The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri Part 20

I turned my back on it but yestermorn;[462]

Again I sought it when he came in sight Guided by whom[463] I homeward thus return.'

And he to me: 'Following thy planet's light[464]

Thou of a glorious haven canst not fail, If in the blithesome life I marked aright.

And had my years known more abundant tale, Seeing the heavens so held thee in their grace I, heartening thee, had helped thee to prevail. 60 But that ungrateful and malignant race Which down from Fiesole[465] came long ago, And still its rocky origin betrays, Will for thy worthiness become thy foe; And with good reason, for 'mong crab-trees wild It ill befits the mellow fig to grow.

By widespread ancient rumour are they styled A people blind, rapacious, envious, vain: See by their manners thou be not defiled.

Fortune reserves such honour for thee, fain 70 Both sides[466] will be to enlist thee in their need; But from the beak the herb shall far remain.

Let beasts of Fiesole go on to tread Themselves to litter, nor the plants molest, If any such now spring on their rank bed, In whom there flourishes indeed the blest Seed of the Romans who still lingered there When of such wickedness 'twas made the nest.'

'Had I obtained full answer to my prayer, You had not yet been doomed,' I then did say, 80 'This exile from humanity to bear.

For deep within my heart and memory Lives the paternal image good and dear Of you, as in the world, from day to day, How men escape oblivion you made clear; My thankfulness for which shall in my speech While I have life, as it behoves, appear.

I note what of my future course you teach.

Stored with another text[467] it will be glozed By one expert, should I that Lady reach. 90 Yet would I have this much to you disclosed: If but my conscience no reproaches yield, To all my fortune is my soul composed.

Not new to me the hint by you revealed; Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel apace, Even as she will; the clown[468] his mattock wield.'

Thereon my Master right about[469] did face, And uttered this, with glance upon me thrown: 'He hears[470] to purpose who doth mark the place.'

And none the less I, speaking, still go on 100 With Ser Brunetto; asking him to tell Who of his band[471] are greatest and best known.

And he to me: 'To hear of some is well, But of the rest 'tis fitting to be dumb, And time is lacking all their names to spell.

That all of them were clerks, know thou in sum, All men of letters, famous and of might; Stained with one sin[472] all from the world are come.

Priscian[473] goes with that crowd of evil plight, Francis d'Accorso[474] too; and hadst thou mind 110 For suchlike trash thou mightest have had sight Of him the Slave[475] of Slaves to change a.s.signed From Arno's banks to Bacchiglione, where His nerves fatigued with vice he left behind.

More would I say, but neither must I fare Nor talk at further length, for from the sand I see new dust-clouds[476] rising in the air, I may not keep with such as are at hand.

Care for my _Treasure_;[477] for I still survive In that my work. I nothing else demand.' 120 Then turned he back, and ran like those who strive For the Green Cloth[478] upon Verona's plain; And seemed like him that shall the first arrive, And not like him that labours all in vain.

FOOTNOTES:

[454] _Now lies, etc._: The stream on issuing from the wood flows right across the waste of sand which that encompa.s.ses. To follow it they must turn to the right, as always when, their general course being to the left, they have to cross a Circle. But such a veering to the right is a consequence of their leftward course, and not an exception to it.

[455] _Cadsand_: An island opposite to the mouth of the great ca.n.a.l of Bruges.

[456] _Chiarentana_: What district or mountain is here meant has been much disputed. It can be taken for Carinthia only on the supposition that Dante was ignorant of where the Brenta rises. At the source of that river stands the Monte Chiarentana, but it may be a question how old that name is. The district name of it is Canzana, or Carenzana.

[457] _Not so high, etc._: This limitation is very characteristic of Dante's style of thought, which compels him to a precision that will produce the utmost possible effect of verisimilitude in his description.

Most poets would have made the walls far higher and more vast, by way of lending grandeur to the conception.

[458] _Marvellous_: To find Dante, whom he knew, still living, and pa.s.sing through the Circle.

[459] _With hand, etc._: 'With my face bent to his' is another reading, but there seems to be most authority for that in the text.--The fiery shower forbids Dante to stoop over the edge of the causeway. To Brunetto, who is some feet below him, he throws out his open hand, a gesture of astonishment mingled with pity.

[460] _Ser Brunetto_: Brunetto Latini, a Florentine, was born in 1220.

