Part 1

'DQWH

7KH'LYLQH&RPHG\

7UDQVODWHGE\$6.OLQH

,//8675$7('(',7,21

Rights Reserved.

This work MAY be FREELY

reproduced, stored and transmitted,

electronically or otherwise, for any

NON-COMMERCIAL purpose.

All illustrations are from the

Gustave Doré originals.

&RQWHQWV

Canto I:1-60 The Dark Wood and the Hill.....................11

Canto I:61-99 Dante meets Virgil ..................................16

Canto I:100-111 The salvation of Italy ..........................18

Canto I:112-136 Virgil will be his guide through Hell...19

Canto II:1-42 Dante’s doubts as to his fitness for the

journey ............................................................................21

Canto II:43-93 Virgil explains his mission:Beatrice ......24

Canto II:94-120 The Virgin sends Lucia to Beatrice......27

Canto II:121-142 Virgil strengthens Dante’s will..........29

Canto III:1-21 The Gate of Hell.....................................31

Canto III:22-69 The spiritually neutral ..........................32

Canto III:58-69 Their punishment..................................34

Canto III:70-99 Charon, the ferryman of the Acheron...35

Canto III:100-136 The souls by the shore of Acheron ...38

Canto IV:1-63 The First Circle: Limbo:The Heathens...40

Canto IV:64-105 The Great Poets..................................44

Canto IV:106-129 The Heroes and Heroines .................47

Canto IV:130-151 The Philosophers and other great

spirits...............................................................................49

Canto V:1-51 The Second Circle:Minos:The Carnal

Sinners ............................................................................51

Canto V:52-72 Virgil names the sinners ........................54

Canto V:70-142 Paolo and Francesca ............................55

Canto VI:1-33 The Third Circle: Cerberus: The

Gluttonous.......................................................................60

Canto VI:34-63 Ciacco, the glutton. ..............................62

Canto VI:64-93 Ciacco’s prophecy concerning Florence

........................................................................................64

Canto VI:94-115 Virgil speaks of The Day of Judgement

........................................................................................66

Canto VII:1-39 The Fourth Circle: Plutus: The Avaricious

........................................................................................67

Canto VII:40-66 The avaricious and prodigal churchmen

........................................................................................70

Canto VII:67-99 Virgil speaks about Fortune................71

Canto VII:100-130 The Styx: They view the Fifth Circle

........................................................................................73

Canto VIII:1-30 The Fifth Circle: Phlegyas: The Wrathful

........................................................................................75

Canto VIII:31-63 They meet Filippo Argenti ................77

Canto VIII:64-81 They approach the city of Dis............80

Canto VIII:82-130 The fallen Angels obstruct them......82

Canto IX:1-33 Dante asks about precedents ..................85

Canto IX:34-63 The Furies (Conscience) and Medusa

(Obduracy)......................................................................87

Canto IX:64-105 The Messenger from Heaven .............90

Canto IX:106-133 The Sixth Circle: Dis: The Heretics .92

Canto X:1-21 Epicurus and his followers ......................94

Canto X:22-51 Farinata degh Uberti..............................95

Canto X:52-72 Cavalcante Cavalcanti ...........................98

Canto X:73-93 Farinata prophesies Dante’s long exile 100

Canto X:94-136 The prophetic vision of the damned .. 101

Canto XI:1-66 The structure of Hell: The Lower Circles

......................................................................................104

Canto XI:67-93 The structure of Hell: The Upper Circles

......................................................................................108

Canto XI:94-115 Virgil explains usury ........................110

Canto XII:1-27 Above the Seventh Circle: The Minotaur

......................................................................................111

Canto XII:28-48 The descent to the Seventh Circle..... 114

Canto XII:49-99 The First Ring: The Centaurs: The

Violent ..........................................................................115

Canto XII:100-139 The Tyrants, Murderers and Warriors

......................................................................................119

Canto XIII:1-30 The Second Ring: The Harpies: The

Suicides.........................................................................121

Canto XIII:31-78 The Wood of Suicides: Pier delle Vigne

......................................................................................124

Canto XIII:79-108 The fate of The Suicides................127

Canto XIII:109-129 Lano Maconi and Jacomo da Sant’

Andrea...........................................................................129

Canto XIII:130-151 The unnamed Florentine..............130

Canto XIV:1-42 The Third Ring: The Violent against

God ...............................................................................132

Canto XIV:43-72 Capaneus .........................................135

Canto XIV:73-120 The Old Man of Crete ...................137

Canto XIV:121-142 The Rivers Phlegethon and Lethe140

Canto XV:1-42 The Violent against Nature: Brunetto

Latini.............................................................................141

Canto XV:43-78 Brunetto’s prophecy .........................145

Canto XV:79-99 Dante accepts his fate .......................147

Canto XV:100-124 Brunetto names some of his

companions ................................................................... 148

Canto XVI:1-45 Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, Aldobrandi

......................................................................................150

Canto XVI:46-87 The condition of Florence ...............153

Canto XVI:88-136 The monster Geryon......................155

Canto XVII:1-30 The poets approach Geryon .............159

Canto XVII:31-78 The Usurers.................................... 160

Canto XVII:79-136 The poets descend on Geryon’s back

......................................................................................163

Canto XVIII:1-21 The Eighth Circle: Malebolge: Simple

Fraud .............................................................................168

Canto XVIII:22-39 The First Chasm: The Pimps and

Seducers........................................................................169

Canto XVIII:40-66 The Panders: Venedico de’

Caccianemico................................................................170

Canto XVIII:67-99 The Seducers: Jason......................172

Canto XVIII:100-136 The Second Chasm: The Flatterers

......................................................................................174

Canto XIX:1-30 The Third Chasm: The Sellers of Sacred

Offices...........................................................................177

Canto XIX:31-87 Pope Nicholas III.............................178

Canto XIX:88-133 Dante speaks against Simony........183

Canto XX:1-30 The Fourth Chasm: The Seers and

Sorcerers ....................................................................... 186

Canto XX:31-51 The Seers ..........................................188

Canto XX:52-99 Manto and the founding of Mantua .. 189

Canto XX:100-130 The Soothsayers and Astrologers.. 192

Canto XXI:1-30 The Fifth Chasm: The Sellers of Public

Offices...........................................................................194

Canto XXI:31-58 The Barrators................................... 196

Canto XXI:59-96 Virgil challenges the Demons’ threats

......................................................................................198

Canto XXI:97-139 The Demons escort the Poets ........201

Canto XXII:1-30 The Poets view more of the Fifth

Chasm ...........................................................................204

Canto XXII:31-75 Ciampolo........................................206

Canto XXII:76-96 Ciampolo names other Barrators.... 209

Canto XXII:97-123 Ciampolo breaks free of the Demons

......................................................................................210

Canto XXII:124-151 The Malebranche quarrel ...........212

Canto XXIII:1-57 The Sixth Chasm: The Hypocrites.. 214

Canto XXIII:58-81 The Hypocrites .............................218

Canto XXIII:82-126 The Frauti Gaudenti: Caiaphas ... 220

Canto XXIII:127-148 The Poets leave the Sixth Chasm

......................................................................................223

Canto XXIV:1-60 The Poets climb up: Virgil exhorts

Dante.............................................................................224

Canto XXIV:61-96 The Seventh Chasm: The Thieves 228

Canto XXIV:97-129 Vanni Fucci and the serpent ....... 231

Canto XXIV:130-151 Vanni Fucci’s prophecy............233

Canto XXV:1-33 Cacus ...............................................235

Canto XXV:34-78 Cianfa and Agnello........................237

Canto XXV:79-151 Buoso degh Abati and Francesco. 240

Canto XXVI:1-42 The Eighth Chasm: The Evil

Counsellors ................................................................... 245

Canto XXVI:43-84 Ulysses and Diomede ...................249

Canto XXVI:85-142 Ulysses’s last voyage..................251

Canto XXVII:1-30 Guido Da Montefeltro...................254

Canto XXVII:31-57 The situation in Romagna ...........256

Canto XXVII:58-136 Guido’s history..........................258

Canto XXVIII:1-21 The Ninth Chasm: The Sowers of

Discord..........................................................................263

Canto XXVIII:22-54 Mahomet: the Caliph Ali ...........264

Canto XXVIII:55-90 Pier della Medicina and others... 267

Canto XXVIII:91-111 Curio and Mosca......................269

Canto XXVIII:112-142 Bertrand de Born....................271

Canto XXIX:1-36 Geri del Bello ................................. 274

Canto XXIX:37-72 The Tenth Chasm: The Falsifiers . 277

Canto XXIX:73-99 Griffolino and Capocchio.............279

Canto XXIX:100-120 Griffolino’s narrative................281

Canto XXIX:121-139 The Spendthrift Brigade ...........282

Canto XXX:1-48 Schicci and Myrrha..........................283

Canto XXX:49-90 Adam of Brescia ............................286

Canto XXX:91-129 Sinon: Potiphar’s wife .................289

Canto XXX:130-148 Virgil reproves Dante.................291

Canto XXXI:1-45 The Giants that guard the central pit

......................................................................................293

Canto XXXI:46-81 Nimrod .........................................295

Canto XXXI:82-96 Ephialtes....................................... 298

Canto XXXI:97-145 Antaeus....................................... 299

Canto XXXII:1-39 The Ninth Circle: The frozen River

Cocytus .........................................................................303

Canto XXXII:40-69 The Caïna: The degh Alberti:

Camicion....................................................................... 305

Canto XXXII:70-123 The Antenora: Bocca degh Abbati

......................................................................................308

Canto XXXII:124-139 Ugolino and Ruggieri..............311

Canto XXXIII:1-90 Count Ugolino’s story..................313

Canto XXXIII:91-157 Friar Alberigo and Branca d’Oria

......................................................................................318

Canto XXXIV:1-54 The Judecca: Satan ......................322

Canto XXXIV:55-69 Judas: Brutus: Cassius ...............326

Canto XXXIV:70-139 The Poets leave Hell................327

,QIHUQR &DQWR , 7KH 'DUN

:RRGDQGWKH+LOO

In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark

wood, where the direct way was

lost. It is a hard thing to speak of,

how wild, harsh and impenetrable

that wood was, so that thinking of it

recreates the fear. It is scarcely less

bitter than death: but, in order to tell

of the good that I found there, I

must tell of the other things I saw

there.

I cannot rightly say how I

entered it. I was so full of sleep, at

that point where I abandoned the

true way. But when I reached the

foot of a hill, where the valley, that

had pierced my heart with fear,

came to an end , I looked up and

saw its shoulders brightened with the rays of that sun that leads men

rightly on every road. Then the fear,

that had settled in the lake of my

heart, through the night that I had

spent so miserably, became a little

calmer. And as a man, who, with

panting breath, has escaped from the

deep sea to the shore, turns back

towards the perilous waters and

stares, so my mind, still fugitive,

turned back to see that pass again,

that no living person ever left.

After I had rested my tired body

a while, I made my way again over

empty ground, always bearing

upwards to the right. And, behold,

almost at the start of the slope, a

light swift leopard with spotted coat.

It would not turn from before my

face, and so obstructed my path, that

I often turned, in order to return.

The time was at the beginning

of the morning, and the sun was

mounting up with all those stars,

that were with him when Divine

Love first moved all delightful

things, so that the hour of day, and

the sweet season, gave me fair

hopes of that creature with the

bright pelt. But not so fair that I

could avoid fear at the sight of a

lion, that appeared, and seemed to come at me, with raised head and

rabid hunger, so that it seemed the

air itself was afraid; and a she-wolf

that looked full of craving in its

leanness, and, before now, has made

many men live in sadness. She

brought me such heaviness of fear,

from the aspect of her face, that I

lost all hope of ascending. And as

one who is eager for gain, weeps,

and is afflicted in his thoughts, if the

moment arrives when he loses, so that creature, without rest, made me

like him: and coming at me, little by

little, drove me back to where the

sun is silent.

,QIHUQR &DQWR , 'DQWH

PHHWV9LUJLO

While I was returning to the

depths, one appeared, in front of my

eyes, who seemed hoarse from long

silence. When I saw him, in the

great emptiness, I cried out to him

‘Have pity on me, whoever you are,

whether a man, in truth, or a

shadow!’ He answered me: ‘Not a

man: but a man I once was, and my

parents were Lombards, and both of

them, by their native place,

Mantuans.

I was born VXE-XOLR though late, and lived in Rome, under the good

Augustus, in the age of false, deceitful gods. I was a poet, and

sang of Aeneas, that virtuous son of

Anchises, who came from Troy when proud Ilium was burned. But

you, why do you turn back towards

such pain? Why do you not climb

the delightful mountain, that is the

origin and cause of all joy?’

I answered him, with a humble

expression: ‘Are you then that

Virgil, and that fountain, that pours out so great a river of speech? O,

glory and light to other poets, may

that long study, and the great love,

that made me scan your work, be

worth something now. You are my

master, and my author: you alone

are the one from whom I learnt the

high style that has brought me

honour. See the creature that I

turned back from: O, sage, famous

in wisdom, save me from her, she

that makes my veins and my pulse

tremble.’

When he saw me weeping, he

answered: ‘You must go another

road, if you wish to escape this

savage place. This creature, that

distresses you, allows no man to

cross her path, but obstructs him, to

destroy him, and she has so vicious

and perverse a nature, that she never

sates her greedy appetite, and, after

food, is hungrier than before.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR , 7KH

VDOYDWLRQRI,WDO\

‘Many are the creatures she

mates with, and there will be many

more, until the Greyhound comes, 18

who will make her die in pain. He will not feed himself on land or

wealth, but on wisdom, love and

virtue, and his birthplace will lie

between Feltro and Feltro. He will be the salvation of that lower Italy

for which virgin Camilla died of wounds, and Euryalus , Turnus, and

Nisus. He will chase the she-wolf through every city, until he has

returned her to Hell, from which

envy first loosed her.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR , 9LUJLO

ZLOOEHKLVJXLGHWKURXJK+HOO

‘It is best, as I think and

understand, for you to follow me,

and I will be your guide, and lead

you from here through an eternal

space where you will hear the

desparate shouts, will see the

ancient spirits in pain, so that each one cries out for a second death: and

then you will see others at peace in

the flames, because they hope to

come, whenever it may be, among

the blessed. Then if you desire to

climb to them, there will be a spirit,

fitter than I am, to guide you, and I

will leave you with her, when we

part, since the Lord, who rules

above, does not wish me to enter his

city, because I was rebellious to his

law.

