Canto XXIII
CANTO XXIII
The Poets proceed single file, alone, and in silence, like Franciscan monks. As Dante muses, he grows fearful that the demons will compound their native bad will with anger and come after them more fiercely than a pack of hounds snapping at a rabbit. The Pilgrim imagines their pursuit so vividly that he hears their steps, and Virgil mirrors his thoughts exactly. Quickly they seek passage to the next ditch on the right (1–33). No sooner have they done so than the hellhounds appear behind them. Virgil snatches up his charge, like a mother rescuing her child from a fire, and slides down the sloping bank on his back, with Dante on his breast. As soon as his feet touch the trench’s floor, the devils occupy the ridge above them. The escapees have nothing more to fear, however, for Divine Providence has confined these evil spirits to the fifth ditch as its keepers (34–57). Now they see a procession of the shades of hypocrites, garbed in monastic cloaks and cowls gilded without but leaden within. The Travelers turn to the left with them but outpace a trudging shade with every step, so slowly do these spirits move. Asking to be shown some soul he might know (58–75), the Poet is beckoned to by one who overhears his Tuscan accent. He waits for two of them to inch their way up. When they arrive, they silently gaze askance at Dante, then marvel to one another that he is alive. In response to the Pilgrim’s question, they explain the nature of their punishment and identify themselves as Catalano and Loderingo, Jolly Friars jointly appointed as Florentine mayors, who, under pretense of reconciling opposed political factions, routed the Ghibellines from the city (76–108). The Poet begins to respond but breaks off his sentence when he spies Caiaphas, who, along with Annas and the other members of the Sanhedrin favoring the death of Christ, lies crucified nude upon the ground for all the other hypocrites to trample. Virgil is amazed (109–126) but inquires of Catalano where the bridge that Malacoda had spoken of stands. He answers that the bridge has been shattered, but its heaped-up ruins afford an exit from the ditch. As Virgil now realizes Malacoda’s deception, Catalano jeeringly reminds him that the devil lies and is the father of all lies. In angry determination Virgil speeds off with giant strides, and Dante hurries to follow his beloved footsteps (127–148).
1 Alone and silent, unaccompanied
We went, with one before and one behind,
As Friars Minor on their way proceed.
4 To Aesop’s fables I had turned my mind,
Which was occasioned by the present fray,
For where he spoke of frog and mouse we find[339]
7 That if with heedful thought you rightly lay
The start to end, the one and other fight
Are no less better paired than “yes” and “yea.”
10 As one thought from another will ignite,
So from that one another was conceived,
And it redoubled my initial fright.
13 “We caused them to be fooled,” so I believed,
“And now their hurt and scorn are so profound
That I am sure they must be much aggrieved.
16 If wrath is mixed with bad intent, they’re bound
To come at us more fiercely from behind
Than, snapping at the rabbit, comes the hound.”
19 I felt my hair all bristle from that kind
Of fear, and looking back intent I said:
“O Master, if you do not quickly find
22 A way to hide yourself and me, I’ll dread
Those Evilclaws behind us at a run;
I so imagine them I hear their tread.”
25 And he: “Were I of leaded glass, my son,
I could not have your outer image shine
On me more quickly than your inner one.
28 For even now your thoughts have joined with mine,
With kindred action and with kindred face,
So that I’ve forged them both to one design.
31 If that right bank should slope at any place
And to another trench allow descent,[340]
We shall escape from that imagined chase.”
34 The plan he’d made was scarcely given vent
When I beheld them come with wings spread wide,
Not far away and on our seizure bent.
37 I suddenly was taken by my Guide
As, at a roar, a mother wakes to shun
The flames she sees enkindled at her side
40 And gather up her child at once to run,
Not even stopping to throw on a shift,
Since caring less for self than for her son.
43 Thus, from the ridge of that hard bank, how swift
His back slid down the sloping rocks below,
Which closed one side of the adjacent rift!
46 So fast by sluice did water never go
To turn the wheels of any onshore mill,
When nearest to the paddles comes the flow,
49 As did my Master down that incline spill,
While bearing me upon his chest ahead,
Not as a mate, but as a son, with skill.
