FOOTNOTES:
[331] New colour: Both have changed colour, Virgil in anger and Dante in fear.
[332] Unless: To conceal his misgiving from Dante, Virgil refrains from expressing all his thought. The ‘unless’ may refer to what the lying demons had told him or threatened him with; the ‘proffered aid,’ to that involved in Beatrice’s request.
[333] This bottom: The lower depths of Inferno. How much still lies below him is unknown to Dante.
[334] First Degree: The limbo where Virgil resides. Dante by an indirect question, seeks to learn how much experience of Inferno is possessed by his guide.
[335] Erichtho: A Thessalian sorceress, of whom Lucan (Pharsalia vi.) tells that she evoked a shade to predict to Sextus Pompey the result of the war between his father and Cæsar. This happened thirty years before the death of Virgil.
[336] Judas’ circle: The Judecca, or very lowest point of the Inferno. Virgil’s death preceded that of Judas by fifty years. He gives no hint of whose the shade was that he went down to fetch; but Lucan’s tale was probably in Dante’s mind. In the Middle Ages the memory of Virgil was revered as that of a great sorcerer, especially in the neighbourhood of Naples.
[337] The heaven, etc.: The Primum Mobile; but used here for the highest heaven. See Inf. ii. 83, note.
[338] These fens, etc.: Virgil knows the locality. They have no choice, but must remain where they are, for the same moat and wall gird the city all around.
[339] Erynnyes: The Furies. The Queen of whom they are handmaids is Proserpine, carried off by Dis, or Pluto, to the under world.
[340] Medusa: One of the Gorgons. Whoever looked on the head of Medusa was turned into stone.
[341] Theseus: Who descended into the infernal regions to rescue Proserpine, and escaped by the help of Hercules.
[342] Mysterious line: ‘Strange verses:’ That the verses are called strange, as Boccaccio and others of the older commentators say, because treating of such a subject in the vulgar tongue for the first time, and in rhyme, is difficult to believe. Rather they are strange because of the meaning they convey. What that is, Dante warns the reader of superior intellect to pause and consider. It has been noted (Inf. ii. 28) how he uses the characters of the old mythology as if believing in their real existence. But this is for his poetical ends. Here he bids us look below the surface and seek for the truth hidden under the strange disguise.—The opposition to their progress offered by the powers of Hell perplexes even Virgil, while Dante is reduced to a state of absolute terror, and is afflicted with still sharper misgivings than he had at the first as to the issue of his adventure. By an indirect question he seeks to learn how much Virgil really knows of the economy of the lower world; but he cannot so much as listen to all of his Master’s reassuring answer, terrified as he is by the sudden appearance of the Furies upon the tower, which rises out of the city of unbelief. These symbolise the trouble of his conscience, and, assailing him with threats, shake his already trembling faith in the Divine government. How, in the face of such foes, is he to find the peace and liberty of soul of which he is in search? That this is the city of unbelief he has not yet been told, and without knowing it he is standing under the very walls of Doubting Castle. And now, if he chance to let his eyes rest on the Gorgon’s head, his soul will be petrified by despair; like the denizens of Hell, he will lose the ‘good of the intellect,’ and will pass into a state from which Virgil—or reason—will be powerless to deliver him. But Virgil takes him in time, and makes him avert his eyes; which may signify that the only safe course for men is to turn their backs on the deep and insoluble problem of how the reality of the Divine government can be reconciled with the apparent triumph of evil.
[343] From Heaven: The messenger comes from Heaven, and his words are holy. Against the obvious interpretation, that he is a good angel, there lies the objection that no other such is met with in Inferno, and also that it is spoken of as a new sight for him when Dante first meets with one in Purgatory. But the obstruction now to be overcome is worthy of angelic interference; and Dante can hardly be said to meet the messenger, who does not even glance in his direction. The commentators have made this angel mean all kind of outlandish things.
[344] A rod: A piece of the angelic outfit, derived from the caduceus of Mercury.
[345] Cerberus: Hercules, when Cerberus opposed his entrance to the infernal regions, fastened a chain round his neck and dragged him to the gate. The angel’s speech answers Dante’s doubts as to the limits of diabolical power.
[346] By other cares, etc.: It is not in Inferno that Dante is to hold converse with celestial intelligences. The angel, like Beatrice when she sought Virgil in Limbo, is all on fire to return to his own place.
[347] Arles: The Alyscampo (Elysian Fields) at Arles was an enormous cemetery, of which ruins still exist. It had a circumference of about six miles, and contained numerous sarcophagi dating from Roman times.
[348] Pola: In Istria, near the Gulf of Quarnaro, said to have contained many ancient tombs.
[349] Lords of heresies: ‘Heresiarchs.’ Dante now learns for the first time that Dis is the city of unbelief. Each class of heretics has its own great sepulchre.
[350] More or less of heat: According to the heinousness of the heresy punished in each. It was natural to associate heretics and punishment by fire in days when Dominican monks ruled the roast.
[351] Dexter hand: As they move across the circles, and down from one to the other, their course is usually to the left hand. Here for some reason Virgil turns to the right, so as to have the tombs on the left as he advances. It may be that a special proof of his knowledge of the locality is introduced when most needed—after the repulse by the demons—to strengthen Dante’s confidence in him as a guide; or, as some subtly think, they being now about to enter the abode of heresy, the movement to the right signifies the importance of the first step in forming opinion. The only other occasion on which their course is taken to the right hand is at Inf. xvii. 31.
CANTO X.
And now advance we by a narrow track
Between the torments and the ramparts high,
My Master first, and I behind his back.
