HELL by Dante Alighieri

Author:Dante Alighieri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Peschiera sits at the circling shore's descent, 70

'Gainst Bergamese and Brescians built for cover, A goodly keep; there all the effluent

Benaco's bosom cannot hold, spills over, 73

Slipping and lipping down, and sliding so Through verdant meads, a river and a rover -

Benaco called no more, but Mincio, 76

From where the water first sets head to run, Down to Governo, where it joins the Po.

It finds a level, ere half its course is done, 79

And there stagnates and spreads to a marshy fen, Rank and unwholesome in the summer sun.

Passing that road, the cruel witch-maiden 8a

Found in the marsh firm tracts of land, which lay Untilled and uninhabited of men;

There, shunning human contact, did she stay 85

With her familiar household; there she plied Her arts; there lived; there left her empty clay.

After, the scattered folk from far and wide 88

Drew to the spot, which lay defensibly, Being girded by the swamp on every side.

O'er those dead bones they built their city, to be 01

For her sake named that chose the place out thus, Mantua, with no further augury.

Far more than now it once was populous, w

Ere Casalodi's folly fell to the sword Of Pinamonte, who was treacherous.

I charge thee then, if stories go abroad, v

Other than this, of how my city grew, Let no such lying tales the truth defraud."

197

canto xx ] Circle VIII, Bowge iv: Holy Saturday towards 7 a.m.

100 "Master, for me thy teaching is so true And so compels belief, all other tales," Said I, "were dust and ash compared thereto.

X03 But tell me of this great crowd that yonder trails,

If any worthy of note be now in sight; My mind harks back to that before all else."

106 He answered: "He whose chin-beard shows so white On his brown shoulders was a memorable Augur in Greece, what time the land was quite

109 Emptied of males, so that you'd scarce be able To find a cradling boy; he set the time, With Calchas, for the cutting of the first cable;

in Eurypylus his name; and my sublime

Tragedy sings him somewhere - thou'lt recall

The place, that hast by heart the whole long rhyme.

us That other there, who looks so lean and small

In the flanks, was Michael Scott, who verily Knew every trick of the art magical.

118 Lo! Guy Bonatti; lo! Asdente - he

May well wish now that he had stuck to his last, But he repents too late; and yonder see

i2i The witch-wives, miserable women who cast

Needle and spindle and shuttle away for skill With mommets and philtres; there they all go past.

ii4 But come! Cain with his thorn-bush strides the sill

Of the two hemispheres; his lantern now Already dips to the wave below Seville;

127 And yesternight the moon was full, as thou

Shouldst well remember, for throughout thy stay In the deep wood she harmed thee not, I trow."

no Thus he; and while he spake we went our way.

The Images. The Sorcerers. The primary image of sorcery here is that of the fortune-tellers, who, having attempted to usurp God's prerogative by

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