Canto XXX
CANTO XXX
The madness that caused the hallucinating King Athamus to dash Learchus’ brains against a rock or the hysterical Queen Hecuba to tear out the eyes of Polymnestor was not so fierce as that of two impersonators whose rabid spirits come charging up like wild hogs (1–27). Griffolino identifies them as Gianni Schichi, who imitated the just deceased Buoso Donati in order to make a fraudulent will, and the incestuous Myrrha, who pretended to be her mother that she might lie with her father. Fanging the neck joint of Cappochio, the first raving shade bolts away, dragging him off and scraping his belly across the rocky terrain, while the Aretine Griffolino stares on and trembles (28–45). As the two deranged souls tear off, Dante turns to see the dropsical and hectic Master Adam, who had counterfeited the gold coin of Florence for the heavily indebted Conti Guidi. His distended paunch gives his torso the shape of a lute, while his parched lips curl, one up, one down, thirsting for the refreshing streams of the verdant Casentino (46–75). Nevertheless, if he could see the damned soul of one of the Conti Guidi, who had induced him to sin, he would not trade the sight for the Branda Fountain but would crawl at the rate of one inch every hundred years around the eleven-mile circumference of the ditch to behold it (76–90). At the Pilgrim’s insistence, Master Adam points out two feverish liars to his right: the wife of Potiphar, who falsely accused the patriarch Joseph of attempted seduction, and Sinon, the treacherous Greek who deceived the Trojans about the wooden horse (91–99). The latter takes offense at the way he is named and smites the tympanous belly of Master Adam, who lands a blow in turn on Sinon’s nose, unleashing a volley of charges and countercharges, curses and countercurses (100–129). Virgil sternly rebukes Dante, who is absorbed by the logomachy, but when the Poet wishes to excuse himself, shame impedes his speech. Although accepting his silent remorse, his mentor warns him that the will to hear such wranglings is base (130–148).
1 When Juno, wroth with Semele, had grown[466]
Enraged as well against the Theban strain,
As one time and another she had shown,
4 King Áthamus was driven so insane[467]
That when he saw his wife, who held a son
In either hand, he shouted to his train:
7 “Come, spread the nets to capture on the run
Both lioness and cubs along the pass!”
He stretched out ruthless claws then, seizing one
10 —The child they called Learchus—who (alas!)
Was twirled around and on a boulder dashed,
So Ino drowned herself and other mass.
13 And at the time when Fortune had abashed
The haughtiness of Trojans all too brave,[468]
So that the kingdom and the king were smashed,
16 Sad Hecuba, a wretched, captive slave,[469]
When she had seen Políxena first die
And then, in anguish, recognized a wave
19 Had washed to shore her Polydorus, why,
She barked, demented, like a dog for him,
For sorrow had so wrenched her mind awry.
22 No cruel Fury ever was so grim
At Thebes or Troy against another by
Her rending beasts, much less a human limb,
25 As were two pale and naked shades that I
Saw chomping with their teeth and running round,
Just like a hog when thrust out from its sty.
28 The one had reached Capocchio, and he found
His neck-joint with his tusk—so, dragged along,
He had his belly scraped against hard ground.
31 The Aretine remained, still shaking strong;
“That’s Gianni Schichi and a rabid sprite,”[470]
He said, “who mangles others of the throng.”
34 “Oh my! so that the other spirit might
Not sink its teeth in you, please tell,” I prayed,
“Who it may be, before it takes to flight.”
37 He said to me: “That is the ancient shade
Of the indecent Myrrha, who became[471]
Her father’s love beyond a rightful grade.
40 And so she came to sin with him in shame
By falsely changing to another’s shape.
The one who is departing did the same
43 To gain the ‘Lady of the Herd’; as ape
Of Buos’ Donati, he made up a will
And testament decked out in legal drape.”
46 And when those rabid two, on whom I still
Had kept my eye, had passed along their route,
I turned to watch those others born to ill
49 And saw one who’d be fashioned like a lute
If but his groin had been dissevered where,
In human bodies, forking legs outshoot.
