V X THE HELL OF DANTE OF DANTE ALIGHIERI EDITED WITH TRANSLATION AND NOTES ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE m TrwTror! riva r]StKij(Tav KO.I offoi/s tKcaroi, iiirip aTrdvT SiKqv Bidwickvai Iv i MACMILLAN AND CO, AND LONDON 1894 Ail rights reserved f . 4 4 PREFACE THE editor who has begun elsewhere than at the beginning of the work which he undertakes to edit, however good his motives for taking that course may at the time have appeared, has reason to regret it when in the progress of events he is carried back to the beginning. Unless he wishes to have his book incomplete, the moment must ultimately come when he has to do for the whole work what he has done for its parts, viz. write a preface. Then he finds that he has already used up on the parts a great deal of material which would have been equally useful as an intro- duction to the whole, and perhaps more in place ; while in some cases it is pretty sure to happen that he has appended to the later portions remarks which are out of date when what should be the earlier portion appears. On the other hand, it is to be said that the preface to the complete work is likely to involve the most labour ; and of this he may, by a judicious postponement, very possibly succeed in getting a good deal taken off his hands by other people. On the whole, the present editor may congratulate him- self (and his readers) that by dealing last with the first portion of Dante's great poem he has gained more under the latter head than he has lost under the former. Since his Purgatory was published full eleven years have passed ; and in the course of those years an immense quantity of most Vl PREFACE valuable work has been done. Indeed, it is hardly too much to say that the study of Dante has been placed on quite a different footing. Nearly all the usually-accepted statements with regard to Dante's own history, passed on without criticism from one commentator to another, have been sifted and tested, with the result that much which has long passed muster as solid fact has had to fall back into the class of amiable conjecture. Readings and interpreta- tions, unquestioned perhaps for four hundred years, have been shown to be devoid of authority. In some cases, it may be, the process has been carried a little too far. Scep- ticism is all very well ; but it must confine itself to its proper domain, and not extend its borders till it includes negative dogmatism. Nevertheless, the study of such works as Pro- fessor Bartoli's volume on Dante in his History of Italian Literature, or Dr. Scartazzini's Prolegomeni, can but have a bracing effect on the mind of the student. When we pass to matters more immediately concerning the interpretation of the poem, we are still more struck with the activity of the last decade. It would be hard to say how many translations have appeared, either of the whole or of portions. Those by the late Dean of Wells and Mr. F. K. H. Haselfoot will be familiar to all who care to keep abreast of the subject. Dr. Plumptre belonged perhaps rather to the school which is just now out of favour : that which was inclined to allow its ' affection to bind its under- standing ' and believe with regard to Dante all that seemed pleasant to believe so long as it was not demonstrably untrue. But he was an indefatigable student, with a wide knowledge of other literature, which has not always been possessed by interpreters of Dante. Dr. Moore's Textual Criticism, unfortunately as yet incomplete for the second and third Cantiche, is a piece of PREFACE Vll work of which it is hard to overrate the importance. Those who differ from Dr. Moore on a matter of reading or inter- pretation had better (as Hermann said of Lachmann) think twice whether he and not they be in fault ; and even if they finally decide to agree with themselves and not with him, they will pretty certainly have learnt more from him than they ever knew before. Nor must his two smaller works, 'chips from the workshop,' The Time References of the Divina Commedia and Dante and his Biographers, be over- looked by any one who wishes his ideas on those points cleared. Mention too must be made of some books which show that the importance of Dante's other works, not only to the proper understanding of the Commedia, but as specimens of medieval thought in literature, politics, morals, science, is beginning to be recognised. Ten years ago the de Mon- archia and the Vita Nuova alone of his prose writings had been rendered into English. Now we have two translations (neither, it must be said, ideal, but showing at least a proper spirit) of the Con-vita, and one, very creditable, of the de Vulgari Eloquentia. The truth is that Dante fills the stream of human history from side to side. There have been greater poets, one or two ; there have been greater thinkers, greater men of affairs ; but of no other poet can it be said that he was the greatest political thinker of his age ; of no other philosopher or theologian that he was its greatest poet. Nor have poets as a rule taken a very high place in science or philosophers in scholarship ; yet in these subjects Dante was among the first men of his age. His acquaintance with all accessible literature and his grasp of all attainable scientific knowledge were equally complete. Herein lie at once the attraction which he exercises over his would-be students and the viii PREFACE despair to which he reduces them. You never know into what branch of investigation he may lead you ; but you are sure that in a very large proportion of cases you will be (if the word may be pardoned) ' pounded ' before you reach the end of it. In fact, no really adequate edition of Dante will ever be put forth until a number of students will bind them- selves to read (among them) everything that Dante can have read, and to have made themselves as familiar as he with the events, small and great, of his age. All commentators save the earliest all, at any rate, who wrote between 1400 and 1800 they may safely eschew. From the days of Ben- venuto Rambaldi of Imola 1 till those of Carl Witte of Halle, 2 it is hard to point to any editor or commentator (with perhaps the exception of our own Gary) who has thrown any really fresh light on the difficulties of the Commedia. Landino, undoubtedly a man of much learning, and in his way an admirer of Dante, was not really capable of under- standing him as a Humanist and a Platonist his literary and intellectual sympathies were not in the direction of thirteenth-century Aristotelianism. 