Array Dante Alighieri - Harvard Classics Volume 20

Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss.

Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard

Except of sighs, that made the eternal air

Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief

Felt by those multitudes, many and vast,

Of men, women, and infants. Then to me

The gentle guide: “Inquirest thou not what spirits

Are these which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass

Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin

Were blameless; and if aught they merited,

If profits not, since baptism was not heirs,

The portal [22]to thy faith. If they before

The Gospel lived, they served not God aright;

And among such am I. For these defects,

And for no other evil, we are lost;

Only so far afflicted, that we live

Desiring without hope.” Sore grief assail’d

My heart at hearing this, for well I knew

Suspended in that Limbo many a soul

Of mighty worth. “O tell me, sire revered!

Tell me, my master!” I began, through wish

Of full assurance in that holy faith

Which vanquishes all error; “say, did e’er

Any, or through his own or other’s merit,

Come forth from thence, who afterward was blest?”

Piercing the secret purport [23]of my speech,

He answer’d: “I was new to that estate

When I beheld a puissant one [24]arrive

Amongst us, with victorious trophy crown’d.

He forth the shade of our first parent drew,

Abel, his child, and Noah righteous man,

Of Moses lawgiver for faith approved,

Of patriarch Abraham, and David king,

Israel with his sire and with his sons,

Nor without Rachel whom so hard he won,

And others many more, whom He to bliss

Exalted. Before these, be thou assured,

No spirit of human kind was ever saved.”

We, while he spake, ceased not our onward road,

Still passing through the wood; for so I name

Those spirits thick beset. We were not far

On this side from the summit, when I kenn’d

A flame, that o’er the darken’d hemisphere

Prevailing shined. Yet we a little space

Were distant, not so far but I in part

Discover’d that a tribe in honour high

That placed possess’d. “O thou, who every art

And science valuest! who are these, that boast

Such honor, separate from all the rest?”

He answer’d: “The renown of their great names,

That echoes through your world above, acquires

Favor in Heaven, which holds them thus advanced.”

Meantime a voice I heard: “Honor the bard

Sublime! his shade returns, that left us late!”

No sooner ceased the sound, that I beheld

Four mighty spirits toward us bend their steps,

Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.

When thus my master kind began: “Mark him,

Who in his right hand bears that falchion keen,

The other three preceding, as their lord.

This is that Homer, of all bards supreme:

Flaccus the next, in satire’s vein excelling;

The third is Naso; Lucan is the last.

Because they all that appellation own,

With which the voice singly accosted me,

Honouring they greet me thus, and well they judge.”

So I beheld united the bright school

Of him the monarch of sublimest song, [25]

That o’er the others like an eagle soars.

When they together short discourse had held,

They turn’d to me, with salutation kind

Beckoning me; at the which my master smiled:

Nor was this all; but greater honour still

They gave me, for they made me of their tribe;

And I was sixth amid so learn’d a band.

Far as the luminous beacon on we pass’d,

Speaking of matters, then befitting well

To speak, now fitter left untold. At foot

Of a magnificent castle we arrived,

Seven times with lofty walls begirt, and around

Defended by a pleasant stream. O’er this

As o’er dry land we pass’d. Next, through seven gates,

I with those sages enter’d, and we came

Into a mead with lively verdure fresh.

There dwelt a race, who slow their eyes around

Majestically moved, and in their port

Bore eminent authority: they spake

Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet.

We to one side retired, into a place

Open and bright and lofty, whence each one

Stood manifest to view. Incontinent,

There on the green enamel of the plain

Were shown me the great spirits, by whose sight

I am exalted in my own esteem.

Electra [26]there I saw accompanied

By many, among whom Hector I knew,

Anchises’ pious son, and with hawk’s eye

Cæsar all arm’d, and by Camilla there

Penthesilea. On the other side,

Old King Latinus seated by his child

Lavinia, and that Brutus I beheld

Who Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Cato’s wife

Marcia, with Julia [27]and Cornelia there;

And sole apart retired, the Soldan fierce. [28]

Then when a little more I raised my brow,

I spied the master of the sapient throng, [29]

Seated amid the philosophic train.

Him all admire, all pay him reverence due.

There Socrates and Plato both I mark’d

Nearest to him in rank, Democritus,

Who sets the world at chance, [30]Diogenes,

With Heraclitus, and Empedocles,

And Anaxagoras, and Thales sage,

Zeno, and Dioscorides well read

In nature’s secret lore. Orpheus I mark’d

And Linus, Tully and moral Seneca,

Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates,

Galenus, Avicen, and him who made

That commentary vast, Averroes. [31]

Of all to speak at full were vain attempt;

For my wide theme so urges, that oft-times

My words fall short of what bechanced. In two

The six associates part. Another way

My sage guide leads me, from that air serene,

Into a climate ever vex’d with storms:

And to a part I come, where no light shines.

Argument.—Coming into the second circle of Hell, Dante at the entrance beholds Minos the Infernal Judge, by whom he is admonished to beware how he enters those regions. Here he witnesses the punishment of carnal sinners, who are tossed about ceaselessly in the dark air by the most furious winds. Among these, he meets with Francesca of Rimini, through pity at whose sad tale he falls fainting to the ground.

From the first circle I descended thus

Down to the second, which, a lesser space

Embracing, so much more of grief contains,

Provoking bitter moans. There Minos stands,

Grinning with ghastly feature: he, of all

Who enter, strict examining the crimes,

Gives sentence, and dismisses them beneath,

According as he foldeth him around:

For when before him comes the ill-fated soul,

It all confesses; and that judge severe

Of sins, considering what place in Hell

Suits the transgression, with his tail so oft

Himself encircles, as degrees beneath

He dooms it to descend. Before him stand

Always a numerous throng; and in his turn

Each one to judgment passing, speaks, and hears

His fate, thence downward to his dwelling hurl’d.

“O thou! who to this residence of woe

Approachest!” when he saw me coming, cried

Minos, relinquishing his dread employ,

“Look how thou enter here; beware in whom

Thou place thy trust; let not the entrance broad

Deceive thee to thy harm.” To him my guide:

“Wherefore exclaimest? Hinder not his way

By destiny appointed; so ’tis will’d,

Where will and power are one. Ask thou no more.”

Now ’gin the rueful wailings to be heard.

Now am I come where many a plaining voice

Smites on mine ear. Into a place I came

Where light was silent all. Bellowing there groan’d