So on the rim, that fenced the sand with rock,
Sat perched the fiend of evil. In the void
Glancing, his tail upturned its venomous fork,

25

With sting like scorpion's armed. Then thus my guide:
"Now need our way must turn few steps apart,

Far as to that ill beast, who couches there."

Thereat, toward the right our downward course
We shaped, and, better to escape the flame
And burning marle, ten paces on the verge
Proceeded. Soon as we to him arrive,
A little further on mine eye beholds
A tribe of spirits, seated on the sand

30

Near to the void. Forthwith my master spake :
"That to the full thy knowledge may extend
Of all this round contains, go now, and mark

35

The mien these wear: but hold not long discourse.
Till thou returnest, I with him meantime
Will parley, that to us he may vouchsafe

40

The aid of his strong shoulders." Thus alone,

Yet forward on the extremity I paced

Of that seventh circle, where the mournful tribe

Were seated. At the eyes forth gushed their pangs.

Against the vapors and the torrid soil

45

Alternately their shifting hands they plied.

Thus use the dogs in summer still to ply

Their jaws and feet by turns, when bitten sore

By gnats, or flies, or gadflies swarming round.
Noting the visages of some, who lay
Beneath the pelting of that dolorous fire,
One of them all I knew not; but perceived,
That pendent from his neck each bore a pouch
With colors and with emblems various marked,

50

On which it seemed as if their eye did feed.

55

And when, amongst them, looking round I came,

A yellow purse I saw with azure.wrought,
That wore a lion's countenance and port.
Then, still my sight pursuing its career,
Another I beheld, than blood more red,
A goose display of whiter wing than curd.

23. The whole inner edge of the seventh circle forms, as it were, a continuation of the stony border of Phlegethon.

34. The violent against Art, or usurers. The reader will remember that the blasphemers lie supine, and the Sodomites run about over the plain.

53. A purse whereon the armorial bearings of each were emblazoned. According to Landino, our Poet implies that the usurer can pretend to no other honor than such as he derives from

60

his purse and his family. The description of persons by their heraldic insignia is remarkable, both on the present and several other occasions in this poem.

57. The arms of the Gianfigliazzi of Florence. 60. The arms of the Ubbriachi, another Florentine family of high distinction. Dante's impartiality can be seen in the fact that this family is Ghibelline, while the Gianfigliazzi were Guelphs.

And one, who bore a fat and azure swine

Pictured on his white scrip, addressed me thus:

"What dost thou in this deep? Go now and know,
Since yet thou livest, that my neighbor here
Vitaliano on my left shall sit.

65

A Paduan with these Florentines am I.

Oft-times they thunder in mine ears, exclaiming,

'Oh! haste that noble knight, he who the pouch

With the three goats will bring.' This said, he writhed
The mouth, and lolled the tongue out, like an ox
That licks his nostrils. I, lest longer stay
He ill might brook, who bade me stay not long,
Backward my steps from those sad spirits turned.
My guide already seated on the haunch
Of the fierce animal I found; and thus
He me encouraged. "Be thou stout: be bold.
Down such a steep flight must we now descend.
Mount thou before: for, that no power the tail
May have to harm thee, I will be i' th' midst."

Ás one, who hath an ague fit so near,
His nails already are turned blue, and he
Quivers all o'er, if he but eye the shade;

70

75

80

Such was my cheer at hearing of his words.

But shame soon interposed her threat, who makes

85

The servant bold in presence of his lord.

I settled me upon those shoulders huge,

And would have said, but that the words to aid

My purpose came not, "Look thou clasp me firm."
But he whose succor then not first I proved,

90

Soon as I mounted, in his arms aloft,

66

Embracing, held me up; and thus he spake :
Geryon! now move thee: be thy wheeling gyres
Of ample circuit, easy thy descent.

