The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri Part 33

[743] _The Brotherhood_: The word used properly describes the Lay Brothers of a monastery. Philalethes suggests that Dante may regard the devils as the true monks of the monastery of Malebolge. The simile involves no contempt for the monastic life, but is naturally used with reference to those who live secluded and under a fixed rule. He elsewhere speaks of the College of the Hypocrites (_Inf._ xxiii. 91) and of Paradise as the Cloister where Christ is Abbot (_Purg._ xxvi.129).

[744] _Valdichiana_: The district lying between Arezzo and Chiusi; in Dante's time a hotbed of malaria, but now, owing to drainage works promoted by the enlightened Tuscan minister Fos...o...b..oni (1823), one of the most fertile and healthy regions of Italy.

[745] _Sardinia_: Had in the middle ages an evil reputation for its fever-stricken air. The Maremma has been already mentioned (_Inf._ xxv.19). In Dante's time it was almost unpeopled.

[746] _The long ridge_: One of the ribs of rock which, like the spokes of a wheel, ran from the periphery to the centre of Malebolge, rising into arches as they crossed each successive Bolgia. The utmost brink is the inner bank of the Tenth and last Bolgia. To the edge of this moat they descend, bearing as usual to the left hand.

[747] _Doomed on earth, etc._: 'Whom she here registers.' While they are still on earth their doom is fixed by Divine justice.

[748] _aegina_: The description is taken from Ovid (_Metam._ vii.).

[749] _The scab, etc._: As if by an infernal alchemy the matter of the shadowy bodies of these sinners is changed into one loathsome form or another.

[750] _To all eternity_: This may seem a stroke of sarcasm, but is not.

Himself a shade, Virgil cannot, like Dante, promise to refresh the memory of the shades on earth, and can only wish for them some slight alleviation of their suffering.

[751] _An Aretine_: Called Griffolino, and burned at Florence or Siena on a charge of heresy. Albert of Siena is said to have been a relative, some say the natural son, of the Bishop of Siena. A man of the name figures as hero in some of Sacchetti's novels, always in a ridiculous light. There seems to be no authentic testimony regarding the incident in the text.

[752] _Daedalus_: Who escaped on wings of his invention from the Cretan Labyrinth he had made and lost himself in.

[753] _The Sienese_: The comparison of these to the French would have the more cogency as Siena boasted of having been founded by the Gauls.

'That vain people,' says Dante of the Sienese in the _Purgatory_ (xiii.

151). Among their neighbours they still bear the reputation of light-headedness; also, it ought to be added, of great urbanity.

[754] _The Stricca_: The exception in his favour is ironical, as is that of all the others mentioned.

[755] _Nicholas_: 'The lavish custom of the clove' which he invented is variously described. I have chosen the version which makes it consist of stuffing pheasants with cloves, then very costly.

[756] _The club_: The commentators tell that the two young Sienese n.o.bles above mentioned were members of a society formed for the purpose of living luxuriously together. Twelve of them contributed a fund of above two hundred thousand gold florins; they built a great palace and furnished it magnificently, and launched out into every other sort of extravagance with such a.s.siduity that in a few months their capital was gone. As that amounted to more than a hundred thousand pounds of our money, equal in those days to a million or two, the story must be held to savour of romance. That Dante refers to a prodigal's club that actually existed some time before he wrote we cannot doubt. But it seems uncertain, to say the least, whether the sonnets addressed by the Tuscan poet Folgore da Gemignano to a jovial crew in Siena can be taken as having been inspired by the club Dante speaks of. A translation of them is given by Mr. Rossetti in his _Circle of Dante_. (See Mr. Symonds's _Renaissance_, vol. iv. page 54, _note_, for doubts as to the date of Folgore.)--_Caccia d' Ascian_: Whose short and merry club life cost him his estates near Siena.

[757] _The Abbagliato_: Nothing is known, though a great deal is guessed, about this member of the club. It is enough to know that, having a scant supply of wit, he spent it freely.

