before, at the response, let him know, it was because my thoughts already were in that error 24 which you have resolved for me." And now my Master was recalling me. Where fore I, in more haste, besought the spirit to tell me who was with him. He said to me: "With more than a thousand lie I here. The second Frederick 25 is here within, and the Cardinal;26 and of the rest I speak not." with he hid himself. Fat' ei saper che il fei, perchè pensava E il Cardinale, e degli altri mi taccio. 113. Ei, a lui. There 115 120 24 Error of believing that the spir- Papal excommunications, and uniits in Hell, who could speak so clear-versal suspicion of his nearest friends. ly of things past and future, were The fabulous book De Tribus Imposlikewise acquainted with things toribus was imputed to him; and he present. gave cause enough besides for the charge of heresy which Dante here sanctions. In the treatise De Vulgari Eloquio (lib. i. cap. 12), Dante speaks of his literary influence, &c., in high terms. 25 The Emperor Frederick the Second, who died on the 13th of Deeember, 1250, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. As Emperor he reigned thirty years, thirty-eight as King of Germany, and fifty-two as King of 26 Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, a Florthe Two Sicilies. One learns from entine, made Cardinal by Innocent the old Chronicles, &c., that he spent IV. in 1245; and distinguished from his early life in energetic studies, other cardinals by his talents, his and made his Court in Sicily very great influence, and vehement adfamous by princely patronage of lit-herence to the Ghibelline party. "If erature and all that was highest in there be any soul, I have lost mine those times. In his later years, he for the Ghibellines," is a profane exseems to have moved in a very turbid clamation of his, reported by all the element, with armies of Saracens, old commentators. And I toward the ancient Poet turned my steps, revolving that saying which seemed hostile to me.27 He moved on; and then, as we were going, he said to me: "Why art thou so bewildered?" And I satisfied him in his question. "Let thy memory retain what thou hast heard against thee," that Sage exhorted me. "And now mark here," and he raised his finger. "When thou shalt stand before the sweet ray of that Lady,28 whose bright eye seeth all, from her thou shalt know the journey of thy life." 29 Then to the sinister hand 30 he turned his feet. We left the wall, and went toward the middle, by a path that strikes into a valley, which even up there annoyed us with its fetor.31 Poeta volsi i passi, ripensando A quel parlar che mi parea nemico. Mi disse: Perchè sei tu sì smarrito ? 125 Hai contra te, mi comandò quel Saggio, Quando sarai dinanzi al dolce raggio 130 Di quella, il cui bell' occhio tutto vede, Appresso volse a man sinistra il piede: Lasciammo il muro, e gimmo in vêr lo mezzo 27 Farinata's prophesy about his exile. 135 to that heavenly Light which will teach thee the journey of thy life, and 28 Beatrice, or Celestial Wisdom. the eternal things that depend on it. See canto ii. 29 Thy earthly joys and hopes are gone. The gay leopard will never impede thee again. Thou shalt go through this dark Hell, and see all its bitterness; and then shalt thou come 30 The Poets always turn to the left, when going to a worse class of sinners. 31 Lit.: "Which made its fetor displease even up there. They are still far from the lowest part of Hell. ARGUMENT. AFTER crossing the Sixth Circle, the poets come to a rocky precipice which separates it from the circles beneath. They find a large monument, standing on the very edge of the precipice, with an inscription indicating that it contains a heretical Pope; and are forced to take shelter behind it, on account of the fetid exhalation that is rising from the abyss. Virgil explains what kind of sinners are punished in the three circles which they have still to see; and why the carnal, the gluttonous, the avaricious and prodigal, the wrathful and gloomy-sluggish, are not punished within the city of Dis. Dante then inquires how usury offends God; and Virgil having answered him, they go on, toward a place at which a passage leads down to the Seventh Circle. 2 CANTO XI. UPON the edge of a high bank, formed by large broken stones in a circle, we came above a still more cruel throng.1 And here, because of the horrible excess of stench which the deep abyss throws out, we approached it under cover of a great monument, whereon I saw a writing that said: "I hold Pope Anastasius, whom Photinus drew from the straight way." 3 "Our descent we must delay, till sense be some IN su l'estremità d' un' alta ripa, Che facevan gran pietre rotte in cerchio, E quivi per l' orribile soperchio Del puzzo, che il profondo abisso gitta, 5 10 1 Crowd of greater sinners in great- | show that there was no such Pope er punishment, below the precipice in the time of Photinus. The questo which the Poets have come. tion, whether any heretical Pope or 2 Stench of murderers, &c., that are Emperor of that name ever existed, below. may remain a matter of indifference "Oh, my offense is rank; it smells to to us. The practical meaning of the heaven." Hamlet, act iii. scene 3. 3 It was a current belief in Dante's time, and for two hundred years later, that a Pope Anastasius had been drawn from the straight way by Photinus, the Heretic of Thessalonica; and had died a horrible death in consequence. See the comments of Boccaccio, Landino, Vellutello, Daniello, &c. The Jesuits Bellarmino, Venturi, &c., have endeavored to passage is very evident. Dante wishes all men to know his opinion, that Popes are not exempt from heresy, and that it deserves greater punishment in them than in other men. He finds an Emperor, a Ghibelline Cardinal, and the greatest of the Ghibelline chiefs, in the same circle. "This cry of thine will do like wind, which strikes with greatest force the highest summits." Par ad. xvii. 133. what used to the dismal blast, and then we shall not heed it." Thus the Master. And I said to him: "Find some compensation, that the time may not be lost." And he "Thou seest that I intend it." "My Son, within these stones," he then began to say, "are three circlets in gradation, like those thou leavest. They are all filled with spirits accurst. But, that the sight of these hereafter may of itself suffice thee, hearken how and wherefore they are pent up. Of all malice, which gains hatred in Heaven, the end is injury; and every such end, either by violence or by fraud, aggrieveth others. But because fraud is a vice peculiar to man, it more displeases God; and therefore the fraudulent are placed beneath, and more pain assails them. 5 Sì che s' ausi prima un poco il senso Figliuol mio, dentro da cotesti sassi, Ma perchè poi ti basti pur la vista, 11. S' ausi, s' avezzi. 18. Lassi, lasci. 15 20 25 "Circlets," from the smallness 5 Quum autem duobus modis, id of their size, compared with those est, aut vi aut fraude fiat injuria above. "In gradation," i.e. one after utrumque alienissimum ab another, becoming smaller. |
