The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

36 HELL. Canto X. Here like with like is buried evermore, ^ To each in due degree the heat is cast." So speaking to the right he went before, And 'twixt the turrets and the doomed we past. heretics in tlie burning tombs he mildly places Lather and the Lntherans, probably in anticipation of the horrors of free thonght which the great Keformer was to mflict npon the Christian world, miether. Dante would have placed him there, had he been gifted with prophecy, may at least be considered doubtful. CANTO X. Farinata degli Uberti, the Ghibeline leader, and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, the Guelph, rise from the same tomb and converse with Dante. The latter inquires about the welfare of his son Gruido, Dante's great friend, and the former predicts Dante's exile. He explains to Dante that although able to see indistinctly future events, the spirits are entirely ignorant of what is at the time going on in the world, unless they are informed by spirits lately arrived from there. Now by a narrow street we onwards wind, Between the region's walls and those in pain, My master and I following close behind. ** O virtue chief, that through this fell domain Guidest me," said I, " as you will'st to hie, * Speak now and satisfy my wishes fain. The people who beneath these tombstones lie, Can they be seen ? Already are revealed The open lids, and no one watches nigh." And he to me : " They all will then be sealed When from Jehoshaphat's dread vale of fame Each brings his body, now on earth concealed. Their burial-place on this side do they claim With Epicurus, all his followers weak. Who make the soul as mortal as the frame. ^^ But you, in that demand which you did make, Within this place shall soon be satisfied, And also in the wish you did not speak." And I : ** Kind leader, I would never hide From you my heart, except to be more brief, ** To which your lesson was even now applied." " O Tuscan, through the abodes of fire and grief. Who living go with the speech so fair. Please you to rest you here for short relief. Line 18. '* And also in the wish you did not speak." That of conversing with some of the heretics, amongst whom FariDaia and his companion are placed amongst the Epicureans, since they did not believe in the immortality of the soul.

Canto X. HELL. 87 Your words at once all manifest declare ^ That you were bom in that fair land of pride, To which I haply wrought too great despair." Suddenly issuing forth these words were cried From one of the arched graves, on which I drew In fear a little nearer to my guide. But he addressed me : ** Turn, what do you do P Lo, Farinata there erect has risen ; From the waist upwards you can wholly yiew. Already on his face was fixed my vision, When slowly he upreared his brow and breast,. As if he held all Hell in great derision. My leader's bands, cordial and ready, prest Me towards him, through the sepulchres malign,. Saying, '' Your words must frankly be addresst. Soon as I stood before his grave's confine He looked at me awhile,, then with disdain He asked me, '' What was your ancestral line F' My chiefs advice to follow I was fain, So nothing I concealed, but all avowed. On which he somewhat raised his brows,, and then ^ Spake to me : " They were adversaries proud To me, my predecessors, and my side, Therefore to exile twice their heads I bowed." " If they were banished each time,*' I replied, " They came back to their homes from o'er the seas ; ^ Unto your friends that art has been denied." Then into view there rose up by degrees A shadow by his side, who showed his face, I think that he had risen on his knees. Line 32. " Lo, Farinata there erect has risen." Farinata degli TJberti, the great Ghibeline leader, oommanded in the battle of Monte Aperto, near the river Arbia, when the Florentines were routed with great slan^hter. Although Dante, the Ghibeliiie poet, places the Ghibeline chief in his Inferno, in ». few broad lines he draws for nim the grandest character introduced into the poem. The pains of Hell have no effect upon his indomitable pride; he makes no allusion to his sufferings, he makes no boast of f ortitude^ but one f eelS' that from that soul of adamant the petty tortures of this material Hell are as ineffectual in their object as those hurled b^ the savage Jove of the Pagan creed against the calm Prometheus. Farmata is the impersonation of the iaflexiUe aristocrat of the Middle Ages. Line 62. '* Then into view there rose up by degrees A shadow by his side." Cavalcante Cavaloanti, father of Guide, the bosom friend of Dante, whom the father therefore expects to see in his company. Guide was a celebrated poet of the time, with a reputation equal to Dante's own, until the publication of the " Divina Commedia." Guide, however, preferred philosophy to poetry, which is ^nerally given as the explanation of Dante's answer that he might have disdamed Virgil for his guide. The pride of the poor suffering father in his son and his intense affection are porbrayed in the most touching manner in the f oUowing lines.

He looked around me anxiously through space, As though some other with me he would see ; But when his hope had wholly given place, Weeping he said, " If through this prison free To wander you through genius do attain, Where is my son, and wherefore not with you ?*' " Not of myself I come here," I explain, " He who awaits me there has been my guide ; Perchance your Guide held him in disdain/* His question and the punishment descried, Already this man's name had made me know ; Therefore at once so fully I replied. Instant he rose erect and cried out, ** How ? Saidst you he held ? and does he liye no more ? Does not the sweet light smite his dear eyes now P" When he perceiyed that I made pause before Answering that question eagerly addresst. He fell down prone, and forth appeared no more. But the other mighty soul, at whose request I still remained, changed not his haughty mien, Nor bent his form, nor bowed his lofty crest ** And if," continuing his former strain, " They have," he said, " that art for evil learned, That gives me torment than this bed more keen. But not lor fifty times there shall be burned, The torch of Hecate, who rules here, Ere you shall know how dear that axt is earned. So mayst you rule upon the sweet earth's sphere. Say, 'gainst my fnends its every law throughout, Say, wherefore is that people so severe ?" Whence I to him : " The slaughter and the rout Which made the Arbia's wave run tinged with red, Within our temple made them raise such shout." Then slowly and with sighs he shook his head ; '* I was not there alone, and none supposed That without cause to such a length we sped. But there I was alone when 'twas proposed By every one to march on Florence straight; Alone in open council I opposed. Line 82. " So mayst you rale upon the sweet earlh's sphere," &c. Farinata co^ares Dante by all his hopes of saooess in life to explain why the Florentines always omitted his funily, the Uberti, from every advantage granted to the other Ghibelines. Line 91. '* Bat there I was alone when 'twas proposed." Allnding to a oonncil held at Empoli, when the Siennese general proposed to destroy Florence, which Farinata alone of the Florentine GhibeUne leaders opposed.