And to his foes. These wretches, who ne'er lived,
Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung

60

By wasps and hornets, which bedewed their cheeks

With blood, that, mixed with tears, dropped to their feet,
And by disgustful worms was gathered there.
Then looking farther onwards, I beheld

65

A throng upon the shore of a great stream:

Whereat I thus: "Sir! grant me now to know

Whom here we view, and whence impelled they seem

So eager to pass o'er, as I discern

Through the blear light?" He thus to me in few:

70

"This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive

Beside the woeful tide of Acheron."

Then with eyes downward cast, and filled with shame,
Fearing my words offensive to his ear,

Till we had reached the river, I from speech

75

And lo! toward us in a bark

Abstained.

Comes on an old man, hoary white with eld,
Crying, "Woe to you, wicked spirits! hope not
Ever to see the sky again. I come
To take you to the other shore across,
Into eternal darkness, there to dwell

In fierce heat and in ice. And thou, who there
Standest, live spirit! get thee hence, and leave
These who are dead." But soon as he beheld
I left them not, "By other way," said he,
"By other haven shalt thou come to shore,
Not by this passage; thee a nimbler boat
Must carry."
Then to him thus spake my guide:
"Charon! thyself torment not: so 't is willed,
Where will and power are one: ask thou no more."
Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks
Of him, the boatman o'er the livid lake,

60. That is, who never lived the true life. 'The sinful man may truly be called dead." Convito, iv. 7.

66. The Acheron.

72. Acheron is a Greek word signifying "stream of woe." According to mythology all souls must cross this river in order to enter Hades. 77. "Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina

82.

80

85

90

86. The souls who are saved go first to the shore where the Tiber falls into the sea, and are thence carried over the ocean to Purgatory (Purg. ii. 96 ff.). This may be the reference in Charon's words. Or they might mean that Dante must cross the Acheron in some other way than in his boat.

90. In Heaven, where God dwells who is able to do whatever he wills. Cf. Hell, v. 26, where Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima Virgil repeats the same words to Minos, and

servat

mento

Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina

flamma."

Virgil, Æn. vi. 298–300. "The delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice."

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, iii. 1.

Cf. Milton, P. L. ii. 600.

Around whose eyes glared wheeling flames. Meanwhile
Those spirits, faint and naked, color changed,
And gnashed their teeth, soon as the cruel words
They heard. God and their parents they blasphemed,
The human kind, the place, the time, and seed,
That did engender them and give them birth.
Then all together sorely wailing drew
To the curst strand, that every man must pass
Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form,
With eyes of burning coal, collects them all,
Beckoning, and each, that lingers, with his oar
Strikes. As fall off the light autumnal leaves,
One still another following, till the bough
Strews all its honors on the earth beneath;
E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood

Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore,
Each at a beck, as falcon at his call.

Thus go they over through the umbered wave;

And ever they on the opposing bank

Be landed, on this side another throng

Still gathers. "Son," thus spake the courteous guide,

For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear

Is turned into desire. Hence ne'er hath past
Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain,
Now mayst thou know the import of his words.”

This said, the gloomy region trembling shook
So terribly, that yet with clammy dews
Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast,
That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame,
Which all my senses conquered quite, and I
Down dropped, as one with sudden slumber seized.

101. Dante follows the spirit of his age in conceiving the beings of mythology as demons.

102.

"His looks were dreadful, and his fiery
eyes

Like two great beacons glared bright
and wide."

120

125

104. "Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore
primo
Lapsa cadunt folia."

Virgil, Æn. vi. 309.

Cf. Apol. Rhod. iv. 214. 109. Richiamo in the original means the signal cry or lure-used by the hunter to Spenser, F. Q. VI. vii. 42. call back his bird.

110. Umbered = dark. The original is bruna.

て、

CANTO IV.

ARGUMENT.

The poet, being roused by a clap of thunder, and following his guide onwards, descends into Limbo, which is the first circle of Hell, where he finds the souls of those, who, although they have lived virtuously and have not to suffer for great sins, nevertheless, through lack of baptism, merit not the bliss of Paradise. Hence he is led on by Virgil to descend into the second circle.

