I said it, somewhat with that color tinged,
Which oft-times pardon meriteth for man.
Meanwhile traverse along the hill there came,
A little way before us, some who sang
The "Miserere " in responsive strains.

When they perceived that through my body I
Gave way not for the rays to pass, their song
Straight to a long and hoarse exclaim they changed;
And two of them, in guise of messengers,
Ran on to meet us, and inquiring asked:
"Of your condition we would gladly learn.”
To them my guide. "Ye may return, and bear
Tidings to them who sent you, that his frame
Is real flesh. If, as I deem, to view

His shade they paused, enough is answered them:
Him let them honor: they may prize him well.”
Ne'er saw I fiery vapors with such speed
Cut through the serene air at fall of night,
Nor August's clouds athwart the setting sun,
That upward these did not in shorter space

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Return; and, there arriving, with the rest

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Wheel back on us, as with loose rein a troop.

"Many," exclaimed the bard, "are these, who throng

Around us to petition thee, they come.

Go therefore on, and listen as thou go'st."

"O spirit! who go'st on to blessedness,

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With the same limbs that clad thee at thy birth,"

Shouting they cane: "a little rest thy step.

Look if thou any one amongst our tribe

Hast e'er beheld, that tidings of him there

Thou mayst report. Ah, wherefore go'st thou on?

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And wherefore tarriest thou not? We all

By violence died, and to our latest hour

Were sinners, but then warned by light from heaven;

So that, repenting and forgiving, we

Did issue out of life at peace with God,

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Who, with desire to see him, fills our heart."

Then I "The visages of all I scan,

Yet none of ye remember. But if aught

20. Refers to the color of the face when where they are may induce the latter to pray blushing.

24. The Miserere is the fiftieth Psalm in the Latin version, and is usually appointed for penitential acts.

This group is the third class of the negligent, those who, overcome by a violent death, repented just before death, and were saved. Dante does not tell us how long they must wait outside Purgatory.

35. Because Dante by telling their friends

for them, and thus shorten their period of purgation.

36. Falling stars. This is a very common figure among the poets. Scores of parallels could be given, of which the following one from Milton may stand as an example,

"Swift as a shooting star
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapors fired
Impress the air.”
P. L. iv. 558.

That I can do may please you, gentle spirits!
Speak, and I will perform it; by that peace,
Which, on the steps of guide so excellent
Following, from world to world, intent I seek."
In answer he began: "None here distrusts

Thy kindness, though not promised with an oath ;
So as the will fail not for want of power.
Whence I, who sole before the others speak,
Entreat thee, if thou ever see that land

Which lies between Romagna and the realm
Of Charles, that of thy courtesy thou pray
Those who inhabit Fano, that for me
Their adorations duly be put up,

By which I may purge off my grievous sins.
From thence I came. But the deep passages,
Whence issued out the blood wherein I dwelt,
Upon my bosom in Antenor's land

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Were made, where to be more secure I thought.
The author of the deed was Este's prince,

Who, more than right could warrant, with his wrath
Pursued me. Had I towards Mira fled,

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When overta'en at Oriaco, still

Might I have breathed. But to the marsh I sped;
And in the mire and rushes tangled there
Fell, and beheld my life-blood float the plain."

Then said another: "Ah! so may the wish,
That takes thee o'er the mountain, be fulfilled,
As thou shalt graciously give aid to mine.
Of Montefeltro I; Buonconte I:

Giovanna nor none else have care for me;
Sorrowing with these I therefore go." I thus:
"From Campaldino's field what force or chance
Drew thee, that ne'er thy sepulture was known?”
"Oh!" answered he, "at Casentino's foot

65. The spirit says he believes Dante will do what he promises, unless he fails to return to earth, in which case the "will will fail for want of power."

67. The March of Ancona, situated between Romagna and Apulia, the "realm" of Charles of Anjou.

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90

founded by Antenor, the Trojan prince, who was looked upon by some as a traitor. Hence the name Antenora. See Hell, xxxii. 89.

