I level them at thee." From that day forth "Be silent, tongue!" Another, to his arms So close, it took from them the power to move. To turn thee into ashes, cumbering earth Thou hast outdone thy seed 1? I did not mark, He, from his brethren parted, here must tread Had need to name another. "Where," said he, "Doth Cianfa lurk ?" I, for a sign my guide Should stand attentive, placed against my lips 1 Thy seed.] Thy ancestry. 2 Not him.] Capaneus. Canto xiv. 3 On Maremma's marsh.] An extensive tract near the seashore of Tuscany. 4 Cacus.] Virgil Æn. lib. viii. 193. 5 A hundred blows.] Less than ten blows, out of the hundred Hercules gave him, had deprived him of feeling. 6 Cianfa.] He is said to have been of the family of Donati at Florence. The finger lifted. If, O reader! now Seized on each arm (while deep in either cheek1 1 In either cheek.] Ostendit mihi post hoc apostolus lacum magnum tetrum, et aquæ sulphureæ plenum, in quo animarum multitudo demersa est, plenum serpentibus ac scorpionibus; stabant vero ibi et dæmones serpentes tenentes et ora vultus et capita hominum cum eisdem serpentibus percutientes. Alberici Visio, § 23. 2 Ivy ne'er clasp'd.] Ὁποῖα κισσὸς δρυὸς ὅπως τῆσδ ̓ ἕξομαι. Euripides, Hecuba, v. 102. Like ivy to an oak, how will I cling to her! 3 Thus up the shrinking paper.] Many of the commentators suppose that by "papiro" is he meant the wick of a lamp or candle, and Lombardi adduces an extract from Pier Crescenzio (Agricolt. lib. vi. cap. ix.) to show that this use was then made of the plant. But Tiraboschi has proved that paper made of linen came into use towards the latter half of the fourteenth century, and that the inventor of it was Pier da Fabiano, who carried on his manufactory in the city of Trevigi; whereas paper of cotton, with, perhaps, some linen mixed, was used during the twelfth century. Stor. della Lett. Ital. tom. v. lib. i. cap. iv. sect. 4. All my bowels crumble up to dust. Shakspeare, K. John, act v. sc. 7. 4 Agnello] Agnello Brunelleschi. The thighs and legs, into such members changed With tardy steps. As underneath the scourge He eyed the serpent, and the serpent him. Nor thine, Nasidius. Ovid4 now be mute. Him changed, and her into a fountain clear, Two natures thus transmuted did he sing, The shoulders next I mark'd, that entering join'd 1 In that part.] The navel. 2 As if by sleep or feverous fit assail'd.] O Rome thy head Is drown'd in sleep, and all thy body fev'ry. Ben Jonson's Cataline. 3 Lucan.] Phars. lib. ix. 766 and 793. Lucan di alcun di questi poetando Conta si come Sabello e Nasidio Fù punti e trasformati ivi passando. Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. v. cap. xvii. 4 Ovid.] Metam. lib. iv. and v. The monster's arm-pits, whose two shorter feet He, on the earth who lay, meanwhile extends I mark'd Sciancato: he alone it was 1 His sharpen'd visage] Compare Milton, P. L. b. x. 511, &c. 2 Buoso.] He is also said by some to have been of the Donati family; but by others of the Abbati. 3 My pen.] Lombardi justly prefers "la penna " to "la lingua;" but, when he tells us that the former is in the Nidobeatina, and the latter in the other editions, he ought to have excepted at least Landino's of 1484, and Vellutello's of 1544, and, perhaps, many besides these. 4 Sciancato.] Puccio Sciancato, a noted robber, whose family, Venturi says, he has not been able to discover. The Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. informs us that he was one of the Galigai of Florence, the decline of which house is mentioned in the Paradise, Canto xvi. 96. Of the three first that came, who changed not: thou The other's fate, Gaville! still dost rue. CANTO XXVI. ARGUMENT. Remounting by the steps, down which they had descended to the seventh gulf, they go forward to the arch that stretches over the eighth, and from thence behold numberless flames wherein are punished the evil counsellors, each flame containing a sinner, save one, in which were Diomede and Ulysses, the latter of whom relates the manner of his death. FLORENCE, exult! for thou so mightily Hast thriven, that o'er land and sea2 thy wings Thou beatest, and thy name spreads over hell. Among the plunderers, such the three I found Thy citizens; whence shame to me thy son, And no proud honour to thyself redounds. But if our minds 3, when dreaming near the dawn, Are of the truth presageful, thou ere long Shalt feel what Prato (not to say the rest) Would fain might come upon thee; and that chance Were in good time, if it befel thee now. Would so it were, since it must needs befal! For as time wears me, I shall grieve the more. We from the depth departed; and my guide 1 Gaville.] Francesco Guercio Cavalcante was killed at Gaville, near Florence; and in revenge of his death several inhabitants of that district were put to death. 2 O'er land and sea.] For he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas. 3 But if our minds.] Milton, Son. viii. Namque sub Auroram, jam dormitante lucernâ, Ovid, Epist. xix. The same poetical superstition is alluded to in the Purgatory, Canto ix. and xxvii. 4 Shalt feel what Prato.] The poet prognosticates the calamities which were soon to befal his native city, and which, he says, even her nearest neighbour, Prato, would wish her. The calamities more particularly pointed at are said to be the fall of a wooden bridge over the Arno, in May 1304, where a large multitude were assembled to witness a representation of hell and the infernal torments, in consequence of which accident many lives were lost; and a conflagration, that in the following month destroyed more than seventeen hundred houses, many of them sumptuous buildings. See G. Villani, Hist. lib. viii. c. lxx. and lxxi. 5 As time.] "I shall feel all calamities more sensibly as I am further advanced in life." |