CANTO VI.

CANTO VI.When I regained my senses, which had fledAt my compassion for the kindred two,Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head,New torments and a crowd of sufferers newI see around me as I move again,[274]Where’er I turn, where’er I bend my view.In the Third Circle am I of the rainWhich, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe,Doth always of one kind and force remain.Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow,10Keep pouring down athwart the murky air;And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow.The savage Cerberus,[275]a monster drear,Howls from his threefold throat with canine criesAbove the people who are whelmèd there.Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes,His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout.The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise.Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout,And shield themselves in turn with either side;20And oft[276]the wretched sinners turn about.When we by Cerberus, great worm,[277]were spied,He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed,While not a limb did motionless abide.My Leader having spread his hands abroad,Filled both his fists with earth ta’en from the ground,And down the ravening gullets flung the load.Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound,But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws,And, worrying it, forgets all else around;30So with those filthy faces there it wasOf the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowdOf souls till they from hearing fain would pause.We, travelling o’er the spirits who lay cowedAnd sorely by the grievous showers harassed,Upon their semblances[278]of bodies trod.Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast,Save one of them who sat upright with speedWhen he beheld that near to him we passed.‘O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279]40Me if thou canst,’ he asked me, ‘recognise;For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.’And I to him: ‘Thy present tortured guisePerchance hath blurred my memory of thy face,Until it seems I ne’er on thee set eyes.But tell me who thou art, within this placeSo cruel set, exposed to such a pain,Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.’And he: ‘Thy city, swelling with the baneOf envy till the sack is running o’er,50Me in the life serene did once contain.As Ciacco[280]me your citizens named of yore;And for the damning sin of gluttonyI, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower.No solitary woful soul am I,For all of these endure the selfsame doomFor the same fault.’ Here ended his reply.I answered him, ‘O Ciacco, with such gloomThy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone;But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come60The citizens[281]of the divided town.Holds it one just man? And declare the causeWhy ’tis of discord such a victim grown.’Then he to me: ‘After[282]contentious pauseBlood will be spilt; the boorish party[283]thenWill chase the others forth with grievous loss.The former it behoves to fall againWithin three suns, the others to ascend,Holpen[284]by him whose wiles ere now are plain.Long time, with heads held high, they’ll make to bendThe other party under burdens dire,71Howe’er themselves in tears and rage they spend.There are two just[285]men, at whom none inquire.Envy, and pride, and avarice, even theseAre the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.’With this the tearful sound he made to cease:And I to him, ‘Yet would I have thee tell—And of thy speech do thou the gift increase—Tegghiaio[286]and Farinata, honourable,James Rusticucci,[287]Mosca, Arrigo,80With all the rest so studious to excelIn good; where are they? Help me this to know;Great hunger for the news hath seizèd me;Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?’He said: ‘Among the blackest souls they be;Them to the bottom weighs another sin.Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see.But when[288]the sweet world thou again dost win,I pray thee bring me among men to mind;No more I tell, nor new reply begin.’90Then his straightforward eyes askance declined;He looked at me a moment ere his headHe bowed; then fell flat ’mong the other blind.‘Henceforth he waketh not,’ my Leader said,‘Till he shall hear the angel’s trumpet sound,Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shadeIts dismal sepulchre shall then be found,Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume,And list[289]what echoes in eternal round.’So passed we where the shades and rainy spume100Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow;Touching a little on the world to come.[290]Wherefore I said: ‘Master, shall torments growAfter the awful sentence hath been heard,Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?’‘Repair unto thy Science,’[291]was his word;‘Which tells, as things approach a perfect stateTo keener joy or suffering they are stirred.Therefore although this people cursed by fateNe’er find perfection in its full extent,110To it they then shall more approximateThan now.’[292]Our course we round the circle bent,Still holding speech, of which I nothing say,Until we came where down the pathway went:There found we Plutus, the great enemy.FOOTNOTES:[274]As I move again: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the Second Circle down to the Third.[275]Cerberus: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and wine-bibbers.[276]And oft, etc.: On entering the circle the shades are seized and torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts.[277]Great worm: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so called as being a disgusting brute.[278]Semblances, etc.: ‘Emptiness which seems to be a person.’ To this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable.[279]Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante’s tread that he is a living man.[280]Ciacco: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as ate and drank delicately. In theDecameron, ix. 8, he is introduced as being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim.[281]The citizens, etc.: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno.[282]After, etc.: In the following nine lines the party history of Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions—the Whites, led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of the poet’s talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in January 1302.[283]The boorish party:la parte selvaggia. The Whites; but what is exactly meant byselvaggiais not clear. Literally it is ‘woodland,’ and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than another—not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani also terms the Cerchisalvatichi(viii. 39), and in a connection where it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began theComedy, he had quite broken with. InParad.xvii. 62 he terms the members of it ‘wicked and stupid.’ The sneer in the text would come well enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco.[284]Holpen, etc.: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent.[285]Two just: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from the number of the just men. He, in Dante’s judgment, was only too much listened to.—It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the action of theComedy, Dante was still resident in Florence.[286]Tegghiaio: SeeInf.xvi. 42.Farinata:Inf.x. 32.[287]Rusticucci:Inf.xvi. 44.Mosca:Inf.xxviii. 106.Arrigo: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco’s.[288]But when, etc.: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the ‘sweet world.’ A double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude.[289]And list, etc.: The final sentence against them is to echo, in its results, through all eternity.[290]The world to come: The life after doomsday.[291]Thy Science: To Aristotle. In theConvito, iv. 16, he quotes ‘the Philosopher’ as teaching that ‘everything is then at its full perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.’[292]Than now: Augustine says that ‘after the resurrection of the flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be enhanced.’ And, according to Thomas Aquinas, ‘the soul, without the body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.’

