THE DIVINE COMEDY OF
DANTE ALIGHIERI
THE
DIVINE
COMEDY
OF
DANTE
ALIGHIERI
A TRANSLATION
BY
JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD
EDINBURGH
PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS
MDCCCLXXXIV
All Rights Reserved.
Edinburgh University Press:
T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY.
THE
INFERNO
A TRANSLATION
WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY
JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD
EDINBURGH
PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS
MDCCCLXXXIV
PREFACE.
A Translator who has never felt his self-imposed task to be a light one may be excused from entering into explanations that would but too naturally take the form of apologies. I will only say that while I have striven to be as faithful as I could to the words as well as to the sense of my author, the following translation is not offered as being always closely literal. The kind of verse employed I believe to be that best fitted to give some idea, however faint, of the rigidly measured and yet easy strength of Dante’s terza rima; but whoever chooses to adopt it with its constantly recurring demand for rhymes necessarily becomes in some degree its servant. Such students as wish to follow the poet word by word will always find what they need in Dr. J. A. Carlyle’s excellent prose version of the Inferno, a work to which I have to acknowledge my own indebtedness at many points.
The matter of the notes, it is needless to say, has been in very great part found ready to my hand in existing Commentaries. My edition of John Villani is that of Florence, 1823.
The Note at page cx was printed before it had been resolved to provide the volume with a copy of Giotto’s portrait of Dante. I have to thank the Council of the Arundel Society for their kind permission to Messrs. Dawson to make use of their lithograph of Mr. Seymour Kirkup’s invaluable sketch in the production of the Frontispiece—a privilege that would have been taken more advantage of had it not been deemed advisable to work chiefly from the photograph of the same sketch, given in the third volume of the late Lord Vernon’s sumptuous and rare edition of the Inferno (Florence, 1865). In this Vernon photograph, as well as in the Arundel Society’s chromolithograph, the disfiguring mark on the face caused by the damage to the plaster of the fresco is faithfully reproduced. A less degree of fidelity has been observed in the Frontispiece; although the restoration has not been carried the length of replacing the lost eye.
Edinburgh, February, 1884.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| FLORENCE AND DANTE, | [xvii] |
| GIOTTO’S PORTRAIT OF DANTE, | [cx] |
| The Inferno. | |
| CANTO I. | |
| The Slumber—the Wood—the Hill—the three Beasts—Virgil—theVeltro or Greyhound, | [1] |
| CANTO II. | |
| Dante’s misgivings—Virgil’s account of how he was inducedto come to his help—the three Heavenly Ladies—thebeginning of the Journey, | [9] |
| CANTO III. | |
| The Gate of Inferno—the Vestibule of the Caitiffs—theGreat Refusal—Acheron—Charon—the Earthquake—theSlumber of Dante, | [17] |
| CANTO IV. | |
| The First Circle, which is the Limbo of the Unbaptizedand of the Virtuous Heathen—the Great Poets—theNoble Castle—the Sages and Worthies of the ancientworld, | [24] |
| CANTO V. | |
| The Second Circle, which is that of Carnal Sinners—Minos—theTempest—The Troop of those who diedbecause of their Love—Francesca da Rimini—Dante’sSwoon, | [32] |
| CANTO VI. | |
| The Third Circle, which is that of the Gluttonous—theHail and Rain and Snow—Cerberus—Ciacco and hisProphecy, | [40] |
| CANTO VII. | |
| The Fourth Circle, which is that of the Avaricious and theThriftless—Plutus—the Great Weights rolled by thesinners in opposite directions—Fortune—the FifthCircle, which is that of the Wrathful—Styx—the LoftyTower, | [47] |
