Stood manifest to view. Incontinent

There on the green enamel of the plain

Were shown me the great spirits, by whose sight
I am exalted in my own esteem.

Electra there I saw accompanied

By many, among whom Hector I knew,
Anchises' pious son, and with hawk's eye
Cæsar all armed, and by Camilla there
Penthesilea. On the other side,
Old King Latinus, seated by his child
Lavinia, and that Brutus I beheld,
Who Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Cato's wife
Marcia, with Julia and Cornelia there;
And sole apart retired, the Soldan fierce.

Then when a little more I raised my brow,
I spied the master of the sapient throng,
Seated amid the philosophic train.
Him all admire, all pay him reverence due.
There Socrates and Plato both I marked,
Nearest to him in rank, Democritus,
Who sets the world at chance, Diogenes,
With Heraclitus, and Empedocles,
And Anaxagoras, and Thales sage,
Zeno, and Dioscorides well read

In nature's secret lore. Orpheus I marked
And Linus, Tully and moral Seneca,

114. For an interesting discussion of the use of enamel here, see Ruskin, Modern Painters, iii. ch. 14.

117. The daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus, the founder of Troy. See Virg. Æn. viii. 134, as referred to by Dante in his treatise De Monarchia, ii, 3. "Electra, scilicet, nata magni nominis regis Atlantis, ut de ambobus testimonium reddit poeta noster in octavo ubi Eneas ad Avandrum sic ait

"Dardanus Iliacæ," etc.

120. Camilla is also mentioned, Hell, i. 104. 121. Queen of the Amazons, who fell in Asia fighting for the Trojans.

122. Father-in-law of Eneas.

123. Junius Brutus, the first consul. The other Brutus, together with Cassius and Judas, is placed by the Poet in the lowest circle of Hell, that of the traitors.

124. Lucretia, wife of Collatinus.

125. Julia was the daughter of Julius Cæsar and wife of Pompey. Cornelia was the daughter of Scipio Africanus, and mother of the Gracchi.

126. Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, born 1137, died 1193, celebrated for his virtue and

115

120

125

130

135

generosity. It is interesting to note that Dante's friend Giotto introduces Saladin in his frescoes on the life of S. Francis, in the Church of S. Croce in Florence.

128. Aristotle. Petrarch assigns the first place to Plato. See Triumph of Fame, iii. In the Convito (iv. 2) Dante calls Aristotle "the master of human reason."

132. Democritus, who taught that the world was made by the fortuitous concourse of atoms. 133. Diogenes the Cynic.

134. Heraclitus of Ephesus, called the "Weeping Philosopher." Empedocles, follower of Pythagoras; said to have thrown himself into the crater of Etna.

135. Anaxagoras, master of Pericles. Thales of Miletus was founder of the Ionic School. 136. Zeno, chief of the Stoics. Dioscorides wrote a treatise on the properties of plants and stones.

138. Linus, fabulous singer, son of Apollo. Others, and with more probability, read Livius. Tully Marcus Tullius Cicero. L. Annæus Seneca the celebrated Roman Stoic philosopher, teacher of Nero.

=

Coming into the second circle of Hell, Dante at the entrance beholds Minos the Infernal Judge, by whom he is admonished to beware how he enters those regions. Here he witnesses the punishment of carnal sinners, who are tossed about ceaselessly in the dark air by the most furious winds. Amongst these, he meets with Francesca of Rimini, through pity at whose sad tale he falls fainting to the ground.

FROM the first circle I descended thus
Down to the second, which, a lesser space
Embracing, so much more of grief contains,
Provoking bitter moans. There Minos stands
Grinning with ghastly feature: he, of all
Who enter, strict examining the crimes,
Gives sentence, and dismisses them beneath,
According as he foldeth him around:

For when before him comes the ill-fated soul,
It all confesses; and that judge severe
Of sins, considering what place in hell
Suits the transgression, with his tail so oft
Himself encircles, as degrees beneath

He dooms it to descend. Before him stand
Alway a numerous throng; and in his turn
Each one to judgment passing, speaks, and hears
His fate, thence downward to his dwelling hurled.

139. Ptolemy, the astronomer and geographer, whose system Dante follows in the Divine Comedy. Hippocrates, Galenus, and Avicenna were three famous physicians, the first a Greek, the second from Pergamos in Asia, the third an Arab.

141. Arab philosopher, author of a celebrated commentary on Aristotle.

2. Hell being shaped like an inverted cone, it

5

ΙΟ

15

"O thou! who to this residence of woe
Approachest?" when he saw me coming, cried
Minos, relinquishing his dread employ,

"Look how thou enter here; beware in whom
Thou place thy trust; let not the entrance broad
Deceive thee to thy harm." To him my guide:
"Wherefore exclaimest? Hinder not his way
By destiny appointed; so 't is willed

Where will and power are one. Ask thou no more."
Now 'gin the rueful wailings to be heard.

20

25

Now am I come where many a plaining voice

Smites on mine ear. Into a place I came

Where light was silent all. Bellowing there groaned
A noise, as of a sea in tempest torn

30

By warring wings. The stormy blast of hell
With restless fury drives the spirits on,

Whirled round and dashed amain with sore annoy.
When they arrive before the ruinous sweep,

35

There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans,

And blasphemies 'gainst the good Power in heaven.

