Though he repeated oft the tale? No tongue
So vast a theme could equal, speech and thought
Both impotent alike. If in one band
Collected, stood the people all, who e'er
Pour'd on Apulia's happy soil their blood,
Slain by the Trojans, and in that long war,3
When of the rings 4 the measured booty made
A pile so high, as Rome's historian writes
Who errs not; with the multitude, that felt
The griding force of Guiscard's Norman steel,5
And those the rest, whose bones are gather'd yet
At Ceperano, there where treachery

Branded the Apulian name, or where beyond
Thy walls, O Tagliacozzo, without arms
The old Alardo conquer'd; and his limbs
One were to show transpierced, another his
Clean lopt away; a spectacle like this
Were but a thing of nought, to the hideous sight
Of the ninth chasm. A rundlet, that hath lost
Its middle or side stave, gapes not so wide

1 Happy soil.] There is a strange discordance here among the expounders. "Fortunata terra." Because of the vicissitudes of fortune which it experienced: Landino. Fortunate, with respect to those who conquered in it: Vellutello. Or on account of its natural fertility: Venturi. The context requires that we should understand by "fortunata," "calamitous," "disgraziata," to which sense the word is extended in the Vocabulary of La Crusca: Lombardi. Volpi is silent. On this note the late Archdeacon Fisher favoured me with the following remark: "Volpi is, indeed, silent at the passage; but in the article 'Puglia,' in his second Index, he writes, Dante la chiama fortunata, cioè pingue e feconda. This is your own translation; and is the same word in meaning with daiwy and felix, in Xenophon's Anaba is and Horace passim."

2 The Trojans.] Some MSS. have "Romani ;" and Lombardi has admitted it into the text. Venturi had, indeed, before met with the same reading in some edition, but he has not told us in which.

3 In that long war.] The war of Hannibal in Italy. "When Mago brought news of his victories to Carthage, in order to make his successes more easily credited, he commanded the golden rings to be poured out in the senatehouse, which made so large a heap, that, as some relate, they filled three modii and a half. A more probable account represents them not to have exceeded one modius." Livy, Hist. lib. 23. xii.

4 The rings.] So Frezzi: Non quella, che riempiè i moggi d'anella. Il Quadrir. lib. 2. cap. ix.

5 Guiscard's Norman steel.] Robert Guiscard, who conquered the kingdom of Naples, and died in 1110. G. Villani, lib. 4. cap. xviii. He is introduced in the Paradise, Canto xviii.

6 And those the rest.] The army of Manfredi, which, through the treachery of the Apulian troops, was overcome by Charles of Anjou in 1265, and fell in such numbers, that the bones of the slain were still gathered near Ceperano. G. Villani, lib. 7. cap. ix. See the Purgatory, Canto iii.

70 Tagliacozzo.] He alludes to the victory which Charles gained over Conradino, by the sage advice of the Sieur de Valeri, in 1268. G. Villani, lib. 7. cap. xxvii.

As one I mark'd torn from the chin throughout
Down to the hinder passage: 'twixt the legs
Dangling his entrails hung, the midriff lay
Open to view, and wretched ventricle,
That turns the englutted aliment to dross.
Whilst eagerly I fix on him my gaze,

He eyed me, with his hands laid his breast bare,
And cried, "Now mark how I do rip me lo!
How is Mohammed mangled: before me
Walks Ali1 weeping, from the chin his face
Cleft to the forelock; and the others all,
Whom here thou seest, while they lived, did sow
Scandal and schism, and therefore thus are rent.
A fiend is here behind, who with his sword
Hacks us thus cruelly, slivering again

Each of this ream, when we have compast round
The dismal way; for first our gashes close
Ere we repass before him. But, say who
Art thou, that standest musing on the rock,
Haply so lingering to delay the pain

Sentenced upon thy crimes."-"Him death not yet,"
My guide rejoin'd, "hath overta'en, nor sin
Conducts to torment; but, that he may make
Full trial of your state, I who am dead

Must through the depths of hell, from orb to orb,
Conduct him. Trust my words; for they are true."
More than a hundred spirits, when that they heard,
Stood in the foss to mark me, through amaze
Forgetful of their pangs. "Thou, who perchance.
Shalt shortly view the sun, this warning thou
Bear to Dolcino: 2 bid him, if he wish not

Ali.] The disciple of Mohammed.