| CANTO VIII. | |
| The Fifth Circle continued—the Signals—Phlegyas—theSkiff—Philip Argenti—the City of Dis—the FallenAngels—the Rebuff of Virgil, | [55] |
| CANTO IX. | |
| The City of Dis, which is the Sixth Circle and that of theHeretics—the Furies and the Medusa head—the Messengerof Heaven who opens the gates for Virgil andDante—the entrance to the City—the red-hot Tombs, | [62] |
| CANTO X. | |
| The Sixth Circle continued—Farinata degli Uberti—Cavalcantedei Cavalcanti—Farinata’s prophecy—Frederick II., | [69] |
| CANTO XI. | |
| The Sixth Circle continued—Pope Anastasius—Virgil explainson what principle sinners are classified in Inferno—Usury, | [77] |
| CANTO XII. | |
| The Seventh Circle, First Division—the Minotaur—theRiver of Blood, which forms the Outer Ring of theSeventh Circle—in it are those guilty of Violenceagainst others—the Centaurs—Tyrants—Robbers andMurderers—Ezzelino Romano—Guy of Montfort—thePassage of the River of Blood, | [84] |
| CANTO XIII. | |
| The Seventh Circle continued—the Second Division consistingof a Tangled Wood in which are those guilty ofViolence against themselves—the Harpies—Pier delleVigne—Lano—Jacopo da Sant’ Andrea—Florence andits Patrons, | [91] |
| CANTO XIV. | |
| The Seventh Circle continued—the Third Division of it,consisting of a Waste of Sand on which descends anunceasing Shower of Fire—in it are those guilty ofViolence against God, against Nature, and against Art—Capaneus—theCrimson Brook—the Statue of Time—theInfernal Rivers, | [98] |
| CANTO XV. | |
| The Seventh Circle continued—the Violent against Nature—BrunettoLatini—Francesco d’Accorso—Andrea de’Mozzi, Bishop of Florence, | [106] |
| CANTO XVI. | |
| The Seventh Circle continued—the Violent against Nature—Guidoguerra,Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and JacopoRusticucci—the Cataract—the Cord—Geryon, | [115] |
| CANTO XVII. | |
| The Seventh Circle continued—the Violent against Art—Usurers—thedescent on Geryon’s back into the EighthCircle, | [123] |
| CANTO XVIII. | |
| The Eighth Circle, otherwise named Malebolge, whichconsists of ten concentric Pits or Moats connected bybridges of rock—in these are punished those guilty ofFraud of different kinds—First Bolgia or Moat, whereare Panders and Seducers, scourged by Demons—VenedicoCaccianimico—Jason—Second Bolgia, whereare Flatterers plunged in filth—Alessio Interminei, | [130] |
| CANTO XIX. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Third Bolgia, where are the Simoniacs,stuck head downwards in holes in the rock—PopeNicholas III.—the Donation of Constantine, | [137] |
| CANTO XX. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Fourth Bolgia, where are Divinersand Sorcerers in endless procession, with their headstwisted on their necks—Amphiaräus—Tiresias—Aruns—Mantoand the foundation of Mantua—Eurypylus—MichaelScott—Guido Bonatti—Asdente, | [145] |
| CANTO XXI. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Fifth Bolgia, where the Barrators, orcorrupt officials, are plunged in the boiling pitch whichfills the Bolgia—a Senator of Lucca is thrown in—theMalebranche, or Demons who guard the Moat—theDevilish Escort, | [153] |
| CANTO XXII. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Fifth Bolgia continued—the Navarese—trickplayed by him on the Demons—Fra Gomita—MichaelZanche—the Demons fall foul of one another, | [161] |
| CANTO XXIII. | |
| The Eighth Circle—escape from the Fifth to the SixthBolgia, where the Hypocrites walk at a snail’s pace,weighed down by Gilded Cloaks of lead—the MerryFriars Catalano and Loderingo—Caiaphas, | [168] |
| CANTO XXIV. | |
| The Eighth Circle—arduous passage over the cliff into theSeventh Bolgia, where the Thieves are tormented bySerpents, and are constantly undergoing a hideousmetamorphosis—Vanni Fucci, | [176] |
