Is he to speak, whom other will employs."

He thus: "The water and the plant, we pass'd,
With power are gifted, by the eternal will

Infused; the which so pines me. Every spirit,
Whose song bewails his gluttony indulged
Too grossly, here in hunger and in thirst
Is purified. The odour, which the fruit,

And spray that showers upon the verdure, breathe,
Inflames us with desire to feed and drink.
Nor once alone, encompassing our route,
We come to add fresh fuel to the pain:
Pain, said I? solace rather: for that will,
To the tree, leads us, by which Christ was led
To call on Eli, joyful, when he paid

Our ransom from his vein." I answering thus:
"Forese! from that day, in which the world
For better life thou changedst, not five years
Have circled. If the power of sinning more
Were first concluded in thee, ere thou knew'st
That kindly grief which re-espouses us
To God, how hither art thou come so soon?
I thought to find thee lower, there, where time
Is recompense for time." He straight replied:
"To drink up the sweet wormwood of affliction
I have been brought thus early, by the tears
Stream'd down my Nella's cheeks. Her prayers devout,
Her sighs have drawn me from the coast, where oft
Expectance lingers; and have set me free

From the other circles. In the sight of God
So much the dearer is my widow prized,
She whom I loved so fondly, as she ranks
More singly eminent for virtuous deeds.
The tract, most barbarous of Sardinia's isle,
Hath dames more chaste, and modester by far,
Than that wherein I left her. O sweet brother!
What wouldst thou have me say? A time to come
Stands full within my view, to which this hour

4 In the Ante-Purgatory. See Canto ii.

5 The wife of Forese.

The Barbagia is a part of Sar

dinia, to which that name was given, on account of the uncivilized state of its inhabitants, who are said to have gone nearly naked.

Shall not be counted of an ancient date,
When from the pulpit shall be loudly warn'd
The unblushing dames of Florence, lest they bare
Unkerchief'd bosoms to the common gaze.

What savage women hath the world e'er seen,
What Saracens,' for whom there needed scourge
Of spiritual or other discipline,

To force them walk with covering on their limbs?
But did they see, the shameless ones, what Heaven
Wafts on swift wing toward them while I speak,
Their mouths were oped for howling: they shall taste
Of sorrow (unless foresight cheat me here)

Or e'er the cheek of him be clothed with down,
Who is now rock'd with lullaby asleep.

Ah! now, my brother, hide thyself no more:
Thou seest how not I alone, but all,

Gaze, where thou veil'st the intercepted sun."
Whence I replied: "If thou recal to mind
What we were once together, even yet
Remembrance of those days may grieve thee sore.
That I forsook that life was due to him

Who there precedes me, some few evenings past,
When she was round, who shines with sister lamp
To his that glisters yonder," and I show'd
The sun. "Tis he, who through profoundest night
Of the true dead has brought me, with this flesh
As true, that follows. From that gloom the aid
Of his sure comfort drew me on to climb,
And, climbing, wind along this mountain-steep,
Which rectifies in you whate'er the world
Made crooked and depraved. I have his word,
That he will bear me company as far
As till I come where Beatrice dwells:
But there must leave me. Virgil is that spirit,
Who thus hath promised," and I pointed to him;
"The other is that shade, for whom so late
Your realm, as he arose, exulting, shook
Through every pendent cliff and rocky bound."

7" Saracens." This word, during the Middle Ages, was applied to all

nations (except the Jews) who did not profess Christianity.

CANTO XXIV

ARGUMENT. Forese points out several others by name who are here, like himself, purifying themselves from the vice of gluttony; and amongst the rest, Buonaggiunta of Lucca, with whom our Poet converses. Forese then predicts the violent end of Dante's political enemy, Corso Donati; and, when he has quitted them, the Poet, in company with Statius and Virgil, arrives at another tree, from whence issue voices that record ancient examples of gluttony; and proceeding forward, they are directed by an Angel which way to ascend to the next cornice of the mountain.

Ο

UR journey was not slacken'd by our talk,

Nor yet our talk by journeying. Still we spake,
And urged our travel stoutly, like a ship

When the wind sits astern. The shadowy forms,
That seem'd things dead and dead again, drew in
At their deep-delved orbs rare wonder of me,
Perceiving I had life; and I my words
Continued, and thus spake: "He journeys up
Perhaps more tardily than else he would,
For others' sake. But tell me, if thou know'st,
Where is Piccarda? Tell me, if I see

Any of mark, among this multitude

Who eye me thus."-" My sister (she for whom,
'Twixt beautiful and good, I cannot say

Which name was fitter) wears e'en now her crown,
And triumphs in Olympus." Saying this,

He added: "Since spare diet hath so worn

Our semblance out, 'tis lawful here to name
Each one. This," and his finger then he raised,
"Is Buonaggiunta,'-Buonaggiunta, he

Of Lucca and that face beyond him, pierced

Unto a leaner fineness than the rest,

Had keeping of the Church; he was of Tours,"
And purges by wan abstinence away

Bolsena's eels and cups of muscadel.”