[758] _Capocchio_: Some one whom Dante knew. Whether he was a Florentine or a Sienese is not ascertained, but from the strain of his mention of the Sienese we may guess Florentine. He was burned in Siena in 1293.--(Scartazzini.) They had studied together, says the _Anonimo_.

Benvenuto tells of him that one Good Friday, while in a cloister, he painted on his nail with marvellous completeness a picture of the crucifixion. Dante came up, and was lost in wonder, when Capocchio suddenly licked his nail clean--which may be taken for what it is worth.

CANTO x.x.x.

Because of Semele[759] when Juno's ire Was fierce 'gainst all that were to Thebes allied, As had been proved by many an instance dire; So mad grew Athamas[760] that when he spied His wife as she with children twain drew near, Each hand by one enc.u.mbered, loud he cried: 'Be now the nets outspread, that I may snare Cubs with the lioness at yon strait ground!'

And stretching claws of all compa.s.sion bare He on Learchus seized and swung him round, 10 And shattered him upon a flinty stone; Then she herself and the other burden drowned.

And when by fortune was all overthrown The Trojans' pride, inordinate before-- Monarch and kingdom equally undone-- Hecuba,[761] sad and captive, mourning o'er Polyxena, when dolorous she beheld The body of her darling Polydore Upon the coast, out of her wits she yelled, And spent herself in barking like a hound; 20 So by her sorrow was her reason quelled.

But never yet was Trojan fury[762] found, Nor that of Thebes, to sting so cruelly Brute beasts, far less the human form to wound, As two pale naked shades were stung, whom I Saw biting run, like swine when they escape Famished and eager from the empty sty.

Capocchio[763] coming up to, in his nape One fixed his fangs, and hauling at him made His belly on the stony pavement sc.r.a.pe. 30 The Aretine[764] who stood, still trembling, said: 'That imp is Gianni Schicchi,[765] and he goes Rabid, thus tr.i.m.m.i.n.g others.' 'O!' I prayed, 'So may the teeth of the other one of those Not meet in thee, as, ere she pa.s.s from sight, Thou freely shalt the name of her disclose.'

And he to me: 'That is the ancient sprite Of shameless Myrrha,[766] who let liking rise For him who got her, past all bounds of right.

As, to transgress with him, she in disguise 40 Came near to him deception to maintain; So he, departing yonder from our eyes, That he the Lady of the herd might gain, Bequeathed his goods by formal testament While he Buoso Donate's[767] form did feign.'

And when the rabid couple from us went, Who all this time by me were being eyed, Upon the rest ill-starred I grew intent; And, fashioned like a lute, I one espied, Had he been only severed at the place 50 Where at the groin men's lower limbs divide.

The grievous dropsy, swol'n with humours base, Which every part of true proportion strips Till paunch grows out of keeping with the face, Compelled him widely ope to hold his lips Like one in fever who, by thirst possessed, Has one drawn up while the other chinward slips.

'O ye![768] who by no punishment distressed, Nor know I why, are in this world of dool,'

He said; 'a while let your attention rest 60 On Master Adam[769] here of misery full.

Living, I all I wished enjoyed at will; Now l.u.s.t I for a drop of water cool.

The water-brooks that down each gra.s.sy hill Of Casentino to the Arno fall And with cool moisture all their courses fill-- Always, and not in vain, I see them all; Because the vision of them dries me more Than the disease 'neath which my face grows small.

For rigid justice, me chastising sore, 70 Can in the place I sinned at motive find To swell the sighs in which I now deplore.

There lies Romena, where of the money coined[770]

With the Baptist's image I made counterfeit, And therefore left my body burnt behind.

But could I see here Guido's[771] wretched sprite, Or Alexander's, or their brother's, I For Fonte Branda[772] would not give the sight.

One is already here, unless they lie-- Mad souls with power to wander through the crowd-- What boots it me, whose limbs diseases tie? 81 But were I yet so nimble that I could Creep one poor inch a century, some while Ago had I begun to take the road Searching for him among this people vile; And that although eleven miles[773] 'tis long, And has a width of more than half a mile.

