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    The Divine Comedy
    The Divine Comedy
    The Divine Comedy
    Ebook818 pages12 hours

    The Divine Comedy

    By Dante Alighieri

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    Translated by H. F. Cary With an introduction by Claire Honess.

    Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of the most important and innovative figures of the European Middle Ages. Writing his Comedy (the epithet Divine was added by later admirers) in exile from his native Florence, he aimed to address a world gone astray both morally and politically. At the same time, he sought to push back the restrictive rules which traditionally governed writing in the Italian vernacular, to produce a radically new and all-encompassing work.

    The Comedy tells of the journey of a character who is at one and the same time both Dante himself and Everyman through the three realms of the Christian afterlife: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. He presents a vision of the afterlife which is strikingly original in its conception, with a complex architecture and a coherent structure. On this journey Dante's protagonist - and his reader - meet characters who are variously noble, grotesque, beguiling, fearful, ridiculous, admirable, horrific and tender, and through them he is shown the consequences of sin, repentance and virtue, as he learns to avoid Hell and, through cleansing in Purgatory, to taste the joys of Heaven.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWordsworth Editions
    Release dateAug 1, 2012
    ISBN9781848705593
    Author

    Dante Alighieri

    Dante Alighieri (Florencia, 1265 – Rávena, 1321), político, diplomático y poeta. En 1302 tuvo que exiliarse de su patria y ciudad natal, y a partir de entonces se vio obligado a procurarse moradas y protectores provisionales, razón por la cual mantener el prestigio que le había procurado su Vida nueva (c. 1294) era de vital importancia. La Comedia, en la que trabajó hasta el final de su vida, fue la consecuencia de ese propósito, y con los siglos se convirtió en una de las obras fundamentales de la literatura europea. Además de su obra poética, Dante escribió tratados políticos, filosóficos y literarios, como Convivio, De vulgari eloquentiao y De Monarchia.

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    Reviews for The Divine Comedy