| CANTO XXV. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Seventh Bolgia continued—Cacus—AgnelloBrunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato,Cianfa Donati, and Guercio Cavalcanti, | [184] |
| CANTO XXVI. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Eighth Bolgia, where are the EvilCounsellors, wrapped each in his own Flame—Ulyssestells how he met with death, | [192] |
| CANTO XXVII. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Eighth Bolgia continued—Guido ofMontefeltro—the Cities of Romagna—Guido and BonifaceVIII., | [200] |
| CANTO XXVIII. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Ninth Bolgia, where the Schismaticsin Church and State are for ever being dismembered—Mahomet—FraDolcino—Pier da Medicina—Curio—Mosca—Bertrandde Born, | [209] |
| CANTO XXIX. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Ninth Bolgia continued—Geri delBello—Tenth Bolgia, where Counterfeiters of variouskinds, as Alchemists and Forgers, are tormented withloathsome diseases—Griffolino of Arezzo—Capocchioon the Sienese, | [217] |
| CANTO XXX. | |
| The Eighth Circle—Tenth Bolgia continued—Myrrha—GianniSchicchi—Master Adam and his confession—Sinon, | [225] |
| CANTO XXXI. | |
| The Ninth Circle, outside of which they remain till theend of this Canto—this, the Central Pit of Inferno, isencircled and guarded by Giants—Nimrod, Ephialtes,and Antæus—entrance to the Pit, | [233] |
| CANTO XXXII. | |
| The Ninth Circle—that of the Traitors, is divided intofour concentric rings, in which the sinners are plungedmore or less deep in the ice of the frozen Cocytus—theOuter Ring is Caïna, where are those who contrived themurder of their Kindred—Camicion de’ Pazzi—Antenora,the Second Ring, where are such as betrayed theirCountry—Bocca degli Abati—Buoso da Duera—Ugolino, | [241] |
| CANTO XXXIII. | |
| The Ninth Circle—Antenora continued—Ugolino and histale—the Third Ring, or Ptolomæa, where are thosetreacherous to their Friends—Friar Alberigo—Brancad’Oria, | [249] |
| CANTO XXXIV. | |
| The Ninth Circle—the Fourth Ring or Judecca, the deepestpoint of the Inferno and the Centre of the Universe—itis the place of those treacherous to their Lords orBenefactors—Lucifer with Judas, Brutus, and Cassiushanging from his mouths—passage through the Centreof the Earth—ascent from the depths to the light of thestars in the Southern Hemisphere, | [260] |
| INDEX, | [269] |
FLORENCE AND DANTE.
Dante is himself the hero of the Divine Comedy, and ere many stages of the Inferno have been passed the reader feels that all his steps are being taken in a familiar companionship. When every allowance has been made for what the exigencies of art required him to heighten or suppress, it is still impossible not to be convinced that the author is revealing himself much as he really was—in some of his weakness as well as in all his strength. The poem itself, by many an unconscious touch, does for his moral portraiture what the pencil of Giotto has done for the features of his face. The one likeness answers marvellously to the other; and, together, they have helped the world to recognise in him the great example of a man of genius who, though at first sight he may seem to be austere, is soon found to attract our love by the depth of his feelings as much as he wins our admiration by the wealth of his fancy, and by the clearness of his judgment on everything concerned with the lives and destiny of men. His other writings in greater or less degree confirm the impression of Dante’s character to be obtained from the Comedy. Some of them are partly autobiographical; and, studying as a whole all that is left to us of him, we can gain a general notion of the nature of his career—when he was born and what was his condition in life; his early loves and friendships; his studies, military service, and political aims; his hopes and illusions, and the weary purgatory of his exile.
