CANTO XXXI.The very tongue that first had caused me pain,Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o’er,With healing medicine me restored again.So have I heard, the lance Achilles[781]bore,Which earlier was his father’s, first would woundAnd then to health the wounded part restore.From that sad valley[782]we our backs turned round,Up the encircling rampart making wayNor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound.Here was it less than night and less than day,10And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead;But of a trumpet the sonorous bray—No thunder-peal were heard beside it—ledMine eyes along the line by which it passed,Till on one spot their gaze concentrated.When by the dolorous rout was overcastThe sacred enterprise of CharlemagneRoland[783]blew not so terrible a blast.Short time my head was that way turned, when plainI many lofty towers appeared to see.20‘Master, what town is this?’ I asked. ‘Since fainThou art,’ he said, ‘to pierce the obscurityWhile yet through distance ’tis inscrutable,Thou must of error needs the victim be.Arriving there thou shalt distinguish wellHow much by distance was thy sense betrayed;Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.’Then tenderly[784]he took my hand, and said:‘Ere we pass further I would have thee know,That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed,30These are not towers but giants; in a rowSet round the brink each in the pit abides,His navel hidden and the parts below.’And even as when the veil of mist dividesLittle by little dawns upon the sightWhat the obscuring vapour earlier hides;So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light,As I step after step drew near the boundMy error fled, but I was filled with fright.As Montereggion[785]with towers is crowned40Which from the walls encircling it arise;So, rising from the pit’s encircling mound,Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes—Dread giants, still by Jupiter defiedFrom Heaven whene’er it thunders in the skies.The face of one already I descried,His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far,And both his arms dependent by his side.When Nature ceased such creatures as these areTo form, she of a surety wisely wrought50Wresting from Mars such ministers of war.And though she rue not that to life she broughtThe whale and elephant, who deep shall readWill justify her wisdom in his thought;For when the powers of intellect are wedTo strength and evil will, with them made one,The race of man is helpless left indeed.As large and long as is St. Peter’s cone[786]At Rome, the face appeared; of every limbOn scale like this was fashioned every bone.60So that the bank, which covered half of himAs might a tunic, left uncovered yetSo much that if to his hair they sought to climbThree Frisians[787]end on end their match had met;For thirty great palms I of him could see,Counting from where a man’s cloak-clasp is set.Rafel[788]mai amech zabi almi!Out of the bestial mouth began to roll,Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody.And then my Leader charged him: ‘Stupid soul,70Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mindWhen rage or other passions pass control.Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twinedO puzzle-headed wretch! from which ’tis slung;Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.’And then to me: ‘From his own mouth is wrungProof of his guilt. ’Tis Nimrod, whose insaneWhim hindered men from speaking in one tongue.Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain;For words to him in any language said,80As unto others his, no sense contain.’Turned to the left, we on our journey sped,And at the distance of an arrow’s flightWe found another huger and more dread.By what artificer thus pinioned tightI cannot tell, but his left arm was boundIn front, as at his back was bound the right,By a chain which girt him firmly round and round;About what of his frame there was displayedBelow the neck, in fivefold gyre ’twas wound.90‘Incited by ambition this one madeTrial of prowess ’gainst Almighty Jove,’My Leader told, ‘and he is thus repaid.’Tis Ephialtes,[789]mightily who stroveWhat time the giants to the gods caused fright:The arms he wielded then no more will move.’And I to him: ‘Fain would I, if I might,On the enormous Briareus set eye,And know the truth by holding him in sight.’‘Antæus[790]thou shalt see,’ he made reply,100‘Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains.Us to the depth of all iniquityHe shall let down. The one thou’dst see[791]remainsFar off, like this one bound and like in make,But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.’Never when earth most terribly did quakeShook any tower so much as what all o’erAnd suddenly did Ephialtes shake.Terror of death possessed me more and more;The fear alone had served my turn indeed,110But that I marked the ligatures he wore.Then did we somewhat further on proceed,Reaching Antæus who for good five ell,[792]His head not counted, from the pit was freed.‘O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell[793]—Where Scipio of glory was made heirWhen with his host to flight turned Hannibal—A thousand lions didst for booty bearAway, and who, hadst thou but joined the hostAnd like thy brethren fought, some even aver120The victory to earth’s sons had not been lost,Lower us now, nor disobliging show,To where Cocytus[794]fettered is by frost.To Tityus[795]nor to Typhon make us go.To grant what here is longed for he hath power,Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low.He can for wage thy name on earth restore;He lives, and still expecteth to live long,If Grace recall him not before his hour.’So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung130Downward and seized my Leader in all haste—Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung.And Virgil when he felt them round him castSaid: ‘That I may embrace thee, hither tend,’And in one bundle with him made me fast.And as to him that under Carisend[796]Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds flyCounter its slope, the tower appears to bend;Even so to me who stood attentive byAntæus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed,140Had gladly sought another road to try.But us in the abyss he gently laid,Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain;Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed,But like a ship’s mast raised himself again.FOOTNOTES:[781]Achilles: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound.