Or as at Pola,1 near Quarnaro's gulf,

That closes Italy and laves her bounds,

The place is all thick spread with sepulchres;

So was it here, save what in horror here

Excell'd for 'midst the graves were scatter'd flames,
Wherewith intensely all throughout they burn'd,2
That iron for no craft there hotter needs.

Their lids all hung suspended; and beneath,
From them forth issued lamentable moans,
Such as the sad and tortured well might raise.

I thus: "Master! say who are these, interr'd
Within these vaults, of whom distinct we hear
The dolorous sighs." He answer thus return'd:
"The arch-heretics are here, accompanied
By every sect their followers; and much more,
Than thou believest, the tombs are freighted: like
With like is buried; and the monuments
Are different in degrees of heat." This said,
He to the right hand turning, on we pass'd
Betwixt the afflicted and the ramparts high.

CANTO X.

Argument.

Dante, having obtained permission from his guide, holds discourse with Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, who lie in their fiery tombs, that are yet open, and not to be closed up till after the last judg ment. Farinata predicts the Poet's exile from Florence; and shows him that the condemned have knowledge of future things, but are ignorant of what is at present passing, unless it be revealed by some new comer from earth.

Now by a secret pathway we proceed,

Between the walls, that hem the region round,

Ch' assai più andar dei Saracin sotterra
Per man di Bradamante e di Marfisa)
Se ne vede ancor segno in quella terra,
Che presso ad Arli, ove il Rodano stagna,
Piena di sepolture è la campagna.

These sepulchres are mentioned in the Life of Charlemagne, which goes under the name of Archbishop Turpin, cap. xxviii. and xxx., and by Fazio degli Uberti, Dttamondo, lib. 4. cap. xxi.

1 At Pola.] A city of Istria, situated near the gulf of Quarnaro, in the Adriatic Sea.

2 They burn'd.] Mr. Darley observes, that in the "Incantation of Hervor" (v. Northern Antquities, vol. ii.) the spirit of Angantyr lies in a tomb "all on fire,"

And the tormented souls: my master first,
I close behind his steps. "Virtue supreme!"
I thus began: "who through these ample orbs
In circuit lead'st me, even as thou will'st;
Speak thou, and satisfy my wish. May those,
Who lie within these sepulchres, be seen?
Already all the lids are raised, and none

O'er them keeps watch." He thus in answer spake :
"They shall be closed all, what-time they here
From Josaphat1 return'd shall come, and bring
Their bodies, which above they now have left.
The cemetery on this part obtain,
With Epicurus, all his followers,
Who with the body make the spirit die.
Here therefore satisfaction shall be soon,

Both to the question ask'd, and to the wish?
Which thou conceal'st in silence." I replied:
"I keep not, guide beloved! from thee my heart
Secreted, but to shun vain length of words;
A lesson erewhile taught me by thyself."

"O Tuscan! thou, who through the city of fire
Alive art passing, so discreet of speech:

Here, please thee, stay awhile. Thy utterance
Declares the place of thy nativity

To be that noble land, with which perchance
I too severely dealt." Sudden that sound
Forth issued from a vault, whereat, in fear,

I somewhat closer to my leader's side

Approaching, he thus spake: "What dost thou? Turn:
Lo! Farinata there, who hath himself

Uplifted from his girdle upwards, all

Exposed, behold him." On his face was mine
Already fix'd: his breast and forehead there
Erecting, seem'd as in high scorn he held

1 Josaphat.] It seems to have been a common opinion among the Jews, as well as among many Christians, that the general judgment will be held in the valley of Josaphat, or Jehoshaphat: "I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.' Joel, iii. 2.

2 The wish.] The wish, that Dante had not expressed, was to see and converse with the followers of Epicurus; among whom, we shall see, were Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante Cavalcanti.

3 Farinata.] Farinata degli Uberti, a noble Florentine, was the leader of the Ghibelline faction, when they obtained a signal victory over the Guelfi at Montaperto, near the river Arbia. Macchiavelli calls him "a man of exalted soul, and great military talents." Hist. of Flor. b. 2. His grandson, Bonifacio, or, as he is commonly called, Fazio degli Uberti, wrote a poem, entitled the Dittamondo, in imitation of Dante. I shall have frequent occasion to refer to it throughout these Notes. At the conclusion of cap. xxvii. lib. 2. he makes mention of his ancestor Farinata. See Note to Life of Dante, p.

