Degenerates most, been stepdame unto Cæsar,
But, as a mother to her son been kind,
Such one, as hath become a Florentine,
And trades and traffics, had been turn'd adrift
To Simifonte1, where his grandsire plied
The beggar's craft: the Conti were possest
Of Montemurlo2 still: the Cerchi still
Were in Acone's parish: nor had haply
From Valdigrieve past the Buondelmonti.
The city's malady hath ever source
In the confusion of its persons, as
The body's, in variety of food:

And the blind bull3 falls with a steeper plunge,
Than the blind lamb: and oftentimes one sword
Doth more and better execution,

Than five. Mark Luni; Urbisaglia1 mark;
How they are gone; and after them how go
Chiusi and Sinigaglia: and 't will seem
No longer new, or strange to thee, to hear
That families fail, when cities have their end.
All things that appertain to ye, like yourselves,
Are mortal: but mortality in some

Ye mark not; they endure so long, and you
Pass by so suddenly. And as the moon
Doth, by the rolling of her heavenly sphere,
Hide and reveal the strand unceasingly;

So fortune deals with Florence. Hence admire not
At what of them I tell thee, whose renown
Time covers, the first Florentines. I saw

factions had thus been prevented; Florence would not have been polluted by a race of upstarts, nor lost the most respectable of her ancient families. 1 Simifonte] A castle dismantled by the Florentines. G. Villani, lib. V. cap. xxx. The person here alluded to is no longer known. 2 Montemurto.] G. Villani, lib. v. cap. xxxi., relates that the Conti Guidi, not being able to defend their castle from the Pistoians, sold it to the state of Florence. 3 The blind bull.] So Chaucer, Troilus and Cresseide, b. ii.

For swifter course cometh thing that is of wight

When it descendeth than done things light.

Compare Aristotle, Ethic. Nic. lib. vi. cap. xiii. "owμari loxvpw, K. T.λ." 4 Luni; Urbisaglia.] Cities formerly of importance, but then fallen to decay. 5 Chiusi and Sinigaglia.] The same. 6 As the moon.] "The fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the sea." Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV. act i. sc. 2.

The Ughi1, Catilini, and Filippi,
The Alberichi, Greci, and Ormanni,
Now in their wane, illustrious citizens;
And great as ancient, of Sannella him,
With him of Arca saw, and Soldanieri,
And Ardinghi, and Bostichi. At the poop2
That now is laden with new felony

So cumbrous it may speedily sink the bark,
The Ravignani sat, of whom is sprung
The County Guido, and whoso hath since
His title from the famed Bellincion ta'en.
Fair governance was yet an art well prized
By him of Pressa: Galigaio show'd

The gilded hilt and pornmel3, in his house:
The column, clothed with verrey, still was seen
Unshaken; the Sacchetti still were great,
Giouchi, Sifanti, Galli, and Barucci,

With them 5 who blush to hear the bushel named.

Of the Calfucci still the branchy trunk

Was in its strength: and, to the curule chairs,
Sizii and Arrigucci6 yet were drawn.

How mighty them I saw, whom, since, their pride
Hath undone ! And in all their goodly deeds
Florence was, by the bullets of bright gold,
O'erflourish'd. Such the sires of those 9, who now,

1 The Ughi.] Whoever is curious to know the habitations of these and the other ancient Florentines, may consult G. Villani, lib. iv. 2 At the poop.] The Cerchi, Dante's enemies, had succeeded to the houses over the gate of Saint Peter, formerly inhabited by the Ravignani and the Count Guido. G. Villani, lib. iv. cap. x. Many editions read porta, "gate." The same metaphor is found in Eschylus, Supp. 356, and is there also scarce understood by the critics.

4 The

Αἰδοῦ σὺ πρύμναν πόλεος ὧδ ̓ ἐστεμμένην. Respect these wreaths, that crown your city's poop. The gilded hilt and pommel.] The symbols of knighthood. column, clothed with verrey.] The arms of the Pigli, or, as some write it, the Billi. 5 With them. Either the Chiaramontesi, or the Tosinghi; one of which had committed a fraud in measuring out the wheat from the public granary. See Purgatory, Canto xii. 99. 6 Sizii and Arrigucci.] These families still obtained the magistracies." Them.] The Überti; according to the Latin note on the Monte Casino MS., with which the editor of the extracts from those notes says that Benvenuto agrees. 8 The bullets of bright gold.] The arms of the Abbati, as it is conjectured; or of the Lamberti, according to the authorities referred to in the last note. sires of those.] "Of the Visdomini, the Tosinghi, and the Cortigiani, who, being sprung from the founders of the bishopric of Florence, are the cura

9 The

As surely as your church is vacant, flock
Into her consistory, and at leisure
There stall them and grow fat.

The o'erweening brood',

That plays the dragon after him that flees,
But unto such as turn and show the tooth,
Ay or the purse, is gentle as a lamb,
Was on its rise, but yet so slight esteem'd,
That Ubertino of Donati grudged

His father-in-law should yoke him to its tribe.
Already Caponsacco 2 had descended
Into the mart from Fesole: and Giuda
And Infangato3 were good citizens.
A thing incredible I tell, though true1:
The gateway 5, named from those of Pera, led
Into the narrow circuit of your walls.
Each one, who bears the sightly quarterings
Of the great Baron 6, (he whose name and worth
The festival of Thomas still revives,)

His knighthood and his privilege retain'd;
Albeit one, who borders them with gold,

tors of its revenues, which they do not spare, whenever it becomes vacant." The o'erweening brood.] The Adimari. This family was so little esteemed, that Ubertino Donato, who had married daughter of Bellincion Berti, himself indeed derived from the same stock, (see note to Hell, Canto xvi. 38,) was offended with his father-in-law, for giving another of his daughters in marriage to one of them. 2 Caponsacco.] The family of Caponsacchi, who had removed from Fesole, lived at Florence in the Mercato Vecchio. Giuda

3

And Infangato.] Giuda Guidi and the family of Infangati.

