"So on the other, be thou well assured, Pazzo the other named, who fill'd the ways CANTO XIII. Argument. Still in the seventh circle, Dante enters its second compartment, which contains both those who have done violence on their own persons and those who have violently consumed their goods; the first changed into rough and knotted trees whereon the harpies build their nests, the latter chased and torn by black female mastiffs. Among the former, Piero delle Vigne is one who tells him the cause of his having committed suicide, and moreover in what manner the souls are transformed into those trunks. Of the latter crew, he recognises Lano, a Siennese, and Giacomo, a Paduan: and lastly, a Florentine, who had hung himself from his own roof, speaks to him of the calamities of his countrymen. ERE Nessus yet had reach'd the other bank, Of steps had worn a way. Not verdant there The foliage, but of dusky hue; not light The boughs and tapering, but with knares deform'd And matted thick fruits there were none, but thorns 1 On Sextus and on Pyrrhus.] Sextus, either the son of Tarquin the Proud, or of Pompey the Great; and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. 2 The Rinieri, of Corneto this, Pazzo the other named.] Two noted marauders, by whose depredations the public ways in Italy were infested. The latter was of the noble family of Pazzi in Florence. SA forest.] Inde in aliam vallem nimis terribiliorem deveni plenam subtilissimis arboribus in modum hastarum sexaginta brachiorum longitudinem habentibus, quarum omnium capita, ac si sudes acutissima crant, et spinosa. A.berici l'isio, sec. 4. Those animals, that hate the cultured fields, Here the brute Harpies make their nest, the same The kind instructor in these words began: The thought thou hast conceived shall vanish quite." From a great wilding gather'd I a branch, And straight the trunk exclaim'd: "Why pluck'st thou me?" These words it added: "Wherefore tear'st me thus? Is there no touch of mercy in thy breast? Men once were we, that now are rooted here. Thy hand might well have spared us, had we been 1 Betwixt Corneto and Cecina's stream.] A wild and woody tract of country, abounding in deer, goats, and wild boars. Cecina is a river not far to the south of Leghorn; Corneto, a small city on the same coast, in the patrimony of the Church. 2 The Strophades.] See Virg. Æn. lib. 3. 210. Virginei volucrum vultus, fodissima ventris 4 Gather'd I.] So Frezzi: A quelle frasche stesi su la mano, Virg. En. lib. 3. 215. Il Quadrir. lib. 1. cap. iv. I, letting fall the bough, remain'd as one A little longer, in the snare detain'd, Count it not grievous. I it was, who held Both keys to Frederick's heart, and turn'd the wards, 1 In my verse described.] The commentators explain this, "If he could have believed, in consequence of my assurances alone, that of which he hath now had ocular proof, he would not have stretched forth his hand against thee." But I am of opinion that Dante makes Virgil allude to his own story of Polydorus, in the third book of the Eneid. 2 That pleasant word of thine.] "Since you have inveigled me to speak by holding forth so gratifying an expectation, let it not displease you if I am as it were detained in the snare you have spread for me, so as to be somewhat prolix in my answer." 3 I it was.] Piero delle Vigne, a native of Capua, who from a low condition raised himself, by his eloquence and legal knowledge, to the office of Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick II.; whose confidence in him was such, that his influence in the empire became unbounded. The courtiers, envious of his exalted situation, contrived, by means of forged letters, to make Frederick believe that he held a secret and traitorous intercourse with the Pope, who was then at enmity with the Emperor. In consequence of this supposed crime, he was cruelly condemned, by his too credulous sovereign, to lose his eyes; and being driven to despair by his unmerited calamity and disgrace, he put an end to his life by dashing out his brains against the walls of a church, in the year 1245. Both Frederick and Piero delle Vigne composed verses in the Sicilian dialect, which are now extant. A canzone by each of them may be seen in the ninth book of the Sonetti and Canzoni di diversi Autori Toscani, published by the Giunti in 1527. See further the Note on Purg. Canto iii. 110. 4 The harlot.] Envy. Chaucer alludes to this, in the Prologue to the Legende of Good Women : Envie is lavender to the court alway, For she ne parteth neither night ne day From Cæsar's household, common vice and pest By the new roots, which fix this stem, I swear, Clear he from wrong my memory, that lies First somewhat pausing, till the mournful words Were ended, then to me the bard began: "Lose not the time; but speak, and of him ask, He thus resumed: "So may he do for thee Thereat the trunk breathed hard, and the wind soon Changed into sounds articulate like these: "Briefly ye shall be answer'd. When departs A savage plant. The Harpies, on its leaves We stood, expecting further speech, when us Loud rustling round him hears. And lo! there came That they before them broke each fan o' th' wood.1 One group lie made. Behind them was the wood The tortured limbs. My guide then seized my hand, Mourn'd through its bleeding wounds: "O Giacomo It cried, "that of me thou hast made thy screen? When o'er it he had paused, my master spake : 1 Each fan o' th' wood.] Hence perhaps Milton: Leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan. P. L. b. 5. 6. Some have translated "rosta" "impediment," instead of "fan." 2 Lano.] Lano, a Siennese, who, being reduced by prodigality to a state of extreme want, found his existence no longer supportable; and, having been sent by his countrymen on a military expedition to assist the Florentines against the Aretini, took that opportunity of exposing himself to certain death, in the engagement which took place at Toppo near Arezzo. See G. Villani, Hist. lib. 7. cap. cxix. 3 -O Giacomo Of Sant' Andrea ] Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan, who, having wasted his property in the most wanton acts of profusion, killed himself in despair. 4 In that city.] "I was an inhabitant of Florence, that city which changed her first patron Mars for St. John the Baptist; for which reason the vengeance of the deity thus slighted will never be appeased; and if some remains of his statue were not still visible on the bridge over the Arno, she would have been already levelled to the ground; and thus the citizens, who raised her again from the ashes to which Attila had reduced her, would have laboured in vain." See Paradise, Canto xvi. 44. The relic of antiquity, to which the superstition of Florence attached so high an importance, was carried away by a flood, that destroyed the bridge on which it stood, in the year 1337, but without the ill effects that were apprehended from the loss of their fancied Palladium. |