CANTO XXVII.

CANTO XXVII.Now, having first erect and silent grown(For it would say no more), from us the flame,The Poet sweet consenting,[688]had moved on;And then our eyes were turned to one that came[689]Behind it on the way, by sounds that burstOut of its crest in a confusèd stream.As the Sicilian bull,[690]which bellowed firstWith his lamenting—and it was but right—Who had prepared it with his tools accurst,[691]Roared with the howlings of the tortured wight,10So that although constructed all of brassYet seemed it pierced with anguish to the height;So, wanting road and vent by which to passUp through the flame, into the flame’s own speechThe woeful language all converted was.But when the words at length contrived to reachThe top, while hither thither shook the crestAs moved the tongue[692]at utterance of each,We heard: ‘Oh thou, to whom are now addressedMy words, who spakest now in Lombard phrase:20“Depart;[693]of thee I nothing more request.”Though I be late arrived, yet of thy graceLet it not irk thee here a while to stay:It irks not me, yet, as thou seest, I blaze.If lately to this world devoid of dayFrom that sweet Latian land thou art come downWhence all my guilt I bring, declare and sayHas now Romagna peace? because my ownNative abode was in the mountain land’Tween springs[694]of Tiber and Urbino town.’30While I intent and bending low did stand,My Leader, as he touched me on the side,‘Speak thou, for he is Latian,’ gave command.Whereon without delay I thus replied—Because already[695]was my speech prepared:‘Soul, that down there dost in concealment ’bide,In thy Romagna[696]wars have never sparedAnd spare not now in tyrants’ hearts to rage;But when I left it there was none declared.No change has fallen Ravenna[697]for an age.40There, covering Cervia too with outspread wing,Polenta’s Eagle guards his heritage.Over the city[698]which long sufferingEndured, and Frenchmen slain on Frenchmen rolled,The Green Paws[699]once again protection fling.The Mastiffs of Verrucchio,[700]young and old,Who to Montagna[701]brought such evil cheer,Still clinch their fangs where they were wont to hold.Cities,[702]Lamone and Santerno near,The Lion couched in white are governed by50Which changes party with the changing year.And that to which the Savio[703]wanders nighAs it is set ’twixt mountain and champaignLives now in freedom now ’neath tyranny.But who thou art I to be told am fain:Be not more stubborn than we others found,As thou on earth illustrious wouldst remain.’When first the fire a little while had moanedAfter its manner, next the pointed crestWaved to and fro; then in this sense breathed sound:‘If I believed my answer were addressed61To one that earthward shall his course retrace,This flame should forthwith altogether rest.But since[704]none ever yet out of this placeReturned alive, if all be true I hear,I yield thee answer fearless of disgrace.I was a warrior, then a Cordelier;[705]Thinking thus girt to purge away my stain:And sure my hope had met with answer clearHad not the High Priest[706]—ill with him remain!70Plunged me anew into my former sin:And why and how, I would to thee make plain.While I the frame of bones and flesh was inMy mother gave me, all the deeds I wroughtWere fox-like and in no wise leonine.Of every wile and hidden way I caughtThe secret trick, and used them with such sleightThat all the world with fame of it was fraught.When I perceived I had attainèd quiteThe time of life when it behoves each one80To furl his sails and coil his cordage tight,Sorrowing for deeds I had with pleasure done,Contrite and shriven, I religious grew.Ah, wretched me! and well it was begunBut for the Chieftain of the Pharisees new,[707]Then waging war hard by the Lateran,And not with Saracen nor yet with Jew;For Christian[708]were his enemies every man,And none had at the siege of Acre beenOr trafficked in the Empire of Soldàn.90His lofty office he held cheap, and e’enHis Sacred Orders and the cord I wore,Which used[709]to make the wearers of it lean.As from Soracte[710]Constantine of yoreSylvester called to cure his leprosy,I as a leech was called this man beforeTo cure him of his fever which ran high;My counsel he required, but I stood dumb,For drunken all his words appeared to be.He said; “For fear be in thy heart no room;100Beforehand I absolve thee, but declareHow Palestrina I may overcome.Heaven I unlock, as thou art well aware,And close at will; because the keys are twinMy predecessor[711]was averse to bear.”Then did his weighty reasoning on me winTill to be silent seemed the worst of all;And, “Father,” I replied, “since from this sinThou dost absolve me into which I fall—The scant performance[712]of a promise wide110Will yield thee triumph in thy lofty stall.”Francis came for me soon as e’er I died;But one of the black Cherubim was thereAnd “Take him not, nor rob me of him” cried,“For him of right among my thralls I bearBecause he offered counsel fraudulent;Since when I’ve had him firmly by the hair.None is absolved unless he first repent;Nor can repentance house with purpose ill,For this the contradiction doth prevent.”120Ah, wretched me! How did I shrinking thrillWhen clutching me he sneered: “Perhaps of oldThou didst not think[713]I had in logic skill.”He carried me to Minos:[714]Minos rolledHis tail eight times round his hard back; in ireBiting it fiercely, ere of me he told:“Among the sinners of the shrouding fire!”Therefore am I, where thou beholdest, lost;And, sore at heart, go clothed in such attire.’What he would say thus ended by the ghost,130Away from us the moaning flame did glideWhile to and fro its pointed horn was tossed.But we passed further on, I and my Guide,Along the cliff to where the arch is setO’er the next moat, where paying they reside,As schismatics who whelmed themselves in debt.FOOTNOTES:[688]Consenting: See line 21.