they seem
as if held for a moment in a balance which hangs from the
zenith.
?24 PARADISE [vv. 15-34
I am ; * in His own eternity, outside of time, out-
side of every other limit, as it pleased Him, the
Eternal Love disclosed Himself in new loves.
Nor before, as if inert, did He lie ; for neithei
before nor after 3 did the moving of God upon
these waters proceed. Form and matter, con-
joined and simple, came into being which had
no defect, as three arrows from a three-stringed
bow ; and as in glass, in amber, or in crystal a
ray shines so that there is no interval between
its coming and its being complete, so did the
triform effect 4 ray forth from its Lord into its
being all at once, without distinction of begin-
ning. Order was concreate and established for
the substances ; and those in which pure act was
produced were top of the world.5 Pure poten-
tiality held the lowest part ; 6 in the middle such
2. v. I 5. His glory resplendent in the created universe,
reflecting Himself, declares : Subsisto, " I am."
3. v. 20. See Genesis i. 2. In eternity there is no be-
fore or after ; time had no existence till the creation, and
has relevancy only to created things.
4. v. 28. Pure form, pure matter, and form conjoined
with matter.
$. v. 33. The substances in which pure act was pro-
duced were the angels, created of pure form. S. T. i. 50. I.
They were of pure act because of their pure form, " for it
the very instant in which form is acquired the thing begins td
operate according to its form." S. T. ii2. 113. 6.
6. v. 34. Pure potentiality is matter pure and simple^
not differentiated by form.
w. 35-51] CANTO XXIX 225
a bond tied up potentiality with act, that it is
never unbound.7 Jerome wrote for you of the
Angels, as being created a long tract of cen-
turies before the rest of the world was made ;
but this truth 8 is written on many pages by the
writers of the Holy Spirit, and thou wilt thy-
self discern it there, if thou watchest well for
it ; and also the reason sees it somewhat, which
would not admit that the motors could be so
long without their perfection.9 Now thou
knowest where and when these Loves were
created, and how ; so that three flames of thy
desire are already quenched.
" One would not reach to twenty, in count-
ing, so quickly as a part of the Angels disturbed
the lowest of your elements.10 The rest re-
7. v. 36. Potency and act are united in the objects of
the material creation in which matter and form are con-
joined.
8. v. 40. ' This truth,' namely (the truth here set forth,
contrary to Jerome's assertion) that the creation of the Angels
was contemporaneous with that of the rest of the Universe of
which they were the Intelligences. St. Jerome's opinion is
to be found in his comment on the Epistle of Paul to Titus.
It is discussed and rejected by St. Thomas Aquinas, S. T.
i. 61. 3.
9. v. 45. Without scope for their action as movers of
the spheres, by which they fulfilled the object of their exist-
ence.
10. v. 51. Instantly on their creation a part of the
Angels rebelled, and were cast from Heaven to Hell iif
226 PARADISE [vv. 52-74
mained and began this art which thou behold-
est, with such great delight that they never cease
from circling. The origin of the fall was the
accursed pride of him whom thou hast seen
opprest by all the weights of the world. Those
whom thou seest here were modest to recognize
themselves as from the Goodness which had
made them apt for intelligence so great ; "
wherefore their vision was exalted by illumi-
nating grace and by their merit, so that they
have a full and steadfast will. And I would not
that thou doubt, but be certain, that to receive
grace is meritorious in proportion as the affec-
tion is open to it.
" Henceforth, if my words have been har-
vested, thou canst contemplate much in regard
to this consistory without other assistance. But
since on earth it is taught in your schools
that the angelic nature is such that it under-
stands, and remembers, and wills, I will speak
further, in order that thou mayest see the sim-
ple truth, which there below is confused, by the
the body of the earth. Dante calls the earth the ' substratum
of the elements/ that is, the nethermost of them, lying
below the water, the air and the fire. See Hell, xxxiv.
122—126.
II. 7. 60. The good angels were modest in recogniz-
ing that their existence proceeded from God, who had made
tfiem capable of understanding the significance of their OWB
creation
w. 75-92] CANTO XXIX 227
equivocation in such like teaching. These sub-
stances, since first they were gladdened by the
face of God, have not turned their sight from
it, from which nothing is concealed ; therefore
they have not a vision interrupted by new ob-
jects, and therefore do not need to remember
by a divided conception.12 So that down there
men dream when not asleep, believing and not
believing to speak truth ; but in the one is
more fault and more shame.13 Ye below go not
along one path in philosophizing; so much do
the love of display and the thought of it trans-
port you ; and yet this is endured here on high
with less indignation than when the divine
Scripture is set aside, or when it is perverted.
Men think not there how much blood it costs
to sow it in the world, or how much he pleases
12. v. 8 1 . The angels, looking always upon God, to
whom all things are present, have no need of memory, with
what Dante calls its "divided conception." This phrase,
ef divided conception," is peculiar, and of uncertain meaning.
It may perhaps be the equivalent of the modern term « ab-
stract concept. ' The concepts of memory are divided or ab-
stracted from the impression made by the direct vision of the
object remembered.
13. v. 84. Many of the doctrines of men on earth are
like dreams, because they have no foundation in truth ; and
\vhile some honestly believe in them, there are others, who,
liiough not believing, are guilty of teaching these doctrines as
truth.
228 PARADISE [w. 93-120
who humbly keeps close to it. Every one
strives for display, and makes his own inven-
tions, and those are treated of by the preach-
ers, and the Gospel is silent. One says that
the moon turned back at the passion of Christ
and interposed herself, so that the light of the
sun reached not down ; and others that the
light hid itself of its own accord, so that this
eclipse answered for the Spaniards and for the
Indians as well as for the Jews. Florence has
not so many Lapi and Bindi I4 as fables such
as these that are shouted the year long from
the pulpits, on every side ; so that the poor
flocks, who know naught, return from the pas-
ture fed with wind ; and not seeing the harm
does not excuse them. Christ did not say to
his first company : ' Go, and preach idle stories
to the world,* but he gave to them the true foun-
dation ; and that alone sounded in their mouths,
so that to fight for kindling of the faith they
made shield and lance of the Gospel. Now
men go forth to preach with jests and with
buffooneries, and so there be only a good laugh
the cowl puffs up, and nothing more is asked ;
but such a bird is nesting in the tail of the
hood, that if the crowd should see it, they
would see in what pardoning they are trust-
14. v. 103. Common nicknames in Florence; Lapo ia
derived from Jacopo, Bindo from Ildebrando.
vv. 121-133] CANTO XXIX 229
ing ; wherefore IS such great folly has grown on
earth, that, without proof of any testimony, men
would flock to every promise. On this the
pig of St. Antony fattens,16 and others also, who
are far more pigs, paying with money that has
no stamp of coinage.
" But because we have digressed enough, turn
back thine eyes now toward the straight path,
so that the way be shortened with the time.17
This nature l8 so exceedingly extends in number,
that never was there speech or mortal concept
that can go so far. And if thou consider that
which is revealed by Daniel thou wilt see that
15. v. 1 2 1 . By this evil preaching men are rendered so
credulous that they put faith in any sort of indulgence.
1 6. v. 124. St. Antony of Egypt, the Patriarch of
Monks, " whose example and instructions," says Albar.
Butler, "have been the most perfect rule for the monastic-
life in all succeeding ages," is represented with a hog under
his feet, as a symbol of his mastery of sensual temptations.
The monks of his Order kept herds of pigs, which were
allowed to feed at public charge, and which it was a profana-
tion to steal or kill. Dante gives the name of pigs to his
degenerate followers, many of whom were among the worst
of the mendicant preachers and pardoners of the Middle Ages,
who grew fat on the sale of false indulgences.
17. v. 129. That what remains to say may be propor-
tioned to the short time that there is for stay in this sphere.
1 8. v. 130. The Angelic nature. " The angels are of
a multitude which exceeds every material multitude." S. T.
230 PARADISE [w. 134-145
in his thousands I9 a determinate number is con-
cealed. The Primal Light that irradiates it all
is received in it by as many modes as are the
splendors with which It pairs Itself.20 Where-
fore, since the affection follows upon the act that
conceives,21 in this nature the sweetness of love
diversely glows and warms. Behold now the
height and the breadth of the Eternal Good-
ness, since it has made for itself so many mir-
rors on which it is broken, One in itself remain-
ing as before."
19. v. 134. "Thousand thousands ministered unto
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him."
Daniel vii. I o.
20. v. 130. No two angels are of the same species.
Each receives the Primal Light in its own individual measure.
21. v. 139. Since love follows on knowledge through
Vision.
CANTO XXX
Ascent to the Empyrean. — The River of Light. —
The celestial Rose. — The seat of Henry VIL — The
last words of Beatrice.
THE sixth hour is glowing perhaps six thou-
sand miles distant from us, and this world now
inclines its shadow almost to a level bed, when
the mid heaven, deep above us, begins to become
such that some one star loses its show so far as to
this depth ; ' and as the brightest handmaid of
the sun comes farther on, so the heaven is closed
from light to light, even to the most beautiful.
Not otherwise the Triumph, that plays forever
round the Point which vanquished me, seeming
enclosed by that which it encloses, was extin-
guished little by little to my sight ; 2 wherefore
my seeing nothing and my love constrained me
1 . v. 6. When it is noon, — the sixth hour, — six thou-
sand miles away from us to the east, it is about daybreak
where we are ; the shadow of the earth lies in the plane of
vision, and with the growing light the stars one after another
become invisible at this depth, that is, to one on earth.
2. v. 13. Losing itself in the light which streams from
the Divine point.
232 PARADISE [vv. 15-42
to turn with my eyes to Beatrice. If what has
been said of her so far as here were all included
in a single praist, it would be little to furnish
forth this turn. The beauty which I saw tran-
scends measure not only beyond our reach, but
surely I believe that its Maker alone can enjoy
it all.
By this pass I concede myself vanquished
more than ever comic or tragic poet was over-
come by crisis of his theme. For as the sun
does to the sight which trembles most, even so
remembrance of the sweet smile deprives my
memory of its very self. From the first day
when in this life I saw her face, until this sight,
the following with my song has not been cut
off for me, but now needs must my pursuit
desist from further following her beauty in my
verse, as at his utmost every artist.
Such, as I leave her for a greater heralding
than that of my trumpet, which is bringing its
arduous theme to a close, with act and voice of
a leader whose talk is accomplished she began
again : " We have issued forth from the great-
est body to the Heaven3 which is pure light:
light intellectual full of love, love of true good
full of joy, joy which transcends every sweet-
3. v. 39. From the Primum Mobile, the Crystalline
Heaven, the greatest of the material spheres of the universe,
to the Empyrean.
<rv, 43-66] CANTOXXX 233
ness. Here thou shalt see the one and the
other soldiery of Paradise ; and the one in
those aspects which thou shalt see at the Last
Judgment." 4
As a sudden flash which scatters the spirits
of the sight so that it deprives the eye of the
action of the strongest objects,5 so did a vivid
light shine round about me, leaving me swathed
with such a veil of its own effulgence that
nothing was visible to me.
" The Love which quieteth this Heaven
always welcomes to itself with such a salutation,
in order to make the candle fit for its flame."
No sooner had these brief words come within
me than I comprehended that I was surmount-
ing above my own power ; and I rekindled me
with a new vision, such that no light is so pure
that my eyes could not have withstood it. And
I saw light in form of a river glowing with efful-
gence, between two banks painted with marvel-
lous spring. From this stream were issuing
living sparks, and on every side were setting
themselves in the flowers, like rubies which
4. v. 45. The spirits of the redeemed who fought
against the temptations of the world, and the good angels who
fought against the rebellious ; and here the souls in bliss will
be seen in their bodily shapes.
5. v. 48. So that the clearest objects produce no effect
upon the eye.
234 PARADISE [vv. 67-9?
gold encompasses. Then, as if inebriated by
the odors, they plunged again into the wonder-
ful flood, and as one was entering another was
issuing forth.
" The high desire which now inflames and
urges thee to have knowledge concerning that
which thou seest, pleases me the more the more
it swells; but thou must needs drink of this
water before so great a thirst in thee be slaked."
Thus the Sun of my eyes said to me ; then
added : " The stream, and the topazes which
enter and issue, and the smiling of the herbage,
are shadowy prefaces of their truth ; 6 not that
these things are difficult in themselves,7 but
there is defect on thy part that thou hast not
yet vision so exalted/*
There is no babe who so hastily springs with
face toward the milk, if he awake much later
than his wont, as I did, to make yet better
mirrors of my eyes, stooping to the wave which
flows in order that we may be bettered in it.
And even as the eaves of my eyelids drank of
it, so it seemed to me from its length to have
become round. Then as folk who have been
6. v. 78. The stream, the sparks, the flowers are not
such in reality as they seem to be ; they are but images fore
shadowing the truth.
7. v. 79. The things themselves are not difficult to see,
but thy eyes cannot yet see them as they actually are.
vv. 92-122] CANTO XXX 235
under masks, who seem other than before, if
they divest themselves of the semblance not
their own wherein they disappeared, in such wise
for me the flowers and the sparks were changed
into greater festival, so that I saw both the
Cou*-^ of Heaven made manifest.
O oplendor of God, through which I saw the
h.5<i triumph of the true kingdom, give to me
power to tell how I saw it !
Light is thereabove which makes the Creator
visible to that creature which has its peace only
in seeing Him ; and it spreads in circular shape
so far that its circumference would be too large
a girdle for the sun. Its whole appearance
is made of a ray reflected from the summit of
the First Moving Heaven, which from it takes
its life and potency. And as a hill mirrors itself
in water at its base, as if to see itself adorned,
when it is rich with verdure and with flowers,
so, above the light, round and round about,
on more than a thousand seats, I saw mirrored,
as they rose, all that c - us have made return
on high. And if the lowest row gather within
itself so great a light, how vast is the spread
of this rose in its outermost leaves ! My
sight lost not itself in the breadth and in the
neight, but took in all the quantity and the
quality of that joy. There near and far nor
add nor take away ; for where God governs
236 PARADISE [vv. 123-144
without intermediary the natural law is of no
relevancy.
Into the yellow of the sempiternal rose, which
spreads wide, rises in tiers, and breathes forth
odor of praise unto the Sun that makes perpet-
ual spring, Beatrice, like one who is silent and
wishes to speak, drew me and said, " Behold,
how vast is the convent of the white stoles ! 8
See our city, how wide its circuit ! See our
benches so full that few people are now wanting
here.9 On that great seat, on which thou bold-
est thine eye because of the crown which already
is set above it, ere thou dost sup at this wed-
ding-feast, shall sit the soul (which on earth will
be imperial) of the lofty Henry who, to set Italy
straight, will come ere she is ready.10 The blind
cupidity which bewitches you has made you like
the little child who dies of hunger, and drives
away his nurse ; and such a one will then be
prefect in the divine forum that openly or cov-
ertly he will not go with him along one road ; "
8. v. 129. "He that overcometh, the same shall be
clothed in white raiment." Revelation iii. 5.
9. v. 132. "We are now in the last age of the world,
and we are awaiting, truly, the consummation of the motion
of the Heavens." Convitoy\\. 15, 115.
10. v. 138. Henry VII., elected Emperor 1308,
crowned at Milan 1311, died 1313.
11. v. 1 44. The Pope, Clement V. , for a time osten-
sibly supported Henry VII. in his Italian expedition, but
vv. 145-148] CANTO XXX 237
but short while thereafter shall he be endured
by God in the holy office ; for he shall be thrust
down there where Simon Magus is for his de-
serts, and shall make him of Anagna go lower."
gradually in underhand fashion turned against him. He died
in 1314, eight months after the death of Henry. Beatrice
here condemns him to the third bolgia of the eighth circle of
Hell, whither, as Dante had learned from Pope Nicholas III.
(see Hell, xix. 79—84) he was to follow Boniface VIII.,
— him of Anagna, — and push him deeper in the hole where
the simoniacal Popes were punished. Boniface is called
' him of Anagna, ' because he was born in that town, and was
imprisoned there in 1303. The modern form of the name
of the town is Anagni.