‘O mighty Virtue,[352] at whose will am I
Wheeled through these impious circles,’ then I said,
‘Speak, and in full my longing satisfy.
The people who within the tombs are laid,
May they be seen? The coverings are all thrown
Open, nor is there[353] any guard displayed.’
And he to me: ‘All shall be fastened down10
When hither from Jehoshaphat[354] they come
Again in bodies which were once their own.
All here with Epicurus[355] find their tomb
Who are his followers, and by whom ’tis held
That the soul shares the body’s mortal doom.
Things here discovered then shall answer yield,
And quickly, to thy question asked of me;
As well as[356] to the wish thou hast concealed.’
And I: ‘Good Leader, if I hide from thee
My heart, it is that I may little say;20
Nor only now[357] learned I thus dumb to be.’
‘O Tuscan, who, still living, mak’st thy way,
Modest of speech, through the abode of flame,
Be pleased[358] a little in this place to stay.
The accents of thy language thee proclaim
To be a native of that state renowned
Which I, perchance, wronged somewhat.’ Sudden came
These words from out a tomb which there was found
’Mongst others; whereon I, compelled by fright,
A little toward my Leader shifted ground.30
And he: ‘Turn round, what ails thee? Lo! upright
Beginneth Farinata[359] to arise;
All of him ’bove the girdle comes in sight.’
On him already had I fixed mine eyes.
Towering erect with lifted front and chest,
He seemed Inferno greatly to despise.
And toward him I among the tombs was pressed
By my Guide’s nimble and courageous hand,
While he, ‘Choose well thy language,’ gave behest.
Beneath his tomb when I had ta’en my stand40
Regarding me a moment, ‘Of what house
Art thou?’ as if in scorn, he made demand.
To show myself obedient, anxious,
I nothing hid, but told my ancestors;
And, listening, he gently raised his brows.[360]
‘Fiercely to me they proved themselves adverse,
And to my sires and party,’ then he said;
‘Because of which I did them twice disperse.’[361]
I answered him: ‘And what although they fled!
Twice from all quarters they returned with might,50
An art not mastered yet by these you[362] led.’
Beside him then there issued into sight
Another shade, uncovered to the chin,
Propped on his knees, if I surmised aright.
He peered around as if he fain would win
Knowledge if any other was with me;
And then, his hope all spent, did thus begin,
Weeping: ‘By dint of genius if it be
Thou visit’st this dark prison, where my son?
And wherefore not found in thy company?’60
And I to him: ‘I come not here alone:
He waiting yonder guides me: but disdain
Of him perchance was by your Guido[363] shown.’
The words he used, and manner of his pain,
Revealed his name to me beyond surmise;
Hence was I able thus to answer plain.
Then cried he, and at once upright did rise,
‘How saidst thou—was? Breathes he not then the air?
The pleasant light no longer smites his eyes?’
When he of hesitation was aware70
Displayed by me in forming my reply,
He fell supine, no more to reappear.
But the magnanimous, at whose bidding I
Had halted there, the same expression wore,
Nor budged a jot, nor turned his neck awry.
‘And if’—resumed he where he paused before—
‘They be indeed but slow that art to learn,
Than this my bed, to hear it pains me more.
But ere the fiftieth time anew shall burn
The lady’s[364] face who reigneth here below,80
Of that sore art thou shalt experience earn.
And as to the sweet world again thou’dst go,
Tell me, why is that people so without
Ruth for my race,[365] as all their statutes show?’
And I to him: ‘The slaughter and the rout
Which made the Arbia[366] to run with red,
Cause in our fane[367] such prayers to be poured out.’
Whereon he heaved a sigh and shook his head:
‘There I was not alone, nor to embrace
That cause was I, without good reason, led.90
But there I was alone, when from her place
All granted Florence should be swept away.
’Twas I[368] defended her with open face.’
‘So may your seed find peace some better day,’
I urged him, ‘as this knot you shall untie
In which my judgment doth entangled stay.
If I hear rightly, ye, it seems, descry
Beforehand what time brings, and yet ye seem
’Neath other laws[369] as touching what is nigh.’
‘Like those who see best what is far from them,100
We see things,’ said he, ‘which afar remain;
Thus much enlightened by the Guide Supreme.
To know them present or approaching, vain
Are all our powers; and save what they relate
Who hither come, of earth no news we gain.
Hence mayst thou gather in how dead a state
Shall all our knowledge from that time be thrown
When of the future shall be closed the gate.’
Then, for my fault as if repentant grown,
I said: ‘Report to him who fell supine,110
That still among the living breathes his son.
And if I, dumb, seemed answer to decline,
Tell him it was that I upon the knot
Was pondering then, you helped me to untwine.’
Me now my Master called, whence I besought
With more than former sharpness of the shade,
To tell me what companions he had got.
He answered me: ‘Some thousand here are laid
With me; ’mong these the Second Frederick,[370]
The Cardinal[371] too; of others nought be said.’120
Then was he hid; and towards the Bard antique
I turned my steps, revolving in my brain
The ominous words[372] which I had heard him speak.
He moved, and as we onward went again
Demanded of me: ‘Wherefore thus amazed?’
And to his question I made answer plain.
‘Within thy mind let there be surely placed,’
The Sage bade, ‘what ’gainst thee thou heardest say.
Now mark me well’ (his finger here he raised),
‘When thou shalt stand within her gentle ray130
Whose beauteous eye sees all, she will make known
The stages[373] of thy journey on life’s way.’
Turning his feet, he to the left moved on;
Leaving the wall, we to the middle[374] went
Upon a path that to a vale strikes down,
Which even to us above its foulness sent.