The vision of hell. Dante Alighieri

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BY

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DANTE ALIGHIERI

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ILLUSTRATED BY GUSTAVE DORE

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TRANSLATED BY

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THE REV. H. F. CARY, M.A.

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HELL

       OR THE INFERNO

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LIST OF CANTOS

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Canto 1 Canto 2 Canto 3 Canto 4 Canto 5 Canto 6 Canto 7 Canto 8 Canto 9 Canto 10 Canto 11 Canto 12 Canto 13 Canto 14 Canto 15 Canto 16 Canto 17 Canto 18 Canto 19 Canto 20 Canto 21 Canto 22 Canto 23 Canto 24 Canto 25 Canto 26 Canto 27 Canto 28 Canto 29 Canto 30 Canto 31 Canto 32 Canto 33 Canto 34

CANTO I

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       ENLARGE TO FULL SIZE

       IN the midway of this our mortal life,

       I found me in a gloomy wood, astray

       Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell

       It were no easy task, how savage wild

       That forest, how robust and rough its growth,

       Which to remember only, my dismay

       Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

       Yet to discourse of what there good befell,

       All else will I relate discover'd there.

       How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,

       Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd

       My senses down, when the true path I left,

       But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd

       The valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread,

       I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad

       Already vested with that planet's beam,

       Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.

       Then was a little respite to the fear,

       That in my heart's recesses deep had lain,

       All of that night, so pitifully pass'd:

       And as a man, with difficult short breath,

       Forespent with toiling, 'scap'd from sea to shore,

       Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands

       At gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd

       Struggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits,

       That none hath pass'd and liv'd. My weary frame

       After short pause recomforted, again

       I journey'd on over that lonely steep,

       ENLARGE TO FULL SIZE

       The hinder foot still firmer. Scarce the ascent

       Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light,

       And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd,

       Nor, when it saw me, vanish'd, rather strove

       To check my onward going; that ofttimes

       With purpose to retrace my steps I turn'd.

       The hour was morning's prime, and on his way

       Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,

       That with him rose, when Love divine first mov'd

       Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope

       All things conspir'd to fill me, the gay skin

       Of that swift animal, the matin dawn

       And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chas'd,

       And by new dread succeeded, when in view

       A lion came, 'gainst me, as it appear'd,

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       With his head held aloft and hunger-mad,

       That e'en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf

       Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd

       Full of all wants, and many a land hath made

       Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear

       O'erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appall'd,

       That of the height all hope I lost. As one,

       Who with his gain elated, sees the time