    4/5

    2,340 ratings47 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Extraordinary illustrations...Gustave Dore....Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • 4/5
      Dante's classic poem of his journeys through hell and heaven.
    • 5/5
      Un classico in un'edizione davvero prestigiosa.
    • 3/5
      In finally sitting down and reading the entire Divine Comedy, I can now see why The Inferno is usually separated from Purgatorio & Paradiso. The Inferno is captivating and paints vivid pictures of what Dante &. Virgil are seeing and experiencing. However Purgatorio & Paradiso seemed to lack this each in their own way. Purgatorio was still able to paint the pictures but not quite as vividly. Perhaps the subject matter was not as captivating as well. Dante certainly had the gift of making Purgatory feel not too bad but also not too good. In Paradiso we switch guides from Virgil to Beatrice. It is then that Dante seems to loose his focus on his surroundings and turns toward fauning over Beatrice's beauty. I figured that the Canto with God in it would have been a bit more powerful & profound. Lucifer's appearance was more awe inspiring than God's. Don't get me wrong, I give credit to the absolute classic that this work is, however I think there are some issues with it from a reader's standpoint. When all of the action is over in the 1st portion of the book it becomes a chore to finish reading it. All-in-all this entire work was beautifully written in the terza rima rhyme scheme which adds a bit of romance to every line read. I have to mention that I think it's funny how people get the details of this work confused with The Holy Bible. There in itself stands testement to how amazing this work has been throughout history. Despite my personal issues with reading it I am honored to have read such famous and renouned piece of historical literature.
    • 5/5
      One of the absolute summits of western (arguably, world) literature.The general outline is well-enough known: Dante has a vision (on Easter weekend, 1300) in which he visits Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. (The vision frame is external to the poem itself; the Dante inside the poem is the dreamer from the very beginning.) He is guided through the first two realms (well, all of Hell and most of Purgatory) by Virgil, and through the rest of Purgatory and all of Heaven by Beatrice, the focus of his early work La Vita Nuova. He begins in a dark wood, "selva oscura" and ends with the beatific vision of the union of the Christian Trinity and the Aristotelian unmoved mover: "l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle".On its way he maintains a multi-level allegory, fills it with an encyclopaedia of his day's science, history, and theology, carries out an extended argument regarding the (sad) politics of his day and of his beloved Florence, from which he was an exile, and does so in verse which stays at high level of virtuosity throughout. It's the sort of thing that writers like Alanus de Insulis tried in a less ambitious way and failed (well, failed by comparison: who except specialists reads the De Planctu Naturae these days?).There is no equivalent achievement, and very few at the same level. This would get six stars if they were available.
    • 3/5
      In finally sitting down and reading the entire Divine Comedy, I can now see why The Inferno is usually separated from Purgatorio & Paradiso. The Inferno is captivating and paints vivid pictures of what Dante &. Virgil are seeing and experiencing. However Purgatorio & Paradiso seemed to lack this each in their own way. Purgatorio was still able to paint the pictures but not quite as vividly. Perhaps the subject matter was not as captivating as well. Dante certainly had the gift of making Purgatory feel not too bad but also not too good. In Paradiso we switch guides from Virgil to Beatrice. It is then that Dante seems to loose his focus on his surroundings and turns toward fauning over Beatrice's beauty. I figured that the Canto with God in it would have been a bit more powerful & profound. Lucifer's appearance was more awe inspiring than God's. Don't get me wrong, I give credit to the absolute classic that this work is, however I think there are some issues with it from a reader's standpoint. When all of the action is over in the 1st portion of the book it becomes a chore to finish reading it. All-in-all this entire work was beautifully written in the terza rima rhyme scheme which adds a bit of romance to every line read. I have to mention that I think it's funny how people get the details of this work confused with The Holy Bible. There in itself stands testement to how amazing this work has been throughout history. Despite my personal issues with reading it I am honored to have read such famous and renouned piece of historical literature.
