CANTO VIII.

E per dolore se medesmo morde (1). Argenti is the hero of one of Boccaccio's tales (2); in substance --Messer Ciacco (who, it is probable, was the same in Canto vi) and Biondello, two Florentine gentlemen, meeting in the fishmarket, Biondello, who had just purchased two fine lampreys, told Ciacco (what was not true) that they were for the Chief of the Blacks, Corso Donati. So to him the jocund Ciacco took care to go the next day, in expectation of a splendid dinner. He found there neither company nor lampreys, but a very sorry meal; so, perceiving the jest, he vowed retaliation. Some days afterwards he therefore called a porter, and giving him a flask, told him to go with it to M. Argenti and say that he was sent by Biondello, to have it rubinated with some of his best wine, seeing Messer Filippo Argenti was universally reputed an excellent bottle-painter.' The porter did as he was ordered; keeping beyond the reach of Argenti's arm, which irritated him to madness. In the mean time Ciacco setting out in quest of Biondello, informed him, that his friend, Messer Filippo Argenti, was inquiring for him with sollicitude. Hence a ludicrous, but savage catastrophe. Both hastening to meet, one eagerly inquisitive, and the other boiling with rage at what he had interpreted a gross insult, little Biondello was kicked and cuffed

(1) Isette Salmi di D. A. 1. 6.

(2) Il Decamerone, Giorn. Ix Nov. 8.

CANTO VIII.

through the street, at such an unmerciful rate and so dragged through the kennel, by his gigantick ferocious antagonist, who continued vociferating, 'I'll rubinate you,' that if it had not been for the interference of a crowd, he had been murdered. This story was no fiction; but, like many of the Novelle, was a real event that happened in Florence a very short time before Dante's exile (1). It most naturally recurred to him then to mention Argenti: and perhaps the more so (for who reprehends not more willingly the failings of his enemies, than his friends?) that Argenti belonged to a family, the A dimari, to whose enmity Sacchetti ascribes in a great degree Dante's exile (1).

(1) So Benvenuti tells us — paulo aute expulsionem auctoris. Perhaps the whole is yet more amusing in his quaint Latin, than in Boccaccio's beautifully measured prose... Argenti stabat totus turbatus, et rodebat se ipsum in animo, existimans quod Blondellus ad postam alicujus fecisset sibi hanc truffam... Erat corpore magnus, fortis, et nervosus, iracundus, et indignans, et dedit illi cum pugno magnum ictum in faciem... Quid est hoc? quid est hoc?... Proditor, bene videbis quid est hoc. Quare rubinare mittis tu ad me? Bene rubinabo te ... et, abjecto caputio, fulminabat manu et linguâ super eum... Omne dixerunt quod fatuè egerat Blondellus mittendo D. Philippo Argenti ribaldum cum flasco et truffis, quia bene debebat scire quod D. Phi. lippus non erat homo mottezandus. ap. Mur. Antiq. Ital. Vol. 1. 1043.

(2) Dante had one of the youths of that family severely fined, for prancing on horseback, and holding out his legs so widely, as to be a serious annoyance to the more tranquil passengers, particularly those on foot: :-nor was such a slight annoyance at that wild period, when the narrow streets of Florence were barricaded, and full of armed men both borse and foot; and when the city, iu fine, was so far more populous than at present. Yet this action of Dante is said to have been sole cause for the hatred of the Adimari; and a principal one for the subsequent exile of Dante, under pretence of his being a White.

H.

LXXIII.

CANTO VI17.

The city, which Dante 'unbars' ( sbarro ) his eyes to see, is named Dis after the Aeneid: perque domos Ditis: (1) and it forms as it were a great division in Tartarus; for up to this moment, both the inflictions and the guilt which earned them are bearable if compared with the horrid spectacles to be found after passing within its walls. To this city, and not to any of the portions of Hell which we have yet traversed, Boccaccio was of opinion that the scroll above the gate of the Vestibule particularly referred (2); and however that be (for my own opinion is that it applies to all within the Hell-of-the-damned, which begins with the second Circle), yet this much is certain, that in all the future Circles we shall discover no mild offenders like poor Francesca or Ciacco, or even Argenti; but perpetrators of the most enormous wickedness. The minarets and walls glowing at a distance remind one of the Aeneid (the specification of minarets, instead of turrets, being nothing more than for the purpose of giving a profaner turn to the passage, not of throwing a slur on

The chief cause was his withstanding Charles de Valois (Hell, Comment, Canto vi. p. 363): but the enmity of so powerful a family as the Adimari was no slight adjunct. Questo essendo la principal cagione, da ivi a poco fu per Bianco cacciato da Firenze. Franco Sacchetti, Nov. 114.

(1) Aeneid. Lib. v1. v. 268.

(2) Per me si va nella Città dolente — cioè nella città di Dite. Boccac eio, Comento, Vol. 1. p. 138.

SANTO VIII.

any religion, which would be entirely out of Dan

te's way:

Respicit Aeneas subitò, et sub rupe sinistrâ

Moenia lata videt triplici circumdata muro,

Quæ rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis (1).

The fallen, or 'heaven-showered' angels, who are now the demons that guard Dis, were once (as we shall learn presently) the guards of the hellish Vestibule from whose gate they were dislodged, on the descent of Jesus into the first, or Elysian circle of hell.

The indignation of the fiends is directed entirely against Dante; or at least no otherwise against Virgil (who being a spirit was not an intruder) than as the guide of a Mortal. There is severe irony in telling Dante to 'retrace' his steps alone; not merely because it were hard for him to find the road, but because of the impossibility of retracing it whether alone or in company. That it was impossible, seems to have been the notion entertained by the Roman as well as the Tuscan: so we find Aeneas and the Sybil go from one new scene to another, and at last, without turning back, emerge by a different door-way than that by which

(1) Aeneid. Lib. vi. v. 548.

CANTO VIII.

they had entered; and as to Virgil and Dante, they are to traverse the interior of the earth right forward, and come out at the antipodes.

What I translate oft', is in the original 'more than seven times' words which some expounders (I think neither very naturally or poetically) would make not an indefinite number, but an exact specification (yet certainly no very exact one) of nine distinct perils, which Dante had hitherto affronted the panther, lion, wolf, Charon, Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas, and Argenti.

The rede, or counsel which directed their unearthly journey (da tal n'è dato) was manifestly that recounted by Virgil in Canto the second: counsel, which he had affirmed proceeded from three saints, once Dante's mortal mistresses; one of whom was certainly intended for an immortal personification of supreme Philosophy, and the others, probably, for Mercy and Grace (1).

The words whispered to the infernal Cherubim were, it is presumable, the same which had been

(1) Hell, Commeut, Canto 11. p. 153.