LIBRARY
UNivtRsiry OF
CALlFO.tNIA
I SAfi DitGO
/
presented to the
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SAN DIEGO f/^'^ ^ S4^^
by
From the Estate of
Mrs. Anna L. Bailhache
THE
DIVINE COMEDY
DANTE ALIGHIERI
TRANSLATED BY
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
i follow here the footing of thy fcete
That with thy meaning so I may the rather mccte
Sl'ENSER.
VOL. I.
BOSTON
TICK NOR AND FIELDS
1867
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co.,
Cambkiugb.
CONTENTS
OF VOL. I.
INFERNO.
CANTO I.
Page
The Dark Forest. ā The Hill of Difficulty. ā The Panther, the Lion, and the
Wolf. ā Virgil I
CANTO II.
Dante's Protest and Virgil's Appeal. ā The Intercession of the Three Ladies
Benedight 7
CANTO III.
The Gate of Hell. ā The Inefficient or Indifferent. ā Pope Celestine V. ā
The Shores of Acheron. ā Charon. ā The Earthquake and the Swoon . 14
CANTO IV.
The First* Circle. ā Limbo, or the Border Land of the Unbaptized. ā The
Four Poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. ā The Noble Castle of
Philosophy 20
CANTO V.
The Second Circle. ā Minos. ā The Wanton. ā The Infernal Hurricane. ā
Francesca da Rimini 27
CANTO VI.
The Third Circle. ā Cerberus. ā The Gluttonous. ā The Eternal Rain. ā
Ciacco 34
iv Cojiteitts
CANTO VII.
The Fourth Circle. ā Plutus. ā The Avaricious and the Prodigal. ā Fortune
and her Wheel. ā The Fifth Circle. ā Styx. ā The Irascible and the
Sullen 39
CANTO VIII.
Phlegyas. ā Philippe Argenti. ā The Gate of the City of Dis . . . - . 45
CANTO IX.
The Furies. ā The Angel. ā The City of Dis. ā The Sixth Circle. ā Here-
siarchs 51
CANTO X.
Farinata and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti 57
CANTO XI.
Pope Anastasius. ā General Description of the Inferno and its Divisions . 63
CANTO XII.
The Minotaur. ā The Seventh Circle. ā The Violent. ā Phlegethon. ā The
Violent against their Neighbors. ā The Centaurs. ā Tyrants . . .68
CANTO XIII.
The Wood of Thorns. ā The Harpies. ā The Violent against themselves. ā
Suicides. ā Pier della Vigna. ā Lano and Jacopo da Sant' Andrea . . 74
CANTO XIV.
The Sand Waste. ā The Violent against God. ā Capaneus. ā The Statue of
Time, and the Four Infernal Rivers 81
CANTO XV.
The Violent against Nature. ā Brunetto Latini 88
CANTO XVI.
Guidoguerra, Aldobrandi, and Rusticucci. ā Cataract of the River of Blood . 94
Contents v
CANTO XVII.
Gerj'on. ā The Violent against Art. ā Usurers. ā Descent into the Abyss of
Malebolge loo
CANTO XVIII.
The Eighth Circle : Malebolge. ā The Fraudulent. ā The First Bolgia : Sedu-
cers and Panders. ā Venedico Caccianimico. ā Jason. ā The Second
Bolgia: Flatterers. ā Allessio Interminelli. ā Thais io6
CANTO XIX.
The Third Bolgia : the Simoniacs. ā Pope Nicholas III 112
CANTO XX.
The Fourth Bolgia : Soothsayers. ā Amphiaraiis, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto,
Eryphylus, Michael Scott, Guido Bonatti, and Asdente . . . .118
CANTO XXI.
The Fifth Bolgia : Peculators. ā The Elder of Santa Zita. ā Malebranche . 124
CANTO XXII.
Ciampolo, Friar Gomita, and Michael Zanche 130
CANTO XXIII.
The Sixth Bolgia : Hypocrites. ā Catalano and Loderingo. ā Caiaphas . 137
CANTO XXIV.
The Seventh Bolgia : Thieves. ā Vanni Fucci 144
CANTO XXV.
Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa de' Donati,
and Guercio Cavalcanti 151
CANTO XXVI.
The Eighth Bolgia : Evil Counsellors. ā Ulysses and Diomed . . .158
vi Contents
CANTO XXVI I.
Guido da Montefeltro 165
CANTO XXVII I.
The Ninth Bolgia : Schismatics. ā Mahomet and Ali. ā Pier da Medicina,
Curio, Mosca, and Bertrand de Born 171
CANTO XXIX.
The Tenth Bolgia : Alchemists. ā Griffolino d' Arezzo and Capocchio . .178
CANTO XXX.
Other Falsifiers or Forgers. ā Gianni Schicchi, Myrrha, Adam of Brescia, Pot-
iphar's Wife, and Sinon of Troy 184
CANTO XXXI.
The Giants, Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus 191
CANTO XXXI I.
The Ninth Circle : the Frozen Lake of Cocytus. ā First Division, Caina :
Traitors to their Kindred. ā Camicion de' Pazzi. ā Second Division,
Antenora : Traitors to their Country. ā Bocca degli Abati and Buoso da
Duera 198
CANTO XXXIII.
Count Ugolino and the Archbishop Ruggieri. ā Third Division of the Ninth
Circle, Ptolomaea : Traitors to their Friends. ā Friar Alberigo, Branco
d' Oria 204
CANTO XXXIV.
Fourth Division of the Ninth Circle, the Judecca : Traitors to their Lords and
Benefactors. ā Lucifer, Judas I scariot, Brutus and Cassius . . .211
NOTES . 219
Co7itents vii
ILLUSTRATIONS.
L' Ottimo Comento 343
Villani's Notice of Dante , 343
Letter of Frate Ilario 344
Passage from the Convito 346
Dante's Letter to a Friend ā¢ ā¢ 346
Portraits of Dante 347
Boccaccio's Account of the Commedia 353
The Posthumous Dante 3s6
The Scholastic Philosophy Ā« ā¢ 359
Homer's Odyssey, Book XI 361
Virgil's ^neid, Book VI 373
Cicero's Vision of Scipio 2)^1
Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven 393
The Vision of Frate Alberico 397
The Vision of Walkelin 399
From the Life of St. Brandan 405
Icelandic Vision 41Ā°
Anglo-Saxon Description of Paradise 412
OFT have I seen at some cathedral door
A laborer, pausing in the dust and heat,
Lay down his burden, and with reverent feet
Enter, and cross himself, and on the floor
Kneel to repeat his paternoster o'er ;
Far ofF the noises of the world retreat ;
The loud vociferations of the street
Become an undistinguishable roar.
So, as I enter here from day to day.
And leave my burden at this minster gate,
Kneeling in prayer, and not ashamed to pray,
The tumult of the time disconsolate
To inarticulate murmurs dies away.
While the eternal ages watch and wait.
T T OW strange the sculptures that adorn these towers !
This crowd of statues, in whose folded sleeves
Birds build their nests ; while canopied with leaves
Parvis and portal bloom like trellised bowers,
And the vast minster seems a cross of flowers !
But fiends and dragons on the gargoyled eaves
Watch the dead Christ between the living thieves,
And, underneath, the traitor Judas lowers !
Ah ! from what agonies of heart and brain.
What exultations trampling on despair.
What tenderness, what tears, what hate of wrong.
What passionate outcry of a soul in pain.
Uprose this poem of the earth and air,
This mediaeval miracle of song !
INFERNO
INFERNO
CANTO I.
1\ /T IDWAY upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark.
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me ! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, s
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more ;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered, lo
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a mountain's foot.
At that point where the valley terminated.
Which had with consternation pierced my heart, 15
2 ā¢ā The Divine Comedy
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart's lake had endured throughout ^o
The night, which I had passed so piteously.
And even as he, who, with distressful breath.
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore.
Turns to the water perilous and gazes ;
So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward, ^s
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
Which never yet a living person left.
After my weary body I had rested.
The way resumed I on the desert slope.
So that the firm foot ever was the lower. 3Ā°
And lo ! almost where the ascent began,
A panther light and swift exceedingly.
Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er !
And never moved she from before my face.
Nay, rather did impede so much my way, 35
That many times I to return had turned.
The time was the beginning of the morning.
And up the sun was mounting with those stars
That with him were, what time the Love Divine
Inferno i. 3
At first in motion set those beauteous things; 40
So were to me occasion of good hope,
The variegated skin of that wild beast.
The hour of time, and the dehcious season ;
But not so much, that did not give me fear
A Hon's aspect which appeared to me. 45
He seemed as if against me he were coming
With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger.
So that it seemed the air was afraid of him ;
And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
Seemed to be laden in her meagreness, 5Ā°
And many folk has caused to live forlorn !
She brought upon me so much heaviness.
With the affright that from her aspect came.
That I the hope relinquished of the height.
And as he is who willingly acquires, 55
And the time comes that causes him to lose.
Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent.
E'en such made me that beast withouten peace.
Which, coming on against me by degrees.
Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent. 60
While I was rushing downward to the lowland.
Before mine eyes did one present himself.
Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.
4 The Divine Comedy
When I beheld him in the desert vast,
" Have pity on me," unto him I cried, 65
" Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man ! "
He answered me : *' Not man ; man once I was.
And both my parents were of Lombardy,
And Mantuans by country both of them.
Sub 'Julio was I born, though it was late, 7Ā°
And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,
During the time of false and lying gods.
A Poet was I, and I sang that just
Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,
After that Ilion the superb was burned. 7s
But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance ?
Why climb'st thou not the Mount Delectable,
Which is the source and cause of every joy ? "
" Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain
Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech ? " 8Ā°
I made response to him with bashful forehead.
" O, of the other poets honor and light.
Avail me the long study and great love
That have impelled me to explore thy volume !
Thou art my master, and my author thou, 85
Thou art alone the one from whom I took
The beautiful style that has done honor to me.
Inferno i. 5
Behold the beast, for which I have turned back ;
Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble." 9Ā°
" Thee it behoves to take another road,"
Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,
** If from this savage place thou wouldst escape ;
Because this beast, at which thou criest out.
Suffers not any one to pass her way, 9S
But so doth harass him, that she destroys him ;
And has a nature so malign and ruthless.
That never doth she glut her greedy will.
And after food is hungrier than before.
Many the animals with whom she weds, loo
And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound
Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.
He shall not feed on either earth or pelf.
But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue ;
'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be ; 105
Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour.
On whose account the maid Camilla died,
Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds ;
Through every city shall he hunt her down.
Until he shall have driven her back to Hell, no
There from whence envy first did let her loose.
6 The Divine Cojnedy
Therefore I think and judge it for thy best
Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide.
And lead thee hence through the eternal place.
Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations, "S
Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate.
Who cry out each one for the second death ;
And thou shalt see those who contented are
Within the fire, because they hope to come,
Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people ; "o
To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,
A soul shall be for that than I more worthy ;
With her at my departure I will leave thee ;
Because that Emperor, who reigns above.
In that I was rebellious to his law, i^s
Wills that through me none come into his city.
He governs everywhere, and there he reigns ;
There is his city and his lofty throne ;
O happy he whom thereto he elects ! "
And I to him : " Poet, I thee entreat, 130
By that same God whom thou didst never know.
So that I may escape this woe and worse.
Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said.
That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,
And those thou makest so disconsolate." 135
Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.
CANTO II,
T^AY was departing, and the embrowned air
Released the animals that are on earth
From their fatigues ; and I the only one
Made myself ready to sustain the war.
Both of the way and likewise of the woe, 5
Which memory that errs not shall retrace.
O Muses, O high genius, now assist me !
O memory, that didst write down what I saw.
Here thy nobility shall be manifest !
And I began : " Poet, who guidest me, 10
Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient.
Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me.
Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent.
While yet corruptible, unto the world
Immortal went, and was there bodily. is
But if the adversary of all evil
Was courteous, thinking of the high effect
That issue would from him, and who, and what.
8 The Divine Comedy
To men of intellect unmeet it seems not ;
For he was of great Rome, and of her empire ^^o
In the empyreal heaven as father chosen ;
The which and what, wishing to speak the truth.