    • 4/5
      Dore illustrations. Beautiful!
    • 3/5
      Contains some wonderful imagery, but seems rather obsolete in certain sections. Still a masterful writing display though, which has had its impact over the last centuries.
    • 4/5
      Quintessential tale of recovery - The way out is for Dante to journey deeper into Hell.
    • 5/5
      Throughout The Divine Comedy Dante claims that his is no mere story, but a vision granted to him by the divine. While your personal faith probably plays a role in how you assess that claim, one thing is certain: Dante was a visionary, and The Divine Comedy contains some of the most stunning imagery you'll find in literature. Everyone has heard of Dante's nine circles of hell, but how many know that the ninth circle is surrounded by a living wall of giants, chained for their rebellion? Or that the mountain of purgatory is the land that was thrust up by Lucifer's fall, and atop it sits the Garden of Eden? Or that in paradise the souls of all the protectors of humanity form a huge eagle that addresses Dante, the eagle being formed of countless souls that shine like rubies in the sunlight? Not to mention the ultimate image Dante gives us, of the highest realm of heaven, wherein every soul that has reached paradise joins together to take the shape of a white rose, with God at its center.

      It's beautiful stuff, and even in translation Dante's prose proves up to the task of describing it. From the opening of Inferno where Dante has lost his way to the final lines of each canticle that draw our minds to the stars, Dante is a masterful writer. Not only that, but he's an assertive writer as well. While I could easily imagine an author falling back on his beautiful writing and delivering only a milquetoast moral stance (and indeed, Dante mentions this temptation), in The Divine Comedy Dante makes his opinions known on issues large and small. He's not afraid to criticize the practice of blood feuds, or to pillory different orders of monks, or even to call out the leadership of the Church and the rulers of Italy. He places popes and kings in the fires of hell just as readily as he does false prophets and foreign conquerers.

      In addition to this, The Divine Comedy serves as perhaps the best memorial for a lost love to ever be written. Dante's first love Beatrice, dead before he began work on The Divine Comedy, is not only placed by Dante among the highest ranks of paradise, but it is through her mercy and care that Dante is granted his vision of the divine. She is credited with not only inspiring his pen, but with saving his soul as well. Through this work Dante immortalizes his lost love, and if there is a love letter that can compare I don't know of it.

      The work isn't without its flaws. Paradiso has several cantos that focus on Dante's take on cosmology or astrophysics that aren't only clearly wrong under our modern understanding, but that don't flow particularly well either. They're like Melville's chapters on whale classification in Moby Dick- they struck me as more distracting than atmospheric. Paradiso is also rife with Dante raising theological questions, only to give them unsatisfying answers. I wish Dante had given us more of his brilliant descriptions instead of trying his hand at reconciling the nature of God with real world events. Occasionally in Inferno it feels as though Dante is sticking it to the people he doesn't like in life at the expense of the flow of the canto, while at other times it feels as though Dante is making an exception for historical figures he really liked at the expense of the logic of the divine system he has described (Cato being the prime example, but various Roman and Greek figures throughout raise this issue). Still, these complaints are minor. It's a vision, after all, and so the lack of a concrete system with steadfast rules isn't surprising.

