CANTO XVI.

ARGUMENT.

Journeying along the pier, which crosses the sand, they are now so near the end of it as to hear the noise of the stream falling into the eighth circle, when they meet the spirits of three military men; who judging Dante, from his dress, to be a countryman of theirs, entreat him to stop. He complies, and speaks with them. The two Poets then reach the place where the water descends, being the termination of this third compartment in the seventh circle; and here Virgil having thrown down into the hollow a cord, wherewith Dante was girt, they behold at that signal a monstrous and horrible figure come swimming up to them.

Now came I where the water's din was heard,

As down it fell into the other round,

Resounding like the hum of swarming bees:
When forth together issued from a troop,

That passed beneath the fierce tormenting storm,

Three spirits, running swift. They towards us came,
And each one cried aloud, "Oh! do thou stay,
Whom, by the fashion of thy garb, we deem
To be some inmate of our evil land."

Ah me! what wounds I marked upon their limbs,
Recent and old, inflicted by the flames.
E'en the remembrance of them grieves me yet.

Attentive to their cry, my teacher paused,
And turned to me his visage, and then spake :
"Wait now: our courtesy these merit well:
And were 't not for the nature of the place,
Whence glide the fiery darts, I should have said,
That haste had better suited thee than them."

They, when we stopped, resumed their ancient wail,
And, soon as they had reached us, all the three
Whirled round together in one restless wheel.
As naked champions, smeared with slippery oil
Are wont, intent, to watch their place of hold
And vantage, ere in closer strife they meet;
Thus each one, as he wheeled, his countenance
At me directed, so that opposite
The neck moved ever to the twinkling feet.

"If woe of this unsound and dreary waste,"

Thus one began, “added to our sad cheer
Thus peeled with flame, do call forth scorn on us

1. The Phlegethon falls over a tremendous precipice which Dante and Virgil must now descend.

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by his accent; here the Poet is recognized by his garb.

15. Virgil gives Dante to understand that 6. Who these spirits are will be seen in lines these spirits were of great distinction in the world above.

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8. Farinata recognized Dante as a Florentine

That dost imprint, with living feet unharmed,

The soil of Hell. He, in whose track thou seest
My steps pursuing, naked though he be
And reft of all, was of more high estate
That thou believest; grandchild of the chaste
Gualdrada, him they Guidoguerra called,
Who in his lifetime many a noble act
Achieved, both by his wisdom and his sword.
The other, next to me that beats the sand,
Is Aldobrandi, name deserving well,
In the upper world, of honor; and myself,
Who in this torment do partake with them,
Am Rusticucci, whom, past doubt, my wife,
Of savage temper, more than aught beside
Hath to this evil brought." If from the fire
I had been sheltered, down amidst them straight
I then had cast me; nor my guide, I deem,
Would have restrained my going: but that fear
Of the dire burning vanquished the desire,
Which made me eager of their wished embrace.

I then began: "Not scorn, but grief much more,
Such as long time alone can cure, your doom
Fixed deep within me, soon as this my lord
Spake words, whose tenor taught me to expect
That such a race, as ye are, was at hand.
I am a countryman of yours, who still

38. Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincione Berti, of whom mention is made in the Paradise, Canto xv. and xvi. He was of the family of Ravignani, a branch of the Adimari. The Emperor Otho IV. being at a festival in Florence, where Gualdrada was present, was struck with her beauty; and inquiring who she was, was answered by Bellincione, that she was the daughter of one who, if it was his Majesty's pleasure, would make her admit the honor of his salute. On overhearing this, she arose from her seat, and blushing, in an animated tone of voice, desired her father that he would not be so liberal in his offers, for that no man should ever be allowed that freedom except him who should be her lawful husband. The emperor was not less delighted by her resolute modesty than he had before been by the loveliness of her person; and calling to him Guido, one of his barons, gave her to him in marriage; at the same time raising him to the rank of a count, and bestowing on her the whole of Casentino, and a part of the territory of Romagna, as her portion. Two sons were the offspring of

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this union, Guglielmo and Ruggieri; the latter of whom was father of Guidoguerra, a man of great military skill and prowess; who, at the head of four hundred Florentines of the Guelph party, was signally instrumental to the victory obtained at Benevento by Charles of Anjou, over Manfredi, king of Naples, in 1266. One of the consequences of this victory was the expulsion of the Ghibellines and the re-establishment of the Guelph at Florence.