He is lord everywhere, but there

he rules, and there is his city, and

his high throne: O, happy is he,

whom he chooses to go there!’

And I to him: ‘Poet, I beg you,

by the God, you did not

acknowledge, lead me where you

said, so that I might escape this evil

or worse, and see the Gate of

St. Peter, and those whom you make out to be so saddened.’

Then he moved: and I moved on

behind him.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,, 'DQWH¶V

GRXEWV DV WR KLV ILWQHVV IRU WKH

MRXUQH\

The day was going, and the

dusky air was freeing the creatures

of the earth, from their labours, and

I, one, alone, prepared myself to

endure the inner war, of the journey

and its pity, that the mind, without

error, shall recall.

O Muses, O high invention, aid

me, now! O memory, that has

engraved what I saw, here your

nobility will be shown.

I began: ‘Poet, who guides me,

examine my virtue, see if I am

fitting, before you trust me to the steep way. You say that Aeneas, the father of Sylvius, while still

corruptible flesh, went to the eternal

world, and in his senses. But if

God, who opposes every evil, was

gracious to him, thinking of the

noble consequence, of who and

what should derive from him, then

that does not seem unreasonable to a

man of intellect, since he was

chosen to be the father of benign

Rome, and of her empire. Both of

them were founded as a sacred

place, where the successor of the

great Peter is enthroned. By that

journey, by which you graced him,

Aeneas learned things that were the

source of his victory and of the

Papal Mantle. Afterwards Paul, the Chosen Vessel, went there, to bring

confirmation of the faith that is the entrance to the way of salvation.

But why should I go there? Who

allows it? I am not Aeneas: I am not

Paul. Neither I, nor others, think me

worthy of it. So, if I resign myself to

going, I fear that going there may

prove foolish: you know, and

understand, better than I can say.’

And I rendered myself, on that dark

shore, like one who unwishes what

he wished, and changes his purpose,

in new thinking, so that he leaves

off what he began, completely, since

in thought I consumed action, that

had been so ready to begin.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,, 9LUJLO

H[SODLQVKLVPLVVLRQ%HDWULFH

The ghost of the generous poet

replied: ‘If I have understood your

words correctly, your spirit is

attacked by cowardly fear, that often

weighs men down, so that it deflects

them from honourable action, like a

creature seeing phantoms in the

dusk. That you may shake off this

dread yourself, I will tell you why I

came, and what I heard at the first

moment when I took pity on you.

I was among those, in Limbo, in

suspense, and a lady called to me,

she so beautiful, so blessed, that I

begged her to command me. Her

eyes shone more brightly than the

stars, and she began to speak,

gently, quietly, in an angelic voice,

in her language: ‘O noble Mantuan

spirit, whose fame still endures in

the world, and will endure as long

as time endures, my friend, not

fortune’s friend, is so obstructed in

his way, along the desert strand, that

he turns back in terror, and I fear he is already so far lost, that I have

started too late to his aid, from what

I heard of him in heaven. Now go,

and help him so, with your

eloquence, and with whatever is

needed for his relief, that I may be

comforted. I am Beatrice, who asks you to go: I come from a place, I

long to return to: love moved me

that made me speak. When I am

before my Lord, I will often praise

you to him.’

Then she was silent, and I began:

‘O lady of virtue, in whom, alone,

humanity exceeds all that is

contained in the lunar heaven, which

has the smallest sphere, your

command is so pleasing to me, that,

obeying, were it done already, it

were done too slow: you have no

need to explain your wishes further.

But tell me why you do not hesitate to descend here, to this centre below,

from the wide space you burn to

return to.’

She replied: ‘Since you wish to

know, I will tell you this much,

briefly, of why I do not fear to enter

here. Those things that have the

power to hurt are to be feared: not

those other things that are not fearful.

I am made such, by God’s grace, that

your suffering does not touch me,

nor does the fire of this burning

scorch me.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,, 7KH

9LUJLQVHQGV/XFLDWR%HDWULFH

‘There is a gentle lady in

heaven, who has such compassion,

for this trouble I send you to relieve,

that she overrules the strict laws on

high. She called Lucia, to carry out her request, and said: “Now, he

who is faithful to you, needs you,

and I commend him to you.” Lucia,

who is opposed to all cruelty, rose

and came to the place where I was,

where I sat with that Rachel of

antiquity. Lucia said: “Beatrice,

God’s true praise, why do you not

help him, who loved you, so

intensely, he left behind the

common crowd for you? Do you not

hear how pitiful his grief is? Do you

not see the spiritual death that

comes to meet him, on that dark

river, over which the sea has no

power?”

No one on earth was ever as

quick to search for their good, or

run from harm, as I to descend, from

my blessed place, after these words

were spoken, and place my faith in

your true speech, that honours you and those who hear it.’ She turned

away, with tears in her bright eyes,

after saying this to me, and made

me, by that, come here all the

quicker: and so I came to you, as

she wished, and rescued you in the

face of that wild creature, that

denied you the shortest path to the

lovely mountain.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,, 9LUJLO

VWUHQJWKHQV'DQWH¶VZLOO

‘What is it then? Why, do you

hold back? Why? Why let such

cowardly fear into your heart? Why,

when three such blessed ladies, in

the courts of heaven, care for you,

and my words promise you so much

good, are you not free and ardent?’

As the flowers, bent down and

closed, by the night’s cold, erect

themselves, all open, on their stems,

when the sun shines on them, so I

rose from weakened courage: and so

fine an ardour coursed through my

heart, that I began to speak, like one

who is freed: ‘O she, who pities,

who helps me, and you, so gentle,

who swiftly obeyed the true words

she commanded, you have filled my

heart with such desire, by what you

have said, to go forward, that I have

turned back to my first purpose.

Go now, for the two of us have

but one will, you, the guide, the

lord, the master.’ So I spoke to him,

and he going on, I entered on the

steep, tree-shadowed, way.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,,, 7KH *DWH

RI+HOO

7+528*+0(7+(:$<727+(

,1)(51$/&,7<

7+528*+0(7+(:$<72

(7(51$/6$'1(66

7+528*+0(7+(:$<727+(

/2673(23/(

-867,&(029('0<6835(0(

0$.(5

,:$66+$3('%<',9,1(

32:(5

%<+,*+(67:,6'20$1'%<

35,0$//29(

%()25(0(127+,1*:$6

&5($7('

7+$7,6127(7(51$/$1'

(7(51$/,(1'85(

)256$.($//+23($//<28

7+$7(17(5+(5(

These were the words, with their dark colour, that I saw written above

the gate, at which I said: ‘Master,

their meaning, to me, is hard.’ And

he replied to me, as one who knows:

‘Here, all uncertainty must be left

behind: all cowardice must be dead.

We have come to the place where I

told you that you would see the sad

people who have lost the good of

the intellect.’ And placing his hand

on mine, with a calm expression,

that comforted me, he led me

towards the hidden things.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,,, 7KH

VSLULWXDOO\QHXWUDO

Here sighs, complaints, and deep

groans, sounded through the starless

air, so that it made me weep at first.

Many tongues, a terrible crying,

words of sadness, accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, with sounds

of hands amongst them, making a

turbulence that turns forever, in that

air, stained, eternally, like sand

spiralling in a whirlwind. And I, my

head surrounded by the horror, said:

‘Master, what is this I hear, and

what race are these, that seem so

overcome by suffering?’

And he to me: ‘This is the

miserable mode in which those

exist, who lived without praise,

without blame. They are mixed in

with the despised choir of angels,

those not rebellious, not faithful to

God, but for themselves. Heaven

drove them out, to maintain its

beauty, and deep Hell does not

accept them, lest the evil have glory

over them.’ And I: ‘Master, what is

so heavy on them, that makes them

moan so deeply?’ He replied: ‘I will tell you, briefly. They have no hope

of death, and their darkened life is

so mean that they are envious of

every other fate. Earth allows no

mention of them to exist: mercy and

justice reject them: let us not talk of

them, but look and pass.’

And I, who looked back, saw a

banner, that twirling round, moved

so quickly, that it seemed to me

scornful of any pause, and behind it

came so long a line of people, I

never would have believed that

death had undone so many.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,,, 7KHLU

SXQLVKPHQW

When I had recognised some

among them, I saw and knew

the shade of him who from cowardice made ‘the great refusal’.

Immediately I understood that this

was the despicable crew, hateful to

God and his enemies. These

wretches, who never truly lived,

were naked, and goaded viciously

by hornets, and wasps, there,

making their faces stream with

blood, that, mixed with tears, was

collected, at their feet, by loathsome

worms.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,,, &KDURQ

WKHIHUU\PDQRIWKH$FKHURQ

And then, as I looked onwards, I

saw people on the bank of a great

river, at which I said: ‘Master, now

let me understand who these are,

and what custom makes them so

ready to cross over, as I can see by

the dim light.’ And he to me: ‘The thing will be told you, when we halt

our steps, on the sad strand of

Acheron.’ Then, fearing that my

words might have offended him, I

stopped myself from speaking, with

eyes ashamed and downcast, till we

had reached the flood.

And see, an old man, with white

hoary locks, came towards us in a

boat, shouting: ‘Woe to you, wicked

spirits! Never hope to see heaven: I

come to carry you to the other

shore, into eternal darkness, into fire

and ice. And you, who are there, a

living spirit, depart from those who

are dead.’

But when he saw that I did not

depart, he said: ‘By other ways, by

other means of passage, you will

cross to the shore: a quicker boat

must carry you.’ And my guide said

to him: ‘Charon, do not vex yourself: it is willed there, where

what is willed is done: ask no

more.’ Then the bearded mouth, of

the ferryman of the livid marsh, who

had wheels of flame round his eyes,

was stilled.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,,, 7KH

VRXOVE\WKHVKRUHRI$FKHURQ

But those spirits, who were

naked and weary, altered colour,

and gnashed their teeth, when they

heard his former, cruel words. They

blasphemed against God, and their

parents, the human species, the

place, time, and seed of their

conception, and of their birth. Then,

all together, weeping bitterly, they

neared the cursed shore that waits

for every one who has no fear of

God.

Charon, the demon, with eyes of burning coal, beckoning, gathers

them all: and strikes with his oar

whoever lingers. As the autumn

leaves fall, one after another, till the

branches see all their spoilage on

the ground, so, one by one, the evil

seed of Adam, threw themselves down from the bank when signalled,

like the falcon at its call. So they

vanish on the dark water, and before

they have landed over there, over

here a fresh crowd collects.

The courteous Master said: ‘My

son, those who die subject to God’s

anger, all gather here, from every

country, and they are quick to cross the river, since divine justice goads

them on, so that their fear is turned

to desire. This way no good spirit

ever passes, and so if Charon

complains at you, you can well

understand, now, the meaning of his

words.

When he had ended, the gloomy

ground trembled so violently, that

the memory of my terror still

drenches me with sweat. The

weeping earth gave vent, and

flashed with crimson light,

overpowering all my senses, and I

fell, like a man overcome by sleep.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,9 7KH )LUVW

&LUFOH/LPER7KH+HDWKHQV

A heavy thunder shattered the

deep sleep in my head, so that I

came to myself, like someone

woken by force, and standing up, I

moved my eyes, now refreshed, and

looked round, steadily, to find out

what place I was in. I found myself,

in truth, on the brink of the valley of

the sad abyss that gathers the

thunder of an infinite howhng. It

was so dark, and deep, and clouded,

that I could see nothing by staring

into its depths.

The poet, white of face, began:

‘Now, let us descend into the blind

world below: I will go first, and you

go second.’ And I, who saw his

altered colour, said: ‘How can I go

on, if you are afraid, who are my

comfort when I hesitate?’ And he to

me: ‘The anguish of the people, here

below, brings that look of pity to my

face, that you mistake for fear. Let

us go, for the length of our journey

demands it.’ So he entered, and so he made me enter, into the first

circle that surrounds the abyss.

Here there was no sound to be

heard, except the sighing, that made

the eternal air tremble, and it came

from the sorrow of the vast and

varied crowds of children, of

women, and of men, free of torment.

The good Master said to me: ‘You

do not demand to know who these

spirits are that you see. I want you

to learn, before you go further, that

they had no sin, yet, though they

have worth, it is not sufficient,

because they were not baptised, and

baptism is the gateway to the faith

that you believe in. Since they lived

before Christianity, they did not

worship God correctly, and I myself

am one of them. For this defect, and

for no other fault, we are lost, and

we are only tormented, in that

without hope we live in desire.’

When I heard this, great sadness

gripped my heart, because I knew of

people of great value, who must be

suspended in that Limbo. Wishing

to be certain in that faith that

overcomes every error, I began:

‘Tell me my Master, tell me, sir, did

anyone ever go from here, through

his own merit or because of others’

merit, who afterwards was blessed?’

And he, understanding my veiled

question, replied: ‘I was new to this

state, when I saw a great one come here crowned with the sign of

victory. He took from us the shade

of Adam, our first parent, of his son

Abel, and that of Noah, of Moses

the lawgiver, and Abraham, the obedient Patriarch, King David,

Jacob with his father Isaac, and his 43

children, and Rachel, for whom he laboured so long, and many others,

and made them blessed, and I wish

you to know that no human souls

were saved before these.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,9 7KH

*UHDW3RHWV

We did not cease moving, though

he was speaking, but passed the

wood meanwhile, the wood, I say,

of crowded spirits. We had not gone

far from where I slept, when I saw a

flame that overcame a hemisphere

of shadows. We were still some way

from it, but not so far that I failed to

discern in part what noble people

occupied that place.

‘O you, who value every science

and art, who are these, who have

such honour that they stand apart

from all the rest?’ And he to me:

‘Their fame, that sounds out for

them, honoured in that life of yours,

brings them heaven’s grace that

advances them.’ Meanwhile I heard

a voice: ‘Honour the great poet: his

departed shade returns.’

After the voice had paused, and

was quiet, I saw four great shadows

come towards us, with faces that

were neither sad nor happy. The

good Master began to speak: ‘Take

note of him, with a sword in hand,

who comes in front of the other

three, as if he were their lord: that is

Homer, the sovereign poet: next

Horace the satirist: Ovid is the third, and last is Lucan. Because each is worthy, with me, of that name the

one voice sounded, they do me

honour, and, in doing so, do good.’

So I saw gathered together the

noble school, of the lord of highest

song, who soars, like an eagle,

above the rest. After they had talked

for a while amongst themselves,

they turned towards me with a sign

of greeting, at which my Master

smiled. And they honoured me

further still, since they made me one

of their company, so that I made a

sixth among the wise.