CANTO XXXI
The Rose of Paradise. — St. Bernard. — Prayer t»
Beatrice. — The glory of the Blessed Virgin.
IN form then of a pure white rose the holy
host was shown to me, which, in His own
blood, Christ made His bride. But the other,1
which, flying, sees and sings the glory of Him
who enamours it, and the goodness which made
it so great, like a swarm of bees which one while
inflower themselves and one while return to
where their work acquires savor, were descend-
ing into the great flower which is adorned with
so many leaves, and thence rising up again to
where their love always abides. They had their
faces all of living flame, and their wings of gold,
and the rest so white that no snow reaches that
limit. When they descended into the flower,
from bench to bench, they imparted of the
peace and of the ardor which they acquired as
they fanned their sides. Nor did the interpos-
ing of so great a flying plenitude, between what
was above and the flower, impede the sight or
I. v. 4. The angelic host.
rv. 22-43] • CANTO XXXI 239
the splendor ; for the divine light penetrates
through the universe, according as it is worthy,
so that naught can be an obstacle to it. This
secure and joyous realm, thronged with ancient
and with modern folk, had its look and love all
on one mark.
O Trinal Light, which in a single star, scin-
tillating on their sight, dost so satisfy them,
look down here upon our tempest !
If the Barbarians, coming from a region such
that every day it is covered by Helice,2 revolv-
ing with her son of whom she is fond, when
they beheld Rome and her lofty work, — what
time Lateran rose above mortal things,3 — were
wonder-struck, I, who to the divine from the
human, to the eternal from the temporal, had
come, and from Florence to a people just and
sane, with what amazement must I have been
full ! Truly what with it and with the joy I
was well pleased not to hear, and to stand mute.
And as a pilgrim who is refreshed within the
2. v. 32. The nymph Callisto, or Helice, bore to
Zeus a son, Areas ; she was metamorphosed by Hera into
a bear, and then transferred to Heaven by Jupiter as the
constellation of the Great Bear, while her son was changed
into the constellation of Arctophylax or the lesser Bear. In
the far north these constellations are always high in the hea-
vens.
3. v. 36. When Rome was mistress of the world and
the Lateran the seat of imperial or papal power.
240 PARADISE [vv. 44~74
temple of his vow as he looks around, and
hopes some day to report how it was, so, jour-
neying through the living light, I carried my
eyes over the ranks, now up, now down, and
now circling about. I saw faces persuasive to
love, beautified by the light of Another and by
their own smile, and actions graced with every
dignity.
My look had now comprehended the general
form of Paradise as a whole, and on no part
had my sight as yet been fixed ; and I turned
me with rekindled wish to ask my Lady about
things as to which my mind was in suspense.
One thing I purposed, and another answered
me ; I was thinking to see Beatrice, and I saw
an old man, robed like the people in glory,
His eyes and his cheeks were overspread with
benignant joy, his mien kindly such as befits a
tender father. And : " Where is she ? " on a
sudden said I. Whereon he: "To terminate
thy desire, Beatrice urged me from my place,
and if thou lookest up to the third circle from
the highest rank, thou wilt again see her upon
the throne which her merits have allotted to
her." Without answering I lifted up my eyes,
and saw her as she made for herself a crown
reflecting from herself the eternal rays. From
that region which thunders highest up no mor-
tal eye is so far distant, in whatsoever sea it lets
vv. 75-102] CANTO XXXI 241
itself sink deepest,4 as there from Beatrice was
my sight. But this was naught to me, for her
image did not descend to me blurred by aught
between.
" O Lady, in whom my hope is strong, and
who, for my salvation, didst endure to leave thy
footprints in Hell, of all those things which I
have seen through thy power and through thy
goodness, I recognize the grace and the virtue.
Thou hast drawn me from servitude to liberty
by all those ways, by all the modes whereby
thou hadst the power to do it. Guard thou in
me thine own magnificence so that my soul,
which thou hast made whole, may, pleasing to
thee, be unloosed from the body." Thus I
prayed ; and she, so distant, as it seemed, smiled
and looked at me ; then turned to the eternal
fountain.
And the holy old man said: " In order that
thou mayst complete perfectly thy journey, for
which end prayer and holy love sent me, fly with
thine eyes through this garden ; for seeing it
will prepare thy look to mount further through
the divine radiance. And the Queen of Heaven,
for whom I burn wholly with love, will grant us
every grace, because I am her faithful Bernard." 5
4. v. 75. From the highest region of the air to the low-
est depth of the sea.
5. v. 102. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, to whom, because
242 PARADISE [vv. 103-122
As is he who comes perchance from Croatia
to see our Veronica,6 who by reason of its an-
cient fame is never sated, but says in thought,
so long as it is shown : " My Lord Jesus Christ,
true God, was then your semblance like to
this? " 7 such was I, gazing on the living char-
ity of him who, in this world, in contemplation,
tasted of that peace.
" Son of Grace, this glad existence," began he,
" will not be known to thee holding thine eyes
only down here at the base, but look on the
circles even to the most remote, until thou
seest upon her seat the Queen to whom this
realm is subject and devoted." I lifted up my
eyes; and as at morning the eastern parts of
the horizon surpass that where the sun declines,
thus, as if going with my eyes from valley to
mountain, I saw a part on the extreme verge
of his fervent devotion to her, the Blessed Virgin had deigned
to show herself during his life.
6. v. 104. The likeness of the Saviour miraculously
impressed upon the kerchief presented to him by a holy
woman, on his way to Calvary, wherewith to wipe the
sweat and dust from his face, and now religiously preserved
at Rome, and shown at St. Peter's, on certain of the chief
holydays.
7. v. 1 08. The pilgrim, who has long heard of the
Veronica and desired to see it, cannot sate his desire in gaz-
ing at it, and in his thought says : " This, then, Lord Jesust
is your likeness."
vv. 123-142] CANTO XXXI 243
vanquishing in light all the rest of the front.8
And even as there where the pole which Phae-
thon guided ill is awaited,9 the glow is bright-
est, and on this side and that the light dimin-
ishes, so that pacific oriflamme I0 was vivid at
the middle, and on each side in equal measure
the flame slackened. And at that mid part I
saw more than a thousand jubilant Angels with
wings outspread, each distinct both in efful-
gence and in act. I saw there, smiling at their
sports and at their songs, a Beauty " which was
joy in the eyes of all the other saints. And if
I had such wealth in speech as in imagining, I
should not dare to attempt the least of its de-
lightfulness.
Bernard, when he saw my eyes fixed and in-
tent upon the object of his own burning glow,
turned his own with such affection to it, that
he made mine more ardent to gaze anew.
8. v. 123. All the rest of the circumference.
9. v. 125. Where the chariot of the sun is about to
rise.
10. v. 127. This oriflamme of peace is the part of the
rose of Paradise where the Virgin is seated, and its mid point
is the Virgin herself. It is called ' the pacific ' in contrast with
the warlike oriflamme, the banner given by the archangel
Gabriel to the ancient kings of France, which bore a flame
on a field of gold, whence its name, aurea flamrna*
11. v. 134. The Blessed Virgin.
CANTO XXXII
St. Bernard describes the order of the Rose, and point
tut many of the Saints. — The children in Paradise. — •
The angelic festival. — The patricians of the Court of
Heaven.
WITH affection set on his Delight, that con-
templator freely assumed the office of a teacher,
and began these holy words : " The wound
which Mary closed up and anointed, that one
who is so beautiful at her feet is she who opened
it and who pierced it. Beneath her, in the
order which the third seats make, sits Rachel
with Beatrice, as thou seest. Sara, Rebecca,
Judith, and she1 who was great-grandmother of
the singer who, through sorrow for his sin, said
Miserere mei? thou mayst see thus from rank to
rank in gradation downward, as with the name
of each I go downward through the rose from
leaf to leaf. And from the seventh row down-
wards, even as down to it, Hebrew women fol-
low in succession, dividing all the tresses of the
flower ; because these are the wall by which the
1. v. 10. Ruth.
2. v. 12. " Have mercy upon me." Psalm li. I.
,v. 19-36] CANTO XXXII 245
sacred stairs are separated according to the look
which faith turned on Christ. On this side,
where the flower is mature with all its leaves,
are seated those who believed in Christ about
to come. On the other side, where the semi-
circles are broken by empty spaces, are those
who turned their faces on Christ already come.3
And as on this side the glorious seat of the
Lady of Heaven, and the other seats below it,
make so great a division, thus, opposite, does
the seat of the great John, who, ever holy, en-
dured the desert and martyrdom, and then Hell
for two years ; 4 and beneath him Francis and
Benedict and Augustine and others are allotted
thus to divide, far down as here from circle to
3. v. 27. The circle of the Rose is divided vertically in
two equal parts. In the upper tiers of the one half, far as
midway down the flower, the saints of the Old Dispensation,
who believed in Christ about to come, are seated. These
benches are full. On the corresponding benches of the other
half, on which are some empty spaces, sit the redeemed of
the New Dispensation who have believed in Christ already
come. On one side the line of division between the semi-
circles is made by the Hebrew women from the Virgin Mary
downwards ; on the opposite side the line is made by St. John
Baptist and other saints who had rendered special service to
Christ and his Church. The lower tiers of seats are occu-
pied by innocent children elect to bliss.
4. v. 3 3 . The two years from the death of John to thf
death of Christ and his descent to Hell, to draw from the
limbus pair urn the souls predestined to salvation.
Z4& PARADISE [vv. 37-6*
circle. Now behold the high divine foresight;
for one and the other aspect of the faith will
fill this garden equally. And know that down-
wards from the row which midway cleaves 5 the
two divisions, they are seated for no merit of
their own, but for that of others, under certain
conditions ; for all these are spirits absolved ere
they had true power of choice. Well canst thou
perceive it by their faces, and also by their child-
ish voices, if thou lookest well upon them and
if thou listenest to them. Now thou art per-
plexed, and in perplexity art silent ; but I will
loose for thee the strong bond in which thy
subtle thoughts fetter thee.6 Within the am-
plitude of this realm a casual point can have no
place,7 any more than sadness, or thirst, or hun-
ger ; for whatever thou seest is established by
eternal law, so that here the ring answers exactly
to the finger. And therefore this folk, hastened
to true life, is not sine causa more and less ex-
cellent here among themselves.8 The King,
5. v. 40., Those who are seated below the row which
cleaves horizontally the two halves are children too young to
have merit of their own.
6. v. 51. The perplexity was, How can there be differ-
ence of merit in the innocent, assigning them to different seats
in Paradise ?
7. v. 53. No least thing can here be matter of chance,
8. v. 60. It is not " without cause " that these children
enjoy different measures of bliss.
vv. 61-76] CANTO XXXII 247
through whom this realm reposes in such great
love and in such great delight that no will dares
for more, creating all the minds in His own
glad aspect, endows with grace diversely accord-
ing to His pleasure ; and here let the fact suf-
fice.9 And this is expressly and clearly noted
for you in the Holy Scripture in the case of
those twins who, within their mother, had their
anger stirred.10 Therefore, according to the
color of the hair of such grace,11 the highest
light must needs befittingly crown them. With-
out, then, merit from their own ways, they are
placed in different grades, differing only in their
primary keenness of vision.12 In the early cen-
9. v. 66. Without attempt to account for it or to seek
the '« wherefore " of the will of God.
10. v. 69. Jacob and Esau. See Genesis xxv. 22.
" For the children being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to elec-
tion, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth ; it
was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger." Ro-
mans ix. 1 1-12.
11. v. 7 1 . This strange metaphor has been apparently
suggested by the reference to Jacob and Esau, who differed in
color and skin. See Genesis xxv. 25. The argument is, that
God imparts grace to one or another according to his plea-
sure ; and as the hair of children differs in color without ap-
parent reason, so the endowment of grace differs in measure
for each, and in proportion to this diversity, does the light of
Heaven crown them.
12. v. 75. In their innate capacity to see God, which
is in proportion to the grace vouchsafed to them before birth
248 PARADISE [vv. 77-104
turies, indeed, the faith of parents alone sufficed,
together with innocence, to secure salvation ;
after the first ages were complete, it was need-
ful for males, through circumcision, to acquire
power for their innocent wings. But after the
time of grace had come, without perfect baptism
in Christ, such innocence was held back there
below.13
" Look now upon the face which most re-
sembles Christ, for only its brightness can
prepare thee to see Christ."
I saw raining down on her such great joy,
borne in the holy minds created to fly across
through that height, that whatsoever I had seen
before held me not suspended in such great
wonder, nor showed to me such likeness unto
God. And that Love which had before de-
scended to her,14 in front of her spread wide
his wings, singing " Ave, Maria, gratia plena"
The blessed Court responded to the divine
song from all sides, so that every countenance
became thereby the more serene.
" O holy Father, who for me endurest to be
here below, leaving the sweet place in which
thou sittest by eternal allotment, who is that
Angel who with such joy looks into the eyes of
13. v. 84. In the limbo of children.
1 4. v. 94. In the heaven of the Fixed Stars ; Canto
xxiii. 94.
<v 105-132] CANTO XXXII 249
our Queen, so enamoured that he seems of
fire ? " Thus did I again recur to the teaching
of him who was deriving beauty from Mary, as
the morning star from the sun. And he to me,
" Confidence and grace as much as there can be
in Angel and in soul, are all in him, and we
would have it so, for he it is IS who bore the
palm down to Mary, when the Son of God
willed to load Himself with our burden.
" But come now with thine eyes, as I shall
proceed speaking, and note the great patricians
of this most just and pious empire. Those
two who sit there above, most happy through
being nearest to the Empress, are, as it were,
two roots of this rose. He who on the left is
next her is the Father because of whose auda-
cious tasting the human race tastes so much bit-
terness. On the right see that ancient Father
of Holy Church, to whom Christ entrusted the
keys of this lovely flower. And he l6 who saw
before his death all the grievous times of the
fair bride, who was won with the spear and with
the nails, sits at his side ; and by the other rests
that leader, under whom the ingrate, fickle and
stubborn people lived on manna. Opposite
15. v. 112. The angel Gabriel ; Luke i. 26.
1 6. v. 127. St. John, the Evangelist, who in his long
life witnessed and suffered from the persecutions which the
early Church had to endure.
250 PARADISE [vv. 133-146
Peter see Anna sitting, so content to gaze upon
her daughter, that she moves not her eyes as
she sings Hosannah ; and opposite the eldest
father of a family sits Lucia,17 who moved thy
Lady, when thou didst bend thy brow to . rush
downward.18
" But because the time flies which holds thee
slumbering,19 here will we make a stop, like a
good tailor who makes the gown according as
he has cloth, and we will direct our eyes to
the First Love, so that, looking towards Him,
thou mayst penetrate so far as is possible
through His effulgence. But, lest perchance,
moving thy wings, thou go backward, believing
17. v. 137. The introduction of Lucia here is not less
enigmatic than the choice of her for the functions which she
performs in the other parts of the poems, Hell, ii. 97—108 ;
Purgatory, ix. 55-63.
1 8. v. 138. When in despair of reaching the height
thou wert speeding down into the low place. See Hell,
i. 61.
19. v. 139. Dante has told us at the beginning of his
ascent through the Heavens that he knows not whether he
was there in body or only in spirit (Cantos i. 73-75 ; ii. 37-
39). The hint of slumber let fall thus obiter in this verse
affords, perhaps, the clue to his real conception. The body
was lying in apparent physical sleep, while the soul, far from
the body, was actually visiting the spiritual world. The
journey through Paradise is the type of the deliverance of the
soul from captivity to the law of sin, and from the body of
this death.
w. 147-151] CANTO XXXII 251
to advance, it is needful that grace be obtained
by prayer ; grace from her who has the power
to aid thee ; and do thou follow me with thy
affection so that thy heart depart not from my
speech."
And he began this holy prayer.
CANTO XXXIII
Prayer to the Fir gin. — The Beatific Vision. — The
Ultimate Salvation.
