His face each downward held; their mouth the cold,
Their eyes express'd the dolour of their heart.
A space I look'd around, then at my feet
Saw two so strictly join'd, that of their head
The very hairs were mingled.
"Tell me ye,

Whose bosoms thus together press," said I,
"Who are ye?" At that sound their necks they bent;
And when their looks were lifted up to me,
Straightway their eyes, before all moist within,
Distill'd upon their lips, and the frost bound
The tears betwixt those orbs, and held them there.
Plank unto plank hath never cramp closed up
So stoutly. Whence, like two enraged goats,
They clash'd together: them such fury seized.

And one, from whom the cold both ears had reft,
Exclaim'd, still looking downward: "Why on us
Dost speculate so long? If thou wouldst know
Who are these two1, the valley, whence his wave
Bisenzio slopes, did for its master own
Their sire Alberto, and next him themselves.
They from one body issued: and throughout
Caïna thou mayst search, nor find a shade
More worthy in congealment to be fix'd;

Not him2, whose breast and shadow Arthur's hand
At that one blow dissever'd; not Focaccia3;
No, not this spirit, whose o'erjutting head
Obstructs my onward view: he bore the name
Of Mascheroni4: Tuscan if thou be,

So Boccaccio, G. viii. N. 7. "Lo scolar cattivello quasi cicogna divenuto si forte batteva i denti."

1 Who are these two.] Alessandro and Napoleone, sons of Alberto Alberti, who murdered each other. They were proprietors of the valley of Falterona, where the Bisenzio has its source, a river that falls into the Arno about six miles from Florence.

2 Not him.] Mordrec, son of King Arthur. In the romance of Lancelot of the Lake, Arthur, having discovered the traitorous intentions of his son, pierces him through with the stroke of his lance, so that the sunbeam passes through the body of Mordrec; and this disruption of the shadow is no doubt what our Poet alludes to in the text.

3 Focaccia.] Focaccia of Cancellieri (the Pistoian family) whose atrocious act of revenge against his uncle is said to have given rise to the parties of the Bianchi and Neri, in the year 1300. See G.Villani, Hist. lib. viii. c. 37. and Macchiavelli, Hist. lib. ii. The account of the latter writer differs much from that given by Landino in his Commentary.

4 Mascheroni.] Sassol Mascheroni, a Florentine, who also murdered his uncle.

Well knowest who he was. And to cut short
All further question, in my form behold
What once was Camiccione'. I await
Carlino2 here my kinsman, whose deep guilt
Shall wash out mine." A thousand visages
Then mark'd I, which the keen and eager cold
Had shaped into a doggish grin; whence creeps
A shivering horror o'er me, at the thought
Of those frore shallows. While we journey'd on
Toward the middle, at whose point unites
All heavy substance, and I trembling went
Through that eternal chilness, I know not
If will it were, or destiny, or chance,

But, passing 'midst the heads, my foot did strike
With violent blow against the face of one. [claim'd.
"Wherefore dost bruise me ?" weeping he ex-
"Unless thy errand be some fresh revenge
For Montaperto 4, wherefore troublest me?"
I thus: Instructor, now await me here,
That I through him may rid me of my doubt:
Thenceforth what haste thou wilt." The teacher
And to that shade I spake, who bitterly [paused;
Still cursed me in his wrath. 66
What art thou, speak,
That railest thus on others ?" He replied:
"Now who art thou, that smiting others' cheeks,
Through Antenora roamest, with such force
As were past sufferance, wert thou living still ?"
"And I am living, to thy joy perchance,"
Was my reply," if fame be dear to thee,

1 Camiccione.] Camiccione de' Pazzi of Valdarno, by whom his kinsman Ubertino was treacherously put to death.

2 Carlino.] One of the same family. He betrayed the Castel di Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines, after the refugees of the Bianca and Ghibelline party had defended it against a siege for twenty-nine days, in the summer of 1302. See G. Villani, lib. viii. c. lii. and Dino Compagni, lib. ii.