[689]One that came: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of Montefeltro, the colloquy with whom occupies the whole of the Canto.[690]The Sicilian bull: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum, with a brazen bull so constructed that when it was heated from below the cries of the victim it contained were converted into the bellowing of a bull. The first trial of the invention was made upon the artist.[691]Accurst: Not in the original. ‘Rime in English hath such scarcity,’ as Chaucer says.[692]As moved the tongue, etc.: The shade being enclosed in the hollow fire all his words are changed into a sound like the roaring of a flame. At last, when an opening has been worked through the crested point, the speech becomes articulate.[693]Depart, etc.: One at least of the words quoted as having been used by Virgil is Lombard. There is something very quaint in making him use the Lombard dialect of Dante’s time.[694]’Tween springs, etc.: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the mountain where the Tiber has its source.[695]Already: Dante knew that Virgil would refer to him for an answer to Guido’s question, bearing as it did on modern Italian affairs.[696]Romagna: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of the Po and east of Tuscany, of which Bologna and the cities named in the text were the principal towns. During the last quarter of the thirteenth century it was the scene of constant wars promoted in the interest of the Church, which claimed Romagna as the gift of the Emperor Rudolf, and in that of the great nobles of the district, who while using the Guelf and Ghibeline war-cries aimed at nothing but the lordship of the various cities. Foremost among these nobles was he with whose shade Dante speaks. Villani calls him ‘the most sagacious and accomplished warrior of his time in Italy’ (Cronica, vii. 80). He was possessed of lands of his own near Forlì and Cesena, and was lord in turn of many of the Romagnese cities. On the whole he appears to have remained true to his Ghibeline colours in spite of Papal fulminations, although once and again he was reconciled to the Church; on the last occasion in 1294. In the years immediately before this he had greatly distinguished himself as a wise governor and able general in the service of the Ghibeline Pisa—or rather as the paid lord of it.[697]Ravenna: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in 1300 under the lordship of members of the Polenta family—the father and brothers of the ill-fated Francesca (Inf.v.). Their arms were an eagle, half white on an azure and half red on a gold field. It was in the court of the generous Guido, son of one of these brothers, that Dante was to find his last refuge and to die.[698]Over the city, etc.: Forlì. The reference is to one of the most brilliant feats of war performed by Guido of Montefeltro. Frenchmen formed great part of an army sent in 1282 against Forlì by the Pope, MartinIV., himself a Frenchman. Guido, then lord of the city, led them into a trap and overthrew them with great slaughter. Like most men of his time Guido was a believer in astrology, and is said on this occasion to have acted on the counsel of Guido Bonatti, mentioned among the diviners in the Fourth Bolgia (Inf.xx. 118).[699]The Green Paws: In 1300 the Ordelaffi were lords of Forlì. Their arms were a green lion on a gold ground. During the first years of his exile Dante had to do with Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, under whose command the exiled Florentines put themselves for a time, and there is even a tradition that he acted as his secretary.[700]The Mastiffs of Verrucchio: Verrucchio was the castle of the Malatestas, lords of Rimini, called the Mastiffs on account of their cruel tenacity. The elder was the father of Francesca’s husband and lover; the younger was a brother of these.[701]Montagna: Montagna de’ Parcitati, one of a Ghibeline family that contested superiority in Rimini with the Guelf Malatestas, was taken prisoner by guile and committed by the old Mastiff to the keeping of the young one, whose fangs were set in him to such purpose that he soon died in his dungeon.