The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

CANTO XIX. Dante describes the third viJley, in which Simonists are panished by being buried head downwards in roond apertures of the rook, their legs from the knees downwards being alone visible, which they kick oonvuLsively, while tlie soles of the feet burn with a lambent name.

Yirgil bean Dante dotm the impasaable bank into the bottom of the vaUey, where he converses with the soul of Pope Nicholas the Third, and bitterly rebukes him for his Simony and prostitution of his high office. Simon Maqus ! thj followers base, The things of God that aye with piety Should wedded be, rapacious ye disgrace With gold and silver in adultery ! Now fits it that for you the trumpet blare, ^ Since yi this third division there ye be !

Already in the sequent tomb we were Mounted above its high bridge in that part Which o'er the centre of pits it strikes sheer. O highest wisdom, how complete the art ^ Thou shewest in the Heavens, and Earth, and Hell, And in thy virtue how most just thou art ! Along the sides and in the bottom fell I saw the livid stones all full of holes.

All of one size and rounded like a weU. ^ Not larger or more small appeared their boles Than those which in my own St. John's fair shrine Are made as places for baptising souls ;

CixrTo XIX HELL. 71 And one of which, not many years long syne, To save a child that drowned within I broke ; *® Let this avowal clear that deed of mine. Out of the aperture of each there stuck A sinner*s foot and legs up to the knee, While all the rest was left within to choke. Both feet were lit of all that company, *' For which so strongly did thev jerk and throe From bands and withes they kad at once burst free.

As oily things when burnt are wont to glow, With flame o'er all their surface wandering quick, So were those feet ablaze from heel to toe. ^* " My master, who is that one that doth kick In torment more than all his comrades here ? I asked, " and whom a redder flame doth lick ?

And he : " If thou art willing I will bear Thee downwards thither by yon sloping way. ^* His person and his sin from him thou'lt hear.'' And I : " What pleaseth thee is welcome aye ; Thou art my lord and know'st that to thy will I cling, and knowest all I do not say. Then did we mount above o'er the fourth hill ; *° We turned and to the left descended soon Down to the hole-filled bottom straight and still.

My gentle master did not place me down From off his hip till we had reached the hole Of him who with his legs made all his moan. " Whoever thou mayst be, O wretched soul Who there art fixed head downwards like a stake, Give audience," said I, "if in thy control. I stood there like a friar who doth take Confession from a murderer buried quick, *^ Who calls to him some respite still to make.

And he cried out : " Art thou arrived so quick, Already there art standing, Boniface P Some years was out that prophecy oblique. Line 21. Dante appears to have been aocnsed of sacrilege for breaking up this baptistery, of wnich he here solemnly affirms his innocence. Line 49.

The old punishment for murderers in Florence was to bnry them aliTe head downwards, and Dante aptly compares himself to a friar taking^ a confession from such a victim, who still calls out that he has somethmg farther to oonfess to delay his doom. Line 53.

The Pope in this hole mistakes Dante for his own successor in the Papacy, Boniface YIII., still living, and whom he did not expect to arrive so soon, owing to a prophecy he had read which promised him a longer life, and to which he aJludes in the next line. The "lady fair" in line 66 is the Papacy.

72 HELL. Canto XIX. Art thou so soon then wearied of the place *^ For which such lady fair with cunning planned, Thou didst not fear to win and then disgrace ?*' Like unto those who do not understand That which is answered to them did I bide As scorned, not knowing what to redemand. ^ " Tell to him quickly," then my Virgil cried, " Not he, not he am I whom thou dost weet.

And I, as was imposed on me, replied, On which the spirit wholly writhed his feet, Then deeply sighing and with voice of woe ^ Said to me : " What wouldst have me then repeat ? If to know who I am concerns thee so That for such purpose thou this bank hast paced, That I have worn the Papal mantle know ; And of the Bear a worthy son, in haste ^° Desirous to advance the little Bears, There riches, here myself in purse I placed.

Beneath my head are all the other peers Who doing Simony preceded me. Within the hollowed stone concealed in layers. ^* I shall sink downwards in my time when he Will come who I at first believed thou wert, That sudden question when I made to thee. But I already am far longer hurt With feet thus cooked, and turned thus upside down, ^ Than he with red-flame feet will here revert.

Since after him, with laidlier renown, Will come a lawless shepherd from the West, Such as befitteth him and me to crown. A second Jason will he prove at least, ^ Like him in Maccabees to whom was pliant His king, as France will be to his behest. I know not if I was not too defiant. And yet I answered him in such a metre. " Ah, tell me now what treasure of his client *° Line 70.

Pope Innocent III. was of the Orsi family of Borne ; he therefore calls tlie younger branches of that family whom he advanced the Orsetti, or little Bears. Line 72. " There riches, here myself in purse I placed. On earth he put riches in his purse, by which he placed himself in the hole in Hell. The translation in the text is verbal. Line 83. Bertrand, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who was elected Pope in 1305, and assumed the name of Clement V.

To please his kins, Philip the Fourth of France, he transferred the Holy See from Borne to Avignon, and Innocent III. prophesies that he will speedily relieve Boniface from the outer station ia the hole. Line 90. The following indignant burst against the errors of the Papacy is justly celebrated as amongst the finest parts of the poem.