E 'l Fiorentino spirito bizzarro In sè medesmo si volgea co' denti. S' appressa la città che ha nome Dite, 65 70 75 Non senza prima far grande aggirata, Le mura mi parean che ferro fosse. Venimmo in parte dove il nocchier forte 80 Io vidi più di mille in sulle porte 62. Bizzarro, 'irritable.' 68. Cf. Æn., VI, 127: ‘atri janua Ditis.' Dante transfers the name from the god to the city. 70. In the distance the wall, with its towers, looks like great buildings, which Dante appropriately calls 'mosques,' or places of demon-worship. 71. Nella valle means, perhaps, 'within the moat.' The sixth circle is apparently on the same level as the fifth. The boat passes presently (1.76) from the swamp into the moat. 72. Cf. Æn., VI, 630-1: Cyclopum educta caminis Moenia conspicio.' 77. Vallan, 'fortify.' - Terra, 'city.' 78. Cf. En., VI, 554: 'stat ferrea turris.'- Flam., II, 37, regards the wall as the symbol of ill will. 80. Forte, 'loudly.' Da' ciel piovuti, che stizzosamente Va per lo regno della morta gente?' E disser: 'Vien tu solo, e quei sen vada, Sol si ritorni per la folle strada : Provi se sa ; chè tu qui rimarrai Che gli hai scorta sì buia contrada.' Pensa, Lettor, se io mi sconfortai Nel suon delle parole maledette; Ch' io non credetti ritornarci mai. Volte m' hai sicurtà renduta, e tratto E se 'l passar più oltre c' è negato, E quel signor che lì m' avea menato Mi disse: 'Non temer, chè il nostro passo Conforta e ciba di speranza buona, Ch' io non ti lascerò nel mondo basso.' 85 90 95 100 105 83. Flam., II, 45, thinks that the demons, or fallen angels, typify perverse habits. 93. Scorta, 'revealed.' 97. 'Seven' is often used to indicate an indeterminate number in the Bible (as in Prov. xxiv, 16) and elsewhere. 105. Da tal: by God himself. CANTO VIII Lo dolce padre, ed io rimango in forse; Nel petto al mio signor, che fuor rimase Non sbigottir, ch' io vincerò la prova, E già di qua da lei discende l' erta, 114. Che is equivalent to 'before.' neighbor. -A pruova, each faster than his 120. Cf. En., VI, 534: 'tristes . . . domos.' 121. Perchè, although.' 123. 'No matter what is stirred inside to prevent us.' 125. The demons are still possessed by the pride that caused their original fall. Their 'insolence' was shown at the outer gate of Hell, when they tried to oppose the descent of Christ. 126. Cf. Ps. cvii (Vulgate cvi), 16: 'For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.' 127. Vedestù=vedesti tu. 130. The one who is descending from the gate to open the city is an angel, 'del ciel messo." CANTO IX ARGUMENT DANTE in his terror begins to doubt whether Reason is a safe guide. Without venturing a direct question, he tries to ascertain whether his companion has full knowledge of the road they are to travel. The sage assures him that he has probed every depth of sin that he has gone down to the very bottom of Hell. Even so the Sibyl, in the Æneid, VI, 564-5, tells Æneas: 'Sed me, cum lucis Hecate præfecit Avernis, It was the Thessalian sorceress Erichtho, Virgil declares, who sent him, shortly after his death, to fetch a soul from the pit of treachery. Why she should have made him her messenger, instead of directly conjuring up the traitor, we are not told; perhaps Virgil's soul, being nearer the earth's surface, was more easily reached by her incantations. This same Erichtho, long before Virgil's adventure, had summoned for Sextus, the son of Pompey, on the eve of Pharsalus, the shade of a soldier to foretell the outcome of the battle: Lucan relates the incident at length in Pharsalia, VI, 413 ff. That witches had such power over the departed was firmly believed, not merely by the ancients, but in Christian times down almost to our day. Did not the woman of En-dor, in I Samuel xxviii, call up Samuel to prophesy to Saul? While the poets are awaiting heavenly aid, suddenly at the top of a tower appear the threatening forms of three Furies, who presently summon Medusa to turn Dante to stone. Virgil quickly covers his disciple's eyes with his own hands. 'Shouldst thou see the Gorgon,' he says, 'there would be no returning to earth.' At this point our author expressly bids us ponder the allegory: 'O voi che avete gl' intelletti sani, Many solutions have been proposed. The most natural and appropriate interpretation makes the Furies symbols of remorseful terror and Medusa the emblem of despair. Desperatio, or despair of the mercy of God, though not so wicked as hate and unbelief, is, according to St. Thomas, incurable and therefore more dangerous. In the Summa Theologia, Secunda Secundæ, Qu. xx, Art. 3, he also quotes from St. Isidore, 'To despair is to descend into Hell.' St. Gregory, in his Moralia, Book VIII, ch. xviii, §34, declares that by desperatio 'the way of return is cut off.' Fear and hopelessness lead to insanity. So, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, IV, 481 ff., Tisiphone brings madness in her train: 'Nec mora, Tisiphone madefactam sanguine sumit Help comes in the shape of an angel, the bearer of divine grace. He moves through Hell like a storm-wind, scattering the damned before him, and opens the gate with a touch of his wand. The description of his descent reminds one, in some respects, of a flight of Mercury told by Statius in the Thebaid, II, 1-6. Particularly the phrase 'pigræ ire vetant nubes' resembles Dante's: 'Dal volto rimovea quell' aer grasso, E sol di quell' angoscia parea lasso.' The only obstacle to God's grace is the dense atmosphere of ignorance and spiritual blindness that it must penetrate. Inside the walls are the arch-heretics and their followers, those who wilfully defied their Maker and renounced his truth. Their existence is a living death, an invocation of divine anger: hence their souls appear to us as buried in tombs, consumed by that fire which, in the Inferno, seems to be a constant symbol of God's wrath. Their sin, though not a manifestation of Violence nor of Fraud, is due essentially to pride rather than to weakness; it indicates a disposition of the spirit, not an impulse of flesh or temper: their place, then, is within the City of Dis, but above the first great precipice that separates the upper from the lower circles. Quel color che viltà di fuor mi pinse, Chè l'occhio nol potea menare a lunga 1. Di fuor mi pinse, 'painted on my face.' 3. Dentro ristrinse, 'repressed.' Nuovo, sc., colore. 5 |