42
And I, who share this post of pain with them, was Jacopo Rusticucci, and for sure my reluctant wife first drove me to my sin. ”
45
37-39. Gualdrada is the daughter of Bellincione Berti of Florence. Her grandson was the Guido Guerra (1220-1272), mentioned here. This Guido was a Guelph leader in several battles, hence his nickname (guerra, “war”). His wisdom (“counsel, ” 39) is exemplified by his advice to the Florentine Guelphs not to undertake the campaign against Siena in 1260; they ignored his words, and that battle destroyed the Guelph party in Florence.
41-42. Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, like Guido Guerra, was a leader of the Guelph party in Florence. He died before 1266.
44-45. Little is known of Jacopo Rusticucci, the spokesman for the three Sodomites. He is occasionally mentioned in Florentine records between 1235 and 1266 and was probably a rich merchant.
If I could have been sheltered from the fire, I would have thrown myself below with them, and I think my guide would have allowed me to;
48
but, as I knew I would be burned and seared, my fear won over my first good intention that made me want to put my arms around them.
51
And then I spoke: “Repulsion, no, but grief for your condition spread throughout my heart (and years will pass before it fades away),
54
as soon as my lord here began to speak in terms that led me to believe a group of such men as yourselves might be approaching.
57
I am from your city, and your honored names and your accomplishments I have always heard rehearsed, and have rehearsed, myself, with fondness.
60
I leave the bitter gall, and journey toward those sweet fruits promised me by my true guide, but first I must go down to the very center. ”
63
“So may your soul remain to guide your body for years to come, ” that same one spoke again, “and your fame’s light shine after you are gone,
66
tell us if courtesy and valor dwell within our city as they used to do, or have they both been banished from the place?
69
Guglielmo Borsiere, who joined our painful ranks of late, and travels there with our companions, has given us reports that make us grieve. ”
72
“A new breed of people with their sudden wealth have stimulated pride and unrestraint in you, O Florence, made to weep so soon. ”
75
70-72. Little is known of Guglielmo Borsiere except that he must have died about 1300, as is evident from lines 70-71. Boccaccio says that he was a knight of the court, a matchmaker, and a peacemaker.
These words I shouted with my head strained high, and the three below took this to be my answer and looked, as if on truth, at one another.
78
“If you always answer questions with such ease, ” they all spoke up at once, “O happy you, to have this gift of ready, open speech;
81
therefore, if you survive these unlit regions and return to gaze upon the lovely stars, when it pleases you to say ‘I was down there, ’
84
do not fail to speak of us to living men. ” They broke their man-made wheel and ran away, their nimble legs were more like wings in flight.
87
“Amen” could not have been pronounced as quick as they were off, and vanished from our sight; and then my teacher thought it time to leave.
90
I followed him, and we had not gone far before the sound of water was so close that if we spoke we hardly heard each other.
93
As that river on the Apennines’ left slope, first springing from its source at Monte Veso, then flowing eastward holding its own course
96
(called Acquacheta at its start above before descending to its lower bed where, at Forlì, it has another name),
99
reverberates there near San Benedetto dell’Alpe (plunging in a single bound), where at least a thousand vassals could be housed,
102
so down a single rocky precipice we found the tainted waters falling, roaring sound loud enough to deafen us in seconds.
105
102. According to Boccaccio, one of the conti Guidi, who ruled over this region, had planned to construct, near the waterfall, lodgings for a large number of his vassals; he died, however, before his plan could be put into effect.
I wore a cord that fastened round my waist, with which I once had thought I might be able to catch the leopard with the gaudy skin.
108
As soon as I removed it from my body just as my guide commanded me to do, I gave it to him looped into a coil.
111
Then taking it and turning to the right, he flung it quite a distance past the bank and down into the deepness of the pit.
114
“Now surely something strange is going to happen, ” I thought to myself, “to answer the strange signal whose course my master follows with his eyes. ”
117
How cautious a man must be in company with one who can not only see his actions but read his mind and understand his thoughts!
120
He spoke: “Soon will rise up what I expect; and what you are trying to imagine now soon must reveal itself before your eyes. ”
123
It is always better to hold one’s tongue than speak a truth that seems a bold-faced lie when uttered, since to tell this truth could be embarrassing;
126
but I shall not keep quiet; and by the verses of my Comedy —so may they be received with lasting favor, Reader—I swear to you
129
I saw a figure coming, it was swimming through the thick and murky air, up to the top (a thing to startle even stalwart hearts),
132
like one returning who has swum below to free the anchor that has caught its hooks on a reef or something else the sea conceals,
135
spreading out his arms, and doubling up his legs.
106-108. This may be evidence that Dante the Poet became a Franciscan friar, the cord being a sign of that order.