So we went onwards to the light,

speaking of things about which it is

best to be silent, just as it was best

to speak of them, where I was.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,9 7KH

+HURHVDQG+HURLQHV

We came to the base of a noble

castle; surrounded seven times by a

high wall; defended by a beautiful,

encircling, stream. This we crossed

as if it were solid earth: I entered

through seven gates, with the wise:

we reached a meadow of fresh turf.

The people there were of great

authority in appearance, with calm,

and serious looks, speaking seldom,

and then with soft voices. We

moved to one side, into an open

space, bright and high, so that every

one, of them all, could be seen.

There, on the green enamel, the

great spirits were pointed out to me,

directly, so that I feel exalted, inside

me, at having seen them.

I saw Electra with many others, amongst whom I knew Hector,

Aeneas and Caesar, armed, with his eagle eye. I saw Camilla and 48

Penthesilea, on the other side, and the King of Latium, Latinus, with

Lavinia his daughter. I saw that

Brutus

who expelled Tarquin,

Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and

Cornelia, and I saw Saladin, by himself, apart.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,9 7KH

3KLORVRSKHUV DQG RWKHU JUHDW

VSLULWV

When I lifted my eyes a little

higher, I saw the Master of those

who know, Aristotle, sitting amongst the company of

philosophers. All gaze at him: all

show him honour. There I saw

Socrates, a nd Plato, who stand nearest to him of all of them;

Democritus, who ascribes the world to chance, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, 49

and Thales ; Empedocles, Heraclitus,

and Zeno; and I saw the good collector of the qualities of plants, I

mean

Dioscorides: and saw

Orpheus , Cicero, Linus, and Seneca

the moralist; Euclid the geometer, and

Ptolemaeus ; Hippocrates,

Avicenna, and Galen; and

Averrhoës, who wrote the vast commentary.

I cannot speak of them all in full,

because the great theme drives me

on, so that the word falls, many

times, short of the fact. The six

companions reduce to two: the wise

guide leads me, by another path, out

of the quiet, into the trembling air,

and I come to a region, where

nothing shines.

,QIHUQR&DQWR97KH6HFRQG

&LUFOH0LQRV7KH&DUQDO6LQQHUV

So I descended from the first

circle to the second, that encloses a

smaller space, and so much more

pain it provokes howhng. There

Minos stands, grinning horribly, examines the crimes on entrance,

judges, and sends the guilty down as

far as is signified by his coils: I

mean that when the evil-born spirit

comes before him, it confesses

everything, and that knower of sins

decides the proper place in hell for

it, and makes as many coils with his

tail, as the circles he will force it

descend. A multitude always stand

before him, and go in turn to be

judged, speak and hear, and then are

whirled downwards.

When Minos saw me, passing by

the actions of his great office, he

said: ‘O you, who come to the house

of pain, take care how you enter,

and in whom you trust, do not let

the width of the entrance deceive

you.’ And my guide replied: ‘Why

do you cry out? Do not obstruct his

destined journey: so it is willed,

where what is willed is done:

demand no more.’ Now the

mournful notes begin to reach me:

now I come where much sorrowing

hurts me.

I came to a place devoid of light,

that moans like a tempestuous sea,

when it is buffeted by warring

winds. The hellish storm that never

ceases drives the spirits with its

force, and, whirling and striking, it

molests them. When they come to

the ruins there are shouts, moaning

and crying, where they blaspheme against divine power. I learnt that

the carnal sinners are condemned to

these torments, they who subject

their reason to their lust.

And, as their wings carry the

starlings, in a vast, crowded flock,

in the cold season, so that wind

carries the wicked spirits, and leads

them here and there, and up and

down. No hope of rest, or even

lesser torment, comforts them. And

as the cranes go, making their

sounds, forming a long flight, of

themselves, in the air, so I saw the

shadows come, moaning, carried by

that war of winds, at which I said:

‘Master, who are these people, that

the black air chastises so?’

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9 9LUJLO

QDPHVWKHVLQQHUV

He replied: ‘The first, of those

you wish to know of, was Empress

of many languages, so corrupted by

the vice of luxury, that she made

licence lawful in her code, to clear

away the guilt she had incurred. She

is Semiramis, of whom we read, that she succeeded Ninus, and was his wife: she held the countries that the

Sultan rules.

The next is Dido who killed herself for love, and broke faith with

Sichaeus’s ashes: then comes licentious Cleopatra. See Helen, for whom, so long, the mills of war

revolved: and see the great Achilles,

who fought in the end with love, of

Polyxena. See Paris; Tristan; and he pointed out more than a thousand

shadows with his finger, naming, for me, those whom love had severed

from life.

,QIHUQR&DQWR93DRORDQG

)UDQFHVFD

After I had heard my teacher

name the ancient knights and ladies,

pity overcame me, and I was as if

dazed. I began: ‘Poet, I would

speak, willingly, to those two who

go together, and seem so light upon

the wind.’ And he to me: ‘You will

see, when they are nearer to us, you

can beg them, then, by the love that

leads them, and they will come.’

As soon as the wind brought

them to us, I raised my voice: ‘O

weary souls, come and talk with us,

if no one prevents it.’ As doves,

claimed by desire, fly steadily, with

raised wings, through the air, to their sweet nest, carried by the will,

so the spirits flew from the crowd

where Dido is, coming towards us through malignant air, such was the

power of my affecting call.

‘O gracious and benign living

creature, that comes to visit us,

through the dark air, if the

universe’s king were our friend, we,

who tainted the earth with blood,

would beg him to give you peace,

since you take pity on our sad

misfortune. While the wind, as now,

is silent, we will hear you and speak

to you, of what you are pleased to

listen to and talk of.

The place where I was born is by

the shore, where the River Po runs

down to rest at peace, with his

attendant streams. Love, that is

quickly caught in the gentle heart,

filled him with my fair form, now lost to me, and the nature of that

love still afflicts me. Love, that

allows no loved one to be excused

from loving, seized me so fiercely

with desire for him, it still will not

leave me, as you can see. Love led

us to one death. Caïna, in the ninth

circle waits, for him who quenched

our life.’

These words carried to us, from

them. After I had heard those

troubled spirits, I bowed my head,

and kept it bowed, until the poet

said: ‘What are you thinking?’

When I replied, I began: ‘O, alas,

what sweet thoughts, what longing,

brought them to this sorrowful

state? Then I turned to them again,

and I spoke, and said: ‘Francesca, your torment makes me weep with

grief and pity. But tell me, in that

time of sweet sighs, how did love allow you to know these dubious

desires?’

And she to me: ‘There is no

greater pain, than to remember

happy times in misery, and this your

teacher knows. But if you have so

great a yearning to understand the

first root of our love, I will be like

one who weeps and tells. We read,

one day, to our delight, of Lancelot

and how love constrained him: we

were alone and without suspicion.

Often those words urged our eyes to

meet, and coloured our cheeks, but

it was a single moment that undid

us. When we read how that lover

kissed the beloved smile, he who

will never be separated from me,

kissed my mouth all trembling. That

book was a Galeotto, a SDQGDU, and 59

he who wrote it: that day we read no more.’

While the one spirit spoke,

the other wept, so that I fainted out of pity, and, as if I were dying, fell,

as a dead body falls.

,QIHUQR&DQWR9,7KH7KLUG

&LUFOH&HUEHUXV7KH*OXWWRQRXV

When my senses return, that

closed themselves off from pity of

those two kindred, who stunned me

with complete sadness, I see around

me new torments, and new

tormented souls, wherever I move,

or turn, and wherever I gaze. I am in

the third circle, of eternal, accursed,

cold and heavy rain: its kind and

quality is never new. Large hail,

tainted water, and sleet, pour down

through the shadowy air: and the earth is putrid that receives it.

Cerberus, the fierce and strange monster, triple-throated, barks doglike over the people submerged in it.

His eyes are crimson, his beard is

foul and black, his belly vast, and

his limbs are clawed: he snatches

the spirits, flays, and quarters them.

The rain makes them howl like

dogs: they protect one flank with the

other: often writhing: miserable

wretches.

When Cerberus, the great worm,

saw us, he opened his jaws, and

showed his fangs: not a limb of his

stayed still. My guide, stretching out

his hands, grasped earth, and hurled

it in fistfuls into his ravening mouth.

Like a dog that whines for food, and

grows quiet when he eats it, only

fighting and struggling to devour it,

so did demon Cerberus’s loathsome muzzles that bark, like thunder, at

the spirits, so that they wish that

they were deaf.

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9, &LDFFR

WKHJOXWWRQ

We passed over the shades, that

the heavy rain subdues, and placed

our feet on each empty space that

seems a body. They were all lying

on the ground but one, who sat up

straight away when he saw us cross

in front of him: He said to me: ‘O

you, who are led through this

Inferno, recognise me if you can:

you were made before I was

unmade.’ And I to him: ‘The

anguish that you suffer, conceals

you perhaps from my memory, so

that it seems as if I never knew you.

But tell me who you are, that are lodged so sadly, and undergo such

punishment, that though there are

others greater, none is so

unpleasant.’

And he to me: ‘Your city,

Florence, that is so full of envy it

overflows, held me in the clear life.

You, the citizens, called me Ciacco:

and for the damnable sin of

gluttony, as you see, I languish

beneath the rain: and I am not the

only wretched spirit, since all these

are punished likewise for like sin. I

answered him: ‘Ciacco, your

affliction weighs on me, inviting me

to weep, but tell me, if you can,

what the citizens of that divided city

will come to; if any there are just:

and the reason why such discord

tears it apart.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9, &LDFFR¶V

SURSKHF\ FRQFHUQLQJ)ORUHQFH

And he to me: ‘After long struggle, they will come to blood, and, the

Whites, the party of the woods, will

throw out the Blacks, with great

injury. Within three years, then, it

must happen, that the Blacks will

conquer, with the help of him, who

now veers about. That party will

hold its head high for a long time,

weighing the Whites down, under

heavy oppression, however they

weep and however ashamed they

are. Two men are just, but are not

listened to. Pride, Envy and Avarice

are the three burning coals that have

set all hearts on fire.’

Here he ended the mournful

prophecy, and I said to him: I want

you to instruct me still, and grant

me a little more speech. Tell me where Farinata and Tegghiaio are, who were worthy enough, and

Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo , Mosca, and the rest who set their minds to

doing good: let me know of them,

for a great longing urges me to

discover whether Heaven soothes

them, or Hell poisons them.’

And he to me: ‘They are among

the blackest spirits, another crime

weighs them to the bottom: if you

descend so deep, you may see them.

But when you are, again, in the

sweet world, I beg you to recall me

to other minds: I tell you no more,

and more I will not answer.’ At that

he turned his fixed gaze askance,

and looked at me a while: then, bent

his head, and lowered himself, and

it, among his blind companions.

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9, 9LUJLO

VSHDNVRI7KH'D\RI-XGJHPHQW

And my guide said to me: ‘He

will not stir further, until the angelic

trumpet sounds, when the Power

opposing evil will come: each will

revisit his sad grave, resume his

flesh and form, and hear what will

resound through eternity.’ So we

passed over the foul brew of rain

and shadows, with slow steps,

speaking a little of the future life.

Of this I asked: ‘Master, will

these torments increase, after the

great judgement, or lessen, or stay

as fierce?’ And he to me:

‘Remember your science, that says,

that the more perfect a thing is, the

more it feels pleasure and pain.

Though these accursed ones will

never achieve true perfection, they

will be nearer to it after, than before.’

We circled along that road,

speaking of much more than I

repeat: we came to the place where

the descent begins, where we found

Plutus, the god of wealth, the great enemy.

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9,, 7KH

)RXUWK &LUFOH 3OXWXV 7KH

$YDULFLRXV

‘Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe,’

Plutus, began to croak, and the gentle sage, who understood all

things, comforted me, saying: ‘Do

not let fear hurt you, since whatever

power he has, he will not prevent

you descending this rock.’ Then he

turned to that swollen face and said:

‘Peace, evil wolf! Devour yourself

inside, in your rage. Our journey to the depths is not without reason: it is

willed on high, there where Michael

made war on the great dragon’s

adulterating pride.’

Like a sail, bellying in the wind,

that falls, in a heap, if the mast

breaks, so that cruel creature fell to

earth. In that way we descended into

the fourth circle, taking in a greater

width of the dismal bank, that

encloses every evil of the universe.

O Divine Justice! Who can tell

the many new pains and troubles,

that I saw, and why our guilt so

destroys us? As the wave, over

Charybdis, strikes against the wave it counters, so the people here are

made to dance. I found more people

here than elsewhere, on the one side

and on the other, rolling weights by

pushing with their chests, with loud

howhng. They struck against each other, and then each wheeled around

where they were, rolling the reverse

way, shouting: ‘Why do you hold?’

and ‘Why do you throw away.’

So they returned along the

gloomy circle, from either side to

the opposite point, shouting again

their measure of reproach. Then

each one, when he had reached it,

wheeled through his half circle onto

the other track. And I, who felt as if

my heart were pierced, said: ‘My

Master, show me now who these

people are: and whether all those,

with tonsures, on our left were

churchmen.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9,, 7KH

DYDULFLRXV

DQG

SURGLJDO

FKXUFKPHQ

And he to me: ‘They were so

twisted in mind in their first life,

that they made no balanced

expenditure. Their voices bark this

out most clearly when they come to

the two ends of the circle, where

opposing sins divide them.

These were priests, that are

without hair on their heads, and

Popes and Cardinals, in whom

avarice does its worst. And I:

‘Master, surely, amongst this crowd,

I ought to recognise some of those

tainted with these evils.’ And he to

me: ‘You link idle thoughts: the life

without knowledge, that made them

ignoble, now makes them incapable

of being known. They will go

butting each other to eternity: and these will rise from their graves

with grasping fists, and those with

shorn hair.

Useless giving, and useless

keeping, has robbed them of the

bright world, and set them to this

struggle: what struggle it is, I do not

amplify. But you, my son, can see

now the vain mockery of the wealth

controlled by Fortune, for which the

human race fight with each other,

since all the gold under the moon,

that ever was, could not give peace

to one of these weary souls.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9,, 9LUJLO

VSHDNVDERXW)RUWXQH

I said to him: ‘Master, now tell

me about Fortune also, that subject

you touched on, who is she, who has

the wealth of the world in her

arms?’ And he to me: ‘O, blind

creatures, how great is the ignorance

that surrounds you! I want you,

now, to hear my judgement of her.