To the knowledge of Dante’s life and character which is thus to be acquired, the formal biographies of him have but little to add that is both trustworthy and of value. Something of course there is in the traditional story of his life that has come down from his time with the seal of genuineness; and something that has been ascertained by careful research among Florentine and other documents. But when all that old and modern Lives have to tell us has been sifted, the additional facts regarding him are found to be but few; such at least as are beyond dispute. Boccaccio, his earliest biographer, swells out his Life, as the earlier commentators on the Comedy do their notes, with what are plainly but legendary amplifications of hints supplied by Dante’s own words; while more recent and critical writers succeed with infinite pains in little beyond establishing, each to his own satisfaction, what was the order of publication of the poet’s works, where he may have travelled to, and when and for how long a time he may have had this or that great lord for a patron.
A very few pages would therefore be enough to tell the events of Dante’s life as far as they are certainly known. But, to be of use as an introduction to the study of his great poem, any biographical sketch must contain some account—more or less full—of Florentine affairs before and during his lifetime; for among the actors in these are to be found many of the persons of the Comedy. In reading the poem we are never suffered for long to forget his exile. From one point of view it is an appeal to future ages from Florentine injustice and ingratitude; from another, it is a long and passionate plea with his native town to shake her in her stubborn cruelty. In spite of the worst she can do against him he remains no less her son. In the early copies of it, the Comedy is well described as the work of Dante Alighieri, the Florentine; since not only does he people the other world by preference with Florentines, but it is to Florence that, even when his words are bitter against her, his heart is always feeling back. Among the glories of Paradise he loves to let his memory rest on the church in which he was baptized and the streets he used to tread. He takes pleasure in her stones; and with her towers and palaces Florence stands for the unchanging background to the changing scenes of his mystical pilgrimage.
The history of Florence during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries agrees in general outline with that of most of its neighbours. At the beginning of the period it was a place of but little importance, ranking far below Pisa both in wealth and political influence. Though retaining the names and forms of municipal government, inherited from early times, it was in reality possessed of no effective control over its own affairs, and was subject to its feudal superior almost as completely as was ever any German village planted in the shadow of a castle. To Florence, as to many a city of Northern and Central Italy, the first opportunity of winning freedom came with the contest between Emperor and Pope in the time of Hildebrand. In this quarrel the Church found its best ally in Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. She, to secure the goodwill of her subjects as against the Emperor, yielded first one and then another of her rights in Florence, generally by way of a pious gift—an endowment for a religious house or an increase of jurisdiction to the bishop—these concessions, however veiled, being in effect so many additions to the resources and liberties of the townsmen. She made Rome her heir, and then Florence was able to play off the Papal against the Imperial claims, yielding a kind of barren homage to both Emperor and Pope, and only studious to complete a virtual independence of both. Florence had been Matilda’s favourite place of residence; and, benefiting largely as it did by her easy rule, it is no wonder that her name should have been cherished by the Florentines for ages after as a household word.[1] Nor is the greatest Florentine unmindful of her. Foe of the Empire though she was, he only remembers her piety; and it is by Matilda, as representing the active religious life, that Dante is ushered into the presence of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise.[2]
It was a true instinct which led Florence and other cities to side rather with the Pope than with the Emperor in the long-continued struggle between them for predominance in Italy. With the Pope for overlord they would at least have a master who was an Italian, and one who, his title being imperfect, would in his own interest be led to treat them with indulgence; while, in the permanent triumph of the Emperor, Italy must have become subject and tributary to Germany, and would have seen new estates carved out of her fertile soil for members of the German garrison. The danger was brought home to many of the youthful commonwealths during the eventful reign of Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190). Strong in Germany beyond most of his predecessors, that monarch ascended the throne with high prerogative views, in which he was confirmed by the slavish doctrine of some of the new civilians. According to these there could be only one master in the world; as far as regarded the things of time, but one source of authority in Christendom. They maintained everything to be the Emperor’s that he chose to take. When he descended into Italy to enforce his claims, the cities of the Lombard League met him in open battle. Those of Tuscany, and especially Florence, bent before the blast, temporising as long as they were able, and making the best terms they could when the choice lay between submission and open revolt. Even Florence, it is true, strong in her allies, did once take arms against an Imperial lieutenant; but as a rule she never refused obedience in words, and never yielded it in fact beyond what could not be helped. In her pursuit of advantages, skilfully using every opportunity, and steadfast of aim even when most she appeared to waver, she displayed something of the same address that was long to be noted as a trait in the character of the individual Florentine.
