Now came I (and with fear I bid my strain Record the marvel) where the souls were all Whelm'd underneath, transparent, as through glass Pellucid the frail stem. Some prone were laid; Others stood upright, this upon the soles, That on his head, a third with face to feet Arch'd like a bow. When to the point we came, Whereat my guide was pleased that I should see The creature eminent in beauty once,

He from before me stepp'd and made me pause. "Lo!" he exclaim'd, "lo Dis; and lo the place, Where thou hast need to arm thy heart with strength."

How frozen and how faint I then became, Ask me not, reader! for I write it not; Since words would fail to tell thee of my state. I was not dead nor living1. Think thyself, If quick conception work in thee at all, How I did feel. That emperor, who sways The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from the ice Stood forth; and I in stature am more like A giant2, than the giants are his arms. Mark now how great that whole must be, which suits With such a part. If he were beautiful As he is hideous now, and yet did dare To scowl upon his Maker, well from him May all our misery flow. Oh what a sight! How passing strange it seem'd, when I did spy Upon his head three faces3: one in front

1 I was not dead nor living.]

οὔτ ̓ ἐν τοῖς φθιμένοις,

οὔτ ̓ ἐν ζῶσιν ἀριθμουμένη.

Euripides. Supplices, v. 979. Markland's edit. tum ibi me nescio quis arripit

Timidam atque pavidam, nec vivam nec mortuam.

2 A giant.]

Plautus, Carculio, act v. sc. 2.

Nel primo clima sta come signore
Colli giganti; ed un delle sue braccie
Più che nullo di loro è assai maggiore.

Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. i.

3 Three faces.] It can scarcely be doubted, but that Milton derived his description of Satan, in those lines

Each passion dimm'd his face

Thrice chang'd with pale ire, envy and despair.

P. L. b. iv. 144.

from this passage, coupled with the remark of Vellutello upon it: "The first of these sins is anger, which he signifies by the red face; the second, represented by that between pale and yellow, is envy, and not, as others have said, avarice

Of hue vermilion, the other two with this
Midway each shoulder join'd and at the crest;
The right 'twixt wan and yellow seem'd; the left
To look on, such as come from whence old Nile
Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth
Two mighty wings, enormous as became
A bird so vast. Sails1 never such I saw
Outstretch'd on the wide sea. No plumes had they,
But were in texture like a bat2; and these

and the third, denoted by the black, is a melancholy humour that causes a man's thoughts to be dark and evil, and averse from all joy and tranquillity."

Lombardi would understand the three faces to signify the three parts of the world then known, in all of which Lucifer had his subjects: the red denoting the Europeans, who were in the middle; the yellow, the Asiatics, on the right; and the black, the Africans, who were on the left; according to the position of the faces themselves.

1 Sails.]

Argo non ebbe mai si grande vela,

Ne altra nave, come l'ali sue;

Ne mai tessuta fù si grande tela.

Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. xix. His sail-broad vans

He spreads for flight.

Milton, P. L. b. ii. 927. Compare Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. xi. st. 10; Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, v. 7; and Fletcher's Prophetess, act 2. scene 3.

In his description of Satan, Frezzi has departed not less from Dante than our own poet has done; for he has painted him on a high throne, with a benignant and glad countenance, yet full of majesty, a triple crown on his head, six shining wings on his shoulders, and a court thronged with giants, centaurs, and mighty captains, besides youths and damsels, who are disporting in the neighbouring meadows with song and dance; but no sooner does Minerva, who is the author's conductress, present her crystal shield, than all this triumph and jollity is seen through it transformed into loathsomeness and horror. There are many touches in this picture that will remind the reader of Milton.

2 Like a bat.] The description of an imaginary being, who is called Typhurgo, in the Zodiacus Vitæ, has something very like this of Dante's Lucifer.

Ingentem vidi regem, ingentique sedentem

In solio, crines flammanti stemmate cinctum,

utrinque patentes Alæ humeris magnæ, quales vespertilionum Membranis contextæ amplis

Nudus erat longis sed opertus corpora villis.

M. Palingenii, Zod. Vit. lib. ix.

A mighty king I might discerne,
Placed hie on lofty chaire,

His haire with fyry garland deckt
Puft up in fiendish wise.

:

He flapp'd i' th' air, that from him issued still
Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth
Was frozen. At six eyes he wept the tears
Adown three chins distill'd with bloody foam.
At every mouth his teeth a sinner champ'd,
Bruised as with ponderous engine; so that three
Were in this guise tormented, But far more
Than from that gnawing, was the foremost pang'd
By the fierce rending, whence oft-times the back
Was stript of all its skin. "That upper spirit,
Who hath worst punishment," so spake my guide,
"Is Judas, he that hath his head within

And plies the feet without. Of th' other two,
Whose heads are under, from the murky jaw
Who hangs, is Brutus: lo! how he doth writhe
And speaks not. The other, Cassius, that appears
So large of limb. But night now re-ascends;
And it is time for parting. All is seen."

