One of the two then addresses Dante thus : 'O gracious creature and benign! who go'st It pleases thee, that will we hear, of that The spirit which thus spoke was that of the beautiful and frail Francesca, daughter of Guido da Polento, lord of Ravenna, who was given by her father in marriage to Lanciotto Malatesta, son of the lord of Rimini, who was deformed in his person. Paolo, Lanciotto's brother, engaged the affections of his sister-in-law, and, their guilt being discovered, they were both put to death by the husband. Dante, during his exile, was a guest of Guido da Polenta at Ravenna, when the recollection of the catastrophe was still recent. The poet represents himself as deeply affected by Francesca's narrative, and, after musing awhile, he thus addresses her : Francesca, your sad fate Even to tears my grief and pity moves. Thy learn'd instructor. Yet so eagerly One day How him love thrall'd. Alone we were, and no From death, and like a corse fell to the ground.—Canto v. In the next, or third circle, the poet sees the gluttons, who are punished by lying in the mire, under a continual storm of hail, snow, and muddy water; whilst Cerberus, the three-headed mastiff, barks over them and tears their limbs. The fourth circle is occupied by the prodigal and the avaricious, and Plutus stands watching at the gate. The punishment of those who are confined in the fourth circle consists in rolling continually enormous stones one against the other, by pushing them with their breasts. The poet next proceeded to the fifth circle, in which he saw the wrathful and passionate, who lay plunged in the Stygian marsh, tearing each other to pieces with their nails and teeth. In the sixth circle is the city of Dis, with walls and minarets of iron, lighted by a fire within, which burns for ever. The area of the city incloses a vast number of sepulchres, in which are buried heretics and infidels burning in the flames. In the seventh circle Dante first meets with those who have committed violence against their neighbours, and who are immersed in a river of blood, from which, as they strive to escape, they are shot at with arrows by centaurs posted along the banks. This place of punishment is awarded to fierce conquerors, tyrants, and devastators of countries, among whom the poet enumerates Pyrrhus, Dionysius the Elder, Attila, Eccelino da Romano, &c.; also murderers, pirates, and highway-robbers. He notices Guy de Montfort, son of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who killed Prince Henry, son of Richard of Cornwall, and nephew of Henry III. of England, in a church at Viterbo, in Italy, while Henry was kneeling before the altar, hearing mass. Guy committed this act to revenge his own father's death. (Holinshed's Chronicle,' A D. 1272.) In another compartment of the seventh circle are the self-murderers, and also those who squander away their property, or other blessings, which they have received from God; whoever In reckless lavishment his talent wastes, And sorrows there where he should dwell in joy.-Canto xi. In the third compartment of the seventh circle are those who have done violence or openly revolted against God. They are all in a vast sandy plain, some stretched on their backs, others sitting, and others perpetually walking about, while flakes of fire are falling thick upon the sand. Dante and Virgil then descend into the eighth circle, seated on the back of the monster Gorgon, who is the emblem of fraud :— Lo the fell monster with the deadly sting, Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls Taints all the world.-Canto xvii. The eighth circle is divided into ten gulfs or compartments, each containing a particular class of sinners. The description of this circle occupies thirteen cantos (xviii. to xxx.), by which the poet intends to show the vast proportion of crimes committed through fraud, deceit, or treachery. In the ninth gulf of the eighth circle are the sowers of scandal, schism, and heresy, with their limbs mangled and divided. Among them the poet saw Mahommed and Ali, besides several of his own contemporaries and countrymen. In the tenth gulf are the alchemists, forgers, and coiners, who are tormented by various loathsome diseases. One of them, Adamo da Brescia, who had counterfeited the coin of Florence at the instigation of the lord of Romena, a place in the fine valley of the Apennines, called Casentino, appears swollen with dropsy, and tormented by a parching thirst, which he has no means of allaying. He thus addresses Dante : O ye! who in this world of misery, Wherefore I know not, are exempt from pain,' Thus he began, attentively regard The banks whereby they glide to Arno's stream, For more the pictur'd semblance dries me up, Canto xxx. Dante, following Virgil, proceeds to the ninth and lowest circle of hell, divided into four compartments, in which are confined various sorts of traitors. Their torment consists in being plunged into a frozen lake. Among the rest our poet beheld— Two spirits by the ice Pent in one hollow, that the head of one Dante addresses the uppermost of the two to know the reason of his deadly hate against the other : His jaws uplifting from their fell repast, That sinner wiped them on the hairs o' the head Which he behind had mangled, then began: Thy will obeying, I call up afresh Sorrows past cure; which but to think of wrings 'Know I was on earth Count Ugolino, and the archbishop he Ruggieri. Why I neighbour him so close, Now list. That, through effect of his ill thoughts In him my trust reposing, I was ta'en And after murder'd, need is not I tell. What therefore thou canst not have heard that is Before the dawn, amid their sleep I heard I wept not: so all stone I felt within. They wept and one, my little Anselm, cried, Came out upon the world. When a faint beam O' the sudden and cried, Father, we should grieve. And do thou strip them off from us again. |