Se Tosco se', ben sa' omai chi fu.
E perchè non mi metti in più sermoni,
Sappi ch' io fui il Camicion de' Pazzi,
Ed aspetto Carlin che mi scagioni."
Poscia vid' io mille visi, cagnazzi

Fatti per freddo : onde mi vien riprezzo,
E verrà sempre, de' gelati guazzi.
E mentre che andavamo in ver lo mezzo,
Al quale ogni gravezza si raduna,

Ed io tremava nell' eterno rezzo,
Se voler fu o destino o fortuna

Non so; ma passeggiando tra le teste,
Forte percossi il piè nel viso ad una.
Piangendo mi sgridò: 'Perchè mi peste?
Se tu non vieni a crescer la vendetta
Di Mont' Aperti, perchè mi moleste?'
Ed io 'Maestro mio, or qui m' aspetta,
Sì ch' io esca d' un dubbio per costui ;
Poi mi farai, quantunque vorrai, fretta.'

=

:

70

75

80

67. Metti metta. In più sermoni, 'to more speech': cf. XIII, 21. 68. Of Camicion de' Pazzi nothing certain is known. He is said to have treacherously slain a kinsman named Ubertino.

69. Scagioni, 'exculpate,' i. e., make me seem innocent in comparison with himself. Carlino de' Pazzi is still alive and has not yet committed his great crime. It was in June, 1302, that he was bribed to surrender to the Florentine Blacks the castle of Piantravigne, containing a number of the foremost White and Ghibelline exiles, many of whom were slain. When he dies, he will come to the second division of the 9th circle, Antenora, reserved for betrayers of their country or party.

70. Cagnazzi, 'doglike,' their lips drawn by the cold. The sight is so horrible that Dante ever afterwards will shudder at the sight of frozen pools. 74. Si raduna, 'collects.' Cf. XXXIV, 110-1.

75. Rezzo, 'chill.'

81. The mention of Montaperti arouses Dante's suspicions. This was the disastrous defeat of the Florentine Guelfs in 1260 by the Sienese Ghibellines and their German allies. The rout was attributed to the traitor Bocca degli Abati, who, in the thick of a charge, cut off the hand of the standard-bearer to the Florentine cavalry. In 1266, when the Guelfs returned to power, he was banished.

Lo Duca stette; ed io dissi a colui

Che bestemmiava duramente ancora : 'Qual se' tu, che così rampogni altrui?' 'Or tu chi se', che vai per l' Antenora

Percotendo,' rispose, 'altrui le gote Sì che, se fossi vivo, troppo fora?' 'Vivo son io, e caro esser ti puote,'

Fu mia risposta, 'se domandi fama,

Ch' io metta il nome tuo tra l' altre note.'
Ed egli a me: 'Del contrario ho io brama.
Levati quinci, e non mi dar più lagna!
Chè mal sai lusingar per questa lama.'
Allor lo presi per la cuticagna,

E dissi: 'E' converrà che tu ti nomi
O che capel qui su non ti rimagna.'
Ond' egli a me : 'Perchè tu mi dischiomi,
Nè ti dirò ch' io sia, nè mostrerolti,
Se mille fiate in sul capo mi tomi.'
Io avea già i capelli in mano avvolti

E tratti glien' avea più d' una ciocca,
Latrando lui con gli occhi in giù raccolti,
Quando un altro gridò: 'Che hai tu, Bocca?
Non ti basta sonar con le mascelle,
Se tu non latri? Qual diavol ti tocca?'
'Omai,' diss' io, 'non vo' che tu favelle,

90. Se fossi vivo, 'even wert thou a living man.'
91. Puote= può.

95. Lagna, vexation.'

96. Lama, lowland': cf. XX, 79.

97. Cuticagna, 'scalp.'

100. Perchè, though.' Dischiomi, 'strip me bald.'

101. Mostrerolti te lo mostrerò.

102. Tomi, 'fallest.'

105. Raccolti, 'bent.'

85

90

95

100

105

107. Sonar, 'clatter': is it not enough for thy teeth to be chattering?

109. Vo' voglio.

Malvagio traditor, chè alla tua onta

Io porterò di te vere novelle.'

'Va' via,' rispose, ‘e ciò che tu vuoi, conta;
Ma non tacer, se tu di qua entr' eschi,
Di quei ch' ebbe or così la lingua pronta.
Ei piange qui l' argento de' Franceschi.

"Io vidi," potrai dir, “quel da Düera
Là dove i peccatori stanno freschi."
Se fossi domandato altri chi v' era,
Tu hai da lato quel di Beccheria,
Di cui segò Fiorenza la gorgiera.
Gianni de' Soldanier credo che sia
Più là con Ganellone e Tebaldello,
Ch' aprì Faenza quando si dormia.'
Noi eravam partiti già da ello,

Ch' io vidi due ghiacciati in una buca

Sì che l' un capo all' altro era cappello.

