a people which, as far as the throat, seemed to issue from that boiling stream. He shewed us a spirit by itself apart, saying: "He, in God's bosom, pierced the heart which still is venerated on the Thames." Then some I saw, who kept the head and likewise all the chest out of the river; and of these I recognised many. Thus more and more that blood grew shallow, until it covered the feet only: and here lay our passage through the foss. "As thou Sovra una gente, che infino alla gola Lo cuor che in sul Tamigi ancor si cola. 120 Poi vidi genti, che di fuor del rio Tenean la testa e ancor tutto il casso: E di costoro assai riconobb' io. Così a più a più si facea basso Quel sangue sì, che copria pur li piedi : Guy de Montfort, during mass and the elevation of the host in a church at Viterbo, stabbed Prince Henry, the son of Richard of Cornwall, and nephew of Henry III., in revenge for the death of his father Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Villani (vii. 39) says, "that the heart of Henry, in a golden cup, was placed on a pillar at London bridge over the 125 river Thames, for a memorial to the English of the said outrage." Some Italian commentators make ancor si cola mean "still drips," as if calling for vengeance: but that is quite a modern interpretation, and hardly deserves notice. Guy is put apart from the rest, on account of the circumstances and the place where his crime was committed. seest the boiling stream, on this side, continually diminish," said the Centaur, "so I would have thee to believe that, on this other, it lowers its bottom. more and more, till it comes again to where tyranny is doomed to mourn. Divine Justice here torments that Attila, who was a scourge on earth; and Pyrrhus and Sextus ; and draws eternal tears, which with its boiling it unlocks, from Rinier of Corneto, from Rinier Pazzo,3 who on the highways made so much war." Then he turned back, and by himself repassed the ford. Sì come tu da questa parte vedi Lo bulicame che sempre si scema, Disse il Centauro, voglio che tu credi, 130 Lo fondo suo, infin che si raggiunge E Pirro, e Sesto; ed in eterno munge 135 Le lagrime, che col bollor disserra, A Rinier da Corneto, a Rinier Pazzo, 1 Nessus keeps wading across the broad ford, at the same time that he is telling Dante how, on both sides of them, the stream deepens. 2 Pyrrhus, King of Epirus. Sextus the Pirate, son of Pompey. Sextus erat, magno proles indigna parente, &c. Lucan, vi. 420. 3 Two noted robbers and assassins, both on a great scale, in the time of Frederick II. The latter belonged to the noble family of the Pazzi in Florence. ARGUMENT. The Second Round, or ring, of the Seventh Circle; the dismal mystic Wood of Self-murderers. The souls of these have taken root in the ground, and become stunted trees, with withered leaves and branches; instead of fruit, producing poison. The obscene Harpies, insatiable foreboders of misery and despair, sit wailing upon them and devouring them. Pietro delle Vigne, the great Chancellor of Frederick II., is one of the suicides; and he tells Dante what had made him destroy himself, and also in what manner the souls are converted into those uncouth trees. Their discourse is interrupted by the noise of two spirits all naked and torn, who come rushing through the dense wood, pursued by eager female hell-hounds. The first of them is Lano, a Siennese; the second, Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan. Both had violently wasted their substance, and thereby brought themselves to an untimely end, and to this punishment. Dante finds a countryman, who, after squandering all his substance, had hanged himself; and hears him speak superstitiously about the calamities of Florence. CANTO XIII. NESSUS had not yet reached the other side,1 when we moved into a wood, which by no path was marked. Not green the foliage, but brown in colour; not smooth the branches, but gnarled and warped; apples none were there, but withered sticks with poison. No holts so rough or dense have those wild beasts, that hate the cultivated tracts, between Cecina and Corneto.3 Here the unseemly Harpies make their nest, who chased the Trojans from the Strophades with dismal note of future woe. Wide wings they have, NON era ancor di là Nesso arrivato, Non frondi verdi, ma di color fosco ; Non rami schietti, ma nodosi e involti; Non pomi v'eran, ma stecchi con tosco. Non han sì aspri sterpi nè sì folti Quelle fiere selvagge, che in odio hanno Che cacciâr delle Strofade i Troiani 5 10 1 Of the river of blood. 2 Lit.: "No roots, trunks, or shoots so rough," &c. 3 Cecina, a small river to the south of Leghorn; Corneto, a town in the Patrimony of the Church. The district between them is still wild, and entangled with forests and marshes. See the prophecy of Celano the Harpy, &c.; and its effect on the Trojans. Æn. iii. 245-262. and necks and faces human, feet with claws,1 and their large belly feathered. They make rueful cries2 on the strange trees. And the kind Master began to say to me: "Before thou goest farther, know that thou art in the second round; and shalt be, until thou come to the horrid sand. Therefore look well, and thou shalt see things that will confirm my speech." 994 Already I heard wailings uttered on every side, and saw no one to make them; wherefore I, all bewildered, stood still. I believe he thought that Ale hanno late, e colli e visi umani, Piè con artigli, e pennuto il gran ventre: Mi cominciò a dire; e sarai, mentre Cose, che daran fede al mio sermone. 15 20 1 Virginei volucrum vultus, fædissima ventris Proluvies, uncæque manus, et pallida semper Ora fame. Æn. iii. 216, &c. 2 Vox tetrum dira inter odorem. Ibid. 228. 3 In the third round. See canto xiv. 4 What I have said of Polydo rus. En. iii. 21-56. Some editions read: Che torrien fede al mio sermone, "which would take away belief from my speech," i.e. which would be incredible if I related them. The words in verse 48, &c., which made Foscolo adopt this reading, ought to have made him reject it. |