3 If will.]

Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate. Milton, P. L. b. i. 133. 4 Montaperto.] The defeat of the Guelfi at Montaperto, occasioned by the treachery of Bocca degli Abbati, who, during the engagement, cut off the hand of Giacopo del Vacca de' Pazzi, bearer of the Florentine standard. G. Villani, lib.vi. c. lxxx. and Notes to Canto x. This event happened in 1260. 5 Antenora.] "So called from Antenor, who, according to Dictys Cretensis (De Bello Troj. lib. v.) and Dares Phrygius (De Excidio Troja) betrayed Troy his country." Lombardi. See note on Purg. Canto v. 75. Antenor acts this part in Boccaccio's Filostrato, and in Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide.

That with the rest I may thy name enrol." "The contrary of what I covet most,"

Said he, "thou tender'st hence! nor vex me more. Ill knowest thou to flatter in this vale."

Then seizing on his hinder scalp I cried : "Name thee, or not a hair shall tarry here." "Rend all away," he answer'd, " yet for that I will not tell, nor show thee, who I am, Though at my head thou pluck a thousand times." Now I had grasp'd his tresses, and stript off More than one tuft, he barking, with his eyes

Drawn in and downward, when another cried,
"What ails thee, Bocca? Sound not loud enough
Thy chattering teeth, but thou must bark outright?
What devil wrings thee ?"-" Now," said I, "be
Accursed traitor! To thy shame, of thee [dumb,
True tidings will I bear."-" Off!" he replied;
"Tell what thou list: but, as thou scape from hence,
To speak of him whose tongue hath been so glib,
Forget not here he wails the Frenchman's gold.
'Him of Duera1,' thou canst say, 'I mark'd,
'Where the starved sinners pine.' If thou be ask'd
What other shade was with them, at thy side
Is Beccaria, whose red gorge distain'd
The biting axe of Florence. Farther on,
If I misdeem not, Soldanieri3 bides,
With Ganellon 4, and Tribaldello 5, him

1 Him of Duera.] Buoso of Cremona, of the family of Duera, who was bribed by Guy de Montfort, to leave a pass between Piedmont and Parma, with the defence of which he had been entrusted by the Ghibellines, open to the army of Charles of Anjou, A. D. 1265, at which the people of Cremona were so enraged, that they extirpated the whole family. G. Villani, lib. vii. c. iv.

2 Beccaria.] Abbot of Vallombrosa, who was the Pope's Legate at Florence, where his intrigues in favour of the Ghibellines being discovered, he was beheaded. I do not find the occurrence in Villani, nor do the commentators say to what Pope he was legate. By Landino he is reported to have been from Parma; by Vellutello, from Pavia.

3 Soldanieri.] "Gianni Soldanieri," says Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. xiv. put himself at the head of the people, in the hopes of rising into power, not aware that the result would be mischief to the Ghibelline party, and his own ruin; an event which seems ever to have befallen him who has headed the populace in Florence."-A.D. 1266.

4 Ganellon.] The betrayer of Charlemain, mentioned by Archbishop Turpin. He is a common instance of treachery with the poets of the middle ages.

Trop son fol e mal pensant,
Pis valent que Guenelon.

Thibaut, Roi de Navarre.

Who oped Faenza when the people slept."
We now had left him, passing on our way,
When I beheld two spirits by the ice
Pent in one hollow, that the head of one
Was cowl unto the other; and as bread
Is raven'd up through hunger, the uppermost
Did so apply his fangs, to the other's brain,
Where the spine joins it. Not more furiously
On Menalippus' temples Tydeus1 gnaw'd,
Than on that skull and on its garbage he.

"O thou! who show'st so beastly sign of hate 'Gainst him thou prey'st on, let me hear," said I, "The cause, on such condition, that if right Warrant thy grievance, knowing who ye are, And what the colour of his sinning was, I may repay thee in the world above,

If that, wherewith I speak, be moist so long."

