Part 21 (1/2)
'So may thy soul thy members long endue With vital power,' the other made reply, 'And after thee thy fame[486] its light renew; As thou shalt tell if worth and courtesy Within our city as of yore remain, Or from it have been wholly forced to fly.
For William Borsier,[487] one of yonder train, 70 And but of late joined with us in this woe, Causeth us with his words exceeding pain.'
'Upstarts, and fortunes suddenly that grow, Have bred in thee pride and extravagance,[488]
Whence tears, O Florence! thou art shedding now.'
Thus cried I with uplifted countenance.
The three, accepting it for a reply, Glanced each at each as hearing truth men glance.
And all: 'If others thou shalt satisfy As well at other times[489] at no more cost, 80 Happy thus at thine ease the truth to cry!
Therefore if thou escap'st these regions lost, Returning to behold the starlight fair, Then when ”There was I,”[490] thou shalt make thy boast, Something of us do thou 'mong men declare.'
Then broken was the wheel, and as they fled Their nimble legs like pinions beat the air.
So much as one _Amen!_ had scarce been said Quicker than what they vanished from our view.
On this once more the way my Master led. 90 I followed, and ere long so near we drew To where the water fell, that for its roar Speech scarcely had been heard between us two.
And as the stream which of all those which pour East (from Mount Viso counting) by its own Course falls the first from Apennine to sh.o.r.e-- As Acquacheta[491] in the uplands known By name, ere plunging to its bed profound; Name lost ere by Forl its waters run-- Above St. Benedict with one long bound, 100 Where for a thousand[492] would be ample room, Falls from the mountain to the lower ground; Down the steep cliff that water dyed in gloom We found to fall echoing from side to side, Stunning the ear with its tremendous boom.
There was a cord about my middle tied, With which I once had thought that I might hold Secure the leopard with the painted hide.
When this from round me I had quite unrolled To him I handed it, all coiled and tight; 110 As by my Leader I had first been told.
Himself then bending somewhat toward the right,[493]
He just beyond the edge of the abyss Threw down the cord,[494] which disappeared from sight.
'That some strange thing will follow upon this Unwonted signal which my Master's eye Thus follows,' so I thought, 'can hardly miss.'
Ah, what great caution need we standing by Those who behold not only what is done, But who have wit our hidden thoughts to spy! 120 He said to me: 'There shall emerge, and soon, What I await; and quickly to thy view That which thou dream'st of shall be clearly known.'[495]
From utterance of truth which seems untrue A man, whene'er he can, should guard his tongue; Lest he win blame to no transgression due.
Yet now I must speak out, and by the song Of this my Comedy, Reader, I swear-- So in good liking may it last full long!-- I saw a shape swim upward through that air. 130 All indistinct with gross obscurity, Enough to fill the stoutest heart with fear: Like one who rises having dived to free An anchor grappled on a jagged stone, Or something else deep hidden in the sea; With feet drawn in and arms all open thrown.
FOOTNOTES:
[479] _The next circle_: The Eighth.
[480] _Thy garb_: 'Almost every city,' says Boccaccio, 'had in those times its peculiar fas.h.i.+on of dress distinct from that of neighboring cities.'
[481] _As he wheeled round_: Virgil and Dante have come to a halt upon the embankment. The three shades, to whom it is forbidden to be at rest for a moment, clasping one another as in a dance, keep wheeling round in circle upon the sand.
[482] _Guidoguerra_: A descendant of the Counts Guidi of Modigliana.
Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincion Berti de' Ravignani, praised for his simple habits in the _Paradiso_, xv. 112. Guidoguerra was a Guelf leader, and after the defeat of Montaperti acted as Captain of his party, in this capacity lending valuable aid to Charles of Anjou at the battle of Benevento, 1266, when Manfred was overthrown. He had no children, and left the Commonwealth of Florence his heir.
[483] _Tegghiaio_: Son of Aldobrando of the Adimari. His name should be dear in Florence, because he did all he could to dissuade the citizens from the campaign which ended so disastrously at Montaperti.
[484] _James Rusticucci_: An accomplished cavalier of humble birth, said to have been a retainer of Dante's friends the Cavalcanti. The commentators have little to tell of him except that he made an unhappy marriage, which is evident from the text. Of the sins of him and his companions there is nothing known beyond what is to be inferred from the poet's words, and nothing to say, except that when Dante consigned men of their stamp, frank and amiable, to the Infernal Circles, we may be sure that he only executed a verdict already accepted as just by the whole of Florence. And when we find him impartially d.a.m.ning Guelf and Ghibeline we may be equally sure that he looked for the aid of neither party, and of no family however powerful in the State, to bring his banishment to a close. He would even seem to be careful to stop any hole by which he might creep back to Florence. When he did return, it was to be in the train of the Emperor, so he hoped, and as one who gives rather than seeks forgiveness.