He whose wisdom transcends all

things, made the heavens, and gave

them ruling powers, so that each

part illuminates the others,

distributing the light equally.

Similarly he put in place a

controller, and a guide, for earthly

splendour, to alter, from time to

time, idle possession, between

nation and nation, and from kin to

kin, beyond the schemes of human

reason. So one people commands:

another wanes, obeying her

judgement, she who is concealed,

like a snake in the grass.

Your wisdom cannot

comprehend her: she furnishes,

adjudicates, and maintains her

kingdom, as the other gods do

theirs. Her permutations never end:

necessity makes her swift: so, often,

someone comes who creates change.

This is she: so often reviled, even by

those who ought to praise her, but,

wrongly, blame her, with malicious

words. Still, she is in bliss, and does

not hear: she spins her globe,

joyfully, among the other primal

spirits, and tastes her bliss.

Now let us descend to greater

misery: already every star is declining, that was rising when I set out, and

we are not allowed to stay too long.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9,, 7KH

6W\[7KH\YLHZWKH)LIWK&LUFOH

We crossed the circle to the other bank, near a spring, that boils and

pours down, through a gap that it

has made. The water was darker

than a dark blue-grey, and we

entered the descent by a strange

path, in company with the dusky

waves. This woeful stream forms

the marsh called Styx, when it has

fallen to the foot of the grey

malignant walls. And I who stood

there, intent on seeing, saw muddy

people in the fen, naked, and all

with the look of anger. They were

striking each other, not only with

hands, but head, chest, and feet,

mangling each other with their

teeth, bite by bite.

The kind Master said: ‘Now, son,

see the souls of those overcome by

anger, and also, I want you to know,

in truth, there are people under the

water, who sigh, and make it bubble on the surface, as your eye can see

whichever way it turns. Fixed in the

slime they say: “We were sullen in

the sweet air, that is gladdened by

the sun, bearing indolent smoke in

our hearts: now we lie here, sullen,

in the black mire.” This measure

they gurgle in their throats, because

they cannot utter it in full speech.’

So we covered a large arc of the

loathsome swamp, between the dry

bank and its core, our eyes turned

towards those who swallow its filth:

we came at last to the base of a

tower.

,QIHUQR&DQWR9,,,7KH)LIWK

&LUFOH3KOHJ\DV7KH:UDWKIXO

I say, pursuing my theme, that,

long before we reached the base of

the high tower, our eyes looked

upwards to its summit, because we

saw two beacon-flames set there,

and another, from so far away that

the eye could scarcely see it, gave a

signal in return. And I turned to the

fount of all knowledge, and asked:

‘What does it say? And what does

the other light reply? And who has

made the signal?’ And he to me:

‘Already you can see, what is

expected, coming over the foul

waters, if the marsh vapours do not

hide it from you.’

No bowstring ever shot an arrow

that flew through the air so quickly,

as the little boat, that I saw coming

towards us, through the waves,

under the control of a single

steersman, who cried: ‘Are you

here, now, fierce spirit?’ My Master

said: ‘Phlegyas, Phlegyas, this time 76

you cry in vain: you shall not keep us longer than it takes us to pass the

marsh.’

Phlegyas in his growing anger,

was like someone who listens to

some great wrong done him, and

then fills with resentment. My guide

climbed down into the boat, and

then made me board after him, and

it only sank in the water when I was

in. As soon as my guide and I were

in the craft, its prow went forward,

ploughing deeper through the water

than it does carrying others.

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9,,, 7KH\

PHHW)LOLSSR$UJHQWL

While we were running through

the dead channel, one rose up in

front of me, covered with mud, and

said: ‘Who are you, that come

before your time?’ And I to him: ‘If I come, I do not stay here: but who

are you, who are so mired?’ He

answered: ‘You see that I am one

who weeps.’ And I to him: ‘Cursed

spirit, remain weeping and in

sorrow! For I know you, muddy as

you are.’

Then he stretched both hands out

to the boat, at which the cautious

Master pushed him off, saying:

‘Away, there, with the other dogs!’

Then he put his arms around my

neck, kissed my face, and said:

‘Blessed be she who bore you, soul,

who are rightly indignant. He was

an arrogant spirit in your world:

there is nothing good with which to

adorn his memory: so, his furious

shade is here. How many up there

think themselves mighty kings, that

will lie here like pigs in mire,

leaving behind them dire

condemnation!’

And I: ‘Master, I would be glad

to see him doused in this swill

before we quit the lake’. And he to

me: ‘You will be satisfied, before

the shore is visible to you: it is right

that your wish should be gratified.’

Not long after this I saw the muddy

people make such a rending of him,

that I still give God thanks and

praise for it. All shouted: ‘At

Filippo Argenti! ’ That fierce Florentine spirit turned his teeth in

vengeance on himself.

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9,,, 7KH\

DSSURDFKWKHFLW\RI'LV

We left him there, so that I can

say no more of him, but a sound of

wailing assailed my ears, so that I

turned my gaze in front, intently.

The kind Master said: ‘Now, my

son, we approach the city they call

Dis, with its grave citizens, a vast crowd.’ And I: ‘Master, I can

already see its towers, clearly there

in the valley, glowing red, as if they

issued from the fire.’ And he to me:

‘The eternal fire, that burns them

from within, makes them appear

reddened, as you see, in this deep

Hell.’

We now arrived in the steep

ditch, that forms the moat to the

joyless city: the walls seemed to me

as if they were made of iron. Not

until we had made a wide circuit,

did we reach a place where the

ferryman said to us: ‘Disembark:

here is the entrance.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR 9,,, 7KH

IDOOHQ$QJHOVREVWUXFWWKHP

I saw more than a thousand of

those angels, that fell from Heaven

like rain, above the gates, who cried

angrily: ‘Who is this, that, without

death goes through the kingdom of

the dead?’ And my wise Master

made a sign to them, of wishing to

speak in private. Then they furled

their great disdain, and said: ‘Come

on, alone, and let him go, who

enters this kingdom with such

audacity. Let him return, alone, on

his foolish road: see if he can: and

you, remain, who have escorted

him, through so dark a land.’

Think, Reader, whether I was not

disheartened at the sound of those

accursed words, not believing I

could ever return here. I said: ‘O my

dear guide, who has ensured my

safety more than the seven times,

and snatched me from certain

danger that faced me, do not leave

me, so helpless: and if we are

prevented from going on, let us

quickly retrace our steps.’ And that

lord, who had led me there, said to

me: ‘Have no fear: since no one can

deny us passage: it was given us by

so great an authority. But you, wait

for me, and comfort and nourish

your spirit with fresh hope, for I will

not abandon you in the lower

world.’

So the gentle father goes, and

leaves me there, and I am left in

doubt: since ‘yes’ and ‘no’ war

inside my head. I could not hear

what terms he offered them, but he

had not been standing there long

with them, when, each vying with

the other, they rushed back. Our adversaries closed the gate in my

lord’s face, leaving him outside, and

he turned to me again with slow

steps. His eyes were on the ground,

and his expression devoid of all

daring, and he said, sighing: ‘Who

are these who deny me entrance to

the house of pain? And to me he

said: ‘Though I am angered, do not

you be dismayed: I will win the

trial, whatever obstacle those inside

contrive. This insolence of theirs is

nothing new, for they displayed it

once before, at that less secret gate

we passed, that has remained

unbarred. Over it you saw the fatal

writing, and already on this side of

its entrance, one is coming, down

the steep, passing the circles

unescorted, one for whom the city

shall open to us.’

,QIHUQR&DQWR,;'DQWHDVNV

DERXWSUHFHGHQWV

The colour that cowardice had

printed on my face, seeing my guide

turn back, made him repress his own

heightened colour more swiftly. He

stopped, attentive, like one who

listens, since his eyes could not

penetrate far, through the black air

and the thick fog. ‘Nevertheless we

must win this struggle,’ he began,

‘if not........then help such as this

was offered to us. Oh, how long it

seems to me, that other’s coming!’ I

saw clearly, how he hid the meaning

of his opening words with their

sequel, words differing from his

initial thought. None the less his

speech made me afraid, perhaps

because I took his broken phrases to hold a worse meaning than they did.

‘Do any of those whose only

punishment is deprivation of hope,

ever descend, into the depths of this

sad chasm, from the first circle? I

asked this question, and he

answered me: ‘It rarely happens,

that any of us make the journey that

I go on. It is true that I was down

here, once before, conjured to do so

by that fierce sorceress Erichtho, who recalled spirits to their corpses.

My flesh had only been stripped

from me a while when she forced

me to enter inside that wall, to bring

a spirit out of the circle of Judas.

That is the deepest place, and the

darkest, and the furthest from that

Heaven that surrounds all things: I

know the way well: so be reassured.

This marsh, that breathes its foul

stench, circles the woeful city round about, where we also cannot enter

now without anger.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,; 7KH

)XULHV &RQVFLHQFH DQG 0HGXVD

2EGXUDF\

And he said more that I do not

remember, because my eyes had

been drawn to the high tower, with

the glowing crest, where, in an

instant, three hellish Furies, stained with blood, had risen, that had the

limbs and aspects of women,

covered with a tangle of green

hydras, their hideous foreheads

bound with little adders, and horned

vipers. And Virgil, who knew the

handmaids of the queen of eternal

sadness well, said to me: ‘See, the

fierce Erinyes.’

That is Megaera on the left: the one that weeps, on the right, is

Alecto: Tisiphone is in the middle.’:

then he was silent. Each one was

tearing at her breast with her claws,

beating with her hands, and crying

out so loudly, that I pressed close to

the poet, out of fear. ‘Let Medusa

come,’ they all said, looking down

on us, ‘so that we can turn him to

stone: we did not fully revenge

Theseus’s attack.’

‘Turn your back.’ said the

Master, and he himself turned me

round. ‘Keep your eyes closed,

since there will be no return

upwards, if she were to show

herself, and you were to see her.’

Not leaving it to me, he covered

them, also, with his own hands.

O you, who have clear minds,

take note of the meaning that

conceals itself under the veil of clouded verse!

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,; 7KH

0HVVHQJHUIURP+HDYHQ

Now, over the turbid waves,

there came a fearful crash of sound,

at which both shores trembled; a

sound like a strong wind, born of

conflicting heat, that strikes the

forest, remorselessly, breaks the

branches, and beats them down, and

carries them away, advances

proudly in a cloud of dust, and

makes wild creatures, and

shepherds, run for safety. Virgil

uncovered my eyes, and said: ‘Now

direct your vision to that ancient

marsh, there, where the mists are

thickest.’ Like frogs, that all scatter

through the water, in front of their

enemy the snake, until each one

squats on the bottom, so I saw more

than a thousand damaged spirits

scatter, in front of one who passed

the Stygian ferry with dry feet. He

waved that putrid air from his face,

often waving his left hand before it,

and only that annoyance seemed to

weary him. I well knew he was a

messenger from Heaven, and I

turned to the Master, who made a

gesture that I should stay quiet, and

bow to him.

How full of indignation he

seemed to me! He reached the gate,

and opened it with a wand: there

was no resistance. On the vile

threshold he began to speak: ‘O,

outcasts from Heaven, why does

this insolence still live in you? Why

are you recalcitrant to that will,

whose aims can never be frustrated,

and that has often increased your torment? What use is it to butt your

heads against the Fates? If you

remember, your Cerberus, still shows a throat and chin scarred

from doing so.’

Then he returned, over the miry

pool, and spoke no word to us, but

looked like one preoccupied and

driven by other cares, than of those

who stand before him. And we

stirred our feet towards the city, in

safety, after his sacred speech.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ,; 7KH

6L[WK&LUFOH'LV7KH+HUHWLFV

We entered Dis without a

conflict, and I gazed around, as soon

as I as was inside, eager to know

what punishment the place enclosed,

and saw on all sides a vast plain full of pain and vile torment.

As at Arles, where the Rhone

stagnates, or Pola, near the Gulf of

Quarnaro, that confines Italy, and bathes its coast, the sepulchres make

the ground uneven, so they did here,

all around, only here the nature of it

was more terrible.

Flames were scattered amongst the

tombs, by which they were made so

red-hot all over, that no smith’s art

needs hotter metal. Their lids were

all lifted, and such fierce groans

came from them, that, indeed, they

seemed to be those of the sad and

wounded.

And I said: ‘Master, who are

these people, entombed in those

vaults, who make themselves known

by tormented sighing?’ And he to

me: ‘Here are the arch-heretics, with

their followers, of every sect: and the tombs contain many more than

you might think. Here like is buried

with like, and the monuments differ

in degrees of heat.’ Then after

turning to the right, we passed

between the tormented, and the

steep ramparts.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ; (SLFXUXV

DQGKLVIROORZHUV

Now my Master goes, and I,

behind him, by a secret path

between the city walls and the

torments. I began: ‘O, summit of

virtue, who leads me round through

the circles of sin, as you please,

speak to me, and satisfy my longing.

Can those people, who lie in the

sepulchres, be seen? The lids are all

raised, and no one keeps guard.’

And he to me: ‘They will all be

shut, when they return here, from

Jehoshaphat, with the bodies they

left above. In this place Epicurus

and all his followers are entombed,

who say the soul dies with body.

Therefore, you will soon be

satisfied, with an answer to the

question that you ask me, and also

the longing that you hide from me,

here, inside.’ And I: ‘Kind guide, I

do not keep my heart hidden from

you, except by speaking too briefly,

something to which you have

previously inclined me.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ; )DULQDWD

GHJOL8EHUWL

‘O Tuscan, who goes alive

through the city of fire, speaking so

politely, may it please you to rest in

this place. Your speech shows

clearly you are a native of that noble

city that I perhaps troubled too

much.’ This sound came suddenly

from one of the vaults, at which, in

fear, I drew a little closer to my

guide. And he said to me: ‘Turn

round: what are you doing: look at

Farinata, who has raised himself: you can see him all from the waist

up.’

I had already fixed my gaze on

him, and he rose erect in stance and

aspect, as if he held the Inferno in

great disdain. The spirited and eager

hands of my guide pushed me

through the sepulchres towards him,

saying: ‘Make sure your words are

measured.’ When I was at the base

of the tomb, Farinata looked at me

for a while, and then almost

contemptuously, he demanded of

me: ‘Who were your ancestors?’

I, desiring to obey, concealed

nothing, but revealed the whole to

him, at which he raised his brows a

little. Then he said: ‘They were

fiercely opposed to me, and my

ancestors and my party, so that I

scattered them twice.’ I replied:

‘Though they were driven out, they

returned from wherever they were,

the first and the second time, but

your party have not yet learnt that

skill.’

