FOOTNOTES:
[312] Continuing: The account of the Fifth Circle, begun in the preceding Canto, is continued in this. It is impossible to adopt Boccaccio’s story of how the first seven Cantos were found among a heap of other papers, years after Dante’s exile began; and that ‘continuing’ marks the resumption of his work. The word most probably suggested the invention of the incident, or at least led to the identification of some manuscript that may have been sent to Dante, with the opening pages of the Comedy. If the tale were true, not only must Ciacco’s prophecy (Inf. vi.) have been interpolated, but we should be obliged to hold that Dante began the poem while he was a prosperous citizen.—Boccaccio himself in his Comment on the Comedy points out the difficulty of reconciling the story with Ciacco’s prophecy.
[313] Two flames: Denoting the number of passengers who are to be conveyed across the Stygian pool. It is a signal for the ferryman, and is answered by a light hung out on the battlements of the city of Dis.
[314] Guilty sprite: Only one is addressed; whether Virgil or Dante is not clear.
[315] Phlegyas: Who burnt the temple of Apollo at Delphi in revenge for the violation of his daughter by the god.
[316] Deeper, etc.: Because used to carry only shades.
[317] Ere thy period: The curiosity of the shade is excited by the sinking of the boat in the water. He assumes that Dante will one day be condemned to Inferno. Neither Francesca nor Ciacco made a like mistake.
[318] One who weeps: He is ashamed to tell his name, and hopes in his vile disguise to remain unknown by Dante, whose Florentine speech and dress, and perhaps whose features, he has now recognised.
[319] Soul disdainful: Dante has been found guilty of here glorying in the same sin which he so severely reprobates in others. But, without question, of set purpose he here contrasts righteous indignation with the ignoble rage punished in this circle. With his quick temper and zeal so often kindling into flame, he may have felt a special personal need of emphasising the distinction.
[320] Names o’erwhelmed, etc.: ‘Horrible reproaches.’
[321] Philip Argenti: A Florentine gentleman related to the great family of the Adimari, and a contemporary of Dante’s. Boccaccio in his commentary describes him as a cavalier, very rich, and so ostentatious that he once shod his horse with silver, whence his surname. In the Decameron (ix. 8) he is introduced as violently assaulting—tearing out his hair and dragging him in the mire—the victim of a practical joke played by the Ciacco of Canto vi. Some, without reason, suppose that Dante shows such severity to him because he was a Black, and so a political opponent of his own.
[322] Dis: A name of Pluto, the god of the infernal regions.
[323] Burghers: The city of Dis composes the Sixth Circle, and, as immediately appears, is populated by demons. The sinners punished in it are not mentioned at all in this Canto, and it seems more reasonable to apply burghers to the demons than to the shades. They are called gravi, generally taken to mean sore burdened, and the description is then applicable to the shades; but grave also bears the sense of cruel, and may describe the fierceness of the devils. Though the city is inhabited by the subjects of Dis, he is found as Lucifer at the very bottom of the pit. By some critics the whole of the lower Inferno, all that lies beyond this point, is regarded as being the city of Dis. But it is the Sixth Circle, with its minarets, that is the city; its walls, however, serving as bulwarks for all the lower Inferno. The shape of the city is, of course, that of a circular belt. Here it may be noted that the Fifth and Sixth Circles are on the same level; the water of Styx, which as a marsh covers the Fifth, is gathered into a moat to surround the walls of the Sixth.
[324] Mosques: The feature of an Infidel city that first struck crusader and pilgrim.
[325] The gate: They have floated across the stagnant marsh into the deeper waters of the moat, and up to the gate where Phlegyas is used to land his passengers. It may be a question whether his services are required for all who are doomed to the lower Inferno, or only for those bound to the city.
[326] From Heaven: ‘Rained from Heaven.’ Fallen angels.
[327] Seven times: Given as a round number.
[328] Yes and No: He will return—He will not return. The demons have said that Virgil shall remain, and he has promised Dante not to desert him.
[329] Who dare, etc.: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary, but wonders what superior devilish power can have incited the demons to deny him entrance. The incident displays the fallen angels as being still rebellious, and is at the same time skilfully conceived to mark a pause before Dante enters on the lower Inferno.
[330] They showed it, etc.: At the gate of Inferno, on the occasion of Christ’s descent to Limbo. The reference is to the words in the Missal service for Easter Eve: ‘This is the night in which, having burst the bonds of death, Christ victoriously ascended from Hell.’
CANTO IX.
The hue which cowardice on my face did paint
When I beheld my guide return again,
Put his new colour[331] quicker ’neath restraint.
Like one who listens did he fixed remain;
For far to penetrate the air like night,
And heavy mist, the eye was bent in vain.
‘Yet surely we must vanquish in the fight;’
Thus he, ‘unless[332]—but with such proffered aid—
O how I weary till he come in sight!’
Well I remarked how he transition made,10
Covering his opening words with those behind,
Which contradicted what at first he said.
