Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers, Volume 1

ume

ce, fourteen miles high, divides the first of them from the second. The passages from the upper world to the entrance are various; and the descents from one circle to another are effected by the poet and his guide in different manners-sometimes on foot through by-ways, sometimes by the conveyance of supernatural beings. The crater he finds to be the abode of those who have done neither good nor evil, caring for nothing but themselves. In the first circle are the whole unbaptised world-heathens and infants-melancholy, though not tormented. Here also is found the Elysium of Virgil, whose Charon and other infernal beings are among the agents of torment. In the second circle the torments commence with the sin of incontinence; and the punishmen

ough a huge ravine. The poet and his guide, on their arrival at this spot, accordingly find their position reversed; and so conclu

NEY THRO

p, as he began to ascend it, he perceived the shoulders of the hill clad in the beams of morning; a sight which gave him some little comfort. He felt like a man who has buffeted his way to land out of a shipwreck, and who, though still anxious to get farther from his peril, cannot help turning round to gaze on the wide waters. So did he stand looking back on the pass that contained that dreadful wood. After resting a while, he again betook him up the hill; but had not gone far when he beheld a leop

om disuse. Dante loudly called out to him to save him, whether he was a man or only a spirit. The apparition, at whose sight the wild beasts dis

nd light of all poets, thou art my master, and thou mine author; thou alone the book from which I have gathered b

nd, and then the spirits that lived content in fire because it purified them for heaven; and then that he would consign him to other hands worthier than his own, which should r

in wisdom. But Virgil, after sharply rebuking him for his faintheartedness, told him, that the spirit of her whom he loved, Beatrice, had come down from heaven on purpose to commend her lover to his care

'n sua città p

ous admissions of Dante's teachers avowedly set reason at defiance,-retaining, meanwhile, their right of contempt for the impieties of Mahometans and Brahmins; "which is odd," as the poet says; for b

the road to the

e road to the ev

the road to th

e motive of my

wer, by consummate wisd

d thing, if not eternal

pe, all ye

in dark characters over a portal. "Master," s

bring no mistrust. Hither can come and live no cowardice. We have arrived at the place I told

ing on him with a cheerful countenance; and the Fl

things said in many languages, words of wretchedness, outcries of rage, voices loud and hoarse, and sounds of the smitings of hands one against a

ut themselves. These miserable creatures were mixed with the angels who stood neutral in the war with Satan. Heaven would not

Dante, "which makes the

able former life, make them so wretched, that they envy every other lot. Mercy

towards them in a boat; and as he came, he said, "Woe to the wicked. Never expect to see heaven. I come to bear you across to the dark r

said Virgil. "He has a passport

pecies, and the place, and the hour, and the seed of the sowing of their birth; and all the while they felt themselves driven onwards, by a fear which became a desire, towards the cruel river-side, which awaits every one destitute of the fear of God. The demon Charon, beckoning

burst into a sweat at every pore. A whirlwind issued from the lamenting ground, at

und that he was on the brink of a gulf, from which ascended a thunderous sound of innumerable groanings. He could see nothing d

at is to become of myself?" "It is pity, not fear

orld of sighs, which produced a trembling in the air. They were breathed by the souls of such as had died without baptism, men, women, and infants; no matter how good; no matter if they worshipped Go

t into heaven. Virgil told him there had, and he named them; to wit, Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, King David, obedient Abraham the patriarch, and Isaac, and J

who they were that thus lived apart from the rest. Virgil said that heaven thus favoured them by reason of their renown on earth. A voice was then heard exclaimi

were advancing. "That is Homer, the poets' sovereign. Next to h

right school of the loftiest of poets,

alutation, at which his master smiled and "further honour they did me," adds the father of Italian poe

the "enamelled green," [9] were pointed out to him the great spirits, by the sight of whom he felt exalted in his own esteem. He saw Electra with many companions, among whom were Hector and ?neas, and C?sar in armour with his hawk's eyes; and on another side he beheld old King Latinus with his daughter Lavinia, and the Brutus that expelled Tarquin, and Lucretia, and Julia, and Cato's wife Marcia, and the mother of the Gracchi, and, apart by himself, the Sultan Saladin. He then raised his eyes a little, and beheld the "master of those who know" [10] (Aristotle), sitting amidst the

nce on every one that comes, and intimates the circle into which each is to be plunged by the number of folds into which he casts his tail round about him. Minos admonished Da