IIO. Alla tua onta, 'in spite of thee.'

110

115

120

125

113. Eschi esca: formula of adjuration: cf. X, 82. 116. Buoso da Duera of Cremona, notorious for his faithlessness, was distrusted by friends and enemies. In 1265, being bribed by the French, he allowed the army of Charles of Anjou, on its way to the conquest of Naples, to pass by the Ghibelline forces that had been detailed to oppose it. He was accused also of appropriating money sent by Manfred to pay his soldiers. 117. Stanno freschi, are in the cool.' This is supposed to be the origin of the current phrase, star fresco.

118. 'Shouldst thou be asked who else was there.'

119. Tesauro di Beccheria of Pavia, abbot of Vallombrosa, was tortured and beheaded by the Guelfs of Florence for conducting secret negotiations with the Ghibelline exiles.

120. Segò... la gorgiera, 'sawed the gorget,' i. e., cut the throat. 121. Gianni de' Soldanier was a Ghibelline, who, after the defeat of his party in 1266, headed a mob against his former associates.

122. Ganelon is the famous traitor to Charlemagne, in the Chanson de Roland; it was he who brought about the destruction of the rear-guard at Roncesvalles and the death of Roland: cf. XXXI, 16–8. · The Ghibelline Tebaldello, a bastard of the Zambrasi family, surrendered to the Bolognese Guelfs his own city of Faenza in order to avenge himself on some Ghibellines from Bolgona who had taken refuge there.

126. Two more political traitors (see D' Ovidio, 14-26) are frozen in one

E come il pan per fame si manduca,
Così il sopran li denti all' altro pose
Là 've il cervel s' aggiunge con la nuca.
Non altrimenti Tideo si rose

Le tempie a Menalippo per disdegno,
Che quei faceva il teschio e l' altre cose.
'O tu che mostri per sì bestial segno

Odio sopra colui che tu ti mangi,

Dimmi il perchè,' diss' io, 'per tal convegno
Che, se tu a ragion di lui ti piangi,

Sappiendo chi voi siete e la sua pecca,
Nel mondo suso ancor io te ne cangi,

Se quella con ch' io parlo non si secca.'

130

135

hole in such a way that the head of one lies upon the head of the other like a hat.

130. Tydeus, one of the seven kings who attacked Thebes, was mortally wounded by Menalippus, whom he succeeded in killing. Before dying, he called for the head of his opponent, and, when it was brought him by Capaneus, gnawed it fiercely. Cf. Thebaid, VIII, 736 ff.

135. Per tal convegno, 'on condition.'

137. Pecca, 'sin.'

138. Cangi, 'repay.'

139. Quella: my tongue.

CANTO XXXIII

ARGUMENT

In this canto occurs an episode second only to that of Francesca da Rimini in its appeal to popular sympathy. It is in Antenora that Dante hears from Count Ugolino the frightful story of his death. Here, as in the case of the 'injured souls' of Francesca and her lover, the poet is stirred to the depths by the wrong done on earth to the lost sinner. Francesca's fate moves him to an agony of pity not unmixed with indignation; that of Ugolino and his children kindles in him even more wrath than compassion. In the two narratives we find the same exclusion of all detail that might blur the one overwhelming impression to be produced upon the reader; in both, the same concentration on that part of the experience to which no human heart can be indifferent. As Francesca's guilty love follows her to Hell and binds her forever to the partner of her sin, so Ugolino is coupled to the object of his just hate, on whom he wreaks eternal vengeance.

Ugolino della Gherardesca, count of Donoratico, belonged to an old and powerful family and held vast estates in western Tuscany. Inasmuch as he was vicar, in Sardinia, of King Enzo (son of Frederick II) and married his eldest son to Enzo's daughter, he must have been originally of the Imperial faction; but as early as 1275 he for some reason allied himself to the Tuscan Guelfs against Pisa, which was then Ghibelline. It was doubtless for this political treason that Dante condemned him to Antenora. His party was successful, and he secured readmission to the city. In fact, after 1284 he governed Pisa for the Guelfs, at first alone, later in company with his grandson, Nino Visconti, who appears in Purg. VIII, 53. But the Pisan Ghibellines, led by the turbulent and intriguing Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, who in 1288 plotted to surrender his city to the Genoese, and then broke faith with them, revolted in that same year against the Guelf control. Ugolino was absent at the time, and Nino was driven from the town. In June Ugolino was invited to confer with the Ghibelline leaders. He returned to Pisa and held parley with the archbishop. Suddenly an alarm was given, and the Ghibellines, with a frenzied mob led by Ruggieri, attacked their opponents, whom they finally besieged in the city hall and, after severe fighting, captured. Ugolino was incarcerated with two of his sons, Gaddo and Uguccione, and two grandsons,