,QIHUQR

&DQWR

;

&DYDOFDQWH&DYDOFDQWL

Then, a shadow rose behind him,

from the unclosed space, visible

down to the tip of its chin: I think it

had raised itself on to its knees. It

gazed around me, as if it wished to see whether anyone was with me,

but when all its hopes were

quenched, it said, weeping: ‘If by

power of intellect, you go through

this blind prison, where is my son,

and why is he not with you?’ And I

to him: ‘I do not come through my

own initiative: he that waits there,

whom your Guido disdained

perhaps, leads me through this

place’

His words and the nature of his

punishment had spelt his name to

me, so that my answer was a full

one. Suddenly raising himself erect,

he cried: ‘What did you say?

'LVGDLQHG? Is he not still alive?

Does the sweet light not strike his

eyes?’ When he saw that I delayed

in answering, he dropped supine

again, and showed himself no more.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ; )DULQDWD

SURSKHVLHV'DQWH¶VORQJH[LOH

But the other one, at whose wish

I had first stopped, generously did

not alter his aspect or move his

neck, or turn his side. Continuing

his previous words, he said: ‘And if

my party have learnt that art of

return badly, it tortures me more

than this bed, but the face of the

moon-goddess Persephone, who rules here, will not be crescent fifty

times, before you learn the difficulty of that art. And, as you wish to

return to the sweet world, tell me

why that people is so fierce towards

my kin, in all its lawmaking?’ At

which I answered him: ‘The great

slaughter and havoc, that dyed the

Arbia red, is the cause of those

100

indictments against them, in our churches.’

Then he shook his head, sighing,

and said: ‘I was not alone in that

matter, nor would I have joined with

the others without good cause, but I

was alone, there, when all agreed to

raze Florence to the ground, and I

openly defended her.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ; 7KH

SURSKHWLFYLVLRQRIWKHGDPQHG

‘Ah, as I hope your descendants

might sometime have peace,’ I

begged him, ‘solve the puzzle that

has entangled my mind. It seems, if

I hear right, that you see beforehand

what time brings, but have a

different knowledge of the present.’

‘Like one who has imperfect

vision,’ he said, ‘we see things that

101

are distant from us: so much of the light the supreme Lord still allows

us. But when they approach, or

come to be, our intelligence is

wholly void, and we know nothing

of your human state, except what

others tell us. So you may

understand that all our knowledge of

the future will end, from the

moment when the Day of

Judgement closes the gate of

futurity.’

Then, as if conscious of guilt, I

said: ‘Will you therefore, tell that

fallen one, now, that his son is still

joined to the living. And if I was

silent before in reply, let him know

it was because my thoughts were

already entangled in that error you

have resolved for me.’

And now my Master was

recalling me, at which I begged the

102

spirit, with more haste, to tell me who was with him. He said to me: ‘I

lie here with more than a thousand:

here inside is Frederick the Second, and the Cardinal, Ubaldini, and of the rest I am silent.’ At that he hid

himself, and I turned my steps

towards the poet of antiquity,

reflecting on the words that boded

trouble for me.

Virgil moved on, and then, as we

were leaving, said to me: ‘Why are

you so bewildered?’ And I satisfied

his question. The sage exhorted me:

‘Let your mind retain what you have

heard of your fate, and note this,’

and he raised his finger, ‘When you

stand before the sweet rays of

that lady, whose bright eyes see everything, you will learn the

journey of your life through her.’

103

Then he turned his feet towards the left: we abandoned the wall, and

went towards the middle, by a path

that makes its way into a valley,

that, even up there, forced us to

breathe its foulness.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;, 7KH

VWUXFWXUH RI +HOO 7KH /RZHU

&LUFOHV

On the edge of a high bank,

made of great broken rocks in a

circle, we came above a still more

cruel crowd, and here, because of

the repulsive, excessive stench that

the deep abyss throws out, we

approached it in the shelter of a

grand monument, on which I saw an

inscription that said: ‘I hold

Anastasius, that Photinus drew away from the true path.’

104

The Master said: ‘We must delay our descent until our sense is

somewhat used to the foul wind, and

then we will not notice it.’ I said to

him: ‘Find us something to

compensate, so that the time is not

wasted.’ And he: ‘See, I have

thought of it.’ He began: ‘My son,

within these walls of stone, are three

graduated circles like those you are

leaving. They are all filled with

accursed spirits: but so that the sight

of them may be enough to inform

you, in future, listen how and why

they are constrained.

The outcome of all

maliciousness, that Heaven hates, is

harm: and every such outcome,

hurts others, either by force or

deceit. But because deceit is a vice

peculiar to human beings, it

displeases God more, and therefore

105

the fraudulent are placed below, and more pain grieves them. The whole

of the seventh circle is for the

violent, but, since violence can be

done to three persons, it is

constructed and divided in three

rings. I say violence may be done to

God, or to oneself, or one’s

neighbour, and their person or

possessions, as you will hear, in

clear discourse.

Death or painful wounds may be

inflicted on one’s neighbour; and

devastation, fire, and pillage, on his

substance. Therefore the first ring

torments all homicides; every one

who lashes out maliciously; and

thieves and robbers; in their diverse

groups.

A man may do violence to

himself and to his property, and so,

in the second ring, all must repent,

106

in vain, who deprive themselves of your world; or gamble away and

dissipate their wealth; or weep

there, when they should be happy.

Violence may be done, against

the Deity, denying him and

blaspheming in the heart, and

scorning Nature and her gifts, and

so the smallest ring stamps with its

seal both Sodom and Cahors, and those who speak scornfully of God,

in their hearts.

Human beings may practise

deceit, which gnaws at every

conscience, on one who trusts them,

or on one who places no trust. This

latter form of fraud only severs the

bond of love that Nature created,

and so, in the eighth circle, are

nested hypocrisy; sorcery; flattery;

cheating; theft and selling of holy

107

orders; pimps; corrupters of public office; and similar filth.

In the previous form, that love

that Nature creates is forgotten, and

also that which is added later, giving

rise to special trust. So, in the ninth,

the smallest circle, at the base of the

universe, where Dis has his throne, every traitor is consumed eternally.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;, 7KH

VWUXFWXUH RI +HOO 7KH 8SSHU

&LUFOHV

And I said: ‘Master, your

reasoning proceeds most clearly,

and lays out excellently this gulf,

and those that populate it, but tell

me why those of the great marsh,

those whom the wind drives, and the

rain beats, and those who come

together with sharp words, are not

108

punished in the burning city, if God’s anger is directed towards

them? And if not why they are in

such a state?’ And he to me: ‘Why

does your mind err so much more

than usual, or are your thoughts

somewhere else?

Do you not remember the words

with which your Aristotelian Ethics speaks of the three natures that

Heaven does not will: incontinence,

malice and mad brutishness, and

how incontinence offends God less

and incurs less blame? If you

consider this doctrine correctly, and

recall to mind who those are, that

suffer punishment out there, above,

you will see, easily, why they are

separated from these destructive

spirits, and why divine justice

strikes them with less anger.’

109

I said: ‘O Sun, that heals all

troubled sight, you make me so

content when you explain to me,

that to question is as delightful as to

know.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;, 9LUJLO

H[SODLQVXVXU\

‘Go back a moment, to where

you said that usury offends divine

goodness, and unravel that knot.’ He

said to me: ‘To him who attends,

Philosophy shows, in more than one

place, how Nature takes her path

from the Divine Intelligence, and its

arts, and if you note your Physics

well, you will find, not many pages

in, that art, follows her, as well as it

can, as the pupil does the master, so

that your art is as it were the

grandchild of God. By these two, art

110

and nature, man must earn his bread and flourish, if you recall to mind

Genesis, near its beginning.

Because the usurer holds to

another course, he denies Nature, in

herself, and in that which follows

her ways, putting his hopes

elsewhere.

But follow me, now, by the path

I choose, for Pisces

quivers on the horizon, and all Bootës covers Caurus, the northwest wind, and over there, some

way, we descend the cliff.’

,QIHUQR&DQWR;,,$ERYHWKH

6HYHQWK&LUFOH7KH0LQRWDXU

The place we reached to climb

down the bank was craggy, and,

because of the creature there, also, a

path that every eye would shun. The

111

descent of that rocky precipice was like the landslide that struck the left

bank of the Adige, this side of

Trento, caused by an earthquake or

a faulty buttress, since the rock is so

shattered, from the summit of the

mountain, where it started, to the

plain, that it might form a route, for

someone above: and at the top of the

broken gully, the infamy of Crete,

the

Minotaur, conceived on

Pasiphaë, in the wooden cow, lay stretched out.

When he saw us he gnawed

himself, like someone consumed by

anger inside. My wise guide called

to him: ‘Perhaps you think that

Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is here, who brought about your death,

in the world above? Leave here,

monstrous creature. This man does

not come here, aided by your sister,

112

113

Ariadne, but passes through to see the punishments.’

Like a bull, breaking loose, at the

moment when it receives the fatal

blow, that cannot go forward, but

plunges here and there, so I saw the

Minotaur, and my cautious guide

cried: ‘Run to the passage: while he

is in a fury, it is time for you to

descend.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,, 7KH

GHVFHQWWRWKH6HYHQWK&LUFOH

So we made our way,

downwards, over the landslide of

stones, that often shifted beneath my

feet, from the unaccustomed weight.

I went thoughtfully, and he said:

‘Perhaps you are contemplating this

fallen mass of rock, guarded by the

bestial anger that I quelled a

114

moment ago. I would have you

know that the previous time I came

down here to the deep Inferno, this

spill had not yet fallen. But, if I

discern the truth, the deep and

loathsome valley, shook, not long

before He came to take the great ones of the highest circle, so that I

thought the universe thrilled with

love, by which as some believe, the world has often been overwhelmed

by chaos. In that moment ancient

rocks, here and elsewhere, tumbled.

But fix your gaze on the valley,

because we near the river of blood,

in which those who injure others by

violence are boiled.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,, 7KH

)LUVW 5LQJ 7KH &HQWDXUV 7KH

9LROHQW

115

O blind desires, evil and foolish, which so goad us in our brief life,

and then, in the eternal one, ruin us

so bitterly! I saw a wide canal bent

in an arc, looking as if it surrounded

the whole plain, from what my

guide had told me. Centaurs were racing, one behind another, between

it and the foot of the bank, armed

with weapons, as they were

accustomed to hunt on earth.

Seeing us descend they all stood

still, and three, elected leaders,

came from the group, armed with

bows and spears. And one of them

shouted from the distance: ‘What

torment do you come for, you that

descend the rampart? Speak from

there, if not, I draw the bow.’ My

Master said: ‘We will make our

reply to Chiron, who is there, nearby. Sadly, your nature was

116

always rash.’ Then he touched me, and said: ‘That is Nessus, who died because of his theft of the lovely

Deianira, and, for his blood, took vengeance, through his blood.

He, in the centre, whose head is

bowed to his chest, is the great

Chiron, who nursed Achilles: the other is Pholus, who was so full of rage. They race around the ditch, in

thousands, piercing with arrows any

spirit that climbs further from the

blood than its guilt has condemned

it to. We drew near the swift

creatures. Chiron took an arrow, and

pushed back his beard from his face

with the notched flight. When he

had uncovered his huge mouth, he

said to his companions: ‘Have you

noticed that the one behind moves

whatever he touches? The feet of

dead men do not usually do so.’

117

And my good guide, who was by

Chiron’s front part, where the two

natures join, replied: ‘He is truly

alive, and, alone, I have to show

him the dark valley. Necessity

brings him here, and not desire. She,

who gave me this new duty, came

from singing Alleluiahs: he is no

thief: nor am I a wicked spirit. But,

by that virtue, by means of which I

set my feet on so unsafe a path, lend

us one of your people whom we can

follow, so that he may show us

where the ford is, and carry this one

over on his back, since he cannot fly

as a spirit through the air.’

Chiron twisted to his right, and

said to Nessus: ‘Turn, and guide

them, then, and if another crew meet

you, keep them off.’

118

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,, 7KH

7\UDQWV0XUGHUHUVDQG:DUULRUV

We moved onwards with our

trustworthy guide, along the margin

of the crimson boiling, in which the

boiled were shrieking loudly. I saw

people immersed as far as the

eyebrows, and the great Centaur

said: ‘These are tyrants who

indulged in blood, and rapine. Here

they lament their offences, done

without mercy. Here is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius of Syracuse, who gave Sicily years of pain. That

head of black hair is Azzolino, and the other, which is blonde, is

Obizzo da Este, whose life was quenched, in truth, by his stepson,

up in the world.’ Then I turned to

the poet, and he said: ‘Let him guide

you first, now, and I second.’

119

A little further on, Nessus

paused, next to people who seemed

to be sunk in the boiling stream up

to their throat. He showed us a

shade, apart by itself, saying: ‘That

one, Guy de Montfort, in God’s church, pierced that heart that is still

venerated by the Thames.’

Then I saw others, who held their

heads and all their chests, likewise,

free of the river: and I knew many

of these. So the blood grew

shallower and shallower, until it

only cooked their feet, and here was

our ford through the ditch.

The Centaur said: ‘As you see

the boiling stream continually

diminishing, on this side, so, on the

other, it sinks more and more, till it

comes again to where tyrants are

doomed to grieve. Divine Justice

here torments Attila, the scourge of 120

the earth; and Pyrrhus, and

Sextus Pompeius; and for eternity milks tears, produced by the boiling,

from Rinier da Corneto, and Rinier

Pazzo, who made war on the

highways.’ Then he turned back,

and recrossed the ford.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,,, 7KH

6HFRQG 5LQJ 7KH +DUSLHV 7KH

6XLFLGHV

Nessus had not yet returned to

the other side, when we entered a

wood, unmarked by any path. The

foliage was not green, but a dusky

colour: the branches were not

smooth, but warped and knotted:

there were no fruits there, but

poisonous thorns. The wild beasts,

that hate the cultivated fields, in the

Tuscan Maremma, between Cecina

121

and Corneto, have lairs less thick and tangled. Here the brutish

Harpies make their nests, they who chased the Trojans from the

Strophades, with dismal

pronouncements of future

tribulations.

They have broad wings, and

human necks and faces, clawed feet,

and large feathered bellies, and they

make mournful cries in that strange

wood. The kind Master said:

‘Before you go further, be aware

you are in the second ring, and will

be until you come to the dreadful

sands. So look carefully, and you

will see things that might make you

mistrust my words.’