Nath’less his speech with terror charged my mind,
For, haply, to the word which broken fell
Worse meaning than he purposed, I assigned.
Down to this bottom[333] of the dismal shell
Comes ever any from the First Degree,[334]
Where all their pain is, stripped of hope to dwell?
To this my question thus responded he:
‘Seldom it haps to any to pursue20
The journey now embarked upon by me.
Yet I ere this descended, it is true,
Beneath a spell of dire Erichtho’s[335] laid,
Who could the corpse with soul inform anew.
Short while my flesh of me was empty made
When she required me to o’erpass that wall,
From Judas’ circle[336] to abstract a shade.
That is the deepest, darkest place of all,
And furthest from the heaven[337] which moves the skies;
I know the way; fear nought that can befall.30
These fens[338] from which vile exhalations rise
The doleful city all around invest,
Which now we reach not save in angry wise.’
Of more he spake nought in my mind doth rest,
For, with mine eyes, my every thought had been
Fixed on the lofty tower with flaming crest,
Where, in a moment and upright, were seen
Three hellish furies, all with blood defaced,
And woman-like in members and in mien.
Hydras of brilliant green begirt their waist;40
Snakes and cerastes for their tresses grew,
And these were round their dreadful temples braced.
That they the drudges were, full well he knew,
Of her who is the queen of endless woes,
And said to me: ‘The fierce Erynnyes[339] view!
Herself upon the left Megæra shows;
That is Alecto weeping on the right;
Tisiphone’s between.’ Here made he close.
Each with her nails her breast tore, and did smite
Herself with open palms. They screamed in tone50
So fierce, I to the Poet clove for fright.
‘Medusa,[340] come, that we may make him stone!’
All shouted as they downward gazed; ‘Alack!
Theseus[341] escaped us when he ventured down.’
‘Keep thine eyes closed and turn to them thy back,
For if the Gorgon chance to be displayed
And thou shouldst look, farewell the upward track!’
Thus spake the Master, and himself he swayed
Me round about; nor put he trust in mine
But his own hands upon mine eyelids laid.60
O ye with judgment gifted to divine
Look closely now, and mark what hidden lore
Lies ’neath the veil of my mysterious line![342]
Across the turbid waters came a roar
And crash of sound, which big with fear arose:
Because of it fell trembling either shore.
The fashion of it was as when there blows
A blast by cross heats made to rage amain,
Which smites the forest and without repose
The shattered branches sweeps in hurricane;70
In clouds of dust, majestic, onward flies,
Wild beasts and herdsmen driving o’er the plain.
‘Sharpen thy gaze,’ he bade—and freed mine eyes—
‘Across the foam-flecked immemorial lake,
Where sourest vapour most unbroken lies.’
And as the frogs before the hostile snake
Together of the water get them clear,
And on the dry ground, huddling, shelter take;
More than a thousand ruined souls in fear
Beheld I flee from one who, dry of feet,80
Was by the Stygian ferry drawing near.
Waving his left hand he the vapour beat
Swiftly from ’fore his face, nor seemed he spent
Save with fatigue at having this to meet.
Well I opined that he from Heaven[343] was sent,
And to my Master turned. His gesture taught
I should be dumb and in obeisance bent.
Ah me, how with disdain appeared he fraught!
He reached the gate, which, touching with a rod,[344]
He oped with ease, for it resisted not.90
‘People despised and banished far from God,’
Upon the awful threshold then he spoke,
‘How holds in you such insolence abode?
Why kick against that will which never broke
Short of its end, if ever it begin,
And often for you fiercer torments woke?
Butting ’gainst fate, what can ye hope to win?
Your Cerberus,[345] as is to you well known,
Still bears for this a well-peeled throat and chin.’
Then by the passage foul he back was gone,100
Nor spake to us, but like a man was he
By other cares[346] absorbed and driven on
Than that of those who may around him be.
And we, confiding in the sacred word,
Moved toward the town in all security.
We entered without hindrance, and I, spurred
By my desire the character to know
And style of place such strong defences gird,
Entering, begin mine eyes around to throw,
And see on every hand a vast champaign,110
The teeming seat of torments and of woe.
And as at Arles[347] where Rhone spreads o’er the plain,
Or Pola,[348] hard upon Quarnaro sound
Which bathes the boundaries Italian,
The sepulchres uneven make the ground;
So here on every side, but far more dire
And grievous was the fashion of them found.
For scattered ’mid the tombs blazed many a fire,
Because of which these with such fervour burned
No arts which work in iron more require.120
All of the lids were lifted. I discerned
By keen laments which from the tombs arose
That sad and suffering ones were there inurned.
I said: ‘O Master, tell me who are those
Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs
Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?’
And he to me: ‘The lords of heresies[349]
With followers of all sects, a greater band
Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise.
To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned.130
The sepulchres have more or less of heat.’[350]
Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,[351]
’Tween torments and the lofty parapet.