3 Nor could it be ex- pected that a Medicean and Borgian age would be capable of estimating Dante, though he would have estimated it ; 1 Among the helps to students which the last ten years have brought forth, and of which some have been enumerated, none can compare with the edition of Benvenuto's complete commentary, due to Mr. Yernon and Sir James Lacaita. The most genial, intelligent, and shrewd of all the fourteenth -century commentators on Dante is now accessible to every one ; and for those who do not feel the ' call ' to read him. as he well deserves, from end to end, there are Mr. Yemen's ' Readings,' of which the Purgatory (Macmillan 1889) is published, while the fft.il, it is hoped, will shortly appear. These give the more valuable parts of Benvenuto. - Ur. Witte died March 1883. 3 See Gary's remarks in the Life of Dante prefixed to his translation, 3rd ed. p. xlviii. PREFACE ix and one almost regrets that he did not come into the world late enough to do so. In that case, however, the sentence ' igne comburatur sic quod moriatur ' would probably not have remained a mere caution. The worthy Cruscan Academicians did their best. They gave the Commedia the rank of a ' Testo di lingua,' and endeavoured, with moderate success, to establish an accurate text. Then came the age which admired Marino ; it could hardly be expected to read Dante. Three editions (or possibly four), and those mere texts, and bad texts, are all that Italy produced during the 120 years ending with 1716. Occasionally some eccentric person betrays a knowledge of the poem. Tommaso Campanella was no doubt full of it ; but he, again, belonged to a school of philosophy as wide as the poles from that which inspired Dante. Our own Milton, a kindred genius so far as was possible when the Renaissance and the Reformation lay between the two, had, it is pretty clear, saturated himself with Dante. Beside the passages, and they are not many, which he avowedly quotes, we find at every turn touches and phrases in which we can hardly fail to recognise the Floren- tine's influence. But these are exceptions. For a hundred and fifty years Dante practically passed out of European literature ; and even when the praiseworthy, if inadequate, efforts of such men as Volpi, Venturi, and Lombardi had done something to recall the attention of Italians to their greatest man, it was still many years before his fame spread much further. Then, however, a great stride was made. Gary's translation, with notes, of which portions were pub- lished in 1805 and the following year, and the whole in 1814, attracted the attention of Coleridge and doubtless of others, and brought Dante for the first time within the field of view of educated English people. It has been frequently reprinted, and remains, in text and commentary, unques- X PREFACE tionably the best book to which the study of Dante in England has ever given birth. It is astonishing how con- stantly it occurs that when one has hunted up, or fortuitously come across, some passage to illustrate Dante rather out of the ordinary run of literature, one finds that Gary has got it already. He had read the Schoolmen, Brunetto, Villani, and the like ; and came to the task with a better equip- ment than any commentator for many centuries. Then came various cultivated Italians, Foscolo and others, driven from their own country for reasons not unlike those for which Dante had to leave Florence and ' ogni cosa diletta piu caramente,' who wrote and talked about him ; and the average Englishman learned at least that Dante was a ' world poet,' and not merely a foreign celebrity. We need not despair of seeing him one day take his place beside (but not instead 6f) Homer and Virgil in the curriculum of our schools and universities. It will perhaps not be out of place here to say a word with regard to the importance of the Divine Comedy as a subject of study at all, over and above its purely aesthetic merits. It is not too much to say that there is no one work of human genius which can equal it as an instrument of education, intellectual and moral. As to the former, it is only needful to realise that it is the summary of all the thought and speculation, the record of all the action of the thirteenth century : the age which of all whose memory remains to us produced the greatest number of great men. This was the age of Frederick II., Lewis IX., Simon of Montfort, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon ; the age which saw the revival of painting in Cimabue and Giotto, of sculp- ture in Nicholas ; while Amiens and Westminster, the Old Palace of Florence and the Holy Field of Pisa are living evidence of what it could do in the noblest of all the arts. PREFACE xi It was to such an age as this that Dante's poem first gave a voice ; and he who would appreciate the poem, must first have made himself in some degree familiar with the age. In estimating the moral value of the Divine Comedy, I cannot do better than quote the eloquent words of the late Dean of St. Paul's, whose admirable essay ought to be in the hands of every reader of Dante : " Those who