CANTO XVII
THE BEAST that had been seen approaching at the end of the last canto is the horrible monster Geryon; his face is appealing like that of an honest man, but his body ends in a scorpionlike stinger. He perches on the edge of the abyss and Virgil advises his ward, who has noticed new groups of sinners squatting on the fiery sand, to learn who they are, while he makes arrangements with Geryon for the descent. The sinners are the Usurers, unrecognizable except by the crests on the moneybags hanging about their necks, which identify them as members of the Gian-figliazzi, Ubriachi, and Scrovegni families. The Pilgrim listens to one of them briefly but soon returns to find his master sitting on Geryon’s back. After he conquers his fear and mounts, too, the monster begins the slow, spiraling descent into the Eighth Circle.
“And now, behold the beast with pointed tail that passes mountains, annulling walls and weapons, behold the one that makes the whole world stink!”
3
These were the words I heard my master say as he signaled for the beast to come ashore, up close to where the rocky levee ends.
6
And that repulsive spectacle of fraud floated close, maneuvering head and chest on to the shore, but his tail he let hang free.
9
His face was the face of any honest man, it shone with such a look of benediction; and all the rest of him was serpentine;
12
his two clawed paws were hairy to the armpits, his back and all his belly and both flanks were painted arabesques and curlicues:
15
1. In classical mythology Geryon was a three-bodied giant who ruled Spain and was slain by Hercules in the course of his Twelve Labors. Here in the Inferno he is the personification of Fraud.
the Turks and Tartars never made a fabric with richer colors intricately woven, nor were such complex webs spun by Arachne.
18
As sometimes fishing boats are seen ashore, part fixed in sand and part still in the water; and as the beaver, living in the land
21
of drunken Germans, squats to catch his prey, just so that beast, the worst of beasts, hung waiting on the bank that bounds the stretch of sand in stone.
24
In the void beyond he exercised his tail, twitching and twisting-up the venomed fork that armed its tip just like a scorpion’s stinger.
27
My leader said: “Now we must turn aside a little from our path, in the direction of that malignant beast that lies in wait. ”
30
Then we stepped off our path down to the right and moved ten paces straight across the brink to keep the sand and flames at a safe distance.
33
And when we stood by Geryon’s side, I noticed, a little farther on, some people crouched in the sand quite close to the edge of emptiness.
36
Just then my master spoke: “So you may have a knowledge of this round that is complete, ” he said, “go and see their torment for yourself.
39
18. Arachne was a legendary Lydian maiden who was so skilled in the art of weaving that she challenged the goddess Minerva to a contest. Minerva, furious because her opponent’s cloth was perfect, tore it to shreds; Arachne hanged herself, but Minerva loosened the rope, turning it into a web and Arachne into a spider.
21-22. According to medieval bestiaries, the beaver, squatting on the ground at the edge of the water, catches fish with its tail hanging in the water. Geryon assumes a similar pose.
35-36. The Usurers, described in Canto XI as those who scorn “Nature in herself and in her pupil / Art” (110-111), are the last group in the third round of the Seventh Circle.
But let your conversation there be brief; while you are gone I shall speak to this one and ask him for the loan of his strong back. ”
42
So I continued walking, all alone, along the seventh circle’s outer edge to where the group of sufferers were sitting.
45
The pain was bursting from their eyes; their hands went scurrying up and down to give protection here from the flames, there from the burning sands.
48
They were, in fact, like a dog in summertime busy, now with his paw, now with his snout, tormented by the fleas and flies that bite him.
51
I carefully examined several faces among this group caught in the raining flames and did not know a soul, but I observed
54
that around each sinner’s neck a pouch was hung, each of a different color, with a coat of arms, and fixed on these they seemed to feast their eyes.
57
And while I looked about among the crowd, I saw something in blue on a yellow purse that had the face and bearing of a lion;
60
and while my eyes continued their inspection I saw another purse as red as blood exhibiting a goose more white than butter.
63
And one who had a blue sow, pregnant-looking, stamped on the whiteness of his moneybag asked me: “What are you doing in this pit?
66
55-56. The identity (or rather the family connection) of the usurers, who “feast their eyes” (57) on the purses dangling from their necks, is revealed to the Pilgrim by the different coats of arms visible on the pouches. Apparently the usurers are unrecognizable through facial characteristics because their total concern with their material goods has caused them to lose their individuality. The yellow purse with the blue lion (59-60) indicates the Gianfigliazzi family of Florence; the red purse with the “goose more white than butter” (62-63), the Ubriachi family, also of Florence; the one with the “blue sow, pregnant-looking” (64-65), the Scrovegni family of Padua.
Get out of here! And since you’re still alive, I’ll tell you that my neighbor Vitaliano will come to take his seat on my left side.
69
Among these Florentines I sit, one Paduan: time after time they fill my ears with blasts of shouting: ‘Send us down the sovereign knight
72
who will come bearing three goats on his pouch. ’ “ As final comment he stuck out his tongue— as far out as an ox licking its nose.
