His shoulders towards Damietta; and at Rome,
As in his mirror, looks. Of finest gold
His head is shaped, pure silver are the breast
And arms, thence to the middle is of brass,
And downward all beneath well-tempered steel,
Save the right foot of potter's clay, on which
Than on the other more erect he stands.
Each part, except the gold, is rent throughout;
And from the fissure tears distil, which joined
Penetrate to that cave. They in their course,
Thus far precipitated down the rock,
Form Acheron, and Styx, and Phlegethon;
Then by this straitened channel passing hence
Beneath, e'en to the lowest depth of all,
Form there Cocytus, of whose lake (thyself
Shalt see it) I here give thee no account."

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115

Then I to him: "If from our world this sluice

Be thus derived; wherefore to us but now
Appears it at this edge?" He straight replied:

"The place, thou know'st, is round: and though great part
Thou hast already past, still to the left

Descending to the nethermost, not yet

120

Hast thou the circuit made of the whole orb.

Then I again inquired: "Where flow the streams
Of Phlegethon and Lethe? for of one
Thou tell'st not; and the other, of that shower,
Thou say'st, is formed." He answer thus returned:
"Doubtless thy questions all well pleased I hear.
Yet the red seething wave might have resolved
One thou proposest. Lethe thou shalt see,
But not within this hollow, in the place
Whither, to lave themselves, the spirits go,
Whose blame hath been by penitence removed.”
He added: "Time is now we quit the wood.
Look thou my steps pursue: the margins give
Safe passage, unimpeded by the flames;
For over them all vapor is extinct."

to Rome, shows that the latter place has been ordained by God as the centre of all power, temporal and spiritual.

102. "This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay." Daniel ii. 32, 33.

108. The tears represent the vices and sor

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135

CANTO XV.

ARGUMENT.

Taking their way upon one of the mounds by which the streamlet, spoken of in the last Canto, was embanked, and having gone so far that they could no longer have discerned the forest if they had turned round to look for it, they meet a troop of spirits that come along the sand by the side of the pier. These are they who have done violence to Nature; and amongst them Dante distinguishes Brunetto Latini, who had been formerly his master; with whom, turning a little backward, he holds a discourse which occupies the remainder of this Canto.

ONE of the solid margins bear us now

Enveloped in the mist, that, from the stream
Arising, hovers o'er, and saves from fire

Both piers and water. As the Flemings rear

Their mound, 'twixt Ghent and Bruges, to chase back

The ocean, fearing his tumultuous tide

That drives toward them; or the Paduans theirs

5

So framed, though not in height or bulk to these

Made equal, by the master, whosoe'er

Were now so far removed, that turning round

He was, that raised them here. We from the wood

I might not have discerned it, when we met

A troop of spirits, who came beside the pier.
They each one eyed us, as at eventide
One eyes another under a new moon;
And toward us sharpened their sight, as keen
As an old tailor at his needle's eye.

Thus narrowly explored by all the tribe,

I was agnized of one, who by the skirt

Caught me, and cried, "What wonder have we here?"
And I, when he to me outstretched his arm,
Intently fixed my ken on his parched looks,
That although smirched with fire, they hindered not
But I remembered him; and towards his face

5. Cary is wrong in translating Guizzante as Ghent. Philalethes writes Cadsand (northwest of Bruges), but Scartazzini believes Wissant (near Calais) to be meant. So also Professor Norton. It may be worth while to note here that the Latin languages represent Germanic w, by means of gu, as Gualtiero for Walter, guerra, for war, etc.

ΙΟ

15

20

25

this mountain. Most of the ancients took it as standing for Carinthia, which, according to Villani was called Chiarentana by the Florentines. Scartazzini sees no reason for rejecting this interpretation. See Encic. Dantesca, i.

359.

12. The master God. Cf. Canto iii. 4-6. 18. Cf. "Quale per incertam lunam sub luce

10. There is much dispute on the identity of maligna." Æn. vi. 271

66

My hand inclining, answered: "Sir! Brunetto!
And are ye here?" He thus to me: My son!
Oh let it not displease thee, if Brunetto
Latini but a little space with thee
Turn back, and leave his fellows to proceed."
I thus to him replied: "Much as I can,
I thereto pray thee; and if thou be willing
That I here seat me with thee, I consent;

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35

His leave, with whom I journey, first obtained.”
"O son!" said he, "whoever of this throng
One instant stops, lies then a hundred years,
No fan to ventilate him, when the fire

Smites sorest. Pass thou therefore on. I close
Will at thy garments walk, and then rejoin
My troop, who go mourning their endless doom."
I dared not from the path descend to tread
On equal ground with him, but held my head
Bent down as one who walks in reverent guise.
"What chance or destiny," thus he began,
"Ere the last day, conducts thee here below?
And who is this that shows to thee the way?"
"There up aloft," I answered, "in the life
Serene, I wandered in a valley lost,
Before mine age had to its fulness reached.
But yester-morn I left it: then once more
Into that vale returning, him I met;

And by this path homeward he leads me back."

"If thou," he answered, "follow but thy star,
Thou canst not miss at last a glorious haven;
Unless in fairer days my judgment erred.
And if my fate so early had not chanced,
Seeing the heavens thus bounteous to thee, I
Had gladly given thee comfort in thy work.
But that ungrateful and malignant race,
Who in old times came down from Fiesole,
Ay and still smack of their rough mountain-flint.

