The Divine Comedy (Complete Annotated Edition). Dante Alighieri

naked of inhabitants. To shun

      All human converse, here she with her slaves

      Plying her arts remain’d, and liv’d, and left

      Her body tenantless. Thenceforth the tribes,

      Who round were scatter’d, gath’ring to that place

      Assembled; for its strength was great, enclos’d

      On all parts by the fen. On those dead bones

      They rear’d themselves a city, for her sake,

      Calling it Mantua, who first chose the spot,

      Nor ask’d another omen for the name,

      Wherein more numerous the people dwelt,

Ere Casalodi’s madness4 by deceit

      Was wrong’d of Pinamonte. If thou hear

      Henceforth another origin assign’d

      Of that my country, I forewarn thee now,

      That falsehood none beguile thee of the truth.”

      I answer’d: “Teacher, I conclude thy words

      So certain, that all else shall be to me

      As embers lacking life. But now of these,

      Who here proceed, instruct me, if thou see

      Any that merit more especial note.

      For thereon is my mind alone intent.”

      He straight replied: “That spirit, from whose cheek

      The beard sweeps o’er his shoulders brown, what time

      Graecia was emptied of her males, that scarce

      The cradles were supplied, the seer was he

      In Aulis, who with Calchas gave the sign

      When first to cut the cable. Him they nam’d

      Eurypilus: so sings my tragic strain,

      In which majestic measure well thou know’st,

      Who know’st it all. That other, round the loins

So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot,5

      Practis’d in ev’ry slight of magic wile.

“Guido Bonatti6 see: Asdente mark,7

      Who now were willing, he had tended still

      The thread and cordwain; and too late repents.

      “See next the wretches, who the needle left,

      The shuttle and the spindle, and became

      Diviners: baneful witcheries they wrought

      With images and herbs. But onward now:

For now doth Cain with fork of thorns8 confine

      On either hemisphere, touching the wave

      Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight

      The moon was round. Thou mayst remember well:

      For she good service did thee in the gloom

      Of the deep wood.” This said, both onward mov’d.

      Footnotes

1 Amphiaraüs, one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes. He is said to have been swallowed up by an opening of the earth.

2 “There is a spot.” Prato di Fame, where the dioceses of Trento, Verona, and Brescia meet.

3 “Peschiera.” A garrison situated to the south of the lake, where it empties and forms the Mincius.

4 Alberto da Casalodi, in possession of Mantua, was persuaded by Pinamonte Buonacossi to ingratiate himself with the people by banishing to their own castles the nobles, who were obnoxious to them. Pinamonte then put himself at the head of the populace, drove out Casalodi and his adherents, and obtained the sovereignty for himself.

5 “It is not long since there was in this city (Florence) a great master in necromancy, called Michele Scotto, because he was from Scotland.” Boccaccio, Decameron G. viii. N. 9.

6 An astrologer of Forli, on whose skill Guido da Montefeltro, lord of that place, so relied, that he is reported never to have gone into battle, except in the hour recommended to him by Bonatti. Landino and Vellutello speak of his book on astrology. Macchiavelli mentions him in the History of Florence, I. i. p. 24. ed. 1550. “He flourished about 1230 and 1260. Though a learned astronomer he was seduced by astrology, through which he was greatly in favor with many princes.”]

7 A shoemaker at Parma, who deserted his business to practice the arts of divination.

8 By Cain and the thorns (“The Man in the Moon”) the Poet denotes that luminary. The same superstition is alluded to in the Paradise, Canto ii. 52.

      Canto XXI

       Table of Contents

      ARGUMENT.—Still in the eighth circle, which bears the name of Malebolge, they look down from the bridge that passes over its fifth gulf, upon the barterers or public peculators. These are plunged in a lake of boiling pitch, and guarded by Demons, to whom Virgil, leaving Dante apart, presents himself; and license being obtained to pass onward, both pursue their way.

      THUS we from bridge to bridge, with other talk,

      The which my drama cares not to rehearse,

      Pass’d on; and to the summit reaching, stood

      To view another gap, within the round

      Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs.

      Marvelous darkness shadow’d o’er the place.

      In the Venetians’ arsenal as boils

      Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear

      Their unsound vessels; for th’ inclement time

      Sea-faring men restrains, and in that while

      His bark one builds anew, another stops

      The ribs of his, that hath made many a voyage;

      One hammers at the prow, one at the poop;

      This shapeth oars, that other cables twirls,

      The mizen one repairs and main-sail rent

      So not by force of fire but art divine

      Boil’d here a glutinous thick