ifled voices, buffeted the souls for ever, whirling them away to and fro, and dashing them against one another. Whenever it seized them for that purpose, the wailing and the shrieking was loudest, crying out against the Divine Power. Sometimes a wh

rgil who they were. "Who are these," said he, "coming h

that herself might be held blameless. She is Semiramis, of whom it is said that she gave suck to Ninus, and espoused him. Leading the multitude next to he

ho fought for love till it slew him; and Paris; and Tristan; and a thousand more who

d lighter than the rest. His conductor bade him wait till they came nigher, and then to entreat them gently by the love which bore them in that manner, and they would stop and speak with him. Dante waited his time

sed Dante, saying, that as he showed such pity for their state, they would have prayed hea

spirit is bowed to recollect. Love, which compels the beloved person upon thoughts of love, seized me in turn with a delight in his passion s

"such then was this love, so full of sweet thoughts; and such the pass to which it brought them! Oh, Francesca!" he cried, turning again to the sad couple, "thy suffering

ding the tale of Sir Launcelot, how love took him in thrall. We were alone, and had no suspicion. Often, as we read, our eyes became suspended,[14] and we changed colour; but one passage alone it was that overcame us. When we read how Genevra smiled, and how th

ed so bitterly, that the poet thought he should have died for pity. His se

erus, with red eyes and greasy black beard, large belly, and hands with claws, barked above the heads of the wretches who floundered in the mud, tearing, skinning, and dismembering them, as they turned their so

y one else, mention him. His countryman addressed him by it, though declaring at the same time that he wept to see him. Hog prophesied evil to his discordant native city, adding that there were but two just men in it-all the rest being given up to avarice, envy, and pride. Dante inquired by name respecting the fa

demon Plutus, as the poets were

lip, thou accursed wolf. No one can hin

d, like the sails of a ves

eternally rolling round it, one against another, with terrific violence, and so dashing apart, and returning. "W

eath the moon could have purchased them a moment's rest. Dante asked if none of them were to be recognised by their countenances.

ieces. In a quieter division of the pool were seen nothing but bubbles, carried by the ascent, from its slimy bottom, of the stifled words of the sullen. They were always saying, "We were sad and dark within us in the midst of the sweet sunshine, and now we live sadly in the da

for no longer time than it will tak

ey them. During their course a spirit rose out of the mire, looking Da

thou?" sa

answered the other; "

howl, accursed spirit,"

all over filth

but Virgil thrust him back, exclaiming, "D

sinner, nor is his memory graced by a single virtue. Hence the furiousness of his spirit now. How many kings are there at this moment lording it as gods, who shall

rgil, "and thou shalt,

and drenched him so horribly that (exclaims Dante

rgenti;" and the wild fool of a Florentine da

them to quit the boat and enter. But a thousand fallen angels crowded over the top of the gate, refusing to open it, and making furious gestures. At length they agreed to let Virgil speak with them inside; and he left Dante for a while, standing in terror without. The parley was in vain. They would not let them pass. Virgil, however, bade his compani

the right; and in the middle is Tisiphone." Virgil then hushed. The Furies stood clawing their bre

cried the Furies, looking d

, never again wilt thou see the light of day." And with these words he seized D

s and herdsmen fly before it. "Now stretch your eyesight across the water," said Virgil, letting loose his hands;-"there, where the smoke of the foam is thickest." Dante looked; and saw a thousand of the rebel angels, like frogs before a serpent, swept away into a heap before the coming of a single sp

as he arrived at the gate, touched it with a w

et that your torments are laid oil thicker every time ye kick against the Fates? Do ye forget

ing a word to the travellers. His countenance had suddenly a look of

o denied the existence of spirit apart from matter. The lids of the tombs remaining unclosed till the day of judgment, the soul of a noble Florentine, Farinata degli Uberti, hearing Dante speak, addressed him as a countryman, asking him to stop.[20] Dante, alarmed, beheld h

me one else. Being disappointed, the tears came into its eyes, and the sufferer said, "If

e," said Dante, "but that of one, wh

o longer the sweet light?" And with these words he dropped into his tomb, and was se

s to the lofty sufferer, requested to know how the gift of prophecy could belong to spirits who were ignorant of the time present. Farinata answered that so it was; just as there was a kind of eyesight which could discern things at a distance t