" VIRGIN Mother, daughter of thine own
Son, humble and exalted more than any crea-
ture, fixed term of the eternal counsel, thou art
she who didst so ennoble human nature that its
own Maker disdained not to become its crea-
true. Within thy womb was rekindled the
Love through whose warmth this flower has
thus blossomed in the eternal peace. Here
thou art to us the noonday torch of charity,
and below, among mortals, thou art the living
fount of hope. Lady, thou art so great, and
so availest, that whoso would have grace, and
has not recourse to thee, would have his desire
fly without wings. Thy benignity not only
succors him who asks, but oftentimes freely
foreruns the asking. In thee mercy, in thee
pity, in thee magnificence, in thee whatever of
goodness is in any creature, are united. Now
doth this man, who, from the lowest abyss of
the universe, far even as here, has seen one after
one the spiritual lives, supplicate thee of grace,
vv. 25-51] CANTO XXXIII 253
for power such that he may be able with his eyes
to uplift himself higher toward the Ultimate Sal-
vation. And I, who never for my own vision
burned more than I do for his, proffer to thee
all my prayers, and pray that they be not scant,
that with thy prayers thou wouldst dispel for
him every cloud of his mortality, so that the
Supreme Pleasure may be displayed to him.
Further I pray thee, Queen, who canst whatso
thou wilt, that, after so great a vision, thou
wouldst preserve his affections sound. May
thy guardianship vanquish human impulses.
Behold Beatrice with all the Blessed for my
prayers clasp their hands to thee." x
The eyes beloved and venerated by God,
fixed on the speaker, showed to us how pleas-
ing unto her are devout prayers. Then to the
Eternal Light were they directed, to which it
may not be believed that eye so clear of any
creature enters in.
And I, who to the end of all desires was
approaching, even as I ought, ended within my-
self the ardor of my longing.2 Bernard made
a sign to me, and smiled, that I should look
upward ; but I was already, of myself, such as
1. v. 39. In the Second Nan's Tale Chaucer has ren-
dered, with great beauty, the larger part of this prayer.
2. v. 48. The ardor of longing ceased in the consum-
mation and enjoyment of desire.
254 PARADISE ^.52-76
he wished ; for my sight, becoming pure, was
entering more and more through the radiance
of the lofty Light which in Itself is true.
Thenceforward my vision was greater than
our speech, which yields to such a sight, and
the memory yields to such excess.3
As is he who dreaming sees, and after the
dream the passion remains imprinted, and the
rest returns not to the mind, such am I ; for my
vision almost wholly departs, while the sweet-
ness that was born of it yet distils within my
heart. Thus the snow is by the sun unsealed ;
thus by the wind, on the light leaves, was lost
the saying of the Sibyl.
0 Supreme Light, that so high upliftest
Thyself from mortal conceptions, re-lend to
my mind a little of what Thou didst appear,
and make my tongue so powerful that it may
be able to leave one single spark of Thy
glory for the folk to come ; for, by returning
somewhat to my memory and by sounding a
little in these verses, more of Thy victory shall
be conceived.
1 think that by the keenness of the living ray
3- v. 57.
" Vague words ! but ah, how hard to frame
In matter-moulded forms of speech,
Or ev'n for intellect to reach
Thro' memory that which I became."
In Memoriamy XCV.
TV. 77-96] CANTO XXXIII 255
which I endured, I should have been dazed if
my eyes had been averted from it ; and I re-
member that on this account I was the more
hardy to sustain it till I conjoined my gaze with
the Infinite Goodness.
0 abundant Grace, whereby I presumed to
fix my look through the Eternal Light till that
there I consummated the seeing !
1 saw that in its depth is enclosed, bound up
with love in one volume, that which is dis-
persed in leaves through the universe ; sub-
stance and accidents and their modes, fused
together, as it were, in such wise, that that of
which I speak is one simple Light. The uni-
versal form of this knot4 I believe that I saw,
because, in saying this, I feel that I rejoice more
spaciously. One single moment only is greater
oblivion for me than five and twenty centuries
to the emprise which made Neptune wonder
at the shadow of Argo.5
4. v. 9 1 . This union of substance and accident and
their modes ; the unity of creation in the Creator.
5. v. 96. The larger joy felt in the mention of what he
saw, is proof that it was seen, but the vision so surpassed
human faculties, though their power was exalted by grace,
that they could not retain it in its completeness, but lost more
of it in a single moment, than any loss which long lapse of
time may work for past events.
Neptune wondered at the shadow of Argo because it was
the first vessel that sailed the sea.
256 PARADISE [vv. 97-125
Thus my mind, wholly rapt, was gazing
fixed, motionless, and intent, and ever with
gazing grew enkindled. In that Light one be-
comes such that it is impossible he should ever
consent to turn himself from it for other sight ;
because the Good which is the object of the
will is all collected in it, and outside of it that
is defective which is perfect there.
Now will my speech fail more short, even in
respect to that which I remember, than that of
an infant who still bathes his tongue at the
breast. Not because more than one simple
semblance was in the Living Light wherein I
was gazing, which is always such as it was be-
fore ; but through my sight, which was growing
strong in me as I looked, one sole appearance,
as I myself changed, was altering itself to me.
Within the profound and clear subsistence of
the lofty Light appeared to me three circles
of three colors and of one dimension ; and one
seemed reflected by the other, as Iris by Iris,6
and the third seemed fire which from the one
and from the other is equally breathed forth.
O how inadequate is speech, and how feeble
toward my conception ! .and this toward what I
saw is such that it suffices not to call it little.
O Light Eternal, that sole abidest in Thy-
self, sole understandest Thyself, and, by Thy-
6. v. 1 18. As one arch of the rainbow by the other.
«rv. 126-145] CANTO XXXIII 257
self understood and understanding, lovest and
smilest on Thyself! That circle, which ap-
peared in Thee generated as a reflected light,
being awhile surveyed by my eyes, seemed to
me depicted with our effigy within itself, of its
own very color ; wherefore my sight was wholly
set upon it. As is the geometer who wholly
applies himself to measure the circle, and finds
not by thinking that principle of which he is in
need, such was I at that new sight. I wished
to see how the image was conformed to the
circle, and how it has its place therein ; but my
own wings were not for this, had it not been
that my mind was smitten by a flash in which
its wish came.
To the high fantasy here power failed ; but
now my desire and my will were revolved, like
a wheel which is moved evenly, by the Love
which moves the sun and the other stars.7
7. v. 145. By the grace of God Dante's desire was fill
filled in this vision, and his beatitude perfected in the con
formity of his will with the Divine.
INDEX TO THE DIVINE COMEDY
[The references are to Canto and Verse]
Abati, Bocca degli. Hell, xxxii. 106.
Abbagliato. Hell, xxix. 132.
Abbey of San Benedetto. Hell, xvi.
100.
Abel. Hell, iv. 56.
Abraham. Hell, iv. 58.
Absalom. Hell, xxviii. 137.
Abydos. Purg. xxviii. 74.
Accorso, Francis of. Hell, xv. no.
Achan. Purg. xx. 109.
Acheron. Hell, iii. 78; xiv. 116;
Purg. ii. 105.
Achilles. Hell, v. 65 ; xii. 71 ; xxvi.
62; xxxi. 5; Purg. ix. 34; xxi. 92.
Achitophel. Hell, xxviii. 137.
Acone. Par. xvi. 65.
Acquacheta. Hell, xvi. 97-99.
Acquasparta. Par. xii. 124.
Acre. Hell, xxvii. 89.
Adam. Hell, iii. 115; iv. 55; Purg.
ix. lo ; xi. 44; xxix. 86; xxxii, 37;
xxxiii. 62; Par. vii. 26; xiii. 37, 82;
xxvi. 83, 91, 92 ; xxxii. 120, 122, 136.
Adam of Brescia. Hell, xxx. 61, 104.
Adige. Hell, xii. 5; Purg. xvi. 115;
Par. ix. 44.
Adimari, family. Par. xvi. 115.
Adrian V. Purg. xix. 79.
Aegidius. Par. xi. 83.
Aeneas. Hell, ii. 32 ; iv. 122 ; xxvi. 93 ;
Purg. xviii. 137 ; Par. vi. 3 ; xv, 27.
Aeneid. Purg. xxi. 97.
Aeolus. Purg. xxviii. 21.
Aesop. Hell, xxiii. 4.
Africanus, Scipio. Purg. xxix. 116.
Agamemnon. Par. v. 69.
Agapetus. Par. vi. 16.
Agathon. Purg. xxii. 107.
Aglauros. Purg. xiv. 139.
Agnello Brunelleschi. Hell, xxv. 68.
Aguglione. Par. xvi. 56.
Ahasuerus, King. Purg. xvii. 28.
Alagia. Purg. xix. 142.
Alardo. Hell, xxviii. 18.
Alba Longa. Par. vi. 37.
Alberichi, family. Par. xvi. 89.
Alberigo, Jovial Friar. Hell, xxxiii.
Albert of Austria. Purg. vi. 97 ; Par.
xix. 115.
Albert of Siena. Hell, xxix. 109.
Alberti, Alessandro and Napoleone
degli. Hell, xxxii. 21
Alberto degli Alberti. Hell, xxxii. 57.
Alberto della Scala. Purg. xviii. 121.
Albertus Magnus. Par. x. 98.
Alboino della Scala. Par. xvii. 71.
Alchemists. Hell, xxix.
Alcides. Par. ix. 101.
Alcmaeon. Purg. xii. 50; Par. iv. 103.
Aldobrandeschi, Guglielmo. Purg. xi.
Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio. Hell, vi. 79;
xvi. 41.
Alecto. Hell, ix. 47.
Alessandria. Purg. rii. 135.
Alessandro, Count of Romena. Hell,
xxx. 77.
Alessandro degli Alberti. Hell, xxxii.
21.
Alessio Interminei. Hell, xviii. 122.
Alexander, Tyrant of Pherae. Hell,
xii. 107.
Alexander the Great. Hell, xii. 107;
xiv. 31.
Alfonso of Aragon. Purg. vii. 116.
AH, disciple of Mahomet. Hell, xxviii.
32.
Alichino, demon. Hell, xxi. 118; xxiL
112.
Alighieri, family. Par. xv. 92.
Alps Hell, xx. 62 ; Purg. xvii. i ;
xxxiii. in.
Altaforte. Hell, xxix. 29.
Alvernia, Mount. Par. xi. 106, 107.
Amata. Purg. xvii. 35.
Amidei, family. Par. xvi. 136.
Amphiaraus. Hell, xx. 34.
Amphion. Hell, xxxii. ir.
Amphisbaena, serpent. Hell, xxiv. 87.
Avnyclas. Par. xi. 68.
Ana'gna. Purg. xx. 86; Par. xxx. 148.
Ananias. Par. xxvi. 12.
Anastagi, family. Pure. xiv. 107.
Anastasius, Pope. Hell, xi. &
Anaxagoras. Hell. iv. 137.
260
INDEX
Anchises. Hell, i. 74; Purg. xviii.
137; Par. xv. 25 ; xix. 132.
Angels. Par. xxviii. 126; xxxi. 4-18.
Angels, rebel. Par. xxix. 38.
Angiolello da Cagnano. Hell, xxviii.
Anna, St., mother of the Virgin Mary.
Par. xxxii. 133.
Annas. Hell, xxiii. 121.
Anselm, St. Par. xii. 137.
Anselm, grandson of Ugolino. Hell,
xxxiii. 50.
Antaeus. Hell, xxxi. 100, 113, 139.
Antandros. Par. vi. 67.
Antenora. Hell, xxxii. 88.
Antenori (Paduans). Purg. v. 75.
Antigone. Purg. xxii. no.
Antiochus Epiphanes. Hell, xix. 87.
Antiphon. Purg. xxii. 106.
Antony, St. Par. xxix. 124.
Apennines. Hell, xvi. 96; xx. 65;
xxvii. 30 ; Purg. v. 96 ; xiv. 32, 92 ;
xxx. 86 ; Par. xxi. 106.
Apocalypse. Hell, xix. 106-108 ; Purg.
xxix. 105, 143-148; Par. xxv. 94-96.
Apollo. Purg.
8.
xx. 132 ; Par. i. 13; ii.
Apostles. Purg. xxii. 78.
Apulia. Hell, xxviii. 9; Purg. v. 69;
vii. 126; Par. viii. 61-63.
Apulians. Hell, xxviii. 17.
Aquarius, sign of the Zodiac. Hell,
xxiv. 2.
Aquilo. Purg. iv. 60 ; xxxii. 99.
Aquinas, St. Thomas. Par. x. 99 ; xii.
no, 144.
Arabs. Par. vi. 49.
Arachne. Hell, xyii. 18; Purg. xii. 43.
Aragon. Purg. iii. 116.
Aragonese. Par. xix. 131.
Arbia. Hell, x. 86.
Area, family. Par. xvi. 92.
Archangels. Par. xxviii. 125.
Archiano. Purg. v. 95, 125.
Ardinghi, family. Par. xvi. 93.
Arethusa. Hell, xxv. 97.
Aretine, Benincasa. Purg. vi. 13.
retine, Griff
120; xxx. 31.
Aretine, Griffolino. He
g. v. 13.
ll, xxix. 1
09-
Aretines. Hell, xxii. 5 ; Purg. xiv. 46-
47-
Arezzo. Hell, xxix. 109.
Argenti, Filippo. Hell, viii. 61.
Argia. Purg. xxii. no.
Argo. Par. xxxiii. 96.
Argolic people. Hell, xxviii. 84.
Argonauts. Par. ii. 16.
Argus. Purg. xxix. 95 ; xxxii. 64-66.
Ariadne. Hell, xii. 20; Par. xiii. 14.
Aries, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. xxxii.
53: Par. i. 40; xxviii. 117.
Aristotle. Hell, iv. 131 ; Purg. iii. 43 ;
Par. viii. 120.
Arms. Par. xiii 127.
Ark, the holy. Purg. x. 56; Par. ani
39-
Aries. Hell, ix. 112.
Arnaut, Daniel. Purg. xxvi. 142, 170.
Arno. Hell, xiii. 146; xv. 113; xxiii.
95 ; xxx. 65 ; xxxiii. 83 ; Purg. y.
126; xiv. 17, 24, 26, 51, 60; Par. xL
106.
Arrigo Mainardi. Purg. xiv. 97.
Arrigucci family. Par. xvi. 108.
Arsenal of Venice. Hell, xxi. 7.
Arthur, iting. Hell, xxxii. 62.
Aruns. Hell, xx. 46.
Ascesi, or Assisi. Par. xi. 53.
Asciano. Hell, xxix. 131.
Asdente. Hell, xx. 118.
Asopus. Purg. xviii. gi.
Assyrians. Purg. xii. 59.
Athamas. Hell, xxx. 4.
Athens. Hell, xii. 17; Purg. vi. 139;
xv. 97 ; Par. xvii. 46.
Atrppos. Hell, xxxiii. 126.
Attila. Hell, xii. 134 : xiii. 149.
Augustin, one of the first followers o£
St. Francis. Par. xii. 130.
Augustine, St. Par. x. 120; xxxii. 35.
Augustus Caesar. Hell, i. 71 ; Purg.
xxix. 116; Par. vi. 73.
Augustus (Frederick II.). Hell, xiii.
68.
Aulis. Hell, xx. in.
Aurora. Purg. ii. 8 ; ix. x.
Ausonia. Par. viii. 61.
Auster. Purg. xxxii. 99.
Austria. Hell, xxxii. 26.
Avaricious, the. Hell, vii.; Purg.
xix. ; xx. ; xxi.
Aventine, Mount. Hell, xxv. 261
Averroes. Hell, iv. 144.
Avicenna. Hell, iv. 143.
Azzo degli Ubaldini. Purg. xiv. 105.
Azzolino, or Ezzelino. Hell, xii. no;
Par. ix. 29.
B and Ice, Bice (Beatrice). Par. vii.
14.
Babylon. Par. xxiii. 135.