Already I heard sighs on every

side, and saw no one to make them,

at which, I stood totally bewildered.

I think that he thought that I was

122

123

thinking that many of those voices came from among the trees, from

people who hid themselves because

of us. So the Master said: ‘If you

break a little twig from one of these

branches, the thoughts you have will

be seen to be in error.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,,, 7KH

:RRGRI6XLFLGHV3LHUGHOOH9LJQH

Then I stretched my hand out a

little, and broke a small branch from

a large thorn, and its trunk cried out:

‘Why do you tear at me?’ And when

it had grown dark with blood, it

began to cry out again: ‘Why do you

splinter me? Have you no breath of

pity? We were men, and we are

changed to trees: truly, your hand

would be more merciful, if we were

merely the souls of snakes.’

124

Just as a green branch, burning at one end, spits and hisses with

escaping air at the other, so from

that broken wood, blood and words

came out together: at which I let the

branch fall, and stood, like a man

afraid. My wise sage replied:

‘Wounded spirit, if he had only

believed, before, what he had read

in my verse, he would not have lifted his hand to you, but the

incredible nature of the thing made

me urge him to do what grieves me.

But tell him who you were, so that

he might make you some amends,

and renew your fame up in the

world, to which he is allowed to

return.

And the tree replied: ‘You tempt

me so, with your sweet words, that I

cannot keep silent, but do not object

if I am expansive in speech. I am

125

Pier delle Vigne, who held both the keys to Frederick’s heart, and employed them, locking and

unlocking, so quietly, that I kept

almost everyone else from his

secrets. I was so faithful to that

glorious office that through it I lost

my sleep and my life.

The whore that never turned her

eyes from Caesar’s household,

Envy, the common disease and vice

of courts, stirred all minds against

me, and being stirred they stirred

Augustus, so that my fine honours

were changed to grievous sorrows.

My spirit, in a scornful mode,

thinking to escape scorn by death,

made me, though I was just, unjust

to myself. By the strange roots of

this tree, I swear to you, I never

broke faith with my lord, so worthy

of honour. If either of you return to

126

the world, raise and cherish the memory of me, that still lies low

from the blow Envy gave me.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,,, 7KH

IDWHRI7KH6XLFLGHV

The poet listened for a while,

then said to me: ‘Since he is silent,

do not lose the moment, but speak,

and ask him to tell you more.’ At

which I said to him: ‘You ask him

further, about what you think will

interest me, because I could not,

such pity fills my heart.’ So he

continued: ‘That the man may do

freely what your words request from

him, imprisoned spirit, be pleased to

tell us further how the spirits are

caught in these knots: and tell us, if

you can, whether any of them free

themselves from these limbs.’

127

Then the trunk blew fiercely, and the breath was turned to words like

these: ‘My reply will be brief. When

the savage spirit leaves the body,

from which it has ripped itself,

Minos sends it to the seventh gulf. It falls into this wood, and no place is

set for it, but, wherever chance hurls

it, there it sprouts, like a grain of

German wheat, shoots up as a

sapling, and then as a wild tree. The

Harpies feeding then on its leaves hurt it, and give an outlet to its hurt.

Like others we shall go to our

corpses on the Day of Judgement,

but not so that any of us may inhabit

them again, because it would not be

just to have what we took from

ourselves. We shall drag them here,

and our bodies will be hung through

the dismal wood, each on the thorn-

tree of its tormented shade.

128

,QIHUQR&DQWR;,,,/DQR

0DFRQL DQG -DFRPR GD 6DQW¶

$QGUHD

We were still listening to the

tree, thinking it might tell us more,

when we were startled by a noise,

like those who think the wild boar is

nearing where they stand, and hear

the animals and the crashing of

branches. Behold, on the left, two

naked, torn spirits, running so hard

they broke every thicket of the

wood. The leader, cried: ‘Come

Death, come now!’ and the other,

Jacomo, who felt himself to be too slow cried: ‘Lano, your legs were not so swift at the jousts of Toppo.’

And since perhaps his breath was

failing him, he merged himself with

a bush.

129

The wood behind them was filled with black bitch hounds, eager and

quick as greyhounds that have

slipped the leash. They clamped

their teeth into Lano, who squatted,

and tore him bit by bit, then carried

off his miserable limbs.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,,, 7KH

XQQDPHG)ORUHQWLQH

My guide now took me by the

hand, and led me to the bush, which

was grieving, in vain, through its

bleeding splinters, crying: ‘O

Jacomo da Sant’ Andrea, what have

you gained by making me your

screen? What blame do I have for

your sinful life? When the Master

had stopped next to it, he said:

‘Who were you, that breathe out

130

your mournful speech, with blood, through so many wounds?

And he to us: ‘You spirits, who

have come to view the

dishonourable mangling that has

torn my leaves from me, gather

them round the foot of this sad tree.

I was of Florence, that city, which

changed Mars, its patron, for

St John the Baptist, because of which that god, through his powers,

will always make it sorrowful. Were

it not that some fragments of his

statue remain where Ponte Vecchio

crosses the Arno, those citizens,

who rebuilt it on the ashes Attila

left, would have worked in vain.

I made a gibbet for myself, from my own roofbeam.’

131

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,9 7KH

7KLUG 5LQJ 7KH 9LROHQW DJDLQVW

*RG

As the love of my native place

stirred in me, I gathered up the

scattered leaves, and gave them

back to him who was already

hoarse. Then we came to the edge,

where the second round is divided

from the third, where a fearsome

form of justice is seen. To make

these new things clear, I say we

reached a plain, where the land

repels all vegetation. The mournful

wood makes a circle round it, as the

ditch surrounds the wood: here we

stepped close to its very rim.

The ground was dry, thick sand,

no different in form than that which

Cato once trod. O God’s vengeance, how what was shown to my sight

132

133

should be feared, by all who read! I saw many groups of naked spirits,

who were all moaning bitterly: and

there seemed to be diverse rules

applied to them. Some were lying

face upward on the ground; some

sat all crouched: and others roamed

around continuously.

Those who moved were more

numerous, and those that lay in

torment fewer, but uttering louder

cries of pain. Dilated flakes of fire,

falling slowly, like snow in the

windless mountains, rained down

over all the vast sands. Like the

flames that Alexander saw falling, in the hot zones of India, over all his

army, until they reached the ground,

fires that were more easily quenched

while they were separate, so that his

troops took care to trample the earth

- like those, fell this eternal heat,

134

kindling the sand like tinder beneath flint and steel, doubling the pain.

The dance of their tortured hands

was never still, now here, now there,

shaking off the fresh burning.

,QIHUQR

&DQWR

;,9

&DSDQHXV

I began: ‘Master, you who

overcome everything except the

obdurate demons, that came out

against us at the entrance to the

gate, who is that great spirit, who

seems indifferent to the fire, and lies

there, scornful, contorted, so that the

rain does not seem to deepen his

repentance?’ And he himself, noting

that I asked my guide about him,

cried: ‘What I was when I was

living, I am now I am dead. Though

Jupiter

exhausts

Vulcan, his

135

blacksmith, from whom he took, in anger, the fierce lightning bolt, that

I was struck down with on my last

day, and though he exhausts the

others, the Cyclopes, one by one, at the black forge of Aetna, shouting:

‘Help, help, good Vulcan’, just as he

did at the battle of Phlegra, between

the gods and giants, and hurls his

bolts at me with all his strength, he

shall still not enjoy a true revenge.’

Then my guide spoke, with a

force I had not heard before: ‘O

Capaneus, you are punished more in that your pride is not quenched: no

torment would produce pain fitting

for your fury, except your own

raving.’ Then he turned to me with

gentler voice, saying: ‘That was one

of the seven kings who laid siege to

Thebes: and he held God, and seems

to hold him, in disdain, and value

136

him lightly, but as I told him, his spite is an ornament that fits his

breast.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,9 7KH

2OG0DQRI&UHWH

‘Now follow me, and be careful

not to place your feet yet on the

burning sand, but always keep back

close to the wood.’ We came, in

silence, to the place, where a little

stream gushes from the wood, the

redness of which still makes me

shudder. Like the rivulet that runs

sulphur-red from the Bulicame

spring, near Viterbo, that the sinful

women share among themselves, so

this ran down over the sand. Its bed

and both its sloping banks were

petrified, and its nearby margins: so

that I realised our way lay there.

137

‘Among all the other things that I have shown you, since we entered

though the gate, whose threshold is

denied to no one, your eyes have

seen nothing as noteworthy as this

present stream, that quenches all the

flames over it.’ These were my

guide’s words, at which I begged

him to grant me food, for which he

had given me the appetite.

He then said: ‘There is a deserted

island in the middle of the sea,

named Crete, under whose king

Saturn, the world was pure. There is a mountain, there, called Ida, which

was once gladdened with waters and

vegetation, and now is abandoned

like an ancient spoil heap. Rhea

chose it, once, as the trusted cradle

of her son, and the better to hide

him when he wept, caused loud

shouts to echo from it.

138

Inside the mountain, a great

Old Man, stands erect, with his shoulders turned towards Egyptian

Damietta, and looks at Rome as if it

were his mirror. His head is formed

of pure gold, his arms and his

breasts are refined silver: then he is

bronze as far as the thighs.

Downwards from there he is all of

choice iron, except that the right

foot is baked clay, and more of his

weight is on that one than the other.

Every part, except the gold, is cleft

with a fissure that sheds tears, which

collect and pierce the grotto. Their

course falls from rock to rock into

this valley. They form Acheron,

Styx and Phlegethon, then, by this

narrow channel, go down to where

there is no further fall, and form

Cocytus: you will see what kind of

139

lake that is: so I will not describe it to you here.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,9 7KH

5LYHUV3KOHJHWKRQDQG/HWKH

I said to him: ‘If the present

stream flows down like that from

our world, why does it only appear

to us on this bank? And he to me:

‘You know the place is circular, and

though you have come far, always

to the left, descending to the depths,

you have not yet turned through a

complete round, so that if anything

new appears to us, it should not

bring an expression of wonder to

your face.’

And I again: ‘Master, where are

Phlegethon, and Lethe found, since

you do not speak of the latter, and

say that the former is formed from

140

these tears?’ He replied: ‘You

please me, truly, with all your

questions, but the boiling red water

might well answer to one of those

you ask about. You will see Lethe,

but above this abyss, there, on the

Mount, where the spirits go to

purify themselves, when their guilt

is absolved by penitence.’

Then he said: ‘Now it is time to

leave the wood: see that you follow

me: the margins which are not

burning form a path, and over them

all the fire is quenched.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9 7KH

9LROHQW DJDLQVW 1DWXUH %UXQHWWR

/DWLQL

Now one of the solid banks takes

us on, and the smoke from the

stream makes a shadow above, so

141

that it shelters the water and its margins. Just as the Flemings

between Bruges and Wissant make

their dykes to hold back the sea,

fearing the flood that beats against

them; and as the Paduans do, along

the Brenta, to defend their towns

and castles, before Carinthia’s

mountains feel the thaw; so those

banks were similarly formed,

though their creator, whoever it

might be, made them neither as high

or as deep.

Already we were so far from the

wood, that I was unable to see

where it was, unless I turned back,

when we met a group of spirits,

coming along the bank, and each of

them looked at us, as, at twilight,

men look at one another, under a

crescent moon, and peered towards

us, as an old tailor does at the eye of

142

his needle. Eyed so by that tribe, I was recognised, by one who took

me by the skirt of my robe, and said:

‘How wonderful!’

And I fixed my eyes on his

baked visage, so that the scorching

of his aspect did not prevent my

mind from knowing him, and

bending my face to his I replied:

‘Are you here Ser Brunetto?’ And

he: ‘O my son, do not be displeased

if Brunetto Latini turns back with you a while, and lets the crowd pass

by.’ I said: ‘I ask it, with all my

strength, and, if you want me to sit

with you, I will, if it pleases him

there, whom I go with.’

He said: ‘O my son, whoever of

the flock stops for a moment, must

lie there for a hundred years after,

without cooling himself when the

fire beats on him. So go on, I will

143

144

follow at your heels, and then I will rejoin my crew again, who go

mourning their eternal loss.’

,QIHUQR

&DQWR

%UXQHWWR¶VSURSKHF\

I did not dare leave the road to be

level with him, but kept my head

bowed like one who walks

reverently. He began: ‘What fate, or

chance, bring you down here, before

your final hour? Who is this who

shows you the way?’ I replied: ‘I

lost myself, in the clear life up

above, in a valley, before my years

were complete. Only yesterday

morning I turned my back on it: he

appeared to me as I was returning to

it, and guides me back again, but by

this path.’

145

And he to me: ‘If you follow

your star, you cannot fail to reach a

glorious harbour: if I judged clearly

in the sweet life. If I had not died

before you, I would have supported

you in your work, seeing that

Heaven is so kind to you. But

that ungrateful, malignant people,

who came down from Fiesole to

Florence, in ancient times, and still

have something of the mountain and

the rock, will be inimical to you for

the good you do, and with reason,

since it is not fitting for the sweet

fig tree to fruit, among the sour

crab-apples.

Past report on earth declares

them blind, an envious, proud and

avaricious people: make sure you

purge yourself of their faults. Your

fate prophesies such honour for you,

that both parties will hunger for you,

146

but the goat will be far from the grass. Let the herd from Fiesole

make manure of themselves, but not

touch the plant in which the sacred

seed of those Romans revives, who

stayed, when that nest of malice was

created, if any plant still springs

from their ordure.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9 'DQWH

DFFHSWVKLVIDWH

I answered him: ‘If my wishes

had been completely fulfilled, you

would not have been separated, yet,

from human nature, since, in my

memory, the dear, and kind,

paternal image of you is fixed, and

now goes to my heart, how, when in

the world, hour by hour, you taught

me the way man makes himself

eternal; and it is fitting my tongue

147

should show what gratitude I hold, while I live. What you tell me of my

fate, I write, and retain it with a

former text, for a lady, who will

know, how to comment on it, if I

reach her.

I would make this much known

to you: I am ready for whatever

Fortune wills, as long as conscience

does not hurt me. Such prophecies

are not new to my ears: so let

Fortune turn her wheel as she

pleases, and the peasant wield his

mattock.’ At that, my Master,

looked back, on his right, and gazed

at me, then said: ‘He listens closely,

who notes it.’

,QIHUQR

&DQWR

%UXQHWWR QDPHV VRPH RI KLV

FRPSDQLRQV

148

I carry on speaking, no less, with Ser Brunetto, and ask who are the most famous and noblest of his

companions. And he to me: ‘It is

good to know of some: of the rest it

would be praiseworthy to keep

silent, as the time would be too little

for such a speech. In short, know

that all were clerks, and great

scholars, and very famous, tainted

with the same sin on earth.

Priscian goes with that miserable crowd, and Francesco d’Accorso:

and if you had any desire for such

scum, you might have seen

Andrea di Mozzi there, who by

Boniface, the Pope, VHUYXVVHUYRUXP

'HL, servant of servants, was

translated from the Arno to

Vicenza’s Bacchiglione, where he

departed from his ill-strained body.

149

I would say more, but my speech and my departure must not linger,

since there I see new smoke, rising

from the great sand. People come

that I cannot be with: let my 7UHVRUR

be commended to you, in which I

still live: more I ask not.’

Then he turned back, and seemed

like one who runs for the green

cloth, at Verona, through the open

fields: and seemed one of those who

wins, not one who loses.

,QIHUQR

&DQWR

;9,

5XVWLFXFFL

*XLGR

*XHUUD

$OGREUDQGL

I was already in a place where

the booming of the water, that fell,

into the next circle, sounded like a

beehive’s humming, when three

shades together, running, left a

150

crowd that passed under the sharp burning rain. They came towards us,

and each one cried: ‘Wait, you, who

seem to us, by your clothes, to be

someone from our perverse city.’

Ah me, what ancient, and recent,

wounds I saw on their limbs,

scorched there by the flames! It

saddens me now, when I remember

it. My teacher listened to their cries,

turned his face towards me, and

said: ‘Wait, now: courtesy is owed

them, and if there were not this fire,

that the place’s nature rains down, I

would say that you were more hasty

than them.’

As we rested, they started their

former laments again, and when

they reached us, all three of them

formed themselves into a circle.

Wheeling round, as champion

wrestlers, naked and oiled, do,

151

looking for a hold or an advantage, before they grasp and strike one

another, each directed his face at

me, so that his neck was turned, all

the time, in an opposite direction to

his feet.

And one of them began: ‘If the

misery of this sinful place, and our

scorched, stained look, renders us,

and our prayers, contemptible, let

our fame influence your mind to tell

us who you are, that move your

living feet, safely, through Hell. He,

in whose footsteps you see me tread,

all peeled and naked as he is, was

greater in degree than you would

think. His name is Guido Guerra,

grandson of the good lady

Gualdrada, and in his life he achieved much in council, and with

his sword.

152

The other, that treads the sand behind me, is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose words should have been

listened to in the world. And I, who

am placed with them in torment, am

Jacopo Rusticucci, and certainly my fierce wife injured me more than

anything else.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9, 7KH

FRQGLWLRQRI)ORUHQFH

If I had been sheltered from the

fire, I would have dropped down

among them below, and I believe

my teacher would have allowed it,

but as I would have been burned and

baked, myself, my fear overcame

the goodwill, that made me eager to

embrace them.

Then I began: ‘Your condition

stirred sadness, not contempt, in me,

153

so deeply, it will not soon be gone, when my guide spoke words to me

by which I understood such men as

yourselves might be approaching. I

am of your city, and I have always

heard, and rehearsed, your names

and your deeds, with affection. I

leave the gall behind, and go

towards the sweet fruits promised

me by my truthful guide, but first I

must go downwards to the centre.’

He replied, then: ‘That your soul

may long inhabit your body, and

your fame shine after you, tell us if

courtesy and courage, still live in

our city as they used to, or if they

have quite forsaken it? Gugliemo

Borsiere, who has been in pain with us, a little while, and goes along

there with our companions, torments

us greatly with what he says.

154

‘New men, and sudden wealth,

have created pride and excess in

you, Florence, so that you already

weep for it.’ So I cried with lifted

face, and the three, who took this for

an answer, gazed at one another, as

one gazes at the truth. They replied

together: ‘Happy are you, if, by

speaking according to your will, it

costs so little for you to satisfy

others! So, if you escape these

gloomy spaces, and turn, and see the

beauty of the stars again, when you

will be glad to say: “I ZDV”, see that

you tell people of us.’

Then they broke up their circle,

and, as they ran, their swift legs

seemed wings.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9, 7KH

PRQVWHU*HU\RQ

155

An $PHQ could not have been

said in so quick a time as their

vanishing took, at which my Master

was pleased to depart. I followed

him. We had gone only a little way,

when the sound of the water came

so near us, that if we had been

speaking we would hardly have

heard each other.

Like that river (the first that takes

its own course to the eastern

seaboard, south of Monte Veso,

where the Po rises, on the left flank

of the Apennines, and is called

Acquacheta above, before it falls to

its lower bed, and loses its name, to

become the Montone, at Forlì)

which, plunging through a fall,

echoes from the mountain, above

San Benedetto, where there should

be refuge for a thousand, so, down

from a steep bank, we found that

156

tainted water re-echoing, so much so that, in a short while, it would

have dazed our hearing.

I had a cord tied round me, and

with it I had once thought to catch

the leopard with the spotted skin.

After I had completely unwound it

from myself, as my guide

commanded, I held it out to him,

gathered up and coiled. Then he

turned towards the right, and threw

the end of it, away from the edge a

little, down into the steep gulf. I said

to myself: ‘Surely something

strange will follow this new sign of

our intentions, that my master tracks

with his eyes, as it falls.’

Ah, how careful men should be

with those who do not only see our

actions but, with their

understanding, see into our

thoughts! He said to me: ‘That

157

which I expect will soon ascend, and, what your thoughts speculate

about, will soon be apparent to your

sight.’

A man should always shut his

lips, as far as he can, to truth that

seems like falsehood, since he

incurs reproach, though he is

blameless, but I cannot be silent

here: and Reader, I swear to you, by

the words of this &RPPHGLD, that

they may not be free of lasting

favour, that I saw a shape, marvellous, to every unshaken

heart, come swimming upwards

through the dense, dark air, as a man

rises, who has gone down,

sometime, to loose an anchor,

caught on a rock or something else,

hidden in the water, who spreads his

arms out, and draws up his feet.

158

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9,, 7KH

SRHWVDSSURDFK*HU\RQ

‘See the savage beast, with the

pointed tail, that crosses mountains,

and pierces walls and armour: see

him, who pollutes the whole world.’

So my guide began to speak to me,

and beckoned to him to land near

the end of our rocky path, and that

vile image of Fraud came on, and

grounded his head and chest, but did

not lift his tail onto the cliff.

His face was the face of an

honest man, it had so benign and

outward aspect: all the rest was a

serpent’s body. Both arms were

covered with hair to the armpits; the

back and chest and both flanks were

adorned with knots and circles.

Tartars or Turks never made cloths

with more colour, background and

159

embroidery: nor did Arachne spread such webs on her loom. As the boats

rest on the shore, part in water and

part on land, and as the beaver,

among the guzzling Germans,

readies himself for a fight, so that

worst of savage creatures lay on the

cliff that surrounds the great sand

with stone.

The whole of his tail glanced into

space, twisting the venomous fork

upwards, that armed the tip, like a

scorpion. My guide said: ‘Now we

must direct our path, somewhat,

towards the malevolent beast that

rests there.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9,, 7KH

8VXUHUV

Then we went down, on the

right, and took ten steps towards the

160

edge, so that we could fully avoid the sand and flame, and when we

reached him, I saw people sitting

near the empty space, a little further

away, on the ground.

Here my Master said: ‘Go and

see the state of them, so that you

may take away a complete

knowledge of this round. Talk

briefly with them: I will speak with

this creature, until you return, so

that he might carry us on his strong

shoulders.’ So, still on the extreme

edge of the seventh circle, I went,

all alone, to where the sad crew

were seated.

Their grief was gushing from

their eyes: they kept flicking away

the flames and sometimes the

burning dust, on this side, or on that,

with their hands, no differently than

dogs do in summer, now with their

161

muzzle, now with their paws, when they are bitten by fleas, or gnats, or

horse-flies. When I set my eyes on

the faces of several of them, on

whom the grievous fire falls, I did

not recognise any, but I saw that a

pouch hung from the neck of each,

that had a certain colour, and a

certain seal, and it seemed their eye

was feeding on it. And as I came

among them, looking, I saw, on a

golden-yellow purse, an azure seal

that had the look and attitude of a

lion.

Then my gaze continuing on its

track, I saw another, red as blood,

showing a goose whiter than butter.

And one who had his white purse

stamped with an azure, pregnant sow, said to me: ‘What are you doing in

this pit? Now go away, and since

you are still alive, know that my

162

neighbour, Vitaliano, will come to sit here on my left. I, a Paduan, am

with these Florentines. Many a time

they deafen my hearing, shouting:

‘Let the noble knight come, who

will carry the purse with

three eagles’ beaks!’

Then he distorted his mouth, and

thrust his tongue out, like an ox

licking its nose, and I, dreading lest

a longer stay might anger him, who

had warned me to make a brief stay,

turned back from those weary

spirits.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9,, 7KH

SRHWVGHVFHQGRQ*HU\RQ¶VEDFN

I found my guide, who had

already mounted the flank of the

savage creature, and he said to me:

‘Be firm and brave. Now we must

163

descend by means of these stairs: you climb in front: I wish to be in

the centre, so that the tail may not

harm you.’

Like a man whose fit of the

quartan fever is so near, that his

nails are already pallid, and he

shakes all over, by keeping in the

shade, so I became when these

words were said: but his reproof

roused shame in me, that makes the

servant brave in the presence of a

worthy master. I set myself on those

vast shoulders. I wished to say: ‘See

that you clasp me tight.’ but my

voice did not come out as I

intended. He, who helped me in

other difficulties, at other times,

embraced me, as soon as I mounted,

and held me upright. Then he said:

‘Now move, Geryon! Make large circles, and let your descent be

164

gentle: think of the strange burden that you carry.’

As a little boat goes backwards,

backwards, from its mooring, so the

monster left the cliff, and when he

felt himself quite free, he turned his

tail around, to where his chest had

been, and stretching, flicked it like

an eel, and gathered the air towards

him with his paws. I do not believe

the fear was greater when Phaëthon

let slip the reins, and the sky was

scorched, as it still appears to be; or

when poor Icarus felt the feathers melt from his arms, as the wax was

heated, and his father Daedalus

cried: ‘You are going the wrong

way!’ as mine was when I saw

myself surrounded by the air, on all

sides, and saw everything vanish,

except the savage beast.

165

166

He goes down, swimming

slowly, slowly: wheels and falls: but

I do not see it except by the wind,

on my face, and from below.

Already I heard the cataract, on the

right, make a terrible roaring

underneath us, at which I stretched

my neck out, with my gaze

downwards. Then I was more afraid

to dismount, because I saw fires,

and heard moaning, so that I

cowered, trembling all over. And

then I saw what I had not seen

before, our sinking and circling

through the great evils that drew

close on every side.

As the falcon, that has been long

on the wing, descends wearily,

without seeing bird or lure, making

the falconer cry: ‘Ah, you stoop!’

and settles far from his master

disdainful and sullen, so Geryon set

167

us down, at the base, close to the foot of the fractured rock, and

relieved of our weight, shot off, like

an arrow from the bow.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9,,, 7KH

(LJKWK &LUFOH 0DOHEROJH 6LPSOH

)UDXG

There is a place in Hell called

Malebolge, all of stone, and

coloured like iron, as is the cliff that

surrounds it. Right in the centre of

the malignant space, a well yawns,

very wide and deep, whose structure

I will speak of in due place.

The margin that remains,

between the base of the high rocky

bank and the well, is circular, and its

floor is divided into ten moats. Like

the form the ground reveals, where

successive ditches circle a castle, to

168

defend the walls, such was the

layout displayed here. And as there

are bridges to the outer banks from

the thresholds of the fortress, so,

from the base of the cliff, causeways

ran, crossing the successive banks

and ditches, down to the well that

terminates and links them.

We found ourselves there,

shaken from Geryon’s back, and the

Poet kept to the left, and I went on,

behind him.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9,,, 7KH

)LUVW &KDVP 7KH 3LPSV DQG

6HGXFHUV

On the right I saw new pain and

torment, and new tormentors, with

which the first chasm was filled. In

its depths the sinners were naked:

on our inner side of its central round

169

they came towards us, on the outer side, with us, but with larger steps.

So the people of Rome, in that year,

at the Jubilee, because of the great

crowds, initiated this means to pass

the people over the bridge: those on

the one side all had their faces

towards Castello Sant’ Angelo, and

went to St Peter’s: those on the

other towards Monte Giordano.

On this side and on that, along

the fearful rock, I saw horned

demons with large whips, who

struck them fiercely, from behind.

Ah, how it made them quicken their

steps at the first stroke! Truly none

waited for the second or third.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9,,, 7KH

3DQGHUV

9HQHGLFR

GH¶

&DFFLDQHPLFR

170

As I went on, my eyes

encountered one of them, and

instantly I said: This shade I have

seen before.’ So I stopped to

scrutinise him, and the kind guide

stood still with me, and allowed me

to return a little. And that scourged

spirit thought to hide himself,

lowering his face, but it did not

help, since I said: ‘You, who cast

your eyes on the ground, if the

features you display are not an

illusion, you are Venedico

Caccianimico: but what led you into such a biting pickle?’

And he to me: ‘I tell it

unwillingly, but your clear speech

that makes me remember the former

world, compels me. ‘It was I who

induced the fair Ghisola to do the Marquis of Este’s will, however unpleasant the story sounds. And I

171

am not the only Bolognese that

weeps here: this place is so filled

with us, that as many tongues are no

longer taught to say VLSD for Vu,

between the Savena’s stream that is

west, and the Reno’s, that is east of

Bologna. If you want assurance and

testimony of it, recall to mind our

avaricious hearts.’ And as he spoke,

a demon struck him with his whip,

and said: ‘Away, pander, there are

no women here to sell.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;9,,, 7KH

6HGXFHUV-DVRQ

I rejoined my guide: then in a

few steps we came to where a

causeway ran from the cliff. This we

climbed very easily, and, turning to

the right on its jagged ridge, we

moved away from that eternal

172

round. When we reached the arch where it yawns below to leave a

path for the scourged, my guide

said: ‘Wait, and let the aspect of

those other ill-born spirits strike

you, whose faces you have not yet

seen, since they have been going in

our direction.’

We viewed their company from

the ancient bridge, travelling

towards us on the other side, chased

likewise by the whip. Without my

asking, the kind Master said to me:

‘Look at that great soul who comes,

and seems not to shed tears of pain:

what a royal aspect he still retains!

That is Jason, who, by wisdom and courage, robbed the Colchians of

the Golden Fleece.

He sailed by the Isle of Lemnos,

after the bold merciless women

there had put all their males to

173

death. There with gifts and sweet words he deceived the young

Hypsipyle, who had saved her father by deceiving all the rest. He left her

there, pregnant and lonely: such

guilt condemns him to such torment:

and revenge is also taken for his

abandoning Medea. With him go all who practise like deceit, and let this

be enough for knowledge of the first

chasm, and those whom it

swallows.’

,QIHUQR&DQWR;9,,,7KH

6HFRQG&KDVP7KH)ODWWHUHUV

We had already come to where

the narrow causeway crosses the

second bank, and forms a buttress to

a second arch. Here we heard people

whining in the next chasm, and

blowing with their muzzles, and

174

striking themselves with their

palms.

The banks were crusted, with a

mould from the fumes below that

condenses on them, and attacks the

eyes and nose. The floor is so deep,

that we could not see any part of it,

except by climbing to the ridge of

the arch, where the rock is highest.

We came there, and from it, in the

ditch below, I saw people immersed

in excrement, that looked as if it

flowed from human privies. And

while I was searching it, down

there, with my eyes, I saw one with

a head so smeared with ordure, that

it was not clear if he was clerk or

layman.

He shouted at me: ‘Why are you

so keen to gaze at me more than the

other mired ones?’ And I to him:

‘Because, if I remember rightly, I

175

have seen you before with dry head, and you are Alessio Interminei of Lucca: so I eye you more than all

the others.’ And he then, beating his

forehead: ‘The flatteries, of which

my tongue never wearied, have

brought me down to this!’

At which my guide said to me:

‘Advance your head a little, so that

your eyes can clearly see, over

there, the face of that filthy and

dishevelled piece, who scratches

herself, with her soiled nails, now

crouching down, now rising to her

feet. It is Thais, the whore, who answered her lover’s message, in

which he asked: “Do you really

return me great thanks?” with “No,

wondrous thanks.” And let our

looking be sated with this.’

176

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,; 7KH

7KLUG &KDVP 7KH 6HOOHUV RI

6DFUHG2IILFHV

O Simon Magus! O you, his

rapacious, wretched followers, who

prostitute, for gold and silver, the

things of God that should be

wedded to virtue! Now the trumpets

must sound for you, since you are in

the third chasm.

Already we had climbed to the

next arch, onto that part of the

causeway that hangs right over the

centre of the ditch. O Supreme

Wisdom, how great the art is, that

you display, in the heavens, on

earth, and in the underworld, and

how justly your virtue acts. On the

sides and floor of the fosse, I saw

the livid stone full of holes, all of

one width, and each one rounded.

177

They seemed no narrower or larger, than those in my beautiful

Baptistery of St John, made as

places to protect those baptising,

one of which I broke, not many years ago, to aid a child inside: and

let this be a sign of the truth to end

all speculation.

From the mouth of each hole, a

sinner’s feet and legs emerged, up to

the calf, and the rest remained

inside. The soles were all on fire, so

that the joints quivered so strongly,

that they would have snapped grass

ropes and willow branches. As the

flame of burning oily liquids moves

only on the surface, so it was in

their case, from the heels to the legs.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,; 3RSH

1LFKRODV,,,

178

I said: ‘Master, who is that, who twists himself about, writhing more

than all his companions, and licked

by redder flames?’ And he to me: ‘If

you will let me carry you down

there by the lower bank, you will

learn from him about his sins and

himself.’ And I: ‘Whatever pleases

you is good for me: you are my lord,

and know that I do not deviate from

your will, also you know what is not

spoken.’

Then we came onto the fourth

buttress: we turned and descended,

on the left, down into the narrow

and perforated depths. The kind

master did not let me leave his side

until he took me to the hole

occupied by the one who so

agonised with his feet.

I began to speak: ‘O, unhappy

spirit, whoever you are, who have

179

180

your upper parts below, planted like a stake, form words if you can.’ I

stood like the friar who gives

confession to a treacherous assassin,

who, after being fixed in the ground,

calls the confessor back, and so

delays his burial. And he cried: ‘Are

you standing there already,

Boniface, are you standing there already? The book of the future has

deceived me by several years. Are

you sated, so swiftly, with that

wealth, for which you did not

hesitate to seize the Church, our

lovely lady, and then destroy her?’

I became like those who stand,

not knowing what has been said to

them, and unable to reply, exposed

to scorn. Then Virgil said: ‘Quickly,

say to him, “I am not him, I am not

whom you think.” ’ And I replied as

I was instructed. At which the

181

spirit’s legs writhed fiercely: then, sighing, in a tearful voice, he said to

me: ‘Then what do you want of me?

If it concerns you so much to know

who I am, that you have left the

ridge, know that I wore the

Great Mantle, and truly I was son of the Orsini she-bear, so eager to advance her cubs, that I pursed up

wealth, above, and here myself.

The other simonists, who came

before me, are drawn down below

my head, cowering inside the cracks

in the stone. I too will drop down

there, when Boniface comes, the

one I mistook you for when I put

my startled question. But the extent

of time, in which I have baked my

feet, and stood like this, reversed, is

already longer than the time he shall

stand planted in turn with glowing

feet, since, after him, will come

182

Clement, the lawless shepherd, of uglier actions, fit indeed to cap

Boniface and me.

He will be a new Jason, the high priest, whom we read about in

Maccabees: and as his king

Antiochus was compliant, so will

Philip be, who governs France.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;,; 'DQWH

VSHDNVDJDLQVW6LPRQ\

I do not know if I was too

foolhardy then, but I answered him

in this way: ‘Ah, now tell me, how

much wealth the Lord demanded of

Peter, before he gave the keys of the Church into his keeping? Surely he

demanded nothing, saying only:

‘Follow me.’ Nor did Peter or the

other Apostles, ask gold or silver of

Matthias, when he was chosen to fill 183

the place that Judas, the guilty soul, had forfeited. So, remain here, since

you are justly punished, and keep

well the ill-gotten money, that made

you so bold against Charles of Anjou.

And were it not that I am still

restrained by reverence for the great

keys that you held in your hand in

the joyful life, I would use even

more forceful words, since your

avarice grieves the world, trampling

the good, and raising the wicked.

John the Evangelist spoke of shepherds such as you, when he saw

‘the great whore that sitteth upon

many waters, with whom the kings

of the earth have committed

fornication’, she that was born with

seven heads and, as long as virtue

pleased her spouse, had

justification.

184

You have made a god for

yourselves of gold and silver, and

how do you differ from the

idolaters, except that he worships

one image and you a hundred? Ah,

Constantine, how much evil you gave birth to, not in your

conversion, but in that Donation that

the first wealthy Pope, Sylvester,

received from you!’

And while I sung these notes to

him, he thrashed violently with both

his feet, either rage or conscience

gnawing him. I think it pleased my

guide, greatly, he had so satisfied an

expression, listening to the sound of

the true words I spoke. So he lifted

me with both his arms, and when he

had me quite upon his breast,

climbed back up the path he had

descended, and did not tire of

carrying me clasped to him, till he

185

had borne me to the summit of the arch, that crosses from the fourth to

the fifth rampart.

Here he set his burden down,

lightly: light for him, on the rough

steep cliff, that would be a difficult

path for a goat. From there another

valley was visible to me.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;; 7KH

)RXUWK &KDVP 7KH 6HHUV DQG

6RUFHUHUV

I must make verses of new

torments, and give matter for this

twentieth Canto, of the Inferno that

treats of the damned.

I was now quite ready to look

into the ditch, bathed with tears of

anguish, which was revealed to me:

I saw people coming, silent and

weeping, through the circling

186

valley, at a pace which processions, that chant Litanies, take through the

world. When my eyes looked

further down on them, each of them

appeared strangely distorted,

between the chin and the start of the

chest, since the head was reversed

towards the body, and they had to

move backwards, since they were

not allowed to look forwards.

Perhaps one might be so distorted

by palsy, but I have not seen it, and

do not credit it.

Reader, as God may grant that

you profit from your reading, think

now yourself how I could keep from

weeping, when I saw our image so

contorted, nearby, that the tears

from their eyes bathed their hind

parts at the cleft. Truly, I wept,

leaning against one of the rocks of

the solid cliff, so that my guide said

187

to me: ‘Are you like other fools, as well? Pity is alive here, where it is

best forgotten. Who is more impious

than one who bears compassion for

God’s judgement?’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;; 7KH

6HHUV

‘Lift your head, lift it and see

him for whom earth opened, under

the eyes of the Thebans, at which

they all shouted: “Where are you

rushing, Amphiaräus? Why do you quit the battle?” And he did not stop

his downward rush until he reached

Minos, who grasps every sinner.

Note how he has made a chest of his

shoulders: because he willed to see

too far beyond him, he now looks

behind and goes backwards.

188

See Tiresias, who changed his form, when he was made a woman,

all his limbs altering: and later he

had to strike the two entwined

snakes with his staff, a second time,

before he could resume a male

aspect.

That one is Aruns, who has his back to Tiresias’s belly, he who in

the mountains of Tuscan Luni,

where the Carrarese hoe, who live

beneath them, had a cave to live in,

among the white marble, from

which he could gaze at the stars and

the sea, with nothing to spoil his

view.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;; 0DQWR

DQGWKHIRXQGLQJRI0DQWXD

‘And she that hides her breasts,

that you cannot see, with her

189

flowing tresses, and has all hairy skin on the other side, was Manto, who searched through many lands,

then settled where I was born, about

which it pleases me to have you

listen to me speak a while.

After her father departed from

life, and Thebes, the city of

Bacchus, came to be enslaved, she

roamed the world a long time. A

lake, Lake Garda, lies at the foot of

the Alps, up in beautiful Italy,

where Germany is closed off

beyond the Tyrol. Mount Apennino,

between the town of Garda and Val

Camonica, is bathed by the water

that settles in the lake. In the middle

there is a place where the Bishops of

Trent, Brescia, and Verona might

equally give the blessing if they

went that way. A strong and

beautiful fortress stands, where the

190

shoreline is lowest, to challenge the Brescians and Bergamese.

There, all the water that cannot

remain in the breast of Lake Garda,

has to descend through the green

fields, and form a river. As soon as

the water has its head, it is no longer

Garda, but Mincio, down to

Governolo where it joins the Po. It

has not flowed far before it finds the

level, on which it spreads and makes

a marsh there, and in summer tends

to be unwholesome. Manto, the wild

virgin, passing that way, saw

untilled land, naked of inhabitants,

among the fens. There, to avoid all

human contact, she stayed, with her

followers, to practise her arts, and

lived there, and left her empty body.

Then the people who were

scattered round gathered together in

that place, which was well defended

191

by the marshes on every side. They built the city over those dead bones,

and without other augury, called it

Mantua, after her who first chose

the place. Once there were more

inhabitants, before Casalodi, was foolishly deceived by Pinamonte.

So, I charge you, if you ever hear

another story of the origin of my

city, do not let falsehoods destroy

the truth.’

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;; 7KH

6RRWKVD\HUVDQG$VWURORJHUV

And I said: ‘Master, your

speeches are so sound to me, and so

hold my belief, that any others are

like spent ashes. But tell me about

the people who are passing, if you

see any of them worth noting, since

my mind returns to that alone.’

192

Then he said to me: ‘That one,

whose beard stretches down from

his cheeks, over his dusky

shoulders, was an augur, when

Greece was so emptied of males, for

the expedition against Troy, that

there were scarcely any left, even in

their cradles. Like Calchas at Aulis, he set the moment for cutting loose

the first cable. Eurypylus is his name, and my high Poem sings of it

in a certain place: you know it well,

who know the whole thing.

The other, so thin about the

flanks, is Michael Scott, who truly understood the fraudulent game of

magic. See Guido Bonatti, see

Asdente, who wishes now he had attended more to his shoemaker’s

leather and cord, but repents too

late. See the miserable women who

abandoned needle, shuttle and

193

spindle, and became prophetesses: they made witchcraft, using herbs

and images.

But come, now, for Cain with his bundle of thorns, that Man in the

Moon, reaches the western confines

of both hemispheres, and touches

the waves south of Seville, and already, last night, the Moon was

full: you must remember it clearly,

since she did not serve you badly in

the deep wood.’ So he spoke to me,

and meanwhile we moved on.

,QIHUQR&DQWR;;,7KH)LIWK

&KDVP 7KH 6HOOHUV RI 3XEOLF

2IILFHV

So from bridge to bridge we

went, with other conversation which

my Commedía does not choose to

recall, and were at the summit arch

194

when we stopped to see the next cleft of Malebolge, and more vain

grieving, and I found it

marvellously dark.

As, in the Venetian Arsenal, the

glutinous pitch boils in winter, that

they use to caulk the leaking boats

they cannot sail; and so, instead one

man builds a new boat, another

plugs the seams of his, that has

made many voyages, one hammers

at the prow, another at the stern,

some make oars, and some twist

rope, one mends a jib, the other a

mainsail; so, a dense pitch boiled

down there, not melted by fire, but

by divine skill, and glued the banks

over, on every side.

I saw it, but nothing in it, except

the bubbles that the boiling caused,

and the heaving of it all, and the

cooling part’s submergence. While

195

I was gazing fixedly at it, my guide said: ‘Take care. Take care!’ and

drew me towards him, from where I

stood. Then I turned round, like one

who has to see what he must run

from, and who is attacked by sudden

fear, so that he dare not stop to look:

and behind us I saw a black Demon

come running up the cliff.

,QIHUQR &DQWR ;;, 7KH

%DUUDWRUV

Ah, how fierce his aspect was!

And how cruel he seemed in action,

with his outspread wings, and

nimble legs! His high pointed

shoulders, carried a sinner’s two

haunches, and he held the sinews of

each foot tight.

He cried: ‘You, Malebranche, the

Evil-clawed, see here is one of

196

Lucca’s elders, that city whose patron is Santa Zita: push him under while I go back for the rest, back to

that city which is well provided with

them: every one there is a barrator,

except Bonturo; there they make

‘Yes’ of ‘No’ for money.

He threw him down, then

wheeled back along the stony cliff,

and never was a mastiff loosed so

readily to catch a thief. The sinner

plunged in, and rose again writhing,

but the demons under cover of the

bridge, shouted: ‘Here the face of

↑ Back to top