INFERNO.

CANTO XXX.

ARGUMENT.

In the same gulf are punished Impostors of various kinds, coiners aud counterfeiters, who are afflicted with horrible diseases, fevers and dropsies. Gianni Scicchi. Myrrha. Sinon, and Adamo; between whom takes place a most comical dialogue.

INFERNO.

CANTO XXX.

WHAT time, incensed against the Theban maid, 1
Juno pour'd out her wrath upon the land;-
That wrath the Goddess more than once display'd-

So lost to reason Athamas became,

That when he saw his wife, in either hand
Bearing a child, he furious did exclaim,

"Extend the nets, that at the pass I may

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Enclose the lioness and both her young."

Then, stretching forth his talons to the prey, He seized Learchus; and against a stone,

Insensate-dash'd him; while the mother sprung

Deep into ocean with her other son.

Or, when by fortune humbled in the dust,
Troy, once all daring, was in ruin laid,

And, with his life, his kingdom Priam lost-
The wretched Hecuba, sad, captive queen,
When she Polixena a corpse survey'd,
And on the margin of the deep had seen
Her Polydorus-mournful interview!-
In frenzy bark'd, like to a dog;-so great
The power of grief her reason to subdue.
But never furies, whencesoe'er they came,

Trojan, or Theban-with such rancorous hate
Tormented beasts-much less the human frame,-

As two pale naked spirits that I saw,

Who, like a hog excluded from the sty,

Came running furiously with open jaw.

One seized Cappocchio's neck, and rent him sore
With fang unfix'd; then, as he drew him by,
Grated his belly o'er the rocky floor.

The Aretine, all trembling with alarm,

Said: "Gianni Schicchi is the one you see, Who roves infuriate, working other's harm.' "Oh," I exclaim'd, " may ne'er the other sprite Tear with his fangs thy back, as thou to me Tell who it is, ere hurried from our sight."

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