Lethe; for thou speakest not of the one, and sayest that the other is formed by this rain?" 21 "In all thy questions truly thou pleasest me," he answered; but the boiling of the red water might well resolve one 22 of those thou askest. Lethe thou shalt see, but out of this abyss,23 there where the spirits go to wash themselves, when their guilt is taken off by penitence." Then he said: "Now it is time to quit the wood. See that thou follow me. The margins, which are not burning, form a path; and over them all fire is quenched." 24 Flegetonte e Letéo, chè dell' un taci, Dal bosco fa che diretro a me vegne. 21 The rain of tears. See ver. 113. 22 Thou mightest have known that the river of blood was Phlegethon. 23 Not in Hell, but in Purgatory. Purg. canto xxviii. 25–130. 135 140 24 See next canto, ver. 1-2. Vapor, both here and at ver. 35, is used in the Latin sense of "heat, or fire," Semusta madescunt Robora: resting tus donec vapor omnis. Æn. v. 697. ARGUMENT. THE crimson stream-whose course is straight across the ring of burn ing sand, toward the center of Hell-sends forth a dark exhalation that quenches all the flames over itself and its elevated margins. Upon one of these Dante continues to follow his Guide, in silence, till they have got far from the wood when they meet a troop of spirits coming along the sand by the side of the bank. Dante is recognized by one of them, who takes him by the skirt; and, on fixing his eyes over the baked and withered figure, he finds it is Brunetto Latini, his old master. They speak to each other with great respect and affection, recalling the past and looking forward to the future under the pressure of separate eternities. Their colloquy has a dark background, which could not be altered; and it stands there in deep perennial warmth and beauty. CANTO XV. Now one of the hard margins bears us on, and the smoke of the rivulet makes shade above, so that from the fire it shelters the water and the banks. As the Flemings between Bruges and Cadsand, dreading the flood that rushes toward them, make their bulwark 2 to repel the sea; and as the Paduans, along the Brenta, to defend their towns and villages, ere Chiarentana feels the heat:3 in like fashion those banks were formed, though not so high nor so large, the master, whoever it might be, made them. Already we were so far removed from the wood, that I should not have seen where it was, had I ORA cen porta l' un de' duri margini, E il fummo del ruscel di sopra aduggia, Temendo il fiotto che in vêr lor s' avventa, 5 2. Aduggia, from uggia, shade, or shadow. 1 The exhalation of the rivulet "quenches all the flames above it." Canto xiv. 90. 2 The dyke here alluded to is said to be still kept up. Cadsand is some twenty miles northeast from Bruges. Before the snow begins to melt on the Carinthian Alps, and swell the Brenta. It flows between strong embankments, on a bed raised by its sediment above the level of the plain, like other rivers in that part of Italy. turned back, when we met a troop of spirits, who were coming alongside the bank; and each looked at us, as in the evening men are wont to look at one another under a new moon; and toward us sharpened their vision," as an old tailor does at the eye of his needle. Thus eyed by that family, I was recognized by one who took me by the skirt, and said: “What a wonder!" 6 And I, when he stretched out his arm to me, fixed my eyes on his baked aspect, so that the scorching of his visage hindered not my mind from knowing him. And bending my face to his, I answered: "Are you here, Ser Brunetto!"" Perch' io indietro rivolto mi fossi, 15 Quando incontrammo d' anime una schiera, Guardar l'un l' altro sotto nuova luna; Così adocchiato da cotal famiglia, Fui conosciuto da un, che mi prese 4 Lit.: "The one is wont to look at the other under a new moon;" which gives a feeble light, so as to make recognition difficult. 5 Lit. "Sharpened their eyebrows," &c.; pointed them, as if frowning at us. To see thee here in the body. 20 25 30 7 Brunetto Latini, of the Porta del Duomo in Florence, Dante's teacher; a man noted for his learning in those times, and for his politeness and manifold dexterity. The Florentine Guelphs sent him as their embassador to Alonzo X., King of Spain, in 1260 (Malespini, c. 162); and he was And he: "O my son! let it not displease thee, if Brunetto Latini turn back with thee a little, and let go his train." I said: "With all my power I do beseech it of you. And if you wish me to sit down with you, I will do so, if it pleases him there, for I go with him.” "O my son," he said, "whoever of this flock stops one instant, lies a hundred years thereafter, without fanning himself when the fire strikes him. Therefore go on I will follow at thy skirts; 10 and then E quegli O figliuol mio, non ti dispiaccia, E se volete che con voi m' asseggia, Però va oltre io ti verrò a' panni, 35 40 ing a faint outward resemblance in some phrases and incidents to the Commedia. The other, Le Trésor, or Tesoro, is a kind of encyclopedia, written in the French of those times, or, as Brunetto himself says, en romans, selon le patois de France. It has never been printed. There is a manuscript copy of it in the British Museum. afterward appointed secretary and specimen of old Italian, and as bearnotary of the city. Villani (viii. 10) calls him "a great philosopher, and supreme master of rhetoric, as well in speaking as in writing," &c.: but adds, that "he was a worldly man." The early commentators (Boccaccio, Benv. da Imola, &c.) mention that, having made an error in some contract drawn up by him in his capacity of notary, and being too proud to acknowledge the possibility of it, he was accused of fraud, and left Florence in high disdain. He died in 1294. Two works of his still remain. One of these is the Tesoretto (Little Treasure), in short, jingling, quaint rhymes-too feeble and empty for 10 Lit.: "I will come at thy any serious perusal; but curious as a clothes." On a lower level. 8 Let his train, or companions in file, go on without him. 9 Lies prostrate like the contumacious blasphemers (canto xiv. 22, &e.), without power to defend himself from the flames. |