Part 24 (2/2)
It likes me well thou shouldst of this be taught.
When from this life her father exit made, And Bacchus' city had become enthralled, She for long time through many countries strayed. 60 'Neath mountains by which Germany is walled And bounded at Tirol, a lake there lies High in fair Italy, Benacus[562] called.
The waters of a thousand springs that rise 'Twixt Val Camonica and Garda flow Down Pennine; and their flood this lake supplies.
And from a spot midway, if they should go Thither, the Pastors[563] of Verona, Trent, And Brescia might their blessings all bestow.
Peschiera,[564] with its strength for ornament, 70 Facing the Brescians and the Bergamese Lies where the bank to lower curve is bent.
And there the waters, seeking more of ease, For in Benacus is not room for all, Forming a river, lapse by green degrees.
The river, from its very source, men call No more Benacus--'tis as Mincio known, Which into Po does at Governo fall.
A flat it reaches ere it far has run, Spreading o'er which it feeds a marshy fen, 80 Whence oft in summer pestilence has grown.
Wayfaring here the cruel virgin, when She found land girdled by the marshy flood, Untilled and uninhabited of men, That she might 'scape all human neighbourhood Stayed on it with her slaves, her arts to ply; And there her empty body was bestowed.
On this the people from the country nigh Into that place came crowding, for the spot, Girt by the swamp, could all attack defy, 90 And for the town built o'er her body sought A name from her who made it first her seat, Calling it Mantua, without casting lot.[565]
The dwellers in it were in number great, Till stupid Casalodi[566] was befooled And victimised by Pinamonte's cheat.
Hence, shouldst thou ever hear (now be thou schooled!) Another story to my town a.s.signed, Let by no fraud the truth be overruled.'
And I: 'Thy reasonings, Master, to my mind 100 So cogent are, and win my faith so well, What others say I shall black embers find.
But of this people pa.s.sing onward tell, If thou, of any, something canst declare, For all my thoughts[567] on that intently dwell.'
And then he said: 'The one whose bearded hair Falls from his cheeks upon his shoulders dun, Was, when the land of Greece[568] of males so bare Was grown the very cradles scarce held one, An augur;[569] he with Calchas gave the sign 110 In Aulis through the first rope knife to run.
Eurypylus was he called, and in some line Of my high Tragedy[570] is sung the same, As thou know'st well, who mad'st it wholly thine.
That other, thin of flank, was known to fame As Michael Scott;[571] and of a verity He knew right well the black art's inmost game.
Guido Bonatti,[572] and Asdente see Who mourns he ever should have parted from His thread and leather; but too late mourns he. 120 Lo the unhappy women who left loom, Spindle, and needle that they might divine; With herb and image[573] hastening men's doom.
But come; for where the hemispheres confine Cain and the Thorns[574] is falling, to alight Underneath Seville on the ocean line.
The moon was full already yesternight; Which to recall thou shouldst be well content, For in the wood she somewhat helped thy plight.'
Thus spake he to me while we forward went. 130
FOOTNOTES:
[551] _Lay the First_: The _Inferno_.
[552] _The visible profound_: The Fourth Bolgia, where soothsayers of every kind are punished. Their sin is that of seeking to find out what G.o.d has made secret. That such discoveries of the future could be made by men, Dante seems to have had no doubt; but he regards the exercise of the power as a fraud on Providence, and also credits the adepts in the black art with ruining others by their spells (line 123).
[553] _Nor uttering, etc._: They who on earth told too much are now condemned to be for ever dumb. It will be noticed that with none of them does Dante converse.
[554] _More downcast gaze_: Standing as he does on the crown of the arch, the nearer they come to him the more he has to decline his eyes.
[555] _Stepping backward_: Once they peered far into the future; now they cannot see a step before them.
[556]_ As, Reader, etc._: Some light may be thrown on this unusual, and, at first sight, inexplicable display of pity, by the comment of Benvenuto da Imola:--'It is the wisest and most virtuous of men that are most subject to this mania of divination; and of this Dante is himself an instance, as is well proved by this book of his.' Dante reminds the reader how often since the journey began he has sought to have the veil of the future lifted; and would have it understood that he was seized by a sudden misgiving as to whether he too had not overstepped the bounds of what, in that respect, is allowed and right.
[557] _Of the other fools_: Dante, weeping like the sinners in the Bolgia, is asked by Virgil: 'What, art thou then one of them?' He had been suffered, without reproof, to show pity for Francesca and Ciacco.
The terrors of the Lord grow more cogent as they descend, and even pity is now forbidden.
[558] _Amphiaraus_: One of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes. He foresaw his own death, and sought by hiding to evade it; but his wife revealed his hiding-place, and he was forced to join in the siege. As he fought, a thunderbolt opened a chasm in the earth, into which he fell.
[559] _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of s.e.x is described by Ovid (_Metam._ iii.).
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