Ch' egli ha pensata per gittarsi giuso.' Quand' io procuro a' miei maggior tristizia.' Agli altri disse a lui: 'Se tu ti cali, Lascisi il colle, e sia la ripa scudo, Ma quei più, che cagion fu del difetto ; Non potero avanzar : quegli andò sotto, 109. Lacciuoli, 'snares,' i. e., wiles. Divizia, 'abundance.' III. He tries to put the demons off the scent: "To be sure, I am over tricky, when I get my fellows into worse trouble.' 112. Di rintoppo, contrary.' 115. That is, 'I shall not run after thee, but fly.' 116. Il colle is the high edge of the inner bank of the 5th bolgia. The demons are to go a little way down the slope toward the 6th valley, so that the bank will hide them from the sinners in the pitch. 118. Ludo, 'sport.' 119. They turned their backs on the 5th bolgia, to go toward the slope of the 6th. 120. Quei: Cagnazzo. Crudo, 'averse.' 123. Proposto, purpose.' 124. Di colpa compunto, 'stung with blame,' i. e., ashamed. 125. Quei: Alichino. Dijetto, 'loss.' 127. I=gli. 'Wings could not outfly fear.' 128. Quegli: the sinner. E quei drizzò, volando suso, il petto. divis Irato Calcabrina della buffa, Volando dietro gli tenne, invaghito Che quei campasse, per aver la zuffa. fud E come il barattier fu disparito, Ad artigliar ben lui, ed ambedue Lo caldo sghermitor subito fue; d 130 135 a now have 140 145 150 129. Quei: Alichino, who plunged after the fugitive, and barely threw back his head and chest in time to escape going under with him. 132. Rotto, 'ruffled.' 133. Buffa, 'flout.' 134. Invaghito, 'eager' that the sinner should escape, so that he might have a 'scuffle' with Alichino. 138. Fu ghermito, 'grappled.' 139. Grifagno, 'full grown': the term was applied to hawks caught toward the beginning of winter. 142. The heat was an 'ungrappler.' 143. But for all that there was no getting out.' 147. Con tutti i raffi, 'hooks and all.' 149. Impaniati, 'beglued.' 150. La crosta, 'their hides.' CANTO XXIII ARGUMENT THE Scene just witnessed reminds Dante of a 'favola d' Isopo,' the story of the frog and the rat. The tale is not in Esop; but the name Ysopus was given in the Middle Ages to any fable collection, and the story in question occurs in several. A frog, having offered to tow a rat across a stream, ties itself to the animal, jumps in with it, and then treacherously tries to dive to the bottom, expecting to drown its companion. While the rat is struggling to keep afloat, a kite, seeing the disturbance, swoops down and carries off both creatures. The beginning and the end of the fable, Dante says, are exactly like the recent episode: that is, the fall of the two grappling fiends into the pitch is a reproduction of the plunge of the tethered quadrupeds into the water; and their rescue, as they are hooked out by their mates, is a counterpart of the seizure of the frog and the rat by the kite. Our travellers have a narrow escape from the angry devils. Virgil, taking Dante in his arms, slides on his back down the precipitous bank into the sixth bolgia, where they are safe from pursuit. They find themselves in the valley of the hypocrites. 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!' says Mat. xxiii, 27, 'for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.' Such is Dante's conception of hypocrisy. In slow and solemn file the souls march by 'gente dipinta,' painted people, beautiful outward with bright gold. They are clad in cloaks of the cut affected by the monks of Cologne; and these garments, gilded on the outside, are made of crushing lead. Their cowls hang massive and heavy over their eyes, their heads are bowed down by the weight, they can scarcely drag themselves along. Their enforced decorum, measured pace, and sidelong glances are all in character; and so is the pious platitude which one of them sententiously volunteers when Virgil discovers how he has been tricked by the Malebranche. The exact form of their punishment was probably suggested to Dante by the Magne Derivationes of Uguccione da Pisa, who defines 'ypocrita' as 'superauratus,' taking it from væép and χρυσός On the floor of the ditch, pegged down at intervals in the pathway, where the heavy procession tramples on them as it passes, are Caiaphas, Annas, and the other false councillors who favored the sacrifice of Christ. Thinking to destroy him, they really crucified their own souls, exposing themselves to the perpetual obloquy of mankind, and assuming the burden of blame for all subsequent hypocrisy. Over their bolgia the bridges are broken down, shattered by the great earthquake that accompanied the Saviour's descent. Here again, in l. 137, the word ruina is used. An impressive picture is that of Virgil 'marvelling' over Caiaphas, who was not there at the time of his previous journey through Hell. The crime of this arch-hypocrite passes the comprehnsion of Reason. For the 'favola d' Isopo,' see K. McKenzie in The Seventeenth Annual Report of the Dante Society of Cambridge, Massachusetts (1898), pp. 6–13. Taciti, soli e senza compagnia, N' andavam l'un dinanzi e l' altro dopo, Volto era in sulla favola d' Isopo Lo mio pensier per la presente rissa, 5 Dov' ei parlò della rana e del topo: Chè più non si pareggia mo ed issa, Che l' un con l' altro fa, se ben s'accoppia E come l' un pensier dell' altro scoppia, Io pensava così: 'Questi per noi Sono scherniti, e con danno e con beffa Se l'ira sopra il mal voler s' aggueffa, Che 'l cane a quella lepre ch' egli acceffa.' 3. Frati minor: Franciscans. 7. Mo and issa are synonyms, meaning 'now.' 15. Noi is the present subjunctive of noiare: 'vexes.' 16. S' aggueffa, 'is wound' into the hank, i. e., is added. IO 15 Già mi sentia tutti arricciar li peli Della paura, e stava indietro intento, Di Malebranche. Noi gli avem già dietro. L' imagine di fuor tua non trarrei 20 25 Più tosto a me, che quella d' entro impetro. E vede presso a sè le fiamme accese, Che prende il figlio e fugge e non s'arresta · Avendo più di lui che di sè cura Tanto che solo una camicia vesta. E giù dal collo della ripa dura Supin si diede alla pendente roccia, 40 25. If I were a mirror ('leaded glass'), I should not catch thy bodily reflection more swiftly than I now receive the reflection of thy thought (thine inner image). Cf. Prov. xxvii, 19. 31. S' egli è, if it be.' The 'right bank' is the declivity leading to the 6th bolgia. - Giaccia, 'slopes.' 32, 34, 36 are versi sdruccioli: cf. XV, 1. 42. Tanto, 'long enough,' is to be connected with the non s'arresta of 1. 40. Fires were not uncommon in Dante's time. 44. Supin si diede: he lay on his back and let himself go. |