of boiling blood, on the strand of which ran thousands of Centaurs armed with bows and arrows. In the blood, more or less deep according to the amount of the crime, and shrieking as they boiled, were the souls of the Inflicters of Violence; and if any of them emerged from it higher than he had a right to do, the Centaurs drove him down with their arrows. Nessus, the one that bequeathed Hercules the poisoned garment, came galloping towards the pilgrims, bending his bow, and calling out from a distance to know who they were; but Virgil, disdaining his hasty character, would explain himself only to Chiron, the Centaur who instructed Achilles. Chiron, in consequence, bade Nessus a

fruit, but thorny poison. The Harpies wailed among the trees, occasionally showing their human faces; and on every side of him Dante heard lament

but thou couldst not use us worse, had we been serpents." The blood and

he poet could not speak for pity; so Virgil made the promise for him, inquiring at the same time in what manner it was that Suicides became thus identified with trees, and how their souls were to rejoin their bodies at the day of judgment. Piero said, that the moment the fierce self-murderer's spirit tore itself from the body, and passed before Charon, it fell

lack female mastiff's-leaving that of a suicide to mourn the havoc which their passage had made of his tree. He begged his countryman

kes of fire, which came down like a fall of snow. They were the souls of the Impious. Among them was a great spirit, who lay scornfully submitting himself to the fiery shower, as though it

ment. No martyrdom were sufficient for thee, equal to

in the air, after the manner of a beaver; but the point of the tail was occasionally seen glancing upwards. He was a gigantic reptile, with the face of a just man, very mild. He had shaggy claws for arms, and a body variegated all over with colours that ran in knots and circles, each within the other, richer than any Eastern drapery. Virgil spoke apart to him, and then mounted on his back, bidding his companion, who was speechless for terror, do the salve. Geryon pushed back with them from the edge of the precipice, like a ship leaving harbour;

and their legs only discernible, the soles of their feet glowing with a fire which made them incessantly quiver. Dante, going down the side of the gulf with Virgil, was allowed to address one of them who seemed in greater agony than the rest; and, doing so, the sufferer cried out in a malignant rapture, "Aha, is it thou that standest there, Boniface?[25] Thou hast come sooner than it was prophesied." It

into a rich man!" [26] The feet of the guilty pope spun with fiercer agony at these words; and Virgil, looking pleased on Dante, retur

; and Tiresias, who was transformed from sex to sex; and Aruns, who lived in a cavern on the side of the marble mountains of Carrara, looking out on the stars and ocean; and Manto, daughter of Tiresias (her hind tresses over her bosom), who wandered through the world till she came and lived in the solitary fen, whence afterwards arose the city of Mantua; and Michael Scot, the magician, with his slender loins;[28] and Eurypylus, the Grecian augur, who gave the signal with Calchas at Tr

turn away instantly out of the very horror that attracts him. "See-look behind thee!" said Virgil, dragging him at the same time from the place where he stood, to a covert behind a crag. Dante looked round, and beheld a devil coming up with a newly-arrived sinner across his shoulders, whom he hurled into the lake, and then dashed down after him, like a mastiff let loose on a thief. It was a man from Lucca, where every s

o his usual holy rebuke. For a while they let him alone; and Dante saw one of them haul a sinner out of the pi

Zanche, also a Sardinian. Ciampolo ultimately escaped by a trick out of the hands of the devils, who were so enraged that they turned upon the two pilgrims; but Virgil, catching up

ory, when his attention was called off by the sight of a cross, on which Caiaphas the High Priest was writhing, breathing hard all the while through his beard with sighs. It was his office to see that every soul which passed him, on its arrival in the place, was oppressed with the due weight. His

serpents-their bodies pierced and enfolded with serpents. Dante saw one of the monsters leap up and transfix a man through the nape of the neck; when, lo! sooner than a pen could write o, or i, the suffe

n, "amidst a shower of Tuscans. The beast Vanni Fucci am I, who l

ate what brought him hither. I knew the bl

I cannot resist compels me to let thee know, that I am here because I committed sacrilege and charged another with the crime; but now, mark me, that thou mayest hear something not to render this encounter so pleasant: Pistoia hates thy party of th

mpt with his thumb and finger towards heaven,

a knot behind his back. O Pistoia! Pistoia! why art not thou thyself turned into ashes, and swept from the face of the earth, since thy race ha

hose den upon earth often had a pond of blood before it, and to whom Hercules, in his rage, when he slew him, gave a whole hundred blows with his club, though the wretc

k on which they stood, crying, "Who are ye?" The pilgrims turned their eyes downwards, and beheld three s

n lately, but now a ser

to tell thee," says the poet, "be so; it is no marvel;

