At Ninus' death, her husband's sceptre swayed;
That land was her's which now the Sultans hold.”
Then she, who slew herself for love, is seen,
And to Sichæus' ashes proved untrue.
Lo Cleopatra next, luxurious queen!
Helen I saw, for whom such years were past
Of toil and woe; the great Achilles too,
With mighty Love contending to the last.
Sir Tristram, Paris, and the thousands more
Whom Love had slain, he bade me then behold,
Pointing them to me, and recounting o'er.

When I had heard my sage instructor name

Those beauteous dames, and valiant knights of old,
Compassion seized on my bewildered frame.
"Fain would I speak, O gracious bard," I cried,
"With those two shades together flitting there,
Who seem before the wind so light to glide."
He answered me: "When they approach this way,
Invoke them by that love which brings them here,
And they will speedily thy call obey."
Soon as the hurricane had brought them nigh,
I raise my voice: "Come, O ye souls distrest,
And speak with us, unless High power deny."
As doves, by strong affection urged, repair

With firm expanded wings to their sweet nest,
Borne by the impulse of their will through air;
E'en thus from Dido's band these two were seen

Approaching lightly through that region drear; So urgent the impassioned cry had been. "O thou benign, compassionate, and good,

61

67

73

79

85

66.

64. "Non servata fides cineri promissa ichæo." En. iv. 552. Achilles is said to have been slain through the treachery of Paris, of whose sister, Polyxena, he was enamoured. 74. Francesca and Paolo. -She was daughter of Guido da Polento, Lord of Ravenna.-" Guido engaged to give his daughter in marriage to Lanciotto, the eldest son of his enemy, the master of Rimini. Lanciotto, hideously deformed in countenance and figure, foresaw that if he presented himself in person, he should be rejected by the lady. He therefore resolved to marry her by proxy, and sent as his representative his youngest brother, Paolo, the handsomest and most accomplished man in all Italy. Francesca saw Paolo arrive, and imagined she beheld her future husband. That mistake was the commencement of her passion." Boccacio. 85. Together with Dido 88. Francesca speaks.

are punished those who have broken faith. See note, line 74.

That wendest through the lurid atmosphere,
To visit us who stained the earth with blood,
Were He who rules the universe our friend,

We should implore him to give peace to thee,
Since thou hast pity for our hapless end.
Whether to hear or speak, make known thy will-
And we will hear or speak accordingly,
While, e'en as now, the cutting wind is stil!.
My native place is seated on the coast,

'Where Po rolls down his waters to the sea,
To blend in peace his tributary host.
Love, that in noble heart is quickly caught,
Enamour'd him of that fair form-from me
So rudely torn,-there 's anguish in the thought.
Love, that permits no loved one not to love,

Me so enthralled with thought of pleasing him,
That, as thou see'st, its influence still I prove.
Love caused us both to share one common tomb:

Hell's lowest depth-Cäina, dark and dimAwaits our murderer:" thus she told their doom. Soon as I heard their tale, my head I bent ;

Nor from the ground my drooping eyes retire, Till cried the bard: On what art thou intent ?" When I could answer him, "Alas!" I said,

"How sweet the thoughts-how ardent the desire That to the mournful step these lovers led!" Then turning round to them, these words I spake :

66

Francesca, thy misfortunes fill mine eyes

With sorrowing tears such pity they awake.
But tell me how, and by what sign confest

Did Love reveal, in that sweet time of sighs,
The doubtful passion struggling in each breast ?"
Then she to me: "There is no greater woe,
Than to remember days of happiness

Amid affliction ;-this thy guide doth know.

But if how love did first our hearts beguile

venna.

91

97

103

109

115

121

90. i.c. With their own blood, at the time they were murdered. 97. Ra100. "Gentle" had formerly the meaning of "noble." Gentilezza and nobiltà are synonymous. Convito Trat. iv. 16. 107. The circle of fratricides. See canto xxxii. 59. 123. "Dottore" is explained "guida" by Volpi, and is commonly understood of Boethius, whom Dante greatly admired. But in this very cunto. line 70," Dottore" is applied to Virgil.

Thou fain wouldst hear, I will the truth confess, As one who tells her tale, and weeps the while.One day, it chanced, for pastime we were reading How Lancelot to love became a prey;

Alone we were - of danger all unheeding.
Our eyes oft met as we that tale pursued;
And from our cheeks the colour died away;
But in a moment were our hearts subdued:
For when we read of him so deep in love,

Kissing at last the smile long time desired,
Then he, who from my side will ne'er remove,
My lips, all trembling, kissed:-well may I say
That book was Galeot-Galeot, he who fired
Its baneful page: :-we read no more that day."
While thus one spake, such tears the other shed,
That pity all my faculties did quell;
And reft of sense, like one already dead,
As falls a lifeless body, down I fëll."

CANTO VI.

ARGUMENT.

127

13:

139

On recovering his senses, Dante finds himself in the third circle, where the Gluttons are punished, lying on the ground beneath a pelting storm of rain, snow, and hail. Ciacco foretels to Dante the future change of parties in Florence, where he says only two just men are to be found.

Soon as my mind its wonted powers renewed,
Which, at the sufferings of that kindred pair,
By overwhelming sorrow was subdued,-
New torments all around me I descry;
Tormented spirits I behold, where'er

I move or turn, where'er I cast mine eye.
Now the third circle have I reached, where rain
Accursed-heavy-cold-eternal flows;

No change-no respite in this dread domain.
Dark water tumbled through the gloom profound,
With snow and hail terrific; whence arose
A noisome stench from all the putrid ground.

1

128. Lancelot was one of the Knights of the Round Table, and the lo ver of Genevra, celebrated in romance. 137. i.e. The book was to Francesca and Paolo what Galeotto, or Galenaut, in the romance they had been reading, was to Lancelot and Genevra.