Bacchantes. Purg. xviii. 92.
Bacchiglione. Hell, xv. 113; Par. ix.
Bacchus. Heft, xx. 59; Purg. xviii.
93 ; Par. xiii. 25.
Bagnacaval. Purg. xiv. 115.
Bagnoregio. Par. xii. 128.
Baldo d' Aguglione. Par. xvi. 56.
Baptist, St. John the. Hell, xiii. 143;
xxx. 74 ; Purg. xxii. 152 ; Par. xvi.
25. 47 ! xv»>- *34» 135 5 xxxii. 31.
Baptistery of Florence. Par. xxv. 134.
Barbagia of Sardinia. Purg. xxiii. 94;
96.
Barbarians, Northern. Par. xxxi. 31.
INDEX
261
Barbariccia, demon. Hell, xxi. 120;
xxii. 29, 59, 145.
Barbarossa, Frederick I. Purg. xviii.
119.
Bari. Par. viii. 62.
Barrators (peculators). Hell, xxi.
Bartolomeo della Scala. Par. xvii. 71.
Barucci family. Par. xvi. 104.
Bears, constellations of the. Purg. iv.
65; Par. ii. 9", xiii. 7.
Beatrice. Hell, ii. 70, 103 ; x. 131 ; xii.
88; xv. 90; Purg. i. 53; vi. 46; xy.
77; xviii. 48, 73; xxiii. 128; xxvii.
36, 53, 136; xxx. 73; xxxi. 80, 107,
114, 133; xxxii. 36, 85, 106; xxxiii.
4, 124 ; Par. i. 46, 64 ; ii. 22 ; iii.
127; iv. 13, 39; v. 16, 85, 122; vii.
16; ix. 16; x. 37, 52, 60; xi. n ;
xiv. 8, 79; xv. 70; xvi. 13; xvii. 5,
30; xviii. 17, 53; xxi. 63 ; xxii. 125;
xxxiii. 19, 34, 76; xxiv. 10, 22, 55;
xxv. 28, 137; xxvi. 77; xxvii. 34,
102; xxix. 8; xxx. 14, 128; xxxi. 59,
66, 76 ; xxxii. 9 ; xxxiii. 38.
Beatrice, Queen. Purg. vii. 128.
Beccheria, Abbot of. Hell, xxxii. 119.
Bede, the Venerable. Par. x. 131.
Beelzebub. Hell, xxxiv. 127.
Belacqua. Purg. iy. 123.
Belisarius. Par. vi. 25.
Bellincion Berti. Par. xv. 112; xvi. 99.
Bello, Geri del. Hell, xxix. 27.
Belus, King of Tyre. Par. ix. 97.
Benaco. Hell, xx. 63, 74, 77.
Benedetto, San, Abbey of. Hell, xvi.
100.
Benedict, St. Par. xxii. 28, 58 ; xxxii.
Benevento. Purg. iii. 128.
Benincasa of Arezzo. Purg. vi. 13.
Berenger, Raymond. Par. vi. 134.
Bergamasque. Hell, xx. 71.
Bernard, Friar. Par. xi. 79.
Bernard, St., Abbot. Par. xxxi. 102,
139; xxxii. i, 107.
Bernardin di Fpsco. Purg. xiv. 101.
Bernardone, Pietro. Par. xi. 89.
Bertha, Dame. Par. xiii. 139.
Berti, Bellincion. Par. xv. 112; xvi.
99-
Bertran de Born. Hell,xxviii. 134.
Bianchi, White Party. Hell, vi. 65.
Bice (Beatrice). Hell, ii. 53, 76, 103.
Billi or Pigli, family. Par. xvi. 3.
Bindi, abbreviation of Ildebrando.
Par. xxix. 103.
Bisenzio. Hell, xxxii. 56.
Bismantova. Purg. iv. 26.
Bocca degli Abati. Hell, xxxii. 106.
Boethius, Severinus. Par. x. 124-129.
Bohemia. Pure. vii. 99; Par. xix. 125
Bologna. HelH xxiii. 142 ^ Purg. xiv.
100.
Bolognese. Hell, xxiii. 103.
Bolsena. Pure. xxiy. 24.
Bonagiunta Uroiciani, 01 Lucca. Purg.
xxiv. iq, 20.
Bonatti, Guido. Hell, xx. 118.
Bonaventura, St. Par. xii. 127.
Boniface, Archbishop of Ravenna.
Purg. xxiv. 29.
Boniface VIII. Hell, xix. 53; xxvii.
70, 85; Purg. xx. 87; xxxii. 149;
Par. ix. 142: xii. 90; xvii. 49-51;
xxvii. 22-24; xxx. 148.
Boniface of Signa. Par. xvi. 56.
Bonturo de' Dati. Hell, xxi. 41.
Boreas. Par. xxviii. 81.
Borgo of Florence. Par. xvi. 134.
Born, Bertran de. Hell, xxviii. 134.
Borsiere, Guglielmo. Hell, xvi. 70.
Bostichi, family. Par. xvi. 93.
Brabant, Lady of. Purg. vi. 23.
Branca d' Oria. Hell, xxxiii. 137, 140.
Branda, fountain. Hell, xxx. 78.
Brennus. Par. vi. 44.
Brenta. Hell, xv. 7; Par. ix. 27.
Brescia. Hell, xx. 68.
Brescians. Hell, xx. 71.
Brettinoro. Purg. xiv. 112.
Briareus. Hell, xxxi. 98 ; Purg. xii.
28.
Bridge of St. Angelo. Hell, xviii. 29.
Brigata. Hell, xxxiii. 89.
Brissus. Par. xiii. 125.
Brosse, Pierre de la. Purg. vi. 22.
Bruges. Hell, xv. 4 ; Purg. xx. 46.
Brundusium. Purg. iii. 27.
Brunelleschi, Agnello. Hell, xxv. 68.
Brunette Latini. Hell, xy. 30, 32, 101.
Brutus, enemy of Tarquin. Hell, iv.
127.
Brutus and Cassias. Par. vi. 74.
Buggia. Par. ix. 92.
Buiamonte, Giovanni. Hell, xvii. 72.
Bulicame, hot spring of Viterbo. Hell,
xiv. 79.
Buonconte di Montefeltro. Purg. v.
88.
Buondelmonte. Par. xvi. 140.
Buondelmomi, family. Par. xvi. 66.
Buoso da Duera. Hell, xxxii. 106,
114, 116.
Buoso degli Abati. Hell, xxv. 140.
Buoso Donati. Hell, xxx. 44.
Caccia d' Asciano. Hell, xxix. 131.
Cacciaguida. Par. xv. 20, 22, 31, 52,
85, 89, 135 ; xvi. 16, 17, 18, 2*, 30;
xviii. 2, 25, 50, 51.
Caccianimico, Venedico. Hell, xviii
S°-
Cacus. Hell, xxv. 25.
Cadiz. Par. xxvii. 82.
Cadmus. Hell, xxv. 97.
Caecilius. Purg. xxii. 98.
262
INDEX
Caesar. Hell, xiii. 65 ; Purg. vi. 92,
114; Par. i. 92 ; vi. 114; xvi. 59.
Caesar, Julius. Hell, i. 70; iv. 123;
xxviii. 98; Purg. xviii. 131; xxvi.
77 ; Par. vi. 57.
Caesar, Tiberius. Par. vi. 10.
Cagnano, Angiolello da. Hell, xxviii.
Cagnano. Par. ix. 49.
Cagnazzo, demon. Hell, xxi. 119.
Cahors. Hell, xi. 50 ; Par. xxvii. 58.
Caiaphas. Hell, xxiii. in, 115.
Cain. Purg. xiv. 133.
Cain and his thorns (man in the moon).
Hell, xx. 126; Par. ii. 51.
CaTna. Hell, v. 107; xxxii. 58.
Calaroga. Par. xii. 52.
Calboh family. Purg. xiv. 89.
Calcabrina, demon. Hell, xxi. 118;
xxii. 133.
Calchas. Hell, xx. 110.
Calfucci, family. Par. xvi. 106.
Calixtus I. Par. xxvii. 44.
Calliope. Purg. i. 9.
Callisto (Helice). Purg. xxv. 131.
Camaldoli. Purg. v. 96.
Camicion de' Pazzi. Hell, xxxii. 68.
Camilla. Hell, i. 107 ; iv. 124.
Camino, Gherardo da. Purg. xvi. 124,
133, 138.
Camino, Riccardo da. Par. ix. 49-51.
Camonica, Val. Hell, xx. 65.
Campagnatico. Purg. xi. 66.
Campaldino. Purg. v. 92.
Campi. Par. xvi. 50.
Canavese. Pure:, vii. 136.
Cancellieri, family. Hell, xxxii. 63.
Cancer, sign of the Zodiac. Par. xxv.
101.
Can Grande della Scala. Par. xvii. 76,
93-
Capaneus. Hell, xiv. 63.
Capet, Hugh. Purg xx. 43.
Capocchio. Hell, xxix. 136; xxx. 28.
Caponsacco. Par. xvi. 121.
Cappelletti, family. Purg. vi. 106.
Caprara. Hell, xxxiii. 82.
Capricorn, sign of the Zodiac. Purg.
ii. 57; Par. xxvii. 69.
Caprona. Hell, xxi. 95.
Cardinal, the (Ottaviano degli Ubal-
dini). Hell, x. 120.
Carisenda. Hell, xxxi. 136.
Carlino de' Pazzi. Hell, xxxii. 69.
Carpigna, Guido di. Purg. xiv. 98.
Carrarese. Hell, xx. 48.
Casale. Par. xii. 124.
Casalodi, family. Hell, xx. 95.
Casella. Purg. ii. 91.
Casentino. Hell, xxx. 65 ; Purg. v. 94;
xiv. 43
Cassero, Guido del. Hell, xxviii. 77.
Cassero, Jacopo del. Purg. v. 64-84.
Cassino, Monte. Par. xxii. 37.
Cassius, murderer of Caesar. Hell,
xxxiv. 67.
Cassius and Brutus. Par. vi. 74.
Castel, Guido da. Purg. xvi. 125.
Casiile. Par. xii. 49-54.
Castle of St. Angelo in Rome. Hell,
xviii. 29.
Castor and Pollux. Purg. iv. 61 ; Par.
xxvii. 98.
Castrocaro. Pnrg. xiv. 116.
Catalan de' Malavolti. Hell, xxiii.
104, 114.
Catalonia. Par. viii. 77.
Catellini, family. Par. xvi. 88.
Cato of Utica. Hell, xiv. 15; Purg. i,
3i, 73> 133; "• ."9-
Catona. Par. viii. 62.
Catria. Par. xxi. 109.
Cattolica. Hell, xxviii. 80.
C&valcante de' Cavalcanti. Hell, x.
53. no.
Cavalcanti, Guercio. Hell, xxv. 35,
«3, 151.
Cavalcanti, Guido. Hell, x. 63.
Cecina. Hell, xiii. 9.
Celestine V. Hell, iii. 59; xxvii. 105.
Cenchri, serpents. Hell, xxiv. 87.
Centaur. Hell, xii. 104, 115, 129; Purg.
xxiv. 121-123.
Ceperano. Hell, xxviii. 16.
Cephas. Par. xxi. 127.
Cerberus Hell, vi. 13, 22, 32 ; ix. 98.
Cerchi, family. Par. xvi. 65.
Ceres. Purg. xxviii 49-51.
Certaldo. Par. xvi. 50.
Cervia. Hell, xxvii. 42.
Cesena. Hell, xxvii. 52.
Ceuta (Setta). Hell, xxvi. in.
Chaos. Hell, xii. 43.
Charity, St. John examines Dante on.
Par. xxvi.
Charlemagne, Emperor. Hell, xxxi.
17 ; Par. vi. 94 ; xviii. 43.
Charles of Anjou. Purg. vii. 113; xi.
Charles of Valois (Senzaterra, Lack-
land). Purg. xx. 71.
Charles Martel. Par. viii. 31 ; ix. i.
Charles Robert of Hungary. Par.
viii. 72.
Charles II. of Apulia. Purg. vii. 127,"
xx. 79; Par. vi. 106; xix. 127; xx.
63.
Charles's Wain, the Great Bear. Hell,
xi. 114; Purg. i. 30; Par. xiii. 7.
Charon. Hell, iii. 94, 109, 128.
Charybdis. Hell, vii. 22.
Chastity, examples of. Purg. xxv. 133
Chelydri, serpents. Hell, xxiv. 86.
Cherubim. Par. xxviii. 99.
Chiana. Par. xiii. 23.
Chiareutana. Hell, xv. 9.
INDEX
263
Chiascio, river. Par. xi. 43, 44.
Chiassi. Purg. xxviii. 20.
Chiaveri. Purg. xix. 120.
Chiron. Hell, xii. 65, 71, 77, 97
Purg. ix. 37.
Chiusi. Par. xvi. 75.
Christ. Hell, xxxiv. 115; Purg. xv. 89
xx. 87; xxi. 8; xxiii. 74; xxvi. 129
xxxii. 81, 102 ; xxxiii. 63 ; Par. vi. 14
ix. 120; xi. 72, 102, 107; xii. 37, 71
xiv. 104; xvii. 33, 51; xix. 72, 104
xx. 47; xxiii. 20, 72, 107, 136; xxv
'5, 72, 113; xxix. 98, 109; xxxi. 3
107 ; xxxii. 20, 24, 27, 83, 85, 87, 125
xxxiii. no.
Christians. Purg. x. 121 ; Par. v. 73
xix. 109; xx. 104.
Chrysostom, St. Par. xii. 137.
Church of Rome. Hell, xix. 57; Purg.
xvi. 127 ; Par. xvii. 72.
Ciacco. Hell, vi. 52.
Ciampolo, or Giampolo. Hell, xxii. 32,
44, i2i.
Cianfa de' Donati. Hell, xxv. 43.
Cianghella. Par. xv. 128.
Ciddauro. Par. x. 128.
Cimabue. Purg. xi. 94.
Cincinnatus, Quinctius. Par. vi. 46;
xv. 129.
Circe. Hell, xxvi. 91 ; Purg. xiv. 42.
Ciriatto, demon. Hell, xxi. 122;
xxii. 55.
Clara, St., of Assisi. Par. iii. 98.
Clemence, Queen. Par. ix. i.
Clement IV. Purg. iii. 125.
Clement V. Hell, xix. 83 ; Par. xvii.
82 ; xxx. 197.
Cleopatra. Hell, y. 63; Par. vi. 76.
Cletus. Par. xxvii. 41.
Clio. Purg. xxii. 58.
Clotho. Purg. xxi. 27.
Clymene. Par. xvii. i.
Cock, arms of Gallura. Purg. viii. 8r.
Cocytus. Hell, xiv. 119; xxxi. 123,
173; xxxiii. 156; xxxiv. 52.
Colchians. Hell, xviii. 87.
Colchos. Par. ii. 16.
Colle. Pursj. xiii. 115.
Cologne. Hell, xxiii. 63.
Colonnesi, family. Hell, xxvii. 86.
Comedy. Dante thus names his poem.
Hell, xvi. ,28.
Cunio. Purg. xiv. 116.
Conrad or Corrado Malaspina. Purg.
viii. 65; 118.
( >nrad or Corrado III., Emperor.
Par. xv. 139.
Cjnrad or Corrado da Palazzo. Purg.
Kvi. 124.
i''->nradin. Purg. xx. 68.
( \mscience. Hell, xxviii. 115.
I'f.nstance, Queen of Aragon. Purg.
iii. 115, 143; vii. 129.
Constance, wife of Henry VI. of Ger.
many. Purg. iii. 113 ; Par. iii. 118;
iv. 98.
Constantino the Great. Hell, xix. 115;
xxvii. 94; Purg. xxxii. 124; Par. vi. t»
xx. 55.
Constantinople. Par. vi. 5.
Cornelia. Hell, iv. 128; Par. xv. 129,
Corneto. Hell, xii. 137.
Corsica. Purg. xviii. 81.