The storm was weathered, although not wholly without loss. When, towards the close of his life, and after he had broken his strength against the obstinate patriotism of Lombardy, Frederick visited Florence in 1185, it was as a master justly displeased with servants who, while they had not openly rebelled against him, had yet proved eminently unprofitable, and whom he was concerned to punish if not to destroy. On the complaint of the neighbouring nobles, that they were oppressed and had been plundered by the city, he gave orders for the restoration to them of their lands and castles. This accomplished, all the territory left to Florence was a narrow belt around the walls. Villani even says that for the four years during which Frederick still lived the Commonwealth was wholly landless. And here, rather than lose ourselves among the endless treaties, leagues, and campaigns which fill so many pages of the chronicles, it may be worth while shortly to glance at the constitution of Florentine society, and especially at the place held in it by the class which found its protector in Barbarossa.
Much about the time at which the Commonwealth was relieved of its feudal trammels, as a result of the favour or the necessities of Matilda, it was beginning to extend its commerce and increase its industry. Starting somewhat late on the career on which Venice, Genoa, and Pisa were already far advanced, Florence was as if strenuous to make up for lost time, and soon displayed a rare comprehension of the nature of the enterprise. It may be questioned if ever, until quite modern times, there has been anywhere so clear an understanding of the truth that public wellbeing is the sum of private prosperity, or such an enlightened perception of what tends to economical progress. Florence had no special command of raw material for her manufactures, no sea-port of her own, and no monopoly unless in the natural genius of her people. She could therefore thrive only by dint of holding open her communications with the world at large, and grudged no pains either of war or diplomacy to keep at Pisa a free way out and in for her merchandise. Already in the twelfth century she received through that port the rough woollens of Flanders, which, after being skilfully dressed and dyed, were sent out at great profit to every market of Europe. At a somewhat later period the Florentines were to give as strong a proof of their financial capacity as this was of their industrial. It was they who first conducted a large business in bills of exchange, and who first struck a gold coin which, being kept of invariable purity, passed current in every land where men bought and sold—even in countries where the very name of Florence was unknown.[3]
In a community thus devoted to industry and commerce, it was natural that a great place should be filled by merchants. These were divided into six guilds, the members of which, with the notaries and lawyers, who composed a seventh, formed the true body of the citizens. Originally the consuls of these guilds were the only elected officials in the city, and in the early days of its liberty they were even charged with political duties, and are found, for example, signing a treaty of peace with a neighbouring state. In the fully developed commune it was only the wealthier citizens—the members, we may assume, of these guilds—who, along with the nobles,[4] were eligible for and had the right of electing to the public offices. Below them was the great body of the people; all, that is, of servile condition or engaged in the meaner kinds of business. From one point of view, the liberties of the citizens were only their privileges. But although the labourers and humbler tradesmen were without franchises, their interests were not therefore neglected, being bound up with those of the one or two thousand citizens who shared with the patricians the control of public affairs.
There were two classes of nobles with whom Florence had to reckon as she awoke to life—those within the walls, and those settled in the neighbouring country. In later times it was a favourite boast among the noble citizens—a boast indulged in by Dante—that they were descended from ancient Roman settlers on the banks of the Arno. A safer boast would in many cases have been that their ancestors had come to Italy in the train of Otho and other conquering Emperors. Though settled in the city, in some cases for generations, the patrician families were not altogether of it, being distinguished from the other citizens, if not always by the possession of ancestral landward estates, at least by their delight in war and contempt for honest industry. But with the faults of a noble class they had many of its good qualities. Of these the Republic suffered them to make full proof, allowing them to lead in war and hold civil offices out of all proportion to their numbers.