[702]Cities, etc.: Imola and Faenza, situated on the rivers named in the text. Mainardo Pagani, lord of these towns, had for arms an azure lion on a white field. During his minority he was a ward of the Commonwealth of Florence. By his cunning and daring he earned the name of the Demon (Purg.xiv. 118). He died at Imola in 1302, and was buried in the garb of a monk of Vallombrosa. Like most of his neighbours he changed his party as often as his interest required. He was a Guelf in Florence and a Ghibeline in Romagna, say some.[703]Savio: Cesena, on the Savio, was distinguished among the cities of Romagna by being left more frequently than the others were to manage its own affairs. The Malatestas and Montefeltros were in turn possessed of the tyranny of it.[704]But since, etc.: The shades, being enveloped in fire, are unable to see those with whom they speak; and so Guido does not detect in Dante the signs of a living man, but takes him to be like himself a denizen of Inferno. He would not have the truth regarding his fate to be known in the world, where he is supposed to have departed life in the odour of sanctity. Dante’s promise to refresh his fame he either regards as meaningless, or as one made without the power of fulfilling it. Dante leaves him in his error, for he is there to learn all he can, and not to bandy personal confessions with the shades.[705]A Cordelier: In 1296 Guido entered the Franciscan Order. He died in 1298, but where is not known; some authorities say at Venice and others at Assisi. Benvenuto tells: ‘He was often seen begging his bread in Ancona, where he was buried. Many good deeds are related of him, and I cherish a sweet hope that he may have been saved.’[706]The High Priest: BonifaceVIII.[707]The Pharisees new: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint Jerome calls the dignified Roman clergy of his day ‘the Senate of the Pharisees.’[708]For Christian, etc.: The foes of Boniface, here spoken of, were the Cardinals Peter and James Colonna. He destroyed their palace in Rome (1297) and carried the war against them to their country seat at Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, then a great stronghold. Dante here bitterly blames Boniface for instituting a crusade against Christians at a time when, by the recent loss of Acre, the gate of the Holy Land had been lost to Christendom. The Colonnas were innocent, too, of the crime of supplying the Infidel with munitions of war—a crime condemned by the Lateran Council of 1215, and by Boniface himself, who excluded those guilty of it from the benefits of the great Jubilee of 1300.[709]Which used, etc.: In former times, when the rule of the Order was faithfully observed. Dante charges the Franciscans with degeneracy in theParadiso, xi. 124.[710]From Soracte: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for the cure was the fabulous Donation. SeeInf.xix. 115.[711]My predecessor: Celestine v. SeeInf.iii. 60.[712]The scant performance, etc.: That Guido gave such counsel is related by a contemporary chronicler: ‘The Pope said: Tell me how to get the better of those mine enemies, thou who art so knowing in these things. Then he answered: Promise much, and perform little; which he did.’ But it seems odd that the wily and unscrupulous Boniface should have needed to put himself to school for such a simple lesson.[713]Thou didst not think, etc.: Guido had forgot that others could reason besides the Pope. With regard to the inefficacy of the Papal absolution an old commentator says, following Origen: ‘The Popes that walk in the footsteps of Peter have this power of binding and loosing; but only such as do so walk.’ But on Dante’s scheme of what fixes the fate of the soul absolution matters little to save, or priestly curses to damnify. SeePurg.iii. 133. It is unfeigned repentance that can help a sinner even at the last; and it is remarkable that in the case of Buonconte, the gallant son of this same Guido, the infernal angel who comes for him as he expires complains that he has been cheated of his victim by one poor tear. SeePurg.v. 88, etc. Why then is no indulgence shown in Dante’s court to Guido, who might well have been placed in Purgatory and made to have repented effectually of this his last sin? That Dante had any personal grudge against him we can hardly think. In the Fourth Book of theConvito(written, according to Fraticelli, in 1297), he calls him ‘our most noble Guido Montefeltrano;’ and praises him as one of the wise and noble souls that refuse to run with full sails into the port of death, but furl the sails of their worldly undertakings, and, relinquishing all earthly pleasures and business, give themselves up in their old age to a religious life. Either, then, he sets Guido here in order that he may have a modern false counsellor worthy to be ranked with Ulysses; or because, on longer experience, he had come to reprobate more keenly the abuse of the Franciscan habit; or, most likely of all, that he might, even at the cost of Guido, load the hated memory of Boniface with another reproach.[714]Minos: Here we have Minos represented in the act of pronouncing judgment in words as well as by the figurative rolling of his tail around his body (Inf.v. 11).