[782]From that sad valley: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which consists of the pit of the Inferno.[783]Roland: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.—TheChansons de Gestewere familiarly known to Italians of all classes.[784]Then tenderly, etc.: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that they are about to descend into the ‘lowest depth of all wickedness.’[785]Montereggioni: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in Dante’s time.—As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the utmost reach of Hell.[786]St. Peter’s cone: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante’s time in the forecourt of St Peter’s. When the new church was built it was removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. According to that, the cone is ten palms long—about six feet. Allowing something for the neck, down to ‘where a man clasps his cloak’ (line 66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw their heads well back to look up into the giant’s face; and Virgil must raise his voice as he speaks.—With regard to the height of the cone it may be remarked that Murray’s Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement.[787]Three Frisians: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his hair.[788]Rafel, etc.: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. Part of Nimrod’s punishment is that he who brought about the confusion of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a sense in words specially invented to have none.—In hisDe Vulg. El., i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant.[789]Ephialtes: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled Ossa on Pelion.[790]Antæus: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike Ephialtes, is not bound. Antæus is free-handed because he took no part in the war with the gods.[791]The one thou’dst see: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake.[792]Five ell: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antæus is of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports the view that the ‘huger’ of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to height.[793]The fortune-haunted dell: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The giant Antæus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he needed to swing him aloft. In theMonarchia, ii. 10, Dante refers to the combat between Hercules and Antæus as an instance of the wager of battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan’sPharsalia, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these references to Scipio and Antæus.[794]Cocytus: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See Canto xiv. at the end.[795]Tityus, etc.: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be less strong than Antæus. This introduction of their names is therefore a piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antæus not curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning to work were all specimens of Nature’s handicraft that had better have been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools.[796]Carisenda: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the half-century after Dante’s time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other direction.
The very tongue that first had caused me pain,Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o’er,With healing medicine me restored again.So have I heard, the lance Achilles[781]bore,Which earlier was his father’s, first would woundAnd then to health the wounded part restore.From that sad valley[782]we our backs turned round,Up the encircling rampart making wayNor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound.Here was it less than night and less than day,10And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead;But of a trumpet the sonorous bray—No thunder-peal were heard beside it—ledMine eyes along the line by which it passed,Till on one spot their gaze concentrated.When by the dolorous rout was overcastThe sacred enterprise of CharlemagneRoland[783]blew not so terrible a blast.Short time my head was that way turned, when plainI many lofty towers appeared to see.20‘Master, what town is this?’ I asked. ‘Since fainThou art,’ he said, ‘to pierce the obscurityWhile yet through distance ’tis inscrutable,Thou must of error needs the victim be.Arriving there thou shalt distinguish wellHow much by distance was thy sense betrayed;Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.’Then tenderly[784]he took my hand, and said:‘Ere we pass further I would have thee know,That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed,30These are not towers but giants; in a rowSet round the brink each in the pit abides,His navel hidden and the parts below.’And even as when the veil of mist dividesLittle by little dawns upon the sightWhat the obscuring vapour earlier hides;So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light,As I step after step drew near the boundMy error fled, but I was filled with fright.As Montereggion[785]with towers is crowned40Which from the walls encircling it arise;So, rising from the pit’s encircling mound,Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes—Dread giants, still by Jupiter defiedFrom Heaven whene’er it thunders in the skies.The face of one already I descried,His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far,And both his arms dependent by his side.When Nature ceased such creatures as these areTo form, she of a surety wisely wrought50Wresting from Mars such ministers of war.And though she rue not that to life she broughtThe whale and elephant, who deep shall readWill justify her wisdom in his thought;For when the powers of intellect are wedTo strength and evil will, with them made one,The race of man is helpless left indeed.As large and long as is St. Peter’s cone[786]At Rome, the face appeared; of every limbOn scale like this was fashioned every bone.60So that the bank, which covered half of himAs might a tunic, left uncovered yetSo much that if to his hair they sought to climbThree Frisians[787]end on end their match had met;For thirty great palms I of him could see,Counting from where a man’s cloak-clasp is set.Rafel[788]mai amech zabi almi!Out of the bestial mouth began to roll,Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody.And then my Leader charged him: ‘Stupid soul,70Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mindWhen rage or other passions pass control.Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twinedO puzzle-headed wretch! from which ’tis slung;Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.’And then to me: ‘From his own mouth is wrungProof of his guilt. ’Tis Nimrod, whose insaneWhim hindered men from speaking in one tongue.Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain;For words to him in any language said,80As unto others his, no sense contain.’Turned to the left, we on our journey sped,And at the distance of an arrow’s flightWe found another huger and more dread.By what artificer thus pinioned tightI cannot tell, but his left arm was boundIn front, as at his back was bound the right,By a chain which girt him firmly round and round;About what of his frame there was displayedBelow the neck, in fivefold gyre ’twas wound.90‘Incited by ambition this one madeTrial of prowess ’gainst Almighty Jove,’My Leader told, ‘and he is thus repaid.’Tis Ephialtes,[789]mightily who stroveWhat time the giants to the gods caused fright:The arms he wielded then no more will move.’And I to him: ‘Fain would I, if I might,On the enormous Briareus set eye,And know the truth by holding him in sight.’‘Antæus[790]thou shalt see,’ he made reply,100‘Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains.Us to the depth of all iniquityHe shall let down. The one thou’dst see[791]remainsFar off, like this one bound and like in make,But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.’Never when earth most terribly did quakeShook any tower so much as what all o’erAnd suddenly did Ephialtes shake.Terror of death possessed me more and more;The fear alone had served my turn indeed,110But that I marked the ligatures he wore.Then did we somewhat further on proceed,Reaching Antæus who for good five ell,[792]His head not counted, from the pit was freed.‘O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell[793]—Where Scipio of glory was made heirWhen with his host to flight turned Hannibal—A thousand lions didst for booty bearAway, and who, hadst thou but joined the hostAnd like thy brethren fought, some even aver120The victory to earth’s sons had not been lost,Lower us now, nor disobliging show,To where Cocytus[794]fettered is by frost.To Tityus[795]nor to Typhon make us go.To grant what here is longed for he hath power,Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low.He can for wage thy name on earth restore;He lives, and still expecteth to live long,If Grace recall him not before his hour.’So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung130Downward and seized my Leader in all haste—Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung.And Virgil when he felt them round him castSaid: ‘That I may embrace thee, hither tend,’And in one bundle with him made me fast.And as to him that under Carisend[796]Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds flyCounter its slope, the tower appears to bend;Even so to me who stood attentive byAntæus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed,140Had gladly sought another road to try.But us in the abyss he gently laid,Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain;Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed,But like a ship’s mast raised himself again.
The very tongue that first had caused me pain,Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o’er,With healing medicine me restored again.So have I heard, the lance Achilles[781]bore,Which earlier was his father’s, first would woundAnd then to health the wounded part restore.From that sad valley[782]we our backs turned round,Up the encircling rampart making wayNor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound.Here was it less than night and less than day,10And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead;But of a trumpet the sonorous bray—No thunder-peal were heard beside it—ledMine eyes along the line by which it passed,Till on one spot their gaze concentrated.When by the dolorous rout was overcastThe sacred enterprise of CharlemagneRoland[783]blew not so terrible a blast.Short time my head was that way turned, when plainI many lofty towers appeared to see.20‘Master, what town is this?’ I asked. ‘Since fainThou art,’ he said, ‘to pierce the obscurityWhile yet through distance ’tis inscrutable,Thou must of error needs the victim be.Arriving there thou shalt distinguish wellHow much by distance was thy sense betrayed;Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.’Then tenderly[784]he took my hand, and said:‘Ere we pass further I would have thee know,That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed,30These are not towers but giants; in a rowSet round the brink each in the pit abides,His navel hidden and the parts below.’And even as when the veil of mist dividesLittle by little dawns upon the sightWhat the obscuring vapour earlier hides;So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light,As I step after step drew near the boundMy error fled, but I was filled with fright.As Montereggion[785]with towers is crowned40Which from the walls encircling it arise;So, rising from the pit’s encircling mound,Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes—Dread giants, still by Jupiter defiedFrom Heaven whene’er it thunders in the skies.The face of one already I descried,His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far,And both his arms dependent by his side.When Nature ceased such creatures as these areTo form, she of a surety wisely wrought50Wresting from Mars such ministers of war.And though she rue not that to life she broughtThe whale and elephant, who deep shall readWill justify her wisdom in his thought;For when the powers of intellect are wedTo strength and evil will, with them made one,The race of man is helpless left indeed.As large and long as is St. Peter’s cone[786]At Rome, the face appeared; of every limbOn scale like this was fashioned every bone.60So that the bank, which covered half of himAs might a tunic, left uncovered yetSo much that if to his hair they sought to climbThree Frisians[787]end on end their match had met;For thirty great palms I of him could see,Counting from where a man’s cloak-clasp is set.Rafel[788]mai amech zabi almi!Out of the bestial mouth began to roll,Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody.And then my Leader charged him: ‘Stupid soul,70Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mindWhen rage or other passions pass control.Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twinedO puzzle-headed wretch! from which ’tis slung;Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.’And then to me: ‘From his own mouth is wrungProof of his guilt. ’Tis Nimrod, whose insaneWhim hindered men from speaking in one tongue.Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain;For words to him in any language said,80As unto others his, no sense contain.’Turned to the left, we on our journey sped,And at the distance of an arrow’s flightWe found another huger and more dread.By what artificer thus pinioned tightI cannot tell, but his left arm was boundIn front, as at his back was bound the right,By a chain which girt him firmly round and round;About what of his frame there was displayedBelow the neck, in fivefold gyre ’twas wound.90‘Incited by ambition this one madeTrial of prowess ’gainst Almighty Jove,’My Leader told, ‘and he is thus repaid.’Tis Ephialtes,[789]mightily who stroveWhat time the giants to the gods caused fright:The arms he wielded then no more will move.’And I to him: ‘Fain would I, if I might,On the enormous Briareus set eye,And know the truth by holding him in sight.’‘Antæus[790]thou shalt see,’ he made reply,100‘Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains.Us to the depth of all iniquityHe shall let down. The one thou’dst see[791]remainsFar off, like this one bound and like in make,But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.’Never when earth most terribly did quakeShook any tower so much as what all o’erAnd suddenly did Ephialtes shake.Terror of death possessed me more and more;The fear alone had served my turn indeed,110But that I marked the ligatures he wore.Then did we somewhat further on proceed,Reaching Antæus who for good five ell,[792]His head not counted, from the pit was freed.‘O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell[793]—Where Scipio of glory was made heirWhen with his host to flight turned Hannibal—A thousand lions didst for booty bearAway, and who, hadst thou but joined the hostAnd like thy brethren fought, some even aver120The victory to earth’s sons had not been lost,Lower us now, nor disobliging show,To where Cocytus[794]fettered is by frost.To Tityus[795]nor to Typhon make us go.To grant what here is longed for he hath power,Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low.He can for wage thy name on earth restore;He lives, and still expecteth to live long,If Grace recall him not before his hour.’So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung130Downward and seized my Leader in all haste—Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung.And Virgil when he felt them round him castSaid: ‘That I may embrace thee, hither tend,’And in one bundle with him made me fast.And as to him that under Carisend[796]Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds flyCounter its slope, the tower appears to bend;Even so to me who stood attentive byAntæus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed,140Had gladly sought another road to try.But us in the abyss he gently laid,Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain;Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed,But like a ship’s mast raised himself again.
FOOTNOTES:[781]Achilles: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound.[782]From that sad valley: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which consists of the pit of the Inferno.[783]Roland: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.—TheChansons de Gestewere familiarly known to Italians of all classes.[784]Then tenderly, etc.: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that they are about to descend into the ‘lowest depth of all wickedness.’[785]Montereggioni: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in Dante’s time.—As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the utmost reach of Hell.[786]St. Peter’s cone: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante’s time in the forecourt of St Peter’s. When the new church was built it was removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. According to that, the cone is ten palms long—about six feet. Allowing something for the neck, down to ‘where a man clasps his cloak’ (line 66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw their heads well back to look up into the giant’s face; and Virgil must raise his voice as he speaks.—With regard to the height of the cone it may be remarked that Murray’s Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement.[787]Three Frisians: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his hair.[788]Rafel, etc.: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. Part of Nimrod’s punishment is that he who brought about the confusion of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a sense in words specially invented to have none.—In hisDe Vulg. El., i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant.[789]Ephialtes: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled Ossa on Pelion.[790]Antæus: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike Ephialtes, is not bound. Antæus is free-handed because he took no part in the war with the gods.[791]The one thou’dst see: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake.[792]Five ell: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antæus is of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports the view that the ‘huger’ of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to height.[793]The fortune-haunted dell: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The giant Antæus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he needed to swing him aloft. In theMonarchia, ii. 10, Dante refers to the combat between Hercules and Antæus as an instance of the wager of battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan’sPharsalia, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these references to Scipio and Antæus.[794]Cocytus: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See Canto xiv. at the end.[795]Tityus, etc.: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be less strong than Antæus. This introduction of their names is therefore a piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antæus not curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning to work were all specimens of Nature’s handicraft that had better have been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools.[796]Carisenda: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the half-century after Dante’s time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other direction.
