of the compartments in which the eighth circle is divided, and then behold the spirits who are afflicted by divers plagues and diseases. Two of them, namely, Grifolino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Sienna, are introduced speaking. So were mine eyes inebriate with the view This weakness. Know, if thou wouldst number them, Beneath our feet: the time permitted now Is short; and more, not seen, remains to see." "If thou," I straight replied, "hadst weigh'd the cause, For which I look'd, thou hadst perchance excused The tarrying still." My leader part pursued There is a spirit dwells, one of my blood, Then spake my master: "Let thy soul no more So we discoursed to where the rock first show'd 1 Geri of Bello.] A kinsman of the Poet's, who was murdered by one of the Sacchetti family. His being placed here, may be considered as a proof that Dante was more impartial in the allotment of his punishments than has generally been supposed. He was the son of Bello, who was brother to Bellincione, our Poet's grandfather. Pelli, Mem. per la Vita di Dante, Opere di Dante, Zatta ediz. tom. iv. part ii. p. 23. Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood 1 As were the torment.] It is very probable that these lines gave Milton the idea of his celebrated description: Immediately a place Before their eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark. P. L. b. 11. 477. Yet the enumeration of diseases, which follows, appears to have been taken by Milton from the Quadriregio: Quivi eran zoppi, monchi, sordi, e orbi, Di tutte febbri quel piano era pieno, Quivi quel mal, che par che la carné arda. Lib. 2. cap. viii. 2 Of Valdichiana.] The valley through which passes the river Chiana, bounded by Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Chiusi. In the heat of autumn it was formerly rendered unwholesome by the stagnation of the water, but has since been drained by the Emperor Leopold II. The Chiana is mentioned as a remarkably sluggish stream, in the Paradise, Canto xiii. 21. 3 Maremma's pestilent fen.] See Note to Canto xxv. v. 18. 4 In Egina. He alludes to the fable of the ants changed into Myrmidons. Ovid, Met. lib. 7. The spirits, that languish'd through the murky vale, Cane drawn from underneath in flakes, like scales Be among these within: so may thy nails "Both are of Latium," weeping he replied, "Whom tortured thus thou seest: but who art thou And of what race ye come. Your punishment, Deter you not from opening thus much to me." "And me Albero of Sienna brought To die by fire but that, for which I died, 1 Arezzo was my dwelling.] Grifolino of Arezzo, who promised Albero, son of the Bishop of Sienna, that he would teach him the art of flying; and, because he did not keep his promise, Albero prevailed on his father to have him burnt for a necromancer. 1 And he, admiring much, as he was void Prevail'd on one supposed his sire to burn me. The other leprous spirit heard my words, Discover'd in that garden, where such sced Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano Lavish'd his vineyards and wide-spreading woods, And his rare wisdom Abbagliato 4 show'd` Was ever race Light as Sienna's?] The same imputation is again cast on the Siennese, Purg. Canto xiii. 141. Stricca.] This is said ironically. Stricca, Niccolo Salimbeni, Caccia of Asciano, and Abbagliato or Meo de' Folcacchieri, belonged to a company of pro ligal and luxurious young men in Sienna, called the "brigata godereccia." Niccolo was the inventor of a new manner of using cloves in cookery, not very well understood by the commentators, and which was termed the "costuma ricca." Pagliarini, in his Historical Observations on the Quadriregio, lib. 3. cap. xiii., adduces a passage from a MS. History of Sienna, in which it is told that these spendthrifts, out of the sum raised from the sale of their estates, built a palace, which they inhabited in common, and made the receptacle of their apparatus for luxurious enjoyment; and that, amongst their other extravagancies, they had their horses shod with silver, and forbade their servants to pick up the precious shoes if they dropped off. The end was, as might be expected, extreme poverty and wretchedness. Landino says, they spent two hundred thousand florins in twenty months. Horses shod with silver are mentioned by Fazio degli Uberti : Ancora in questo tempo si fù visto Dittamondo, lib. 2. cap. xxiv. as corrected by Perticari. 3 In that garden.] Sienna. 4 Abbagliato.] Lombardi understands "Abbagliato" not to be the name of a man, but to be the epithet to "senno," and construes "E l'abbagliato suo senno proferse," "and manifested to the world the blindness of their understanding." So little doubt, however, is made of there being such a person, that Allacci speaks of his grandfather Folcacchiero de' Folcacchieri of Sienna, as one who may dispute with the Sicilians the praise of being the first inventor of Italian poetry. Tiraboschi, indeed, observes, that this genealogy is not authenticated by Allacci; yet it is difficult to suppose that he should have mentioned it at all, if Meo de' Folcacchieri, or Abbagliato, as he was called, had never existed. Vol. i. p. 95, Mr. Mathias's edit. A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know CANTO XXX. Argument. In the same gulf, other kinds of impostors, as those who have counterfeited the persons of others, or debased the current coin, or deceived by speech under false pretences, are described as suffering various diseases. Sinon of Troy and Adamo of Brescia mutually reproach each other with their several impostures. WHAT time resentment burn'd in Juno's breast As more than once in dire mischance was rued; 1 Capocchio's ghost.] Capocchio of Sienna, who is said to have been a fellow-student of Dante's, in natural philosophy. 2 Athamas.] From Ovid, Metam. lib. 4: Protinus Æolides, ctc. 3 With her other burden.] Seque super pontum nullo tardata timore Mittit, onusque suum. Ovid, Metam. lib. 4. 4 Hecuba.] See Euripides, Hecuba; and Ovid, Metam. lib. 13. |