1

Which whirling ran around so rapidly,
That it no pause obtain'd: and following came
Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er
Have thought that death so many had despoil'd.
When some of these I recognised, I saw
And knew the shade of him, who to base fear 1
Yielding, abjured his high estate. Forthwith
I understood, for certain, this the tribe
Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing
And to his foes. These wretches, who ne'er lived,
Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung

By wasps and hornets, which bedew'd their cheeks
With blood, that, mix'd with tears, dropp'd to their feet,
And by disgustful worms was gather'd there.

Then looking further onwards, I beheld

A throng upon the shore of a great stream:
Whereat I thus: "Sir! grant me now to know
Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem
So eager to pass o'er, as I discern

Through the blear light?" 2 He thus to me in few:
"This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive
Beside the woeful tide of Acheron."

Then with eyes downward cast, and fill'd with shame,

Fearing my words offensive to his ear,

Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech

Abstain'd. And lo! toward us in a bark

Comes on an old man, hoary white with eld,

Crying, "Woe to you, wicked spirits! hope not
Ever to see the sky again. I come

This is commonly understood of Celestine the Fifth, who abdicated the papal power in 1294. Venturi mentions a work written by Innocenzio Barcellini, of the Celestine order, and printed at Milan in 1701, in which an attempt is made to put a different interpretation on this passage. Lombardi would apply it to some one of Dante's fellow-citizens, who, refusing, through avarice or want of spirit, to support the party of the Bianchi at Florence, had been the main occasion of the miseries that befel them. But the testimony of Fazio degli Uberti, who lived so near the time of our author, seems almost decisive on this point. He expressly speaks of the Pope Celestine as being in hell. See the Dittamondo, lib. 4. cap. xxi. The usual interpretation is further confirmed in a passage in Canto xxvii. v. 101. Petrarch, while he passes a high encomium on Celestine for his abdication of the papal power, gives us to understand that there were others who thought it à disgraceful act. See the De Vita Solit. b. 2. sec. iii. c. 18.

2 Through the blear light.] Lo fioco lume. So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 12: Qual fioco lume.

3 An old man.]

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina flammâ.

Virg. Æn. lib. 6. 298.

To take you to the other shore across,
Into eternal darkness, there to dwell

In fierce heat and in ice. And thou, who there
Standest, live spirit! get thee hence, and leave
These who are dead." But soon as he beheld
I left them not, "By other way," said he,
"By other haven shalt thou come to shore,
Not by this passage; thee a nimbler boat 2
Must carry." Then to him thus spake my guide:
"Charon thyself torment not: so 'tis will'd,
Where will and power are one: ask thou no more."
Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks

Of him, the boatman o'er the livid lake,3

Around whose eyes glared wheeling flames. Meanwhile
Those spirits, faint and naked, colour changed,

And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words

They heard. God and their parents they blasphemed,
The human kind, the place, the time, and seed,
That did engender them and give them birth.
Then all together sorely wailing drew
To the curst strand, that every man must pass
Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form,
With eyes of burning coal, collects them all,
Beckoning, and each, that lingers, with his oar
Strikes. As fall off the light autumnal leaves,

In fierce heat and in ice.]

-The bitter change

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth.-

-The delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice.

Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, act iii. sc. 1.

The livid lake.]

Milton, P. L. b. 2. 601.

See note to c. xxxii. 23.

2 A nimbler boat.] He perhaps alludes to the bark "swift and light," in which the angel conducts the spirits to Purgatory. See Purg. c. ii. 40. Vada livida. Virg. Æn. lib. 6. 320. -Totius ut lacus putidæque paludis Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago.

4 With eyes of burning coal.]

His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes,
Like two great beacons, glared bright and wide.

Catullus, xviii. 10.

Spenser, F. Q. b. 6. c. vii. st. 42.

5 As fall of the light autumnal leaves.]
Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo
Labsa cadunt folia.-

Virg. En. lib. 6. 209.

Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbower.

Compare Apoll. Rhol. lib. 4. p. 214.

Milton, P. L. b. 1. 301.

One still another following, till the bough
Strews all its honours on the earth beneath;
E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood

Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore,
Each at a beck, as falcon at his call.1

Thus go they over through the umber'd wave;
And ever they on the opposing bank

Be landed, on this side another throng

Still gathers. "Son," thus spake the courteous guide
"Those who die subject to the wrath of God
All here together come from every clime,
And to o'erpass the river are not lÏoth:

For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear
Is turn'd into desire. Hence ne'er hath past
Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain,
Now mayst thou know the import of his words.'
This said, the gloomy region trembling shook
So terribly, that yet with clammy dews

Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast,
That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame,
Which all my senses conquer'd quite, and I
Down dropp'd, as one with sudden slumber seized.

CANTO IV.

Argument.

