The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixi '* Kuc omnis turba ad ripas effasa ruebat, Matres atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita Magnaninam heroum, pueri innuptsBque puelke, Impositique rogis juvenes ante ora parentum : Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto Quam multsB glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus Trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis." Lines 806-812. So we have in Dante ; — " A crowd that throng the bank of a great stream, And said, ' O master, unto me now mete To know what race are these, and why they seem So anxious to cross o'er to the other side. As I discover by this feeble beam/ " " HeU," III., lines 71-75. And again : — *' Just as the withered leaves of autumn fall, The one upon the other, till the bough To earth yields all its garment, as a pall ; The evU seed pf Adam downwards, so Throw themselves one by one from that sad shore. At signs, like bird that to the call does go." "HeU," III., Unas 112-117. Although the simile of the birds is changed, the new simile adopted by Dante was unquestionably suggested by the recollection of the birds coupled with the leaves in Virgil. The desire of the shades to cross the river has of course a different reason in each poem : in Dante, where evil souls pass only for punishment : — ^' So spurs them onwards, justice all divine. That to desire is changed their fear o' the rod." Lines 125, 126. In Virgil the shades of those whose bodies have not found a grave cannot pass, and hence follows the pathetic meeting of ^neas with the shade of Falinurus, drowned in his last voyage, who beseeches his leader to take hiTir) with him over the black river. But the Sibyl rejects his intercession, and tells him to abandon his useless prayer. ^' Desine fisita Deum flecti sperare precando"

Ixii THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. — a line ooncemiiig whicli Dante demands explanation from Virgil in the sixth Canto of the " Purgatory," as being in opposition to the cry of all the spirits there, for prayer to assist them in their purification, to the text of which Canto, lines 28 to 48, 1 refer the reader. Both in the " iBneid" and in Dante Charon at first refuses to accept a living freight. In Virgil, ^' Sic prior adgreditur dictis, atque increpat ultro : Quisquis es, armatus qui nostra ad flumina tendis, Fare age, quid venias, jam istinc, et comprime gressum." Lines 387—389. The last line is curiously recalled by Dante on another occasion, when in Canto XII. the Centaur stops him with almost the same formula : — " Ditel costinci, se non Tarco tiro." He continues : — " Umbrarum hie locus est, Somni Noctisque soporse : Corpora viva nefas Stygia vectare carina." Lines 390, 391. As in Dante, " But you, O soul still living, stand aside ; Depart from these, whom Death has made his own." " HeU," III., lines 88, 89. In the " Inferno" Virgil silences Charon by the expression of the will of a higher power. In the ".ffineid" the Sibyl overpowers him by the sight of the spell, the golden bough, " Tumida ex ira tum corda residunt ;" or, as Dante more vividly expresses it, " The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew Of that dread pilot of the living lake," As MnesA enter the bark. '* Gemuit sub pondere cymba Sutilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem." Lines 413, 414. Dante fja>lls as it were in slumbering swoon at the bank of the river, and does not know how he crosses it. In the next Canto we find him on the other bank. But the touch of the spirit bark sinking under mortal weight is not forgotten :

THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGI. Ixui we have it on a later occasion. When they cross to the Citj of Dis, over the lake, in Phlegjas' boat : — " M7 leader then descended in the bark, And made me enter at his side ; the strain Only, when I was in, it seemed to mark. Soon as my guide and I our seats had ta'en, Cutting the water goes the ancient prow, More than its wont, when others cross that main.'* " HeU," VIII., Uaes 25-«0. After crossing Acheron, ^neas finds Cerberus lying in a cave 'opposite, whom the Sibyl drugs with a medicated cake, and they pass on. ''.Cerberus hsBC ingens latratu regna trifauci Personat, adyerso recubans immanis in antro. Cui rates, horrere videns jam colla colubris, Melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam Objecit. lUe fame rabida tria guttura pandens Corripit objectam, atque immania terga resolvit Fusus humi totoque ingens extenditur antro. Occupat .tineas aditum custode sepulto, Eyaditque celer ripam inremeabilis undsd." Lines 417—426. Dante places Cerberus as the guardian of the third circle, where gluttony is punished, himself its personification. " Wild Cerberus, of twofold nature rare. With three throats hurls out the doglike bark Upon the people that are cowering there. His eyes are red, his greasy beard is dark, His belly large and fingers armed with nails ; He tears, and flays, and rends the spirits stark. * * * * My leader stretches out his hand and draws A clod of earth, the which with forceful blow He drove right into his voracious maws. Like to a dog, that barking but to show His longing, eats up food with quiet mien, And only fought to fill his hunger, so Were quieted at once the jaws obscene Of the demon Cerberus, who so dins the souls That they would very gladly deaf have been." *• Hell," Canto VI., lines 13—83.