Corso de' Donati. Purg. xxiv. 82.
Corus, northwest wind. Hell, xi. 114.
Cosenza. Purg. iii. 124.
Counsellors, evil. Hell, xxvi.
Counterfeiters of money, speech, of
person. Hell, xxx.
Crassus. Purg. xx. 116.
Crete. Hell, xii. 12 ; xiv. 95.
Creusa. Par. ix. 98.
Croatia. Par. xxxi. 103.
Crusaders and Soldiers of tne Faith.
Par. xiv.
Cunizza, sister of Ezzelino III. Paf
ix. 32.
Cupid. Par. viii. 7.
Curiatii, the. Par. vi. 39.
Curio. Hell, xxviii. 102.
Cyclops. Hell, xiv. 55.
Cypriote, the (Venus). Par. viii. 2.
Cyprus. Hell, xxviii. 82; Par. xix
146.
Cyrrha. Par. i. 36.
Cyrus. Purg. xii. 56.
Cytherea (trie planet Venus). Purg
xxvii. 95.
Daedalus. Hell, xvii. in; xxix. 1164
Par. viii. 125.
Daniian, Peter. Par. xxi. 121.
Damietta. Hell, xiv. 104.
Daniel, Prophet. Purg. xxii. 146 ; Par.
iv. 13 ; xxix. 134.
Daniel, Arnaut. ,Purg. xxvi. 116, 142.
Dante. Purg. xxx. 55.
Danube. Hell, xxxii. 26; Par. viii. 65.
David, King. Hell, iv. 58; xxviii. 138;
Purg. x. 63 ; Par. xx. 38 ; xxv. 72 ;
xxxii. 1 1, 204.
Decii, the. Par. vi. 47.
Decretals, Book of. Par. ix. 134.
Deidamia. Hell, xxvi. 62 ; Purg. xxii.
Deiphile. Purg. xxii. 10.
Dejanira. Hell, xii. 68.
Delia (the Moon). Purg. xx. <j2{
xxix. 78.
Delos. Purg. xx. 130.
Democritus. Hell, iv. 136.
Demophoon. Par. ix. 101,
Denis, King of Portugal. Par. xix
139-'
Diana. Purg. xx. 133; xxv. 131; Pal
xxiii. 26, 149.
264
INDEX
Diana, subterranean river. Purg. xiii.
'S3-
Dido. Hell, v. 85 ; Par. viii. 9.
Diligence, examples of. Purg. xviii.
88.
Diogenes. Hell, iv. 137.
Diomed. Hell, xxvi. 56.
Dione, Venus. Par. viii. 7; Planet
Venus, xxii 144.
Dionysius the Areopagite. Par. x.
115 ; xxviii. 130.
DioTiysius, Tyrant. Hell, xii. 107.
Dioscorides. Hell, iv. 140.
Dis, city of. Hell, viii. 68; xi. 104;
xii. 39 ; xxxiv. 20.
Dolcino, Fra. Hell, xxviii. 5*.
Dominations, order of angels. Par.
xxviii. 122.
Dominic, St. Par. x. 95; xi. 35, 118;
xii. 55- 7°, 77-
Dominicans. Par. xi. 124.
Domitian, Emperor. Purg. xxii. 83.
Don, river. Hell, xxxii. 27.
Donati, Buoso. Hell, xxx. 44.
Donati, Corso. Purg. xxiv. 82.
Donati, Forese. Purg. xxiii. 48, 76;
xxiv. 74.
Donati, Ubertin. Par. xvi. 119.
Donatus. Par. xii. 137.
Douai. Purg. xx. 46.
Draghignazzo, demon. Hell, xxi. 121 ;
xxii. 73.
Dragon. Purg. xxxii. 131.
Duca, Guido del. Purg. xiv. 81; xv.
44-
Duera, Buoso da. Hell, xxxii. 106.
Duke of Athens, Theseus. Hell, ix.
54; xii. 17; Purg. xxiv. 123.
Dyrrachium. Par. vi. 65.
Ebro. Purg. xxvii. 3 ; Par. ix. 89.
Edoeue IV. of Virgil. Purg. xxii. 57.
Egidius. Par. xi. 83.
Egina. Hell, xxix. 59.
Egypt. Par. xxv. 55.
Elbe. Purg. vii. 99.
El and Eli, names of God. Par. xxvi.
134-
Electra. Hell, iv. 121.
Elias. Purg. xxxii. 80.
Elijah, Pronhet. Hell, xxvi. 35.
Eliseo, ancestor of Dante. Par. xv.
136.
Elisha, Prophet. Hell, xxvi. 35.
Elsa. Purjr. xxxiii. 67.
Elvsium. Par. xv. 27.
Ema. Par. xvi. 143.
Empedocles. Hell, iv. 138.
Empyrean. Par. xxx.
England. Purg. vii. 131.
Envious, the. Purg. xiii. ; xiv.
Ephialtes. Hell, xxxi. 94, 108.
Epicurus. Hell, x. 14.
Equator. Purg. iv. 80.
Equinoctial sunrise. Par. i. 38.
Erichtho. Hell, ix. 23.
Erinnyes, the Furies. Hell, ix. 45.
Eriphyle. Purg. xii. 50.
Erisichthon. Purg. xxiii. 26.
Esau. Par. viii. 130; xxxii. 68.
Essence, the Divine. Par. xxxiii. 16.
Este, or Esti, Azzone da. Purg. v. 77,
Este, or Esti, Obizzo da. Hell, xii
III.
Esther. Purg. xvii. 29.
Eteocles and Polynices. Hell, xxvi.
54; Purg. xxii. 56.
Ethiop. Purg. xxvi. 21; Par. xix. 109,
Ethiopia. Hell, xxiv. 89.
Euclid. Hell, iv. 142.
Eunoe. Purg. xxviii. 131; xxxiii. 127.
Euphrates. Purg. xxxiii. 112.
Euripides. Purg. xxii. 106.
Europa, daughter of Agenor. Par*
xxvii. 84.
Europe. Purg. viii. 123; Par. xii. 48.
Eurus, southeast wind. Par. viii. 69.
Euryalus. Hell, i. 108.
Eurypylus. Hell, xx. 112.
Evangelists, the four. Purg. xxix. 92.
Eve. Purg. viii. 99; xii. 71; xxiv.
116; xxix. 24; xxx. 52; xx,:ii. 32;
Par. xiii. 37.
Evil counsellors. Hell, xxvi.
Ezekiel, Prophet. Purg. xxix. too.
Ezzelino, or Azzoliuo. Hell, xii. uoj
Par. ix. 29.
Fabbro. Purg. xiv. 100.
Fabii, the. Par. vi. 47.
Fabricius. Purg. xx. 25.
Faenza. Hell, xxvii. 49; xxxii. 1235
Purg. xiv. 101.
Faith, St. Peter examines Dante on.
Par. xxiv.
Falterona. Purg. xiv. 17.
Famagosta. Par. xix. 146.
Fame, seekers of, by noble enterprises.
Par. v.
Fano. Hell, xxviii. 76; Purg. v. 71.
Fantolin, Ugolin de'. Purg. xiv. 121.
Farfarello, demon. Hell, xxi. 123 ;
xxii. 94.
Farinata degli Uberti. Hell, vi. 79;
x 32.
Federigo Novello. Purg. vi. 17.
Federipo Tignoso. Purg. xiv. 106.
Kelix Guzman. Par. xii. 79.
Feltro. Hell, i. 105 ; Par. ix. 52.
Ferrani. Par. xv. 137.
Fieschi, Counts of Lavagna. Purg.
xix. 102.
Fiesole. Hell, xv. 62, 96 ; Par. vi. 53;
xv. 126; xvi. 122.
Fifanti, family. Pai. xvi. 104.
Figghine. Par. xvi. 50
INDEX
26)
Filippeschi and Monaldi, families.
Purg. vi. 107.
Filippi, family. Par. xvi. 89.
Fislies, sign of the Zodiac. Hell, xi.
113; Purg. i. 21 ; xxxii. 54.
Flatterers. Hell, xviii.
Flemings. Hell, xv. 4.
Fleur-de-lys, of France. Purg. xx. 86
Par. vi. 100.
Florence. Hell, x. 92 ; xiii. 143 ; xvi
75 ; xxiii. 95 ; xxiv. 144 ; xxvi. i
xxxii. 120; Purg. vi. 127; xii. 102
xiv. 64; xx. 75 ; xxiv. 79; Par. vi
53; ix. 127; xv. 97; xvi. 25, 84, in
146, 149; xvii. 48 ; xxv. 5 ; xxix. 103
xxxi. 29.
Florentines. Hell, xv. 61 ; xvi. 73
xvii. 70 ; Purg. xiv. ; Par. xvi. 86.
Florentine women. Purg. xxiii. 101.
Focaccia de' Cancellieri. Hell, xxxii. 63.
Focara. Hell, xxviii. 89.
Folco of Marseilles. Par. ix. 94.
Forese Donati. Purg. xxiii. 48, 76;
xxiv. 74.
Forli. Hell, xvi. 99; xxvii. 43.
Fortune. Hell, vii. 62 ; xv. 46.
Fortune, the greater. Purg. xix. 4.
Fosco, Bernardin di. Purg. xiv. 101.
France. Hell, xix. 87; Purg. vii. 109;
xx. 51, 71 ; Par. xy. 120.
Francesca da Rimini. Hell, v. 116.
Francesco of Accorso. Hell, xv. no.
Francis of Assisi, St. Hell, xxvii. 112;
Par. xi. 50, 74, 118; xxii. 90; xxxii.
Franciscans. Par. xii. 115.
Franco of Bologna. Purg. xi. 83.
Fraud, sin of. Hell, xi. 25.
Frederick I., Barbarossa. Purg. xviii.
119.
Frederick II., Emperor. Hell, x. 119;
xiii. 59; xxiii. 66; Purg. xvi. 117;
Par. lii. 120.
Frederick, King of Sicily. Purg. vii.
119; Par. xix. 131 ; xx. 63.
Free will. Purg. xvi. 71 ; xvi". 74.
French people. Hell, xxvii. ^4 ; xxix.
123; xxxii. 115; Par. viii. 75.
Friars, Jovial (Frati Gaudenti), of
Santa Maria. Hell, xxiii. 103.
Frieslanders. Hell, xxxi. 64.
Fucci, Vanni. Hell, xxiv. 125.
Fulcieri da Calboli. Purg. xiv. 58.
Furies. Hell, ix. 38.
Gabriel, Archangel. Purg. x. 34; Par.
iv. 47; ix. 138; xiv. 36; xxiii. 94;
xxxii. 94, 103.
Gaddo, son of Ugolino. Hell, xxxiii.
68.
Gaeta. Hell, xxvi. 92 ; Par. viii. 62.
Gaia, daughter of Gherardo. Purg.
jtri. 140.
Galahaut. Hell, v. 137.
Galaxy. Par. xiv. 99.
Galen. Hell, iv. 143.
Galicia. Par. xxv. 18.
Galigaio. Par. xvi. 101.
Galh, family. Par. xvi. 105.
Gallura. Hell, xxii. 82 ; Purg. viii. 81,
Galluzzo. Par. xvi. 53.
Ganellpn, or Gano, of Magonza. Hel\
xxxii. 122.
Ganges. Purg. ii. 5; xxvii. 4; Par.
xi. 51.
Ganymede. Purg. ix. 23.
Garda, lake of. Hell, xx. 65.
Gardingo, district of Florence. Hell,
xxiii. 108.
Gascons. Par. xxvii. 58.
Gascony. Purg. xx. 66.
Gate of Purgatory. Purg. ix. 51.
Gaville. Hell, xxv. 151.
Gemini, sign of the Zodiac. Par. xxii.
152.
Genesis. Hell, xi. 107.
Genoese. Hell, xxxiii. 151 ; Par. ix,
90.
Gentucca. Purg. xxiv. 37.
Geomancers. Purg. xix. 4.
Gerault de Berneil. Purg. xxvi. iao,
Geri del Bello. Hell, xxix. 27.
Germans. Hell, xvii. 21.
Germany. Hell, xx. 62.
Geryon. Hell, xvii. 97, 133 ; xviii. 20;
Purg. xxvii. 23.
Ghent. Purg. xx. 46.
Gherardo da Camino. Purg. xvi. 124
Ghibellines and Guelfs- Par. vi. 103.
Ghin di Tacco. Purg. vi. 14.
Ghispla, sister of Caccianimico. Hell,
xviii. 55.
Gianfigliazzi, family. Hell, xvii. 59.
Gianni Schicchi. Hell, xxx. 32.
Gianni del Soldanieri. Hell, xxxii. 121.
Giano della Bella. Par. xvi. 132.
Giants. Hell, xxxi. 31 ; Purg. xii. 33.
Gideon. Purg. xxiv. 125.
Gilboa, Mount. Purg. xii. 41.
Giotto. Purg. xi. 95.
Ginda. Par. xvi. 123.
Giuochi, family. Par. xvi. 104.
Glaucus. Par. i. 68.
Gluttons. Hell, vi. ; Purg. xxii.|
xxiii. ; xxiv.
Godfrey of Bouillon. Par. xviii. 47.
Gomita, Brother. Hell, xxii. 81.
Gomorrah. Purg xxvi. 40.
Gorgon, head of Medusa. Hell, ix. 561
Gorgona. Hell, xxxiii. 82.
Governo, now Governolo. Hell, xx
76.
Graffiacane, demon. Hell, xxj. iaa'
xxii. 34.
Gratian. Par. x. 104.
266
INDEX
Greci, family. Par. xvi. 89.
Greece. Hell, xx. 108.
Greeks. Hell, xxvi. 75 ; Purg. ix. 39;
xxii. 88 ; Par. v. 69.
Gregory the Great, St. Purg. x. 75 ;
Par. xx. 108 ; xxviii. 133.
Griffolino d' Arezzo. Hell, xxix. 109.
Griffon. Purg. xxix. 108 ; xxxii. 26.
Gualandi, fami'y. Hell, xxxiii. 32.
Gualdo. Par. xi. 48.
Gualdrada. Hell, xvi. 37.
Gualterotti, family. Par. xvi. 133.
Gubbio. Pure:, xi. 80.
Guelfs and Ghibellines. Par. vi. 107.
Guenever. Par. xvi. 15.
Guglielmo Aldobrandesco. Purg. xi.
59.
Guglielmo Borsiere. Hell, xvi. 70.
Guidi, Counts. Par. xvi. 64.
Guido Bonatti. Hell, xx. 118.
Guido di Carpigna. Purg. xiv. 98.
Guido del Cassero. Hell, xxviii. 77.
Guido da Castel. Purg. xvi. 125.
Guido Cavalcanti. Hell, x. 63, in;
Purg. xi. 97.
Guido del Duca. Purg. xiv. 81.
Guido Guinicelli. Purg. xi. 97; xxvi.
92.
Guido da Montefeltro. Hell, xxvii. 4.
Guido da Praia. Purg. xiv. 104.
Guido Ravignani. Par. xvi. 98.
Guido, Count of Romena. Hell, xxx.
Guidoguerra. Hell, xvi. 38.
Guiscard, Robert. Hell, xxviii. 14 ;
Par. xviii. 48.
Guittone d' Arezzo. Purg. xxiv. 56;
xxvi. 124.
Guy of Montfort. Hell, xii. 118.
Halo. Par. xxviii. 23.
Haman. Purg. xvii. 26.
Hannibal. Hell, xxxi. 117; Par. vi.
50. _
Harpies. Hell, xiii. 10, 101.
Hebrews. Purg. iv. 83 ; xyiii. 134 ;
xxiv. 124 ; Par. v. 49 ; xxxii. 132.
Hebrew women. Par. xxxii. 17.
Hector. Hell, iv. 122 ; Par. vi. 68.
Hecuba. Hell, xxx. 16.
Helen. Hell, v. 64.
Helice. (Callisto) Purg. xxv. 131.
(Great Bear) Par. xxxi. 32.
Helicon. Purg. xxix. 40.