      It's the journey that counts, not the destination, and Dante gives us one hell of a journey. It's an epic sightseeing trip through the world of Christian theology, a world that is still heavily influenced by the myths and scholars of ancient Rome and Greece. Though it's not perfect, it's great, and well worth your time.
    • 5/5
      A true classic that everyone should read but, unfortunately, few will genuinely appreciate. You travel the afterlife from Hell through Purgatory and arrive in Heaven. Along the way you meet various souls (some of whom Dante had been ticked at who today are not known) and realize the very Catholic approach to redemption.
    • 5/5
      Wow! All I can say is what a pleasurable and enriching experience to have had the opportunity to listen to Dante's legendary poetry read aloud. The only metaphorical example I can think of is the difference between watching an epic film (like "Life of Pi") in 2D or 3D.

      Yes! Dante's Divine Comedy book vs. audiobook is on the same proportional movie-going scale! I highly recommend indulging yourself with this audiobook. It's one you'll want to purchase, not borrow!
    • 5/5
      It is a wonderful read if you have footnotes to understand who the people he is talking about is. I found it fascinating and I hope that I finish it someday.
    • 4/5
      If you want the Italian text, with notes in English, you might track down the Grandgent/Singleton Divina Commedia published in (I think) 1972. (There's another, older, one with only Grandgent as editor.)
    • 4/5
      DRAFT notes - the neologism "trasumanar" in canto 1 of Paradiso (to go beyond the human). Why did Dante coin this new word? At this time in his day.Some of the metaphors sound somehow mixed or even wrong: In the Tuscan, "nel lago del cor m'era durata". Does the "hardening lake of my heart" prefigure the revelation at the end of the Inferno that its deepest pit is frozen? Is the not-burning, a pious reader surprise?
    • 3/5
      In finally sitting down and reading the entire Divine Comedy, I can now see why The Inferno is usually separated from Purgatorio & Paradiso. The Inferno is captivating and paints vivid pictures of what Dante &. Virgil are seeing and experiencing. However Purgatorio & Paradiso seemed to lack this each in their own way. Purgatorio was still able to paint the pictures but not quite as vividly. Perhaps the subject matter was not as captivating as well. Dante certainly had the gift of making Purgatory feel not too bad but also not too good. In Paradiso we switch guides from Virgil to Beatrice. It is then that Dante seems to loose his focus on his surroundings and turns toward fauning over Beatrice's beauty. I figured that the Canto with God in it would have been a bit more powerful & profound. Lucifer's appearance was more awe inspiring than God's. Don't get me wrong, I give credit to the absolute classic that this work is, however I think there are some issues with it from a reader's standpoint. When all of the action is over in the 1st portion of the book it becomes a chore to finish reading it. All-in-all this entire work was beautifully written in the terza rima rhyme scheme which adds a bit of romance to every line read. I have to mention that I think it's funny how people get the details of this work confused with The Holy Bible. There in itself stands testement to how amazing this work has been throughout history. Despite my personal issues with reading it I am honored to have read such famous and renouned piece of historical literature.
    • 1/5
      Dante’s famous The Divine Comedy lies at the intersection of art and theology. I love artful renditions of theology. Further, it is known as the best work of poetry ever to grace the language of Italian. Therefore, I decided to look for a good translation. I’ve enjoyed Longfellow’s poetry in the past, and when I saw that he undertook an adaptation, I chose to give it a go.Unfortunately, Longfellow seemed to stick a little too close to the Latin roots of the original Italian. Many English words seemed to represent Latinized English rather than modern Anglo English. Dante wrote in the vernacular, not in Latin, the language of scholars. The result? This translation seems to consistently choose words that confuse the reader more than convey to her/him the spirit of Dante’s language. The artfulness of Dante’s original is maintained, especially in consistent alliterations. However, entirely gone is Dante’s appeal to the people.The vivid, memorable scenes of the Inferno are lost in Longfellow’s poetic sophistication. Having read widely in history, I’m quite used to archaic writing. This work, however, takes archaisms to a new standard. Entire sentences are rendered in a Victorian manner that is based on classical languages instead of common English. The result deludes rather than enlightens. Again, this was not Dante’s intent.Yes, Longfellow was a professor of Italian at Harvard. Yes, he is an acclaimed poet, one of the best that America has ever produced. This work does not bring the best outcome from his skill. He appeals to a highbrow readership whose style was more in vogue during his century. It’s out of touch with modern sentiment, and it’s out of touch with Dante’s appeal to the masses. Dante may guide us from Hades through purgatory and into paradise; unfortunately, Longfellow’s ethereal language does not convey the beauty of the original, and as such he leaves us in the hell of ignorance instead of the heavenly bliss of true knowledge.If you want to experience Dante’s beautiful imagery, try another translation. There exist plenty that do the trick. Longfellow’s translation requires a nearby dictionary and plenty of stamina.
    • 2/5
      Siempre creí que como este libro es un clásico de la época medieval iba a ser aburrido, pero no es así. Esta claro que no es una lectura sencilla. Utiliza demasiadas figuras muy rebuscadas y para comprenderlas se debe de tener un amplia conocimiento de la cultura occidental, principalmente de la religión, los personajes bíblicos y la mitología latina. También es necesario conocer de la sociedad en la que Dante vivía. Sin embargo, siempre que lograba entender una figura especialmente rebuscada sentía que era un gran logro. Para este libro me ayudó mucho el prólogo que hablaba de los números que están presentes en la obra, aunque supongo que si hubiera leído una edición con anotaciones se me hubiera hecho más fácil. A veces puede ser tedioso, pero en general es una buena novela y una lectura compleja