another like melting wax, the colours of their skin giving way at the same time to a third colour, as the white in a piece of burning paper recedes before the brown, till it all becomes black. The other two human shapes looked on, exclaiming, "Oh, how thou changest, Agnello! See, thou art neither two no

retched before him. The wounded man, fascinated and mute, stood looking at the adder's eyes, and endeavouring to stand steady on his legs, yawning the while as if smitt

silent, nor speak again of his serpent that was Cadmus, or his fountain that was Arethusa; for, says the Tuscan poet, I

rpent, as it rose from the ground, retreated towards the temples, pushing out human ears; that of the man, as he fell to the ground, thrust itself forth into a muzzle, withdrawing at the same time its ears into its head, as the slug does its horns; and each creature kept its impious eyes fixed on the other's, while the features beneath the eyes were changin

t that he recognised the unchanged one for another of his countrymen, Puccio the Lame. "Joy to thee, Florence

ier into the eighth gulf, where they saw innumerable flames, distin

, "are souls, each tormented w

"divided at the summit. Are

The sinners punished in this gulf were Evil Counsellors; and t

ide ocean; and how he sailed so far that he came into a region of new stars, and in sight of a mountain, the loftiest he ever saw; when, unfortunately, a hurrican

st his chance of paradise, by thinking Pope Boniface could at once absolve him from his sins, and use them for his purposes.[34] He was going to heaven, he said, by the help of St. Francis, who came on purpose to fetch him

his hands upon me!" And with these words the flame writ

ver to the banks of th

Schismatics, Heretics

e penalties of such as

ose whom t

punished in like manner upon all the schismatics in the place. They all walked round the circle, their gashes closing as they went; and on their reaching a certain point, a fiend hewed them open again with a sword. T

t for advising C?sar to cross the Rubicon; and Mosca de' Lamberti, an adviser of assassination, and one of the authors of the Guelf and Ghibelline miseries, holding up the bleeding stump

thy family,"

ess trunk about to come past him with the others. It held its severed head by the hair, like a lantern; and the head looked up at the two pilgrims, and said, "Woe is me!" The head was, in fact, a lantern to the paths of the trunk; and thus there were two separated things in one, and one in two; and how that could be, he only can tell who ordained it. As the figure came nearer, it lifted the head aloft, that the pil

sudden which added to his desire to stop. But Virgil asked what ailed him, and why he stood gazing still on the wretched multitude. "Thou hast not done so," continued he, "in any

i del Bello, a cousin of the poet's. Virgil said that he had observed him, while Dante was occupied with Bertrand de Born, pointing at his kinsman in a threatening manner. "Waste not a thought on him," concluded the Roman, "but

tended Alchemists, Coiners, Personators of other people, False Accusers, and Impostors of all such descriptions. They lay on one another in heaps, or attempted to crawl about-some itching madly with leprosies-some swollen and gasping with dropsies-some wetly reeking, like hands washed in winter-time. One was an alchemist of Sienna, a nation vainer than the French; another a Florentine, who tri

and thus obtained the pardon he despaired of. He says he felt like a man that, during an unhappy dream, wishes himself dreaming while he is so

ceived a multitude of lofty towers. He asked Virgil to what region they belonged; but Virgil said, "Those are no towers: they are giants, standing each up to his middle in the pit that goes round this circle." Dante looked harder; and as objects clear up by little and little in the departing mist, he saw, with alarm, the tremendous giants that warred against Jove, standing half in and half out of the pit, like the towers that crowned the citadel of Monteseggione. The one whom he saw plainest, and who stood with his arms hanging down on each side, appeared to him to have a face as huge as the pinnacle of St. Peter's, and limbs throughout in pro

shook with passion; and Dante thought he should have died for terror, the effect on the ground about him was so fearful. It surpassed that of a tower shaken by an earthquake. The poet expressed a wish to look at Briareus, but he was too far off. He saw, however, Ant?us, who, not having fought against heaven, was neither tongue-confounded nor shackled; and Virgil requested the "taker of a thousand

