The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri Part 24

FOOTNOTES:

[534] _Simon Magus_: The sin of simony consists in setting a price on the exercise of a spiritual grace or the acquisition of a spiritual office. Dante a.s.sails it at headquarters, that is, as it was practised by the Popes; and in their case it took, among other forms, that of ecclesiastical nepotism.

[535] _The trumpet_: Blown at the punishment of criminals, to call attention to their sentence.

[536] _The next tomb_: The Third Bolgia, appropriately termed a tomb, because its manner of punishment is that of a burial, as will be seen.

[537] _St. John_: The church of St. John's, in Dante's time, as now, the Baptistery of Florence. In _Parad._ xxv. he antic.i.p.ates the day, if it should ever come, when he shall return to Florence, and in the church where he was baptized a Christian be crowned as a Poet. Down to the middle of the sixteenth century all baptisms, except in cases of urgent necessity, were celebrated in St. John's; and, even there, only on the eves of Easter and Pentecost. For protection against the crowd, the officiating priests were provided with standing-places, circular cavities disposed around the great font. To these Dante compares the holes of this Bolgia, for the sake of introducing a defence of himself from a charge of sacrilege. Benvenuto tells that once when some boys were playing about the church one of them, to hide himself from his companions, squeezed himself into a baptizer's standing-place, and made so tight a fit of it that he could not be rescued till Dante with his own hands plied a hammer upon the marble, and so saved the child from drowning. The presence of water in the cavity may be explained by the fact of the church's being at that time lighted by an unglazed opening in the roof; and as baptisms were so infrequent the standing-places, situated as they were in the centre of the floor, may often have been partially flooded. It is easy to understand how bitterly Dante would resent a charge of irreverence connected with his 'beautiful St.

John's;' 'that fair sheep-fold' (_Parad._ xxv. 5).

[538] _That bank, etc._: Of each Bolgia the inner bank is lower than the outer; the whole of Malebolge sloping towards the centre of the Inferno.

[539] _Like a friar, etc._: In those times the punishment of an a.s.sa.s.sin was to be stuck head downward in a pit, and then to have earth slowly shovelled in till he was suffocated. Dante bends down, the better to hear what the sinner has to say, like a friar recalled by the felon on the pretence that he has something to add to his confession.

[540] _The prophecy_: 'The writing.' The speaker is Nicholas III., of the great Roman family of the Orsini, and Pope from 1277 to 1280; a man of remarkable bodily beauty and grace of manner, as well as of great force of character. Like many other Holy Fathers he was either a great hypocrite while on his promotion, or else he degenerated very quickly after getting himself well settled on the Papal Chair. He is said to have been the first Pope who practised simony with no attempt at concealment. Boniface VIII., whom he is waiting for to relieve him, became Pope in 1294, and died in 1303. None of the four Popes between 1280 and 1294 were simoniacs; so that Nicholas was uppermost in the hole for twenty-three years. Although ignorant of what is now pa.s.sing on the earth, he can refer back to his foreknowledge of some years earlier (see _Inf._ x. 99) as if to a prophetic writing, and finds that according to this it is still three years too soon, it being now only 1300, for the arrival of Boniface. This is the usual explanation of the pa.s.sage. To it lies the objection that foreknowledge of the present that can be referred back to is the same thing as knowledge of it, and with this the spirits in Inferno are not endowed. But Dante elsewhere shows that he finds it hard to observe the limitation. The alternative explanation, supported by the use of _scritto_ (writing) in the text, is that Nicholas refers to some prophecy once current about his successors in Rome.

[541] _The fair Lady_: The Church. The guile is that shown by Boniface in getting his predecessor Celestine v. to abdicate (_Inf._ iii. 60).

[542] _As befooled_: Dante does not yet suspect that it is with a Pope he is speaking. He is dumbfounded at being addressed as Boniface.

[543] _All the simoniacs_: All the Popes that had been guilty of the sin.

[544] _A Pastor from the West_: Boniface died in 1303, and was succeeded by Benedict XI., who in his turn was succeeded by Clement V., the Pastor from the West. Benedict was not stained with simony, and so it is Clement that is to relieve Boniface; and he is to come from the West, that is, from Avignon, to which the Holy See was removed by him. Or the reference may simply be to the country of his birth. Elsewhere he is spoken of as 'the Gascon who shall cheat the n.o.ble Henry' of Luxemburg (_Parad._ xvii. 82).--This pa.s.sage has been read as throwing light on the question of when the _Inferno_ was written. Nicholas says that from the time Boniface arrives till Clement relieves him will be a shorter period than that during which he has himself been in Inferno, that is to say, a shorter time than twenty years. Clement died in 1314; and so, it is held, we find a date before which the _Inferno_ was, at least, not published. But Clement was known for years before his death to be ill of a disease usually soon fatal. He became Pope in 1305, and the wonder was that he survived so long as nine years. Dante keeps his prophecy safe--if it is a prophecy; and there does seem internal evidence to prove the publication of the _Inferno_ to have taken place long before 1314.--It is needless to point out how the censure of Clement gains in force if read as having been published before his death.