Think on the unusual burden thou sustainest."
As a small vessel, backening out from land,
Her station quits; so thence the monster loosed,
And, when he felt himself at large, turned round

95

62. The arms of the Scrovigni, a noble family who, expecting the return of a quartan ague, of Padua.

shakes even at the sight of a place made cool

66. Vitaliano del Dente, a rich nobleman of by the shade. Padua.

69. Giovanni Buiamonte, a nobleman of Florence, and famous, or rather infamous, for his

usury. He died in poverty. His arms were three becchi, a word which means either beaks or goats. Cary in older editions translated beaks, which in his last revision he changed to goats. Longfellow and Norton use the last expression.

81. Dante trembled with fear, like a man

85. The original is, —

"Ma vergogna mi fêr le sue minacce," "His (Virgil's) threats (or reproaches) produced shame in me." Cary reads fe, and makes vergogna the subject of the sentence. Scartazzini, Philalethes, Longfellow, and Norton all adopt the first reading.

95. The usual reference to Dante's being alive.

There, where the breast had been, his forked tail.
Thus, like an eel, outstretched at length he steered,
Gathering the air up with retractile claws.

Not greater was the dread, when Phaethon
The reins let drop at random, whence high heaven,
Whereof signs yet appear, was wrapt in flames;
Nor when ill-fated Icarus perceived,

By liquefaction of the scalded wax,

The trusted pennons loosened from his loins,
His sire exclaiming loud, "Ill way thou keep'st,"
Than was my dread, when round me on each part
The air I viewed, and other object none

100

105

ΠΟ

Save the fell beast. He, slowly sailing, wheels

His downward motion, unobserved of me,

But that the wind, arising to my face,

Breathes on me from below. Now on our right

I heard the cataract beneath us leap

With hideous crash; whence bending down to explore,
New terror I conceived at the steep plunge;

For flames I saw, and wailings smote mine ear:

So that, all trembling, close I crouched my limbs,
And then distinguished, unperceived before,
By the dread torments that on every side
Drew nearer, how our downward course we wound.
As falcon, that hath long been on the wing,
But lure nor bird hath seen, while in despair
The falconer cries, "Ah me! thou stoop'st to earth."
Wearied descends, whence nimbly he arose
In many an airy wheel, and lighting sits
At distance from his lord in angry mood;
So Geryon lighting places us on foot
Low down at base of the deep-furrowed rock,
And, of his burden there discharged, forthwith
Sprang forward, like an arrow from the string.

102. The son of Helios. He obtained permission from his father to drive his chariot (the sun) across the heavens; but, being unable to check his horses, nearly set the earth on fire, and was slain by Jupiter with a thunderbolt. Ovid, Met. ii. 47-324.

104. In the Convito, ii. 15, Dante alludes to the theory of the Pythagoreans that the sun going out of its course produced the burnt appearance in the heavens called the Milky Way. Dante, himself, however, follows Aristotle in looking on the latter as formed by an agglomeration of minute stars.

105. Son of Dædalus, drowned in the Icarian Sea (named, according to the legend, after him), near Samos, in his flight from Crete, by flying so near the sun that his wings of wax,

made by Dædalus, melted.
225 ff.

115

I 20

125

130

Ovid, Met. viii

113. Cary does not give the full force of the original here, where Dante, in a single line, says that the circular and the descending motion only made itself perceptible by the air which struck his face in front, and also came up from below. The line is an admirable example of the Poet's conciseness.

123. The trained hawk is carried on the wrist, with its head covered by a hood. When its master goes hunting, he takes off the hood, and the hawk flies after the game, remaining in the air until the game is caught, or the hunter calls him back by means of the lure, a contrivance somewhat resembling a bird. Dante seems to allude here to a hawk not thoroughly trained.

CANTO XVIII.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet describes the situation and form of the eighth circle, divided into ten gulfs, which contain as many different descriptions of fraudulent sinners; but in the present Canto he treats only of two sorts: the first is of those who, either for their own pleasure, or for that of another, have seduced any woman from her duty; and these are scourged of demons in the first gulf: the other sort is of flatterers, who in the second gulf are condemned to remain immersed in filth.

