The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri Part 9

[213] _Caitiffs_: To one who had suffered like Dante for the frank part he took in affairs, neutrality may well have seemed the unpardonable sin in politics; and no doubt but that his thoughts were set on the trimmers in Florence when he wrote, 'Let us not speak of them!'

[214] _A veteran_: Charon. In all this description of the pa.s.sage of the river by the shades, Dante borrows freely from Virgil. It has been already remarked on _Inf._ ii. 28 that he draws ill.u.s.trations from Pagan sources. More than that, as we begin to find, he boldly introduces legendary and mythological characters among the persons of his drama.

With Milton in mind, it surprises, on a first acquaintance with the _Comedy_, to discover how nearly independent of angels is the economy invented by Dante for the other world.

[215] _Other ways, etc._: The souls bound from earth to Purgatory gather at the mouth of the Tiber, whence they are wafted on an angel's skiff to their destination (_Purg._ ii. 100). It may be here noted that never does Dante hint a fear of one day becoming a denizen of Inferno. It is only the pains of Purgatory that oppress his soul by antic.i.p.ation. So here Charon is made to see at a glance that the pilgrim is not of those 'who make descent to Acheron.'

[216] _As fowls, etc._: 'As a bird to its lure'--generally interpreted of the falcon when called back. But a witness of the sport of netting thrushes in Tuscany describes them as 'flying into the vocal ambush in a hurried, half-reluctant, and very remarkable manner.'

[217] _Courteous Master_: Virgil here gives the answer promised at line 76; and Dante by the epithet he uses removes any impression that his guide had been wanting in courtesy when he bade him wait.

[218] _Wherefore_: Charon's displeasure only proves that he feels he has no hold on Dante.

[219] _Trembled, etc._: Symbolical of the increase of woe in Inferno when the doomed souls have landed on the thither side of Acheron. h.e.l.l opens to receive them. Conversely, when any purified soul is released from Purgatory the mountain of purification trembles to its base with joy (_Purg._ xxi. 58).

CANTO IV.

Resounding thunder broke the slumber deep That drowsed my senses, and myself I shook Like one by force awakened out of sleep.

Then rising up I cast a steady look, With eyes refreshed, on all that lay around, And cognisance of where I found me took.

In sooth, me on the valley's brink I found Of the dolorous abyss, where infinite Despairing cries converge with thundering sound.[220]

Cloudy it was, and deep, and dark as night; 10 So dark that, peering eagerly to find What its depths held, no object met my sight.

'Descend we now into this region blind,'

Began the Poet with a face all pale; 'I will go first, and do thou come behind.'

Marking the wanness on his cheek prevail, I asked, 'How can I, seeing thou hast dread, My wonted comforter when doubts a.s.sail?'

'The anguish of the people,' then he said, 'Who are below, has painted on my face 20 Pity,[221] by thee for fear interpreted.

Come! The long journey bids us move apace.'

Then entered he and made me enter too The topmost circle girding the abyss.

Therein, as far as I by listening knew, There was no lamentation save of sighs, Whence throbbed the air eternal through and through.

This, sorrow without suffering made arise From infants and from women and from men, Gathered in great and many companies. 30 And the good Master: 'Wouldst thou[222] nothing then Of who those spirits are have me relate?

Yet know, ere pa.s.sing further, although when On earth they sinned not, worth however great Availed them not, they being unbaptized-- Part[223] of the faith thou holdest. If their fate Was to be born ere man was Christianised, G.o.d, as behoved, they never could adore: And I myself am with this folk comprised.

For such defects--our guilt is nothing more-- 40 We are thus lost, suffering from this alone That, hopeless, we our want of bliss deplore.'

Greatly I sorrowed when he made this known, Because I knew that some who did excel In worthiness were to that limbo[224] gone.

'Tell me, O Sir,' I prayed him, 'Master,[225] tell,'

--That I of the belief might surety win, Victorious every error to dispel-- 'Did ever any hence to bliss attain By merit of another or his own?' 50 And he, to whom my hidden drift[226] was plain: 'I to this place but lately[227] had come down, When I beheld one hither make descent; A Potentate[228] who wore a victor's crown.

The shade of our first sire forth with him went, And his son Abel's, Noah's forth he drew, Moses' who gave the laws, the obedient Patriarch Abram's, and King David's too; And, with his sire and children, Israel, And Rachel, winning whom such toils he knew; 60 And many more, in blessedness to dwell.

And I would have thee know, earlier than these No human soul was ever saved from h.e.l.l.'

While thus he spake our progress did not cease, But we continued through the wood to stray; The wood, I mean, with crowded ghosts for trees.

Ere from the summit far upon our way We yet had gone, I saw a flame which glowed, Holding a hemisphere[229] of dark at bay.

'Twas still a little further on our road, 70 Yet not so far but that in part I guessed That honourable people there abode.

'Of art and science Ornament confessed!

Who are these honoured in such high degree, And in their lot distinguished from the rest?'

He said: 'For them their glorious memory, Still in thy world the subject of renown, Wins grace[230] by Heaven distinguished thus to be.'

Meanwhile I heard a voice: 'Be honour shown To the ill.u.s.trious poet,[231] for his shade 80 Is now returning which a while was gone.'

When the voice paused nor further utterance made, Four mighty shades drew near with one accord, In aspect neither sorrowful nor glad.

'Consider that one, armed with a sword,'[232]

Began my worthy Master in my ear, 'Before the three advancing like their lord; For he is Homer, poet with no peer: Horace the satirist is next in line, Ovid comes third, and Lucan in the rear. 90 And 'tis because their claim agrees with mine Upon the name they with one voice did cry, They to their honour[233] in my praise combine.'

