The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (essential books to read TXT) 📕

Soon as he reach’d the point, whereat the thigh Upon the swelling of the haunches turns, My leader there with pain and struggling hard Turn’d round his head, where his feet stood before, And grappled at the fell, as one who mounts, That into hell methought we turn’d again.

“Expect that by such stairs as these,” thus spake The teacher, panting like a man forespent, “We must depart from evil so extreme.”

Then at a rocky opening issued forth, And plac’d me on a brink to sit, next join’d With wary step my side. I rais’d mine eyes, Believing that I Lucifer should see Where he was lately left, but saw him now With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort, Who see not what the point was I had pass’d, Bethink them if sore toil oppress’d me then.

“Arise,” my master cried, “upon thy feet.

“The way is long, and much uncouth the road; And now within one hour and half of noon The sun returns.” It was no palace-hall Lofty and luminous wherein we stood, But natural dungeon where ill footing was And scant supply of light. “Ere from th’ abyss I sep’rate,” thus when risen I began, “My guide! vouchsafe few words to set me free From error’s thralldom. Where is now the ice?

How standeth he in posture thus revers’d?

And how from eve to morn in space so brief Hath the sun made his transit?” He in few Thus answering spake: “Thou deemest thou art still On th’ other side the centre, where I grasp’d Th’ abhorred worm, that boreth through the world.

Thou wast on th’ other side, so long as I Descended; when I turn’d, thou didst o’erpass That point, to which from ev’ry part is dragg’d All heavy substance. Thou art now arriv’d Under the hemisphere opposed to that, Which the great continent doth overspread, And underneath whose canopy expir’d The Man, that was born sinless, and so liv’d.

Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere, Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn Here rises, when there evening sets: and he, Whose shaggy pile was scal’d, yet standeth fix’d, As at the first. On this part he fell down From heav’n; and th’ earth, here prominent before, Through fear of him did veil her with the sea, And to our hemisphere retir’d. Perchance To shun him was the vacant space left here By what of firm land on this side appears, That sprang aloof.” There is a place beneath, From Belzebub as distant, as extends The vaulted tomb, discover’d not by sight, But by the sound of brooklet, that descends This way along the hollow of a rock, Which, as it winds with no precipitous course, The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way My guide and I did enter, to return To the fair world: and heedless of repose We climbed, he first, I following his steps, Till on our view the beautiful lights of heav’n Dawn, through a circular opening in the cave: Thus issuing we again beheld the stars.

NOTES TO HELL

CANTO I

Verse 1. In the midway.] That the era of the Poem is intended by these words to be fixed to the thirty fifth year of the poet’s age, A.D. 1300, will appear more plainly in Canto XXI. where that date is explicitly marked.

v. 16. That planet’s beam.] The sun.

v. 29. The hinder foot.] It is to be remembered, that in ascending a hill the weight of the body rests on the hinder foot.

v. 30. A panther.] Pleasure or luxury.

v. 36. With those stars.] The sun was in Aries, in which sign he supposes it to have begun its course at the creation.

v. 43. A lion.] Pride or ambition.

v. 45. A she wolf.] Avarice.

v. 56. Where the sun in silence rests.] Hence Milton appears to have taken his idea in the Samson Agonistes: The sun to me is dark

And silent as the moon, &c The same metaphor will recur, Canto V. v. 29.

Into a place I came

Where light was silent all.

v. 65. When the power of Julius.] This is explained by the commentators to mean “Although it was rather late with respect to my birth before Julius Caesar assumed the supreme authority, and made himself perpetual dictator.”

v. 98. That greyhound.] This passage is intended as an eulogium on the liberal spirit of his Veronese patron Can Grande della Scala.

v. 102. ‘Twizt either Feltro.] Verona, the country of Can della Scala, is situated between Feltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro, a city in the territory of Urbino.

v. 103. Italia’s plains.] “Umile Italia,” from Virgil, Aen lib.

iii. 522.

Humilemque videmus

Italiam.

v. 115. Content in fire.] The spirits in Purgatory.

v. 118. A spirit worthier.] Beatrice, who conducts the Poet through Paradise.

v. 130. Saint Peter’s gate.] The gate of Purgatory, which the Poet feigns to be guarded by an angel placed on that station by St. Peter.

CANTO II

v. 1. Now was the day.] A compendium of Virgil’s description Aen. lib. iv 522. Nox erat, &c. Compare Apollonius Rhodius, lib iii. 744, and lib. iv. 1058

v. 8. O mind.]

O thought that write all that I met, And in the tresorie it set Of my braine, now shall men see If any virtue in thee be.

Chaucer. Temple of Fame, b. ii. v.18

v. 14. Silvius’sire.] Aeneas.

v. 30. The chosen vessel.] St.Paul, Acts, c. ix. v. 15. “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me.”

v. 46. Thy soul.] L’anima tua e da viltate offesa. So in Berni, Orl Inn.lib. iii. c. i. st. 53.

Se l’alma avete offesa da viltate.

v. 64. Who rest suspended.] The spirits in Limbo, neither admitted to a state of glory nor doomed to punishment.

v. 61. A friend not of my fortune, but myself.] Se non fortunae sed hominibus solere esse amicum. Cornelii Nepotis Attici Vitae, c. ix.

v. 78. Whatever is contain’d.] Every other thing comprised within the lunar heaven, which, being the lowest of all, has the smallest circle.

v. 93. A blessed dame.] The divine mercy.

v. 97. Lucia.] The enlightening grace of heaven.

v. 124. Three maids.] The divine mercy, Lucia, and Beatrice.

v. 127. As florets.] This simile is well translated by Chaucer—

But right as floures through the cold of night Iclosed, stoupen in her stalkes lowe, Redressen hem agen the sunne bright, And speden in her kinde course by rowe, &c.