E'en hell. Between the sepulchres, to him

My guide thrust me, with fearless hands and prompt;
This warning added: "See thy words be clear."

He, soon as I there stood at the tomb's foot,
Eyed me a space; then in disdainful mood
Address'd me: "Say what ancestors were thine."
I, willing to obey him, straight reveal'd

The whole, nor kept back aught: whence he, his brow
Somewhat uplifting, cried: "Fiercely were they
Adverse to me, my party, and the blood

From whence I sprang: twice, therefore, I abroad

Scatter'd them." "Though driven out, yet they each time
From all parts," answer'd I, "return'd; an art

Which yours have shown they are not skill'd to learn."
Then, peering forth from the unclosed jaw,
Rose from his side a shade,2 high as the chin,
Leaning, methought, upon its knees upraised.
It look'd around, as eager to explore

If there were other with me; but perceiving
That fond imagination quench'd, with tears

Thus spake: If thou through this blind prison go'st,
Led by thy lofty genius and profound,

Where is my son ? and wherefore not with thee?"
I straight replied: "Not of myself I come;
By him, who there expects me, through this clime
Conducted, whom perchance Guido thy son
Had in contempt."
"Already had his words

1 Twice.] The first time in 1248, when they were driven out by Frederick the Second. See G. Villani, lib. 6. c. xxxiv.; and the second time in 1260. See Note to v. 83.

A shade.] The spirit of Cavalcante Cavalcanti, a noble Florentine, of the Guelph party.

3 My son. Guido, the son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti; "he whom I call the first of my friends," says Dante in his l'ita Nuova, where the commencement of their friendship is related. From the character given of him by contemporary writers, his temper was well formed to assimilate with that of our Poet. "He was," according to G. Villani, lib. 8. c. xli., "of a philosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too delicate and fastidious." And Dino Compagni terms him a young and noble knight, brave and courteous, but of a lofty, scornful spirit, much addicted to solitude and study." Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. t. ix. lib. 1. p. 481. He died, either in exile at Serrazana, or soon after his return to Florence, December 1300, during the spring of which year the action of this poem is supposed to be passing.

4

-Guido thy son

Had in contempt.] Guido Cavalcanti, being more given to philosophy than poetry, was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil. Some poetical compositions by Guido are, however, still extant; and his reputation for skill in the art was such as to eclipse that of his predecessor and namesake, Guido Guinicelli; as we shall see in the Purgatory, Canto xi., in the Notes to which the reader will find specimens of the poems that have been left by each of these writers. His "Canzone sopra il Terreno Amore" was thought worthy of being illustrated by numerous and ample commentaries. Crescimbeni, Ist. della Volg. Poes. lib. 5.

And mode of punishment read me his name,
Whence I so fully answered. He at once

Exclaim'd, up starting, "How! said'st thou, he had? 1
No longer lives he? Strikes not on his eye

The blessed daylight?" Then, of some delay
I made ere my reply, aware, down fell
Supine, nor after forth appear'd he more.

Meanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom

I yet was station'd, changed not countenance stern,
Nor moved the neck, nor bent his ribbed side.
"And if," continuing the first discourse,

"They in this art," he cried, "small skill have shown;
That doth torment me more e'en than this bed.

But not yet fifty times shall be relumed

Her aspect, who reigns here queen of this realm,3
Ere thou shalt know the full weight of that art.

Our author addressed him in a playful sonnet, of which the following spirited translation is found in the Notes to Hayley's Essay on Epic Poetry, Ep. iii. :

Henry! I wish that you, and Charles, and I,
By some sweet spell within a bark were placed,
A gallant bark with magic virtue graced,
Swift at our will with every wind to fly;

So that no changes of the shifting sky,

No stormy terrors of the wat'ry waste,

Might bar our coast, but heighten still our taste

Of sprightly joy, and of our social tie:

Then that my Lucy, Lucy fair and free,

With those soft nymphs, on whom your souls are bent,
The kind magician might to us convey,

To talk of love throughout the live-long day;
And that each fair might be as well content,
As I in truth believe our hearts would be.

