Who oped Faenza when the people slept." Pent in one hollow, that the head of one "O thou! who show'st so beastly sign of hate If that, wherewith I speak, be moist so long." CANTO XXXIII ARGUMENT.-The Poet is told by Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi of the cruel manner in which he and his children were famished in the tower at Pisa, by command of the Archbishop Ruggieri. He next discourses of the third round, called Ptolomea, wherein those are punished who have betrayed others under the semblance of kindness; and among these he finds the Friar Alberigo de' Manfredi, who tells him of one whose soul was already tormented in that place, though his body appeared still to be alive upon the earth, being yielded up to the governance of a fiend. IS jaws uplifting from their fell repast, H That sinner wiped them on the hairs o' the head, "Thy will obeying, I call up afresh Sorrow past cure; which, but to think of, wrings That I may utter, shall prove seed to bear Fruit of eternal infamy to him, The traitor whom I gnaw at, thou at once Shalt see me speak and weep. Who thou mayst be But Florentine thou seemest of a truth, What therefore thou canst not have heard, that is, 1" Count Ugolino." In the year 1288, in the month of July, Pisa was much divided by competitors for the sovereignty; one party, composed of certain of the Guelfi, being headed by the Judge Nino di Gallura de' Visconti; another, consisting of others of the same faction, by the Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi; and a third by the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, with the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi, and other Ghibelline houses. The Count Ugolino, to effect his purpose, united with the archbishop and his party, and having betrayed Nino, his sister's son, they contrived that he and his followers should either be driven out of Pisa, or their persons seized. Nino hearing this, and not seeing any means of defending himself, retired to Calci, his castle, and formed an alliance with Florentines and the people of Lucca, against the Pisans. The count, before Nino was gone, in order to cover his treachery, when everything was settled for his expulsion, quitted Pisa, and repaired to a manor of his called Settimo; whence, as soon as he was informed of Nino's departure, he returned to Pisa with great rejoicing and festivity, and was elevated to the supreme power with every demonstration of triumph and honor. But his greatness was not of long continuance. It pleased the Almighty that a total reverse of fortune should ensue, as a punishment for his acts of treachery the and guilt; for he was said to have poisoned the Count Anselmo da Capraia, his sister's son, on account of the envy and fear excited in his mind by the high esteem in which the gracious manners of Anselmo were held by the Pisans.-The power of the Guelfi being so much diminished, the archbishop devised means to betray the Count Ugolino, and caused him to be suddenly attacked in his palace by the fury of the people, whom he had exasperated, by telling them that Ugolino had betrayed Pisa, and given up their castles to the citizens of Florence and of Lucca. He was immediately compelled to surrender; his bastard son and his grandson fell in the assault; and two of his sons, with their two sons also, were conveyed to prison. In the following March, the Pisans, who had imprisoned the Count Ugolino, with two of his sons and two of his grandchildren, the offspring of his son the Count Guelfo, in a tower on the Piazza of the Anziani, caused the tower to be locked, the key thrown into the Arno, and all food to be withheld from them. In a few days they died of hunger; but the count first with loud cries declared his penitence, and yet neither priest nor friar was allowed to shrive him. All the five, when dead, dragged out of the prison and meanly interred; and from thenceforward the tower was called the Tower of Famine, and so shall ever be. were This one, methought, as master of the sport, I wept not: so all stone I felt within. They wept and one, my little Anselm, cried, Came out upon the world. When a faint beam And in four countenances I descried Through agony I bit; and they, who thought I did it through desire of feeding, rose Yet O' the sudden, and cried, 'Father, we should grieve 2 The mountain S. Giuliano, between Pisa and Lucca. To the fourth day, then Gaddo at my feet The mouth of Arno; that each soul in thee To stretch his children on the rack. For them, Of gentle ones, of whom my song hath told, Their tender years, thou modern Thebes, did make Where others, skarf'd in rugged folds of ice, For increase of sharp anguish: the first tears Now though the cold had from my face dislodged Each feeling, as 't were callous, yet me seem'd Some breath of wind I felt. "Whence cometh this," Said I, "my Master? Is not here below All vapor quench'd?"-" Thou shalt be speedily," Small islands near the mouth of the Arno. He answer'd, "where thine eyes shall tell thee whence, The cause descrying of this airy shower." 66 Then cried out one, in the chill crust who mourn'd: "O souls! so cruel, that the farthest post Hath been assign'd you, from this face remove 66 Say who thou wast, if thou wouldst have mine aid; And if I extricate thee not, far down "The friar Alberigo," answer'd he, 66 وو 66 Art thou, too, dead?" "How in the world aloft "I am right ignorant. Such privilege Doth yet appear the body of a ghost, Who here behind me winters. Him thou know'st, The years are many that have passed away, "The friar Alberigo." Alberigo de' Manfredi, of Faenza, one of the Frati Godenti (Joyous Friars), who having quarrelled with some of his brotherhood, under pretence of wishing to be reconciled, invited them to a banquet, at the conclusion of which he called for the fruit, a signal for the assassins to rush in and despatch those whom he had marked for destruction. Hence, adds Landino, it is said proverbially of one who has been stabbed, that he had had some of the friar Alberigo's_fruit. 5" Ptolomea." This circle is named Ptolomea from Ptolemy the son of Abubus, by whom Simon and his sons were murdered, at a great banquet he had made for them. See I Maccabees, ch. xvi. Or from Ptolemy, King of Egypt, the be trayer of Pompey the Great. |