Troilus and Creseide, b.ii.

It has been imitated by many others, among whom see Berni, Orl.Inn. Iib. 1. c. xii. st. 86. Marino, Adone, c. xvii. st. 63.

and Sor. “Donna vestita di nero.” and Spenser’s Faery Queen, b.4.

c. xii. st. 34. and b. 6 c. ii. st. 35.

CANTO III

v. 5. Power divine

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.] The three persons of the blessed Trinity.

v. 9. all hope abandoned.] Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate.

So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. i. c. 8. st. 53.

Lascia pur della vita ogni speranza.

v. 29. Like to the sand.]

Unnumber’d as the sands Of Barca or Cyrene’s torrid soil Levied to side with warring winds, and poise Their lighter wings.

Milton, P. L. ii. 908.

v. 40. Lest th’ accursed tribe.] Lest the rebellious angels should exult at seeing those who were neutral and therefore less guilty, condemned to the same punishment with themselves.

v. 50. A flag.]

All the grisly legions that troop Under the sooty flag of Acheron Milton. Comus.

v. 56. Who to base fear

Yielding, abjur’d his high estate.] This is commonly understood of Celestine the Fifth, who abdicated the papal power in 1294. Venturi mentions a work written by Innocenzio Barcellini, of the Celestine order, and printed in Milan in 1701, In which an attempt is made to put a different interpretation on this passage.

v. 70. through the blear light.]

Lo fioco lume

So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 12.

Qual fioco lume.

v. 77. An old man.]

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina flamma.

Virg. 7. Aen. Iib. vi. 2.

v. 82. In fierce heat and in ice.]

The delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods or to reside In thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice.

Shakesp. Measure for Measure, a. iii.s.1.

Compare Milton, P. L. b. ii. 600.

v. 92. The livid lake.] Vada livida.

Virg. Aen. Iib. vi. 320

Totius ut Lacus putidaeque paludis Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago.

Catullus. xviii. 10.

v. 102. With eyes of burning coal.]

His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes Like two great beacons glared bright and wide.

Spenser. F.Q. b. vi. c. vii.st. 42

v. 104. As fall off the light of autumnal leaves.]

Quam multa in silvis autumul frigore primo Lapsa cadunt folia.

Virg. Aen. lib. vi. 309

Compare Apoll. Rhod. lib. iv. 214.

CANTO IV

v. 8. A thund’rous sound.] Imitated, as Mr. Thyer has remarked, by Milton, P. L. b. viii. 242.

But long ere our approaching heard Noise, other, than the sound of dance or song Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

v. 50. a puissant one.] Our Saviour.

v. 75. Honour the bard Sublime.]

Onorate l’altissimo poeta.

So Chiabrera, Canz. Eroiche. 32.

Onorando l’altissimo poeta.

v. 79. Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.]

She nas to sober ne to glad.

Chaucer’s Dream.

v. 90. The Monarch of sublimest song.] Homer.

v. 100. Fitter left untold.]

Che’l tacere e bello,

So our Poet, in Canzone 14.

La vide in parte che’l tacere e bello, Ruccellai, Le Api, 789.

Ch’a dire e brutto ed a tacerlo e bello And Bembo,

“Vie pui bello e il tacerle, che il favellarne.”

Gli. Asol. lib. 1.

v. 117. Electra.] The daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus the founder of Troy. See Virg. Aen. b. viii. 134. as referred to by Dante in treatise “De Monarchia,” lib. ii. “Electra, scilicet, nata magni nombris regis Atlantis, ut de ambobus testimonium reddit poeta noster in octavo ubi Aeneas ad Avandrum sic ait “Dardanus Iliacae,” &c.

v. 125. Julia.] The daughter of Julius Caesar, and wife of Pompey.

v. 126. The Soldan fierce.] Saladin or Salaheddin, the rival of Richard coeur de lion. See D’Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. and Knolles’s Hist. of the Turks p. 57 to 73 and the Life of Saladin, by Bohao’edin Ebn Shedad, published by Albert Schultens, with a Latin translation. He is introduced by Petrarch in the Triumph of Fame, c. ii

v. 128. The master of the sapient throng.]

Maestro di color che sanno.

Aristotle—Petrarch assigns the first place to Plato. See Triumph of Fame, c. iii.

Pulci, in his Morgante Maggiore, c. xviii. says, Tu se’il maestro di color che sanno.

v. 132. Democritus

Who sets the world at chance.]

Democritus,who maintained the world to have been formed by the fortuitous concourse of atoms.

v. 140. Avicen.] See D’Herbelot Bibl. Orient. article Sina. He died in 1050. Pulci here again imitates our poet: Avicenna quel che il sentimento Intese di Aristotile e i segreti, Averrois che fece il gran comento.

Morg. Mag. c. xxv.

v. 140. Him who made That commentary vast, Averroes.]

Averroes, called by the Arabians Roschd, translated and commented the works of Aristotle. According to Tiraboschi (storia della Lett. Ital.