Wert busied with his spirit, who once ruled
The towers of Hautefort, that thou lookedst not
That way, ere he was gone." "O guide beloved!
His violent death yet unavenged," said I,
"By any, who are partners in his shame,
Made him contemptuous; therefore, as I think,
He pass'd me speechless by; and, doing so,
Hath made me more compassionate his fate."

So we discoursed to where the rock first show'd
The other valley, had more light been there,
E'en to the lowest depth. Soon as we came
O'er the last cloister in the dismal rounds
Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood
Were to our view exposed, then many a dart
Of sore lament assail'd me, headed all
With points of thrilling pity, that I closed
Both ears against the volley with mine hands.
As were the torment, if each lazar-house
Of Valdichiana, in the sultry time
'Twixt July and September, with the isle
Sardinia and Maremma's pestilent fen,
Had heap'd their maladies all in one foss
Together; such was here the torment: dire
The stench, as issuing streams from fester'd limbs.
We on the utmost shore of the long rock
Descended still to leftward. Then my sight
Was livelier to explore the depth, wherein
The minister of the most mighty Lord,
All-searching Justice, dooms to punishment
The forgers noted on her dread record.

More rueful was it not methinks to see
The nation in Ægina* droop, what time
Each living thing, e'en to the little worm,
All fell, so full of malice was the air
(And afterward, as bards of yore have told,

The valley through which passes the river Chiana, bounded by Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Chiusi. In the autumn it was formerly rendered unwholesome by the stagnation of the water, but has since been drained by the Emperor

Leopold II. The Chiana is men
tioned as a remarkably sluggish
stream, in the Paradise, Canto xiii. 21.
3 See note to Canto xxv. v. 18.
4" In Ægina." He alludes to the
fable of the ants changed into Myr.
midons.-Ovid, "Met." lib. vii.

The ancient people were restored anew

From seed of emmets), than was here to see

The spirits, that languish'd through the murky vale,
Up-piled on many a stack. Confused they lay,

One o'er the belly, o'er the shoulders one
Roll'd of another; sideling crawl'd a third
Along the dismal pathway. Step by step
We journey'd on, in silence looking round,
And listening those diseased, who strove in vain
To lift their forms. Then two I mark'd, that sat
Propt 'gainst each other, as two brazen pans
Set to retain the heat. From head to foot,
A tetter bark'd them round. Nor saw I e'er
Groom currying so fast, for whom his lord.
Impatient waited, or himself perchance
Tired with long watching, as of these each one
Plied quickly his keen nails, through furiousness
Of ne'er abated pruriency. The crust

Came drawn from underneath, in flakes, like scales
Scraped from the bream, or fish of broader mail.
"O thou! who with thy fingers rendest off
Thy coat of proof," thus spake my guide to one,
"And sometimes makest tearing pincers of them,
Tell me if any born of Latian land

Be among these within: so may thy nails

Serve thee for everlasting to this toil."

66

"Both are of Latium," weeping he replied,

"Whom tortured thus thou seest: but who art thou That hast inquired of us?" To whom my guide: One that descend with this man, who yet lives, From rock to rock, and show him Hell's abyss." Then started they asunder, and each turn'd Trembling toward us, with the rest, whose ear Those words redounding struck. To me my liege Address'd him: Speak to them whate'er thou list." And I therewith began: "So may no time

66

Filch your remembrance from the thoughts of men In the upper world, but after many suns

Survive it, as ye tell me, who ye are,

And of what race ye come.

Your punishment,

Unseemly and disgustful in its kind,

Deter you not from opening thus much to me."
"Arezzo was my dwelling," answer'd one,
"And me Albero of Siena brought

To die by fire: but that, for which I died,
Leads me not here. True is, in sport I told him,
That I had learn'd to wing my flight in air;
And he, admiring much, as he was void
Of wisdom, will'd me to declare to him
The secret of mine art: and only hence,
Because I made him not a Dedalus,

Prevail'd on one supposed his sire to burn me.
But Minos to this chasm, last of the ten,
For that I practised alchemy on earth,
Has doom'd me. Him no subterfuge eludes."
Then to the bard I spake: "Was ever race
Light as Siena's? Sure not France herself
Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain."

