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Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). The Divine Comedy.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Inferno [Hell]

Canto XXIX ARGUMENT.—Dante, at the desire of Virgil, proceeds onward to the bridge that crosses the tenth gulf, from whence he hears the cries of the alchemists and forgers, who are tormented therein; but not being able to discern anything on account of the darkness, they descend the rock, that bounds this, the last of the compartments in which the eighth circle is divided, and then behold the spirits who are afflicted by divers plagues and diseases. Two of them, namely, Grifolino of Arezzo, and Capocchio of Siena, are introduced speaking.

SO were mine eyes inebriate with the view

Of the vast multitude, whom various wounds

Disfigured, that they long’d to stay and weep.

But Virgil roused me: “What yet gazest on?

Wherefore doth fasten yet thy sight below

Among the maim’d and miserable shades?

Thou hast not shown in any chasm beside

This weakness. Know, if thou wouldst number them,

That two and twenty miles the valley winds

Its circuit, and already is the moon

Beneath our feet: the time permitted now

Is short; and more, not seen, remains to see.”

“If thou,” I straight replied, “hadst weigh’d the cause,

For which I look’d, thou hadst perchance excused

The tarrying still.” My leader part pursued

His way, the while I follow’d, answering him,

And adding thus: “Within that cave I deem,

Whereon so fixedly I held my ken,

There is a spirit dwells, one of my blood,

Wailing the crime that costs him now so dear.”

Then spake my master: “Let thy soul no more

Afflict itself for him. Direct elsewhere

Its thought, and leave him. At the bridge’s foot

I mark’d how he did point with menacing look

At thee, and heard him by the others named

Geri of Bello. Thou so wholly then

Wert busied with his spirit, who once ruled

The towers of Hautefort, that thou lookedst not

That way, ere he was gone.” “O guide beloved!

His violent death yet unavenged,” said I,

“By any, who are partners in his shame,

Made him contemptuous; therefore, as I think,

He pass’d me speechless by; and, doing so,

Hath made me more compassionate his fate.”

So we discoursed to where the rock first show’d

The other valley, had more light been there,

E’en to the lowest depth. Soon as we came

O’er the last cloister in the dismal rounds

Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood

Were to our view exposed, then many a dart

Of sore lament assail’d me, headed all

With points of thrilling pity, that I closed

Both ears against the volley with mine hands.

As were the torment, if each lazar-house

Of Valdichiana, in the sultry time

’Twixt July and September, with the isle

Sardinia and Maremma’s pestilent fen,

Had heap’d their maladies all in one foss

Together; such was here the torment: dire

The stench, as issuing streams from fester’d limbs.

We on the utmost shore of the long rock

Descended still to leftward. Then my sight

Was livelier to explore the depth, wherein

The minister of the most mighty Lord,

All-searching Justice, dooms to punishment

The forgers noted on her dread record.

More rueful was it not methinks to see

The nation in Ægina droop, what time

Each living thing, e’en to the little worm,

All fell, so full of malice was the air

(And afterward, as bards of yore have told,

The ancient people were restored anew

From seed of emmets), than was here to see

The spirits, that languish’d through the murky vale,

Up-piled on many a stack. Confused they lay,

One o’er the belly, o’er the shoulders one

Roll’d of another; sideling crawl’d a third

Along the dismal pathway. Step by step

We journey’d on, in silence looking round,

And listening those diseased, who strove in vain

To lift their forms. Then two I mark’d, that sat

Propt ’gainst each other, as two brazen pans

Set to retain the heat. From head to foot,

A tetter bark’d them round. Nor saw I e’er

Groom currying so fast, for whom his lord

Impatient waited, or himself perchance

Tired with long watching, as of these each one

Plied quickly his keen nails, through furiousness

Of ne’er abated pruriency. The crust

Came down from underneath, in flakes, like scales

Scraped from the bream, or fish of broader mail.

“O thou! who with thy fingers rendest off

Thy coat of proof,” thus spake my guide to one,

“And sometimes makest tearing pincers of them,

Tell me if any born of Latian land

Be among these within: so may thy nails

Serve thee for everlasting to this toil.”

“Both are of Latium,” weeping he replied,

“Whom tortured thus thou seest: but who art thou

That hast inquired of us?” To whom my guide:

“One that descend with this man, who yet lives,

From rock to rock, and show him Hell’s abyss.”

Then started they asunder, and each turn’d

Trembling toward us, with the rest, whose ear

Those words redounding struck. To me my liege

Address’d him: “Speak to them whate’er thou list.”

And I therewith began: “So may no time

Filch your remembrance from the thoughts of men

In the upper world, but after many suns

Survive it, as ye tell me, who ye are,

And of what race ye come. Your punishment,

Unseemly and disgustful in its kind,

Deter you not from opening thus much to me.”

“Arezzo was my dwelling,” answer’d one,

“And me Albero of Siena brought

To die by fire: but that, for which I died,

Leads me not here. True is, in sport I told him,

That I had learn’d to wing my flight in air;

And he, admiring much, as he was void

Of wisdom, will’d me to declare to him

The secret of mine art: and only hence,

Because I made him not a Dædalus,

Prevail’d on one supposed his sire to burn me.

But Minos to this chasm, last of the ten,

For that I practised alchemy on earth,

Has doom’d me. Him no subterfuge eludes.”

Then to the bard I spake: “Was ever race

Light as Siena’s? Sure not France herself

Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain.”

The other leprous spirit heard my words,

And thus return’d: “Be Stricca from this charge

Exempted, he who knew so temperately

To lay out fortune’s gifts; and Niccolo,

Who first the spice’s costly luxury

Discover’d in that garden, where such seed

Roots deepest in the soil; and be that troop

Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano

Lavish’d his vineyards and wide-spreading woods,

And his rare wisdom Abbagliato show’d

A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know

Who seconds thee against the Sienese

Thus gladly, bend this way thy sharpen’d sight,

That well my face may answer to thy ken;

So shalt thou see I am Capocchio’s ghost,

Who forged transmuted metals by the power

Of alchemy; and if I scan thee right,

Thou needs must well remember how I aped

Creative nature by my subtle art.”