Like the city itself, the nobles in the country around had been feudally subject to the Marquis of Tuscany. After Matilda’s death they claimed to hold direct from the Empire; which meant in practice to be above all law. They exercised absolute jurisdiction over their serfs and dependants, and, when favoured by the situation of their castles, took toll, like the robber barons of Germany, of the goods which passed beneath their walls. Already they had proved to be thorns in the side of the industrious burghers; but at the beginning of the twelfth century their neighbourhood became intolerable, and for a couple of generations the chief political work of Florence was to bring them to reason. Those whose lands came up almost to the city gates were first dealt with, and then in a widening circle the country was cleared of the pest. Year after year, when the days were lengthening out in spring, the roughly organised city militia was mustered, war was declared against some specially obnoxious noble and his fortress was taken by surprise, or, failing that, was subjected to a siege. In the absence of a more definite grievance, it was enough to declare his castle dangerously near the city. These expeditions were led by the nobles who were already citizens, while the country neighbours of the victim looked on with indifference, or even helped to waste the lands or force the stronghold of a rival. The castle once taken, it was either levelled with the ground, or was restored to the owner on condition of his yielding service to the Republic. And, both by way of securing a hold upon an unwilling vassal and of adding a wealthy house and some strong arms to the Commonwealth, he was compelled, along with his family, to reside in Florence for a great part of every year.
With a wider territory and an increasing commerce, it was natural for Florence to assume more and more the attitude of a sovereign state, ready, when need was, to impose its will upon its neighbours, or to join with them for the common defence of Tuscany. In the noble class and its retainers, recruited as has been described, it was possessed of a standing army which, whether from love of adventure or greed of plunder, was never so well pleased as when in active employment. Not that the commons left the fighting wholly to the men of family, for they too, at the summons of the war-bell, had to arm for the field; but at the best they did it from a sense of duty, and, without the aid of professional men-at-arms, they must have failed more frequently in their enterprises, or at any rate have had to endure a greatly prolonged absence from their counters and workshops. And yet, esteem this advantage as highly as we will, Florence surely lost more than it gained by compelling the crowd of idle gentlemen to come within its walls. In the course of time some of them indeed condescended to engage in trade—sank, as the phrase went, into the ranks of the Popolani, or mere wealthy citizens; but the great body of them, while their landed property was being largely increased in value in consequence of the general prosperity, held themselves haughtily aloof from honest industry in every form. Each family, or rather each clan of them, lived apart in its own group of houses, from among which towers shot aloft for scores of yards into the air, dominating the humbler dwellings of the common burghers. These, whenever they came to the front for a time in the government, were used to decree that all private towers were to be lopped down to within a certain distance from the ground.
It is a favourite exercise of Villani and other historians to trace the troubles and revolutions in the state of Florence to chance quarrels between noble families, arising from an angry word or a broken troth. Here, they tell, was sown the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline wars in Florence; and here that of the feuds of Black and White. Such quarrels and party names were symptoms and nothing more. The enduring source of trouble was the presence within the city of a powerful idle class, constantly eager to recover the privilege it had lost, and to secure itself by every available means, including that of outside help, in the possession of what it still retained; which chafed against the curbs put upon its lawlessness, and whose ambitions were all opposed to the general interest. The citizens, for their part, had nothing better to hope for than that Italy should be left to the Italians, Florence to the Florentines. On the occasion of the celebrated Buondelmonti feud (1215), some of the nobles definitely went over to the side of the people, either because they judged it likely to win in the long-run, or impelled unconsciously by the forces that in every society divide ambitious men into two camps, and in one form or another develop party strife. They who made a profession of popular sympathy did it with a view of using rather than of helping the people at large. Both of the noble parties held the same end in sight—control of the Commonwealth; and this would be worth the more the fewer there were to share it. The faction irreconcilable with the Republic on any terms included many of the oldest and proudest houses. Their hope lay in the advent of a strong Emperor, who should depute to them his rights over the money-getting, low-born crowd.