| 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]