The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

Canto XXXIV. HELL. 129 (With fear I frame the verse) we'd reached unto ^® There, where the shades with ice were covered quite, And like to motes in glass were visible through. Some were laid out at length, some stood upright, Some on their heads, and others on their feet, Others like bows, with head to foot drawn tight. ^* When we had gone as far as seemM meet Unto my master, to me to display. The creature who had erst the face so sweet. He moved from front of me, and bade me stay. Saying, " Lo Lucifer ! and lo the place ^^ Where you must arm your courage for the fray." How frozen I became, and weak of grace, From writing, reader, let me now be shrived. For every speech were weak such state to trace. I did not die, and yet no longer lived ; ^* Think for yourself, if you have Fancy's bloom. What I became, of death and life deprived. The emperor of that all-dolorous home. From mid-chest issued upwards from the ice ; And to a giant's height I nearer loom, ^ Then would two giants for his arms suffice ; How great the ^hole must be, consider now. To answer to such part in fit device. If he was once as fair as hideous now, And 'gainst his Maker raised his impious eyes, ^ Full well from him would all contention flow. O how his image filled me with surprise When I beheld three faces to his head ! The one before hued with vermilion dyes : The other two, which unto this were wed, ^ Were o'er the centre of each shoulder broad, And at the crest together filleted. The right with hue 'twixt white and yellow glowed, The left had such a colour, as they bear Who come from where the Nile has overflowed. ** Line 38. The three faces of Lucifer are thonght by Lombardi to represent the three then known quarters of the world, the red representinj? Europe, the yellow Asia, and the black Africa. Judas Iscariot, however, fills the place of victim to the red face, and the two chief Bo man conspirators against Julius GsBsar occupy the other two. The selection of the latter two victims is characteristic of Dante's fundamental idea, the necessity of an empire for the world like that which Caesar raised, and of one Supreme Church distinct entirely from secular rule. Treason against either of these separate empires was almost equally criminal, and Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are chosen as the three most severely punished in Hell on this account ; perhaps more as types than realities.

130 HELL. Canto XXXIV. BeneatK each face two vasty wings did rear Of size that suited such a bird of prey : Sails of such size at sea I've witnessed ne''er. They were not feathered, but in bat-like way Were fashioned, and for ever round they sweep, *° So that three winds spring upwards at their play. Cocitus thence was frozen to its deep ; With six eyes wept he, and the falling tears With bloody slaver o'er three chins did drip. With the teeth of every mouth he cranching tears ** A sinner, as within a mashing mill. So that to three such punishment he shares. To the one in front the biting was as nil Beside the clawing, since at times his back Was wholly flayed beneath that gripe of ill. " The spirit held below in fiercest rack, Judas Iscariot see," my master said, " Whose head's inside, the while his legs hang slack. Of the other two, who outwards have their head, Brutus is he who hangs from the black face grim ; See how he writhes, yet speaks no word of dread : The other's Cassius, he so large of limb. But the night rises, and 'tis time to go. Since we have seen the whole." As pleased to him, Around his neck my clinging arms I throw, ^^ And he a moment for his time did bide. And when the sweeping wings an opening show, Threw himself closely to that hairy side, And then from hair to hair descended low. Beneath the thick skin and the frozen tide. " When we had reached unto the part where grow The broadened hips, above the thighs outspread, My leader with fatigue, and travail slow, Where erst his legs had been, turned round his head, And clung unto the hair like one who climbs, • So that I thought that back to Hell we sped. " By stairs like these, acknowledge you betimes," My master panting like one wearied spake, " We fitly issue from such scene of crimes." Then out he sallied, through a rocky brake. And seating me upon the brink with care, Beside me courteously his place did take. I raised my eyes, and thought to witness there Lucifer, just as I beheld him last. And I beheld his legs upraised in air.

Gahto XXXIV. HELL. 131 If I then grew bewildered and aghast, The ignorant may think, who do not see What was the point which I had just now past. *' Bise on your feet/' the master said to me, " The way is long, the travel will be hard, •* Half through the third hour now the sun must be.'' It was no passage from a palace yard, There where we were, but Nature's prison this. With wretched flooring, and of light debarred. " Before I take my way from this abyss. My mastier," said I, when erect I stood, " To clear my error will not prove amiss. Where is the ice ? and how is this one glued Thus upside down ? and how in hours so few Has the sun from eve to mom his path pursued P" And he : " You'rt still according to your view On that side of the centre where I late Seized the ill worm the world that pierces through. Thoii were on that side while I went down straight. But when I turned, the centre you did clear, "® To which, from all parts, bodies gravitate : And now you'st reached beneath the hemisphere Which is opposed to that which the dry earth Covers, on whose meridian they did spear The man who lived without sin from his birth. "* You have your feet above the little pit Which lies opposite Giudecca's girth. 'Tis morning here when there the sun does set : And this one, of whose hair we made our stairs. Just as he was at first is fastened yet. "® In this place did he fall down from the spheres ; And the dry land, not visible, 'neath the sea. Seeking a veil, with terror disappears. Line 96. The time is here described accordiog to the Hebrew manner, and it means an honr and a half before noon. The reader will remember that in line 68 Virgil had told Dante the night was rising. This is necessary to compreiiend all the donbts to which Dante in the next few lines gives utterance, he imagining that when Virgil tnmed and commenced ascending they were retoming into Hell and not-issuing on the Antipodes. Line 111. " Al qnal si traggon d'ogni parte i pesi." A clear statement, made at the commencement of the foarteenth centnry, that the centre of the earth was the point to which all things gravitate. It was a decided prevision of a part of Newton's great cUscovery. Line 112. It was believed in Dante's time that the hemisphere known to mankind was alone habitable, and that the Antipodes was all ocean. The meridian of the known hemisphere was considered to be Jerosalem, where Christ's sacrifice was consummated.