know it best will best know how hard it is to be the interpreter of such a mind, but they will sympathise with the wish to call attention to it. They know and would wish others to know, not by hearsay, but by experience, the power of that wonder- ful poem. They know its austere yet subduing beauty ; they know what force there is in its free and earnest yet solemn verse, to strengthen, to tranquillise, to console. It is a small thing that it has the secret of Nature and Man ; that a few keen words have opened their eyes to new sights in earth and sea and sky ; have taught them new mysteries of sound ; have made them recognise, in distinct image or thought, fugitive feelings, or their unheeded expression by look or gesture or motion ; that it has enriched the public and collective memory of society with new instances, never to be lost, of human feelings and fortune ; has charmed ear and mind by the music of its stately march, and the variety and completeness of its plan. But, besides this, they know how often its seriousness has put to shame their trifling, its magnanimity their faintheartedness, its living energy their indolence, its stern and sad grandeur rebuked low thoughts, its thrilling tenderness overcome sullenness and assuaged distress, its strong faith quelled despair and soothed per- plexity, its vast grasp imparted harmony to the view of clashing truths." To go back for a moment to our starting : point, it may be observed that the recent increase in the aids to the Xli PREFACE study of Dante has coincided with a gratifying development in the study itself. We hear on all hands of lectures and classes, where it is to be hoped that solid work is done. There is therefore the less necessity to give here advice which students will get elsewhere from more competent advisers. I may perhaps be allowed to point out that before entering on the study of the first Cantica, the sixth book of Virgil's Aencid should be carefully read, in the original if possible : but good ' cribs ' are available in prose and verse. The Tesprettc of Erunetto Latini, at any rate its opening, is also worth looking at. Aquinas is of less importance here than he becomes later : but the Ethics of Aristotle were constantly in Dame's mind as he wrote. Dr. Carlyle's of course remains the standard prose translation : nor should I have thought it necessary to produce another had not the law of copyright prevented me from using his. His few slips could easily have been corrected without interfering with his admir- able language. Mr. Eliot Norton's recent version I hrve but seen : his reputation as a scholar, however, is a sufficient guarantee of its oualitv. Besides the friends mentioned in my other prefaces. 1 may be allowed here to thank the Ely Professor of Divinity for iookini: over and correcting mv statement of the doctrine of Grace in the note to Canto i; : and -'in justice to c class not a:\vr\-? appreciated according to its merits/ Messrs. Clark's reader, for saving me from r. great ma:\v sma'.. blunders, anc one or two large. A few words of explanation as to abbreviations, etc.. wil; suffice. The numerals, i. 2. 3. 4. 5 denote respectively the editions of I oligno. lesi. Mantua. Naples i Francesco del Tupp: ,. and Naples 11477). Trie readings of the last arc taker, fron: the late Dr. liariow's S^i:cn:i Lczim;. putilishec ir. ih". I hrvt used the letters Gc.. its pressmark, to PREFACE xiil indicate a MS. belonging to the University of Cambridge, Dr. Moore's ' Q.' This I collated myself for Purgatory and Paradise : in the present volume I have taken its readings on Dr. Moore's authority. Diez's Grammar of the Romance Languages is quoted by volume and page from the French translation of MM. Brachet, Morel-Fatio, and Gaston Paris. (Paris: Franck. 1874-76.) References to Villani are according to the chapters as they are numbered in the edition in two volumes published at Milan, without date., edited by Dr. A. Racheli. Besides these, there are, I believe, no references or abbreviations which will not explain themselves. November 1891. CONTENTS PAGE CANTO I ... i CANTO II ... .15 CANTO III . 28 CANTO IV ... 39 CANTO V 52 CANTO VI . . 65 CANTO VII .... .76 CANTO VIII . S8 CANTO IX .. 99 CANTO X ... in CANTO XI .. 123 CANTO XII . . 133 CANTO XIII . 146 CANTO XIV . 159 CANTO XV .. i?i CANTO XVI . 184 CANTO XVII . . 197 CANTO XVIII 209 CANTO XIX . 221 CANTO XX . 234 CANTO XXI ... .246 CONTENTS PAGE CANTO XXII .... 2 5 8 CANTO XXIII 27O CANTO XXIV 282 CANTO XXV .... 295 CANTO XXVI . 308 CANTO XXVII 320 CANTO XXVIII .... 333 CANTO XXIX 346 CANTO XXX .... 358 CANTO XXXI 370 CANTO XXXII . 382 CANTO XXXIII 395 CANTO XXXIV 409 GLOSSARY .... 421 PRELIMINARY NOTE IN the year 1300 after Christ the city of Florence was at the height of her power and fortune. 1 At that time one of her citizens, Dante Alighieri, being then thirty-five years of age, was shown as in a vision the state of those who had left this world, being led through the three regions of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Hell is represented as a conical hollow reaching to the centre of the earth, its axis being exactly beneath Jerusalem. It is divided into three main parts : that outside the river of Acheron, where are the souls of those who through weakness did neither good nor evil ; that between Acheron and the walls of the City of Dis, where those are punished who have sinned by all kinds of fleshly lust ; and lastly the City of Dis itself, within which are those who have done despite to God or their neighbours, these being divided into sinners by violence and sinners by fraud. There is also, just within Acheron, a li minis or border, where those are who have died without knowledge of God, and these are not punished, but abide without hope. At the lowest point of Hell, and at the centre of the earth, is Lucifer. The journey begins on the evening of Maundy Thursday, and ends (in the other hemisphere) on Easter morning. 