Thus I beheld their goodly company-- The lords[234] of song in that exalted style Which o'er all others, eagle-like, soars high.

Having conferred among themselves a while They turned toward me and salutation made, And, this beholding, did my Master smile.[235]

And honour higher still to me was paid, 100 For of their company they made me one; So I the sixth part 'mong such genius played.

Thus journeyed we to where the brightness shone, Holding discourse which now 'tis well to hide, As, where I was, to hold it was well done.

At length we reached a n.o.ble castle's[236] side Which lofty sevenfold walls encompa.s.sed round, And it was moated by a sparkling tide.

This we traversed as if it were dry ground; I through seven gates did with those sages go; 110 Then in a verdant mead people we found Whose glances were deliberate and slow.

Authority was stamped on every face; Seldom they spake, in tuneful voices low.

We drew apart to a high open s.p.a.ce Upon one side which, luminously serene, Did of them all a perfect view embrace.

Thence, opposite, on the enamel green Were shown me mighty spirits; with delight I still am stirred them only to have seen. 120 With many more, Electra was in sight; 'Mong them I Hector and aeneas spied, Caesar in arms,[237] his eyes, like falcon's, bright.

And, opposite, Camilla I descried; Penthesilea too; the Latian King Sat with his child Lavinia by his side.

Brutus[238] I saw, who Tarquin forth did fling; Cornelia, Marcia,[239] Julia, and Lucrece.

Saladin[240] sat alone. Considering What lay beyond with somewhat lifted eyes, 130 The Master[241] I beheld of those that know, 'Mong such as in philosophy were wise.

All gazed on him as if toward him to show Becoming honour; Plato in advance With Socrates: the others stood below.

Democritus[242] who set the world on chance; Thales, Diogenes, Empedocles, Zeno, and Anaxagoras met my glance; Herac.l.i.tus, and Dioscorides, Wise judge of nature. Tully, Orpheus, were 140 With ethic Seneca and Linus.[243] These, And Ptolemy,[244] too, and Euclid, geometer, Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicen,[245]

Averroes,[246] the same who did prepare The Comment, saw I; nor can tell again The names of all I saw; the subject wide So urgent is, time often fails me. Then Into two bands the six of us divide; Me by another way my Leader wise Doth from the calm to air which trembles, guide. 150 I reach a part[247] which all benighted lies.

FOOTNOTES:

[220] _Thundering sound_: In a state of unconsciousness, Dante, he knows not how, has been conveyed across Acheron, and is awakened by what seems like the thunder-peal following the lightning-flash which made him insensible. He now stands on the brink of Inferno, where the sounds peculiar to each region of it converge and are reverberated from its rim. These sounds are not again to be heard by him except in their proper localities. No sooner does he actually pa.s.s into the First Circle than he hears only sighs.--As regards the topography of Inferno, it is enough, as yet, to note that it consists of a cavity extending from the surface to the centre of the earth; narrowing to its base, and with many circular ledges or terraces, of great width in the case of the upper ones, running round its wall--that is, round the sides of the pit. Each terrace or circle is thus less in circ.u.mference than the one above it.

From one circle to the next there slopes a bank of more or less height and steepness. Down the bank which falls to the comparatively flat ground of the First Circle they are now about to pa.s.s.--To put it otherwise, the Inferno is an inverted hollow cone.

[221] _Pity_: The pity felt by Virgil has reference only to those in the circle they are about to enter, which is his own. See also _Purg._ iii.

43.

[222] _Wouldst thou, etc._: He will not have Dante form a false opinion of the character of those condemned to the circle which is his own.

[223] _Part_: _parte_, altered by some editors into _porta_; but though baptism is technically described as the gate of the sacraments, it never is as the gate of the faith. A tenet of Dante's faith was that all the unbaptized are lost. He had no choice in the matter.

[224] _Limbo_: Border, or borderland. Dante makes the First Circle consist of the two limbos of Thomas Aquinas: that of unbaptized infants, _limbus puerorum_, and that of the fathers of the old covenant, _limbus sanctorum patrum_. But the second he finds is now inhabited only by the virtuous heathen.

[225] _Sir_--_Master_: As a delicate means of expressing sympathy, Dante redoubles his courtesy to Virgil.

[226] _Hidden drift_: to find out, at first hand as it were, if the article in the creed is true which relates to the Descent into h.e.l.l; and, perhaps, to learn if when Christ descended He delivered none of the virtuous heathen.

[227] _Lately_: Virgil died about half a century before the crucifixion.

[228] _A Potentate_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the _Inferno_.

[229] _A hemisphere, etc._: An elaborate way of saying that part of the limbo was clearly lit. The flame is symbolical of the light of genius, or of virtue; both in Dante's eyes being modes of worth.

[230] _Wins grace, etc._: The thirst for fame was one keenly felt and openly confessed by Dante. See, _e.g._ _De Monarchia_, i. 1. In this he antic.i.p.ated the humanists of the following century. Here we find that to be famous on earth helps the case of disembodied souls.

[231] _Poet_: Throughout the _Comedy_, with the exception of _Parad._ i.

29, and xxv. 8, the term 'poet' is confined to those who wrote in Greek and Latin. In _Purg._ xxi. 85 the name of poet is said to be that 'which is most enduring and honourable.'

[232] _A sword_: Because Homer sings of battles. Dante's acquaintance with his works can have been but slight, as they were not then translated into Latin, and Dante knew little or no Greek.

[233] _To their honour_: 'And in that they do well:' perhaps as showing themselves free from jealousy. But the remark of Benvenuto of Imola is: 'Poets love and honour one another, and are never envious and quarrelsome like those who cultivate the other arts and sciences.'--I quote with misgiving from Tamburini's untrustworthy Italian translation.