The other leprous spirit heard my words,
And thus return'd: "Be Stricca' from this charge
Exempted, he who knew so temperately
To lay out fortune's gifts; and Niccolo,
Who first the spice's costly luxury
Discover'd in that garden, where such seed
Roots deepest in the soil; and be that troop
Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano
Lavish'd his vineyards and wide-spreading woods,
And his rare wisdom Abbagliato show'd
A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know
Who seconds thee against the Sienese

Thus gladly, bend this way thy sharpen'd sight,
That well my face may answer to thy ken;
So shalt thou see I am Capocchio's ghost,

5 Grifolino of Arezzo, who promised Albero, son of the Bishop of Siena, that he would teach him the art of flying; and, because he did not keep his promise, Albero prevailed on his father to have him burnt for a necromancer.

The same imputation is again cast on the Sienese, Purg. Canto xiii.

141.

This is said ironically. Stricca,

Niccolo Salimbeni, Caccia of Asciano, and Abbagliato, or Meo de' Folcacchieri belonged to a company of prodigal and luxurious youth in Siena, called the Brigata Godereccra." Niccolo was the inventor of a new manner of using cloves in cookery, and which was termed the costuma ricca."

8" In that garden." Siena.

Who forged transmuted metals by the power
Of alchemy; and if I scan thee right,
Thou needs must well remember how I aped
Creative nature by my subtle art."

CANTO XXX

ARGUMENT. In the same gulf, other kinds of impostors, as those who have counterfeited the persons of others, or debased the current coin, or deceived by speech under false pretences, are described as suffering various diseases. Sinon of Troy and Adamo of Brescia mutually reproach each other with their several impostures.

W

HAT time resentment burn'd in Juno's breast

From Semele against the Theban blood,

As more than once in dire mischance was rued; Such fatal frenzy seized on Athamas,

That he his spouse beholding with a babe
Laden on either arm, Spread out," he cried,

66

66

The meshes, that I take the lioness
And the young lions at the pass:
" then forth
Stretch'd he his merciless talons, grasping one,
One helpless innocent, Learchus named,

Whom swinging down he dash'd upon a rock;
And with her other burden, self-destroy'd,
The hapless mother plunged. And when the pride
Of all presuming Troy fell from its height,
By fortune overwhelm'd, and the old king
With his realm perish'd; then did Hecuba,
A wretch forlorn and captive, when she saw
Polyxena first slaughter'd, and her son,
Her Polydorus, on the wild sea-beach

Next met the mourner's view, then reft of sense
Did she run barking even as a dog;

Such mighty power had grief to wrench her soul.
But ne'er the Furies, or of Thebes, or Troy,
With such fell cruelty were seen, their goads
Infixing in the limbs of man or beast,
As now two pale and naked ghosts I saw,
That gnarling wildly scamper'd, like the swine

Excluded from his stye. One reach'd Capocchio,
And in the neck-joint sticking deep his fangs,
Dragg'd him, that, o'er the solid pavement rubb'd
His belly stretch'd out prone. The other shape,
He of Arezzo, there left trembling, spake:
"That sprite of air is Schicchi;' in like mood
Of random mischief vents he still his spite."

To whom I answering: "Oh! as thou dost hope
The other may not flesh its jaws on thee,

Be patient to inform us, who it is,

Ere it speed hence.' "That is the ancient soul
Of wretched Myrrha," he replied, "who burn'd
With most unholy flame for her own sire,
And a false shape assuming, so perform'd
The deed of sin; e'en as the other there,
That onward passes, dared to counterfeit
Donati's features, to feign'd testament
The seal affixing, that himself might gain,
For his own share, the lady of the herd."

When vanish'd the two furious shades, on whom
Mine eye was held, I turn'd it back to view
The other cursed spirits. One I saw
In fashion like a lute, had but the groin
Been sever'd where it meets the forked part.
Swoln dropsy, disproportioning the limbs
With ill-converted moisture, that the paunch
Suits not the visage, open'd wide his lips,
Gasping as in the hectic man for drought,
One toward the chin, the other upward curl'd.
"O ye! who in this world of misery,
Wherefore I know not, are exempt from pain,"
Thus he began, "attentively regard
Adamo's woe.' When living, full supply
Ne'er lack'd me of what most I coveted;

em

1 Gianni Schicchi, of the family of Cavalcanti, possessed such a faculty of mimicry that he was ployed by Simon Donati to personate Buoso Donati, then recently deceased, and to make a will, leaving Simon his heir; for which service he was remunerated with a mare of

extraordinary value, here called "the lady of the herd."

Adamo of Brescia, at the instigation of Guido, Alessandro, and their brother Aghinulfo, Lords of Ro mena, counterfeited the coin of Florence; for which crime he was burnt