1 See Yillani viii. 39. ERRATA Canto IV. line 42, for ' posci ' read ' poscia. ' Canto V. line z^,fot 'clontate' read ' dotate. ' Canto VI. line 23, for ' ci ' read ' d'.' Canto VII. line iOO,for 'quando' read 'quanto. Canto VIII. line 28, for ' clietro ' read ' dentro. ' Canto XXII. line 47, for ' fuo ' read ' furo.' Page 335, line 2, for ' proved : read ' moved.' HELL CANTO I ARGUMENT The author finds himself in a wood. On issuing from it he is met by three beasts and is rescued from them by one who declares himself to be Virgil, and prophesies of the future of Italy ; afterwards undertaking to guide the author through the world of spirits. HALFWAY upon the road of our life, I came to myself amid a dark wood where the straight path was confused. And as it is a hard thing to tell of what sort was this wood, savage NEL mezzo del cammin di nostra vita Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, Che la diritta via era smarrita. E quanto a dir qual era e cosa dura a Questa selva selvaggia ed aspra e forte a Ha Gg. ; Ah 3 ; 5 ; Eh W. 1 I.e. at the age of thirty-five (cf. Conv. iv. 23). This fixes the date of the action of the poem to 1300. In the same year, a few months later, Dante served the office of Prior, and as such formed for two months a part of the governing body of Florence ; being at that time a member of the Guelf party. - ritrovai. The prefix appears to be emphatic. See 1. 10. selva : worldly cares, as the thorns in the parable of the Sower. 3 Che, as frequently in Dante, is a kind of general relative. See Diez iii. 311, and note to I'urg. i. 3. 4 sqq- It will be seen that I have ventured to adopt a new rendering B 2 HELL CANTO and rough and strong, which in the thought renews my fear, even so is it bitter ; so that death is not much more ; but to treat of the good which I there found, I will tell of the other things which there I marked. I cannot well relate how I there entered ; so full was I of drowsiness at that moment when I left the way of truth. Che nel pensier rinnuova la paura, Tanto e amara, che poco e piu morte : Ma per trattar del ben ch' i' vi trovai, Dirb dell' altre cose, ch' io v' ho scorte. I' non so ben ridir com' io v' entrai ; io Tant' era pien di sonno in su quel punto, Che la verace via abbandonai. of this passage. Usually 11. 4-6 are taken as interjectional, ' ornamento rethorico el quale chiamano exclamatione,' as Landino has it ; and tanto in 1. 7 as the direct antecedent to che. This involves the altera- tion of e or et, which is the reading of nearly all the MSS. and early edcl., into eh, ah, or ahi. (Gg. has Ha, which, if I am not much mis- taken, has been altered from an earlier Ma JTt into fa. I know of no other instance of this reading.) Benv. boldly calls e corrupt, and says, ' nullo modo stare potest, quia . . . illud E non haberet quid copularet. ' But this difficulty is obviated by shifting the stop from the end of 1. 6 to that of 1. 7 ; and with it all perplexity as to the agreement of amara, which Benv., followed by others, refers to selva. Some, in order to sustain this construction, have even gone so far as to change c into era. By avoiding the interjection and treating quanto tanto as relative and antecedent, it seems to me that the passage gains in dignity, and the allusion to Jer. ii. 19, 'vide quia malum et amarum est reliqui.sse te Dominum Deum tuum,' is better brought out. che piu will then refer to both dura and amara. It may be added that while the words ahi quanto occur live times elsewhere in the poem, there is in no oilier case a suggestion of a v. 1. et. 8. y, 10 Xote the threefold repetition of io vi. 11 Scart. refers to Rom. xiii. II. Cf. also Kph. v. 14. l - la verace via. Not merely 'the right way.' Cf. Par. vii. 39. I HELL 3 But after I was come to the foot of a hill at the place where that vale came to an end which had pierced my heart with fear, I looked on high, and beheld its shoulders clad already with the rays of the planet which leads any man straight through every pathway. Then was my fear a little quieted, which had endured in the pool of my heart for the night which I passed with so great pitifulness. And as the man who with panting breath having issued forth from the deep Ma poi che fui al pie d' un colle giunto, La dove terminava quella valle, Che m' avea di paura il cor compunto, Guardai in alto, e vidi le sue spalle Vestite gia dei raggi del pianeta, Che mena dritto altrui per ogni calle. Allor fu la paura un poco queta, Che nel lago del cor m' era durata 20 La notte, ch' i' passai con tanta pieta. E come quei, che con lena affannata Uscito fuor del pelago alia riva, 13 ' 14 It should be unnecessary to remind English readers of the hill Difficulty and the valley of Humiliation. We can scarcely suppose that Bunyan had ever heard of Dante ; but several striking coincidences may be found between the opening of the Commedia and the earlier parts of the Pilgrim's Progress. Here the hill would seem more immediately to denote, as Benvenuto says, ' virtutem, quae alta ducit hominem ad caelum' ; with special reference to Ps. xxxv. 7 (Vulg. ) : Justitia tua sicut monies Dei ; and cxx. i : Levavi oculos meos in monies, unde venit auxilium mihi. Bocc. understands rather the teaching of the Apostles (cf. Par. xxv. 38), but this seems to narrow the meaning too much at this stage of the allegory. 