[485] _Of your city, etc._: At line 32 Rusticucci begs Dante to tell who he is. He tells that he is of their city, which they have already gathered from his _berretta_ and the fas.h.i.+on of his gown; but he tells nothing, almost, of himself. Unless to Farinata, indeed, he never makes an open breast to any one met in Inferno. But here he does all that courtesy requires.
[486] _Thy fame_: Dante has implied in his answer that he is gifted with oratorical powers and is the object of a special Divine care; and the ill.u.s.trious Florentine, frankly acknowledging the claim he makes, adjures him by the fame which is his in store to appease an eager curiosity about the Florence which even in Inferno is the first thought of every not ign.o.ble Florentine.
[487] _William Borsiere_: A Florentine, witty and well bred, according to Boccaccio. Being once at Genoa he was shown a fine new palace by its miserly owner, and was asked to suggest a subject for a painting with which to adorn the hall. The subject was to be something that n.o.body had ever seen. Borsiere proposed liberality as something that the miser at any rate had never yet got a good sight of; an answer of which it is not easy to detect either the wit or the courtesy, but which is said to have converted the churl to liberal ways (_Decam._ i. 8). He is here introduced as an authority on the n.o.ble style of manners.
[488] _Pride and extravagance_: In place of the n.o.bility of mind that leads to great actions, and the gentle manners that prevail in a society where there is a due subordination of rank to rank and well-defined duties for every man. This, the aristocratic in a n.o.ble sense, was Dante's ideal of a social state; for all his instincts were those of a Florentine aristocrat, corrected though they were by his good sense and his thirst for a reign of perfect justice. During his own time he had seen Florence grow more and more democratic; and he was irritated--unreasonably, considering that it was only a sign of the general prosperity--at the spectacle of the amazing growth of wealth in the hands of low-born traders, who every year were coming more to the front and monopolising influence at home and abroad at the cost of their neighbours and rivals with longer pedigrees and shorter purses. In _Paradiso_ xvi. Dante dwells at length on the degeneracy of the Florentines.
[489] _At other times_: It is hinted that his outspokenness will not in the future always give equal satisfaction to those who hear.
[490] _There was I, etc._: _Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit._--_aen._ i. 203.
[491] _Acquacheta_: The fall of the water of the brook over the lofty cliff that sinks from the Seventh to the Eighth Circle is compared to the waterfall upon the Montone at the monastery of St. Benedict, in the mountains above Forl. The Po rises in Monte Viso. Dante here travels in imagination from Monte Viso down through Italy, and finds that all the rivers which rise on the left hand, that is, on the north-east of the Apennine, fall into the Po, till the Montone is reached, that river falling into the Adriatic by a course of its own. Above Forl it was called Acquacheta. The Lamone, north of the Montone, now follows an independent course to the sea, having cut a new bed for itself since Dante's time.
[492] _Where for a thousand, etc._: In the monastery there was room for many more monks, say most of the commentators; or something to the like effect. Mr. Longfellow's interpretation seems better: Where the height of the fall is so great that it would divide into a thousand falls.
[493] _Toward the right_: The att.i.tude of one about to throw.
[494] _The cord_: The services of Geryon are wanted to convey them down the next reach of the pit; and as no voice could be heard for the noise of the waterfall, and no signal be made to catch the eye amid the gloom, Virgil is obliged to call the attention of the monster by casting some object into the depth where he lies concealed. But, since they are surrounded by solid masonry and slack sand, one or other of them must supply something fit to throw down; and the cord worn by Dante is fixed on as what can best be done without. There may be a reference to the cord of Saint Francis, which Dante, according to one of his commentators, wore when he was a young man, following in this a fas.h.i.+on common enough among pious laymen who had no thought of ever becoming friars. But the simile of the cord, as representing sobriety and virtuous purpose, is not strange to Dante. In _Purg._ vii. 114 he describes Pedro of Arragon as being girt with the cord of every virtue; and Pedro was no Franciscan. Dante's cord may therefore be taken as standing for vigilance or self-control. With it he had hoped to get the better of the leopard (_Inf._ i. 32), and may have trusted in it for support as against the terrors of Inferno. But although he has been girt with it ever since he entered by the gate, it has not saved him from a single fear, far less from a single danger; and now it is cast away as useless. Henceforth, more than ever, he is to confide wholly in Virgil and have no confidence in himself. Nor is he to be girt again till he reaches the coast of Purgatory, and then it is to be with a reed, the emblem of humility.--But, however explained, the incident will always be somewhat of a puzzle.