BROKE the deep slumber in my brain a crash
Of heavy thunder, that I shook myself,
As one by main force roused. Risen upright,
My rested eyes I moved around, and searched,
With fixed ken, to know what place it was
Wherein I stood. For certain, on the brink
I found me of the lamentable vale,

The dread abyss, that joins a thunderous sound
Of plaints innumerable. Dark and deep,
And thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain
Explored its bottom, nor could aught discern.

"Now let us to the blind world there beneath
Descend; " the bard began, all pale of look:
"I go the first, and thou shalt follow next."

Then I, his altered hue perceiving, thus:
"How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread,
Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt?"

He then: "The anguish of that race below
With pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear
Mistakest. Let us on. Our length of way
Urges to haste." Onward, this said, he moved;
And entering led me with him, on the bounds
Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss.
Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard
Except of sighs, that made the eternal air
Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief
Felt by those multitudes, many and vast,
Of men, women, and infants. Then to me

The gentle guide: "Inquirest thou not what spirits
Are these, which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass
Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin
Were blameless; and if aught they merited,
It profits not, since baptism was not theirs,
The portal to thy faith. If they before

8. Milton, P. L. viii. 242: —

"But long ere our approaching heard Noise, other than the sound of dance or song, Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.' 23. Limbo, containing the souls of unbap

=

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

330

tized children, and of those virtuous men and women who lived before the birth of our Saviour. 34. Instead of porta portal, Scartazzini reads parte part. Longfellow accepts the former reading, while Professor Norton adopts the

Come forth from thence, who afterward was blest?"

We, while he spake, ceased not our onward road,

Still passing through the wood; for so I name

65

Those spirits thick beset. We were not far
On this side from the summit, when I kenned
A flame, that o'er the darkened hemisphere
Prevailing shined. Yet we a little space
Were distant, not so far but I in part
Discovered, that a tribe in honor high

That place possessed. "O thou, who every art
And science valuest! who are these, that boast
Such honor, separate from all the rest?"

He answered: "The renown of their great names,
That echoes through your world above, acquires

latter, translating, "baptism, which is part of the faith that thou believest."

=

46. Other's merit the merit of Christ. 48. Dante has alluded to the descent of Christ into Hell, but did not mention it directly. Virgil, however, understands his meaning.

49. Virgil died 19 B.C. He had therefore been in Limbo fifty years, when Christ came to free the Saints and Patriarchs of the old dispensation.

50. Our Saviour.

=

70

52. Adam. 64. Summit edge of the first circle, where he had found himself when he awoke. Another reading is sonno instead of sommo, which Professor Norton adopts and translates," from where I slept." Longfellow's translation agrees with Cary's.

70. The original onori is better translated by the word honorest, the term used by both Longfellow and Norton. Value in the sense of "to cause to have value" is obsolete.

Favor in heaven, which holds them thus advanced.”
Meantime a voice I heard: "Honor the bard
Sublime! his shade returns, that left us late!"
No sooner ceased the sound, than I beheld
Four mighty spirits toward us bend their steps,
Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.

75

80

When thus my master kind began: "Mark him,
Who in his right hand bears that falchion keen,
The other three preceding, as their lord.
This is that Homer, of all bards supreme:
Flaccus the next, in satire's vein excelling;
The third is Naso; Lucan is the last.
Because they all that appellation own,

With which the voice singly accosted me,

Honoring they greet me thus, and well they judge."
So I beheld united the bright school

Of him the monarch of sublimest song,
That o'er the others like an eagle soars.

When they together short discourse had held,
They turned to me, with salutation kind
Beckoning me; at the which my master smiled:
Nor was this all; but greater honor still
They gave me, for they made me of their tribe;
And I was sixth amid so learned a band.

Far as the luminous beacon on we passed
Speaking of matters, then befitting well
To speak, now fitter left untold. At foot

85

90

95

100

Of a magnificent castle we arrived,

Seven times with lofty walls begirt, and round

Defended by a pleasant stream. O'er this

As o'er dry land we passed. Next, through seven gates,

I with those sages entered, and we came

105