As a notary he was ent.i.tled to be called Ser, or Messer. As appears from the context, Dante was under great intellectual obligations to him, not, we may suppose, as to a tutor so much as to an active-minded and scholarly friend of mature age, and possessed of a ripe experience of affairs. The social respect that Dante owed him is indicated by the use of the plural form of address. See note, _Inf._ x. 51. Brunetto held high appointments in the Republic. Perhaps with some exaggeration, Villani says of him that he was the first to refine the Florentines, teaching them to speak correctly, and to administer State affairs on fixed principles of politics (_Cronica_, viii. 10). A Guelf in politics, he shared in the exile of his party after the Ghibeline victory of Montaperti in 1260, and for some years resided in Paris. There is reason to suppose that he returned to Florence in 1269, and that he acted as prothonotary of the court of Charles of Valois' vicar-general in Tuscany. His signature as secretary to the Council of Florence is found under the date of 1273. He died in 1294, when Dante was twenty-nine, and was buried in the cloister of Santa Maria Maggiore, where his tombstone may still be seen. (Not in Santa Maria Novella.) Villani mentions him in his Chronicle with some reluctance, seeing he was a 'worldly man.' His life must indeed have been vicious to the last, before Dante could have had the heart to fix him in such company. Brunetto's chief works are the _Tesoro_ and _Tesoretto_. For the _Tesoro_, see note at line 119. The _Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, is an allegorical poem in Italian rhymed couplets. In it he imagines himself, as he is on his return from an emba.s.sy to Alphonso of Castile, meeting a scholar of Bologna of whom he asks 'in smooth sweet words for news of Tuscany.' Having been told of the catastrophe of Montaperti he wanders out of the beaten way into the Forest of Roncesvalles, where he meets with various experiences; he is helped by Ovid, is instructed by Ptolemy, and grows penitent for his sins. In this, it will be seen, there is a general resemblance to the action of the _Comedy_. There are even turns of expression that recall Dante (_e.g._ beginning of _Cap._ iv.); but all together amounts to little.

[461] _Low I bent my head_: But not projecting it beyond the line of safety, strictly defined by the edge of the causeway. We are to imagine to ourselves the fire of Sodom falling on Brunetto's upturned face, and missing Dante's head only by an inch.

[462] _Yestermorn_: This is still the Sat.u.r.day. It was Friday when Dante met Virgil.

[463] _Guided by whom_: Brunetto has asked who the guide is, and Dante does not tell him. A reason for the refusal has been ingeniously found in the fact that among the numerous citations of the _Treasure_ Brunetto seldom quotes Virgil. See also the charge brought against Guido Cavalcanti (_Inf._ x. 63), of holding Virgil in disdain. But it is explanation enough of Dante's omission to name his guide that he is pa.s.sing through Inferno to gain experience for himself, and not to satisfy the curiosity of the shades he meets. See note on line 99.

[464] _Thy planet's light_: Some think that Brunetto had cast Dante's horoscope. In a remarkable pa.s.sage (_Parad._ xxii. 112) Dante attributes any genius he may have to the influence of the Twins, which constellation was in the ascendant when he was born. See also _Inf._ xxvi. 23. But here it is more likely that Brunetto refers to his observation of Dante's good qualities, from which he gathered that he was well starred.

[465] _Fiesole_: The mother city of Florence, to which also most of the Fiesolans were believed to have migrated at the beginning of the eleventh century. But all the Florentines did their best to establish a Roman descent for themselves; and Dante among them. His fellow-citizens he held to be for the most part of the boorish Fiesolan breed, rude and stony-hearted as the mountain in whose cleft the cradle of their race was seen from Florence.

[466] _Both sides_: This pa.s.sage was most likely written not long after Dante had ceased to entertain any hope of winning his way back to Florence in the company of the Whites, whose exile he shared, and when he was already standing in proud isolation from Black and White, from Guelf and Ghibeline. There is nothing to show that his expectation of being courted by both sides ever came true. Never a strong partisan, he had, to use his own words, at last to make a party by himself, and stood out an Imperialist with his heart set on the triumph of an Empire far n.o.bler than that the Ghibeline desired. Dante may have hoped to hold a place of honour some day in the council of a righteous Emperor; and this may be the glorious haven with the dream of which he was consoled in the wanderings of his exile.

[467] _Another text_: Ciacco and Farinata have already hinted at the troubles that lie ahead of him (_Inf._ vi. 65, and x. 79).

[468] _The clown, etc._: The honest performance of duty is the best defence against adverse fortune.

[469] _Right about_: In traversing the sands they keep upon the right-hand margin of the embanked stream, Virgil leading the way, with Dante behind him on the right so that Brunetto may see and hear him well.

[470] _He hears, etc._: Of all the interpretations of this somewhat obscure sentence that seems the best which applies it to Virgil's _Quicquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est_--'Whatever shall happen, every fate is to be vanquished by endurance' (_aen._ v. 710).

Taking this way of it, we have in the form of Dante's profession of indifference to all the adverse fortune that may be in store for him a refined compliment to his Guide; and in Virgil's gesture and words an equally delicate revelation of himself to Brunetto, in which is conveyed an answer to the question at line 48, 'Who is this that shows the way?'--Otherwise, the words convey Virgil's approbation of Dante's having so well attended to his advice to store Farinata's prophecy in his memory (_Inf._ x.127).

[471] _His band_: That is, the company to which Brunetto specially belongs, and from which for the time he has separated himself.