Because of them am I in such a throng; For to forge florins I by them was led, Which by three carats[774] of alloy were wrong,' 90 'Who are the wretches twain,' I to him said, 'Who smoke[775] like hand in winter-time fresh brought From water, on thy right together spread?'

'Here found I them, nor have they budged a jot,'

He said, 'since I was hurled into this vale; And, as I deem, eternally they'll not.

One[776] with false charges Joseph did a.s.sail; False Sinon,[777] Greek from Troy, is the other wight.

Burning with fever they this stink exhale.'

Then one of them, perchance o'ercome with spite 100 Because he thus contemptuously was named, Smote with his fist upon the belly tight.

It sounded like a drum; and then was aimed A blow by Master Adam at his face With arm no whit less hard, while he exclaimed: 'What though I can no longer shift my place Because my members by disease are weighed!

I have an arm still free for such a case.'

To which was answered: 'When thou wast conveyed Unto the fire 'twas not thus good at need, 110 But even more so when the coiner's trade Was plied by thee.' The swol'n one: 'True indeed!

But thou didst not bear witness half so true When Trojans[778] at thee for the truth did plead.'

'If I spake falsely, thou didst oft renew False coin,' said Sinon; 'one fault brought me here; Thee more than any devil of the crew.'

'Bethink thee of the horse, thou perjurer,'

He of the swol'n paunch answered; 'and that by All men 'tis known should anguish in thee stir.' 120 'Be thirst that cracks thy tongue thy penalty, And putrid water,' so the Greek replied, 'Which 'fore thine eyes thy stomach moundeth high.'

The coiner then: 'Thy mouth thou openest wide, As thou art used, thy slanderous words to vent; But if I thirst and humours plump my hide Thy head throbs with the fire within thee pent.

To lap Narcissus' mirror,[779] to implore And urge thee on would need no argument.'

While I to hear them did attentive pore 130 My Master said: 'Thy fill of staring take!

To rouse my anger needs but little more.'

And when I heard that he in anger spake Toward him I turned with such a shame inspired, Recalled, it seems afresh on me to break.

And, as the man who dreams of hurt is fired With wish that he might know his dream a dream, And so what is, as 'twere not, is desired; So I, struck dumb and filled with an extreme Craving to find excuse, unwittingly 140 The meanwhile made the apology supreme.

'Less shame,' my Master said, 'would nullify A greater fault, for greater guilt atone; All sadness for it, therefore, lay thou by.

But bear in mind that thou art not alone, If fortune hap again to bring thee near Where people such debate are carrying on.

To things like these 'tis shame[780] to lend an ear.'

FOOTNOTES:

[759] _Semele_: The daughter of Cadmus, founder and king of Thebes, was beloved by Jupiter and therefore hated by Juno, who induced her to court destruction by urging the G.o.d to visit her, as he was used to come to Juno, in all his glory. And in other instances the G.o.ddess took revenge (Ovid, _Metam._ iv.).

[760] _Athamas_: Married to a sister of Semele, was made insane by the angry Juno, with the result described in the text.

[761] _Hecuba_: Wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Polyxena and Polydorus. While she was lamenting the death of her daughter, slain as an offering on the tomb of Achilles, she found the corpse of her son, slain by the king of Thrace, to whose keeping she had committed him (Ovid, _Metam._ xiii.).

[762] _Trojan fury, etc._: It was by the agency of a Fury that Athamas was put out of his mind; but the Trojan and Theban furies here meant are the frenzies of Athamas and Hecuba, wild with which one of them slew his son, and the other scratched out the eyes of the Thracian king.

[763] _Capocchio_: See close of the preceding Canto. Here as elsewhere sinners are made ministers of vengeance on one another.

[764] _The Aretine_: Griffolino, who boasted he could fly; already represented as trembling (_Inf._ xxix. 97).

[765] _Gianni Schicchi_: Giovanni Schicchi, one of the Cavalcanti of Florence.