THERE is a place within the depths of hell
Called Malebolge, all of rock dark-stained
With hue ferruginous, e'en as the steep

That round it circling winds. Right in the midst
Of that abominable region yawns

A spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame
Due time shall tell. The circle, that remains,
Throughout its round, between the gulf and base
Of the high craggy banks, successive forms
Ten bastions, in its hollow bottom raised.

As where, to guard the walls, full many a foss
Begirds some stately castle, sure defence
Affording to the space within; so here
Were modelled these: and as like fortresses,
E'en from their threshold to the brink without,
Are flanked with bridges; from the rock's low base
Thus flinty paths advanced, that 'cross the moles
And dikes struck onward far as to the gulf,
That in one bound collected cuts them off.
Such was the place, wherein we found ourselves
From Geryon's back dislodged.

The bard to left

Held on his way, and I behind him moved.
On our right hand new misery I saw,

New pains, new executioners of wrath,
That swarming peopled the first chasm. Below
Were naked sinners. Hitherward they came,
Meeting our faces, from the middle point;

=

=

wallet

"V. = Barterers,

Canto xx.

xxi.-xxii.

"VI.

" VII.

Hypocrites,
Thieves,

= Evil Counsellors,

Schismatics,

xxviii.-xxix.

2. Dante has formed the word Malebolge Pit IV. Soothsayers, himself from male = evil, and bolgia or pocket, here pit. Hence the whole word means evil pits. Malebolge consists of ten concentric ditches, in which are punished ten different kinds of fraud against mankind in general. The following scheme, taken from Scarbe of service.

= Falsifiers,

6. The gulf leading down to the ninth circle. 25. The first evil pit, that of the panders and seducers.

With us beyond, but with a larger stride.
E'en thus the Romans, when the year returns
Of Jubilee, with better speed to rid

The thronging multitudes, their means devise
For such as pass the bridge; that on one side
All front toward the castle, and approach

30

Ah! how they made them bound at the first stripe!
None for the second waited, nor the third.

Saint Peter's fane, on the other towards the mount.
Each diverse way, along the grisly rock,
Horned demons I beheld, with lashes huge,
That on their back ummercifully smote.

35

Meantime, as on I passed, one met my sight,
Whom soon as viewed, “Of him,” cried I, "not yet
Mine eye hath had his fill." I therefore stayed
My feet to scan him, and the teacher kind
Paused with me, and consented I should walk
Backward a space; and the tormented spirit,
Who thought to hide him, bent his visage down.
But it availed him naught; for I exclaimed:
"Thou who dost cast thine eye upon the ground,
Unless thy features do belie thee much,
Venedico art thou. But what brings thee
Into this bitter seasoning? He replied:
"Unwillingly I answer to thy words.

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45

50

55

60

28. Beyond the middle point they tended the same way with us, but their pace was quicker than ours.

29. In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII., to remedy the inconvenience occasioned by the press of people who were passing over the bridge of Sant'Angelo during the time of the Jubilee, caused it to be divided lengthwise by a partition; and ordered that all those who were going to St. Peter's should keep one side, and those returning the other. G. Villani, who was present, describes the order that was preserved, viii. 36. It was at this time, and on this occasion, as the honest historian tells us, that he first conceived the design of "compiling his book."

mole (or mausoleum) of Adrian, and changed to a citadel in the Middle Ages.

50. Venedico Caccianimico, a Bolognese, who prevailed on his sister Ghisola to give herself to Obizzo da Este, marquis of Ferrara, whom we have seen among the tyrants, Canto xii.

51. The original salse is interpreted by some to mean "bitter torment," by others, a lonely valley about fifteen miles from Bologna, where were thrown the bodies of suicides, malefactors, and the excommunicated, used figuratively for Malebolge. The meaning in either case is, "for what sin are you here?"

59. Dante says here that the Bolognese were celebrated for this vice, being led thereto by

33. The castle of Sant' Angelo, originally the their avariciousness.