    • 4/5
      I've been lost in the forest before. The worst that has ever happened to me was a bit of confusion and a late supper.When Dante got lost ..."Midway upon the journey of our lifeI found myself within a forest dark,For the straightforward pathway had been lost.Ah me! how hard a thing it is to sayWhat was this forest savage, rough, and stern,Which in the very thought renews the fear."(Inferno, I:1-6)Instead of making it home for dinner, he took an epic journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. He begins in fear, he ends in love:"The Love which moves the sun and the other stars" (Paradiso, XXXIII:145).I've been meaning to read this classic for years. When I saw Barnes & Noble's beautiful leather-bound edition, I couldn't resist.Reading it was a challenge. It's not every day you read a Nineteenth century English translation of a Fourteenth Century Italian text in verse! With the help of a dictionary app and SparkNotes, I fell into the rhythm of the poem and began to understand it. Reading the text aloud (even muttering the cadence under my breath) helped immensely.I'm not qualified to comment on the literary merit of this classic, or the translation. I'll keep my comments to theological issues.*** Go to Hell! ***Dante wrote his masterpiece in exile. He found himself on the wrong side of political power and was banished from his home in Florence on trumped-up charges (xi).The Germans have a word, schadenfreude, which refers to the joy taken at someone else's misfortune. It's not a very flattering quality, but one Dante seems to enjoy. When he arrived in the sixth circle of hell, he wandered around tombs that held heretics who were tortured."Upon a sudden issued forth this soundFrom out one of the tombs; wherefore I pressed,Fearing, a little nearer to my Leader.And unto me he said: "Turn thee; what dost thou?Behold there Farinata who has risen;From the waist upwards wholly shalt thous see him."(Inferno X:28-33)The character from the crypt was none other than Farinata, his real life political enemy. What do you do with a political enemy from earth? Stick him in your literary hell! This is where an annotated text is very helpful (unless you're up-to-date with the people of Fourteenth Century Florence).Unfortunately, Dante's pattern for dealing with some of his enemies has been followed many times in church history. Instead of doing the hard work of loving your enemy, it's easier to just demonize him.*** Highway to Hell ***My edition of The Divine Comedy is filled with illustrations from Gustave Doré. These illustrations taught me something: hell is far more exciting and interesting than heaven. Inferno is far more frequently and graphically illustrated than Paradiso.This attitude—the idea that heaven is boring and hell is exciting—is still around. Perhaps AC/DC popularized it the best:"Ain't nothin' that I'd rather doGoin' downParty timeMy friends are gonna be there tooI'm on the highway to hell"Dante's hell is full of all sorts of interesting (if sadistic) tortures. Some people are burned alive, some turn into trees whose limbs are pecked at by Harpies, some are boiled alive in a river of blood, some are shat upon. Literally. Poop falls from the sky. I'm sure a psychiatrist would have a field day with Dante!If you squint, you can read this torture as divine justice in the light of God's holiness. Realistically, it's another sad example of schadenfreude. Someone needs to go back in time and give him a copy of VanBalthasar's Dare We Hope?*** Disembodied Heaven & the Impassable Deity ***I always knew that I disagreed with Dante's view of hell. I was surprised by how much I disagreed with his heaven—and his Trinity!Dante's God is an Aristotelian construct mediated by Aquinas:"O grace abundant, by which I presumedTo fix my sight upon the Light Eternal,So that the seeing I consumed therein!...Substance, and accident, and their operations,All infused together in such wiseThat what I speak of is one simple light....Withing the deep and luminous substanceOf the High Light appeared to me three circles,Of threefold color and of one dimension,"(Paradiso XXXIII:82-84, 88-90, 115-117)God, for Dante, is an immovable point of perfect light. Three circles symbolize the Trinity, with three different coloured lights. All manifold colours emanate from this point. The heavenly spheres (the planets), all rotate around this point as do the various levels of heavenly worshipers. There is nothing to do in heaven but to be consumed in contemplation.That sounds spiritual, but it's nowhere near biblical. Biblical metaphors include a throne with a blood-stained lamb. Biblical metaphors speak of a river with trees of life lining the banks. Dante's God is a philosophical idea. I'll stick with the Holy One of Israel who breathed his breath into this dust and called it good.Dante's Divine Comedy is a challenging and interesting work to read. Just don't confuse literature with theology.
    • 4/5
      Hell is fun! in book form.
    • 4/5
      After a run of newer contemporary novels it can be refreshing to throw oneself into a classic, and it was something of a relief for me to delve into something with a meaty history—and Dante’s Inferno definitely has a meaty history! The Inferno is one of those books that you can’t read without feeling that you’re part of something. It references so many works of literature, and has itself been referenced by so many later works, that just reading it makes you feel a part of something. (It also makes you somehow feel both inadequate and incredibly intelligent all at the same time.) The New American Library version that I read contains a plethora of distracting but helpful footnotes, and John Ciardi’s translation is lyrical and accessible. The book was not nearly as daunting as I thought it would be. The political references are impossible to completely wrap your head around (even with the footnotes,) but once you get past those the story itself is enlightening, disturbing, thought-provoking, and amazingly easy to understand.
    • 4/5
      eBook

