The wished smile, so rapturously kiss'd
By one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er
From me shall separate, at once my lips

All trembling kiss'd. The book and writer both
Were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day
We read no more!" While thus one spirit spake,
The other wail'd so sorely, that heart-struck
I, through compassion fainting, seem'd not far
From death, and like a corse fell to the ground?.

CANTO VI.

ARGUMENT.

On his recovery, the Poet finds himself in the third circle, where the gluttonous are punished. Their torment is, to lie in the mire, under a continual and heavy storm of hail, snow, and discoloured water; Cerberus meanwhile barking over them with his threefold throat, and rending them piecemeal. One of these, who on earth was named Čiacco, foretells the divisions with which Florence is about to be distracted. Dante proposes a question to his guide, who solves it; and they proceed towards the fourth circle. My sense reviving3, that erewhile had droop'd With pity for the kindred shades, whence grief O'ercame me wholly, straight around I see New torments, new tormented souls, which way Soe'er I move, or turn, or bend my sight. In the third circle I arrive, of showers Ceaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchanged For ever, both in kind and in degree. Large hail, discolour'd water, sleety flaw

We read no more.] Nothing can exceed the delicacy with which Francesca in these words intimates her guilt.

2 And like a corse fell to the ground.]

E caddi, come corpo morto cade.

So Pulci:

E cadde come morto in terra cade.

And Ariosto:

Morgante Maggiore, c. xxii.

E cada, come corpo morto cade.

Orl. Fur. c. ii. st. 55.

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead." Revelation, i. 17.

3 My sense reviving.]

Al tornar della mente, che si chiuse,

Dinanzi alla pietà de' duo cognati.

Berni has made a sportive application of these lines, in his Orl. Inn. lib. iii. c. viii. st. 1.

Through the dun midnight air stream'd down amain: Stank all the land whereon that tempest fell.

Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange, Through his wide threefold throat, barks as a dog Over the multitude immersed beneath.

His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard,
His belly large, and claw'd the hands, with which
He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs
Piecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs,
Under the rainy deluge, with one side

The other screening, oft they roll them round,
A wretched, godless crew. When that great worm1
Descried us, savage Cerberus, he oped

His jaws, and the fangs show'd us; not a limb
Of him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms
Expanding on the ground, thence fill'd with earth
Raised them, and cast it in his ravenous maw.
E'en as a dog, that yelling bays for food
His keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall
His fury, bent alone with eager haste

To swallow it; so dropp'd the loathsome cheeks
Of demon Cerberus, who thundering stuns
The spirits, that they for deafness wish in vain.
We, o'er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt
Of the heavy tempest passing, set our feet
Upon their emptiness, that substance seem'd.
They all along the earth extended lay,
Save one, that sudden raised himself to sit,
Soon as that way he saw us pass. "O thou!"
He cried, "who through the infernal shades art led,
Own, if again thou know'st me. Thou wast framed
Or ere my frame was broken." I replied:
"The anguish thou endurest perchance so takes
Thy form from my remembrance, that it seems
As if I saw thee never. But inform

1 That great worm.] Juxta-infernum vermis erat infinitæ magnitudinis ligatus maximâ catenâ. Alberici Visio, § 9.

In Canto xxxiv. Lucifer is called

The abhorred worm, that boreth through the world. This is imitated by Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xlvi. st. 76. Shakspeare, Milton, and Cowper, who well understood that the most common words are often the most impressive, have used the synonymous term in our language with the best effect; as Pindar has done in Greek:

̓Απὸ Ταϋγέτου μὲν Λάκαιναν

ἐπὶ θηρσὶ κόνα τρέχειν πυκινώτατον ἑρπετόν.

Heyne's Pindar. Fragm. Epinic. ii. 2. In Hieron.

Me who thou art, that in a place so sad
Art set, and in such torment, that although
Other be greater, none disgusteth more."
He thus in answer to my words rejoin'd:

Thy city, heap'd with envy to the brim,
Aye, that the measure overflows its bounds,
Held me in brighter days. Ye citizens
Were wont to name me Ciacco1. For the sin
Of gluttony, damned vice, beneath this rain,
E'en as thou seest, I with fatigue am worn:
Nor I sole spirit in this woe: all these
Have by like crime incurr'd like punishment."
No more he said, and I my speech resumed :
"Ciacco! thy dire affliction grieves me much,
Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know'st,
What shall at length befal the citizens
Of the divided city2; whether any

:

Just one inhabit there and tell the cause,
Whence jarring Discord hath assail'd it thus."
He then "After long striving they will come
To blood; and the wild party from the woods 3
Will chase the other4 with much injury forth.
Then it behoves that this must fall, within
Three solar circles; and the other rise
By borrow'd force of one, who under shore
Now rests. It shall a long space hold aloof
Its forehead, keeping under heavy weight
The other opprest, indignant at the load,
And grieving sore. The just are two in number,

1 Ciacco.] So called from his inordinate appetite; Ciacco, in Italian, signifying a pig. The real name of this glutton has not been transmitted to us. He is introduced in Boccaccio's Decameron, Giorn. ix. Nov. 8.

