PURGATORY.

CANTO XIV.

ARGUMENT.

Our Poet on this second cornice finds also the souls of Guido del Duca of Brettinoro, and Rinieri da Calboli of Romagna; the latter of whom, hearing that he comes from the banks of the Arno, inveighs against the degeneracy of all those who dwell in the cities visited by that stream; and the former, in like manner, against the inhabitants of Romagna. On leaving these, our Poets hear voices recording noted instances of envy.

"SAY,* who is he around our mountain winds, Or ever death has prun'd his wing for flight; That opes his eyes, and covers them at will ?”

"I know not who he is, but know thus much; He comes not singly. Do thou ask of him, For thou art nearer to him; and take heed, Accost him gently, so that he may speak."

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Thus on the right two spirits, bending each Toward the other, talk'd of me; then both Addressing me, their faces backward lean'd, And thus the onet began: "O soul, who yet Pent in the body, tendest towards the sky! For charity, we pray thee, comfort us; Recounting whence thou com'st, and who thou

art:

* Say.] The two spirits who thus speak to each other are, Guido del Duca of Brettinoro, and Rinieri da Calboli of Ro magna.

The one.] Guido del Duca.

For thou dost make us, at the favour shown thee, Marvel, as at a thing that ne'er hath been."

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"There stretches through the midst of Tuscany," I straight began, "a brooklet,* whose well-head Springs up in Falterona; with his race Not satisfied, when he some hundred miles Hath measur'd. From his banks bring I this frame. To tell you who I am were words mis-spent: For yet my name scarce sounds on rumour's lip." "If well I do incorp'rate with my thought The meaning of thy speech," said he, who first Addrest me, "thou dost speak of Arno's wave."

To whom the other: "Why hath he conceal'd The title of that river, as a man

Doth of some horrible thing?" The spirit, who
Thereof was question'd, did acquit him thus:
"I know not: but 'tis fitting well the name
Should perish of that vale; for from the source,
Where teems so plenteously the Alpine steep
Maim'd of Pelorus, § (that doth scarcely pass|||
Beyond that limit,) even to the point

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A brooklet.] The Arno, that rises in Falterona, a mountain in the Appennine. Its course is a hundred and twenty miles, according to G. Villani, who traces it accurately.

†The other.] Rinieri da Calboli.

From the source.] "From the rise of the Arno in that Alpine steep,' the Apennine, from whence Pelorus in Sicily was torn by a convulsion of the earth, even to the point where the same river unites its waters to the ocean, Virtue is persecuted by all."

§ Maim'd of Pelorus.] Virg. Æn. lib. iii. 414.

Torn from Pelorus.

A hill

Milton, P. L. b. i. 232.

That doth scarcely pass.] "Pelorus is in few places higher than Falterona, where the Arno springs." Lombardi explains this differently, and, I think, erroneously.

Where unto ocean is restor'd what heaven

Drains from th' exhaustless store for all earth's

streams,

Throughout the space is virtue worried down,
As 'twere a snake, by all, for mortal foe;

Or through disastrous influence on the place, 40
Or else distortion of misguided wills

That custom goads to evil: whence in those,

The dwellers in that miserable vale,

Nature is so transform'd, it seems as they

Had shar'd of Circe's feeding. 'Midst brute swine* Worthier of acorns than of other food

Created for man's use, he shapeth first

whom

His obscure way; then, sloping onward, finds
Curs,t snarlers more in spite than pow'r, from
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He turns with scorn aside; still journeying down,
By how much more the curst and luckless foss+
Swells out to largeness, e'en so much it finds
Dogs turning into wolves.§ Descending still
Through yet more hollow eddies, next he meets
A race of foxes, so replete with craft,
They do not fear that skill can master it.
Nor will I cease because my words are heard¶
By other ears than thine. It shall be well
For this man,** if he keep in memory
What from no erring spirit I reveal.

