CANTO XXXIV.

"VEXILLA prodeunt' of the King of Hell To us-ward; wherefore look," my master said, "Before thee, if thou canst the object spell." As shows, where breath of some great cloud is shed, Or when the night enwinds our hemisphere, A mill far off, whose vanes by wind are sped, To such a fabric seemed I to be near;

Then shrank I backward from the frost behind

My guardian, for no other grot was here.

And now, (with terror are my verses twined,)

We came to where the ghosts were covered quite,

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And through appeared, like straws in glass confined.
Some lie down flat, and others stand upright;

One on his soles, another on his hair;
Some, bent like bows, the feet and head unite.

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And now when we so far advanced were,

That fit my master thought I should behold The creature that had once the semblaunt fair; Then me in front of him he set, and told,

"Lo Dis! and lo the place where thou perforce 20 With hardihood thy bosom must enfold!"

Ah me! if I was here benumbed and hoarse,
Ask not, O reader, for I will not strive
To tell, for language offers no resource.

I did not die, nor yet remain alive;

Think now, if grain of wit reside in thee,

My state, which of the twain thou must deprive.
The sovran of the dolorous monarchy

Stood half-breast high above the ice-bound lake,

And less to make a giant wants in me,

Then giants want, an arm of his to make.

Ah judge, how great a whole ye must allow

That in it such a part so vast can take.

If he was fair as he is loathly now,

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Well might proceed from him all woe we rue, 35

If he against his Maker raised his brow.

Ah me! how passing strange I thought to view
Upon his head three faces that were joined;
The one in front, and that of crimson hue;
The others, which upon the first confined

Above the midst of either back, were twain,
And at the fittings of the crest combined.
The one betwixt a white and yellow stain,

The right was such to look on, as are they

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Who dwell, where Nilus lapses to the plain.

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From under each two mighty wings made way,

Of magnitude to suit so vast a bird;

No sail on sea can such a breadth display.

They had no plumes, but like a bat's appeared,
And these did in a winnowing combine,

From under which a threefold wind was stirred,
That froze Cocytus from its core ; his eyne
Were six, and down a threefold chin beneath
A bloody slaver welled, and weeping brine.

At

every mouth he mumbled with his teeth

A traitor, in the manner of a mill,

And made of three their miserable sheath.

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To him in front the biting did no ill,

To match the raxing, whence the skin was ta'en
Full oft from all the spine, and came back still.

"That higher spirit which has huger pain,
He," said my guide, "is Jude Iscariot,
Whose skull inside, and legs without remain.
Of those who undermost their heads have got,

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This one is Brutus, whom the black jaws rend; 65 See how he writhes, and sound he utters not! And that is Cassius large-limb'd, but attend, That night again is rising, and that now We should depart, for we have seen the end." On this I claspt his neck, (he taught me how,) And then his time and place elected well, And when the wings were opened wide enow, Attached himself upon the tangled fell,

And down from lock to lock began to ply Atween the shaggy ribs and frozen shell.

When we had barely come to where the thigh

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Turns on the broader haunch, my guide then bore His head with mickle stress and agony,

Around to where his feet had hung before,

And griped the shag, as one that climbs uphill, 80 That I seemed going back to hell once more.

"Hold firmly," said my master, panting still

Like one forespent, "for by such stairs alone
Must we dispart us from this vast of ill."
Then reared me through a perforated stone,

And on its margin made me take my seat,
And toward me thence with wary step came on.
I lifted

up mine eyes, and thought to meet

With Lucifer, as I had left him last,

And saw him stretch into the air his feet.

If I was then bewildered and aghast,

Let that gross vulgar judge, who cannot see The nature of the point which I had passed. "Get up afoot," my guide commanded me;

"Our road is long, and difficult our way, And now by middle tierce the sun must be." No palace lobby now before us lay;

A prison-house autocthonous was this, On evil floor, in penury of day.

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