When I regained my senses, which had fledAt my compassion for the kindred two,Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head,New torments and a crowd of sufferers newI see around me as I move again,[274]Where’er I turn, where’er I bend my view.In the Third Circle am I of the rainWhich, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe,Doth always of one kind and force remain.Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow,10Keep pouring down athwart the murky air;And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow.The savage Cerberus,[275]a monster drear,Howls from his threefold throat with canine criesAbove the people who are whelmèd there.Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes,His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout.The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise.Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout,And shield themselves in turn with either side;20And oft[276]the wretched sinners turn about.When we by Cerberus, great worm,[277]were spied,He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed,While not a limb did motionless abide.My Leader having spread his hands abroad,Filled both his fists with earth ta’en from the ground,And down the ravening gullets flung the load.Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound,But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws,And, worrying it, forgets all else around;30So with those filthy faces there it wasOf the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowdOf souls till they from hearing fain would pause.We, travelling o’er the spirits who lay cowedAnd sorely by the grievous showers harassed,Upon their semblances[278]of bodies trod.Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast,Save one of them who sat upright with speedWhen he beheld that near to him we passed.‘O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279]40Me if thou canst,’ he asked me, ‘recognise;For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.’And I to him: ‘Thy present tortured guisePerchance hath blurred my memory of thy face,Until it seems I ne’er on thee set eyes.But tell me who thou art, within this placeSo cruel set, exposed to such a pain,Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.’And he: ‘Thy city, swelling with the baneOf envy till the sack is running o’er,50Me in the life serene did once contain.As Ciacco[280]me your citizens named of yore;And for the damning sin of gluttonyI, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower.No solitary woful soul am I,For all of these endure the selfsame doomFor the same fault.’ Here ended his reply.I answered him, ‘O Ciacco, with such gloomThy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone;But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come60The citizens[281]of the divided town.Holds it one just man? And declare the causeWhy ’tis of discord such a victim grown.’Then he to me: ‘After[282]contentious pauseBlood will be spilt; the boorish party[283]thenWill chase the others forth with grievous loss.The former it behoves to fall againWithin three suns, the others to ascend,Holpen[284]by him whose wiles ere now are plain.Long time, with heads held high, they’ll make to bendThe other party under burdens dire,71Howe’er themselves in tears and rage they spend.There are two just[285]men, at whom none inquire.Envy, and pride, and avarice, even theseAre the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.’With this the tearful sound he made to cease:And I to him, ‘Yet would I have thee tell—And of thy speech do thou the gift increase—Tegghiaio[286]and Farinata, honourable,James Rusticucci,[287]Mosca, Arrigo,80With all the rest so studious to excelIn good; where are they? Help me this to know;Great hunger for the news hath seizèd me;Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?’He said: ‘Among the blackest souls they be;Them to the bottom weighs another sin.Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see.But when[288]the sweet world thou again dost win,I pray thee bring me among men to mind;No more I tell, nor new reply begin.’90Then his straightforward eyes askance declined;He looked at me a moment ere his headHe bowed; then fell flat ’mong the other blind.‘Henceforth he waketh not,’ my Leader said,‘Till he shall hear the angel’s trumpet sound,Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shadeIts dismal sepulchre shall then be found,Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume,And list[289]what echoes in eternal round.’So passed we where the shades and rainy spume100Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow;Touching a little on the world to come.[290]Wherefore I said: ‘Master, shall torments growAfter the awful sentence hath been heard,Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?’‘Repair unto thy Science,’[291]was his word;‘Which tells, as things approach a perfect stateTo keener joy or suffering they are stirred.Therefore although this people cursed by fateNe’er find perfection in its full extent,110To it they then shall more approximateThan now.’[292]Our course we round the circle bent,Still holding speech, of which I nothing say,Until we came where down the pathway went:There found we Plutus, the great enemy.

