The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

CANTO XIV. The poets leach the boundary of the wood and see before them the third compartment of this circle, a plain of burning sand, where are punished in various ways those who Imve committed violence against God, Nature, and Art. Amongst the first they see Gapanens, one of the seven before Thebes. They reach a rivnlet of blood, the river of Phlegethon, which traverses the burning desert, and whose petrified margins a^ord Dante a passage across the sand.

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62 HELL. Cahto ZIY. LOTE of my country urged me with such force That I collected aJl &e scattered leaves, And gave them back to him, already hoarse. We came then to the boundary where one leares The second circle, entering on the third, ^ Where Justice all its frightful skill conceives — To make quite manifest things yet imheard, I say, before a vast expanse we stood, Witiiin whose bed no vegetation stirred. Its circling garland was the dolorous wood^ As unto that the stream of misery ; Skirting the edge our way we here pursued. The space was filled with sand, minute and dry. Fashioned not other than that desert drear Erst trod by Cato when compelled to fly. O vengeance of great God ! with what a fear You should be held, by all who read in awe That which before my eyes was visibly clear I Of naked spirits many a troop I saw. Who all were wail^g with most wretched sound* And seemed subjected unto diverse law. Some of them lay supinely on the ground ; Some of them sate up gathered in a heap. And others without pausing moved around. Most numerous were they who motion keep, ^ And least in number who in torment lay, But these cried out with anguish for more deep. O'er the whole waste of sand in slow delay There rains down enormous flakes of flame. Like snow in Alps upon a windless day. ^ Such Alexander, when his army came To India's hottest regions, o'er his host Saw &lling to the earth in living flame. The which he met by trampling in the dust By his trained bands, what time the vapours meet ^ No other flame, and then are easiest crusht. So the eternal ardour here down beat. From which the sand, like tinder 'neath the steel. Kindled for greater pain to double heat. Lroe 15. " Eist trod biy Cato when compelled to fly." The Libyan desert, o'er whioh Cato, after his defeat with Pompey, led the remainfl of ma army to join King JnVa» as desoribed by Lncan. Line 85. What time the vapours meet No other flame, and then are easiest crosht." In the night-time. This somewhat apocryphal story of Alexander's Indian campaign is supposed to be taken from a letter of Alexander to his teacher, Aristotle, aocording to Yenturi.

Canto XIV. HELL. 68 Aye without respite was the dancing reel *® Of miserable hands, now here, now there. Shaking aside each flake they newly feel. " Master," I said, " who did the victory bear 'G-ainst all things save the demons fixed in deed> Who at the city's gate did boldly dare ; ** Who is that lofty form that does not heed The burning, and lies there in grim disdain, As if this rain oonld ripen not such seed ?" And he himself, aware that I was &in Concerning him to ask my leader, cried, "^ '' Such as in life in death I so remain. If Jove should weary Vulcan as he plied, From whom in wrath he took the bolt so keen With'which he smote me on the day I died. Or should he weary the Cyclopean train, " Working by turns in Mongibello's forge. Crying, * Oood Vulcan, help, O help again !* Just as he did in Flegra's bloody gorge. And dart his bolts at me with all his might. His vengeance ne'er as triumph could he urge.** ** Then cried my leader unto him outright, So loud I ne'er had heard him speak before, " O Capaneus in your own despite. Your untamed pride makes punishment the more ; No martyrdom except your madness fell ^ Could to your fury pain's full measure pour.** Then he returned to me with gentler spell. Telling me, *' One of the seven kings was he Who Thebes besieged ; he held, and seems holds still, Otod in contempt, his worth of low degree ; '® But as I said to him, his own disdain Makes for his breast the fittest frippery. Now come behind me and with care maintain Your feet from stepping on the burning sand, But closely to the wood your path retain." " In silence we continued till at hand From out the wood a streamlet bubbling rose. Whose redness makes my hair with horror stand. From Bulicame so the rivulet flows. Whose healing wave the harlots there divide — ** Thus downwards through the sand this gliding goes. Line 56. " Mongibello's forge." Mount Stna. Line 68. ** Mem'B bloody gorge." The battle-field where in Thessaly the giants were finally destroyed by Jupiter. bine 79. ** From Bulicame so the rivulet flows." A medicinal spring near Viterbo, the waters of which are stated to have passed by a house of ill-fame.