17 pianeta : the sun. In connexion with the next line, it may be noted that throughout his journey Dante's course follows that of the sun. Through Hell, which is in the northern hemisphere, he goes with, through Purgatory, in the southern, against, the ' hands of the watch ' ; while through Paradise he proceeds over the earth from east to west. 4 HELL CANTO upon the shore turns him round to the perilous water and gazes, so my mind, which still was fleeing, turned back to look at the pass which never yet let a person go alive. After that my weary body being a little rested I took again my way over the desert slope, so that the halted foot Si volge all' acqua perigliosa, e guata ; Cosi 1' animo mio, che ancor fuggiva, Si volse indietro a rimirar lo passo, Che non lascio giammai persona viva. Poiche, posato un poco il corpo lasso, b Ripresi via per la piaggia diserta, Si che il pie fermo sempre era il piu basso, 30 b ebbi riposato imp. Gg. (alt.) ; ei possato Cass. ; Como io posato 2; ebbi riposato il c. 3 ; ei posato Aid. W. ; E riposato un p. 14. - 7 The words may also mean ' which no living person ever yet left ' ; but the rendering I have adopted seems to give better the force of lascio, laxavit. In either case the meaning is obscure. Even if we take it as referring to the road to Hell, Dante would seem to forget St. Paul and Aeneas whom he afterwards specifies as having passed that way. On the whole, it seems best to understand it of the soul 'dead in trespasses and sins.' He would say that no man who had been so far entangled in the deceits of the world as he had ever been brought back to true life. Cf. I'urg. xxx. 136, Par. xx. 106. But the symbolism of this Canto alone would need a volume to investigate it thoroughly. - s As to the various readings, see Moore, Text. Crit. p. 257. I do not follow him in reading ei = ebbi, as that form, though no doubt used by Dante's contemporaries, seems to have been avoided by him ; and it is not required here for the construction. The use of c as a kind of demonstrative adverb of time (almost = Germ, so) is quite recognised (see Diez iii. 317) and not unknown in Dante. Cf. xxv. 34, 50. 30 There is some difference of opinion as to the meaning of this line. Benvenuto's explanation, ' quando homo ascendit montem, pes inferior est ille super quo funditur et firmatur totum corpus salientis,' has been accepted by most commentators ; but more recent critics, observing, no doubt quite correctly, that in strict accuracy the moving foot during an ascent is as often below as above the stationary one, have thought it I HELL 5 was ever the lower, behold, almost at the beginning of the steep, an ounce, light and very nimble, which was covered with spotted hair. And it would not depart from before my face ; nay, it so blocked my road that I had more than once Ed ecco, quasi al cominciar dell' erta, Una lonza leggiera e presta molto, Che di pel maculate era coperta. E non mi si partia dinanzi al volto ; Anzi impediva tanto il mio cammino, Ch' io fui per ritornar piu volte volto. necessary to seek a new interpretation. Thus Bianchi points out that the required conditions are strictly fulfilled only in walking on level ground, and understands Dante to mean that he still had some of the plain to cross. (Piaggia, it may be noted, does not absolutely exclude this rendering, though it usually implies a slope. ) But there seems no need for this rather pedantic accuracy, and the older interpretation agrees much better with one's ordinary impression. The motion of the moving foot is not perceived till it has passed the other, and become the higher. si! sqq. These three allegorical beasts, as Witte and Scartazzini point out, are evidently suggested by Jer. v. 6 : Idcirco percussit eos leo de silva, lupus ad vesperam vastavit eos, pardus vigilans super civitates eorum. Symbolically they have been from the earliest times under- stood as denoting : the panther, lust ; the lion, pride ; the wolf, avarice the sins affecting youth, maturity, and old age. We know by his own admissions (see notes to Purg. xiii. 136, and xxvii. 49) that Dante was conscious of having yielded to the two former ; and we may sup- pose that he deemed it possible that in time the third also might beset him. Later interpreters have found also a political meaning. Accord- ing to this, the spotted pard ('pantera e una bestia taccata di piccole tacche bianche e nere,' says the old Italian version of Brunette's Tresor) indicates Florence with her ' Black ' and ' White ' parties, the object of his early love, and afterwards his enemy ; the lion is the power of France (Par. vi. 108) ; and the wolf is the Guelf party (see note to Purg. xx. io). That some meaning of this kind is hidden in the allegory can hardly be doubted ; see xvi, 106. It should be added that some commentators, e.g. Bianchi, prefer to take the lonza as symbolising envy ; in which case the three vices indicated are those which Brunetto in Canto xv. 68 specially attributes to Florence. ' M Observe the bisticdo or jingle of volte volto. 6 HELL CANTO turned to go back. The time was at the first of the morn ; and the Sun was mounting aloft with those stars which were with him when the Love divine first set in motion those fair things ; so that to hope well of that beast with the gay hide, the hour of the clock and the sweet season were an occasion to me /but not so much that the sight of a lion which appeared to me did not give me fear. This seemed to come against me with its head high and with a raging hunger, so that it seemed as the air were in fear of it ; and a she-wolf, that with all ravenings looked fraught Tempo era dal principio del mattino ; E il sol montava su con quelle stelle Ch' eran con lui, quando 1' amor divino Mosse da prima quelle cose belle ; 40 Si che a bene sperar m' era cagione Di quella fera alia gaietta pelle, c L' ora del tempo, e la dolce stagione : Ma non si, che paura non mi desse La vista, che mi apparve, d' un leone. Questi parea, che contra me venesse Con la test' alta e con rabbiosa fame, Si che parea che 1' aer ne temesse : d Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame Sembiava carca nella sua magrezza, 50 c la gaietta Gg. Cass. 12345 Aid. d tremisse Gg. ; tremasse alias ne temesse Cass. \ ; tremesse 4. 