The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri Part 15

[349] _Lords of heresies_: 'Heresiarchs.' Dante now learns for the first time that Dis is the city of unbelief. Each cla.s.s of heretics has its own great sepulchre.

[350] _More or less of heat_: According to the heinousness of the heresy punished in each. It was natural to a.s.sociate heretics and punishment by fire in days when Dominican monks ruled the roast.

[351] _Dexter hand_: As they move across the circles, and down from one to the other, their course is usually to the left hand. Here for some reason Virgil turns to the right, so as to have the tombs on the left as he advances. It may be that a special proof of his knowledge of the locality is introduced when most needed--after the repulse by the demons--to strengthen Dante's confidence in him as a guide; or, as some subtly think, they being now about to enter the abode of heresy, the movement to the right signifies the importance of the first step in forming opinion. The only other occasion on which their course is taken to the right hand is at _Inf._ xvii. 31.

CANTO X.

And now advance we by a narrow track Between the torments and the ramparts high, My Master first, and I behind his back.

'O mighty Virtue,[352] at whose will am I Wheeled through these impious circles,' then I said, 'Speak, and in full my longing satisfy.

The people who within the tombs are laid, May they be seen? The coverings are all thrown Open, nor is there[353] any guard displayed.'

And he to me: 'All shall be fastened down 10 When hither from Jehoshaphat[354] they come Again in bodies which were once their own.

All here with Epicurus[355] find their tomb Who are his followers, and by whom 'tis held That the soul shares the body's mortal doom.

Things here discovered then shall answer yield, And quickly, to thy question asked of me; As well as[356] to the wish thou hast concealed.'

And I: 'Good Leader, if I hide from thee My heart, it is that I may little say; 20 Nor only now[357] learned I thus dumb to be.'

'O Tuscan, who, still living, mak'st thy way, Modest of speech, through the abode of flame, Be pleased[358] a little in this place to stay.

The accents of thy language thee proclaim To be a native of that state renowned Which I, perchance, wronged somewhat.' Sudden came These words from out a tomb which there was found 'Mongst others; whereon I, compelled by fright, A little toward my Leader s.h.i.+fted ground. 30 And he: 'Turn round, what ails thee? Lo! upright Beginneth Farinata[359] to arise; All of him 'bove the girdle comes in sight.'

On him already had I fixed mine eyes.

Towering erect with lifted front and chest, He seemed Inferno greatly to despise.

And toward him I among the tombs was pressed By my Guide's nimble and courageous hand, While he, 'Choose well thy language,' gave behest.

Beneath his tomb when I had ta'en my stand 40 Regarding me a moment, 'Of what house Art thou?' as if in scorn, he made demand.

To show myself obedient, anxious, I nothing hid, but told my ancestors; And, listening, he gently raised his brows.[360]

'Fiercely to me they proved themselves adverse, And to my sires and party,' then he said; 'Because of which I did them twice disperse.'[361]

I answered him: 'And what although they fled!

Twice from all quarters they returned with might, 50 An art not mastered yet by these you[362] led.'

Beside him then there issued into sight Another shade, uncovered to the chin, Propped on his knees, if I surmised aright.

He peered around as if he fain would win Knowledge if any other was with me; And then, his hope all spent, did thus begin, Weeping: 'By dint of genius if it be Thou visit'st this dark prison, where my son?

And wherefore not found in thy company?' 60 And I to him: 'I come not here alone: He waiting yonder guides me: but disdain Of him perchance was by your Guido[363] shown.'

The words he used, and manner of his pain, Revealed his name to me beyond surmise; Hence was I able thus to answer plain.

Then cried he, and at once upright did rise, 'How saidst thou--was? Breathes he not then the air?

The pleasant light no longer smites his eyes?'

When he of hesitation was aware 70 Displayed by me in forming my reply, He fell supine, no more to reappear.

But the magnanimous, at whose bidding I Had halted there, the same expression wore, Nor budged a jot, nor turned his neck awry.

'And if'--resumed he where he paused before-- 'They be indeed but slow that art to learn, Than this my bed, to hear it pains me more.

But ere the fiftieth time anew shall burn The lady's[364] face who reigneth here below, 80 Of that sore art thou shalt experience earn.

And as to the sweet world again thou'dst go, Tell me, why is that people so without Ruth for my race,[365] as all their statutes show?'

And I to him: 'The slaughter and the rout Which made the Arbia[366] to run with red, Cause in our fane[367] such prayers to be poured out.'

Whereon he heaved a sigh and shook his head: 'There I was not alone, nor to embrace That cause was I, without good reason, led. 90 But there I was alone, when from her place All granted Florence should be swept away.

'Twas I[368] defended her with open face.'

'So may your seed find peace some better day,'

I urged him, 'as this knot you shall untie In which my judgment doth entangled stay.

If I hear rightly, ye, it seems, descry Beforehand what time brings, and yet ye seem 'Neath other laws[369] as touching what is nigh.'

'Like those who see best what is far from them, 100 We see things,' said he, 'which afar remain; Thus much enlightened by the Guide Supreme.

To know them present or approaching, vain Are all our powers; and save what they relate Who hither come, of earth no news we gain.

Hence mayst thou gather in how dead a state Shall all our knowledge from that time be thrown When of the future shall be closed the gate.'

Then, for my fault as if repentant grown, I said: 'Report to him who fell supine, 110 That still among the living breathes his son.

And if I, dumb, seemed answer to decline, Tell him it was that I upon the knot Was pondering then, you helped me to untwine.'