28. Brunetto Latini, born 1220, of the noble
family da Scarniano, and a distinguished scholar
of his day. He died in 1294. His chief extant
works are Il Tesoretto, an allegorical didactic
poem in Italian, and Li Trésors written in
French, a sort of encyclopædia of the learning
of the times. The latter has been edited by
Chabaille, Paris, 1863. Philalethes says Latini
was Dante's teacher, a fact which lines 83 ff.
would seem to indicate. Scartazzini, however,
who in his note in loc. holds the same, contests
the truth of the statement in his Dante (in the
series of Geisteshelden), Berlin, 1896.
47. Death.

50. Hell, i. 1 ff.

40

45

50

55

60

55. There are many references in the Divine Comedy to the influence of the stars. Dante was born when the sun was in the constellation of the Gemini (Par. xxii. 108), a conjunction favorable to the acquisition of knowledge and literary fame.

58. This does not refer to Brunetto's death as a young man, but he means that he died too early to help develop Dante's genius.

62. Fiesole was, according to Florentine tradition, the first city built in Europe. Destroyed by J. Cæsar, the Romans built a new city, which they called Florence.

63. Referring to its location on a hill near Florence.

Will for thy good deeds show thee enmity.
Nor wonder; for amongst ill-savored crabs
It suits not the sweet fig-tree lay her fruit.
Old fame reports them in the world for blind,
Covetous, envious, proud. Look to it well:

65

Take heed thou cleanse thee of their ways. For thee,
Thy fortune hath such honor in reserve,

70

That thou by either party shalt be craved

With hunger keen: but be the fresh herb far

From the goat's tooth. The herd of Fiesole

May of themselves make litter, not touch the plant,

If any such yet spring on their rank bed,
In which the holy seed revives, transmitted

75

From those true Romans, who still there remained,
When it was made the nest of so much ill."

80

"Were all my wish fufilled," I straight replied,
"Thou from the confines of man's nature yet
Hadst not been driven forth; for in my mind
Is fixed, and now strikes full upon my heart,
The dear, benign, paternal image, such

As thine was, when so lately thou didst teach me
The way for man to win eternity:

And how I prized the lesson, it behoves,

That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak.
What of my fate thou tellest, that write I down;
And, with another text to comment on,

85

For her I keep it, the celestial dame,

Who will know all, if I to her arrive.

This only would I have thee clearly note:

That, so my conscience have no plea against me,
Do Fortune as she list, I stand prepared.
Not new or strange such earnest to mine ear.
Speed Fortune then her wheel, as likes her best;
The clown his mattock; all things have their course.
Thereat my sapient guide upon his right

65. By crabs (crab apples) Dante denotes the Florentines descended from Fiesolans; by figs, those descended from Romans.

66. The origin of this "old fame" is given in different ways. 1. It is related that when Totila besieged the Florentines he persuaded them to open the gates of the city under promise to help them against their enemies, the Pistoiese. Entering in he put the city to sack. 2. The Pisans offered the Florentines the choice of two prosents, given as a reward for assistance rendered during war, either two beautiful bronze doors, or two columns of porphyry injured by fire and painted. The Florentines stupidly

chose the latter.

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95

71. Both the Bianchi and Neri parties. 72. They will desire you in vain." After his exile Dante belonged to neither party (Par. xvii. 67).

74. Dante attributes the evils of Florence to the descendants of the boorish Fiesolans, while the nobler element of the city he supposed to be descendants of the Romans. He classes himself among the latter.

8o. "Thou art not yet dead."

89. Refers to prediction of Farinata in Canto x.; also Ciacco's remarks in Canto vi. 90. Beatrice.

96. "Come what may, let Fortune and men change, I shall remain unmoved."

Turned himself back, then looked at me, and spake :
"He listens to good purpose who takes note.”
I not the less still on my way proceed,
Discoursing with Brunetto, and inquire
Who are most known and chief among his tribe.
"To know of some is well; " he thus replied,
"But of the rest silence may best beseem.
Time would not serve us for report so long.
In brief I tell thee, that all these were clerks,
Men of great learning and no less renown,
By one same sin polluted in the world.
With them is Priscian; and Accorso's son,
Francesco, herds among that wretched throng:
And, if the wish of so impure a blotch

Possessed thee, him thou also mightst have seen,
Who by the servants' servant was transferred
From Arno's seat to Bacchiglione, where

His ill-strained nerves he left. I more would add,
But must from further speech and onward way
Alike desist; for yonder I behold

A mist new-risen on the sandy plain.
A company, with whom I may not sort,
Approaches. I commend my Treasure to thee,
Wherein I yet survive; my sole request."

This said, he turned, and seemed as one of those
Who o'er Verona's champian try their speed
For the green mantle; and of them he seemed,
Not he who loses but who gains the prize.

110. There is no reason to believe, as the commentators observe, that the grammarian Priscian was stained with the vice imputed to him; and we must therefore suppose that Dante puts the individual for the species, and implies the frequency of the crime among those who abused the opportunities which the education of youth afforded them, to so abominable a purpose.

Accorso was a Florentine, interpreted the Roman law at Bologna, and died in 1229, at the age of seventy-eight. His authority was so great

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120

125

as to exceed that of all the other interpreters, so that Cino da Pistoia termed him the Idol of Advocates. His sepulchre, and that of his son Francesco here spoken of, is at Bologna, with this short epitaph: "Sepulchrum Accursii Glossatoris et Francisci ejus Filii."

113. This is Andrea de' Mozzi, made bishop of Florence in 1287, changed to Vicenza (indicated by the river Bacchiglione) in 1295, by Boniface VIII., the servus servorum Domini. 124. Referring to the annual races held in Verona, the prize being a green mantle.