52 The heavy dropsy, which will so dispair
The limbs with humors unabsorbed within
That faces do not match the belly’s flare,
55 Had made him hold his lips apart as in
A hectic who, because of his great thirst,
Curls one lip up, the other towards his chin.
58 “O you who with no punishment are cursed
In this grim world, though why I do not know,”
He said to us, “pay heed and witness first
61 The misery of Master Adam’s woe;[472]
He had enough in life of what he wills,
But craves a drop of water here below!
64 The streamlets flowing from the verdant hills
Of Casentino down to Arno’s plain,[473]
To bathe and cool the channels of their rills,
67 Still lie before me yet, and not in vain—
Their image parches me more than the blight
That causes all my face’s flesh to wane.
70 But rigid Justice with its goading bite
Now takes advantage of the place I turned
To sin to put my sighs to quicker flight.
73 There lies Romena: that is where I learned
To fake the Baptist’s seal on coins—a thing
For which, above, I left my body burned.
76 But could I see sad Guido’s spirit wring,
Or Alessandro’s, or their brother’s too,[474]
I would not trade that sight for Branda’s spring.[475]
79 If those mad shades that run around speak true,
Then one already stands within this hall.
What good for my tied limbs, though, could that do?
82 For if I were so light that I could crawl
One inch each hundred years, already I
Would hit the road to seek for him mid all
85 The mutilated here. For it’s well-nigh
Eleven miles around, and clear across
At least a half a mile. Through them I lie
88 Down here in such a family’s deep fosse:
They are the ones who first incited me
To strike the florins with three carats’ dross.”
91 I said to him: “Who might those wretches be,
Who just like moistened hands in winter fume,
Whom near on your right borderline you see?”
94 “When like the rain I hit this trench’s doom,
I found them here; they’ve not turned since,” he said,
“Nor will they ever do so, I presume.
97 That one’s the false accuser Joseph fled,[476]
The next false Sinon, Greek of Trojan fame.[477]
From burning fever such a stench is spread.”
100 Perhaps at being called so dark a name,
It seemed one took offense among that scum;
His fist thus struck that belly’s rigid frame,
103 Which made a sound as if it were a drum.
When Master Adam’s arm struck back his snout,
Appearing no less hard, he said in sum:
106 “Though I am kept from moving round about
Because these heavy limbs to me are joined,
I have an arm still free for such a clout.”
109 “When to the fire you went,” the one rejoined,
“Your arm with such a quickness was not blest
But was as quick, and more so, when you coined.”
112 “Though that is true,” the dropsied one confessed
“You weren’t so true a witness when you lied
On being asked the truth at Troy’s request.”
115 “If I spoke falsely, you have falsified
The coin; I’m here,” said Sinon; “for one fall,
But you for more than all the demon tide.”
118 “Remember, perjurer, the horse’s haul,”
Said he whose paunch had swelled to such a size,
“And then be plagued: the whole world knows it all.”
121 “May you be plagued by cleaving thirst that dries
Your tongue and by foul sap,” the Greek replied,
“That makes your paunch a hedge before your eyes!”
124 “And thus to your own harm your mouth gapes wide
As normally it does,” the coiner said,
“For if I thirst and humors bloat my hide,
127 You have the burning and the aching head;
The words of invitation would be few
To have you lick Narcissus’ glass instead.”[478]
130 As I stood all intent to hear those two,
“Keep looking on,” my Master said to me.
“A little more and I shall clash with you!”
133 And when I heard him speak this angrily,
I turned around to him with shame so great
That still it circles in my memory.
136 And just as he who dreams some harmful fate,
And, dreaming, wishes he were dreaming, so
He wants what is, as if it weren’t his state,
139 Thus I became, who could not speak, although
I wished to make excuses for my blame,
And did excuse me, which I did not know.
142 My Master said to me: “A lesser shame
Would wash a greater fault than yours away;
Thus free yourself from sorrow. All the same,
145 Take note that at your side I always stay
Should fortune bring you to another place
Where people find themselves in such a fray,
148 For all desire to hear such things is base.”