Now, having first erect and silent grown(For it would say no more), from us the flame,The Poet sweet consenting,[688]had moved on;And then our eyes were turned to one that came[689]Behind it on the way, by sounds that burstOut of its crest in a confusèd stream.As the Sicilian bull,[690]which bellowed firstWith his lamenting—and it was but right—Who had prepared it with his tools accurst,[691]Roared with the howlings of the tortured wight,10So that although constructed all of brassYet seemed it pierced with anguish to the height;So, wanting road and vent by which to passUp through the flame, into the flame’s own speechThe woeful language all converted was.But when the words at length contrived to reachThe top, while hither thither shook the crestAs moved the tongue[692]at utterance of each,We heard: ‘Oh thou, to whom are now addressedMy words, who spakest now in Lombard phrase:20“Depart;[693]of thee I nothing more request.”Though I be late arrived, yet of thy graceLet it not irk thee here a while to stay:It irks not me, yet, as thou seest, I blaze.If lately to this world devoid of dayFrom that sweet Latian land thou art come downWhence all my guilt I bring, declare and sayHas now Romagna peace? because my ownNative abode was in the mountain land’Tween springs[694]of Tiber and Urbino town.’30While I intent and bending low did stand,My Leader, as he touched me on the side,‘Speak thou, for he is Latian,’ gave command.Whereon without delay I thus replied—Because already[695]was my speech prepared:‘Soul, that down there dost in concealment ’bide,In thy Romagna[696]wars have never sparedAnd spare not now in tyrants’ hearts to rage;But when I left it there was none declared.No change has fallen Ravenna[697]for an age.40There, covering Cervia too with outspread wing,Polenta’s Eagle guards his heritage.Over the city[698]which long sufferingEndured, and Frenchmen slain on Frenchmen rolled,The Green Paws[699]once again protection fling.The Mastiffs of Verrucchio,[700]young and old,Who to Montagna[701]brought such evil cheer,Still clinch their fangs where they were wont to hold.Cities,[702]Lamone and Santerno near,The Lion couched in white are governed by50Which changes party with the changing year.And that to which the Savio[703]wanders nighAs it is set ’twixt mountain and champaignLives now in freedom now ’neath tyranny.But who thou art I to be told am fain:Be not more stubborn than we others found,As thou on earth illustrious wouldst remain.’When first the fire a little while had moanedAfter its manner, next the pointed crestWaved to and fro; then in this sense breathed sound:‘If I believed my answer were addressed61To one that earthward shall his course retrace,This flame should forthwith altogether rest.But since[704]none ever yet out of this placeReturned alive, if all be true I hear,I yield thee answer fearless of disgrace.I was a warrior, then a Cordelier;[705]Thinking thus girt to purge away my stain:And sure my hope had met with answer clearHad not the High Priest[706]—ill with him remain!70Plunged me anew into my former sin:And why and how, I would to thee make plain.While I the frame of bones and flesh was inMy mother gave me, all the deeds I wroughtWere fox-like and in no wise leonine.Of every wile and hidden way I caughtThe secret trick, and used them with such sleightThat all the world with fame of it was fraught.When I perceived I had attainèd quiteThe time of life when it behoves each one80To furl his sails and coil his cordage tight,Sorrowing for deeds I had with pleasure done,Contrite and shriven, I religious grew.Ah, wretched me! and well it was begunBut for the Chieftain of the Pharisees new,[707]Then waging war hard by the Lateran,And not with Saracen nor yet with Jew;For Christian[708]were his enemies every man,And none had at the siege of Acre beenOr trafficked in the Empire of Soldàn.90His lofty office he held cheap, and e’enHis Sacred Orders and the cord I wore,Which used[709]to make the wearers of it lean.As from Soracte[710]Constantine of yoreSylvester called to cure his leprosy,I as a leech was called this man beforeTo cure him of his fever which ran high;My counsel he required, but I stood dumb,For drunken all his words appeared to be.He said; “For fear be in thy heart no room;100Beforehand I absolve thee, but declareHow Palestrina I may overcome.Heaven I unlock, as thou art well aware,And close at will; because the keys are twinMy predecessor[711]was averse to bear.”Then did his weighty reasoning on me winTill to be silent seemed the worst of all;And, “Father,” I replied, “since from this sinThou dost absolve me into which I fall—The scant performance[712]of a promise wide110Will yield thee triumph in thy lofty stall.”Francis came for me soon as e’er I died;But one of the black Cherubim was thereAnd “Take him not, nor rob me of him” cried,“For him of right among my thralls I bearBecause he offered counsel fraudulent;Since when I’ve had him firmly by the hair.None is absolved unless he first repent;Nor can repentance house with purpose ill,For this the contradiction doth prevent.”120Ah, wretched me! How did I shrinking thrillWhen clutching me he sneered: “Perhaps of oldThou didst not think[713]I had in logic skill.”He carried me to Minos:[714]Minos rolledHis tail eight times round his hard back; in ireBiting it fiercely, ere of me he told:“Among the sinners of the shrouding fire!”Therefore am I, where thou beholdest, lost;And, sore at heart, go clothed in such attire.’What he would say thus ended by the ghost,130Away from us the moaning flame did glideWhile to and fro its pointed horn was tossed.But we passed further on, I and my Guide,Along the cliff to where the arch is setO’er the next moat, where paying they reside,As schismatics who whelmed themselves in debt.