The Poet, being roused by a clap of thunder, and following his guide onwards descends into Limbo, which is the first circle of Hell, where he finds the souls of those, who, although they have lived virtuously and have not to suffer for great sins, nevertheless, through lack of baptism, merit not the bliss of Paradise. Hence he is led on by Virgil to descend into the second circle.

BROKE the deep slumber in my brain a crash
Of heavy thunder, that I shook myself,
As one by main force roused. Risen upright,
My rested eyes I moved around, and search'd,
With fixed ken, to know what place it was
Wherein I stood. For certain, on the brink
I found me of the lamentable vale,

1 As falcon at his call.] This is Vellutello's explanation, and seems preferable to that commonly given: "as a bird that is enticed to the cage by the call of another."

B

The dread abyss, that joins a thundrous sound1
Of plaints innumerable. Dark and deep,
And thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain
Explored its bottom, nor could aught discern.

"Now let us to the blind world there beneath
Descend;" the bard began, all pale of look:
"I go the first, and thou shalt follow next."
Then I, his alter'd hue perceiving, thus:
"How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread,
Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt?"

He then "The anguish of that race below
With pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear
Mistakest. Let us on. Our length of way
Urges to haste." Onward, this said, he moved;
And entering led me with him, on the bounds
Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss.

Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard
Except of sighs, that made the eternal air
Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief
Felt by those multitudes, many and vast,

Of men, women, and infants. Then to me

The gentle guide: "Inquirest thou not what spirits
Are these which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass
Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin
Were blameless; and if aught they merited,
It profits not, since baptism was not theirs,
The portal to thy faith. If they before
The Gospel lived, they served not God aright;
And among such am I. For these defects,
And for no other evil, we are lost;

Only so far afflicted, that we live

Desiring without hope." Sore grief assail'd
My heart at hearing this, for well I knew
Suspended in that Limbo many a soul
Of mighty worth. "O tell me, sire revered!
Tell me, my master!" I began, through wish
Of full assurance in that holy faith

Which vanquishes all error; "say, did e'er
Any, or through his own or other's merit,

Come forth from thence, who afterward was blest?"

1 A thundrous sound.] Imitated, as Mr. Thyer has remarked, by Milton, P. L. b. 8. 242:

-But long, ere our approaching, heard

Noise, other than the sound of dance or song,
Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

2 Portal.] "Porta della fede." This was an alteration made in the text by the Academicians della Crusca, on the authority, as it would appear, of only two MSS. The other reading is "parte della fede;" "part of the faith." 3 Desiring without hope.]

And with desire to languish without hope. Milton, P. L. b. 10. 995.

Piercing the secret purport 1 of my speech,
He answer'd: "I was new to that estate,
When I beheld a puissant one 2 arrive
Amongst us, with victorious trophy crown'd.
He forth the shade of our first parent drew,
Abel his child, and Noah righteous man,
Of Moses lawgiver for faith approved,
Of patriarch Abraham, and David king,
Israel with his sire and with his sons,
Nor without Rachel whom so hard he won,
And others many more, whom he to bliss
Exalted. Before these, be thou assured,
No spirit of human kind was ever saved."

We, while he spake, ceased not our onward road,
Still passing through the wood; for so I name
Those spirits thick beset. We were not far
On this side from the summit, when I kenn'd
A flame, that o'er the darken'd hemisphere
Prevailing shined. Yet we a little space
Were distant, not so far but I in part
Discover'd that a tribe in honour high
That place possess'd. "O thou, who every art
And science valuest! who are these, that boast
Such honour, separate from all the rest?"

He answer'd: "The renown of their great names,
That echoes through your world above, acquires
Favour in heaven, which holds them thus advanced."
Meantime a voice I heard: "Honour the bard
Sublime! his shade returns, that left us late!"

1 Secret purport.] Lombardi well observes, that Dante seems to have been restrained by awe and reverence from uttering the name of Christ in this place of torment; and that for the same cause, probably, it does not occur once throughout the whole of this first part of the poem.

2 A puissant one.] Our Saviour.

3 He forth.] The author of the Quadriregio has introduced a sublime description into his imitation of this passage :

Pose le reni là dove si serra;

Ma Cristo lui e 'l catarcion d' acciajo
E queste porte allora gettò a terra.
Quando in la grotta entrò 'l lucido raje,
Adamo disse: questo è lo splendore
Che mi spirò in faccia da primajo.
Venuto se' aspettato Signore.

Satan hung writhing round the bolt; but him,

The huge portcullis, and those gates of brass,

Lib. 2. cap. iii.

Christ threw to earth. As down the cavern stream'd

The radiance: "Light," said Adam, "this, that breathed

First on me. Thou art come, expected Lord!"

Much that follows is closely copied by Frezzi from our Poet.

4 Honour the bard-Sublime.] Onorate l'altissimo poeta. So Chiabrera, Canz. Erioche. 32. Onorando l'altissimo poeta.