The Divine Comedy (Illustrated Edition). Dante Alighieri

city.”

9 “Queen of this realm.” The moon, one of whose titles in heathen mythology was Proserpine, queen of the shades below.

10 “The slaughter.” “By means of Farinata degli Uberti, the Guelfi were conquered by the army of King Manfredi, near the river Arbia, with so great a slaughter, that those who escaped from that defeat took refuge, not in Florence, which city they considered as lost to them, but in Lucca.”—Macchiavelli, “Hist. of Flor.” b. ii. and G. Villani, lib. vi. c. lxxx. and lxxxi.

11 “Such orisons.” This appears to allude to certain prayers which were offered up in the churches of Florence, for deliverance from the hostile attempts of the Uberti; or, it may be that the public councils being held in churches, the speeches delivered in them against the Uberti are termed “orisons,” or prayers.

12 “Singly there I stood.” Guido Novello assembled a council of the Ghibellini at Empoli; where it was agreed by all, that, in order to maintain the ascendancy of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany, it was necessary to destroy Florence, which could serve only (the people of that city being Guelfi) to enable the party attached to the church to recover its strength. This cruel sentence, passed upon so noble a city, met with no opposition from any of its citizens or friends, except Farinata degli Uberti, who openly and without reserve forbade the measure; affirming, that he had endured so many hardships, with no other view than that of being able to pass his days in his own country. Macchiavelli, Hist. of Flor. b. ii.

13 “My fault.” Dante felt remorse for not having returned an immediate answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, from which delay he was led to believe that his son Guido was no longer living.

14 “Frederick.” The Emperor Frederick II., who died in 1250. See notes to Canto xiii.

15 “The Lord Cardinal.” Ottaviano Ubaldini, a Florentine, made cardinal in 1245, and deceased about 1273. On account of his great influence, he was generally known by the appellation of “the Cardinal.” It is reported of him that he declared if there were any such thing as a human soul he had lost his for the Ghibellini.

16 “Her gracious beam.” Beatrice.

      Canto XI

       Table of Contents

      ARGUMENT.—Dante arrives at the verge of a rocky precipice which encloses the seventh circle, where he sees the sepulchre of Anastasius the Heretic; behind the lid of which pausing a little, to make himself capable by degrees of enduring the fetid smell that steamed upward from the abyss, he is instructed by Virgil concerning the manner in which the three following circles are disposed, and what description of sinners is punished in each. He then inquires the reason why the carnal, the gluttonous, the avaricious and prodigal, the wrathful and gloomy, suffer not their punishments within the city of Dis. He next asks how the crime of usury is an offence against God; and at length the two Poets go toward the place from whence a passage leads down to the seventh circle.

      UPON the utmost verge of a high bank,

      By craggy rocks environ’d round, we came,

      Where woes beneath more cruel yet were stow’d:

      And here to shun the horrible excess

      Of fetid exhalation, upward cast

      From the profound abyss, behind the lid

      Of a great monument we stood retir’d,

      Whereon this scroll I mark’d: “I have in charge

Pope Anastasius,1 whom Photinus drew

      From the right path. — Ere our descent behooves

      We make delay, that somewhat first the sense,

      To the dire breath accustom’d, afterward

      Regard it not.” My master thus; to whom

      Answering I spake: “Some compensation find

      That the time past not wholly lost.” He then:

      “Lo! how my thoughts e’en to thy wishes tend!

      My son! within these rocks,” he thus began,

      “Are three close circles in gradation plac’d,

      As these which now thou leav’st. Each one is full

      Of spirits accurs’d; but that the sight alone

      Hereafter may suffice thee, listen how

      And for what cause in durance they abide.

      “Of all malicious act abhorr’d in heaven,

      The end is injury; and all such end

      Either by force or fraud works other’s woe

      But fraud, because of man peculiar evil,

      To God is more displeasing; and beneath

      The fraudulent are therefore doom’d to’ endure

      Severer pang. The violent occupy

      All the first circle; and because to force

      Three persons are obnoxious, in three rounds

      Hach within other sep’rate is it fram’d.

      To God, his neighbour, and himself, by man

      Force may be offer’d; to himself I say

      And his possessions, as thou soon shalt hear

      At full. Death, violent death, and painful wounds

      Upon his neighbour he inflicts; and wastes

      By devastation, pillage, and the flames,

      His substance. Slayers, and each one that smites

      In malice, plund’rers, and all robbers, hence

      The torment undergo of the first round

      In different herds. Man can do violence

      To himself and his own blessings: and for this

      He in the second round must aye deplore

      With unavailing penitence his crime,

      Whoe’er deprives himself of life and light,

      In reckless lavishment his talent wastes,

      And sorrows there where he should dwell in joy.

      To God may force be offer’d, in the heart

      Denying and blaspheming his high power,

      And nature with her kindly law contemning.

      And thence the inmost round marks with its seal

      Sodom and Cahors, and all such as speak

      Contemptuously’ of the Godhead in their hearts.

      “Fraud,