FOOTNOTES:[688]Consenting: See line 21.[689]One that came: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of Montefeltro, the colloquy with whom occupies the whole of the Canto.[690]The Sicilian bull: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum, with a brazen bull so constructed that when it was heated from below the cries of the victim it contained were converted into the bellowing of a bull. The first trial of the invention was made upon the artist.[691]Accurst: Not in the original. ‘Rime in English hath such scarcity,’ as Chaucer says.[692]As moved the tongue, etc.: The shade being enclosed in the hollow fire all his words are changed into a sound like the roaring of a flame. At last, when an opening has been worked through the crested point, the speech becomes articulate.[693]Depart, etc.: One at least of the words quoted as having been used by Virgil is Lombard. There is something very quaint in making him use the Lombard dialect of Dante’s time.[694]’Tween springs, etc.: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the mountain where the Tiber has its source.[695]Already: Dante knew that Virgil would refer to him for an answer to Guido’s question, bearing as it did on modern Italian affairs.[696]Romagna: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of the Po and east of Tuscany, of which Bologna and the cities named in the text were the principal towns. During the last quarter of the thirteenth century it was the scene of constant wars promoted in the interest of the Church, which claimed Romagna as the gift of the Emperor Rudolf, and in that of the great nobles of the district, who while using the Guelf and Ghibeline war-cries aimed at nothing but the lordship of the various cities. Foremost among these nobles was he with whose shade Dante speaks. Villani calls him ‘the most sagacious and accomplished warrior of his time in Italy’ (Cronica, vii. 80). He was possessed of lands of his own near Forlì and Cesena, and was lord in turn of many of the Romagnese cities. On the whole he appears to have remained true to his Ghibeline colours in spite of Papal fulminations, although once and again he was reconciled to the Church; on the last occasion in 1294. In the years immediately before this he had greatly distinguished himself as a wise governor and able general in the service of the Ghibeline Pisa—or rather as the paid lord of it.[697]Ravenna: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in 1300 under the lordship of members of the Polenta family—the father and brothers of the ill-fated Francesca (Inf.v.). Their arms were an eagle, half white on an azure and half red on a gold field. It was in the court of the generous Guido, son of one of these brothers, that Dante was to find his last refuge and to die.[698]Over the city, etc.: Forlì. The reference is to one of the most brilliant feats of war performed by Guido of Montefeltro. Frenchmen formed great part of an army sent in 1282 against Forlì by the Pope, MartinIV., himself a Frenchman. Guido, then lord of the city, led them into a trap and overthrew them with great slaughter. Like most men of his time Guido was a believer in astrology, and is said on this occasion to have acted on the counsel of Guido Bonatti, mentioned among the diviners in the Fourth Bolgia (Inf.xx. 118).[699]The Green Paws: In 1300 the Ordelaffi were lords of Forlì. Their arms were a green lion on a gold ground. During the first years of his exile Dante had to do with Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, under whose command the exiled Florentines put themselves for a time, and there is even a tradition that he acted as his secretary.[700]The Mastiffs of Verrucchio: Verrucchio was the castle of the Malatestas, lords of Rimini, called the Mastiffs on account of their cruel tenacity. The elder was the father of Francesca’s husband and lover; the younger was a brother of these.[701]Montagna: Montagna de’ Parcitati, one of a Ghibeline family that contested superiority in Rimini with the Guelf Malatestas, was taken prisoner by guile and committed by the old Mastiff to the keeping of the young one, whose fangs were set in him to such purpose that he soon died in his dungeon.[702]Cities, etc.: Imola and Faenza, situated on the rivers named in the text. Mainardo Pagani, lord of these towns, had for arms an azure lion on a white field. During his minority he was a ward of the Commonwealth of Florence. By his cunning and daring he earned the name of the Demon (Purg.xiv. 118). He died at Imola in 1302, and was buried in the garb of a monk of Vallombrosa. Like most of his neighbours he changed his party as often as his interest required. He was a Guelf in Florence and a Ghibeline in Romagna, say some.