52 And when his feet had scarcely reached the bed
Of depths below, those demons took the hill
Above us, but there was no more to dread,
55 For Providence on high, which formed the will
To make them keepers of the fifth ravine,
Denies to all the strength to cross its sill.
58 And looking down below we found a scene
Of painted folk, who slowly circled round,[341]
While weeping with a tired, defeated mien.
61 The hoods upon the cloaks they wore were found
To fall below their eyes—a cut one saw
In those with which all Cluny’s monks are gowned.[342]
64 Outside they all are gilt, producing awe;
But inside they are lead and of such weight
That Frederick’s were, compared to them, like straw.[343]
67 O tiring mantle of eternal fate!
As always, to the left with them we drew,
Intent upon their sad and tearful gait.
70 But with the weight they bore, that weary crew
Came on so slow the company passed by
At every movement of our hips was new,
73 At which I told my Guide: “Please try to spy
If one I’ll know by deed or name is there,
And as we’re walking, move around your eye.”
76 Behind us one cried out when made aware
Of Tuscan accents: “Stay your steps, I plead,
O you who run so fast through dusky air!
79 Perhaps you’ll have from me the things you need.”
At which my Leader turned and said: “First wait,
And then, according to his pace, proceed.”
82 I stopped for two whose haste of mind was great
To be with me (I saw it in their glance);
They slacked, though, from the narrow road and freight.
85 And when they had come up, with eyes askance
They gazed at me but did not sound a note;
Then, turning to themselves, they said: “Perchance
88 He lives—it seems so from his throbbing throat;
But by what privilege do they go free,
If they are dead, without the heavy coat?”
91 Then “Tuscan, who are come,” they said to me,
“Down to the crowd of hypocrites made sad,[344]
Do not disdain to say who you may be.”
94 “In the great city I was born, a lad[345]
Who on the lovely Arno was to grow;
I’m with the body that I’ve always had,”
97 I answered them. “But who are you whose woe,
As I behold, distills thus down the cheek?
What punishment is this that glitters so?”
100 “These cloaks of yellow,” one began to speak,
“Are made of lead so thick that weights like these
Will make the scales on which they’re hanging creak.
103 We’re Jolly Friars here and Bolognese;[346]
I’m Catalano, Loderingo he,
Who both were chosen by your land’s decrees,
106 As normally a single man would be,
To keep the peace; and what we were as well
Lies round Gardingo still for one to see.”[347]
109 “O Friars,” started I, “your evil spell … ,”
But said no more, for on one crucified
By three stakes on the ground my vision fell.
112 On seeing me, he writhed on every side,
While blowing in his beard and making sighs.
Observing that, Fra Catalán replied:
115 “The spirit there impaled who meets your eyes[348]
Was he who counseled Pharisees to say
‘It’s best if one man for the people dies.’
118 He’s stretched out nude across the passageway,
As you can see, and he must feel the shoes
Of every passer-by and how they weigh.
121 With such a torment his wife’s father rues[349]
Inside this ditch, with all the Sanhedrin,[350]
Which proved a seed of evil for the Jews.”[351]
124 I saw what Virgil’s wonderment had been
At one stretched on a cross, who basely lay
In the eternal exile there. And in
127 A moment he addressed the monk this way:
“Now if you please, and should your law permit,
Say if some gap lies on the right, I pray,[352]
130 So that the two of us may leave by it,
Not forcing those black angels once again
To come to extricate us from this pit.”
133 “Yet nearer than you hope,” he answered then,
“A reef moves from the outer circle’s floor
And crosses each and every savage glen,
136 Save here it’s rent, not cov’ring as before.
But where the ruins, sloping down the side,
Heap up below, you there may mount once more.”
139 With head bowed down, there stood awhile my Guide;
“By telling me these matters in such wise,”
He said, “that one who hooks the sinners lied.”
142 “Of all the vices that the devil plies,
Some at Bologna claim,” the friar said,[353]
“He lies and is the father of all lies.”
145 With giant strides my Leader onwards sped,
A bit disturbed, with anger on his face;
So, from those burdened shades I also fled,
148 To follow his beloved footsteps’ trace.