2 Dolcino.] “In 1305, a friar, called Dolcino, who belonged to no regular order, contrived to raise in Novara, in Lombardy, a large company of the meaner sort of people, declaring himself to be a true apostle of Christ, and promulgating a community of property and of wives, with many other such heretical doctrines. He blamed the pope, cardinals, and other prelates of the holy church, for not observing their duty, nor leading the angelic life, and affirmed that he ought to be pope. He was followed by more than three thousand men and women, who lived promiscuously on the mountains to gether, like beasts, and, when they wanted provisions, supplied themselves by depredation and rapine. This lasted for two years, till many, being struck with compunction at the dissolute life they led, his sect was much diminished; and, through failure of food and the severity of the snows, he was taken by the people of Novara, and burnt, with Margarita, his companion, and many other men and women whom his errors had seduced." G. Villani, lib. 8. cap. lxxxiv. Landino observes, that he was possessed of singular eloquence, and that both he and Margarita endured their fate with a firmness worthy of a better cause. For a further account of him, see Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. tom. ix. p. 427. Fazio degli Uberti, speaking of the polygamy allowed by Mahomet, adds: Dittamondo, lib. 5. cap. xii.

E qui con fra Dolcin par che s'intenda.

Here soon to follow me, that with good store
Of food he arm him, lest imprisoning snows
Yield him a victim to Novara's power;
No easy conquest else:" with foot upraised
For stepping, spake Mohammed, on the ground
Then fix'd it to depart. Another shade,
Pierced in the throat, his nostrils mutilate
E'en from beneath the eyebrows, and one car
Lopt off, who, with the rest, through wonder stood
Gazing, before the rest advanced, and bared

His wind-pipe, that without was all o'ersmear'd
With crimson stain. "O thou!" said he, "whom sin
Condemns not, and whom erst (unless too near
Resemblance do deceive me) I aloft

Have seen on Latian ground, call thou to mind
Piero of Medicina, if again

Returning, thou behold'st the pleasant land 2
That from Vercelli slopes to Mercabò;

And there instruct the twain, whom Fano boasts
Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo,

That if 'tis given us here to scan aright

The future, they out of life's tenement +

Shall be cast forth, and whelm'd under the waves
Near to Cattolica, through perfidy

Of a fell tyrant. Twixt the Cyprian isle
And Balearic, ne'er hath Neptune scen
An injury so foul, by pirates done,

Or Argive crew of old. That one-eyed traitor
(Whose realm, there is a spirit here were fain
His eye had still lack'd sight of) them shall bring
To conference with him, then so shape his end,
That they shall need not 'gainst Focara's wind 5
Offer up vow nor prayer." I answering thus:

1 Medicina.] A place in the territory of Bologna. Piero fomented dissensions among the inhabitants of that city, and among the leaders of the neighbouring states.

2 The pleasant land.] Lombardy.

3 The twain.] Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of the worthiest and most distinguished citizens of Fano, were invited by Malatestino da Rimini to an entertainment, on pretence that he had some important business to transact with them; and, according to instructions given by him, they were drowned in their passage near Cattolica, between Rimini and Fano.

4 Out of life's tenement.] "Fuor di lor vasello," is construed by the old Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. and by Lombardi, "out of the ship." Volpi understands "vasello" to mean "their city or country." Others take the word in the sense according to which, though not without some doubt, it is rendered in this translation.

5 Focara's wind.] Focara is a mountain, from which a wind blows that is peculiarly dangerous to the navigators of that coast.

