he lives, and still awaits long life, 26 so Grace before the time call him not unto herself." Thus spake the Master; and he in haste stretched forth the hands, whence Hercules of old did feel great stress, and took my Guide. Virgil, when he felt their grasp, said to me: "Come here, that I may take thee." Then of himself and me he made one bundle. Such as the Carisenda 27 seems to view, beneath the leaning side, when a cloud is going over it so, that it hangs opposed; such Antæus seemed to me who stood attent to see him bend: and at the time 28 I should have wished to go by other road. But gently on the deep, Ch' ei vive, e lunga vita ancor aspetta, 130 Virgilio, quando prender si sentio, Disse a me: Fatti in qua, sì ch' io ti prenda. Poi fece sì, che un fascio er' egli ed io. 135 Qual pare a riguardar la Carisenda Sotto il chinato, quando un nuvol vada Ch' io avrea voluto ir per altra strada: 140 26 Still has to descend the whole "arch of his life." See note 1, p. 14. corner foremost. The Carisenda has its name from the Garisendi family; and was much higher in Dante's time than it is now. Benv. da Imola. 27 The thick leaning tower of Bologna; which, to one who is beneath, seems itself to stoop when a cloud, 28 Lit.: "It was such hour," or against which it hangs, is passing moment then, that I should have over it. The other (Asinelli) tower wished to get down by some other is higher, but leans far less than the way. Carisenda, and not so strikingly with which swallows 29 Lucifer with Judas, he placed us; nor lingered there thus bent, but raised himself as in a ship the mast. Lucifero con Giuda, ci posò: 29... 145 "Neither let the deep swal-"Swallow them up alive, as the low me up, and let not the pit shut grave; and whole, as those that go her mouth upon me." Ps. Ixix. 15. down into the pit." Prov. i. 12. ARGUMENT. THIS Ninth and Last, or frozen Circle, lowest part of the Universe, and farthest remote from the Source of all light and heat, divides itself into four concentric Rings. The first or outermost is the Caïna, which has its name from Cain who slew his brother Abel, and contains the sinners who have done violence to their own kindred. The second or Antenora, so called "from Antenor the Trojan, betrayer of his country" (Pietro di Dante, &c.), is filled with those who have been guilty of treachery against their native land. Dante finds many of his own countrymen, both Guelphs and Ghibellines, in these two rings; and learns the names of those in the First from Camiccion de' Pazzi, and of those in the Second from Bocca degli Abati. He has a very special detestation of Bocca, through whose treachery so many of the Guelphs were slaughtered, and “every family in Florence thrown into mourning;" and, as the Ottimo remarks, "falls into a very rude method, that he has used to no other spirit." The canto leaves him in the Antenora beside two sinners that are frozen close together in the same hole. CANTO XXXII. IF I had rhymes both rough and hoarse, as would befit the dismal hole, on which all the other rocky steeps converge and weigh,' I should press out the juice of my conception more fully but since I have them not, not without fear I bring myself to tell thereof; for to describe the bottom of all the Universe is not an enterprise for being taken up in sport, nor for a tongue that cries mamma and papa. But may those Ladies' help my verse, who helped Amphion with walls to close in Thebes; so that my words may not be diverse from the fact. O ye, beyond all others, miscreated rabble, that are in the place, to speak of which is hard, better had ye here on earth been sheep or goats! When we were down in the dark pit, under the S' 10 avessi le rime e aspre e chiocce, Più pienamente; ma perch' io non l' abbo, Descriver fondo a tutto l' universo, Nè da lingua che chiami mamma e babbo. Ch' aiutaro Anfione a chiuder Tebe, Oh sovra tutte mal creata plebe, Che stai nel loco, onde parlare è duro! 1 Meeting as at the keystone of a bridge or vault. Rocce for roccie. 5 10 15 2 Muses, by whose aid Amphion reared the walls of Thebes. Giant's feet, much lower,' and I still was gazing at the high wall, I heard a voice say to me: "Look how thou passest: take care that with thy soles thou tread not on the heads of the weary wretched brothers. Whereat I turned myself, and saw before me and beneath my feet a lake, which through frost had the semblance of glass and not of water. Never did the Danube in Austria make so thick a vail for his course in winter, nor the Don afar beneath the frigid sky, as there was here; for if Tabernicch had fallen on it, or Pietrapana, it would not even at the edge have given a creak. And as the frog to croak, sits with his face out of the water," when the villager oft 5 Sotto i piè del Gigante, assai più bassi, Fa sì, che tu non calchi con le piante 6 E sotto i piedi un lago, che per gielo 20 Non fece al corso suo sì grosso velo Di verno la Danoia in Austericch, 25 Nè il Tanai là sotto il freddo cielo, Vi fosse su caduto, o Pietrapana, E come a gracidar si sta la rana Col muso fuor dell' acqua, quando sogna 30 This last circle, like Malebolge, district of Tovarnich in Sclavonia. slopes toward Satan. 4 Two brothers of verse 55, &c. 5 Hyperboreas glacies, Tanaïmque nivalem. Georg. iv. 517. Pietrapana is another high mountain near Lucca. 7 In the warm summer nights, during the Italian harvest, when the Probably the Frusta Gora, a sol- village gleaner dreams of her dayitary mountain, the only one in the work. Image of heat, contrasting Р |