The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

Who like an eagle soars o'er all in air. When they had briefly spoke themselves among, They turned to me with salutation kind. And on my master's face the sweet smile sprung ; Yet greater honour they to me assigned, " ^^ Since they elected me amongst their band. That I was sixth amidst such noble kind. So towards the light we all together wonned. Speaking of things best kept in silence here. Just as was best their utterance in that land. ^^ Unto a noble castle we drew near. Seven times encircled by a lofty wall, And round defended by a river clear. O'er this as on firm earth our footsteps fall. And through the seven gates passing, with those wise, ^^® Into a meadow green we entered all. People they were with slowly moving eyes. And great authority was in their port, Earely they spake with sweet- voiced cadences. Then we withdrew into a further court, ^^* An open place, both lofty and serene, Where all could be beheld who there resort. And straightway there upon the enamelled green Were shown me the great souls who there arise — Well may I boast of all whom I have seen. ^^ I saw Electra 'midst large companies, 'Mongst whom I Hector and Eneas knew. And armed CsBSar with the falcon eyes ; Camilla, Penthesilea, past my view On the other side, and the Latin king embraced ^^* Sate with his daughter there, Lavinia true. Brutus I saw, the one who Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Julia, and Cornelia wise, And Saladin, in lonely grandeur placed. Then when I raised a little more my eyes, ^^ I saw the master of all those who know, Seated with those who seek philosophies. Line 131. *'I saw the master of all those who know." Aristotle.

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Canto V. HELL. l7 All gaze on him, and all their reverence show. There Socrates and Plato I beheld, Who o'er all others nearest to him go. Democritus, our earth as chance who held, Diogenes and Anaxagora, Zeno and many more his followers swelled.

I saw the searcher into every trait, Dioscorides I mean ; Orpheus I saw, TuUy and Linus, moral Seneca ; Euclid, the soul of geometric law, With Avicenna and Hippocrates, And he who the great Commentary did draw. I cannot recapitulate all these. Since the long theme compels me to despair. As speech must oft fall short of truth's degrees. Our company of six divideth there ; My chief conducts me by another way.

Out of the stillness to the trembling air, ^*® And now I come where no more shines the day. Line 139. " I »a,w the searcher into every trait, Dioscorides I mean. Literally, " The good searcher of the how/' or qualities of things. Line 144. " And he who the great Commentary did draw. Averroes, the great Arabian physician, who translated and commented on the works of Aristotle.

With Avicenna and Saladin he is the only modern mentioned by Dante amongst the great men in Limbo. A list of names like the above is easily translated into blank verse, but the exigencies of the terza rima have here driven me to sore straits, and forced me to omit one or two names introduced by Dante. CANTO V. Dante enters the second circle of Hell, where he linds Minos, the judge, who endeavours to stop his progress.

Yirgil having taken him wimin, he sees there the punishment of carnal sinners, who are for ever tost about by furious winds. Amongst Ihe condemned he pees and converses with Francesca of Rimini and her lover, and falls fainting to the ground with pity at their fate. So I descended from the outer vale Down to the second, which less space confines. And pain as much the more as causeth wail.

There standeth Minos, horrible, and prins ; At the entrance he examineth betimes, * And folding each around doth judge their sins. Line 6. ''And folding each around doth judge their sins. Minos, as explained in the following lines, pronounces to which grade of Hell sinners are doomed by encircling them so many times with his tail.

The idea is a ludicrous one, but the marvel is that at the age in which Dante wrote he did not commit more errors of taste of this nature. C

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18 HELL. Canto V. I say, that when those souls, bom in ill times, Come before him, they straightway all things tell, And he, that learned connoisseur in crimes, Fitteth for each its proper place in Hell. So many times he girds them with his tail To show the grade in which each soul must dwell. The crowds that stand before him never fail ; They go, each one by turns, to the judgment room ; They speak, and hear, and vanish in the vale. *' O thou that comest to this house of gloom," Said Minos to me when he saw me nigh, Leaving awhile his ministry of doom, ** Look how thou enterest, and in none rely ; Be not deceived because so wide the door." ^ Then said my master to him, " Why this cry ? Bar not his £a.ted entrance on this shore ; So is it willed above where will can do That which it pleases : do not question more." Now there begin the cries of anguish true " To be heard plainly : straightway I alight Where strikes the roar of much lament anew. I came into a place deprived of light. That bellowed like a stormy sea represt, And struggling with the adverse wild winds' might. ^ The infernal whirlwind that can never rest Hurries along the spirits in its whirl, And soaring strikes them onwards at its 'hest. Before the ruin as they wildly swirl, There they shriek out, and there lament and 'plain, ^ And 'gainst Heaven's virtue all their curses hurl. Then did I understand that this was pain Eeserved for those who sin in carnal things, And over reason their desires maintain. And, like the summer starlings, stretch their wings ^ In the cold time, in large and ample train. So that wild wind those evil spirits swings Hither and thither, up and down again ; No hope can comfort them of far repose For evermore, nor even of lesser pain.

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