Part 12 (2/2)

He who in knowledge is exalted high, Framing[304] all Heavens gave such as should them guide, That so each part might s.h.i.+ne to all; whereby Is equal light diffused on every side: And likewise to one guide and governor, Of worldly splendours did control confide, That she in turns should different peoples dower 79 With this vain good; from blood should make it pa.s.s To blood, in spite of human wit. Hence, power, Some races failing,[305] other some ama.s.s, According to her absolute decree Which hidden lurks, like serpent in the gra.s.s.

Vain 'gainst her foresight yours must ever be.

She makes provision, judges, holds her reign, As doth his power supreme each deity.

Her permutations can no truce sustain; Necessity[306] compels her to be swift, So swift they follow who their turn must gain. 90 And this is she whom they so often[307] lift Upon the cross, who ought to yield her praise; And blame on her and scorn unjustly s.h.i.+ft.

But she is blest nor hears what any says, With other primal creatures turns her sphere, Jocund and glad, rejoicing in her ways.

To greater woe now let us downward steer.

The stars[308] which rose when I began to guide Are falling now, nor may we linger here.'

We crossed the circle to the other side, 100 Arriving where a boiling fountain fell Into a brooklet by its streams supplied.

In depth of hue the flood did perse[309] excel, And we, with this dim stream to lead us on, Descended by a pathway terrible.

A marsh which by the name of Styx is known, Fed by this gloomy brook, lies at the base Of threatening cliffs hewn out of cold grey stone.

And I, intent on study of the place,[310]

Saw people in that ditch, mud-smeared. In it 110 All naked stood with anger-clouded face.

Nor with their fists alone each fiercely hit The other, but with feet and chest and head, And with their teeth to shreds each other bit.

'Son, now behold,' the worthy Master said, 'The souls of those whom anger made a prize; And, further, I would have thee certified That 'neath the water people utter sighs, And make the bubbles to the surface come; As thou mayst see by casting round thine eyes. 120 Fixed in the mud they say: ”We lived in gloom[311]

In the sweet air made jocund by the day, Nursing within us melancholy fume.

In this black mud we now our gloom display.”

This hymn with gurgling throats they strive to sound, Which they in speech unbroken fail to say.'

And thus about the loathsome pool we wound For a wide arc, between the dry and soft, With eyes on those who gulp the filth, turned round.

At last we reached a tower that soared aloft. 130

FOOTNOTES:

[293] _Pape, etc._: These words have exercised the ingenuity of many scholars, who on the whole lean to the opinion that they contain an appeal to Satan against the invasion of his domain. Virgil seems to have understood them, but the text leaves it doubtful whether Dante himself did. Later on, but there with an obvious purpose, we find a line of pure gibberish (_Inf._ x.x.xi. 67).

[294] _Plutus_: The G.o.d of riches; degraded here into a demon. He guards the Fourth Circle, which is that of the misers and spendthrifts.

[295] _Wolf_: Frequently used by Dante as symbolical of greed.

[296] _Pride_: Which in its way was a kind of greed--that of dominion.

Similarly, the avarice represented by the wolf of Canto i. was seen to be the l.u.s.t of aggrandis.e.m.e.nt. Virgil here answers Plutus's (supposed) appeal to Satan by referring to the higher Power, under whose protection he and his companion come.

[297] _The half circle_: This Fourth Circle is divided half-way round between the misers and spendthrifts, and the two bands at set periods clash against one another in their vain effort to pa.s.s into the section belonging to the opposite party. Their condition is emblematical of their sins while in life. They were one-sided in their use of wealth; so here they can never complete the circle. The monotony of their employment and of their cries represents their subjection to one idea, and, as in life, so now, their displeasure is excited by nothing so much as by coming into contact with the failing opposite to their own. Yet they are set in the same circle because the sin of both arose from inordinate desire of wealth, the miser craving it to h.o.a.rd, and the spendthrift to spend. In Purgatory also they are placed together (see _Purg._ xxii. 40). So, on Dante's scheme, liberality is allied to and dependent on a wise and reasonable frugality.--There is no hint of the enormous length of the course run by these shades. Far lower down, when the circles of the Inferno have greatly narrowed, the circuit is twenty-two miles (_Inf._ xxix. 9).

[298] _Clerks_: Churchmen. The tonsure is the sign that a man is of ecclesiastical condition. Many took the tonsure who never became priests.

[299] _I ought, etc._: Dante is astonished that he can pick out no greedy priest or friar of his acquaintance, when he had known so many.

[300] _Dimming, etc._: Their original disposition is by this time smothered by the predominance of greed. Dante treats these sinners with a special contemptuous bitterness. Scores of times since he became dependent on the generosity of others he must have watched how at a bare hint the faces of miser and spendthrift fell, while their eyes travelled vaguely beyond him, and their voices grew cold.

[301] _Ruined locks_: 'A spendthrift will spend his very hair,' says an Italian proverb.

[302] _The happy land_: Heaven.

[303] _Her claws_: Dante speaks of Fortune as if she were a brutal and somewhat malicious power. In Virgil's answer there is a refutation of the opinion of Fortune given by Dante himself, in the _Convito_ (iv.

11). After describing three ways in which the goods of Fortune come to men he says: 'In each of these three ways her injustice is manifest.'

This part of the _Convito_ Fraticelli seems almost to prove was written in 1297.

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