Poi mi tentò, e disse: 'Quegli è Nesso, E fe' di sè la vendetta egli stesso. Del sangue più che sua colpa sortille.' E il mio buon Duca, che già gli era al petto Necessità 'l conduce, e non diletto. Tal si partì da cantare alleluia Che mi commise quest' officio nuovo. Ma per quella virtù per cui io muovo 67. Tentò, 'nudged.' Nessus, while trying to carry off Dejanira through the water, was struck by an arrow from Hercules, her husband. To avenge himself, he left with Dejanira his bloody shirt, which afterwards caused the death of Hercules. Cf. Met., IX. 72. Pholus figured in the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapitha: Statius, Thebaid, II, 563-4. 75. Sortille, 'allotted it. 84. Consorti, 'joined.' * Mencken ~ Li passi miei per sì selvaggia strada, E che porti costui in su la groppa ; E disse a Nesso: 'Torna, e sì li guida, Lungo la proda del bollor vermiglio, Io vidi gente sotto infino al ciglio ; E il gran Centauro disse: 'Ei son tiranni Quivi è Alessandro, e Dionisio fero, 93. A pruovo, 'near.' 99. Cansar, turn out.'-Intoppa, 'meets.' 105. Dier diedero. Dare di piglio means 'to lay hold.' 107. It is not known whether Dante meant Alexander the Great (described as bloodthirsty by Paulus Orosius) or Alexander of Pheræ, who was coupled with Dionysius as a typical tyrant by Valerius Maximus, and by Cicero in De Officiis, II, vii, 25. Dionysius ruled Syracuse from 407 to 367 B. C. Cicilia for Sicilia was common in mediæval times, and is still in use. 110. Azzolino or Ezzelino da Romano, who held extensive dominions in northeastern Italy in the first half of the 13th century, a notoriously cruel tyrant; he was called a son of Satan. III. Obizzo or Opizzo da Este, Marquis of Ferrara in the second half of the 13th century, was a hard ruler. L. 112 seems to refer to an incident little known or disputed in Dante's day, so that the poet hears it with incredulity. Virgil, to whom he turns in doubt, tells him that in this matter the centaur is the best authority. Figliastro regularly means 'stepson'; Dante apparently uses it here in the sense of 'unnatural child,' or possibly 'bastard.' Allor mi volsi al Poeta, e quei disse: Sopra una gente che infino alla gola Parea che di quel bulicame uscisse. Tenea la testa ed ancor tutto il casso: Quel sangue, sì che cocea pur li piedi ; 'Sì come tu da questa parte vedi 115 120 125 Lo bulicame che sempre si scema,' Che da quest' altra a più a più giù prema La divina giustizia di qua punge E Pirro, e Sesto; ed in eterno munge 117. Bulicame, 'boiling stream': cf. XIV, 79. 130 135 119. The solitary soul, apparently shunned by all the others, is that of Guy of Montfort, who, in church at Viterbo, during mass, to avenge the death of his father (Simon, Earl of Leicester), stabbed Prince Henry, the son of Richard Plantagenet (Earl of Cornwall). Guy was vicar of Charles of Anjou in Tuscany in 1270. Henry's heart, it is said, was placed in a cup in the hand of a statue on the bank of the Thames. Tamigi, 'Thames.' Si cola, 'is honored.' 122. Casso, 'chest.' 134. Attila, King of the Huns, was called the 'Scourge of God.' 135. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, a fearful enemy of the Romans. Sextus, son of Pompey, see Lucan, Pharsalia, VI, 420-2: 'Sextus erat, magno proles indigna parente, - For Le lagrime che col bollot disserra Che fecero alle strade tanta guerra.' 136. 'It milks the tears which it unlocks with the boiling,' a figure which Dante uses again in Purg. XIII, 57. 137. Two highwaymen apparently famous in the 13th century. 139. Guazzo=guado, 'ford.' CANTO XIII ARGUMENT THE Church Fathers, from St. Augustine down, put suicide on a par with murder. Each is an attempt to cut short the term of life allotted by God, a crime of insubordination against the Creator. Neither can be justified by any excuse save the direct command of Heaven: thus Abraham was divinely bidden to sacrifice Isaac, and Samson destroyed himself in accordance with the Lord's will. It is perhaps worth noting that Dante mentions no pagan in this place; but as he cites only two examples, a Capuan and an unnamed Florentine, the significance of the omission is small-or would be so, had he not assigned several heathen suicides (Lucretia, Dido, Cato) to different parts of the other world. The Capuan is Pier delle Vigne, who, after studying, in all probability, at Bologna, entered the court of Frederick II as a notary, and so won the confidence and affection of his sovereign that for over twenty years he was entrusted with the most important affairs of the realm. He was one of the foremost poets of the Sicilian school; many of his verses, as well as some of his Latin letters, are preserved. In 1248 or 1249 he was accused and convicted of treason; his eyes were put out, and according to one account he was condemned by the Emperor to be led in derision, on an ass, from town to town. To escape dishonor, he killed himself by dashing his head against a wall. It was no doubt with a view of emphasizing the inexorableness of God's canon that Dante selected the most sympathetic case he could find, one in which cruel injustice might seem to condone the offence. Piero, as Dante conceived him, is loyal, magnanimous, courtly, and most pathetic in his unshaken devotion to the master who wronged him. The style of this canto abounds in curious conceits, such as the 'Io credo ch' ei credette ch' io credesse' of l. 25, the ‘infiammati infiammar' of 1. 68, the double antithesis of 1. 69, and the involved paradoxes of the following tiercet. It would seem that meditation over Pier delle Vigne, who dominates the canto, had filled our poet with the spirit of the older school, so that, either purposely or unconsciously, he imitated its artistic processes. The suicide uses his freedom of bodily movement only to deprive himself of it, robbing himself, by his own act, of that which cor |