Were stablished as the holy place, wherein
Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.
Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt, ^s
Things did he hear, which the occasion were
Both of his victory and the papal mantle.
Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,
To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,
Which of salvation's way is the beginning. 3Ā°
But I, why thither come, or who concedes it ?
I not ^neas am, I am not Paul,
Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it.
Therefore, if I resign myself to come,
I fear the coming may be ill-advised ; ss
Thou 'rt wise, and knowest better than I speak."
And as he is, who unwills what he willed.
And by new thoughts doth his intention change.
So that from his design he quite withdraws.
Such I became, upon that dark hillside, 40
Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise.
Which was so very prompt in the beginning.
Inferno ii. 9
" If I have well thy language understood,'*
Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,
"Thy soul attainted is with cowardice, 4s
Which many times a man encumbers so.
It turns him back from honored enterprise.
As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.
That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,
I '11 tell thee why I came, and what I heard 5Ā°
At the first moment when I grieved for thee.
Among those was I who are in suspense,
And a fair, saintly Lady called to me
In such wise, I besought her to command me.
Her eyes were shining brighter than the Star ; is
And she began to say, gentle and low.
With voice angelical, in her own language :
* O spirit courteous of Mantua,
Of whom the fame still in the world endures.
And shall endure, long-lasting as the world ; 60
A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune.
Upon the desert slope is so impeded
Upon his way, that he has turned through terror.
And may, I fear, already be so lost.
That I too late have risen to his succor, 65
From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.
lo The Divine Comedy
Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate,
And with what needful is for his release,
Assist him so, that I may be consoled.
Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go; 7Ā°
I come from there, where I would fain return ;
Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak-
When I shall be in presence of my Lord,
Full often will I praise thee unto him.'
Then paused she, and thereafter I began : 7S
* O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom
The human race exceedeth all contained
Within the heaven that has the lesser circles.
So grateful unto me is thy commandment.
To obey, if 't were already done, were late ; so
No farther need'st thou ope to me thy wish.
But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun
The here descending down into this centre.
From the vast place thou burnest to return to.'
* Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern, 85
Briefly will I relate,' she answered me,
* Why I am not afraid to enter here.
Of those things only should one be afraid
Which have the power of doing others harm ;
Of the rest, no ; because they are not fearful. 90
hiferno it. i i
God in his mercy such created me
That misery of yours attains me not,
Nor any flame assails me of this burning.
A gentle Lady is in Heaven, who grieves
At this impediment, to which I send thee, 95
So that stern judgment there above is broken.
In her entreaty she besought Lucia,
And said, " Thy faithful one now stands in need
Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him."
Lucia, foe of all that cruel is, 100
Hastened away, and came unto the place
Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel.
" Beatrice," said she, " the true praise of God,
Why succorest thou not him, who loved thee so.
For thee he issued from the vulgar herd ? 105
Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint ?
Dost thou not see the death that combats him
Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt ? "
Never were persons in the world so swift
To work their weal and to escape their woe, jĀ«o
As I, after such words as these were uttered.
Came hither downward from my blessed seat.
Confiding in thy dignified discourse.
Which honors thee, and those who 've listened to it.'
12 The Divijie Co^nedy
After she thus had spoken unto me, "s
Weeping, her shining eyes she turned away ;
Whereby she made me swifter in my coming ;
And unto thee I came, as she desired ;
I have deHvered thee from that wild beast, "9
Which barred the beautiful mountain's short ascent.
What is it, then ? Why, why dost thou delay ?
Why is such baseness bedded in thy heart ?
Daring and hardihood why hast thou not.
Seeing that three such Ladies benedight
Are caring for thee in the court of Heaven, i^s
And so much good my speech doth promise thee ? "
Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal chill.
Bowed down and closed, when the sun whitens them.
Uplift themselves all open on their stems ;
Such I became with my exhausted strength, 13Ā°
And such good courage to my heart there coursed.
That I began, like an intrepid person :
"O she compassionate, who succored me.
And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon
The words of truth which she addressed to thee! jss
Thou hast my heart so with desire disposed
To the adventure, with these words of thine.