Me now my Master called, whence I besought With more than former sharpness of the shade, To tell me what companions he had got.

He answered me: 'Some thousand here are laid With me; 'mong these the Second Frederick,[370]

The Cardinal[371] too; of others nought be said.' 120 Then was he hid; and towards the Bard antique I turned my steps, revolving in my brain The ominous words[372] which I had heard him speak.

He moved, and as we onward went again Demanded of me: 'Wherefore thus amazed?'

And to his question I made answer plain.

'Within thy mind let there be surely placed,'

The Sage bade, 'what 'gainst thee thou heardest say.

Now mark me well' (his finger here he raised), 'When thou shalt stand within her gentle ray 130 Whose beauteous eye sees all, she will make known The stages[373] of thy journey on life's way.'

Turning his feet, he to the left moved on; Leaving the wall, we to the middle[374] went Upon a path that to a vale strikes down, Which even to us above its foulness sent.

FOOTNOTES:

[352] _Virtue_: Virgil is here addressed by a new t.i.tle, which, with the words of deep respect that follow, marks the full restoration of Dante's confidence in him as his guide.

[353] _Nor is there, etc._: The gate was found to be strictly guarded, but not so are the tombs.

[354] _Jehoshaphat_: 'I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat' (Joel iii. 2).

[355] _Epicurus_: The unbelief in a future life, or rather the indifference to everything but the calls of ambition and worldly pleasure, common among the n.o.bles of Dante's age and that preceding it, went by the name of Epicureanism. It is the most radical of heresies, because adverse to the first principles of all religions. Dante, in his treatment of heresy, dwells more on what affects conduct as does the denial of the Divine government--than on intellectual divergence from orthodox belief.

[356] _As well as, etc._: The question is: 'May they be seen?' The wish is a desire to speak with them.

[357] _Nor only now, etc._: Virgil has on previous occasions imposed silence on Dante, as, for instance, at _Inf._ iii. 51.

[358] _Be pleased, etc._: From one of the sepulchres, to be imagined as a huge sarcophagus, come words similar to the _Siste Viator!_ common on Roman tombs.

[359] _Farinata_: Of the great Florentine family of the Uberti, and, in the generation before Dante, leader of the Ghibeline or Imperialist party in Florence. His memory long survived among his fellow-townsmen as that of the typical n.o.ble, rough-mannered, unscrupulous, and arrogant; but yet, for one good action that he did, he at the same time ranked in the popular estimation as a patriot and a hero. Boccaccio, misled perhaps by the mention of Epicurus, says that he loved rich and delicate fare. It is because all his thoughts were worldly that he is condemned to the city of unbelief. Dante has already (_Inf._ vi. 79) inquired regarding his fate. He died in 1264.

[360] _His brows_: When Dante tells he is of the Alighieri, a Guelf family, Farinata shows some slight displeasure. Or, as a modern Florentine critic interprets the gesture, he has to think a moment before he can remember on which side the Alighieri ranged themselves--they being of the small gentry, while he was a great n.o.ble, But this gloss requires Dante to have been more free from pride of family than he really was.

[361] _Twice disperse_: The Alighieri shared in the exile of the Guelfs in 1248 and 1260.

[362] _You_: See also line 95. Dante never uses the plural form to a single person except when desirous of showing social as distinguished from, or over and above, moral respect.

[363] _Guido_: Farinata's companion in the tomb is Cavalcante Cavalcanti, who, although a Guelf, was tainted with the more specially Ghibeline error of Epicureanism. When in order to allay party rancour some of the Guelf and Ghibeline families were forced to intermarry, his son Guido took a daughter of Farinata's to wife. This was in 1267, so that Guido was much older than Dante. Yet they were very intimate, and, intellectually, had much in common. With him Dante exchanged poems of occasion, and he terms him more than once in the _Vita Nuova_ his chief friend. The disdain of Virgil need not mean more than is on the surface.

Guido died in 1301. He is the hero of the _Decameron_, vi. 9.

[364] _The Lady_: Proserpine; _i.e._ the moon. Ere fifty months from March 1300 were past, Dante was to see the failure of more than one attempt made by the exiles, of whom he was one, to gain entrance to Florence. The great attempt was in the beginning of 1304.

[365] _Ruth for my race_: When the Ghibeline power was finally broken in Florence the Uberti were always specially excluded from any amnesty.

There is mention of the political execution of at least one descendant of Farinata's. His son when being led to the scaffold said, 'So we pay our fathers' debts!'--It has been so long common to describe Dante as a Ghibeline, though no careful writer does it now, that it may be worth while here to remark that Ghibelinism, as Farinata understood it, was practically extinct in Florence ere Dante entered political life.

[366] _The Arbia_: At Montaperti, on the Arbia, a few miles from Siena, was fought in 1260 a great battle between the Guelf Florence and her allies on the one hand, and on the other the Ghibelines of Florence, then in exile, under Farinata; the Sienese and Tuscan Ghibelines in general; and some hundreds of men-at-arms lent by Manfred.

Notwithstanding the gallant behaviour of the Florentine burghers, the Guelf defeat was overwhelming, and not only did the Arbia run red with Florentine blood--in a figure--but the battle of Montaperti ruined for a time the cause of popular liberty and general improvement in Florence.

[367] _Our fane_: The Parliament of the people used to meet in Santa Reparata, the cathedral; and it is possible that the maintenance of the Uberti disabilities was there more than once confirmed by the general body of the citizens. The use of the word is in any case accounted for by the frequency of political conferences in churches. And the temple having been introduced, edicts are converted into 'prayers.'