He show'd me many others, one by one:

And all, as they were named, seem'd well content;

1" Buonaggiunta." Urbiciani, of Lucca.

Buonaggiunta

2" He was of Tours." Simon of

Tours became Pope with the title of
Martin IV in 1281, and died in 1285.

For no dark gesture I discern'd in any.
I saw, through hunger, Ubaldino3 grind
His teeth on emptiness; and Boniface,*
That waved the crozier o'er a numerous flock.
I saw the Marquis, who had time erewhile
To swill at Forli with less drought; yet so,
Was one ne'er sated. I howe'er, like him
That, gazing 'midst a crowd, singles out one,
So singled him of Lucca; for methought
Was none amongst them took such note of me.
Somewhat I heard him whisper of Gentucca:
The sound was indistinct, and murmur'd there,
Where justice, that so strips them, fix'd her sting.

66

Spirit!" said I, "it seems as thou wouldst fain Speak with me. Let me hear thee. Mutual wish To converse prompts, which let us both indulge."

He, answering, straight began: "Woman is born, Whose brow no wimple shades yet, that shall make My city please thee, blame it as they may.

Go then with this forewarning. If aught false
My whisper too implied, the event shall tell.
But say, if of a truth I see the man

Of that new lay the inventor, which begins
With Ladies, ye that con the lore of love.''
To whom I thus: Count of me but as one,

66

Who am the scribe of love; that, when he breathes,
Take up my pen, and, as he dictates, write."

"Brother!" said he, "the hindrance, which once held

The notary, with Guittone and myself,

Short of that new and sweeter style I hear,

Is now disclosed: I see how ye your plumes

Stretch, as the inditer guides them; which, no question,
Ours did not. He that seeks a grace beyond,

Sees not the distance parts one style from other."
And, as contented, here he held his peace.
Like as the birds, that winter near the Nile,
In squared regiment direct their course,

Ubaldino degli Ubaldini, of Pila,

in the Florentine territory.

"Boniface.' Archbishop of Ravenna. By Venturi he is called

Bonifazio de' Fieschi, a Genoese; by Vellutello, the son of the abovementioned Ubaldini; and by Landino, Francioso, a Frenchman.

Then stretch themselves in file for speedier flight;
Thus all the tribe of spirits, as they turn'd
Their visage, faster fled, nimble alike
Through leanness and desire. And as a man,
Tired with the motion of a trotting steed,
Slacks pace, and stays behind his company,
Till his o'erbreathed lungs keep temperate time;
E'en so Forese let that holy crew

Proceed, behind them lingering at my side,

66

And saying: "When shall I again behold thee?"
How long my life may last," said I, "I know not:
This know, how soon soever I return,

My wishes will before me have arrived:

Sithence the place, where I am set to live,

Is, day by day, more scoop'd of all its good;

And dismal ruin seems to threaten it."

"Go now," he cried: "lo! he, whose guilt is most, Passes before my vision, dragg'd at heels

Of an infuriate beast. Toward the vale,
Where guilt hath no redemption, on its speeds,
Each step increasing swiftness on the last;
Until a blow it strikes, that leaveth him

A corse most vilely shatter'd. No long space
Those wheels have yet to roll," (therewith his eyes
Look'd up to Heaven,) "ere thou shalt plainly see
That which my words may not more plainly tell.
I quit thee: time is precious here: I lose
Too much, thus measuring my pace with thine."
As from a troop of well-rank'd chivalry,
One knight, more enterprising than the rest,
Pricks forth at gallop, eager to display
His prowess in the first encounter proved;
So parted he from us, with lengthen'd strides;

"The place." Florence.

"He." Corso Donati was suspected of aiming at the sovereignty of Florence. To escape the fury of his fellow-citizens, he fled away on horseback, but falling, was overtaken and slain, A. D. 1308. The contemporary annalist, after relating at length the circumstances of his fate, adds, "that he was one of the wisest

and most valorous knights, the best speaker, the most expert statesman, the most renowned and enterprising man of his age in Italy, a comely Knight and of graceful carriage, but very worldly, and in his time had formed many conspiracies in Flor ence, and entered into many scandalous practices for the sake of attaining state and lordship."