I have not, and therefore approach it with fear, since it is no jesting enterprise to describe the depths of the universe, nor fit for a tongue that babbles of fa

all others, to inhabit a place so hard to

n, and was still looking up at the height from which he had descended, when a voice close to him

at his feet so closely stuck together, that the very hairs of their heads were mingled. He asked them who they were, and as they lifted up their heads for astonishment, and felt the cold doubly congeal them, they dashed their heads a

erto?" The pilgrim at this question felt eager to know who he was; but the unhappy wretch would not tell. His countryman seized him by the hair to force him; but still he said he would not tell, were he to be scalped a thousand times. Dante

ry's standard," said Dante, "be dumb if thou

pass open to the enemy between Piedmont and Parma; and near him is the traitor for the pope, Beccaria;

er's, like a cowl; and Dante, to his horror, saw that the upper head was devouring the lower with all the eagerness of a man who is famished. The po

e to the heart to think of. It is a story to renew all my misery. But since it will produce this wretch his due infamy, hear it, and you

trusted him, and was betrayed into prison, there is no need to relate; but of his treatmen

then. If thou feel not for a pang like that, what is it for which thou art accustomed to feel? We were now all awake; and the time was at hand when they brought us bread, and we had all dreamt dreams which made us anxious. At that moment I heard the key of the horrible tower turn in the lock of the door below, and fasten it. I looked at my children, and said not a word. I did not weep. I made a strong effort upon the soul within me. But my little Anselm said, 'Father, why do you look so? Is any thing the matter?' Nevertheless I did not weep, nor say a word all the day, nor the night that followed. In the morning a ray of light fell upon us through the window of our sad prison, and I beheld in those four little faces the likeness of my own face, and then I be

his head, seized that other wretch again with his teeth, a

up the mouth of thy river, and drown every soul within thee. What if this Count Ugolino did, as report says he did, betray thy castles to the enemy? his children had not

ed, so as to be enclosed with them as in a crystal visor, which forced back the others into an accumulation of anguish. One of the sufferers begged Dante to relieve him of this ice, in order that he might vent a litt

, "art thou no longer,

p his body to a demon, who thenceforward inhabits it in the man's likeness. Thou knowest Branca Doria, who murdered h

Doria is still alive; he eats, drin

of boiling pitch in which thou sawest him, ere the soul of his slayer was in this place, and hi

ners, he said, were the only cou

o the core, why are ye not swept from the face of the earth? There is one of you whom you f

l, as they advanced: "behold t

a windmill in motion, as seen from a distance on a dark

en up in depths of pellucid ice, where they were seen in a variety of attitu

eminent for all fair seeming.[52] This was the figure th

him at the same time, and bidding him summon all his fortitude. Dante stood benumbed, t

ger than ever were beheld at sea, were in shape and texture those of a bat; and with these be constantly flapped, so as to send forth the wind that froze the depths of Tartarus. From his six eyes the tears ran down, mingling at his three chins with bloo

rutus, and the other Cassius. Cassius was very large-limb

rgil, "and all has been seen.

ipped round it, and so down his shaggy and frozen sides, from pile to pile, clutching it as they went; till suddenly, with the greatest labour and pain, they were c

s them; and so taking their departure, ascended a gloomy vault, till at a distance

Parea che l'ae

un to me is dark, And silent is the moon,

rsonal enemies, &c. The point is not of much importance, especially as a mystery was intended; but nobody, as Mr. Cary says, can doubt that the passage was suggested by one

tnot

'mperador ch

ribellante à

sua città per

tnot

oretti dal

i, poi che 'l s

tti aperti in

wers that with

losed, soon as

stems, all ope

d by the vulgar part of mankind, and his employment of it, nevertheless, as a salutary check both to the foolish and the reflecting;-to the foolish, as an alarm; and to the reflecting, as a parable. It is possible, in the teeth of many appearances to the contrary, that such may have been the case; but in the doubt that it affects either

ust be owned, bashful-has been allowed by posterity to be jus

tnot

, con occhi t

torita ne' l

do, con voc

has noticed the appearance, for the first tim

Il maestro di c

fe to Giovanni Malatesta, one of the sons, of the lord of Rimini. Paulo was her brother-in-law. They were surprised together by the

mbe, dal di

rte e ferme,

'aer dal vo

de la schie

ndo per l'

u l'affett

ome from where th

open wings, and

wafted by their

Dido's flock t

here we stood,

bring them had

now all tenderness for her lover, now angry at their slayer; watching the poet's face, to see w

tnot

maggio

arsi del t

mise

tnot

that the poet meant no more than he says, namely, that their eyes were simply "suspended"-hung, as it were, over the book, without being able to read on; which is what I intended to express (if I may allude to a produc

of R

tnot

l'uno spirto

ngeva sì, c

n così com'