I clipp'd him round the neck; for so he bade: And noting time and place, he, when the wings Enough were oped, caught fast the shaggy sides, And down from pile to pile descending stepp'd

Large wings on him did grow

Framde like the wings of flinder mice, &c.

Googe's Translation.

1 Brutus.] Landino struggles, but I fear in vain, to extricate Brutus from the unworthy lot which is here assigned him. He maintains, that by Brutus and Cassius are not meant the individuals known by those names, but any who put a lawful monarch to death. Yet if Cæsar was such, the conspirators might be regarded as deserving of their doom. "Ouomini eccellenti!" exclaims the commentator, with a spirit becoming one who felt that he lived in a free state, ed al tutto degni a quali Roma fosse patria, e de' quali resterà sempre eterna memoria; legginsi tutte le leggi di qualunque republica bene instituta, e troveremo che a nessuno si propose maggior premio che a chi uccide il tiranno." Cowley, as conspicuous for his loyalty as for his genius, in an ode inscribed with the name of this patriot, which, though not free from the usual faults of the poet, is yet a noble one, has placed his character in the right point of view

Excellent Brutus! of all human race

The best, till nature was improved by grace.

If Dante, however, believed Brutus to have been actuated by evil motives in putting Cæsar to death, the excellence of the patriot's character in other respects would only have aggravated his guilt in that particular. "Totius autem injustitiæ nulla capitalior est quam eorum, qui cum maxime fallunt id agunt, ut viri boni esse videantur."

lib. i. cap. xiii.

Cic. de Off.

Between the thick fell and the jagged ice.

Soon as he reach'd the point, whereat the thigh Upon the swelling of the haunches turns,

My leader there, with pain and struggling hard,
Turn'd round his head where his feet stood before,
And grappled at the fell as one who mounts;
That into hell methought we turn'd again.

66

Expect that by such stairs as these," thus spake
The teacher, panting like a man forespent,
"We must depart from evil so extreme:"
Then at a rocky opening issued forth,
And placed me on the brink to sit, next join'd
With wary step my side. I raised mine eyes,
Believing that I Lucifer should see

Where he was lately left, but saw him now
With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort,
Who see not what the point was I had past,
Bethink them if sore toil oppress'd me then.

"Arise," my master cried, " upon thy feet.
The way is long, and much uncouth the road;
And now within one hour and half of noon1
The sun returns." It was no palace-hall
Lofty and luminous wherein we stood,
But natural dungeon where ill-footing was
And scant supply of light. "Ere from the abyss
I separate," thus when risen I began:

My guide! vouchsafe few words to set me free From error's thraldom. Where is now the ice? How standeth he in posture thus reversed? And how from eve to morn in space so brief Hath the sun made his transit ?" He in few Thus answering spake: "Thou deemest thou art still On the other side the centre, where I grasp'd The abhorred worm that boreth through the world. Thou wast on the other side, so long as I Descended; when I turn'd, thou didst o'erpass That point2, to which from every part is dragg'd All heavy substance. Thou art now arrived Under the hemisphere opposed to that,

1 Within one hour and half of noon.] The Poet uses the Hebrew manner of computing the day, according to which the third hour answers to our twelve o'clock at noon.

2 That point.] Monti observes, that if this passage had chanced to meet the eye of Newton, it might better have awakened his thought to conceive the system of attraction, than the accidental falling of an apple. Proposta. v. iii. pte 2. p. lxxviii. 8°. 1824.

Which the great continent doth overspread,
And underneath whose canopy expired
The Man, that was born sinless and so lived.
Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere,
Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn
Here rises, when there evening sets: and he,
Whose shaggy pile we scaled, yet standeth fix'd,
As at the first. On this part he fell down
From heaven; and th' earth, here prominent before,
Through fear of him did veil her with the sea,
And to our hemisphere retired. Perchance,
To shun him, was the vacant space left here,
By what of firm land on this side appears1,
That sprang aloof." There is a place beneath,
From Belzebub as distant, as extends
The vaulted tomb2; discover'd not by sight,
But by the sound of brooklet, that descends
This way along the hollow of a rock,
Which, as it winds with no precipitous course,
The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way
My guide and I did enter, to return

To the fair world: and heedless of repose
We climb'd, he first, I following his steps,
Till on our view the beautiful lights of heaven
Dawn'd through a circular opening in the cave:
Thence issuing we again beheld the stars.

1 By what of firm land on this side appears.] The mountain of Purgatory.

2 The vaulted tomb.] "La tomba." This word is used to express the whole depth of the infernal region.