English

CANTO XXIV.

Argument.

Difficult ascent to the seventh valley, where theft is punished. — Strange metamorphoses. — One of the Shades discourses of the Bianchi and Neri .

O FT in the early spring-time of the year,
When 'neath Aquarius the sun lies low;
Ere Night doth equally with Day appear,
When the hoar-frost upon the earth doth show
The image of her white-robed sister (yet
But short the life her glistening plumes do know),

CANTO XXIII.

Argument.

New fear of Dante, followed by the demons. — Sixth valley; the hypocrites — Caiaphas crucified on the path.

S ILENT , alone, without an escort, now
We one by one upon our journey went,
As Minor Friars walk with bended brow.
My mind on Esop's fable was intent,
From what had chanced within the dire abyss;
Because he tells of what the frog had meant

CANTO XXII.

Argument.

The same place: cunning of one of the seething wretches, in order to escape from the fiends; who, being baffled, quarrel among themselves.

O FT have I seen the horseman leave his tent,
And in the order'd line of battle stand,
And sometimes fly from thence, on safety bent;
I have beheld swift troops o'er-run your land
For plunder, ye who in Arezzo dwell;
And jousts and tournaments with armid band,

CANTO XXI.

Argument.

Fifth valley of the Eighth Circle; the deceivers and cheats immersed in boiling pitch. — Fear of Dante, escorted by ten armed fiends. — Their names.

A ND now from bridge to bridge, discoursing more
Than in my Comedy I care to sing,
We went unto the point where, highest o'er
The dread abyss below, its arches spring;
And there we stopp'd to see the sorrows vain

CANTO XX.

Argument.

Sorcerers, condemned to look backwards. — Description of the Lago di Garda. — Origin of Mantua. — Virgil's birth-place.
N OW of new penalties my verse must tell,
And give material for the twentieth strain
Of my first song, which is of those whom Hell
For aye devours. And I, in sooth, was fain
To look on those in the uncover'd deep,
From whom sad tears of anguish'd sorrow rain.

CANTO XIX.

Argument.

Those guilty of simony; and, among them, Pope Nicholas III, who announces that he waits the coming of Boniface VIII and Clement V.

O FOLLOWERS of Simon Magus! ye
Rapacious ones, who take the things of God,
Which unto good should consecrated be,
And souls for silver and for gold defraud!
Here must I sound the trumpet of your doom,
For in this third abyss is your abode.

CANTO XVIII.

Argument.

The two first valleys of Malebolge; in one of which are punished seducers; in the other, flatterers.

T HERE is a place within the depths of Hell,
Call'd Malibolgi; form'd of darksome stone
Ferruginous, like that which bounds it well.
And aye, in midst of this malignant zone,
There yawns a wide and dreadful gulf profound,
Which my discourse shall in good time make known.

CANTO XVII.

Argument.

End of the Seventh Circle; the usurers — Descent, upon the shoulders of Geryon, to the Eighth Circle, that of the fraudulent; which is divided into ten valleys, according to the ten different kinds of fraud.

B EHOLD the monster with sharp-pointed tail,
Who hills doth pass, and walls and armies break,
The beast whose evil odour doth prevail
O'er all the earth. " Thus Virgil 'gan to speak;

CANTO XVI.

Argument.

Dante meets other Shades in the same place, with whom he discourses of the state of Florence.
Now had we come unto a place where we
The sound of falling waters well might hear,
As in the hive the humming of the bee,
When with swift pace three shadowy forms drew near,
Leaving a multitude who pass'd along,
Beneath the rain of this sharp torment drear.

CANTO XV.

Argument.

Dante meets Brunetto Latini, his early teacher, who announces to him his future misfortunes

A LONG the stony margin did we go,
While o'er the streamlet hung a misty veil,
And screen'd the waters from the fiery glow.
Even as in Flanders, when fierce winds prevail
'Twixt Ghent and Bruges, and in fear they deem
They needs must raise a fence which shall not fail;