Part 11 (2/2)

'O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279] 40 Me if thou canst,' he asked me, 'recognise; For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.'

And I to him: 'Thy present tortured guise Perchance hath blurred my memory of thy face, Until it seems I ne'er on thee set eyes.

But tell me who thou art, within this place So cruel set, exposed to such a pain, Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.'

And he: 'Thy city, swelling with the bane Of envy till the sack is running o'er, 50 Me in the life serene did once contain.

As Ciacco[280] me your citizens named of yore; And for the d.a.m.ning sin of gluttony I, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower.

No solitary woful soul am I, For all of these endure the selfsame doom For the same fault.' Here ended his reply.

I answered him, 'O Ciacco, with such gloom Thy misery weighs me, I to weep am p.r.o.ne; But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come 60 The citizens[281] of the divided town.

Holds it one just man? And declare the cause Why 'tis of discord such a victim grown.'

Then he to me: 'After[282] contentious pause Blood will be spilt; the boorish party[283] then Will chase the others forth with grievous loss.

The former it behoves to fall again Within three suns, the others to ascend, Holpen[284] by him whose wiles ere now are plain.

Long time, with heads held high, they'll make to bend The other party under burdens dire, 71 Howe'er themselves in tears and rage they spend.

There are two just[285] men, at whom none inquire.

Envy, and pride, and avarice, even these Are the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.'

With this the tearful sound he made to cease: And I to him, 'Yet would I have thee tell-- And of thy speech do thou the gift increase-- Tegghiaio[286] and Farinata, honourable, James Rusticucci,[287] Mosca, Arrigo, 80 With all the rest so studious to excel In good; where are they? Help me this to know; Great hunger for the news hath seized me; Delights them Heaven, or tortures h.e.l.l below?'

He said: 'Among the blackest souls they be; Them to the bottom weighs another sin.

Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see.

But when[288] the sweet world thou again dost win, I pray thee bring me among men to mind; No more I tell, nor new reply begin.' 90 Then his straightforward eyes askance declined; He looked at me a moment ere his head He bowed; then fell flat 'mong the other blind.

'Henceforth he waketh not,' my Leader said, 'Till he shall hear the angel's trumpet sound, Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shade Its dismal sepulchre shall then be found, Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume, And list[289] what echoes in eternal round.'

So pa.s.sed we where the shades and rainy spume 100 Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow; Touching a little on the world to come.[290]

Wherefore I said: 'Master, shall torments grow After the awful sentence hath been heard, Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?'

'Repair unto thy Science,'[291] was his word; 'Which tells, as things approach a perfect state To keener joy or suffering they are stirred.

Therefore although this people cursed by fate Ne'er find perfection in its full extent, 110 To it they then shall more approximate Than now.'[292] Our course we round the circle bent, Still holding speech, of which I nothing say, Until we came where down the pathway went: There found we Plutus, the great enemy.

FOOTNOTES:

[274] _As I move again_: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the Second Circle down to the Third.

[275] _Cerberus_: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and wine-bibbers.

[276] _And oft, etc._: On entering the circle the shades are seized and torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, touch, and smell are a.s.sailed by the opposite of what they were most used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts.

[277] _Great worm_: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so called as being a disgusting brute.

[278] _Semblances, etc._: 'Emptiness which seems to be a person.' To this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with the sleet to make a sludgy ma.s.s; and cannot therefore be impalpable.

[279] Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante's tread that he is a living man.

[280] _Ciacco_: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though poor, Ciacco a.s.sociated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as ate and drank delicately. In the _Decameron_, ix. 8, he is introduced as being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim.

[281] _The citizens, etc._: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno.

[282] _After, etc._: In the following nine lines the party history of Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions--the Whites, led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso Donati, a poor and turbulent n.o.ble. At the close of 1300 there was a b.l.o.o.d.y encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of the poet's talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was a.s.sociated with the Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an emba.s.sy to Rome to persuade the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in January 1302.

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