The two friends, here called Henry and Charles, are, in the original, Guido and Lapo, concerning the latter of whom see the Life of Dante prefixed: and Lucy is Monna Bice. A more literal version of the sonnet may be found in the "Canzoniere of Dante, translated by Charles Lyell, Esq." 8vo, Lond. 1835, p. 407.

1 Said'st thou, he had?] In Eschylus, the shade of Darius is represented as inquiring with similar anxiety after the fate of his son Xerxes:

Atossa. Μονάδα δὲ Ξέρξην ἔρημόν φασιν οὐ πολλῶν μέτα
Darius. Πῶς δὲ δὴ καὶ ποῖ τελευτᾷν ; ἔστι τις σωτηρία ;

NEPEAL, 741, Blomfield's Edit.

alone

Atossa. Xerxes astonish'd, desolate, Ghost of Dar. How will this end? Nay, pause not. Is he safe? The Persians, Potter's Translation. Not yet fifty times.] "Not fifty months shall be passed, before thou shalt learn, by woeful experience, the difficulty of returning from banishment to thy native city."

Queen of this realm.] The moon, one of whose titles in heathen mythology, was Proserpine, queen of the shades below.

So to the pleasant world mayst thou return,'
As thou shalt tell me why, in all their laws,
Against my kin this people is so fell.”

"The slaughter and great havoc," I replied,
"That colour'd Arbia's flood with crimson stain-
To these impute, that in our hallow'd dome
Such orisons ascend." Sighing he shook
The head, then thus resumed: "In that affray
I stood not singly, nor, without just cause,
Assuredly, should with the rest have stirr'd;
But singly there I stood, when, by consent
Of all, Florence had to the ground been razed,.
The one who openly forbade the deed."

"So may thy lineage 5 find at last repose,"

1 So to the pleasant world mayst thou return.]

E se tu mai nel dolce mondo reggi.

Lombardi would construe this: "And if thou ever remain in the pleasant world." His chief reasons for thus departing from the common interpretation, are, first, that "se" in the sense of "so" cannot be followed by "inai," any more than in Latin "sic" can be followed by "unquam ;" and next, that "reggi" is too unlike "riedi " to be put for it. A more intimate acquaintance with the early Florentine writers would have taught him that "mai" is used in other senses than those which "unquam" appears to have had, particularly in that of "pur," "yet;" as may be seen in the Notes to the Decameron, p. 43, ed. Giunti, 1573; and that the old writers both of prose and verse changed "riedo " into "reggio," as of "fiedo" they made "feggio." Inf. c. xv. v. 39, and c. xvii. v. 75. See page 98 of the same Notes to the Decameron, where a poet before Dante's time is said to have translated "Redeunt flores," "Reggiono i fiori."

2 The slaughter.] "By means of Farinata degli Uberti, the Guelfi were conquered by the army of king Manfredi, near the river Arbia, with so great a slaughter, that those who escaped from that defeat took refuge, not in Florence, which city they considered as lost to them, but in Lucca." Macchiavelli, Hist. of Flor. b. 2. and G. Villani, lib. 6. cap. Íxxx. and lxxxi.

3 Such orisons.] This appears to allude to certain prayers which were offered up in the churches of Florence, for deliverance from the hostile attempts of the Uberti: or, it may be, that the public councils being held in churches, the speeches delivered in them against the Uberti are termed "orisons," or prayers.

Singly there I stood.] Guido Novello assembled a council of the Ghibellini at Empoli; where it was agreed by all, that, in order to maintain the ascendancy of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany, it was necessary to destroy Florence, which could serve only (the people of that city being Guelfi) to enable the party attached to the church to recover its strength. This cruel sentence, passed upon so noble a city, met with no opposition from any of its citizens or friends, except Farinata degli Uberti, who openly and without reserve forbade the measure; affirming, that he had endured so many hardships, and encountered so many dangers, with no other view than that of being able to pass his days in his own country. Macchiavelli, Hist. of Flor. b. 2.

5 So may thy lineage.] Deh se riposi mai vostra semenza.

Here Lombardi is again mistaken, as at v. 80, above. Let me take this occasion to apprise the reader of Italian poetry, that one not well versed in it is very apt to misapprehend the word "se," as I think Cowper has done in

D