[703]Savio: Cesena, on the Savio, was distinguished among the cities of Romagna by being left more frequently than the others were to manage its own affairs. The Malatestas and Montefeltros were in turn possessed of the tyranny of it.[704]But since, etc.: The shades, being enveloped in fire, are unable to see those with whom they speak; and so Guido does not detect in Dante the signs of a living man, but takes him to be like himself a denizen of Inferno. He would not have the truth regarding his fate to be known in the world, where he is supposed to have departed life in the odour of sanctity. Dante’s promise to refresh his fame he either regards as meaningless, or as one made without the power of fulfilling it. Dante leaves him in his error, for he is there to learn all he can, and not to bandy personal confessions with the shades.[705]A Cordelier: In 1296 Guido entered the Franciscan Order. He died in 1298, but where is not known; some authorities say at Venice and others at Assisi. Benvenuto tells: ‘He was often seen begging his bread in Ancona, where he was buried. Many good deeds are related of him, and I cherish a sweet hope that he may have been saved.’[706]The High Priest: BonifaceVIII.[707]The Pharisees new: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint Jerome calls the dignified Roman clergy of his day ‘the Senate of the Pharisees.’[708]For Christian, etc.: The foes of Boniface, here spoken of, were the Cardinals Peter and James Colonna. He destroyed their palace in Rome (1297) and carried the war against them to their country seat at Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, then a great stronghold. Dante here bitterly blames Boniface for instituting a crusade against Christians at a time when, by the recent loss of Acre, the gate of the Holy Land had been lost to Christendom. The Colonnas were innocent, too, of the crime of supplying the Infidel with munitions of war—a crime condemned by the Lateran Council of 1215, and by Boniface himself, who excluded those guilty of it from the benefits of the great Jubilee of 1300.[709]Which used, etc.: In former times, when the rule of the Order was faithfully observed. Dante charges the Franciscans with degeneracy in theParadiso, xi. 124.[710]From Soracte: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for the cure was the fabulous Donation. SeeInf.xix. 115.[711]My predecessor: Celestine v. SeeInf.iii. 60.[712]The scant performance, etc.: That Guido gave such counsel is related by a contemporary chronicler: ‘The Pope said: Tell me how to get the better of those mine enemies, thou who art so knowing in these things. Then he answered: Promise much, and perform little; which he did.’ But it seems odd that the wily and unscrupulous Boniface should have needed to put himself to school for such a simple lesson.[713]Thou didst not think, etc.: Guido had forgot that others could reason besides the Pope. With regard to the inefficacy of the Papal absolution an old commentator says, following Origen: ‘The Popes that walk in the footsteps of Peter have this power of binding and loosing; but only such as do so walk.’ But on Dante’s scheme of what fixes the fate of the soul absolution matters little to save, or priestly curses to damnify. SeePurg.iii. 133. It is unfeigned repentance that can help a sinner even at the last; and it is remarkable that in the case of Buonconte, the gallant son of this same Guido, the infernal angel who comes for him as he expires complains that he has been cheated of his victim by one poor tear. SeePurg.v. 88, etc. Why then is no indulgence shown in Dante’s court to Guido, who might well have been placed in Purgatory and made to have repented effectually of this his last sin? That Dante had any personal grudge against him we can hardly think. In the Fourth Book of theConvito(written, according to Fraticelli, in 1297), he calls him ‘our most noble Guido Montefeltrano;’ and praises him as one of the wise and noble souls that refuse to run with full sails into the port of death, but furl the sails of their worldly undertakings, and, relinquishing all earthly pleasures and business, give themselves up in their old age to a religious life. Either, then, he sets Guido here in order that he may have a modern false counsellor worthy to be ranked with Ulysses; or because, on longer experience, he had come to reprobate more keenly the abuse of the Franciscan habit; or, most likely of all, that he might, even at the cost of Guido, load the hated memory of Boniface with another reproach.[714]Minos: Here we have Minos represented in the act of pronouncing judgment in words as well as by the figurative rolling of his tail around his body (Inf.v. 11).