CANTO XXXIII.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet is told by Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi of the cruel manner in which he and his children were famished in the tower at Pisa, by command of the Archbishop Ruggieri. He next discourses of the third round, called Ptolomea, wherein those are punished who have betrayed others under the semblance of kindness; and among these he finds the Friar Alberigo de' Manfredi, who tells him of one whose soul was already tormented in that place, though his body appeared still to be alive upon the earth, being yielded up to the governance of a fiend.

His jaws uplifting from their fell repast,
That sinner wiped them on the hairs o' the head,
Which he behind had mangled, then began:

66

Thy will obeying, I call up afresh

Sorrow past cure; which, but to think of, wrings
My heart, or ere I tell on 't. But if words,
That I may utter, shall prove seed to bear

O new Scariot and new Ganilion,

O false dissembler, &c.

Chaucer, Nonne's Prieste's Tale.

And in the Monke's Tale, Peter of Spaine.

5 Tribaldello.] Tribaldello de' Manfredi, who was bribed to betray the city of Faenza, A.D. 1282. G. Villani, lib. vii. c. lxxx.

1 Tydeus.] See Statius, Theb. lib. viii. ad finem.

Fruit of eternal infamy to him,

The traitor whom I gnaw at, thou at once

Shalt see me speak and weep. Who thou mayst be
I know not, nor how here below art come :
But Florentine thou seemest of a truth,
When I do hear thee. Know, I was on earth
Count Ugolino1, and the Archbishop he

1 Count Ugolino.] "In the year 1288, in the month of July, Pisa was much divided by competitors for the sovereignty one party, composed of certain of the Guelphi, being headed by the Judge Nino di Gallura de' Visconti; another, consisting of others of the same faction, by the Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi; and a third by the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, with the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi, and other Ghibelline houses. The Count Ugolino, to effect his purpose, united with the Archbishop and his party, and having betrayed Nino, his sister's son, they contrived that he and his followers should either be driven out of Pisa, or their persons seized. Nino hearing this, and not seeing any means of defending himself, retired to Calci, his castle, and formed an alliance with the Florentines and people of Lucca, against the Pisans. The Count, before Nino was gone, in order to cover his treachery, when every thing was settled for his expulsion, quitted Pisa, and repaired to a manor of his called Settimo; whence, as soon as he was informed of Nino's departure, he returned to Pisa with great rejoicing and festivity, and was elevated to the supreme power with every demonstration of triumph and honour. But his greatness was not of long continuance. It pleased the Almighty that a total reverse of fortune should ensue, as a punishment for his acts of treachery and guilt; for he was said to have poisoned the Count Anselmo da Capraia, his sister's son, on account of the envy and fear excited in his mind by the high esteem in which the gracious manners of Anselmo were held by the Pisans.-The power of the Guelphi being so much diminished, the Archbishop devised means to betray the Count Ugolino, and caused him to be suddenly attacked in his palace by the fury of the people, whom he had exasperated, by telling them that Ugolino had betrayed Pisa, and given up their castles to the citizens of Florence and of Lucca. He was immediately compelled to surrender; his bastard son and his grandson fell in the assault; and two of his sons, with their two sons also, were conveyed to prison." G. Villani, lib. vii. c. cxx.

"In the following March, the Pisans, who had imprisoned the Count Ugolino, with two of his sons and two of his grandchildren, the offspring of his son the Count Guelfo, in a tower on the Piazza of the Anziani, caused the tower to be locked, the key thrown into the Arno, and all food to be withheld from them. In a few days they died of hunger; but the Count first with loud cries declared his penitence, and yet neither priest nor friar was allowed to shrive him. All the five, when dead, were dragged out of the prison, and meanly interred; and from thenceforward the tower was called the tower of famine, and so shall ever be." Ibid. c. cxxvii. Troya asserts that Dante, for the sake of poetical effect, has much misrepresented the real facts. See his