Part 35 (2/2)

Was my reply, 'if thou renown wouldst gain, Should I thy name[819] upon my tablets place.'

And he: 'I for the opposite am fain.

Depart thou hence, nor work me further dool; Within this swamp thou flatterest all in vain.'

Then I began him by the scalp to pull, And 'Thou must tell how thou art called,' I said, 'Or soon thy hair will not be plentiful.'

And he: 'Though every hair thou from me shred 100 I will not tell thee, nor my face turn round; No, though a thousand times thou spurn my head.'

His locks ere this about my fist were wound, And many a tuft I tore, while dog-like wails Burst from him, and his eyes still sought the ground.

Then called another: 'Bocca, what now ails?

Is't not enough thy teeth go chattering there, But thou must bark? What devil thee a.s.sails?'

'Ah! now,' said I, 'thou need'st not aught declare, Accursed traitor; and true news of thee 110 To thy disgrace I to the world will bear.'

'Begone, tell what thou wilt,' he answered me; 'But, if thou issue hence, not silent keep[820]

Of him whose tongue but lately wagged so free.

He for the Frenchmen's money[821] here doth weep.

Him of Duera saw I, mayst thou tell, Where sinners s.h.i.+ver in the frozen deep.

Shouldst thou be asked who else within it dwell-- Thou hast the Beccheria[822] at thy side; Across whose neck the knife at Florence fell. 120 John Soldanieri[823] may be yonder spied With Ganellon,[824] and Tribaldell[825] who threw Faenza's gates, when slept the city, wide.'

Him had we left, our journey to pursue, When frozen in a hole[826] a pair I saw; One's head like the other's hat showed to the view.

And, as their bread men hunger-driven gnaw, The uppermost tore fiercely at his mate Where nape and brain-pan to a junction draw.

No worse by Tydeus[827] in his scornful hate 130 Were Menalippus' temples gnawed and hacked Than skull and all were torn by him irate.

'O thou who provest by such b.e.s.t.i.a.l act Hatred of him who by thy teeth is chewed, Declare thy motive,' said I, 'on this pact-- That if with reason thou with him hast feud, Knowing your names and manner of his crime I in the world[828] to thee will make it good; If what I speak with dry not ere the time.'

FOOTNOTES:

[797] _A baby speech_: 'A tongue that cries _mamma_ and _papa_' For his present purpose, he complains, he has not in Italian an adequate supply of rough high-sounding rhymes; but at least he will use only the best words that can be found. In another work (_De Vulg. El._ ii. 7) he instances _mamma_ and _babbo_ as words of a kind to be avoided by all who would write n.o.bly in Italian.

[798] _Amphion_: Who with his music charmed rocks from the mountain and heaped them in order for walls to Thebes.

[799] _The giant's feet_: Antaeus. A bank slopes from where the giants stand inside the wall down to the pit which is filled with the frozen Cocytus. This is the Ninth and inmost Circle, and is divided into four concentric rings--Cana, Antenora, Ptolomaea, and Judecca--where traitors of different kinds are punished.

[800] _Thy steps_: Dante alone is addressed, the speaker having seen him set heavily down upon the ice by Antaeus.

[801] _A frozen lake_: Cocytus. See _Inf._ xiv. 119.

[802] _Tabernicch_: It is not certain what mountain is here meant; probably Yavornick near Adelsberg in Carniola. It is mentioned, not for its size, but the harshness of its name.

[803] _Pietrapana_: A mountain between Modena and Lucca, visible from Pisa: Petra Apuana.

[804] _Time of year_: At harvest-time, when in the warm summer nights the wearied gleaner dreams of her day's work.

[805] _To where we blush_: The bodies of the shades are seen buried in the clear gla.s.sy ice, out of which their heads and necks stand free--as much as 'shows shame,' that is, blushes.

[806] _With breast, etc._: As could be seen through the clear ice.

[807] _Fettered fast_: Binding up their eyes. In the punishment of traitors is symbolised the hardness and coldness of their hearts to all the claims of blood, country, or friends.h.i.+p.

[808] _Their father Albert's_: Albert, of the family of the Counts Alberti, lord of the upper valley of the Bisenzio, near Florence. His sons, Alexander and Napoleon, slew one another in a quarrel regarding their inheritance.

[809] _Cana_: The outer ring of the Ninth Circle, and that in which are punished those treacherous to their kindred.--Here a place is reserved for Gianciotto Malatesta, the husband of Francesca (_Inf._ v. 107).

[810] _Arthur's lance_: Mordred, natural son of King Arthur, was slain by him in battle as a rebel and traitor. 'And the history says that after the lance-thrust Girflet plainly saw a ray of the sun pa.s.s through the hole of the wound.'--_Lancelot du Lac_.

[811] _Focaccia_: A member of the Pistoiese family of Cancellieri, in whose domestic feuds the parties of Whites and Blacks took rise. He a.s.sa.s.sinated one of his relatives and cut off the hand of another.

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