38 " 40 In early times it was held that the creation of the world took place at the beginning of spring, or when the sun was entering the Ram ; and Dante thus indicates the time of year at which his vision befell him. amor ; S. T. i. Q. 37. A. 3 : Amor est proprium nomen Spiritus sancti. See note to Par. x. i. 4 - Dr. Moore's reasons for preferring alia seem conclusive. I HELL 7 in its leanness, and has already made much people to live wretched, f This one furnished me so much of heaviness with the terror that issued from her aspect, that I lost my hope of the height. And as is he who willingly acquires, and the time comes which makes him lose, that in all his thoughts he laments and is made sad ; such did the implac- able beast make me, which coming against me, by little and little pushed me back to the place where the Sun is dumb. /Whilst I was rushing to the low ground, before my eyes was brought one who by long silence appeared faint. When E molte genti fe gia viver grame. Questa mi porse tanto di gravezza Con la paura, che uscia di sua vista, Ch' io perdei la speranza dell' altezza. E quale e quei, che volontieri acquista, E giugne il tempo, che perder lo face, Che in tutt' i suoi pensier piange e s' attrista : Tal mi fece la bestia senza pace, Che venendomi incontro, a poco a poco Mi ripingeva la, dove il Sol tace. 60 / Mentre ch' io rovinava in basso loco, 6 Dinanzi agli occhi mi si fu offerto Chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco. e rimirava 4. ss-57 The simile is no doubt intended to recall the symbolical mean- ing of the wolf, viz. avarice. 60 tace : Witte observes that Dante frequently interchanges terms applying to sight and hearing, comparing v. 28. Similar idioms are common in Greek, and not unknown in English. 63 The objection to the ordinary rendering, ' who appeared to have become hoarse through long disuse of his voice,' seems to have occurred first to Blanc, who asks how Dante could know that the other was hoarse before he had spoken. He takes the line to mean, ' I thought, 8 HELL CANTO I beheld him in the great desert, ' Have mercy on me,' I cried to him, 'whoever thou be, whether a shade, or of a certainty a man.' He answered me : ' Not a man : I was a man once, and my parents were Lombards, and both Mantuans by their country. I was born sub Julio, albeit it Quand' io vidi costui nel gran diserto, Miserere di me, gridai a lui, Qual che tu sii, od ombra, od uomo certo. Risposemi : Non uomo, uomo gia fui, E li parenti miei furon Lombard!, Mantovani per patria ambo e dui. Nacqui sub Ju/to, ancorche fosse tardi, 70 by his saying no word to help me, that he must be weak/ In favour of this is also the fact that fioco appears to mean rather ' faint ' than ' hoarse ' ; indeed, in no other passage where it occurs is the latter meaning required (see Gloss. Par. s. v. ) On the whole, therefore, I have preferred to follow Blanc, though supported only, so far as I know, by Scartazzini. The symbolism will then be, ' it was so long since I had heard the voice of my reason, that it seemed to me to be grown feeble. ' The old view that there is an allusion to the neglect of classical study, and particularly that of Virgil, in the previous ages, is in any case very jejune. 70 As Benvenuto saw, this line contains two apparent errors of fact. Virgil was born B.C. 69, in the consulate of Pompey and Crassus, at which time Julius Caesar was very far from being the chief man in the state, and had lived little more than half his life. The commentator's loyalty to his author will not allow him to admit the simplest explana- tion, which, as he says, some gave, ' quod autor pro certo erravit.' He thinks that Dante must have known what all boys know. But it must be remembered that the knowledge of antiquity had made a great advance in the fifty years since Dante's death, and that his historical attainments were probably more on a level with Villani than with Benvenuto. How confused Villani's notions about the times of Caesar were, may be seen from his first book. To Dante Caesar was merely the first of the divinely ordained emperors of Rome. Tardi may perhaps mean that Virgil was born too late to distinguish himself under Caesar. i HELL 9 was late, and I lived at Rome under the good Augustus, at the time of the false and lying gods. A poet I was, and I sang of that just son of Anchises, who came from Troy, after that the proud Ilion was burned. But thou, why returnest thou to so great bane ? Why ascendest not the mount of delight, which is the beginning and cause of all joy ? ' ' Oh, art thou that Virgil, and that fount which spreads forth so broad a stream of speech ? ' I answered him with shamefast brow. 'O honour and light of all poets, let the long study and the great love avail me, which have made me search thy volume. Thou art my master and my authority ; thou only art he from whom I took the fair style which has done me honour. Behold the beast, E vissi a Roma, sotto il buono Augusto, Al tempo degli Dei falsi e bugiardi. Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto Figliuol d' Anchise, che venne da Troia, Poiche il superbo Ilion fu combusto. Ma tu perche ritorni a tanta noia ? Perche non sali il dilettoso monte, Ch' e principio e cagion di tutta gioia? Or sei tu quel Virgilio, e quella fonte, Che spande di parlar si largo flume ? 80 Risposi lui con vergognosa fronte. O degli altri poeti onore e lume, Vagliami il lungo studio e il grande amore, Che m' ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume. Tu sei lo mio maestro e il mio autore : Tu sei solo colui, da cui io tolsi Lo bello stile, che m' ha fatto onore. 