They left above.1 On this side lie interr'd,
With Epicurus and his followers, all

Who with the body make the soul to die.
Touching the question which thou askest me,
Within here thou shalt soon be satisfied:

So shall that wish which thou unfoldest not.' 2 Whence I replied; 'I do not keep conceal'd

My thought from thee, kind Guide, save that I may Speak little, as thou oft hast warnèd me.' 'Tuscan, who thro' the fiery city thus

Rovest alive such sweet speech uttering,

O stay thy course, and rest awhile with us.

That voice of thine declareth thee to be

A native of that noble land wherein

I wrought perhaps with a too troublous hand.' Suddenly from among the sepulchres

Issued this utterance, whereat I clung

In fear somewhat more closely to my Guide;
Who said to me; 'Turn thee: what doest thou?
See! see where Farinata stands upright:
From the waist upward thou may'st him behold.'

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1 That is, after the day of judgment. I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there.' Joel iii. 2. See also Inf. vi. 95; xiii. 103.

2 Probably the wish to see Farinata, already mentioned in Canto vi.

And thus he added; Let thy speech be plain.'
Soon as I came before his tomb, a while

At me he gazed, and then with lips of scorn
Demanded thus; 'What ancestry was thine?'

I, who was all desirous to obey,

Conceal'd them not, but straight unfolded all;

Whence he his eye-brows somewhat raised, and then Forthwith made answer; 'Fiercely opposed were they

To me, and to my kith, and to my party : 3

'If they

Once and again I drave them forth!'
Were driven forth, yet did they from all parts

Return,' I answer'd swift, once and again!

But yours it seems have yet that art to learn.'

Then rose there to the view-but not beneath

The chin disclosed-near where he stood-the shade

Of one who seem'd to rest upon his knees. 4

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3 'The ancestors of Dante, and Dante himself, were Guelfs. He did

not become a Ghibelline till after his banishment.' Longfellow.

4 Cavalcante Cavalcanti.

Round me he gazed a while, as tho' he were
Intent to know if any came with me:

But, when his surmise was all spent, with tears
He thus exclaim'd; If thro' this prison-house

Thou goest by loftiness of mind, O say

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My son-where is he? and wherefore not with thee?' 60 To whom I answer'd; 'Of myself I come not,

But led by him who tarries there—one whom
Perhaps thy Guido5 held in light esteem.'
His language and his mode of punishment
Already had reveal'd to me his name ;
Whence my response was thus complete. Thereon
Suddenly to his feet he sprang, and cried;

'How said'st thou " held in light esteem?" Lives he
Not then? Falls not Heaven's blessed light upon
His eyes?' When he was conscious of some slight
Delay that intervened before I made
Response, he fell back, and was seen no more.

But he of stronger mind, at whose request

I linger'd, neither changed his countenance,

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70

Nor moved his neck, nor from his state inclined.

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5 Guido Cavalcanti was more addicted to philosophy than to poetry. And, as a Guelf, he would naturally be hostile to the teaching of Virgil, the poet of the Empire.

'Nathless it shall be ours to win this fight,'

He thus began; 'if not

our help is sure.

Ah me! why tarries yet that other one?'

I noticed how he cover'd o'er the doubt

At first express'd, and that his after-thought
Was different from that which went before.
Yet none the less my fear was strengthen'd by
His interrupted speech, wherein perhaps

I found a ghastlier import than he meant.
'Into this deep of the Abyss descends
Any from the first sphere, wherein is found
No pain beyond the loss of hope?' I this
Inquiry made, and he then made response;

'It seldom comes to pass that one of us Maketh this journey whereon we are bound. 'Tis true that once before I was conjured

1

Down here by that fierce Erito, 1 who call'd
The shades back to their bodies. I had been
But short time of the flesh despoil'd, when she
Made me to pass thro' yonder wall, to raise
A spirit from the sphere where Judas lies.

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That is the lowest place, and most obscure,

And furthest from the heaven that circleth all. 2

I know the road; therefore rest thou secure.

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155

IO

This lake, which breathes the baleful stench around,
Girds with its sullen flow the doleful city,

Where none can enter without wrath.' And more
Than this he spake, which I could not retain,

Because mine eyes were now drawn wholly towards
The blazing summit of the tower, whereon
Appear'd uplifted suddenly the three

Infernal Furies, smear'd with blood, who seem'd
Women in shape and gesture-girded round

With hydras all of greenest hue, and curl'd

35

About their angry brows with cerasts horn'd

40

And serpents thick entwined.-And he, who knew

Full well the ministers of her who sways

The realm of everlasting wailings, said

To me; 'Behold the fell Erinnyes ! Here on the left hand is Megara: there Wailing upon the right Alecto drear :

Midst is Tisiphone.' And then he ceased.

Their talons rent their breasts; and with their palms

They smote each other, and exclaim'd so loud,

That I in terror to the Poet clung.

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1 Or Erictho, a Thessalian sorceress, referred to by Lucan. Phars.

vi. 589.

2 The Primum Mobile, the outermost of the heavenly spheres.