That to my first intent I have returned.
Inferno it, 13
Now go, for one sole will is in us both,
Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou." ho
Thus said I to him ; and when he had moved,
I entered on the deep and savage way.
V*
V
CANTO III.
" n^HROUGH me the way is to the city dolent ;
Through me the way is to eternal dole ;
Through me the way among the people lost.
Justice incited my sublime Creator ;
Created me divine Omnipotence, 5
The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.
Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
All hope abandon, ye who enter in ! '*
These words in sombre color I beheld 1Ā°
Written upon the summit of a gate ;
Whence I : " Their sense is. Master, hard to me ! "
And he to me, as one experienced :
" Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned,
All cowardice must needs be here extinct. Ā»s
We to the place have come, where I have told thee
Thou shalt behold the people dolorous
Who have foregone the good of intellect."
Inferno in. 15
And after he had laid his hand on mine
With joyful mien, whence I was comforted, ^q
He led me in among the secret things.
There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud
Resounded through the air without a star.
Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.
Languages diverse, horrible dialects, as
Accents of anger, words of agony.
And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands.
Made up a tumult that goes whirling on
Forever in that air forever black, a9
Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes.
And I, who had my head with horror bound.
Said : " Master, what is this which now I hear ?
What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished ? "
And he to me : " This miserable mode
Maintain the melancholy souls of those 35
Who lived withouten infamy or praise.
Commingled are they with that caitiff choir
Of Angels, who have not rebellious been.
Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair ; 4Ā°
Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,
For glory none the damned would have from them."
1 6 The Divine Comedy
And I : " O Master, what so grievous is
To these, that maketh them lament so sore ? '*
He answered : " I will tell thee very briefly. 4s
These have no longer any hope of death ;
And this blind life of theirs is so debased.
They envious are of every other fate.
No fame of them the world permits to be ;
Misericord and Justice both disdain them. 5Ā°
Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass."
And I, who looked again, beheld a banner.
Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly.
That of all pause it seemed to me indignant ;
And after it there came so long a train 55
Of people, that I ne'er would have believed
That ever Death so many had undone.
When some among them I had recognized,
I looked, and I beheld the shade of him
Who made through cowardice the great refusal. 60
Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain.
That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches
Hateful to God and to his enemies.
These miscreants, who never were alive.
Were naked, and were stung exceedingly 65
By gadflies and by hornets that were there.
Inferiio in. ā 17
These did their faces irrigate with blood.
Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet
By the disgusting worms was gathered up.
And when to gazing farther I betook me, 70
People I saw on a great river's bank ;
Whence said I : " Master, now vouchsafe to me,
That I may know who these are, and what law
Makes them appear so ready to pass over.
As I discern athwart the dusky light." 75
And he to me : " These things shall all be known
To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay
Upon the dismal shore of Acheron."
Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast.
Fearing my words might irksome be to him, 80
From speech refrained I till we reached the river.
And lo ! towards us coming in a boat
An old man, hoary with the hair of eld.
Crying : " Woe unto you, ye souls depraved !
Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens ; 8s
I come to lead you to the other shore.
To the eternal shades in heat and frost.
And thou, that yonder standest, living soul.
Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead ! "
But when he saw that I did not withdraw, 9Ā°
3
1 8 The Diviite Comedy
He said : " By other ways, by other ports
Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage ;
A Hghter vessel needs must carry thee."
And unto him the Guide : " Vex thee not, Charon ;
It is so willed there where is power to do 95
That which is willed ; and farther question not."
Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks
Of him the ferryman of the livid fen.
Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.
But all those souls who weary were and naked 10Ā°
Their color changed and gnashed their teeth together.
As soon as they had heard those cruel words.
God they blasphemed and their progenitors.
The human race, the place, the time, the seed
Of their engendering and of their birth ! 105
Thereafter all together they drew back.
Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore.
Which waiteth every man who fears not God.
Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,
Beckoning to them, collects them all together, "o
Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.
As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off.
First one and then another, till the branch
Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils ;
Inferno in. 19
In similar wise the evil seed of Adam "5
Throw themselves from that margin one by one.
At signals, as a bird unto its lure.