[545] _Jason_: Or Joshua, who purchased the office of High Priest from Antiochus Epiphanes, and innovated the customs of the Jews (2 Maccab.

iv. 7).

[546] _Punished well_: At line 12 Dante has admired the propriety of the Divine distribution of penalties. He appears to regard with a special complacency that which he invents for the simoniacs. They were industrious in multiplying benefices for their kindred; Boniface, for example, besides Cardinals, appointed about twenty Archbishops and Bishops from among his own relatives. Here all the simoniacal Popes have to be contented with one place among them. They paid no regard to whether a post was well filled or not: here they are set upside down.

[547] _Charles_: Nicholas was accused of taking a bribe to a.s.sist Peter of Arragon in ousting Charles of Anjou from the kingdom of Sicily.

[548] _By reverence, etc._: Dante distinguishes between the office and the unworthy holder of it. So in Purgatory he prostrates himself before a Pope (_Purg._ xix. 131).

[549] _Her spouse_: In the preceding lines the vision of the Woman in the Apocalypse is applied to the corruption of the Church, represented under the figure of the seven-hilled Rome seated in honour among the nations and receiving observance from the kings of the earth till her spouse, the Pope, began to prost.i.tute her by making merchandise of her spiritual gifts. Of the Beast there is no mention here, his qualities being attributed to the Woman.

[550] _Ah, Constantine, etc._: In Dante's time, and for some centuries later, it was believed that Constantine, on transferring the seat of empire to Byzantium, had made a gift to the Pope of rights and privileges almost equal to those of the Emperor. Rome was to be the Pope's; and from his court in the Lateran he was to exercise supremacy over all the West. The Donation of Constantine, that is, the instrument conveying these rights, was a forgery of the Middle Ages.

CANTO XX.

Now of new torment must my verses tell, And matter for the Twentieth Canto win Of Lay the First,[551] which treats of souls in h.e.l.l.

Already was I eager to begin To peer into the visible profound,[552]

Which tears of agony was bathed in: And I saw people in the valley round; Like that of penitents on earth the pace At which they weeping came, nor uttering[553] sound.

When I beheld them with more downcast gaze,[554] 10 That each was strangely screwed about I learned, Where chest is joined to chin. And thus the face Of every one round to his loins was turned; And stepping backward[555] all were forced to go, For nought in front could be by them discerned.

Smitten by palsy although one might show Perhaps a shape thus twisted all awry, I never saw, and am to think it slow.

As, Reader,[556] G.o.d may grant thou profit by Thy reading, for thyself consider well 20 If I could then preserve my visage dry When close at hand to me was visible Our human form so wrenched that tears, rained down Out of the eyes, between the b.u.t.tocks fell.

In very sooth I wept, leaning upon A boss of the hard cliff, till on this wise My Escort asked: 'Of the other fools[557] art one?

Here piety revives as pity dies; For who more irreligious is than he In whom G.o.d's judgments to regret give rise? 30 Lift up, lift up thy head, and thou shalt see Him for whom earth yawned as the Thebans saw, All shouting meanwhile: "Whither dost thou flee, Amphiaraus?[558] Wherefore thus withdraw From battle?" But he sinking found no rest Till Minos clutched him with all-grasping claw.

Lo, how his shoulders serve him for a breast!

Because he wished to see too far before Backward he looks, to backward course addressed.

Behold Tiresias,[559] who was changed all o'er, 40 Till for a man a woman met the sight, And not a limb its former semblance bore; And he behoved a second time to smite The same two twisted serpents with his wand, Ere he again in manly plumes was dight.

With back to him, see Aruns next at hand, Who up among the hills of Luni, where Peasants of near Carrara till the land, Among the dazzling marbles[560] held his lair Within a cavern, whence could be descried 50 The sea and stars of all obstruction bare.

The other one, whose flowing tresses hide Her bosom, of the which thou seest nought, And all whose hair falls on the further side, Was Manto;[561] who through many regions sought: Where I was born, at last her foot she stayed.

It likes me well thou shouldst of this be taught.

When from this life her father exit made, And Bacchus' city had become enthralled, She for long time through many countries strayed. 60 'Neath mountains by which Germany is walled And bounded at Tirol, a lake there lies High in fair Italy, Benacus[562] called.

The waters of a thousand springs that rise 'Twixt Val Camonica and Garda flow Down Pennine; and their flood this lake supplies.

And from a spot midway, if they should go Thither, the Pastors[563] of Verona, Trent, And Brescia might their blessings all bestow.

Peschiera,[564] with its strength for ornament, 70 Facing the Brescians and the Bergamese Lies where the bank to lower curve is bent.

And there the waters, seeking more of ease, For in Benacus is not room for all, Forming a river, lapse by green degrees.

The river, from its very source, men call No more Benacus--'tis as Mincio known, Which into Po does at Governo fall.

A flat it reaches ere it far has run, Spreading o'er which it feeds a marshy fen, 80 Whence oft in summer pestilence has grown.

Wayfaring here the cruel virgin, when She found land girdled by the marshy flood, Untilled and uninhabited of men, That she might 'scape all human neighbourhood Stayed on it with her slaves, her arts to ply; And there her empty body was bestowed.

On this the people from the country nigh Into that place came crowding, for the spot, Girt by the swamp, could all attack defy, 90 And for the town built o'er her body sought A name from her who made it first her seat, Calling it Mantua, without casting lot.[565]

The dwellers in it were in number great, Till stupid Casalodi[566] was befooled And victimised by Pinamonte's cheat.

Hence, shouldst thou ever hear (now be thou schooled!) Another story to my town a.s.signed, Let by no fraud the truth be overruled.'

And I: 'Thy reasonings, Master, to my mind 100 So cogent are, and win my faith so well, What others say I shall black embers find.

But of this people pa.s.sing onward tell, If thou, of any, something canst declare, For all my thoughts[567] on that intently dwell.'

And then he said: 'The one whose bearded hair Falls from his cheeks upon his shoulders dun, Was, when the land of Greece[568] of males so bare Was grown the very cradles scarce held one, An augur;[569] he with Calchas gave the sign 110 In Aulis through the first rope knife to run.

Eurypylus was he called, and in some line Of my high Tragedy[570] is sung the same, As thou know'st well, who mad'st it wholly thine.

That other, thin of flank, was known to fame As Michael Scott;[571] and of a verity He knew right well the black art's inmost game.

Guido Bonatti,[572] and Asdente see Who mourns he ever should have parted from His thread and leather; but too late mourns he. 120 Lo the unhappy women who left loom, Spindle, and needle that they might divine; With herb and image[573] hastening men's doom.

But come; for where the hemispheres confine Cain and the Thorns[574] is falling, to alight Underneath Seville on the ocean line.

The moon was full already yesternight; Which to recall thou shouldst be well content, For in the wood she somewhat helped thy plight.'

Thus spake he to me while we forward went. 130

FOOTNOTES:

[551] _Lay the First_: The _Inferno_.

[552] _The visible profound_: The Fourth Bolgia, where soothsayers of every kind are punished. Their sin is that of seeking to find out what G.o.d has made secret. That such discoveries of the future could be made by men, Dante seems to have had no doubt; but he regards the exercise of the power as a fraud on Providence, and also credits the adepts in the black art with ruining others by their spells (line 123).

[553] _Nor uttering, etc._: They who on earth told too much are now condemned to be for ever dumb. It will be noticed that with none of them does Dante converse.

[554] _More downcast gaze_: Standing as he does on the crown of the arch, the nearer they come to him the more he has to decline his eyes.

[555] _Stepping backward_: Once they peered far into the future; now they cannot see a step before them.

[556]_ As, Reader, etc._: Some light may be thrown on this unusual, and, at first sight, inexplicable display of pity, by the comment of Benvenuto da Imola:--'It is the wisest and most virtuous of men that are most subject to this mania of divination; and of this Dante is himself an instance, as is well proved by this book of his.' Dante reminds the reader how often since the journey began he has sought to have the veil of the future lifted; and would have it understood that he was seized by a sudden misgiving as to whether he too had not overstepped the bounds of what, in that respect, is allowed and right.

[557] _Of the other fools_: Dante, weeping like the sinners in the Bolgia, is asked by Virgil: 'What, art thou then one of them?' He had been suffered, without reproof, to show pity for Francesca and Ciacco.

The terrors of the Lord grow more cogent as they descend, and even pity is now forbidden.

[558] _Amphiaraus_: One of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes. He foresaw his own death, and sought by hiding to evade it; but his wife revealed his hiding-place, and he was forced to join in the siege. As he fought, a thunderbolt opened a chasm in the earth, into which he fell.

[559] _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of s.e.x is described by Ovid (_Metam._ iii.).