INFERNO.

CANTO XXXIII.

X

ARGUMENT.

COUNT Ugolino relates the cruel manner in which he and his sons were starved to death in the tower at Pisa, by the command of the Archbishop Ruggieri. In the third round of this ninth circle, called Ptolemea, are punished those who have betrayed their friends. Friar Alberigo, &c.

INFERNO.

CANTO XXXIII.

His mouth uplifted from the fell repast
That vengeful sinner,-wiping it upon

The hair of the foul mangled head:-at last
He thus began: "Thou bid'st me to renew

Unutterable grief; whose thought alone
Weighs down my heart, ere I the tale pursue.
But if my words may, haply, prove the seed,

Whence infamy shall spring to him I rend,
Then will I speak, though tears my voice impede.

I know not who thou art, nor can divine

How to this nether world thou didst descend;

But from thy speech I judge thee Florentine,

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Know then-Count Ugolino was my name;

Archbishop Ruggier this :-now will I say Why such close fellowship with him I claim. How by his treacherous designs it fell,

That, trusting in him, I was borne away

And put to death-there is no need to tell.

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But that which ne'er could have been heard by thee-
How cruel was my death-will I relate;

Then wilt thou know if he hath injured me.
Through a small loophole in that dismal cell,
(The "cell of hunger" call'd, from my sad fate,
And where some other yet is doom'd to dwell)
Full many moons had shed their broken light,

When o'er me came that evil omen'd sleep,
Which all unveil'd the future to my sight.
This traitor seem'd, as huntsman, to pursue

The He-wolf and his young ones to that steep
Which shuts out Lucca from the Pisan's view.

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Lean hounds, well train'd, and eager for the chase—31 The Gualands, with the Sismonds and Lanfrancks, Before him he let slip :-in little space

The father and his sons, as though forespent,

Lagg'd in the course; and then their heaving flanks Methought by those infuriate tusks were rent.