stituent sounds. These considerations suggested to me the method of versification employed in the later Cantos, in which I have endeavoured, by varying the harmony in imitation of the more ornate passages in the Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, by retaining the movement in triplets, and connecting the triplets by means either of a final rhyme or half-rhyme or of some internal harmony, to combine something of the freedom of Miltonic verse with the two most essential characteristics of the Italian metre, viz., the separation of the triplets, and their connection by a common sound.1 In translating I have striven to be as literal as possible Nor have I in any case allowed myself to deviate to any considerable extent from the words of Dante, unless it has appeared to me that such deviation is better calculated than a more literal rendering to express either the full meaning or the harmony of the original, or the actual thought of the Poet, as opposed to the 1 A careful analysis of Milton's versification, suggested, after the completion of the third Canto, by my having accidentally observed (while studying his poetry in connection with the Miltonic epitaph discovered by Professor Morley, and published in the Times in 1868) a considerable number of final rhymes in his blank verse (see, e.g. P. L. i. 183-191, iv. 306-311, vii. 548-573), confirmed me in the opinion that the method of harmonising, which I have adopted in the later Cantos, is no illegitimate extension of the Miltonic method. particular expression which the rhyme has led him to adopt. In the preparation of the Notes I have been chiefly indebted to the Commentary of Signor Brunone Bianchi, which was recommended to me by Count Aurelio Saffi. I have also derived assistance from the Translations and Commentaries of Longfellow, Cary, Wright, and Pollock; the French Translation of M. Louis Ratisbonne; and the superb edition of the Inferno by the late Lord Vernon. Other Cantos I have translated, and hope to publish. Those comprised in the present volume have already undergone several revisions since they were first printed. I respectfully submit them to the judgment of the reader. November, 1874. THE INFERNO. CANTO I. Nel mezzo del cammin. ARGUMENT. DANTE is lost in a wood. Arriving at the base of a hill, whose summit is illumined by the rays of the rising sun, he beholds three wild beasts on the heights above him. Returning in alarm, he is met by Virgil, whose aid he implores. Virgil informs him that he must traverse the unseen world, if he would escape the perils of the wood. He offers himself to guide the Poet through Hell and Purgatory. Beatrice would be his guide into Paradise. ON life's mid-way-ere half my days were o'er All in a darksome wood1 I roved astray, Ah me! 'twere a sad task and hard to say How wild that woodland was, how sharp, how strong 1 Error. B Does there to death such bitterness belong! Yet wondrous things athwart my path that lay, And good which there I found shall wake my song. How first I enter'd there I scarce can say ; So heedless was I and so full of sleep That hour wherein I swerved from the straight way. Lo! as I gazed, over its slope descended That in the deep lake of my heart 3 had lain Escaped unto the shore with labouring breath IO 15 20 2 Truth. Politically, the ideal form of government for Italy and mankind-in Dante's opinion, an universal monarchy, seated at Rome, with the Pope as spiritual head. 3 Variously interpreted :-by Signor Bianchi, as referring to the stagnation of the blood in the vessels of the heart caused by terror; by M. Louis Ratisbonne, as le lac agité de mon cœur ;' and by Longfellow as the deep mountain tarn of his heart, dark with its own depth, and the shadows hanging over it.' |