Bird's-eye view of the Fifth and Sixth Circles. A. Fifth Circle, or Stygian Lake. AA. Sixth Circle, Dis, or City of Sepulchres. CANTO VII. may require a little drawing, to be quite clear. "Make no friendship with an angry man," (thus says the holy proverb)" and with a furious man thou shalt not go (1)." Here are manifestly two kinds of wrathful men; the first of whom we are told not to select for a friend, but with the second are absolutely prohibited from having any communication whatever; and I believe such was precisely the authority which induced Dante to make the distinction, which we find he does, of choler into two kinds. One of these (ungovernable, impetuous anger) is tormented on the surface of Styx; and it is surely a wretched infirmity: "make no friendship with an angry man.' X. " The obvious signification of Virgil's words is: "it is anger that is punished in this lake; those whom you see on the surface, were men who allowed themselves to be habitually overpowered by transports of violence; and the bubbles that you see rising (or rather bourgeoning (2)) all along the water, are the hard breathings of crowds who are there deeply immersed for having been con (1) Proverbs, XXII, 24. (2) The word is pullulare, and is a figurative expression drawn from the bourgeoning of plants. È propriamente lo spuntar de' ger mogli dalle piante. Felice metafora! che esprime un simil cangiamento sulla superficie dell'acqua per l'eruzione dell'aria, ec. Poggiali, Ed. Livorn. vol. 3. p. 101. Mr. Cary attends not to the metaphor. iquity - pent up anger, or hate.' This is ece with what we shall see in the 'river of of a future Canto; where the sufferers inged more or less deeply according to radations in the same crime, tyranný (1). of the Latins was divided into ira, and a. It is the first is on the surface of Styx. with characteristic abundance, has several to express each of these two angers. 'Opyй hementior) has a peculiar application to underers on the top of the pool; for it is I from opéyopas (porrectis manibus vel capto) to struggle with hands or legs extended (2).' pe quite of Daniello's opinion, that it is the and worse description of anger that is bee surface sticking in the hellish mud (3). We hate. "With a furious man thou shalt not is an implacability of nature with which' Boccaccio) the Tuscans are cursed above er Italians, and the Florentines above all Tuscans. The Florentines never pardon (4). ' ante's manner of rendering his idea is fummo) lazy sm that it is no descri that is stifling in make sloth more c quite the contrary have subverted the had adopted here. dently included am ne'er were living ye whom we saw in th rowful' (tristi ) ap propriety; from hat from sorrowful lerato) being most nimes in Italian. T near the Latin ira ( ira permanens ) of in which these hat mud, is so naturally name for deep hate, scarcely forbear affir mind: Κότος is a der sepultus sum) to li our Author more ha than I ever intended the wrathful striking 64 (1) Inferno, Canto 111. ▼. (a) Lexicon Ernest. (3) Hell, Comment, Canto CANTO VII. somewhat defective in clearness; for (accidioso fummo) lazy smoke' induces many to contend that it is no description of anger, but merely sloth that is stifling in the bottom of Styx. But why make sloth more criminal than anger? Dante does quite the contrary in Purgatory: nor would he have subverted there, the ethical scale which he had adopted here. Besides, the slothful are evidently included among the despicable crew who ne'er were living yet' (che mai non fur vivi (1)) and whom we saw in the Vestibule. The epithet 'sor. rowful' ( tristi) applied to haters, has a twofold propriety; from hate being always melancholy, and from sorrowful' (tristo) and wicked' ( scellerato) being most commonly employed as synonimes in Italian. The 'lazy smoke of hate' comes near the Latin ira lenta, and still near the μñvis (ira permanens) of the Greeks. But the situation in which these haters are, being buried in the mud, is so naturally suggested by another Greek name for deep hate, xóros ( ira vetus), that I can scarcely forbear affirming that Dante had it in his mind: Kóros is a derivative of xeμm (jaceo, vel sepultus sum) to lie buried (2).' It were to make our Author more habitually familiar with Greek than I ever intended (3): yet the coincidence of the wrathful striking about their members (nou (1) Inferno, Canto 111. v. 64. (a) Lexicon Ernest. (3) Hell, Comment, Canto 11. p. 200. 454 COMMENT CANTO VII. pur con mano, ma con la testa, piedi, ec.) with the original signification of opy, and of that of haters with the radical meaning of zoros, makes me doubt, whether it would not be far more difficult to believe in such circumstances being ca sual, than to allow Dante was a little more versed in Greek, than was at first imagined. I said there was a path close under the wall and bordering the lake (1). It is along that path they now go. (1) Pag. 450. |