Necessità la fa esser veloce, Sì spesso vien chi vicenda consegue. Ma ella s'è beata e ciò non ode : Con l'altre prime creature lieta Già ogni stella cade che saliva Quando mi mossi, e il troppo star si vieta.' Sopra una fonte, che bolle e riversa Per un fossato che da lei deriva. Questo tristo ruscel, quando è disceso Al piè delle maligne piaggie grige. 90 95 100 105 90. 'So often comes one who obtains a turn,' i. e., so numerous are those who must be successively favored. 91. Posta in croce, 'crucified,' i. e., cursed, vilified. 94. S'è è: in early Italian the verb essere, especially in the third person singular, was very often accompanied by a superfluous reflexive pronoun. 95. Prime creature, 'primal creatures,' angels. 96. Spera, 'wheel,' the traditional symbolic attribute of Fortune. 97. Pièta: cf. I, 21. 99. The stars which were rising in the east when they started have now crossed the meridian and begun to descend towards the west: it is past midnight. Virgil usually states the hour in astronomical terms in Hell by the positions of the moon and stars, which, of course, he cannot see, except with his mind's eye. Cf. the words of the Sibyl in Æn., VI, 539: 'Nox ruit Enea; nos fendo ducimus horas.' 102. Fossato, 'gully.' 103. Persa: cf. V, 89. Bigio, too, has the sense of 'murky'; and grigio means 'dusky.' 105. Diversa, 'strange': cf. VI, 13. 100. The Styx was the most famous of the rivers of the classic lower Ed io, che di mirar mi stava inteso, Nell' aer dolce che dal sol s' allegra, Quest' inno si gorgoglian nella strozza, Grand' arco tra la ripa secca e il mezzo, Con gli occhi volti a chi del fango ingozza. world. Virgil uses the phrase 'Stygiamque paludem' in Æn., VI, 323 and 369. The four rivers of Dante's Hell Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, Cocytus are all connected, forming one stream. Lethe is not in Hell, but in the Garden of Eden. III. Offeso, damaged.' 118. Ha vi ha, 'there are.' 123. 'Sluggish fume.' Fummo for fumo was very common, and is still in popular use. 124. Belletta, 'mire.' 128. Mezzo, pronounced métso, means 'wet.' The word for 'middle' is sounded mèdzo. 130. Here, as frequently, Dante breaks his narrative at an interesting point, using suspense as a means of heightening effect. CANTO VIII ARGUMENT THE guardian of the fifth circle is Phlegyas, who seems to impersonate both furor and rancor. On earth he was a king of the Lapithæ, who, in a frenzy of rage against Apollo for the violation of his daughter, set fire to the temple at Delphi, and was slain by the god. He is mentioned, without specific punishment, in the Eneid, VI, 618-20: 'Phlegyasque miserrimus omnes Admonet, et magna testatur voce per umbras: 'Learn moderation from my example' is his warning. In the Commedia he is a boatman on the Styx. It can hardly be his duty to ferry over all the spirits that are to go beyond: his tiny skiff would not suffice; and, besides, we are given to understand that each lost soul, after hearing its sentence, falls as it were by the weight of its own sin - to the depth that befits it. His function seems to be to carry the wrathful spirits to their proper places in the Stygian pool. St. Thomas, in the Summa Theologiæ, Secunda Secundæ, Qu. clviii, Art. 1, distinguishes from sinful rage the righteous indignation that is aroused by the sight of wickedness. This justifiable anger is illustrated, in an exciting scene, by the attitude of Dante toward one of the violently wrathful an attitude which Reason heartily approves. The furious soul that so incenses Dante is Filippo Argenti degli Adimari of Florence, who 'in the world was a haughty person.' Boccaccio describes him, in the Decameron, IX, 8, as 'grande e nerboruto e forte, sdegnoso, iracundo e bizzarro più che altro.' To the shores of the swamp an air of mystery is lent by two signal lights which are kindled, we know not how, at the top of a tower, and another light which responds from afar. When at last the poets arrive with Phlegyas at the other side, they are confronted by a vast wall that encircles the City of Dis, or Lower Hell, the abiding-place of those whose sins were due, not to Incontinence of desire or temper, but to permanent evil dispositions, Bestiality and Malice. Their crimes are the fruit of envy and pride. In Ps. lxxxvi, 13, we read: 'thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell' - eruisti animam meam ex inferno inferiore'; and from the word inferiore St. Augustine and others argued a division of Hell into two parts. Before landing, the boat has to make a long circuit about the fortifications. When the gate is reached, hosts of demons appear upon the ramparts, — 'più di mille da' ciel piovuti,' — who successfully oppose Dante's entrance. They lend a deaf ear to Virgil, and shut the doors in his face. The discomfited guide and his terror-stricken follower are obliged to wait for heavenly aid. The erring soul, which, seeking enlightenment, is trying to probe the recesses of human wickedness, comes to a stage where further advance seems impossible. Fear and remorse seize it at the aspect of the worst iniquities; reason can direct it no longer; it is on the verge of despair. To the horrified searcher it appears that reason is about to forsake him, that he is to be left without its guidance, while sin besets him on every hand. But in the hour of need divine help is not lacking. A special grace descends upon the distracted spirit, and opens a way where all seemed hopeless. Such, apparently, is the allegory of this dramatic episode. Flam., I, 177 ff., suggests that Filippo Argenti represents a type of irritability due to vanity, and compares him with St. Thomas's chaymus (Aristotle's xauvos), the man fond of vain show. Io dico, seguitando, ch' assai prima Che noi fussimo al piè dell' alta torre, Dissi: 'Questo che dice? e che risponde Quell' altro foco? e chi son quei che il fenno?' Ed egli a me: 'Su per le sucide onde Già puoi scorger quello che s' aspetta, Se il fummo del pantan nol ti nasconde.' 3. Andar andarono. 4. I' ivi. 5 10 6. Tanto modifies da lungi. — Torre, 'take in,' 'discern.' Capio was so used in Latin. 7. The 'Sea of all wisdom' is of course Virgil. Corda non pinse mai da sè saetta Sotto il governo d' un sol galeoto, Disse lo mio signore, 'a questa volta. Più non ci avrai, che sol passando il loto.' E poi mi fece entrare appresso lui, E sol quand' io fui dentro parve carca. Secando se ne va l'antica prora 15 20 25 30 Dinanzi mi si fece un pien di fango, E disse: Chi se' tu che vieni anzi ora?' Ed io a lui: 'S' io vegno, non rimango. 16. In quella, sc., ora. 17. Galeoto-galeotto, oarsman.' The poem contains several examples of imperfect rhymes of this type, in which a word with a single consonant is mated with a word that properly has a double one. Inasmuch as some Italian dialects had reduced the double consonants to single in pronunciation, and the spelling of them was by no means consistent even in the regions where they were sounded, Dante, like some other poets, assumed that a license of this kind was occasionally permissible. Cf. Bull., III, 111–2; Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, Beiheft xv, 64. 18. Phlegyas, in his blind wrath, seems not to have noticed that there are two new-comers. 20. A questa volta, 'this time.' 27. Cf. En., VI, 412-4: 'simul accipit alveo Gemuit sub pondere cymba Sutilis, et multam accepit rimosą paludem.' Ingentem Æneam. |