79. A city between Venice and Padua, on the banks of the Brenta.

87. Buonconte di Montefeltro, son of Guido (see Hell, xxvii.). He was slain at the battle of

70. A town in the province of Pesaro e Campaldino, in 1289, but his body was never Urbino, situated on the Adriatic.

found. Dante was also present at this battle. 88. His wife.

89. The word sorrowing does not express the force of the original, con bassa fronte = with bent forehead. He is ashamed of being neglected by his own relatives.

92. Casentino is a province of the Upper Arno Valley among the Apennines.

A stream there courseth, named Archiano, sprung
In Apennine above the hermit's seat.

E'en where its name is cancelled, there came I,
Pierced in the throat, fleeing away on foot,
And bloodying the plain. Here sight and speech
Failed me; and, finishing with Mary's name,
I fell, and tenantless my flesh remained.
I will report the truth; which thou again
Tell to the living. Me God's angel took,
Whilst he of hell exclaimed: "O thou from heaven:
Say wherefore hast thou robbed me? Thou of him
The eternal portion bear'st with thee away,
For one poor tear that he deprives me of.
But of the other, other rule I make.'

"Thou know'st how in the atmosphere collects
That vapor dank, returning into water

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Soon as it mounts where cold condenses it.

Still follows evil, came; and raised the wind
And smoky mist, by virtue of the power
Given by his nature. Thence the valley, soon
As day was spent, he covered o'er with cloud,
From Pratomagno to the mountain range;
And stretched the sky above; so that the air
Impregnate changed to water. Fell the rain;
And to the fosses came all that the land

Contained not; and, as mightiest streams are wont,
To the great river, with such headlong sweep,

Rushed, that nought stayed its course. My stiffened frame
Laid at his mouth, the fell Archiano found,
And dashed it into Arno; from my breast
Loosening the cross, that of myself I made
When overcome with pain.

93. A stream which has its source among the Apennines, above the hermitage of Camaldoli, passes by the village of Serravalle and empties into the Arno.

95. At its junction with the Arno.

96. Ruskin has said of the following lines that there is nothing like them in all literature. 98. He died invoking the Virgin Mary. 101. It is interesting to compare this passage with Hell, xxvii. 108 ff., where Saint Francis contends with the devil for the soul of Buonconte's father, but loses it, on account of the latter's evil counsel, while here "una lagrimetta" (one little tear) saves the soul of the son.

107. The accuracy of the following description, of the rise and development of a rainstorm, has often been admired. The following passage, from St. Thomas Aquinas, shows a remarkable

He hurled me on,

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resemblance to Dante, which I believe has never before been noticed. "Oportet enim, inferioribus partibus ex propinquitate solis calefactis, resolvi vapores ex aquis, quibus sursum ascendentibus propter calorem, cum pervenerint ad locum ubi deficit calor propter distantiam, a loco ubi reverberantur radii solis, necesse est quod aqua vaporabiliter ascendens congeletur ibidem; et congelatione facta vapores vertantur, in aquam, et cum aqua fuerit generata, necesse est quod cadat deorsum propter gravitatem." Carbonel, Divi T. Aquinatis Excerpta Phil. i. 971.

115. Protomagno is one of the spurs of the Apennines; the "mountain range' " (which in the original = gran giogo = great chain) refers to the latter.

Many besides, who are in like case with those spoken of in the last Canto, beseech our Poet to obtain for them the prayers of their friends, when he shall be returned to this world. This moves him to express a doubt to his guide, how the dead can be profited by the prayers of the living; for the solution of which doubt he is referred to Beatrice. Afterwards he meets with Sordello the Mantuan, whose affection, shown to Virgil his countryman, leads Dante to break forth into an invective against the unnatural divisions with which Italy, and more especially Florence, was distracted.