72 Cf. Par. viii. i sqq. 87 This can hardly refer, as Witte supposes, to the De Monarchia ; for even if it were certain, instead of highly improbable, that that io HELL CANTO by reason of which I turned round ; help me from her, renowned sage, for she makes my veins and my pulses to tremble.' 'Thee it behoves to keep another road,' he answered, since he saw me weep, ' if thou wouldst escape from this savage place ; because this beast, for the which thou criest out, lets not any pass by her way, but hinders him in such wise that she slays him. And she has a nature so evil and guilty that she never fulfils her greedy will, and after her repast has more hunger than before. Many are the animals with which she pairs ; and more will be yet, Vedi la bestia, per cui io mi volsi : Aiutami da lei, famoso saggio, Ch' ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi. 90 A te convien tenere altro viaggio, Rispose, poi che lagrimar mi vide, Se vuoi campar d' esto loco selvaggio : Che questa bestia, per la qual tu gride, Non lascia altrui passar per la sua via, Ma tanto Io impedisce, che 1' uccide : Ed ha natura si malvagia e ria, Che mai non empie la bramosa voglia, E dopo il pasto ha pin fame che pria. Molti son gli animali, a cui s' ammoglia, 100 E piu saranno ancora, infin che il veltro treatise had been written before 1300, Dante would surely not compli- ment Virgil by attributing his prose style to the influence of the poet. No doubt, like other scholars, he had written plenty of Latin verses in his time, and had gained a reputation thereby. We know, indeed, that he wrote them after this, and had even purposed so to write the Corn- media. 1)9 Cf. Purg. xx. 12. 100 Alluding to the many intrigues of the Papal party, both with Italian and with foreign powers. 101 sqq. The question as to the identity of the ' Veltro ' has from the i HELL 1 1 until the Hound shall come, who will make her die of woe. This one shall not feed on land or dross, but on wisdom Verra, che la fara morir con doglia. Questi non cibera terra ne peltro, first been more debated, and with less result, than any other in the whole poem. Volumes have been written on the subject, the usual effect of which on the reader's mind is to convince him that whatever is intended, it is not what the writer supposes. The main difficulty is to find a solution which will fit both 1. 105, which seems to indicate a human champion, and 1. 1 10, which ascribes to him divine powers. The diction is obviously taken from the Messianic prophecies, so that it is no wonder if many of the older commentators, P. di Dante, Benvenuto, the later Cassinese, and Landino understand it as a prophecy of Christ's second coming, fixing their attention more on 1. no; and take feltro as meaning cielo ; the first named, by a wild piece of metaphor, suggest- ing as an alternative 'erit naturalis et de vili natione.' Boccaccio, who says, ' I confess that I do not understand it,' rejects this view, and on the whole inclines to that which holds some leader of humble origin to be foretold. The Cassinese ' Chiose sincrone ' leave it alone. The inter- pretation which sees a prophecy of Can Grande does not seem to have arisen before the middle of the I5th century, when Bargigi appears to hint at it. Vellutello is the first who distinctly formulates it. Then the Feltros are taken to be the modern Feltre, in the Trevisan, and Montefeltro in Romagna. This has been the favourite interpretation in modern times, adopted by Witte, Philalethes, Bianchi, etc. Villani's account (v. 29) of the election of Genghis Khan as sovereign of the Tartars, contains two or three expressions which form a curious coinci- dence, worthy of consideration by those who hold this view : feciono . . . signore uno fabbro di povero stato, il quale avea nome Cangius, il quale in su un povero feltro fu levato imperadore, e come fu fatto signore, fu chiamato il soprannome Cane. Boccaccio, not referring to this passage, says that some, by an explanation 'assai pellegrina,' saw a prophecy of a reform to begin in Tartary ; telling a curious story of a Tartar custom, whereby, when a king is dying, a piece of felt, to be afterwards used as his shroud, is carried round the country on a spear. Probably Dante meant us to see here, as in the DXV of Purg. xxxiii. 43, a general prophecy of a reformed and united Italy, under such a ruler as he has drawn in the De Monarchia ; and while not having any particular person definitely in his mind, may have been not unwilling to hint indirectly at Can Grande. 1 2 HELL CANTO and love and valour, and his birthplace shall be between Feltro and Feltro. Of that lowland of Italy shall he be the salvation, for which died Camilla the maiden, Euryalus, and Turnus and Nisus of their wounds. This one shall chase her through every town, until he shall have put her back into Hell, the place whence envy first sent her forth. 'Wherefore I for thy bettering think and decide that thou follow me ; and I will be thy guide, and will draw thee from here through an eternal place, where thou shalt hear Ma sapienza e amore e virtute, E sua nazion sara tra Feltro e Feltro. Di quell' umile Italia fia salute, Per cui mori la vergine Cammilla, Eurialo, e Turno, e Niso di ferute : Questi la caccera per ogni villa, Fin che 1' avra rimessa nello inferno. no La onde invidia prima dipartilla. Ond' io per lo tuo me' penso e discerno, Che tu mi segui, ed io sarb tua guida, E trarrotti di qui per loco eterno, 104 Cf. Par. xvii. 105. 106 umile : probably an epithcton ornans, borrowed from Aeneid iii. 522. in-. 