[781]Achilles: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound.
[781]Achilles: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound.
[782]From that sad valley: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which consists of the pit of the Inferno.
[782]From that sad valley: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which consists of the pit of the Inferno.
[783]Roland: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.—TheChansons de Gestewere familiarly known to Italians of all classes.
[783]Roland: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.—TheChansons de Gestewere familiarly known to Italians of all classes.
[784]Then tenderly, etc.: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that they are about to descend into the ‘lowest depth of all wickedness.’
[784]Then tenderly, etc.: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that they are about to descend into the ‘lowest depth of all wickedness.’
[785]Montereggioni: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in Dante’s time.—As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the utmost reach of Hell.
[785]Montereggioni: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in Dante’s time.—As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the utmost reach of Hell.
[786]St. Peter’s cone: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante’s time in the forecourt of St Peter’s. When the new church was built it was removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. According to that, the cone is ten palms long—about six feet. Allowing something for the neck, down to ‘where a man clasps his cloak’ (line 66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw their heads well back to look up into the giant’s face; and Virgil must raise his voice as he speaks.—With regard to the height of the cone it may be remarked that Murray’s Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement.
[786]St. Peter’s cone: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante’s time in the forecourt of St Peter’s. When the new church was built it was removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. According to that, the cone is ten palms long—about six feet. Allowing something for the neck, down to ‘where a man clasps his cloak’ (line 66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw their heads well back to look up into the giant’s face; and Virgil must raise his voice as he speaks.—With regard to the height of the cone it may be remarked that Murray’s Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement.
[787]Three Frisians: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his hair.
[787]Three Frisians: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his hair.
[788]Rafel, etc.: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. Part of Nimrod’s punishment is that he who brought about the confusion of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a sense in words specially invented to have none.—In hisDe Vulg. El., i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant.
[788]Rafel, etc.: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. Part of Nimrod’s punishment is that he who brought about the confusion of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a sense in words specially invented to have none.—In hisDe Vulg. El., i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant.
[789]Ephialtes: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled Ossa on Pelion.
[789]Ephialtes: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled Ossa on Pelion.
[790]Antæus: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike Ephialtes, is not bound. Antæus is free-handed because he took no part in the war with the gods.
[790]Antæus: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike Ephialtes, is not bound. Antæus is free-handed because he took no part in the war with the gods.
[791]The one thou’dst see: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake.
[791]The one thou’dst see: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake.
[792]Five ell: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antæus is of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports the view that the ‘huger’ of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to height.
[792]Five ell: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antæus is of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports the view that the ‘huger’ of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to height.
[793]The fortune-haunted dell: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The giant Antæus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he needed to swing him aloft. In theMonarchia, ii. 10, Dante refers to the combat between Hercules and Antæus as an instance of the wager of battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan’sPharsalia, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these references to Scipio and Antæus.
[793]The fortune-haunted dell: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The giant Antæus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he needed to swing him aloft. In theMonarchia, ii. 10, Dante refers to the combat between Hercules and Antæus as an instance of the wager of battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan’sPharsalia, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these references to Scipio and Antæus.
[794]Cocytus: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See Canto xiv. at the end.
[794]Cocytus: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See Canto xiv. at the end.
[795]Tityus, etc.: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be less strong than Antæus. This introduction of their names is therefore a piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antæus not curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning to work were all specimens of Nature’s handicraft that had better have been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools.
[795]Tityus, etc.: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be less strong than Antæus. This introduction of their names is therefore a piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antæus not curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning to work were all specimens of Nature’s handicraft that had better have been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools.
[796]Carisenda: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the half-century after Dante’s time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other direction.
[796]Carisenda: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the half-century after Dante’s time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other direction.