me corpo m

ly admired for the correspond

spoke, the othe

woful, that a

h I should have

to the ground,

plies in the case of the lovers. The reading of such books was equally the taste of their own times; and nothing is more likely than the volume's having been found in the room where they perished. The Pagans could not be rebels to a law they never heard of, any more than Dante could be a rebel to Luther. But this is one of the absurdities with which the impious effrontery or scarcely less impiou

t Satan is a great choke-pear to the co

n, pape Sa

iscuss such points; and therefore I content myself with believing that the context implie

actions of gods were not to be questioned, in Dante's opinion, even though the gods turned out to be false Jugghanaut is as good as any, while he lasts. It is an ethi

reme irascibility. What a barbarous strength and confusion of ideas is there in this whole passage about him! Arrogance punished by arrogance, a Christian mother b

ngere e

aladetto,

on gli altr

kissing and e

a sd

ei che 'n te

ante

, molto

uffare in ques

f the Pagan names of Plu

city of Dis commence t

before the time of Dante, and had vanquished th

r, or known how to answer. But he died before the verses transpired; probably before they were writte

tnot

ggia non par c

obably (as English commentators have observed) in Milton

re of friarly hypocris

very of Discord

the possession of sheep. His wealth, and perhaps his derivatives, rendered him this instrument of satire. Th

a [Greek]. In reference to valises which open lengthways like a chest, Dante uses the word to signify those compartments which he feigns in his Hell." (Per similitudine di quelle valigie, che s'aprono per lo lungo, a guisa di cassa, significa quegli spartimen

, and one of the causes of Dante's exile. It is thus the p

of the Lateran by Constantine to Pope Sylveste

ly infernal sentime

pietà quand'

ves when it

ato," continues th

io divin pas

lings against the judgments of God?" The answer is: He that att

particular respecting his shape. The consignment of such men to hell is a mortifying instance of the great poet's participation in the vulg

p," exclaimed a hearer of this passage. No:-the exceptio

tnot

rno s

to da la gra

ferta, e guard

bly natural pictures of agoni

doubt, is the impulsive vehemence of the South. I have heard more blasphemies, in the course of half an hour, from the lips of an Italian postilion, than are probably uttered in England, by people not out of their senses, for a whole year. Yet the words, after all, were mere words; for the man was a good

e's sort, and robber on a large scale, is said to have been o

uch a poet as Dante; though it is curious to see how he selects inventions of this kind

ulted in his cloister by Pope Boniface on the best mode of getting possession of an estate belonging to the Colonna family, and being promised absolution for hi

h. He appears to have made a considerable impression, having thousands of followers, but was ultimately seized in the mountains where they lived, and burnt with his female companion Margarita, and many others. Landino s

under the breastplate of k

ergo del sen

which I have met with in the whole poem. It might be argued, perhaps, against the perfection of the passage, that a goo

nzia m'a

agnia che l'u

'osberg

ve beauty of the phrase; and

a rare instance of the meeting of phy

ail to notice this characteristic i

y in general which could have made Dante allow himself to be the person rebuked for having forgotten

ite a topic with the poets. The circumstance of the horn is taken f

el a, is admirably suited to the mouth of the vast, half-stupid s

tnot

nato li fe

ero in nav

of the original, raised himself, instead of saying rose, becau

sh, but the feeling they produce is not identical. The lesser fervour of the northern nations rende

r father's death they tyrannised over the neighbouring districts, and finally had a mortal quarrel. The name of Napoleon use

tnot

u, o destin

n

hristian reader

e 46: La

ccasioned the defeat of the Guelfs at Montaperto, in the year 12

betrayed the castles of Pisa to the Florentines, and

grounds for believing that the poet was too hasty in giving credit to parts of it, particularly the ag

ndous lampoon, as far as I am aware,

that he is cruel and false, out of hatred to cruelty and falsehood. But why then add to the sum of both? and towards a man, too, supposed to be suffering eternally? It is idle to discern in such barbar

creatura ch'ebbe

to render him an object of mere hate and dread, he has overdone and degraded the picture into caricature. A great stupid being, stuck up in ice, with three faces, one of which is yellow, and three mouths, each eating a sinner, one of those sinners being Brutus, is an object for

C?sar was guilty of treachery himself to the Roman people; second, that he, Dante, has put Curio in hell for advising C?sar to cross the Rubicon, though he has put the crosser among the good Pagans; and third, that Brutus was educated in the belief that the punishment of such treache

the good of it to the poor wretches, if we are to suppose it true? and what to the world-except, indeed, as a poetic study and a warning against degrading notions of God-if we are to ta