I understood that to this torment sad
The carnal sinners are condemned, in whom
Reason by lust is swayed. As in large troops
And multitudinous, when winter reigns,

The starlings on their wings are borne abroad;
So bears the tyrannous gust those evil souls.
On this side and on that, above, below,
It drives them: hope of rest to solace them
Is none, nor e'en of milder pang.

As cranes,

Chanting their dolorous notes, traverse the sky,
Stretched out in long array; so I beheld

40

45

Spirits, who came loud wailing, hurried on

By their dire doom. Then I: "Instructor! who

50

Are these, by the black air so scourged?"—"The first

'Mong those, of whom thou question'st," he replied,

"O'er many tongues was empress. She in vice

Of luxury was so shameless, that she made

Liking be lawful by promulged decree,

To clear the blame she had herself incurred.

This is Semiramis, of whom 't is writ,

55

25. Cf. Hell, iii. 89-90, where the same words Wheel their due flight in varied ranks deare spoken to Charon.

scried;

35. The precipice which surrounds the vast And each with outstretched neck his rank maincentral abyss of Hell.

tains,

In marshalled order through the ethereal void." Cf. Homer, I. iii. 3. Virgil, Æn. x. 264, and Dante's Purgatory, Canto xxiv. 63.

46. This simile is imitated by Lorenzo de' Medici, in his Ambra, a poem, first published by Mr. Roscoe, in the Appendix to his Life of Lorenzo:57. Queen of Assyria, famous for her licen"Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous tiousness. The expression " of whom 't is writ' refers to a passage in Orosius (Hist. i. c. 4),

cranes

"

That she succeeded Ninus her espoused;
And held the land, which now the Soldan rules.
The next in amorous fury slew herself,
And to Sicheus' ashes broke her faith:
Then follows Cleopatra, lustful queen."

There marked I Helen, for whose sake so long
The time was fraught with evil; there the great
Achilles, who with love fought to the end.
Paris I saw, and Tristan; and beside,

A thousand more he showed me, and by name
Pointed them out, whom love bereaved of life.

When I had heard my sage instructor name

60

65

Those dames and knights of antique days, o'erpowered
By pity, well-nigh in amaze my mind

70

Was lost and I began: “Bard! willingly

I would address those two together coming,

Which seem so light before the wind." He thus:
"Note thou, when nearer they to us approach.
Then by that love which carries them along,
Entreat; and they will come. Soon as the wind
Swayed them toward us, I thus framed my speech:
"O wearied spirits! come, and hold discourse
With us, if by none else restrained." As doves
By fond desire invited, on wide wings

75

80

And firm, to their sweet nest returning home,

Cleave the air, wafted by their will along;

Thus issued, from that troop, where Dido ranks,

They, through the ill air speeding; with such force
My cry prevailed by strong affection urged.

85

"O gracious creature and benign! who goest
Visiting, through this element obscure,
Us, who the world with bloody stain imbrued;
If, for a friend the King of all, we owned,
Our prayer to him should for thy peace arise,

90

66. Some take Paris to be the son of Priam and the lover of Helen; others believe a knight of medieval romance to be meant.

Tristan was a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. He fell in love with Iseult, wife of his uncle Mark, King of Cornwall, and was wounded by the latter by a poisoned arrow. Iseult came to him on his death-bed, and as the lovers embraced, both died of love and despair. This beautiful legend forms the subject of a long

63. Wife of Menelaus. Her flight with Paris poem by Gottfried von Strassburg, and one by was the cause of the Trojan War.

65. Achilles' love for Polyxena was the cause of his death, he having been killed treacherously by her brother Paris, while the marriage was taking place.

Chrétien de Troye (lost), and has been treated in modern times by Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Swinburne, and Wagner.

Since thou hast pity on our evil plight.
Of whatsoe'er to hear or to discourse
It pleases thee, that will we hear, of that
Freely with thee discourse, while e'er the wind,
As now, is mute. The land, that gave me birth,
Is situate on the coast, where Po descends
To rest in ocean with his sequent streams.

"Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt,
Entangled him by that fair form, from me
Ta'en in such cruel sort, as grieves me still:
Love, that denial takes from none beloved,
Caught me with pleasing him so passing well,
That, as thou seest, he yet deserts me not.
Love brought us to one death: Caïna waits.

The soul, who spilt our life." Such were their words:
At hearing which downward I bent my looks,
And held them there so long, that the bard cried:
"What art thou pond'ring?" I in answer thus:
"Alas! by what sweet thoughts, what fond desire
Must they at length to that ill pass have reached!"
Then turning, I to them my speech addressed.
And thus began: "Francesca! your sad fate
Even to tears my grief and pity moves.
But tell me; in the time of your sweet sighs,
By what, and how love granted, that ye knew
Your yet uncertain wishes?" She replied:
"No greater grief than to remember days

96. Ravenna. M. Ampère speaks of the topographical accuracy of this passage, in his Voyage Dantesque.

of Rimini, a man of extraordinary courage, but deformed in his person. His brother Paolo, who unhappily possessed those graces which the

99. Cf. the first line of the sonnet in the New husband of Francesca wanted, engaged her Life, § xx:

affections; and being taken in adultery, they were both put to death by the enraged Gianciotto.

The whole of this passage is alluded to by Petrarch, in his Triumph of Love, iii. Leigh Hunt has expanded the episode into a long poem, called Story of Rimini. 118. Imitated by Chaucer: