Array Dante Alighieri - Harvard Classics Volume 20

Quaking with dread resumed, “or Tuscan spirits

Or Lombard, I will cause them to appear.

Meantime let these ill talons bate their fury,

So that no vengeance they may fear from them,

And I, remaining in this self-same place,

Will, for myself but one, make seven appear,

When my shrill whistle shall be heard; for so

Our custom is to call each other up.”

Cagnazzo at that word deriding grinn’d,

Then wagg’d the head and spake: “Hear his device,

Mischievous as he is, to plunge him down.”

Whereto he thus, who fail’d not in rich store

Of nice-wove toils: “Mischief, forsooth, extreme!

Meant only to procure myself more woe.”

No longer Alichino then refrain’d,

But thus, the rest gainsaying, him bespake:

“If thou do cast thee down, I not on foot

Will chase thee, but above the pitch will beat

My plumes. Quit we the vantage ground, and let

The bank be as a shield; that we may see,

If singly thou prevail against us all.”

Now, reader, of new sport expect to hear.

They each one turn’d his eyes to the other shore,

He first, who was the hardest to persuade.

The spirit of Navarre chose well his time,

Planted his feet on land, and at one leap

Escaping, disappointed their resolve.

Them quick resentment stung, but him the most

Who was the cause of failure: in pursuit

He therefore sped, exclaiming, “Thou art caught.”

But little it avail’d; terror outstripp’d

His following flight; the other plunged beneath,

And he with upward pinion raised his breast:

E’en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives

The falcon near, dives instant down, while he

Enraged and spent retires. That mockery

In Calcabrina fury stirr’d, who flew

After him, with desire of strife inflamed;

And, for the barterer had ’scaped, so turn’d

His talons on his comrade. O’er the dyke

In grapple close they join’d; but the other proved

A goshawk able to rend well his foe;

And in the boiling lake both fell. The heat

Was umpire soon between them; but in vain

To lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued

Their pennons. Barbariccia, as the rest,

That chance lamenting, four in flight despatch’d

From the other coast, with all their weapons arm’d.

They, to their post on each side speedily

Descending, stretch’d their hooks toward the fiends,

Who flounder’d, inly burning from their scars:

And we departing left them to that broil.

Argument.—The enraged Demons pursue Dante, but he is preserved from them by Virgil. On reaching the sixth gulf, he beholds the punishment of the hypocrites; which is, to pace continually round the gulf under the pressure of caps and hoods, that are gilt on the outside, but leaden within. He is addressed by two of these, Catalano and Loderingo, Knights of St. Mary, otherwise called Joyous Friars of Bologna. Caïaphas is seen fixed to a cross on the ground, and lies so stretched along the way, that all tread on him in passing.

In silence and in solitude we went,

One first, the other following his steps,

As minor friars journeying on their road.

The present fray had turn’d my thoughts to muse

Upon old Æsop’s fable, [153]where he told

What fate unto the mouse and frog befell;

For language hath not sounds more like in sense,

Than are these chances, if the origin

And end of each be heedfully compared.

And as one thought bursts from another forth,

So afterward from that another sprang,

Which added doubly to my former fear.

For thus I reason’d: “These through us have been

So foil’d, with loss and mockery so complete,

As needs must sting them sore. If anger then

Be to their evil will conjoin’d, more fell

They shall pursue us, than the savage hound

Snatches the leveret panting ’twixt his jaws.”

Already I perceived my hair stand all

On end with terror, and look’d eager back.

“Teacher,” I thus began, “if speedily

Thyself and me thou hide not, much I dread

Those evil talons. Even now behind

They urge us: quick imagination works

So forcibly, that I already feel them.”

He answer’d: “Were I form’d of leaded glass,

I should not sooner draw unto myself

Thy outward image, than I now imprint

That from within. This moment came thy thoughts

Presented before mine, with similar act

And countenance similar, so that from both

I one design have framed. If the right coast

Incline so much, that we may thence descend

Into the other chasm, we shall escape

Secure from this imagined pursuit.”

He had not spoke his purpose to the end,

When I from far beheld them with spread wings

Approach to take us. Suddenly my guide

Caught me, even as a mother that from sleep

Is by the noise aroused, and near her sees

The climbing fires, who snatches up her babe

And flies ne’er pausing, careful more of him

Than of herself, that but a single vest

Clings round her limbs. Down from the jutting beach

Supine he cast him to that pendent rock,

Which closes on one part the other chasm.

Never ran water with such hurrying pace

Adown the tube to turn a land-mill’s wheel,

When nearest it approaches to the spokes,

As then along that edge my master ran,

Carrying me in his bosom, as a child,

Not a companion. Scarcely had his feet

Reach’d to the lowest of the bed beneath,

When over us the steep they reach’d: but fear

In him was none; for that high Providence,

Which placed them ministers of the fifth foss,

Power of departing thence took from them all.

There in the depth we saw a painted tribe,

Who paced with tardy steps around, and wept,

Faint in appearance and o’ercome with toil.

Caps had they on, with hoods, that fell low down

Before their eyes, in fashion like to those

Worn by the monks in Cologne. [154]Their outside

Was overlaid with gold, dazzling to view,

But leaden all within, and of such weight,

That Frederick’s [155]compared to these were straw.

Oh, everlasting wearisome attire!

We yet once more with them together turn’d

To leftward, on their dismal moan intent.

But by the weight opprest, so slowly came

The fainting people, that our company

Was changed, at every movement of the step.

Whence I my guide address’d: “See that thou find

Some spirit, whose name may by his deeds be known;

And to that end look round thee as thou go’st.”

Then one, who understood the Tuscan voice,

Cried after us aloud: “Hold in your feet,

Ye who so swiftly speed through the dusk air.

Perchance from me thou shalt obtain thy wish.”

Whereat my leader, turning, me bespake:

“Pause, and then onward at their pace proceed.”

I staid, and saw two spirits in whose look

Impatient eagerness of mind was mark’d

To overtake me; but the load they bare

And narrow path retarded their approach.

Soon as arrived, they with an eye askance

Perused me, but spake not: then turning, each

To other thus conferring said: “This one

Seems, by the action of his throat, alive;

And, be they dead, what privilege allows

They walk unmantled by the cumbrous stole?”

Then thus to me: “Tuscan, who visitest

The college of the mourning hypocrites,

Disdain not to instruct us who thou art.”

“By Arno’s pleasant stream,” I thus replied,

“In the great city I was bred and grew,