DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY.

THE VISION OF HELL.

CANTO I.

UPON the journey of our life midway,
I found myself within a darksome wood,
As from the right path I had gone astray.
Ah! but to speak hereof is drearihood;

This wood so wild, so stubborn, and so keen,
That fear is by the very thought renewed;

"Tis bitter like as hardly death had been;

But still to show the good, which thence I shared,

I must relate what I besides have seen.

B

How first I entered, ill may be declared;

I was indeed so full of slumber then, When first beyond the way of truth I fared.

But coming 'neath a hill, by which the glen

Was bounded, that had stung my heart with ruth,

I lifted up mine eyes, and fixed my ken

Upon the ridges, which I saw in sooth

Already vested in the planet's rays,

That guides mankind in every quest to truth.
This sight some portion of the fear allays,

Which in the lake, even my heart, had stayed
That night, when pity followed all my ways.
And as a man, whose very breath's afraid,

Emerging from the billows on the shore, Turns to the perilous deep, and stops dismayed; Thus did my spirit, fleeing evermore,

Turn back to look again upon that pass, Which never mortal has with life gone

My weary frame I rested for a space,

o'er.

And moved along the desert strand anew, Keeping my firmer foot in lower place.

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And lo! as first the steep upon me grew,
A lynx of motion most adroit and light,
And covered with a skin of speckled hue,
Who never would avoid out of my sight,

But hindered me so sorely of my way,
That oft I turned my back to take my flight.

The time was early morning, on that day

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When rose the sun with those same stars combined

That were with him, when love Divine did sway
Those bright things first into the paths designed; 40
So that I felt some ground for hope, I ween,

From the sweet hour, and from the season kind,
And that fell creature's comely-checkered skin.

But not enough to view, without ill cheer,
The vision of a lion intervene,

Who full upon me rushing did appear,

With lifted head and ravenous raging mien, That seemed to make the air before him fear; A she-wolf eke, whose body bare and lean

Seemed loaded with all fury of desire, Whence many a wight a woeful age

hath seen;

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Who with such heaviness did me inspire

By fears, that ever issued from her face,
That I gave up all hope of mounting higher.
And as a man, who stood in happy case
Acquiring, when his time of loss is come,
For tears and woes in every thought has place;
So this unresting beast made me become,

Who fronting me for ever, piece by piece, Aye pusht me backward, where the sun is dumb. 60 Thus ruining down lower by degrees,

I found emerging on my view a wight,

That seemed half mute with holding long his peace.

Whom, meeting in that monstrous wild my sight,
I called unto, "Have pity, pity on me,
Whate'er thou art, or very man, or sprite!"

He answered, "Once a man, not such for thee;
My parents too were of the Lombard state,
And Mantuans by birthplace, he and she;
And I was born sub Julio, tho' late,

And lived at Rome beneath Augustus mild,

When false and futile gods were yet in date;

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A poet

and I sang the righteous child

Of old Anchises, how he sped from Troy, When fires consuming haughty Ilion spoiled.

But thou, why turnest back to such annoy y?

Why dost thou not the mount delightsome tread, Which is the cause and principle of joy?"

"Now art thou Virgil? art thou that well-head,

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That spreadeth out in speech so broad a river?" so These words with shame-faced reverence I said.

"O light and glory of all bards for ever,

As I have sought thy book, so save me now For my great love and for my long endeavor; Thou art my master and my author thou,

And thou alone art he, from whom I took

The noble style, which doth exalt my brow.
Look on the beast from whom I turned, O look ;
Deliver me from her, thou sage renowned,
Who has with fright my veins and pulses shook."
"Another passage must for thee be found,"

He answered, when my weeping he surveyed, "If thou wilt pass the salvage place's bound.

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