4 A thing incredible I tell, though true.] Io dirò cosa incredibile e vera. Εγώ σοι ἐρῶ, ἔφη, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἄπιστον μὲν νὴ τοὺς θεοὺς, ἀληθὲς δε. Plato, Theages, Bipont. Edit. tom. ii. p. 23. 5 The gateway.] Landino refers this to the smallness of the city: Vellutello, with less probability, to the simplicity of the people in naming one of the gates after a private family. • The great Baron.] The Marchese Ugo, who resided at Florence as lieutenant of the Emperor Otho III., gave many of the chief families licence to bear his arms. See G. Villani, lib. iv. cap. ii., where the vision is related, in consequence of which he sold all his possessions in Germany, and founded seven abbeys; in one whereof, his memory was celebrated at Florence on St. Thomas's day. "The marquis, when hunting, strayed away from his people, and wandering through a forest, came to a smithy, where he saw black and deformed men tormenting others with fire and hammers; and, asking the meaning of this, he was told that they were condemned souls, who suffered this punishment, and that the soul of the Marquis Ugo was doomed to suffer the same, if he did not repent. Struck with horror, he commended himself to the Virgin Mary; and soon after founded the seven religious houses."

One.] Giano della Bella, belonging to one of the families

This day is mingled with the common herd.

In Borgo yet the Gualterotti dwelt,

And Importuni1: well for its repose,

Had it still lack'd of newer neighbourhood 2.

[spring,

The house3, from whence your tears have had their

Through the just anger, that hath murder'd ye
And put a period to your gladsome days,

Was honour'd; it, and those consorted with it.
O Buondelmonti! what ill counseling
Prevail'd on thee to break the plighted bond?
Many, who now are weeping, would rejoice,
Had God to Ema given thee, the first time
Thou near our city camest. But so was doom'd:
Florence! on that maim'd stone5 which guards the bridge,
The victim, when thy peace departed, fell.

"With these and others like to them, I saw
Florence in such assured tranquillity,

She had no cause at which to grieve: with these
Saw her so glorious and so just, that ne'er
The lily from the lance had hung reverse,

Or through division been with vermeil dyed."

thus distinguished, who no longer retained his place among the nobility, and had yet added to his arms a bordure or. See Macchiavelli, Ist. Fior. lib. ii. p. 86. Ediz. Giolito.

1

Gualterotti dwelt,

See

And Importuni.] Two families in the compartment of the city called Borgo. Newer neighbourhood.] Some understand this of the Bardi; and others, of the Buondelmonti. 3 The house.] Of Amidei. Notes to Canto xxviii. of Hell, 102. 4 To Ema.] It had been well for the city, if thy ancestor had been drowned in the Ema, when he crossed that stream on his way from Montebuono to Florence." 5 On that maim'd stone.] See Hell, Canto xiii. 144. Near the remains of the statue of Mars, Buondelmonti was slain, as if he had been a victim to the god; and Florence had not since known the blessing of peace. The arms of Florence had never hung reversed on the spear of her enemies, in token of her defeat; nor been changed from argent to gules;" as they afterwards were, when the Guelfi gained the predominance.

The lily.]

CANTO XVII.

ARGUMENT.

Cacciaguida predicts to our Poet his exile and the calamities he had to suffer; and, lastly, exhorts him to write the present poem.

SUCH as the youth', who came to Clymene,
To certify himself of that reproach

Which had been fasten'd on him, (he whose end
Still makes the fathers chary to their sons,)
E'en such was I; nor unobserved was such
Of Beatrice, and that saintly lamp2,

Who had erewhile for me his station moved;
When thus my lady: "Give thy wish free vent,
That it may issue, bearing true report

Of the mind's impress: not that aught thy words
May to our knowledge add, but to the end
That thou mayst use thyself to own thy thirst 3,
And men may mingle for thee when they hear."

"O plant, from whence I spring! revered and loved!
Who soar'st so high a pitch, that thou as clear1,
As earthly thought determines two obtuse
In one triangle not contain'd, so clear
Dost see contingencies, ere in themselves
Existent, looking at the point whereto
All times are present; I, the whilst I scaled
With Virgil the soul-purifying mount
And visited the nether world of woe,
Touching my future destiny have heard

Words grievous, though I feel me on all sides

Well squared to fortune's blows. Therefore my will

The youth.] Phaeton, who came to his mother Clymene, to inquire of her if he were indeed the son of Apollo. See Ovid, Met. lib. i. ad finem. 2 That saintly lamp.] Cacciaguida. 3 To own thy thirst.] "That thou mayst obtain from others a solution of any doubt that may occur to thee." That thou as clear.] "Thou beholdest future events with the same clearness of evidence that we discern the simplest mathematical demonstrations." 5 The point.] The divine nature. The soul-purifying mount.] See Purg. Canto viii. 133, and Canto xi. 140. The nether world.] See Hell, Canto x. 77, and Canto xv. 61. 8 Well squared:] See Plato, Protagoras, Ed. Bipont. vol. iii. p. 145, and Aristot. Rhetor. lib. iii., where Pietro Vettori, in his Commentary, p. 656, remarks: "Quis nescit Dantem