Heliodorus Purg. xx. 113.
Helios (the sun), God. Par. xiv. 96.
Hellespont. Purg. xxviii. 71.
Henry III. of England. Purg. vii. 131.
Henry VI., Emperor. Par. hi. 119.
Henry VII., Emperor. Par. xvii. 82 ;
xxx. M7.
Henry, Prince, of England, the Young
King. Hell, xxviii. 135.
Heraclitus. Hell, iv. 138.
Hercules. Hell, xxv. 32; xxvi, 108}
xxxi. 132.
Heretics. Hell, x.
Hermitage of Camaldoli. Purg. v.
96.
Hezekiah, King. Par. xx. 49.
Hierarchies, Angelic. Par. xxviii.
Hippocrates. Hell, iv. 143.
Hippplytus, son of Theseus. Par.
xvii. 46.
Holofen es. Purg. xii. 59.
Holy Land. Par. ix. 125 ; xv. 144.
Homer. Hell, iv. 88 ; Purg. xxii. 101.
Homicides. Hell, xii.
Honorius III., Pope. Par. xi. 98.
Hope, St. James examines Dante on.
Par. xxv.
Horace. Hell, iv. 89.
Horatii, the. Par. vi. 39.
Hugh Capet. Purg. xx. 43.
Hugh of St. Victor. Par. xii. 133.
Humility, examples of. Purg. xii.
Hungary. Par. viii. 65; xix. 184.
Hyperion. Par. xxii. 142.
Hypocrites. Hell, xxiii.
Hypsipyle. Hell, xviii. 92 ; Purg. xxii.
95 ; xxvi. 112, 168.
larbas. Purg. xxxi. 72.
Icarus. Hell, xvii. 109 ; Par. viii. 126.
Ida, Mount. Hell, xiv. 98.
Ilerda. Purg. xviii. 101.
Ilion. Hell, i. 75 ; Purg. xii. 62.
Illuminato. Par. xii. 130.
Importuni, family. Par. xvi. 133.
India. Hell, xiv. 32.
Indians. Purg. xxxii. 41 ; Par. xxix.
toil
Indulgences. Par. xxix. 123.
Indus. Par. xix. 71.
Infangato. Par. xvi. 123.
Innocent III., Pope. Par. xi. 92.
Ino, wife of Athamas. Hell, xxx. 5.
Interminei, Alessio. Hell, xviii. 122.
lole. Par. ix. 102.
Iphigenia. Par. v. 70.
Irascible, the. Hell, vii. ; viii ; Purg.
xv. ; xvi.
Iris. Purg. xxi. 50 ; xxix. 78 ; Par.
xii. 12; xxviii. 32; xxxiii. 118.
Isaac, patriarch. Hell, iv. 59.
Isaiah, prophet. Par. xxv. 91.
I sere. Par. vi. 59.
Isidore, St. Par. x. 131.
Ismene, daughter of CEdipus. Purg.
xxii. in.
Ismenus. Purg. xyiii. 91.
Israel (Jacob), patriarch. Hell, iv. 59
Italy. Hell, i. 106; ix. 114; xx. 61 ;
xxvii. 27 ; xxxiii. 80 ; Purg. vi. 76!
105, 124; vii. 95; xiii. 96; xx. 67;
xxx. 86 ; Par. xxi. 106 ; xxx. 137.
INDEX
267
Jacob, patriarch. Par. viii. 131; xxii.
71, 144; xxxii. 68.
Jacopo del Cassero. Purg. v. 64.
Jacopo da Lentino, the Notary. Purg.
xxiv. 56.
Jacopo Rusticucci. Hell, vi. 80 ; xvi.
Jacopo of Sant' Andrea. Hell, xiii.
Taculi (serpents). Hell, xxiv. 86.
James, St. (son of Alpheus), apostle.
Purg. xxix. 142; xxxii. 76.
James, St. (son of Zebedee), apostle,
Par. xxv. 17, 77.
James, King of Aragon. Purg. vii.
119; Par. xix. 137.
James, King of the Balearic Isles.
Par. xix. 137.
Janus. Par. vi. 81.
Jason, leader of the Argonaut*. Hell,
xviii. 86 ; Par. ii. 18.
ehoshaphat. Hell, x. n.
ephthah. Par. v. 66.
ericho. Par. ix. 124.
erome, St. Par. xxix. 37.
erusalem. Hell, xxxiv. 114 Purg.
ii. 3; xxiii. 29; Par. xix. 127; xxv.
56.
Jews. Hell, xxiii. 123; xxvii. 87 ; Par.
vii. 47 ; xxix. 102.
Joachim, Abbot. Par. xii. 140.
Joan of Montefeltro. Purg. v. 89.
Joan, Visconti. Purg. viii. 71.
Joan, mother of St. Dominic. Par.
xii. 80.
Jocasta, Queen of Thebes. Purg. xxii.
John the Baptist, St. Hell, xiii. 143 ;
xxx. 74; Purg. xxii. 152; Par. xvi.
25,47; xviii. 134; xxxii. 31. >
John Chrysostom, St. Par. xii. 137.
John, St., evangelist. Hell, xix. 106;
Purg. xxix. 92, 105, 143 ; xxxii.
76; Par. xxiv. 126; xxv. 112; xxxii.
1.27.
John, St., church in Florence. Hell,
xix. 17. See Baptistery.
John XXII., Pope. Par. xxvii. 58.
Jordan. Purg. xviii. 135; Par. xxii.
-04 •
Joseph, Patriarch. Hell, xxx. 97.
Joseph, St., husband of Virgin Mary.
Purg. xv. 91.
Joshua. Purg. xx. in ; Par. ix. 125;
xviii. 38.
Jove. Hell, xiv. 52 ; xxxi. 45, 92 ;
Purg. xii. 32; xxix. 120; xxxii. 112;
Par. iv. 62.
Jove, Supreme (appellation of the
Christian God). Purg. vi. 118.
Tuba. Par. vi. 170.
Jubilee of the year 1300. Hell, xviii.
29; Purg. ii. 98.
Judas Iscariot. Hell, ix. 27 ; xix. 961
xxxiv. 62; Purg. xx. 74; xxi. 84.
Judas Maccabeus. Par. xviii. 40.
Judecca. Hell, xxxiv. 117.
Judith. Par. xxxii. 10.
Julia, daughter of Caesar. Hell, iv.
128.
Julius Caesar. Hell, i. 70; iv. 123;
xxviii. 98: Purg. xviii. 101 ; xxvi.
77; Par. vi. 57 ; xi. 69.
Juno. Hell, xxx. i; Par. xn. 12;
xxviii. 32.
Jupiter, planet. Par. xviii. 70, 95, 115;
xxii. 145 ; xxvii. 14.
Justinian, Emperor. Purg. vl. 89;
Par. vi. 10 ; vii. i.
Juvenal. Purg. xxii. 14.
Lacedaemon (Sparta). Purg. vi. 139.
Lachesis. Purg. xxi. 25 ; xxv. 79.
Lamberti, family. Par. xvi. no.
Lamone. Hell, xxvii. 49.
Lancelot. Hell, v. 128.
Lanciotto, Malatesta. Hell, v. 107.
Lanfranchi, family. Hell, xxxiii. 32.
Langia, fountain of. Purg. xxii. 112.
Lano. Hell, xiii. 120.
Lapo, abbreviation of Jacopo, plural
Lapi. Par. xxix. 102.
Lapo Salterello. Par. xv. 128.
Lasca, the celestial. Purg. xxxii. 54.
Lateran church. Hell, xxvii. 86.
Latian, for Italian. Hell, xxvii. 33;
xxix. 88 ; Purg. xi. 58.
Latian land, Italy. Hell, xxvii. 27;
xxviii. 71.
Latini, Brunetto. Hell, xv. 30; 101.
Latinus, King. Hell, iv. 125.
Latona. Purg. xx. 131; Par. x. 67;
xxii. 139 ; xxix. i.
Lavagna. Purg. xix. 101.
Lavinia. Hell, iv. 126 ; Purg. xvii. 37;
Par. vi. 3.
Lawrence, St. Par. iv. 83.
Leah. Purg. xxvii. 101.
Leander. Pure, xxviii. 73.
Learchus and Melicertes. Hell, xxx.
10.
Lebanon. Purg. xxx. xx.
Leda. Par. xxvii. 98.
Lemnos. Hell, xviii. 88.
Lentino, Jacopo da. Purg. xxiv. 56.
Leopard, she-. Hell, i. 32.
Lerici. Purg. iii. 49.
Lethe. Hell, xiv. 131, 136; Purg.
xxvi. 108 ; xxviii. 130; xxx. 143;
xxxiii. 96, 123.
Levi. Purg. xvi. 132.
Liberality, examples of. Purg. xx. 31
Libicocco, demon. Hell, xxi. 121 ;xxii
Libra, sign of the Zodiac. Purjf. xxvii
268
INDEX
Libya. Hell, xxiv. 85.
Lily (flower-de-luce), arms of France.
Purg. vii. 105.
Limbo. Hell, ii. 52; iv. 45; Purg.
xxii. 14; Par. xxxii. 84.
Limoges. Purg. xxvi. 120.
Linus, the poet. Hell, iv. 141.
Linus, Pope. Par. xxvii. 41.
Lion. Hell, i. 45-
Lion; sign of the Zodiac. Par. xvi. 37 ;
xxi. 14.
Livy. Hell, xxviii. 12.
Lizio. Pure. xiv. 97.
Loderingo degli Andal6. Hell, xxiii.
104.
Logodoro. Hell, xxii. 89.
Lombard dialect. Hell, xxvii. 20.
Lombard, the great, Bartolommeo
della Scala. Par. xvii. 71.
Lombard, the simple, Guido da Cas-
tello. Purg. xvi. 126.
Lombardo, Marco. Purg. xvi. 46.
Lombards. Hell, xxii. 99.
Lombardy and the Marca Trivigiana.
Hell, xxviii. 74; Purg. xvi. 115.
Louises, Kings of France. Purg. xx. 50.
Lovers. Par. viii.
Lucan. Hell, iv. 90 ; xxv. 94.
Lucca. Hell,xyiii. 122; xxi. 40; xxxiii.
30; Purg. xxiv. 20.
Lucia, St. Hell, ii. 97 ; Purg. ix. 55 ;
Par. xxxii. 137.
Lucifer. Hell, xxxi. 143 ; xxxiy. 89 ;
Purg. xii. 25 ; Par. ix. 127 ; xix. 47 ;
xxix. 56.
Lucretia. Hell, iv. 128; Par. vi. 41.
Luke, St. Purg. xxi. 7 ; xxix. 92.
Luni. Hell, xx. 47 ; Par. xvi. 73.
Lycurgus, King of Nemaea. Purg.
xxvi. 94.
Macarius, St. Par. xxii. 49.
Maccabees. Hell, xix. 86.
Maccabeus. Par. xviii. 40.
Maghinardo da Susinana. Hell, xxvii.
50.
Magra, river. Par. ix. 89.
Magus, Simon. Hell, xix. i.
Mahomet. Hell, xxviii. 31, 62.
Maia (for the planet Mercury). Par.
xxii. 144.
Mainardi, Arrigo. Purg. xiv. 97.
Mainardo, Pagani. Purg. xiv. 118.
Majorca. Hell, xxviii. 82; Par. xix.
r37-
Malacoda, demon. Hell, xxi. 76, 79;
xxiii. 141.
Malaspina, Corrado. Purg. viii. 65 ;
118.
Malatesta of Rimini. Hell, xxvii. 46.
Malatestino. Hell, xxviii. 81.
Malebolge. Hell, xviii. i ; xxi. 5 ; xxiv.
47: rxix. 41.
Malebranche, demons. Hell, xxi. 371
xxii. 100 ; xxiii. 23; xxxiii. 142.
Malta, prison. Par. ix. 54.
Manfred, King of Apulia. Purg. iii.
112.
Manfredi, Aberigo de', of Faenza.
Hell, xxxiii. 118.
Manfredi, Tribaldello de'. Hell, xxxii.
122.
Mangiadore, Peter. Par. xii. 134.
Manto. Hell, xx. 55 ; Purg. xxii.
113.
Mantua. Hell, xx. 93 ; Purg. vi. 72 ;
xviii. 83.
Mantuan. (Virgil) Hell, ii. 58 ; Purg.
vi. 74. (Sordello) Purg. vii. 86.
Mantuans. Hell, i. 69.
Marcab6. Hell, xxviii. 75.
Marcellus. Purg. vi. 125.
March of Ancona. Purg. v. 68.
March of Treviso. Purg. xvi. 115;
Par. ix. 25.
Marchese, Messer. Purg. xxiv. 31.
Marcia, wife of Cato. Hell, iv. 128;
Purg. i. 79.
Marco Lombardo. Purg. xvi. 46.
Maremma. Hell, xxv. 19 ; xxix. 48 ;
Purg. v. 134.
Margaret, Queen of Aragon. Purg.
vii. 128.
Marquis (Obizzo) da Este. Hell, xviii.
56.
Marquis (William) of Monferrata
Purg. vii. 134.
Mars. Hell, xiii. 144 ; xxiv. 145 ; xxxi.
51; Purg. xii. 31; Par. iv. 63; viii.
132; xvi. 47, 145 ; xxii. 146.
Mars, planet. Purg. ii. 14 ; Par. iv.
63; xiv. 101 ; xvi. 38; xvii. 77;
xxvii. 14.
Marseilles. Purg. xviii. 102.
Marsyas. Par. i. 20.
Martin IV., Pope. Purg- xxiv. 20.
Martin, Master. Par. xiii. 139.
Mary, Hebrew woman. Purg. xxiii
3°-
Mary, the Virgin. Purg. iii. 39 ; v. loi?
viii. 37 ; x. 50; xiii. 50; xv. 88 ; xviii.
100 ; xx. 19, 97 ; xxii. 142 ; xxxiii.
6; Par. iii. 122; iv. 30; xi. 71 ; xiii.
84; xiv. 36; xv. 133; xvi. 34; xxiii.
in, 126, 137; xxxii. 4, 95, 104, 107,
113 ; xxxiii. i, 34.
Marzucco. Purg. vi. 18.
Mascheroni, Sassol. Hell, xxxii. 65.
Matilda. Purg. xxviii. 40; xxxi. 93;
xxxii. 28, 82; xxxiii. 119.
Matteo of Acquasparta, Cardinal. Par.
xii. 124.
Matthias, St., Apostle. Hell, xix. 94.
Medea. Hell, xviii. 96.
Medicina, Pier da. Hell, xxviii. 7$.
Mediterranean Sea. Par. ix. 82;
Medusa. Hell, ix. 52.
Megaera. Hell, ix. 46.
Melchisedec. Par. viii. 125.
Meleager. Purg. xxv. 22.
Melice'rtes and Learchus, sons of Atha-
mas. Hell, xxx. 5.
Melissus. Par. xiii. 125.
Menalippus. Hell, xxxii. 131.
Mercury. Par. iv. 63.
Mercury, planet. Par. v. 96.
Metellus. Purg. ix. 137.
Michael, Archangel. Hell, vii. ii;
Purg. xiii. 51 ; Par. iv. 47.
Michael Scott. Hell, xx. 116.
Michael Zanche. Hell, xxii. 88 ; xxxiii.
144.
Michal, Saul's daughter. Purg. x. 68,
72-
Midas. Purg. xx. 106.
Midian. Purg. xxiv. 126.
Milan. Purg. xviii. 120.
Milanese. Purg. viii. 80.
Mincio. Hell, xx. 77.
Minerva. Purg. xxx. 68 ; Par. ii. 8.
Minos. Hell, v. 4; xiii. 96; xx. 36;
xxvii. 124; xxix. 120; Purg. i. 77;
Par. xiii. 14.
Minotaur. Hell, xii. 12, 25.
Mira, La. Purg. v. 79.
Miserere. Purg. v. 24.
Modena. Par. vi. 75.
Moldau. Purg. vii. 99.
Monaldi and Filippeschi, families.