* 'Midst brute swine.] The people of Casentino.

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↑ Curs.] The Arno leaves Arezzo about four miles to the left. Foss.] So in his anger he terms the Arno.

Wolves.] The Florentines.

Foxes.] The Pisans.

My words are heard.] It should be récollected that Guido still addresses himself to Rinieri.

** For this man.] "For Dante, who has told us that he comes from the banks of Arno."

Lo! I behold thy grandson,* that becomes

A hunter of those wolves, upon the shore

Of the fierce stream; and cows them all with dread.
Their flesh, yet living, sets he up to sale,
Then, like an aged beast, to slaughter dooms.
Many of life he reaves, himself of worth
And goodly estimation. Smear'd with gore,
Mark how he issues from the rueful wood;
Leaving such havoc, that in thousand years
It spreads not to prime lustihood again."

As one, who tidings hears of woe to come,
Changes his looks perturb'd, from whate'er part
The peril grasp him; so beheld I change
That spirit, who had turn'd to listen; struck
With sadness, soon as he had caught the word.
His visage, and the other's speech, did raise
Desire in me to know the names of both;
Whereof, with meek entreaty, I inquir'd.

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The shade, who late addrest me, thus resum'd: "Thy wish imports, that I vouchsafe to do 80 For thy sake what thou wilt not dot for mine. But, since God's will is that so largely shine His grace in thee, I will be liberal too. Guido of Duca know then that I am. Envy so parch'd my blood, that had I seen A fellow man made joyous, thou hadst mark'd A livid paleness overspread my cheek. Such harvest reap I of the seed I sow'd.

[need

O man! why placet thy heart where there doth

\* Thy grandson.] Fulcieri da Calboli, grandson of Rinieri da Calboli, who is here spoken of. The atrocities predicted came to pass in 1302. See G. Villani, lib. viii, c. 59.

What thou wilt not do.] Dante having declined telling him his name. See v. 22.

Why place.] This will be explained in the ensuing Canto.

Exclusion of participants in good?

This is Rinieri's spirit; this, the boast
And honour of the house of Calboli;
Where of his worth no heritage remains.

Nor his the only blood, that hath been stript,
("Twixt Po, the mount, the Reno, and the shore,)*
Of all that truth or fancy asks for bliss:
But, in those limits, such a growth has sprung
Of rank and venom'd roots, as long would mock
Slow culture's toil. Where is good Lizio ?+ where
Manardi, Traversaro, and Carpigna ?§

O bastard slips of old Romagna's line!
When in Bologna the low artisan,

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*"Twixt Po, the mount, the Reno, and the shore.] The bounda ries of Romagna.

+Fancy.] "Trastullo." Quadrio, in the notes on the second of the Salmi Penitenziali of our author, understands this in a higher sense, as meaning that joy which results from an easy and con. stant practice of virtue. See Opere di Dante, Zatta ediz. tom. iv. part ii. p. 193. And he is followed by Lombardi.

Lizio.] Lizio da Valbona introduced into Boccaccio's Deca. meron, G. V. N. 4.

§ Manardi, Traversaro, and Carpigna.] Arrigo Manardi of Fa. enza, or, as some say, of Brettinoro; Pier Traversaro, lord of Ravenna; and Guido di Carpigna of Montefeltro.

In Bologna the law artisan.] One who had been a mechanic, named Lambertaccio, arrived at almost supreme power in Bologna.

Monte Casino MS.
There is a mark of

Quando in Bologna un Fabro si ralligna. Quando in Faenza un Bernardin di Fosco. The pointing and the marginal note of the entirely change the sense of these two lines. interrogation added to each; and by way of answer to both there is written, "Quasi dicat numquam." Fabro is made a proper name, and it is said of him: "Iste fuit Dom. Faber de Lambertaciis de Bononia;" and Benvenuto da Imola calls him "Nobilis Miles." I have not ventured to alter the translation so as to make