"Declare, as thou dost wish that I above

May carry tidings of thee, who is he,

In whom that sight doth wake such sad remembrance."
Forthwith he laid his hand on the cheek-bone

Of one, his fellow-spirit, and his jaws

Expanding, cried: "Lo! this is he I wot of:
He speaks not for himself: the outcast this,
Who overwhelm'd the doubt in Caesar's mind,'
Affirming that delay to men prepared

Was ever harmful." Oh! how terrified
Methought was Curio, from whose throat was cut
The tongue, which spake that hardy word. Then one,
Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom
The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots
Sullied his face, and cried: "Remember thee
Of Mosca 2 too; I who, alas! exclaim'd,

"The deed once done, there is an end,' that proved
A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race."

I added: “Ay, and death to thine own tribe."
Whence, heaping woe on woe, he hurried off,
As one grief-stung to madness. But I there
Still linger'd to behold the troop, and saw
Thing, such as I may fear without more proof
To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm,
The boon companion, who her strong breastplate
Buckles on him, that feels no guilt within,
And bids him on and fear not. Without doubt
I saw, and yet it seems to pass before me,
A headless trunk, that even as the rest

Of the sad flock paced onward. By the hair

1 The doubt in Caesar's mind.] Curio, whose speech (according to Lucan) determined Julius Cæsar to proceed when he had arrived at Rimini (the ancient Ariminum), and doubted whether he should prosecute the civil war.

Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis. Pharsal. lib. 1. 281.
Haste then thy towering eagles on their way;

When fair occasion calls, 'tis fatal to delay. Rowe.

2 Mosca.] Buondelmonte was engaged to marry a lady of the Amidei family, but broke his promise, and united himself to one of the Donati. This was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves and their kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging the insult. Mosca degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, persuaded them to resolve on the assassination of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them, "The thing once done, there is an end." The counsel and its effects were the source of many terrible calamities to the state of Florence. "This murder," says G. Villani, lib. 5. cap. xxxviii., "was the cause and beginning of the accursed Guelph and Ghibelline parties in Florence." It happened in 1215. See the Paradise, Canto xvi. 139.

3 The boon companion.]

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?

Shakspeare, 2 Henry VI. act iii. sc. 2.

It bore the sever'd member, lantern-wise
Pendent in hand, which look'd at us, and said,
"Woe's me!" The spirit lighted thus himself;
And two there were in one, and one in two.
How that may be, he knows who ordereth so.
When at the bridge's foot direct he stood,
His arm aloft he rear'd, thrusting the head
Full in our view, that nearer we might hear
The words, which thus it utter'd: "Now behold
This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go'st
To spy the dead: behold, if any else

Be terrible as this. And, that on earth
Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I
Am Bertrand, he of Born, who gave king John
The counsel mischievous. Father and son
I set at mutual war. For Absalom
And David more did not Ahitophel,
Spurring them on maliciously to strife.
For parting those so closely knit, my brain
Parted, alas! I carry from its source,
That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law
Of retribution fiercely works in me."

CANTO XXIX.

Argument.

Dante, at the desire of Virgil, proceeds onward to the bridge that crosses the tenth gulf, from whence he hears the cries of the alchemists and forgers, who are tormented therein; but not being able to discern any thing on account of the darkness, they descend the rock, that bounds this the last

1 Bertrand.] Bertrand de Born, Vicomte de Hautefort, near Perigueux in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, Henry II. of England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the Provençal poets. He is quoted in Dante, De Vulg. Eo7. lib. 2. cap. ii., where it is said, "that he treated of war, which no Italian poet had yet done." "Arma vero nullum Italum adhuc poetasse invenio." The triple division of subjects for poetry, made in this chapter of the De Vulg. Eloy, is very remarkable. It will be found in a Note on Purgatory, Canto xxvi. 113. For the translation of some extracts from Bertrand de Born's poems, see Millot, Hist. Littéraire des Troubadours, tom. i. p. 210; but the historical parts of that work are, I believe, not to be relied on. Bertrand had a son of the same name, who wrote a poem against John, king of England. It is that species of composition called the serventese; and is in the Vatican, a MS. in Cod. 3204. See Bastero, La Crusca Provenzale, Roma, 1724, p. 80. For many particulars respecting both Bertrands, consult Raynouard's Poésies des Troubadours; in which excellent work, and in his Lexique Roman, Paris, 1838, several of their poems, in the Provençal language, may be seen.