2 The divided city.] The city of Florence, divided into the Bianchi and Neri factions.

3 The wild party from the woods.] So called, because it was headed by Veri de' Cerchi, whose family had lately come into the city from Acone, and the woody country of the Val di Nievole.

4 The other.] The opposite party of the Neri, at the head of which was Corso Donati.

5 This must fall.] The Bianchi.

6 Three solar circles.] Three years.

7

Of one, who under shore

Now rests.]

Charles of Valois, by whose means the Neri were replaced.

8 The just are two in number.] Who these two were, the commentators are not agreed. Some understand them to be Dante himself and his friend Guido Cavalcanti. But this

But they neglected. Avarice, envy, pride',
Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all
On fire." Here ceased the lamentable sound;
And I continued thus: "Still would I learn
More from thee, farther parley still entreat.
Of Farinata and Tegghiaio2 say,

They who so well deserved; of Giacopo3,
Arrigo, Mosca, and the rest, who bent

Their minds on working good. Oh! tell me where
They bide, and to their knowledge let me come.
For I am prest with keen desire to hear

If heaven's sweet cup, or poisonous drug of hell,
Be to their lip assign'd." He answer'd straight:
"These are yet blacker spirits. Various crimes
Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss.
If thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them.
But to the pleasant world, when thou return'st,
Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there.
No more I tell thee, answer thee no more.'

This said, his fixed eyes he turn'd askance,
A little eyed me, then bent down his head,
And 'midst his blind companions with it fell.

When thus my guide: "No more his bed he leaves,

would argue a presumption, which our Poet himself elsewhere contradicts; for, in the Purgatory, he owns his consciousness of not being exempted from one at least of "the three fatal sparks, which had set the hearts of all on fire." See Canto xiii. 126. Others refer the encomium to Barduccio and Giovanni Vespignano, adducing the following passage from Villani in support of their opinion: "In the year 1331 died in Florence two just and good men, of holy life and conversation, and bountiful in almsgiving, although laymen. The one was named Barduccio, and was buried in S. Spirito, in the place of the Frati Romitani: the other, named Giovanni da Vespignano, was buried in S. Pietro Maggiore. And by each, God showed open miracles, in healing the sick and lunatic after divers manners; and for each there was ordained a solemn funeral, and many images of wax set up in discharge of vows that had been made." G. Villani, lib. x. cap. 179.

1

Avarice, envy, pride.]

Invidia, superbia ed avarizia

Vedea moltiplicar tra mici figliuoli.

Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. i. cap. xxix.
See Canto x. and Notes,

2 Of Farinata and Tegghiaio.]

and Canto xvi. and Notes.

3 Giacopo.] Giacopo Rusticucci. See Canto xvi. and Notes. 4 Arrigo, Mosca.] Of Arrigo, who is said by the commentators to have been of the noble family of the Fifanti, no mention afterwards occurs. Mosca degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, is introduced in Canto xxviii.

Ere the last angel-trumpet blow. The Power
Adverse to these shall then in glory come,
Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair,
Resume1 his fleshly vesture and his form,
And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend
The vault." So pass'd we through that mixture foul
Of spirits and rain, with tardy steps; meanwhile
Touching2, though slightly, on the life to come.
For thus I question'd: "Shall these tortures, Sir!
When the great sentence passes, be increased,
Or mitigated, or as now severe ?"

He then: "Consult thy knowledge3; that decides,
That, as each thing to more perfection grows,
It feels more sensibly both good and pain.
Though ne'er to true perfection may arrive
This race accurst, yet nearer then, than now,
They shall approach it." Compassing that path,
Circuitous we journey'd; and discourse,
Much more than I relate, between us pass'd:
Till at the point, whence the steps led below,
Arrived, there Plutus, the great foe, we found.

m

CANTO VII.

ARGUMENT.

In the present Canto, Dante describes his descent into the fourth circle, at the beginning of which he sees Plutus stationed. Here one like doom awaits the prodigal and the avaricious; which is, to meet in direful conflict, rolling great weights against each other with mutual upbraidings. From hence Virgil takes occasion to show how vain the goods that are committed into the charge of Fortune; and this moves our author to inquire what being that Fortune is, of whom he speaks: which question being resolved, they go down into the fifth circle, where they find the wrathful and gloomy tormented in the Stygian lake. Having made a compass round great part of this lake, they come at last to the base of a lofty tower.

1 Resume.] Imitated by Frezzi :

Allor ripiglieran la carne e l'ossa;
Li rei oscuri, e i buon con splendori
Per la virtù della divina possa.

Il Quadr. lib. iv. cap. xv.

2 Touching.] Conversing, though in a slight and superficial manner, on the life to come.

3 Consult thy knowledge.] We are referred to the following passage in St. Augustin:-" Cum fiet resurrectio carnis, et bonorum gaudia et malorum tormenta majora erunt.' the resurrection of the flesh, both the happiness of the good and the torments of the wicked will be increased."

At