108 ec Aen. ix. xi. xii. 111 Here the wolf becomes clearly the sin of covetousness in its widest sense, which Dante, as will often appear, regarded as the root of all the evils of the time. He would include under it public ambition, no less than private avarice ; and it is of course in the former aspect that it can be said to be caused by envy. Benvenuto thinks that the allusion is to the murder of Abel : ' Chaim motus invidia, stimulante avaritia divitiarum, mactavit Abel.' Witte, following P. di Dante, sees a reference to Wisdom ii. 24. More to the purpose is the remark of Aquinas : Amatorcs honoris sunt magis invidi. S. T. ii. 2. O. 36. A. i. I HELL 13 the shrieks of despair, shalt see the ancient spirits in woe, who each cry upon the second death ; and thou shalt see those who are content in the fire, because they have hope of coming whensoever it may be to the blessed folk ; to whom afterward if thou wouldst rise there will be a soul more meet for this than I ; with her I will leave thee in my departure. Ove udirai le disperate strida, Vedrai gli antichi spiriti dolenti/ Che la seconda morte ciascun grida : g E poi vedrai color, che son contenti Nel fuoco, perche speran di venire, Quando che sia, alle beate genti : 120 Alle quai poi se tu vorrai salire, Anima fia a cio di me piu degna ; Con lei ti lascerb nel mio partire : f Di qiielli ant. eckl. 1484, 1491. g CA' alia Cass. 2 Aid. 117 It seems impossible to take la seconda morte in any other sense than that which it has in Rev. ii. n, xx. 14, etc., and in which it was understood by St. Augustine, e.g. Civ. Dei xiii. 8, viz. as meaning the state of the damned after the final end of temporal things. Nevertheless almost all the commentators, ancient and modern, perhaps thinking of xiii. 118, understand by it total annihilation. Benvenuto specially charges us against understanding the day of judgement, ' nam damnati talem mortem non vocant nee optant sibi.' But where in Dante does he find gi-idare in this sense of ' to call for ' ? In the few places where it is transitive, as here, it always means 'to proclaim,' ' shout forth. ' Further, if this interpretation were correct, we should surely not have la but ^lna ; or no article at all, but per or some such word. The true meaning can only be that which P. di Dante (whom Benv. in his remark quoted above is clearly glancing at) gives though he is very undecided when he says (after quoting Aug. de Civ. D. xxi. 3, ' secunda mors animam nolentem tenet in corpore ') : idest conqueruntur de secunda morte quam habent aeternam et spiritualem. Lubin's idea of taking che as = c// che, and ciascun as ' everyone on earth,' can hardly be accepted. 14 HELL CANTO i For that Emperor who reigns there on high, seeing that I was in rebellion to His law, wills not that through me entry should be had into His city. He governs in all parts, and reigns there ; there is His city and His high seat ; O happy the man whom He chooses for that place ! ' And I to him : ' Poet, I beseech thee by that God whom thou knewest not, in order that I may escape this ill and worse, that thou lead me there where thou hast just said, so that I may see the gate of Saint Peter, and those whom thou makest out so sad.' Then he started, and I held after him. Che quello imperador, che lassu regna, Perch' io fui ribellante alia sua legge, Non vuol che in sua citta per me si vegna. In tutte parti impera, e quivi regge, Quivi e la sua citta e 1' alto seggio : O felice colui, cu' ivi elegge ! Ed io a lui : Poeta, io ti richieggio 130 Per quello Dio, che tu non conoscesti, Acciocch' io fugga questo male e peggio, Che tu mi nieni la dov' or dicesti, Si ch' io vegga la porta di san Pietro, E color, cui tu fai cotanto mesti. Allor si mosse, ed io li tenni retro. CANTO II ARGUMENT Uante is in fear lest his strength should not be sufficient for the journey. Virgil bids him take courage, for that three Ladies from heaven have a care of him. THE day was departing, and the dun air was taking the living creatures that are upon the earth from their labours ; and I, one only, was making me ready to endure the strife alike of the journey and of the pity, which my mind that errs not will portray. O Muses, O lofty wit, here aid me ; Lo giorno se n' andava, e 1' aer bruno Toglieva gli animai che sono in terra, Dalle fatiche loro ; ed io sol uno M' apparecchiava a sostener la guerra Si del cammino e si della pietate, Che ritrarra la mente, che non erra. O Muse, o alto ingegno, or m' aiutate : a " :! Scart. compares Aen. viii. 26, 27. The day has been occupied in the flight from the beasts, and the subsequent discourse with Virgil. It may be here noted that Dante enters Hell at sunset, Purgatory at sunrise, Paradise at noon, sol uno : i.e. the one living being. 7 Muse. Cf. Purg. i. 8, and see note Par. i. 16. Eenv. takes occasion from this line to give an account of Dante's mental and physical characteristics. 16 HELL CANTO O mind that wrotest what I saw, here shall appear thy nobleness. I began : ' Poet who guidest me, consider my virtue, if it is potent, before that thou entrust me to the high passage. Thou sayest that the father of Silvius, being yet corruptible, went to an immortal world, and was there with his senses. Wherefore, if the adversary of every evil was gracious to him, thinking on the mighty result that was to issue from him, and the who, and the what it appears not to a man of understanding unmeet ; for he was in the empyrean heaven chosen for father of Rome our parent and of her empire, both which (if one would say the truth) were estab- O mente, che scrivesti cib ch' io vidi, Qui si parra la tua nobilitate. Io cominciai : Poeta che mi guidi, io Guarda la mia virtu, s' ella e possente, Prima che all' alto passo tu mi fidi. Tu dici, che di Silvio Io parente, Corruttibile ancora, ad immortale Secolo ando, e fu sensibilmente. Perb se 1' avversario d' ogni male Cortese i fu, pensando 1' alto effetto, Che uscir dovea di lui, e il chi, e il quale, Non pare indegno ad uomo d' intelletto : Ch' ei fu delP alma Roma e di suo impero 20 Nell' empireo ciel per padre eletto : La quale, e il quale (a voler dir Io vero)