Purg. vi. 107.
Monferrato. Purg. vii. 136.
Mongibello (Mt. Aetna). Hell, xiv.
56 ; Par. viii. 70.
Montagna, cavalier. Hell, xxvii. 47.
Mont' Aperti. Hell, xxxii. 81.
Montecchi and Cappelletti, families.
Purg. vi. 106.
Monte Feltro. Purg. v. 88.
Montemalo (now Montemario). Par.
xv. 109.
Montemurlo. Par. xvi. 64.
Montereggione. Hell, xxxi. 41.
Montfort, Guy of. Hell, xii. 118.
Montone. Hell, xvi. 99.
Moon. Hell, x. 80; xix. 97; Par. xvi.
82.
Mordecai. Purg. xvii. 29.
Mordred, son of King Arthur. Hell,
xxxii. 61.
Morocco. Hell, xxvi. 104; Purg. iv.
139.
Moronto, brother of Cacciaguida. Par.
xv. 136.
Mosca (degli Uberti, or Lamberti).
Hell, vi. 80 ; xxviii. 106.
Moses. Hell, iv. 57 ; Purg. xxxii. 80 ;
Par. iv. 29; xxiv. 136; xxvi. 41.
Mozzi, Andrea dei. Hell, xv. 112.
Muses. Hell, ii. 7; xxxii. 10; Purg.
INDEX 269
i. 8; xxii. 102; xxix. 37; Par. ii. #
xii. 7 ; xxiii. 56.
Mucius (Scaevola). Par. iv. 84.
Myrrha. Hell, xxx. 38.
Naiades. Purg. xxxiii. 49.
Naples. Purg. iii. 27.
Narcissus. Hell, xxx. 128 ; Par. iii. it
Nasidius. Hell, xxv. 95.
Nathan, Prophet. Par. xii. 136.
Navarre. Hell, xxii. 48 ; Par. xix
143.
Navarrese, the (Ciampolo). Hell, xxii.
48, 121.
Nazareth. Par. ix. 137.
Nebuchadnezzar. Par. iv. 14.
Negligent of repentance, the. Purg.
ii. to vii.
Nella, wife of Forese. Purg. xxiii. 87.
Neptune. Hell, xxviii. 83 ; Par. xxxiii
96.
Neri, Black Party. Hell, vi. 64.
Nerli, family. Par. xv. 115.
Nessus. Hell, xii. 67, 98, 115 ; xiii. i.
Niccoli (Salimbeni) of Siena. Hell,
xxix. 127.
Nicholas, St., of Bari. Purg. xx. 32.
Nicholas III., Pope. Hell, xix. 70.
Nicosia. Par. xix. 146.
Nile. Hell, xxxiv. 45; Purg. xxiv.64;
Par. vi. 66.
Nimrod. Hell, xxxi. 77 ; Purg. xii.
34 ; Par. xxvi. 126.
Nino de' Visconti, of Pisa. Purg. viiL
S3. 109-
Ninus. Hell, v. 59.
Niobe. Queen of Thebes. Purg. xii
Nisus. Hell, i. 108.
Noah. Hell, iv. 56 ; Par. xii. 17.
Nocera. Par. xi. 48.
Noli. Purg. iv. 25.
Normandy. Purg. xx. 66.
Norway. Par. xix. 139.
Notary, the, Jacopo da Lentino. Purg
xxiv. 56.
Novarese, the. Hell, xxviii. 59.
Novello, Federigo. Purg. vi. 17.
Numidia. Purg. xxxi. 72.
Nymphs, Naiades. Purg. xxix. 4;
xxxi. 106.
Nymphs, stars. Par. xxiii. 26.
Nymphs, Virtues. Purg. xxxii. 98.
Obizzo of Esti. Hell, xii. m ; xviii.
Octavian Augustus. Hell, i. 71 ; Purg
vii. 6.
Oderisi of Gnbbio. Purg. xi. 79.
Olympus. Purg. xxiv. 15.
Omberto of Santafiore. Purg. xi. 67,
Ordelaffi of Forli. Hell, xxvii. 45.
Orestes. Purg. xiii. 32.
Oriaco. Purg. v. 80.
2JO
INDEX
Ormanni, family. Par. xri. 89.
Orpheus. Hell, iv. 140.
Orsini, family. Hell, xix. 70.
Orso, Count. Purg. vi. 19.
Ostia. Purg. ii. 100.
Ostia, Cardinal of. Par. xii. 83.
Ottocar, King of Bohemia. Purg. vii.
IOO.
Ovid. Hell, iv. 90 ; xxv. 97.
Pachynus. Par. viii. 68.
Padua. Par. ix. 46.
Paduans. Hell, xv. 7.
Pagani, family. Purg. xiv. 118.
Palazzo, Corrado da. Purg. xvi. 124.
Palermo. Par. viii. 75.
Palestrina. Hell, xxvii. 102.
Palladium. Hell, xxvi. 63.
Pallas (Minerva). Purg. xii. 31.
Pallas, son of Evander. Par. vi. 36.
Paradise, Terrestrial. Purg. xxviii.
Paris, city. Purg. xi. 81 ; xx. 52.
Paris, Trojan. Hell, y. 67.
Parmenides. Par. xiii. 125.
Parnassus. Purg. xxii. 65, 104; xxviii.
141 ; xxxi. 141 ; Par. i. 16.
Pasiphae. Hell, xii. 13 ; Purg. xxvi.
41, 86.
Paul, Apostle. Hell, ii. 32; Purg.
xxix. 134; Par. xviii. 131 ; xxi. 127;
xxiv. 62 ; xxviii. 138.
Paulus Orosius. Par. x. 119.
Pazzi, family. (Rinier Pazzo) Hell,
xii. 137. (Camicion de' Pazzi) Heli,
xxxii. 68.
Pear, family of the (the Peruzzi). Par.
xvi. 126.
Peculators. Hell, xxi.; xxii.
Pegasea (Calliope). Par. xviii. 82.
Peleus. Hell, xxxi. 5.
Pelican (Christ). Par. xxv. 113.
Pelorus. Purg. xiv. 32 ; Par. viii. 68.
Penelope. Hell, xxvi. 96.
Penthesilea. Hell, iv. 124.
Perillus. Hell, xxvii. 7.
Persians. Par. xix. 112.
Persius. Purg. xxii. 100.
Perugia. Par. vi. 75 ; xi. 46.
Peschiera. Hell, xx. 70.
Peter, St., Apostle. Hell, i. 134; ii.
24; xix. 91; Purg. ix. 127; xiii. 51 ;
xix. qf) ; xxi. 54 ; xxii. 63 ; xxxii. 76 ;
Par. ix. 141 : xi. 130 ; xviii. 131; xxi.
127; xxii. 88; xxiii. 139; xxiv. 59,
115, 124, 153; xxv. 12; xxvii. 49;
xxxii. 124, 133.
Peter. St., Church of. Hell, xviii. 32 ;
xxxi. 59.
Peter Damian. Par. xxi. 122.
Peter Lombard. Par. x. 107.
Peter Mangiadore. Par. xii. 134.
Peter of Aragon. Purg. vii. 112 » 125.
Peter of Spam. Par. xii. 134.
Peter a sinner. Par. xxi. 127.
Pettignano, Pier. Purg. xiii. 128.
Phaedra. Par. xvii. 47.
Phaethon. Hell, xvii. 107 ; Purg. i>
72; xxix. 118; Par. xvii. 3; xxxi
125.
Phalaris. Hell, xxvii. 7.
Phareae, serpents. Hell, xxiv. 86.
Pharisees. Hell, xxiii. 116 ; xxvii. 85.
Pharsalia. Par. vi. 65.
Philippe Argenti. Hell, viii. 61.
Philip 1 1 1 ..the Bold, of France. Purg.
vi. 20 ; vii. 103.
Philip IV., the Fair, of France. Hell,
xix. 87; Purg. vii. 109; xx. 50, 86 j
xxxii. 152 ; Par. xix. 120.
Philips, Kings of France. Purg. xx.
50.
Phlegethon. Hell, xiv. 116, 131.
Phlegra. Hell, xiv. 58.
Phlegyas. Hell, viii. 19, 24.
Phoenicia. Par. xxvii. 83.
Phoenix. Hell, xxiv. 107.
Pholus. Hell, xii. 72.
Photinus. Hell, xi. 9.
Phyllis. Par. ix. 100.
Pia of Siena. Purg. v. 133.
Piave, river. Par. ix. 27.
Piccarda de' Donati. Purg. xxiv. 10;
Par. iii. 49 ; iv. 97.
Piceno, Campo. Hell, xxiv. 148.
Pier da Medicina. Hell, xxviii. 73.
Pier Pettignano. Purg. xiii. 128.
Pier Traversaro. Purg. xiv. 98.
Pier delle Vigne. Hell, xiii. 32.
Pierre de la Brosse. Purg. vi. 22.
Pietola. Purg. xviii. 83.
Pietrapana. Hell, xxxii. 29.
Pigli, family. Par. xvi. 103.
Pila, Ubaldin dalla. Purg. xxiv. 29.
Pilate, the modern (Philip the Fair).
Purg. xx. 91.
Pinamonte, Buonacorsi. Hell, xx. 96.
Pine-cone of St. Peter's. Hell, xxxi.
90.
Pisa. Hell, xxxiii. 79 ; Purg. vi. 17.
Pisans. Hell, xxxiii. 30; Purg. xiv.
53-
Pisistratus. Purg. xv. 101.
Pistoia. Hell, xxiv. 126, 143; xxv. 10.
Pius I. Par. xxvii. 44.
Plato. Hell, iv. 134 ; Purg. iii. 43 ; Par
iv. 24, 49.
Plautus. Purg. xxii. 98.
Pluto. Hell, vi. 115.
Po. Hell, v. 98; xx. 78; Purg. xiv
92; xvi. 115; Par. vi. 51; xv. 137.
Pola. Hell, ix. 113.
Pole, North. Purg. i. 29.
Pole, South. Purg. i. 23.
Polenta, family. Hell, xxvii. 41.
Pollux, Castor and. Purg. iv. 61*
Polycletus. Purg, x. 32.
INDEX
271
Polydorus. Hell, xxx. 18; Purg. xx.
115.
Polyhymnia. Par. xxiii. 56.
Polymnestor. Purg. xx. 115.
Polynices. Hell, xxvi. 54 ; Purg. xxii.
Polyxena. Hell, xxx. 17.
Pompey the Great. Par. vi. 53.
Ponthieu. Purg. xx. 66.
Porta Sole of Perugia. Par. xi. 47.
Portugal. Par. xix. 139.
Potiphar's wife. Hell, xxx. 97.
Poverty, examples of. Purg. xx. 22.
Powers, order of angels. Par. xxviii.
123-
Prague. Par. xix. 117.
Prata, Guido da. Purg. xiv. 104.
Prato. Hell, xxvi. 9.
Pratomagno. Purg. v. 116.
Preachers, rebuked. Par. xxix. 90.
Pressa (della), family. Par. xvi. 100.
Priam, King of Troy. Hell, xxx. 15,
Priest, the High, Boniface VIII. Hell,
xxvii. 70.
Primum Mobile. Par. xxvii. 68, 99,
118.
Princes, order of angels. Par. viii. 34 ;
xxviii. 125.
Priscian. Hell, xv. 109.
Prodigal, the. Hell, vii.
Progne. Purg. xvii. 19.
Proserpine. Hell, ix. 44; x. 80; Purg.
xxviii. 50.
Proud, the, Purg. x. ; xi. ; xii.
Provencals, the. Par. vi. 130.
Provence. Purg. vii. 126 ; xx. 61 ; Par.
viii. 58.
Provenzan Salvani. Purg. xi. 121.
Psalmist David. Purg. x. 65.
Ptolemy, the astronomer. Hell, iv.
142.
Ptolemy, King of Egypt. Par. vi. 69.
Ptolomaea. Hell, xxxiii. 124.
Puccio Sciancato. Hell, xxv. 148.
Pygmalion. Purg. xx. 103.
Pyramus. Purg. xxvii. 38 ; xxxiii. 69.
Pyrenees. Par. xix. 144.
Pyrrhus. Hell, xii. 135; Par. vi. 44.
Quarnaro, Gulf of. Hell, ix. 113.
Quinctius (Cincinnatus). Par. vi. 46.
Quirinus (Romulus). Par. viii. 131.
Raban. Par. xii. 139.
Rachel. Hell, ii. 102; iv. 60; Purg.
xxvii. 104 ; Par xxxii. 8.
Rahab. Par. ix. 116.
Ram, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. viii.
134; Par xxix 2.
Raphael, Archangel. Par. iv. 48.
Rascia, part of the mcw'tra Servia.
Par. xix. 140.
Ravenna. Hell, v. 97; xxvii. 40; Par.
vi. 6 1 ; xxi. 123.
Ravignani, family. Par. xvi. 97.
Raymond Beranuer. Par. vi. 134.
Rebecca. Par. xxxii. 10.
Red Sea. Hell, xxiv. 90; Purg. xviii
134 ; Par. vi. 79.
Rehoboam. Purg. xii. 46.
Reno, river. Hell, xviii. 61 ; Purg.
xiv. 92.
Renouard. Par. xviii. 46.
Resurrection of the body. Par. vii.
146; xiv. 43.
Rhea. Hell, xiv. 100.
Rhine, the. Par. vi. 58.
Rhipeus, the Trojan. Par. xx. 68.
Rhodope, she of (Phyllis). Par. ix.
100.
Rhone, the. Hell, ix. 112 ; Par. vi. 60;
viii. 59.
Rialto (Venice). Par. ix. 26.
Riccardo da Camino. Par. ix. 50.
Richard of St. Victor. Par. x. 13 1.
Rimini. Hell, xxviii. 86.
Rinier of Calboli. Purg. xiv. 38.
Rinier of Corneto. Hell, xii. 137.
Rinier Pazzo. Hell, xii. 137.
Riphaean Mountains. Purg. xxvi. 43.
Robert Guiscard. Hell, xviii. 14 ; Par.
xviii. 48.
Robert, King of Apulia. Par. viif.
76.
Roland. Hell, xxxi. 18 ; Par. xviii.
Romagna. Hell, xxvii. 37 ; xxxiii. 154$
Purg. v. 69 ; xiv. 92 ; xv. 44.
Romagnuoli. Hell, xxvii. 28; Purg.
xiv. 99.
Roman buildings. Par. xv. 106.
Roman Church. Hell, xix. 57 ; Par.
xvii. 72.
Roman Emperors. Purg. xxxii. 113.
Roman Kings. Par. vi. 47.
Roman Prince, Trajan. Purg. x. 76.
Romans. Hell, xv. 77 ; xviii. 28 ; xxvi.
60 ; xxviii. 28 ; Par. vi. 44 ; xix.
102.
Roman Shepherd, Pope Adrian V.
Purg. xix. 107.
Roman women, ancient. Purg. xxii.
145.
Rome, city. Hell, i. 71; ii. 20; xiv.
105; xxxi. 59; Purg. vi. 112; xvi.
106, 127; xviii. 80; xxi. 89; xxix.
115; xxxii. 149; Par. vi. 57; ix. 140;
xv. 126; xvi. 10 ; xxiv. 63 ; xxvii. 251
62 ; xxxi. 34.
Romena. Hell, xxx. 73.
Romeo of Provence. Par. vi. 128, 13$
Romuald, St. Par xxii. 49.
Romulus (Quirinus). Par. viii. 131.
Roncesvalles. Hell, xxxi. 16.
Rose, the Heavenly. Par. xxx. ; xxii
172
INDEX
Rubaconte, the bridge. Purg. xii. 102.
Rubicante, demon. Hell, xxi. 123;
xxii. 40.
Rubicon. Par. vi. 62.
Rudolph of Hapsburg. Purg. vi. 103 ;
vii. 94; Par. viii. 72.
Ruegieri, degli Ubaldini, Archbishop
otPisa. Hell, xxxiii. 14.
Rulers, just. Par. xviii.