WHEN from their game of dice men separate,
He who hath lost remains in sadness fixed,
Revolving in his mind what luckless throws
He cast: but, meanwhile, all the company
Go with the other; one before him runs,
And one behind his mantle twitches, one
Fast by his side bids him remember him.
He stops not; and each one, to whom his hand

Is stretched, well knows he bids him stand aside;
And thus he from the press defends himself.
E'en such was I in that close-crowding throng;
And turning so my face around to all,
And promising, I 'scaped from it with pains.
Here of Arezzo him I saw, who fell

131. Pia de' Tolomei, of Siena, wife of Nello de' Pannocchieschi, Lord of Pietra. She was murdered at Maremma by her husband, who had her thrown out of the window of his castle.

133. The reference in the words "with jewelled ring" seems to indicate she was a widow when she married Nello.

1. The original has il giuoco della zara, a game played with three dice. It was said by the old commentators to be so well known as not to need description. It has not been played, however, for centuries.

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IO

"Ei non s'arresta, e questo e quello intende; A cui porge la man più non fa pressa." "He does not stop, and he gives his attention to this one and that one;

The man to whom he extends his hand presses him no more."

Cary apparently misunderstood the word intende = to give attention, to listen, to hear.

14. Benincasa da Laterina, a very learned judge of Arezzo. He condemned to death, for robbery, one or more relatives of Ghino di Tacco, and was waylaid and murdered by the 8. The translation of these two lines is not latter, who himself was a violent man and accurate.

The original has, –

famous for his robberies.

By Ghino's cruel arm; and him beside,

Who in his chase was swallowed by the stream.
Here Frederic Novello, with his hand

Stretched forth, entreated; and of Pisa he,

Who put the good Marzucco to such proof
Of constancy. Count Orso I beheld;

And from its frame a soul dismissed for spite
And envy, as it said, but for no crime;

I speak of Peter de la Brosse: and here,
While she yet lives, that Lady of Brabant,
Let her beware; lest for so false a deed

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She herd with worse than these. When I was freed
From all those spirits, who prayed for others' prayers
To hasten on their state of blessedness;
Straight I began: "O thou, my luminary!

It seems expressly in thy text denied,

That heaven's supreme decree can ever bend
To supplication; yet with this design

Do these entreat. Can then their hope be vain?
Or is thy saying not to me revealed?

He thus to me: "Both what I write is plain,
And these deceived not in their hope; if well

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Thy mind consider, that the sacred height

Of judgment doth not stoop, because love's flame

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In a short moment all fulfils, which he,
Who sojourns here, in right should satisfy.
Besides, when I this point concluded thus,
By praying no defect could be supplied;
Because the prayer had none access to God.

17. Son of Guido Novello. He was killed in 1289, or 1290, by one of the Bostoli, of Arezzo, near Bibbiena.

18. Farinata, son of Marzucco degli Scornigiani, of Pisa. All old commentators agree in saying that Farinata was murdered, but they explain the expression "put the good Marzucco to such proof," in various ways, some declaring that it refers to the speedy vengeance taken by the father on the murderer of his son; others, to his magnanimity in bearing his grief and in pardoning the offender.

20. Orso degli Alberti, of Florence, or according to others, son of Count Napoleone della Cerbaia, slain by Alberto da Mangona, a near relative.

23. Favorite of Philip the Bold, King of France. He is said to have accused Marie de

Brabant, wife of the king, of having poisoned her step-son, Louis, in order to secure the throne to her own son. The queen, filled with anger and hate, in her turn accused Peter of treason, and succeeded in having him hung.

25. Let Mary repent her false deed, lest after death she be punished in Hell instead of Purgatory, as Peter de la Brosse.

30. The "text" refers to Virgil, Æn. vi. 376, "Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando." The souls in Purgatory ask Dante to obtain for them the prayers of their friends, yet the above line of Virgil seems to declare that prayers cannot bend the decrees of God. Virgil answers that love can take the place of punishment, without weakening justice. I.e. God will accept the earnest prayers of the friends of the souls in Purgatory, as a substitute for their punishment. Virgil further refers Dante to Beatrice for a fuller solution of his doubts, since he (Human Reason) is not sufficient to interpret fully the will of God in such matters.