Return the signal, so remote, that scarce 66 66 There on the filthy waters," he replied, "E'en now what next awaits us mayst thou see, If the marsh-gender'd fog conceal it not." Never was arrow from the cord dismiss'd, That ran its way so nimbly through the air, As a small bark, that through the waves I spied Toward us coming, under the sole sway Of one that ferried it, who cried aloud: 66 66 [gyas1, In his fierce ire. My guide, descending, stepp'd While we our course2 o'er the dead channel held, One drench'd in mire before me came, and said: "Who art thou, that thus comest ere thine hour ?" I answer'd: "Though I come, I tarry not; But who art thou, that art become so foul ?" 66 One, as thou seest, who mourn:" he straight replied. To which I thus: "In mourning and in woe, Curst spirit! tarry thou. I know thee well, E'en thus in filth disguised." Then stretch'd he forth Hands to the bark; whereof my teacher sage Aware, thrusting him back: "Away! down there To the other dogs!" then, with his arms my neck Encircling, kiss'd my cheek, and spake: "O soul, Justly disdainful! blest was she in whom 1 Phlegyas.] Phlegyas, who was so incensed against Apollo, for having violated his daughter Coronis, that he set fire to the temple of that deity, by whose vengeance he was cast into Tartarus. See Virg. Æn. 1. vi. 618. 2 While we our course.] Solcando noi per quella morta gora. Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. 7. G Thou wast conceived1. He in the world was one For arrogance noted: to his memory No virtue lends its lustre ; even so Here is his shadow furious. There above, I then "Master! him fain would I behold Which well deserves completion." Scarce his words Turn'd his avenging fangs. Him here we left, But on mine ear Sudden a sound of lamentation smote, Whereat mine eye unbarr'd I sent abroad. We came within the fosses deep, that moat Thou wast conceiv'd.] "Che 'n te s'incinse." Several of the commentators have stumbled at this word, which is the same as "enceinte" in French, and "inciens" in Latin. For many instances, in which it is thus used, see the notes on Boccaccio's Decameron, p. 101. in the Giunti edition, 1573. 2 Filippo Argenti.] Boccaccio tells us, "he was a man remarkable for the large proportions and extraordinary vigour of his bodily frame, and the extreme waywardness and irascibility of his temper." Decam. g. ix. n. 8. 3 The city, that of Dis is named.] So Ariosto. Orl. Fur. c. xl. st. 32: Fatto era un stagno più sicuro e brutto, Di quel che cinge la città di Dite. More than a thousand, who of old from heaven this," 66 Who is [through They cried," that, without death first felt, goes They spake: "Come thou alone; and let him go, If well he know it, let him prove. For thee, "O my loved guide! who more than seven times? Together trace we back our steps with speed." Expect me here; meanwhile, thy wearied spirit And quits me. Hesitating I remain At war, 'twixt will and will not3, in my thoughts. Li maladetti piovuti da cielo. Il Quad. lib. iv. cap. 4. And Pulci, in the passage cited in the note to C. xxi. Î17. 2 Seven times.] The commentators, says Venturi, perplex themselves with the inquiry what seven perils these were from which Dante had been delivered by Virgil. Reckoning the beasts in the first Canto as one of them, and adding Charon, Minos,. Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas, and Filippo Argenti, as so many others, we shall have the number; and if this be not satisfactory, we may suppose a determinate to have been put for an indeterminate number. 3 At war 'twixt will and will not.] Che sì, e nò nel capo mi tenzona. Thus our poet in his eighth Canzone: Ch' il sì, e'l nò tututto in vostra mano I could not hear what terms he offer'd them, But they conferr'd not long, for all at once Pellmell1 rush'd back within. Closed were the gates, By those our adversaries, on the breast Of my liege lord: excluded, he return'd To me with tardy steps. Upon the ground His eyes were bent, and from his brow erased All confidence, while thus in sighs he spake : Who hath denied me these abodes of woe ?" Then thus to me; "That I am anger'd, think No ground of terror: in this trial I 66 Shall vanquish, use what arts they may within One whose strong might can open us this land." CANTO IX. ARGUMENT. After some hindrances, and having seen the hellish furies and other monsters, the Poet, by the help of an angel, enters the city of Dis, wherein he discovers that the heretics are punished in tombs burning with intense fire and he, together with Virgil, passes onwards between the sepulchres and the walls of the city. THE hue3, which coward dread on my pale cheeks And Boccaccio, Ninf. Fiesol. st. 233: Il sì e il nò nel capo gli contende. The words I have adopted as a translation, are Shakspeare's, Measure for Measure, a. ii. s. 1. 1 Pellmell.] A pruova. "Certatim." "A l'envi." I had before translated "To trial"; and have to thank Mr. Carlyle for detecting the error. 2 This their insolence, not new.] Virgil assures our poet, that these evil spirits had formerly shown the same insolence when our Saviour descended into hell. They attempted to prevent him from entering at the gate, over which Dante had read the fatal inscription. "That gate which," says the Roman poet, "an angel had just passed, by whose aid we shall overcome this opposition, and gain admittance into the city." 3 The hue.] Virgil, perceiving that Dante was pale with fear, restrained those outward tokens of displeasure which his own countenance had betrayed. And inwardly restrain'd it. He, as one To import worse, perchance, than that he held, 66 Into this rueful concave's extreme depth Thus I inquiring. 66 Rarely," he replied, "It chances, that among us any makes This journey, which I wend. Erewhile, 't is true, The road 1 Erictho.] Erictho, a Thessalian sorceress, according to Lucan, Pharsal. 1. vi. was employed by Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, to conjure up a spirit, who should inform him of the issue of the civil wars between his father and Cæsar. 2 No long space my flesh Was naked of me.] Quæ corpus complexa animæ tam fortis inane. Ovid. Met. 1. xiii. fab. 2. Dante appears to have fallen into an anachronism. Virgil's death did not happen till long after this period. But Lombardi shows, in opposition to the other commentators, that the anachronism is only apparent. Erictho might well have survived the battle of Pharsalia long enough to be employed in her magical practices at the time of Virgil's decease. |