Rusticucci, Jacopo. Hell, vi. 80 ; xvi.
Ruth. Par. xxxii. 10.
Sabellius. Par. xiii. 127.
Sabellus. Hell, xxv. 9$.
Sabine women. Par. vi. 40.
Sacchetti, family. Par. xvi. 104.
Saint Victor, Hugh of. Par. xii. 133.
Saints of the Old and New Testament.
Par. xxxii.
Saladin. Hell, iv. 129.
Salimbeni, Niccolo. Hell, xxix. 127.
Salterello, Lapo. Par. xv. 128.
Salvani, Provenzan. Purg. xi. 121.
Samaria, woman of. Purg. xxi. 3.
Samuel, Prophet. Par. iv. 29.
San Miniato. Purg. xii. 101.
Sanleo. Purg. iv. 25.
Sannella, family. Par. xvi. 92.
Sant' Andrea, Jacomo da. Hell, xiii.
»33-
Santafiore, Counts of. Purg. vi. in;
xi. 58.
Santerno. Hell, xxvii. 49.
Saone, river. Par. vi. 59.
Sapia, lady of Siena. Purg. xiii. 109.
Sapphira and Ananias. Purg. xx. 112.
Saracens. Hell, xxvii. 87; (Saracen
women) Purg. xxiii. 103.
Sara, wife of Abraham. Par. xxxii.
10.
Sardanapalus. Par. xv. 107.
Sardinia. Hell, xxii. 89; xxvi. 104;
xxix. 48; Purg. xviii. 81 ; xxiii. 94.
Sassol Mascheroni. Hell, xxxii. 65.
Satan. Hell, vii. i.
Saturn. Hell, xiv. 96 ; Par. xxi. 26.
Saturn, the planet. Purg. xix. 3 ; Par.
xxi. 13 ; xxii. 146.
Saul. Purg. xii. 40.
Savena, river. Hell, xviii. 61.
Savio, river. Hell, xxvii. 52.
Scaevola, Mucius. Par. iv. 84.
Scala, Alberto della. Purg. xviii. 121.
Scala, Bartolommeo della. Par. xvii.
Scala, Can Grande della. Par. xvii.
76.
Scales, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. ii. 5 ;
Par. xxix. 2.
Scarmiglione, demon. Hell, xxi. 105.
Schicchi, Gianni. Hell, xxx. 32.
Schismatics. Hell, xxviii. ; xxix.
Sciancato, Puccio. Hell, xxv. 148.
Scipio, Africanus. Hell, xxxi. 116;
Purg. xxix. 116; Par. vi. 53; xxvii.
61.
Sclavonian winds. Purg. xxx. 87.
Scorpio, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. ix,
5 ; xxv. 3.
Scot, the. Par. xix. 122.
Scott, Michael. Hell, xx. 116.
Scrovigni, family. Hell, xvii. 64.
Scyros. Piirjt. ix. 37.
Seducers. Hell, xviii.
Seine, the. Par. vi. 59; xix. 118.
Semele. Hell, xxx. 2 ; Par. xxi. 6.
Semiramis. Hell, v. 58.
Seneca. Hell, iv. 141.
Sennacherib. Purg. xii. 53.
Seraph. Par. xxi. 92.
Seraphim. Par. iv. 28; viii. 27; ix.
77 ; xxviii. 72, 99.
Serchio, river. Hell, xxi. 49.
Serpents of Libya. Hell, xxiv. 85.
Sestos. Purg. xxviii. 74.
Seven Kings against Thebes. Hell,
xiv. 68.
Seville. Hell, xx. 126 ; xxyi. no.
Sextus I., Pope. Par. xxvii. 44.
Sextus (Tarquinius). Hell, xii. 135.
Shinar. Purg. xii. 36.
Sibyl, Cumaean. Par. xxxiii. 66.
Sichaeus. Hell, v. 62 ; Par. ix. 98.
Sicilian Vespers. Par. viii. 75.
Sicily. Hell, xii. 108; Purg. iii. 116;
Par. viii. 67; xix. 131.
Siena. Hell, xxix. 109; Purg. v. 134$
xi. in, 123.
Sienese. Hell, xxix. 122, 134; Purg.
xi. 65; xiii. 115, 151.
Siestri. Purg. xix. 100.
Sigier. Par. x. 136.
Sile, river. Par. ix. 49.
Silvius. Hell, ii. 13.
Simifonti. Par. xvi. 62.
Simois, river. Par. vi. 67.
Simon Magus. Hell, xix. i ; Par. xxx.
147.
Simoniacs. Hell, xix.
Simonides. Purg. xxii. 107.
Sinigaglia. Par. xvi. 7C.
Sinon the Greek. Hell, xxx. 98.
Siren. Purg. xix. 19.
Sirens. Purg. xxxi. 45 ; Par. xii. 8.
Sirocco. Purg. xxviii. 21.
Sismondi, family. Hell, xxxiii. 32.
Sizii, family. Par. xvi. 108.
Slothful, the. Hell, vii. ; viii. ; Purg.
xvii.; xviii.
Socrates. Hell.iv. 134.
Sodom. Hell, xi. 50; Purg. xxvi. 40,
ovu. Hell, xv.
Soldanier, Gianni del. Hell, xxxii
INDEX
273
Soldanieri, family. Par. xvi. 93.
Solitary and Contemplative, the. Par.
xxi.
Solomon. Par. x. 109; xiii. 48, 89;
xiv. 35.
Solon. Par. viii. 124.
Soothsayers. Hell, xx.
Soracte. Hell, xxvii. 95.
Sordello. Purg. vi. 74; vii. 3, 52, 85 ;
viii. 38, 62, 94; ix. 58.
Sorgue, river. Par. viii. 59.
Sow, arms of the bcrovigni. Hell, xvii.
Spain. Hell, xxvi. 103; Purg. xviii.
102; Par. vi. 64; xii. 46; xix. 125.
Spaniards. Par. xxix. 101.
Sphinx. Purg. xxxiii. 43.
Spirit, Holy. Purg. xx. 98 ; Par. iii.
Stars, fixed. Par. xxii.
Stars, last word of Hell, Purg., Par.
Stars of the South Polar region. Purg.
i- 23.
Statius. Purg. xxi. 10, 91 ; xxii. 25,
64; xxiv. 119; xxv. 29; xxvii. 47;
xxxii. 29; xxxiii. 134.
Statue of Time, source of Acheron,
Styx, Phlegethon. Hell, xiv. 103.
Stephen, St. Purg. xv. 106.
Stigmata of St. Francis. Par. xi. 107.
Street of Straw (Rue du Fouarre).
Par. x. 137.
Stricca. Hell, xxix. 125.
Strophades. Hell, xiii. n.
Styx. Hell, vii. 109; ix. 81; xiv. 116.
Suabia. Par. iii. 119.
Suicides. Hell, xiii.
Sultan. Hell, v. 60; xxvii. 90; Par.
xi. 101.
Sylvester, Fra. Par. xi. 83.
Sylvester, St., Pope. Hell, xix. 117;
xxvii. 94 ; Par. xx. 57.
Syrinx. Purg. xxxii. 65.
Tacco, Ghin di. Purg. yi. 14.
Tagliacozzo. Hell, xxviii. 17.
Tagliamento, river. Par. ix. 44.
Talamone. Pure;, xiii. 152.
Tambernich. Hell, xxxii. 28.
Tarlati, Cione de'. Purg. vi. 15..
Tarpeian Rock. Purg. ix. 137.
Tarquin. Hell, iv. 127.
Tartars. Hell, xvii. 17.
Taurus, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. xxv.
3 ; Par. xxii. in.
Tegghiaio Aldobrandi. Hell, vi. 79 ;
xvi. 41.
Temple, the. Purg. xx. 93.
Terence. Purg. xxii. 97.
Tesoro of Brunette Latini. Hell, xv.
119.
Thaddeus. Par. xii. 83.
Thai's. Hell, xviii. 133.
Thales. Hell, iv. 137.
Thames, the. Hell, xii. 120.
Thaumas. Purg. xxi. 50.
Thebaid, poem of Statius. Purg. xxi
Theban blood. Hell, xxx. 2.
Thebans. Hell, xx. 32; Purg. xviii.
93-
Thebes. Hell, xiv. 69; xx. 59; xxv.
1 5 ; xxx. 22 ; xxxii. 1 1 ; xxxiii. 89 ;
Purg. xxi. 92 ; xxii. 89.
Thebes, modern (Pisa). Hell, xxxiii.
89.
Themis. Purg. xxxiii. 47.
Theologians. Par. x.
Theseus. Hell, ix. 54; xii. 17; Purg-
xxiv. 123.
Thetis. Purg. ix. 37 ; xxii. 113.
Thibault II., King. Hell, xxii. 52.
Thieves. Heli, xxiv.
Thisbe. Purg. xxvii. 37.
Thoas and Euneos. Purg. xxvi, 95.
Thomas, St., Apostle. Par. xvi. 129.
Thomas Aquinas. Purg. xx. 69 ; Par.
x. 82; xii. no, 144; xiii. 32; xiv. 6.
Throne and Crown for Henry VII. of
Luxemburg. Par. xxx. 137.
Thrones, order of angels. Par. ix. 61;
xxviii. 104.
Thymbraeus (Apollo). Purg. xii. 31.
Tiber. Hell, xxvii. 30 ; Purg. ii. xoi;
Par. xi. 1 06.
Tiberius Caesar. Par. vi. 86.
Tignoso, Federico. Purg. xiv. 106.
Tigris, the. Purg. xxxiii. 112.
Timaeus, the, of Plato. Par. iv. 49.
Tiresias. Hell, xx. 40; Purg. xxii.
Tisiphone. Hell, ix. 48.
Tithonus. Purg. ix. i.
Titus, Emperor. Purg. xxi 82; Par.
vi. 92.
Tityus. Hell, xxxi. 124.
Tobias. Par. iv. 48.
Tomyris. Purg. xii. 56.
Toppo, the. Hell, xiii. 121.
Torquatus, Titus Manlius. Par. vi.
46.
Tours. Purg. xxiv. 23.
Traitors. Hell, xxxii. ; xxxiii.; xxxiv.
Trajan, Emperor. Purg. x. 76; Par.
xx. 44, 112.
Transfiguration, the. Purg. xxxii. 73.
Traversara, family. Purg. xiv. 107.
Traversaro, Pier. Purg. xiv. 98.
Trent. Hell, xii. 5.
Trentine Pastor. Hell, xx. 67.
Trespiano. Par. xvi. 54.
Tribaldello. Hell, xxxii. 122.
Trinacria (Sicily). Par. viii. 67.
Trinity, the. Par. xiii. 26; xxxiii. 115
Tristan. Hell, v. 67.
Trivia (Diana). Par. xxiii. 26.
INDEX
Troad, mountains of the. Par. vi. 6.
Trojan Furies. Hell, xxx. 22.
Trojans. Hell, xiii. n ; xxx. 14; Purg.
xviii. 136; Par. xv. 126.
Tronic, river. Par. viii. 63.
Troy. Hell, i. 74 ; xxx. 98. 1 14 ; Purg.
Tully. ''Hell, iv. 14 1.
Tupino, river. Par. xi. 43.
Turbia. Purg. iii. 49.
Turks. Hell, xvii. 17; Par. xv. 145.
Turnus. Hell, i. 108.
Tuscan language. Purg. xyi. 137.
Tuscan (Dante). Hell, xxiii. 91 ; xxxii.
66.
Tuscans. Hell, xxii. 99 ; Purg. xi. 58.
Tuscany. Hell, xxiv. 122; Purg. xi.
no; xiii. 149; xiv. 16.
Tydeus. Hell, xxxii. 130.
Typhoeus. Par. viii. 70.
Typhon. Hell, xxxi. 124.
Tyrants. Hell, xii. 103.
Tyrol. Hell, xx. 63.
Ubaldin dalla Pila. Purg. xxiv. 29.
Ubaldini, Octaviano degli. Hell, x.
120.
Ubaldini, Ruggieri degli. Hell, xxxiii.
14.
TJbaldo, St., of Gubbio. Par. xi. 44.
Uberti, family. Par. xvi. 109.
Ubertin, Donati. Par. xyi. 119.
Ubertino, Krate. Par. xii. 124.
Ubriachi, family. Hell. xvii. 62.
Uccellatoio, Mount. Par. xv. no.
Ughi, family. Par. xvi. 88.
Ugolin d' Azzo. Purg. xiv. 105.
Ugolin de' Fantoli. Purg. xiv. 12 T.
Ugolinp della Gherardesca. Hell,
xxxiii. 13.
Uguccione. Hell, xxxiii. 89.
Ulysses. Hell, xxvi. 56 ; Purg. xix.
22 : Par. xxvii. 83.
Unbelievers. Hell, x.
Urania. Purg. xxix. 41.
Urban I. xPar. xxvii. 44.
Urbino. Hell, xxvii. 29.
Urbisaglia. Par. xvi. 73.
Usurers. Hell, xvii. 44.
Utica. Purg. i. 74.
Uzzah. Purg. x. 57.
Val Camonica. Hell, xx. 65.
Valdarno, in Tuscany. Purg. xiv. 30.
Valdichiana, in Tuscany. Hell, xxix.
Valdigreve, in Tuscany. Par. xvi. 66.
Val di Magra. Hell, xxiv. 145; Purg.
viii. 116.
Vanni Fucci. Hell, xxiv. 125.
V*r, river. Par. vi. 58.
Varro. Purg. xxii. 98.
Vatican. Par. ix. 139.
Vecchio, family of the. Par. xv. 115.
Venetians, arsenal of the. Hell, xxi. 7.
Venice, coin of. Par. xix. 141.
Venus. Purg. xxv. 132 ; xxviii. 65.
Venus, planet. Purg. i. 19; Par. viiL
Vercelli.' Hell, xxviii. 75.
Verde, river. Purg. iii. 131 ; Par. viii.
63-
Verona. Hell, xv. 122; Purg. xviii.
118.
Veronica, the. Par. xxxi. 104.
Verrucchio. Hell, xxvii. 46.
Veso, Mount. Hell. xvi. 05.
Vespers, Sicilian. Par. viii.
sper
Vicenza. Par. ix. 47.
Hell
75.
Vigne, Pier delle. Hell, xiii. 32.
-Violators of monastic vows. Par. Hi.
Violent, the, against others. Hell, xii.;
against themselves, xiii. ; against
Gcd, xiv. ; against Nature, xv. ; xvi. ;
against Art, xvii.
Viper, arms of the Milanese Visconti.
Purg. viii. 80.
Virgil. Hell, i. 79; Purg. iii. 74 ; vii.
7; viii. 64: xviii. 82, 112; Par. xv.
26; xvii. 19; xxvi. 118.
Virtues, order of angels. Par. xxviii.
122.
Visconti of Milan. Purg. viii. 80.
Visconti of Pisa. Purg. viii. 53, 109.
Visdomini, family. Par. xvi. 112.
Vision, the bePtific. Par. xxxiii.
Vitalianodel Dente. Hell, xvii. 68.
Vows, not performed. Par. iv 137.
Vulcan. Hell, xiv. 52.
Wain, Charles's. Hell, xi. 114; Purg;
i. 30; Par. xiii. 7.
Wenceslaus IV., of Bohemia. Purg.
vii. 10 r ; Par. xix. 125.
Will, free. Purg. xvi. 76; xviii. 74.
William, Marquis of Monferrato. Purg.
Wissant. ' Hell, xv. 4.
Xerxes. Purg. xxviii. 71 ; Par. viik
124.
Zanche, Michael. Hell, xxii. 88?
xxxiii. 144.
Zara, game of hazard. Purg. vi. i.
Zeno, Hell, iv. 138.
Zeno. San, monastery at Verona. Purg
xviii. 118.
Zephyr. Par. xii. 47.
Zion, Mount. Purg. iv. 68.
Zua, Saint. Hell, xxi. 38.
Zodiac. Purg. iv. 64 ; Par. x. 14.
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