[472] _Stained with one sin_: Dante will not make Brunetto individually confess his sin.

[473] _Priscian_: The great grammarian of the sixth century; placed here without any reason, except that he is a representative teacher of youth.

[474] _Francis d'Accorso_: Died about 1294. The son of a great civil lawyer, he was himself professor of the civil law at Bologna, where his services were so highly prized that the Bolognese forbade him, on pain of the confiscation of his goods, to accept an invitation from Edward I.

to go to Oxford.

[475] _Of him the Slave, etc._: One of the Pope's t.i.tles is _Servus Servorum Domini_. The application of it to Boniface, so hated by Dante, may be ironical: 'Fit servant of such a slave to vice!' The priest referred to so contemptuously is Andrea, of the great Florentine family of the Mozzi, who was much engaged in the political affairs of his time, and became Bishop of Florence in 1286. About ten years later he was translated to Vicenza, which stands on the Bacchiglione; and he died shortly afterwards. According to Benvenuto he was a ridiculous preacher and a man of dissolute manners. What is now most interesting about him is that he was Dante's chief pastor during his early manhood, and is consigned by him to the same disgraceful circle of Inferno as his beloved master Brunetto Latini--a terrible evidence of the corruption of life among the churchmen as well as the scholars of the thirteenth century.

[476] _New dust-clouds_: Raised by a band by whom they are about to be met.

[477] _My Treasure_: The _Tresor_, or _Tesoro_, Brunetto's princ.i.p.al work, was written by him in French as being 'the pleasantest language, and the most widely spread.' In it he treats of things in general in the encyclopedic fashion set him by Alphonso of Castile. The first half consists of a summary of civil and natural history. The second is devoted to ethics, rhetoric, and politics. To a great extent it is a compilation, containing, for instance, a translation, nearly complete, of the Ethics of Aristotle--not, of course, direct from the Greek. It is written in a plodding style, and speaks to more industry than genius. To it Dante is indebted for some facts and fables.

[478] _The Green Cloth_: To commemorate a victory won by the Veronese there was inst.i.tuted a race to be run on the first Sunday of Lent. The prize was a piece of green cloth. The compet.i.tors ran naked.--Brunetto does not disappear into the gloom without a parting word of applause from his old pupil. Dante's rigorous sentence on his beloved master is p.r.o.nounced as softly as it can be. We must still wonder that he has the heart to bring him to such an awful judgment.

CANTO XVI.

Now could I hear the water as it fell To the next circle[479] with a murmuring sound Like what is heard from swarming hives to swell; When three shades all together with a bound Burst from a troop met by us pressing on 'Neath rain of that sharp torment. O'er the ground Toward us approaching, they exclaimed each one: 'Halt thou, whom from thy garb[480] we judge to be A citizen of our corrupted town.'

Alas, what scars I on their limbs did see, 10 Both old and recent, which the flames had made: Even now my ruth is fed by memory.

My Teacher halted at their cry, and said: 'Await a while:' and looked me in the face; 'Some courtesy to these were well displayed.

And but that fire--the manner of the place-- Descends for ever, fitting 'twere to find Rather than them, thee quickening thy pace.'

When we had halted, they again combined In their old song; and, reaching where we stood, 20 Into a wheel all three were intertwined.

And as the athletes used, well oiled and nude, To feel their grip and, wary, watch their chance, Ere they to purpose strike and wrestle could; So each of them kept fixed on me his glance As he wheeled round,[481] and in opposing ways His neck and feet seemed ever to advance.

'Ah, if the misery of this sand-strewn place Bring us and our pet.i.tions in despite,'

One then began, 'and flayed and grimy face; 30 Let at the least our fame goodwill incite To tell us who thou art, whose living feet Thus through Inferno wander without fright.

For he whose footprints, as thou see'st, I beat, Though now he goes with body peeled and nude, More than thou thinkest, in the world was great.

The grandson was he of Gualdrada good; He, Guidoguerra,[482] with his armed hand Did mighty things, and by his counsel shrewd.

The other who behind me treads the sand 40 Is one whose name should on the earth be dear; For he is Tegghiaio[483] Aldobrand.

And I, who am tormented with them here, James Rusticucci[484] was; my fierce and proud Wife of my ruin was chief minister.'

If from the fire there had been any shroud I should have leaped down 'mong them, nor have earned Blame, for my Teacher sure had this allowed.

But since I should have been all baked and burned, Terror prevailed the goodwill to restrain 50 With which to clasp them in my arms I yearned.

Then I began: "Twas not contempt but pain Which your condition in my breast awoke, Where deeply rooted it will long remain, When this my Master words unto me spoke, By which expectancy was in me stirred That ye who came were honourable folk.

I of your city[485] am, and with my word Your deeds and honoured names oft to recall Delighted, and with joy of them I heard. 60 To the sweet fruits I go, and leave the gall, As promised to me by my Escort true; But first I to the centre down must fall.'