[688]Consenting: See line 21.

[689]One that came: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of Montefeltro, the colloquy with whom occupies the whole of the Canto.

[690]The Sicilian bull: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum, with a brazen bull so constructed that when it was heated from below the cries of the victim it contained were converted into the bellowing of a bull. The first trial of the invention was made upon the artist.

[691]Accurst: Not in the original. ‘Rime in English hath such scarcity,’ as Chaucer says.

[692]As moved the tongue, etc.: The shade being enclosed in the hollow fire all his words are changed into a sound like the roaring of a flame. At last, when an opening has been worked through the crested point, the speech becomes articulate.

[693]Depart, etc.: One at least of the words quoted as having been used by Virgil is Lombard. There is something very quaint in making him use the Lombard dialect of Dante’s time.

[694]’Tween springs, etc.: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the mountain where the Tiber has its source.

[695]Already: Dante knew that Virgil would refer to him for an answer to Guido’s question, bearing as it did on modern Italian affairs.

[696]Romagna: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of the Po and east of Tuscany, of which Bologna and the cities named in the text were the principal towns. During the last quarter of the thirteenth century it was the scene of constant wars promoted in the interest of the Church, which claimed Romagna as the gift of the Emperor Rudolf, and in that of the great nobles of the district, who while using the Guelf and Ghibeline war-cries aimed at nothing but the lordship of the various cities. Foremost among these nobles was he with whose shade Dante speaks. Villani calls him ‘the most sagacious and accomplished warrior of his time in Italy’ (Cronica, vii. 80). He was possessed of lands of his own near Forlì and Cesena, and was lord in turn of many of the Romagnese cities. On the whole he appears to have remained true to his Ghibeline colours in spite of Papal fulminations, although once and again he was reconciled to the Church; on the last occasion in 1294. In the years immediately before this he had greatly distinguished himself as a wise governor and able general in the service of the Ghibeline Pisa—or rather as the paid lord of it.

[697]Ravenna: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in 1300 under the lordship of members of the Polenta family—the father and brothers of the ill-fated Francesca (Inf.v.). Their arms were an eagle, half white on an azure and half red on a gold field. It was in the court of the generous Guido, son of one of these brothers, that Dante was to find his last refuge and to die.

[698]Over the city, etc.: Forlì. The reference is to one of the most brilliant feats of war performed by Guido of Montefeltro. Frenchmen formed great part of an army sent in 1282 against Forlì by the Pope, MartinIV., himself a Frenchman. Guido, then lord of the city, led them into a trap and overthrew them with great slaughter. Like most men of his time Guido was a believer in astrology, and is said on this occasion to have acted on the counsel of Guido Bonatti, mentioned among the diviners in the Fourth Bolgia (Inf.xx. 118).

[699]The Green Paws: In 1300 the Ordelaffi were lords of Forlì. Their arms were a green lion on a gold ground. During the first years of his exile Dante had to do with Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, under whose command the exiled Florentines put themselves for a time, and there is even a tradition that he acted as his secretary.

[700]The Mastiffs of Verrucchio: Verrucchio was the castle of the Malatestas, lords of Rimini, called the Mastiffs on account of their cruel tenacity. The elder was the father of Francesca’s husband and lover; the younger was a brother of these.

[701]Montagna: Montagna de’ Parcitati, one of a Ghibeline family that contested superiority in Rimini with the Guelf Malatestas, was taken prisoner by guile and committed by the old Mastiff to the keeping of the young one, whose fangs were set in him to such purpose that he soon died in his dungeon.