42. Tegghiaio Aldobrandi was of the noble family of Adimari, and much esteemed for his military talents. He endeavored to dissuade the Florentines from the attack which they meditated against the Sienese; and the rejection of his counsel occasioned the memorable defeat which the former sustained at Montaperto, and the consequent banishment of the Guelphs from Florence.

45. Jacopo Rusticucci, a distinguished Florentine knight, of a plebeian family, a man rich and generous, who had been divorced from his wife.

56. See lines 15-18.

Affectionate have uttered, and have heard

Your deeds and names renowned. Leaving the gall,
For the sweet fruit I go, that a sure guide
Hath promised to me. But behoves, that far

As to the centre first I downward tend."

"So may long space thy spirit guide thy limbs,"
He answer straight returned; "and so thy fame
Shine bright when thou art gone, as thou shalt tell,
If courtesy and valor, as they wont,

Dwell in our city, or have vanished clean :
For one amidst us late condemned to wail,
Borsiere, yonder walking with his peers,
Grieves us no little by the news he brings."
"An upstart multitude and sudden gains,
Pride and excess, O Florence! have in thee
Engendered, so that now in tears thou mourn'st!"
Thus cried I, with my face upraised, and they
All three, who for an answer took my words,
Looked at each other, as men look when truth
Comes to their ear. "If at so little cost,"
They all at once rejoined, "thou satisfy
Others who question thee, O happy thou!
Gifted with words so apt to speak thy thought.
Wherefore, if thou escape this darksome clime,
Returning to behold the radiant stars,

When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past,
See that of us thou speak among mankind."

This said, they broke the circle, and so swift
Fled, that as pinions seemed their nimble feet.
Not in so short a time might one have said
"Amen," as they had vanished. Straight my guide
Pursued his track. I followed: and small space
Had we past onward, when the water's sound
Was now so near at hand, that we had scarce
Heard one another's speech for the loud din.

E'en as the river, that first holds its course
Unmingled, from the Mount of Vesulo,
On the left side of Apennine, toward
The east, which Acquacheta higher up

60. "For I perceive that thou art in the gall 75. With face upraised toward Florence, now of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." overhead. Acts viii. 23. 84. "Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit " En. i. 204.

61. Sweet fruit = salvation and the joys of Heaven. Cf. Purg. xxvii. 115 ff. and xxxii. 74 ff.

70. Guglielmo Borsiere, another Florentine, whom Boccaccio, in a story which he relates of him, terms "a man of courteous and elegant manners, and of great readiness in conversation." Dec. i. 8.

94. Dante compares the fall of Phlegethon from the seventh to the eighth circle, to that of the Montone, in the Apennines above the monastery of San Benedetto.

95. Now called Monviso. Here the Po also has its source.

They call, ere it descend into the vale,
At Forli, by that name no longer known,
Rebellows o'er Saint Benedict, rolled on
From the Alpine summit down a precipice,
Where space enough to lodge a thousand spreads;
Thus downward from a craggy steep we found
That this dark wave resounded, roaring loud,
So that the ear its clamor soon had stunned.
I had a cord that braced my girdle round,
Wherewith I erst had thought fast bound to take
The painted leopard. This when I had all
Unloosened from me (so my master bade)
I gathered up, and stretched it forth to him.
Then to the right he turned, and from the brink
Standing few paces distant, cast it down
Into the deep abyss. "And somewhat strange,"
Thus to myself I spake, “signal so strange
Betokens, which my guide with earnest eye
Thus follows." Ah! what caution must men use
With those who look not at the deed alone,
But spy into the thoughts with subtle skill.
"Quickly shall come," he said, “what I expect ;
Thine eye discover quickly that, whereof
Thy thought is dreaming. Ever to that truth,
Which but the semblance of a falsehood wears,
A man, if possible, should bar his lip;
Since, although blameless, he incurs reproach.
But silence here were vain; and by these notes,
Which now I sing, reader, I swear to thee,