75
And I, afraid my staying there much longer might anger the one who warned me to be brief, turned my back on these frustrated sinners.
78
I found my guide already sitting high upon the back of that fierce animal; he said: “And now, take courage and be strong.
81
From now on we descend by stairs like these. Get on up front. I want to ride behind, to be between you and the dangerous tail. ”
84
A man who feels the shivers of a fever coming on, his nails already dead of color, will tremble at the mere sight of cool shade;
87
I was that man when I had heard his words. But then I felt those stabs of shame that make a servant brave before his valorous master.
90
As I squirmed around on those enormous shoulders, I wanted to cry out, “Hold on to me, ” but I had no voice to second my desire.
93
68-69. Referred to as “my neighbor” by one of the Scrovegni family, the Vitaliano who will join the company of usurers is undoubtedly from Padua, but beyond this nothing certain is known.
72-73. The “sovereign knight” is generally considered to be Giovanni Buiamonte, one of the Florentine Becchi family. He took part in public affairs and was named an honorific knight in 1298. His business, moneylending, made his family one of the wealthiest in Florence; however, after going bankrupt he died in abject poverty in 1310.
Then he who once before had helped me out when I was threatened put his arms around me as soon as I was settled, and held me tight;
96
and then he cried: “Now Geryon, start moving, descend with gentle motion, circling wide: remember you are carrying living weight. ”
99
Just as a boat slips back away from shore, back slowly, more and more, he left that pier; and when he felt himself all clear in space,
102
to where his breast had been he swung his tail and stretched it undulating like an eel, as with his paws he gathered in the air.
105
I doubt if Phaëthon feared more—that time he dropped the sun-reins of his father’s chariot and burned the streak of sky we see today—
108
or if poor Icarus did—feeling his sides unfeathering as the wax began to melt, his father shouting: “Wrong, your course is wrong”—
111
than I had when I felt myself in air and saw on every side nothing but air; only the beast I sat upon was there.
114
He moves along slowly, and swimming slowly, descends a spiral path—but I know this only from a breeze ahead and one below;
117
I hear now on my right the whirlpool roar with hideous sound beneath us on the ground; at this I stretch my neck to look below,
120
but leaning out soon made me more afraid, for I heard moaning there and saw the flames; trembling, I cowered back, tightening my legs,
123
109-111. The stories of Phaëthon and Icarus were often used in the Middle Ages as examples of pride, thus giving more support to the theory that Pride and Envy underlie the sins punished in Lower Hell.
and I saw then what I had not before: the spiral path of our descent to torment closing in on us, it seemed, from every side.
126
As the falcon on the wing for many hours, having found no prey, and having seen no signal (so that his falconer sighs: “Oh, he falls already”),
129
descends, worn out, circling a hundred times (instead of swooping down), settling at some distance from his master, perched in anger and disdain,
132
so Geryon brought us down to the bottom at the
foot of the jagged cliff, almost against it, and once he got our bodies off his back, he shot off like a shaft shot from a bowstring.
135
CANTO XVIII
THE PILGRIM describes the view he had of the Eighth Circle of Hell while descending through the air on Geryon’s back. It consists of ten stone ravines called Malebolge (Evil Pockets), and across each bolgia is an arching bridge. When the poets find themselves on the edge of the first ravine they see two lines of naked sinners, walking in opposite directions. In one are the Pimps or Ponderers, and among them the Pilgrim recognizes Venedico Caccianemico; in the other are the Seducers, among whom Virgil points out Jason. As the two move toward the next bolgia, they are assailed by a terrible stench, for here the Flatterers are immersed in excrement. Among them are Alessio Interminei and Thaïs the whore.
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, cut out of stone the color of iron ore, just like the circling cliff that walls it in.
3
Right at the center of this evil plain there yawns a very wide, deep well, whose structure I will talk of when the place itself is reached.
6
That belt of land remaining, then, runs round between the well and cliff, and all this space is divided into ten descending valleys,
9
just like a ground-plan for successive moats that in concentric circles bind their center and serve to protect the ramparts of the castle.
12
This was the surface image they presented; and as bridges from a castle’s portal stretch from moat to moat to reach the farthest bank,
15
so, from the great cliff’s base, jut spokes of rock, crossing from bank to bank, intersecting ditches until the pit’s hub cuts them off from meeting.
18
This is the place in which we found ourselves, once shaken from the back of Geryon. The poet turned to the left, I walked behind him.
21
There, on our right, I saw new suffering souls, new means of torture, and new torturers, crammed into the depths of the first ditch.
24
Two files of naked souls walked on the bottom, the ones on our side faced us as they passed, the others moved as we did but more quickly.
27
The Romans, too, in the year of the Jubilee took measures to accommodate the throngs that had to come and go across their bridge: