The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri Part 6

[143] Antonio Pucci, born in 1300, in his _Centiloquio_, describes the figure of Dante as being clothed in blood-red. Philip Villani also mentions it. He wrote towards the close of the fourteenth century; Vasari towards the middle of the sixteenth.

[144] In the Munich collection of drawings, and ascribed to Masaccio, but with how much reason I do not know.

[145] Painted by Domenico Michelino in 1465, after a sketch by Aless...o...b..ldovinetto.

[146] 'Wearing over the long hair of the Frenchmen of the period a coroneted cap.'--Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_ (1864), i. 264.

[147] Vol. i. p. 269.

[148] The Priorate was the highest office to which a citizen could aspire, but by no means the highest in Florence.

[149] I suppose the meaning is 'immediately previous.'

[150] John Villani, _Cronica_, viii. 40 and 49; and Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, under date of 1301. Charles entered Florence on the 1st of November of that year, and left it in the following April.

[151] Who the other Florentines in the fresco are does not greatly affect the present question. Villani says that along with Dante Giotto painted Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini.

[152] Only twenty-five, if the commonly accepted date of his birth is correct. In any case, he was still a young man.

[153] It is true that, on technical grounds, it has been questioned if it is Giotto's at all; but there is more than sufficient reason to think it is. With such doubts however we are scarcely here concerned. Even were it proved to be by a pupil, everything in the text that applies to the question of date would still remain in point.

[154] J. Villani, ix. 353.

[155] J. Villani, x. 1.

[156] _Ibid._ x. 49.

[157] J. Villani, x. 107.

[158] Long since destroyed.

[159] An anachronism of another kind would have been committed by Giotto, if, before the _Comedy_ was even begun, he had represented Dante as holding the closed book and cl.u.s.ter of three pomegranates--emblematical of the three regions described by him and of the completion of his work.--I say nothing of the Inferno found on another wall of the chapel, since there seems good reason to doubt if it is by Giotto.

THE INFERNO.

CANTO I.

In middle[160] of the journey of our days I found that I was in a darksome wood[161]-- The right road lost and vanished in the maze.

Ah me! how hard to make it understood How rough that wood was, wild, and terrible: By the mere thought my terror is renewed.

More bitter scarce were death. But ere I tell At large of good which there by me was found, I will relate what other things befell.

Scarce know I how I entered on that ground, 10 So deeply, at the moment when I pa.s.sed From the right way, was I in slumber drowned.

But when beneath a hill[162] arrived at last, Which for the boundary of the valley stood, That with such terror had my heart hara.s.sed, I upwards looked and saw its shoulders glowed, Radiant already with that planet's[163] light Which guideth surely upon every road.

A little then was quieted by the sight The fear which deep within my heart had lain 20 Through all my sore experience of the night.

And as the man, who, breathing short in pain, Hath 'scaped the sea and struggled to the sh.o.r.e, Turns back to gaze upon the perilous main; Even so my soul which fear still forward bore Turned to review the pa.s.s whence I egressed, And which none, living, ever left before.

My wearied frame refreshed with scanty rest, I to ascend the lonely hill essayed; The lower foot[164] still that on which I pressed. 30 And lo! ere I had well beginning made, A nimble leopard,[165] light upon her feet, And in a skin all spotted o'er arrayed: Nor ceased she e'er me full in the face to meet, And to me in my path such hindrance threw That many a time I wheeled me to retreat.

It was the hour of dawn; with retinue Of stars[166] that were with him when Love Divine In the beginning into motion drew Those beauteous things, the sun began to s.h.i.+ne; 40 And I took heart to be of better cheer Touching the creature with the gaudy skin, Seeing 'twas morn,[167] and spring-tide of the year; Yet not so much but that when into sight A lion[168] came, I was disturbed with fear.

Towards me he seemed advancing in his might, Rabid with hunger and with head high thrown: The very air was tremulous with fright.

A she-wolf,[169] too, beheld I further on; All kinds of l.u.s.t seemed in her leanness pent: 50 Through her, ere now, much folk have misery known.

By her oppressed, and altogether spent By the terror breathing from her aspect fell, I lost all hope of making the ascent.

And as the man who joys while thriving well, When comes the time to lose what he has won In all his thoughts weeps inconsolable, So mourned I through the brute which rest knows none: She barred my way again and yet again, And thrust me back where silent is the sun. 60 And as I downward rushed to reach the plain, Before mine eyes appeared there one aghast, And dumb like those that silence long maintain.

When I beheld him in the desert vast, 'Whate'er thou art, or ghost or man,' I cried, 'I pray thee show such pity as thou hast.'