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So may they favor find to latest times!
That through the gross and murky air I spied

A shape come swimming up, that might have quelled
The stoutest heart with wonder; in such guise
As one returns, who hath been down to loose

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99. Capital of the province of Forli. Here the name of the Acquacheta is changed to Montone. 102. The monastery of San Benedetto belonged to the Counts Guidi, and was so rich that it might have supported a large number of monks, or of the poor, instead of the few who actually lived there. Or the reference may be as follows: The lords of that territory, as Boccaccio related on the authority of the abbot, had intended to build a castle near the waterfall, and to collect within its walls the population of the neighboring villages.

106. This passage, as it is confessed by Landino, involves a fiction sufficiently obscure. His own attempt to unravel it does not much lessen the difficulty. That which Lombardi has made

is something better. It is believed that our Poet, in the earlier part of his life, had entered into the order of St. Francis. By observing the rules of that profession, he had designed to mortify his carnal appetites, or, as he expresses it, "to take the painted leopard" (that animal, which, as we have seen in a note to the first Canto, represented Pleasure) "with this cord.” This part of the habit he is now desired by Virgil to take off; and it is thrown down the gulf, to allure Geryon to them with the expectation of carrying down one who had cloaked his iniquities under the garb of penitence and self-mortification.

125. Notes verses, or rhymes.

An anchor grappled fast against some rock,

Or to aught else that in the salt wave lies,
Who, upward springing, close draws in his feet.

CANTO XVII.

ARGUMENT.

The monster Geryon is described; to whom while Virgil is speaking in order that he may carry them both down to the next circle, Dante, by permission, goes a little further along the edge of the void, to descry the third species of sinners contained in this compartment, namely, those who have done violence to Art; and then returning to his master, they both descend, seated on the back of Geryon.

"Lo! the fell monster with the deadly sting,

Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls
And firm embattled spears, and with his filth
Taints all the world." Thus me my guide addressed,
And beckoned him, that he should come to shore,
Near to the stony causeway's utmost edge.

Forthwith that image vile of Fraud appeared,
His head and upper part exposed on land,
But laid not on the shore his bestial train.
His face the semblance of a just man's wore,
So kind and gracious was its outward cheer;
The rest was serpent all: two shaggy claws
Reached to the arm-pits; and the back and breast,
And either side, were painted o'er with nodes
And orbits. Colors variegated more

Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state
With interchangeable embroidery wove,
Nor spread Arachne o'er her curious loom.
As oft-times a light skiff, moored to the shore,
Stands part in water, part upon the land;
Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor,
The beaver settles, watching for his prey;

1. Fraud. Geryon, according to Hesiod, was a three-headed giant killed by Hercules. The figure described by Dante, however, resembles but little that given by the Greek poet.

6. The stony banks of Phlegethon. 14. The original nodi means simply knots or nooses; the rotelle means wheels or circles. Allegorically the former signify speech purposely involved in order to deceive, the latter the shield of fraud, behind which the fraudulent hide themselves.

18. Celebrated weaver of Lydia, who chal

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lenged Minerva to a contest in weaving, and was changed into a spider. See Ovid, Met. vi. 5 ff. Dante mentions her again in Purg. xii. 39.

21. Tacitus says of the Germans, dediti somno ciboque. Cf. French, "boire comme un Allemand."

22. The beaver, according to old tradition, was said to catch fish by dropping its tail in the water. The falseness of the story is seen in the fact that the beaver does not eat fish.