When I regained my senses, which had fledAt my compassion for the kindred two,Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head,New torments and a crowd of sufferers newI see around me as I move again,[274]Where’er I turn, where’er I bend my view.In the Third Circle am I of the rainWhich, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe,Doth always of one kind and force remain.Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow,10Keep pouring down athwart the murky air;And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow.The savage Cerberus,[275]a monster drear,Howls from his threefold throat with canine criesAbove the people who are whelmèd there.Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes,His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout.The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise.Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout,And shield themselves in turn with either side;20And oft[276]the wretched sinners turn about.When we by Cerberus, great worm,[277]were spied,He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed,While not a limb did motionless abide.My Leader having spread his hands abroad,Filled both his fists with earth ta’en from the ground,And down the ravening gullets flung the load.Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound,But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws,And, worrying it, forgets all else around;30So with those filthy faces there it wasOf the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowdOf souls till they from hearing fain would pause.We, travelling o’er the spirits who lay cowedAnd sorely by the grievous showers harassed,Upon their semblances[278]of bodies trod.Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast,Save one of them who sat upright with speedWhen he beheld that near to him we passed.‘O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279]40Me if thou canst,’ he asked me, ‘recognise;For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.’And I to him: ‘Thy present tortured guisePerchance hath blurred my memory of thy face,Until it seems I ne’er on thee set eyes.But tell me who thou art, within this placeSo cruel set, exposed to such a pain,Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.’And he: ‘Thy city, swelling with the baneOf envy till the sack is running o’er,50Me in the life serene did once contain.As Ciacco[280]me your citizens named of yore;And for the damning sin of gluttonyI, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower.No solitary woful soul am I,For all of these endure the selfsame doomFor the same fault.’ Here ended his reply.I answered him, ‘O Ciacco, with such gloomThy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone;But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come60The citizens[281]of the divided town.Holds it one just man? And declare the causeWhy ’tis of discord such a victim grown.’Then he to me: ‘After[282]contentious pauseBlood will be spilt; the boorish party[283]thenWill chase the others forth with grievous loss.The former it behoves to fall againWithin three suns, the others to ascend,Holpen[284]by him whose wiles ere now are plain.Long time, with heads held high, they’ll make to bendThe other party under burdens dire,71Howe’er themselves in tears and rage they spend.There are two just[285]men, at whom none inquire.Envy, and pride, and avarice, even theseAre the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.’With this the tearful sound he made to cease:And I to him, ‘Yet would I have thee tell—And of thy speech do thou the gift increase—Tegghiaio[286]and Farinata, honourable,James Rusticucci,[287]Mosca, Arrigo,80With all the rest so studious to excelIn good; where are they? Help me this to know;Great hunger for the news hath seizèd me;Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?’He said: ‘Among the blackest souls they be;Them to the bottom weighs another sin.Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see.But when[288]the sweet world thou again dost win,I pray thee bring me among men to mind;No more I tell, nor new reply begin.’90Then his straightforward eyes askance declined;He looked at me a moment ere his headHe bowed; then fell flat ’mong the other blind.‘Henceforth he waketh not,’ my Leader said,‘Till he shall hear the angel’s trumpet sound,Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shadeIts dismal sepulchre shall then be found,Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume,And list[289]what echoes in eternal round.’So passed we where the shades and rainy spume100Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow;Touching a little on the world to come.[290]Wherefore I said: ‘Master, shall torments growAfter the awful sentence hath been heard,Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?’‘Repair unto thy Science,’[291]was his word;‘Which tells, as things approach a perfect stateTo keener joy or suffering they are stirred.Therefore although this people cursed by fateNe’er find perfection in its full extent,110To it they then shall more approximateThan now.’[292]Our course we round the circle bent,Still holding speech, of which I nothing say,Until we came where down the pathway went:There found we Plutus, the great enemy.

FOOTNOTES:[274]As I move again: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the Second Circle down to the Third.[275]Cerberus: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and wine-bibbers.[276]And oft, etc.: On entering the circle the shades are seized and torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts.[277]Great worm: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so called as being a disgusting brute.[278]Semblances, etc.: ‘Emptiness which seems to be a person.’ To this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable.[279]Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante’s tread that he is a living man.[280]Ciacco: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as ate and drank delicately. In theDecameron, ix. 8, he is introduced as being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim.[281]The citizens, etc.: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno.[282]After, etc.: In the following nine lines the party history of Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions—the Whites, led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of the poet’s talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in January 1302.[283]The boorish party:la parte selvaggia. The Whites; but what is exactly meant byselvaggiais not clear. Literally it is ‘woodland,’ and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than another—not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani also terms the Cerchisalvatichi(viii. 39), and in a connection where it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began theComedy, he had quite broken with. InParad.xvii. 62 he terms the members of it ‘wicked and stupid.’ The sneer in the text would come well enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco.[284]Holpen, etc.: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent.[285]Two just: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from the number of the just men. He, in Dante’s judgment, was only too much listened to.—It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the action of theComedy, Dante was still resident in Florence.[286]Tegghiaio: SeeInf.xvi. 42.Farinata:Inf.x. 32.[287]Rusticucci:Inf.xvi. 44.Mosca:Inf.xxviii. 106.Arrigo: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco’s.[288]But when, etc.: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the ‘sweet world.’ A double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude.[289]And list, etc.: The final sentence against them is to echo, in its results, through all eternity.[290]The world to come: The life after doomsday.[291]Thy Science: To Aristotle. In theConvito, iv. 16, he quotes ‘the Philosopher’ as teaching that ‘everything is then at its full perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.’[292]Than now: Augustine says that ‘after the resurrection of the flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be enhanced.’ And, according to Thomas Aquinas, ‘the soul, without the body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.’

