...turn'd, Nor Hell a fury, like a woman seorn'd. — William Congreve 'i'ht> Mourning Bride In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood astray, Gone from the path direct. —Dante Aligbieri Iitforno hey say everything happens for a reason. I suppose it can be argued that...

...aspra e forte che nel pensier rinova la paura! Tant'e amara che poca e piu morte. . . . ["In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood,...dismay Renews, in bitterness not far from death...."] How long Beatrice's godlike lover had wandered in the "dark wood" he does not tell us. When Lord Byron...

...mortal selfness. But when one clings to that idea of an immortal soul he follows Dante, In the midst of this our mortal life I found me in a gloomy wood, astray, gone from the path direct, and e'en to know the way it were no easy task. Even Jesus, himself, dallied with that temptation in its most insiduous...

...the solitary shore, And sing in louder strains the heav'nly freight. (Boyd 18d2a: 93) In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray Clone from the path direct: and e'en to tell, It were no easy task, how savage wild That forest, how...

...personages, with whom he converses. All the world knows the opening lines of the Inferno : "In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood...dismay Renews, in bitterness not far from death." He encounters three wild beasts, a leopard, a lion, and a wolf, which represent the three evils, the...

...life's promiscuous drama. Thus Dante, in his vision, saith; " In the midway of this our mortal life, 1 found me in a gloomy wood, astray, Gone from the path...how robust and rough its growth, Which to remember onljr my dismay Renews, in bitterness not far from death. Yet to discourse of what there good befell,...

...tenebris. " Dante describes the entrance to the Inferno in a similar style — (Gary's Translation) : "E'en to tell It were no easy task, how savage wild...growth, Which to remember only my dismay Renews." " But when a mountain's foot I reached, when down The valley that had pierced my heart with dread I...

...LC Ev^rard, US Forest Service H I found me in a gloomy wood, astray and e f en to tell It were not easy task, how savage wild That forest, how robust and rough its growth." —said Dante; "thick as leaves on Vallombrosa" said Milton. The .American reading these passages OEmediately...