[702]Cities, etc.: Imola and Faenza, situated on the rivers named in the text. Mainardo Pagani, lord of these towns, had for arms an azure lion on a white field. During his minority he was a ward of the Commonwealth of Florence. By his cunning and daring he earned the name of the Demon (Purg.xiv. 118). He died at Imola in 1302, and was buried in the garb of a monk of Vallombrosa. Like most of his neighbours he changed his party as often as his interest required. He was a Guelf in Florence and a Ghibeline in Romagna, say some.

[703]Savio: Cesena, on the Savio, was distinguished among the cities of Romagna by being left more frequently than the others were to manage its own affairs. The Malatestas and Montefeltros were in turn possessed of the tyranny of it.

[704]But since, etc.: The shades, being enveloped in fire, are unable to see those with whom they speak; and so Guido does not detect in Dante the signs of a living man, but takes him to be like himself a denizen of Inferno. He would not have the truth regarding his fate to be known in the world, where he is supposed to have departed life in the odour of sanctity. Dante’s promise to refresh his fame he either regards as meaningless, or as one made without the power of fulfilling it. Dante leaves him in his error, for he is there to learn all he can, and not to bandy personal confessions with the shades.

[705]A Cordelier: In 1296 Guido entered the Franciscan Order. He died in 1298, but where is not known; some authorities say at Venice and others at Assisi. Benvenuto tells: ‘He was often seen begging his bread in Ancona, where he was buried. Many good deeds are related of him, and I cherish a sweet hope that he may have been saved.’

[706]The High Priest: BonifaceVIII.

[707]The Pharisees new: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint Jerome calls the dignified Roman clergy of his day ‘the Senate of the Pharisees.’

[708]For Christian, etc.: The foes of Boniface, here spoken of, were the Cardinals Peter and James Colonna. He destroyed their palace in Rome (1297) and carried the war against them to their country seat at Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, then a great stronghold. Dante here bitterly blames Boniface for instituting a crusade against Christians at a time when, by the recent loss of Acre, the gate of the Holy Land had been lost to Christendom. The Colonnas were innocent, too, of the crime of supplying the Infidel with munitions of war—a crime condemned by the Lateran Council of 1215, and by Boniface himself, who excluded those guilty of it from the benefits of the great Jubilee of 1300.

[709]Which used, etc.: In former times, when the rule of the Order was faithfully observed. Dante charges the Franciscans with degeneracy in theParadiso, xi. 124.

[710]From Soracte: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for the cure was the fabulous Donation. SeeInf.xix. 115.

[711]My predecessor: Celestine v. SeeInf.iii. 60.

[712]The scant performance, etc.: That Guido gave such counsel is related by a contemporary chronicler: ‘The Pope said: Tell me how to get the better of those mine enemies, thou who art so knowing in these things. Then he answered: Promise much, and perform little; which he did.’ But it seems odd that the wily and unscrupulous Boniface should have needed to put himself to school for such a simple lesson.

[713]Thou didst not think, etc.: Guido had forgot that others could reason besides the Pope. With regard to the inefficacy of the Papal absolution an old commentator says, following Origen: ‘The Popes that walk in the footsteps of Peter have this power of binding and loosing; but only such as do so walk.’ But on Dante’s scheme of what fixes the fate of the soul absolution matters little to save, or priestly curses to damnify. SeePurg.iii. 133. It is unfeigned repentance that can help a sinner even at the last; and it is remarkable that in the case of Buonconte, the gallant son of this same Guido, the infernal angel who comes for him as he expires complains that he has been cheated of his victim by one poor tear. SeePurg.v. 88, etc. Why then is no indulgence shown in Dante’s court to Guido, who might well have been placed in Purgatory and made to have repented effectually of this his last sin? That Dante had any personal grudge against him we can hardly think. In the Fourth Book of theConvito(written, according to Fraticelli, in 1297), he calls him ‘our most noble Guido Montefeltrano;’ and praises him as one of the wise and noble souls that refuse to run with full sails into the port of death, but furl the sails of their worldly undertakings, and, relinquishing all earthly pleasures and business, give themselves up in their old age to a religious life. Either, then, he sets Guido here in order that he may have a modern false counsellor worthy to be ranked with Ulysses; or because, on longer experience, he had come to reprobate more keenly the abuse of the Franciscan habit; or, most likely of all, that he might, even at the cost of Guido, load the hated memory of Boniface with another reproach.

[714]Minos: Here we have Minos represented in the act of pronouncing judgment in words as well as by the figurative rolling of his tail around his body (Inf.v. 11).

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