[274]As I move again: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the Second Circle down to the Third.

[274]As I move again: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the Second Circle down to the Third.

[275]Cerberus: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and wine-bibbers.

[275]Cerberus: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and wine-bibbers.

[276]And oft, etc.: On entering the circle the shades are seized and torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts.

[276]And oft, etc.: On entering the circle the shades are seized and torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts.

[277]Great worm: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so called as being a disgusting brute.

[277]Great worm: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so called as being a disgusting brute.

[278]Semblances, etc.: ‘Emptiness which seems to be a person.’ To this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable.

[278]Semblances, etc.: ‘Emptiness which seems to be a person.’ To this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable.

[279]Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante’s tread that he is a living man.

[279]Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante’s tread that he is a living man.

[280]Ciacco: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as ate and drank delicately. In theDecameron, ix. 8, he is introduced as being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim.

[280]Ciacco: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as ate and drank delicately. In theDecameron, ix. 8, he is introduced as being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim.

[281]The citizens, etc.: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno.

[281]The citizens, etc.: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno.

[282]After, etc.: In the following nine lines the party history of Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions—the Whites, led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of the poet’s talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in January 1302.

[282]After, etc.: In the following nine lines the party history of Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions—the Whites, led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of the poet’s talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in January 1302.

[283]The boorish party:la parte selvaggia. The Whites; but what is exactly meant byselvaggiais not clear. Literally it is ‘woodland,’ and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than another—not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani also terms the Cerchisalvatichi(viii. 39), and in a connection where it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began theComedy, he had quite broken with. InParad.xvii. 62 he terms the members of it ‘wicked and stupid.’ The sneer in the text would come well enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco.

[283]The boorish party:la parte selvaggia. The Whites; but what is exactly meant byselvaggiais not clear. Literally it is ‘woodland,’ and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than another—not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani also terms the Cerchisalvatichi(viii. 39), and in a connection where it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began theComedy, he had quite broken with. InParad.xvii. 62 he terms the members of it ‘wicked and stupid.’ The sneer in the text would come well enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco.

[284]Holpen, etc.: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent.

[284]Holpen, etc.: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent.

[285]Two just: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from the number of the just men. He, in Dante’s judgment, was only too much listened to.—It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the action of theComedy, Dante was still resident in Florence.

[285]Two just: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from the number of the just men. He, in Dante’s judgment, was only too much listened to.—It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the action of theComedy, Dante was still resident in Florence.

[286]Tegghiaio: SeeInf.xvi. 42.Farinata:Inf.x. 32.

[286]Tegghiaio: SeeInf.xvi. 42.Farinata:Inf.x. 32.

[287]Rusticucci:Inf.xvi. 44.Mosca:Inf.xxviii. 106.Arrigo: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco’s.

[287]Rusticucci:Inf.xvi. 44.Mosca:Inf.xxviii. 106.Arrigo: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco’s.

[288]But when, etc.: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the ‘sweet world.’ A double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude.

[288]But when, etc.: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the ‘sweet world.’ A double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude.

[289]And list, etc.: The final sentence against them is to echo, in its results, through all eternity.

[289]And list, etc.: The final sentence against them is to echo, in its results, through all eternity.

[290]The world to come: The life after doomsday.

[290]The world to come: The life after doomsday.

[291]Thy Science: To Aristotle. In theConvito, iv. 16, he quotes ‘the Philosopher’ as teaching that ‘everything is then at its full perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.’

[291]Thy Science: To Aristotle. In theConvito, iv. 16, he quotes ‘the Philosopher’ as teaching that ‘everything is then at its full perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.’

[292]Than now: Augustine says that ‘after the resurrection of the flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be enhanced.’ And, according to Thomas Aquinas, ‘the soul, without the body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.’

[292]Than now: Augustine says that ‘after the resurrection of the flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be enhanced.’ And, according to Thomas Aquinas, ‘the soul, without the body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.’


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