'No man,[170] though once I was; on either side Lombard my parents were, and both of them For native place had Mantua,' he replied.

'Though late, _sub Julio_,[171] to the world I came, 70 And lived at Rome in good Augustus' day, While yet false G.o.ds and lying were supreme.

Poet I was, renowning in my lay Anchises' righteous son, who fled from Troy What time proud Ilion was to flames a prey.

But thou, why going back to such annoy?

The hill delectable why fear to mount, The origin and ground of every joy?'

'And thou in sooth art Virgil, and the fount Whence in a stream so full doth language flow?' 80 Abashed, I answered him with humble front.

'Of other poets light and honour thou!

Let the long study and great zeal I've shown In searching well thy book, avail me now!

My master thou, and author[172] thou, alone!

From thee alone I, borrowing, could attain The style[173] consummate which has made me known.

Behold the beast which makes me turn again: Deliver me from her, ill.u.s.trious Sage; Because of her I tremble, pulse and vein.' 90 'Thou must attempt another pilgrimage,'

Observing that I wept, he made reply, 'If from this waste thyself thou 'dst disengage.

Because the beast thou art afflicted by Will suffer none along her way to pa.s.s, But, hindering them, hara.s.ses till they die.

So vile a nature and corrupt she has, Her raging l.u.s.t is still insatiate, And food but makes it fiercer than it was.

Many a creature[174] hath she ta'en for mate, 100 And more she'll wed until the hound comes forth To slay her and afflict with torment great.

He will not batten upon pelf or earth; But he shall feed on valour, love, and lore; Feltro and Feltro[175] 'tween shall be his birth.

He will save humbled Italy, and restore, For which of old virgin Camilla[176] died; Turnus, Euryalus, Nisus, died of yore.

Her through all cities chasing far and wide, He at the last to h.e.l.l will thrust her down, 110 Whence envy[177] first unloosed her. I decide Therefore and judge that thou hadst best come on With me for guide;[178] and hence I'll lead thee where A place eternal shall to thee be shown.

There shalt thou hear the howlings of despair In which the ancient spirits make lament, All of them fain the second death to share.

Next shalt thou them behold who are content, Because they hope some time, though now in fire, To join the blessed they will win consent. 120 And if to these thou later wouldst aspire, A soul[179] shall guide thee, worthier far than I; When I depart thee will I leave with her.

Because the Emperor[180] who reigns on high Wills not, since 'gainst His laws I did rebel,[181]

That to His city I bring any nigh.

O'er all the world He rules, there reigns as well; There is His city and exalted seat: O happy whom He chooses there to dwell!'

And I to him: 'Poet, I thee entreat, 130 Even by that G.o.d who was to thee unknown, That I may 'scape this present ill, nor meet With worse, conduct me whither thou hast shown, That I may see Saint Peter's gate,[182] and those Whom thou reportest in such misery thrown.'

He moved away; behind him held I close.

FOOTNOTES:

[160] _Middle_: In his _Convito_ (iv. 23), comparing human life to an arch, Dante says that at the age of thirty-five a man has reached the top and begins to go down. As he was born in 1265 that was his own age in 1300, the year in which the action of the poem is laid.

[161] _Darksome wood_: A state of spiritual darkness or despair into which he has gradually drifted, not without fault of his own.

[162] _A hill_: Lower down this hill is termed 'the origin and cause of all joy.' It is symbolical of spiritual freedom--of the peace and security that spring from the practice of virtue. Only, as it seems, by gaining such a vantage-ground can he escape from the wilderness of doubt--the valley of the shadow of death--in which he is lost.

[163] _That planet_: On the Ptolemaic system, which, as perfected by the Arabian astronomers, and with some Christian additions, was that followed by Dante, the sun is reckoned as one of the seven planets; all the others as well as the earth and the fixed stars deriving their light from it. Here the sunlight may signify the Divine help granted to all men in their efforts after virtue.

[164] _The lower foot, etc._: This describes a cautious, slow ascent.

[165] _A nimble leopard_: The leopard and the lion and wolf that come with it are suggested by Jeremiah v. 6: 'A lion out of the forest shall slay them,' etc. We have Dante's own authority for it, in his letter to Can Grande, that several meanings are often hidden under the incidents of the _Comedy_. But whatever else the beasts may signify, their chief meaning is that of moral hindrances. It is plain that the lion and wolf are the sins of others--pride and avarice. If the leopard agrees with them in this, it most probably stands for the envy of those among whom Dante lived: at _Inf._ vi. 74 we find envy, pride, and avarice cla.s.sed together as the sins that have corrupted Florence. But from _Inf._ xvi.