      Perhaps this was not the best choice of a book to read at the gym. That decision was certainly not helped by the fact that the eBook version I read had no footnotes.

      I'd read the Inferno before, but never Purgatorio or Paradiso, and I was a little disappointed that the physicality I admired so much in the first part was slowly phased out as the poem went on. I suppose Dante was making a point about the difference between the physical world and his relationship to god, but what was so impressive about the Inferno was how he charged a discussion of ideas and morality with a concrete dimension. He made the abstract real.

      This was carried over into Purgatorio, although to a lesser extent, but a significant portion of Paradiso seemed to be about his inability to fully render his experience. This seemed to me to be a structural flaw, as we are suddenly asked to once again perceive abstract concepts in an abstract way, and it seems a huge let down.

      Or maybe I just needed footnotes to explain it to me.
    • 5/5
      I find this among the most amazing works I've ever read--despite that the work is essentially Christian Allegory and I'm an atheist. First and foremost for its structure. Recently I read Moby Dick and though it had powerful passages I found it self-indulgent and bloated and devoutly wished an editor had taken a hatchet to the numerous digressions. There is no such thing as digressions in Dante. I don't think I've ever read a more carefully crafted work. We visit three realms in three Canticas (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven) each of 33 cantos and in a terza rima verse in a triple rhyme scheme. Nothing is incidental or left to chance here. That's not where the structure ends either. Hell has nine levels, Purgatory has seven terraces on its mountain and Heaven nine celestial spheres (so, yes, there is a Seventh Heaven!) All in all, this is an imaginary landscape worthy of Tolkien or Pratchett, both in large ways and small details. I found it fitting how Dante tied both sins and virtues to love--a sin was love misdirected or applied, and the lower you go in hell, the less love there is involved, until at the lowest reaches you find Satan and traitors encased in a lake of ice. Then there are all the striking phrases, plays of ideas and gorgeous imagery that comes through despite translations. This might be Christian Allegory, but unlike say John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress it's far from dry or tedious and is full of real life contemporaries of Dante and historical figures. There are also Dante's guides here. His Virgil is wonderful--and the perfect choice. The great Latin poet of the Aeneid leading the great Italian poet who made his Tuscan dialect the standard with his poetry. Well, guide through Hell and Purgatory until he changes places with Beatrice. Which reminds me of that old joke--Heaven for the climate--Hell for the company.And certainly Hell is what stays most vividly in my mind. I remember still loving the Purgatorio--it's the most human and relatable somehow of the poems and Paradise has its beauties. But I remember the people of Hell best. There's Virgil of course, who must remain in limbo for eternity because he wasn't a Christian. There's Francesca di Rimini and her lover, for their adultery forever condemned to be flung about in an eternal wind so that even Dante pities them. And that, of course, is the flip side of this. Dante's poem embodies the orthodox Roman Catholic Christianity of the 1300s and might give even Christians today pause. Even though I don't count myself a Christian, I get the appeal of hell. In fact, I can remember exactly when I understood it. When once upon a time I felt betrayed, and knew there was no recourse. The person involved would never get their comeuppance upon this Earth. How nice I thought, if there really was a God and a Hell to redress the balance. The virtue of any Hell therefore is justice. These are the words Dante tells us are at hell's entrance.THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY,THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN,THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST. JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGH ARTIFICER;MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY,THE HIGHEST WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE. BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGSWERE MADE, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE.It's hard to see Dante's vision matching the orthodox doctrine as just however, even when I might agree a particular transgression deserves punishment. Never mind the virtuous and good in limbo because they weren't Christians or unbaptized or in hell because they committed suicide or were homosexual. And poor Cassio and Brutus, condemned to the lowest circle because they conspired to kill a tyrant who was destroying their republic. My biggest problem with hell is that it is eternal. Take all the worst tyrants who murdered millions, make them suffer not only the length of the lifetimes of their victims but all the years they might have had, I doubt if you add it up it comes to the age of the Earth--never mind eternity. Justice taken to extremes is not justice--it's vindictiveness and sadism. Something impossible for me to equate with "the primal love." Yet I loved this work so much upon my first read (I read the Dorothy Sayers translation) I went out and bought two other versions. One by Allen Mandelbaum (primarily because it was a dual language book with the Italian on one page facing the English translation) and a hardcover version translated by Charles Eliot Norton. Finally, before writing up my review and inspired by Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club, I got reacquainted by finding Longfellow's translation online. Of all of them, I greatly prefer Mandelbaum's translation. The others try to keep the rhyming and rhythm of the original and this means a sometimes tortured syntax and use of archaic words and the result is forced and often obscure, making the work much harder to read than it should be.
    • 4/5
      There is so much going on in The Divine Comedy that one reading is not enough to try to comprehend this book. Someone could, and I am sure many have, spend a lifetime reading and studying this.
    • 3/5
      The Divine Comedy is a long, narrative poem in three parts that tells of the still living Dante's visit to Hell and Purgatory, guided by the poet Virgil and ascension to Paradise, lead by his ideal woman, Beatrice. The author uses allegory to describe the journey of the soul toward God, and on the way reveals much about his own scientific andpolitical idealogies and medieval Christian theology. In The Inferno, the underworld is rife with a variety of mythological creatures. Dante is able to meet with the damned, including a number of prominent figures in history and literature, as well as his own personal acquaintences. There are nine concentric circles of Hell, where deeper levels house greater sinners and punishments. Satan is bound in a lake of ice in the deepest circle at the center of the Earth. In Purgatorio, Dante climbs through the seven terraces of mount Purgatory, each housing penitents guilty of one of the seven deadly sins. He joins the penitents in their pilgrimmage and purges himself of sin in order that he might see his beloved Beatrice and ascend into Heaven. Dante and Virgil meet many souls along the way who are surprised to see the living Dante among them. As a resident of Limbo, Virgil takes his leave before the ascension into heaven. Beatrice meets Dante and guides him through the nine celestial spheres. Dante discovers that all souls in Heaven are in contact with God and while all parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul, its ability to love God determines its placement in heaven. The Paradiso is a poem of fullfilment and completion and, contrary to The Inferno, does have a happy ending fitting of the title, Comedy.I tried reading a few different translations but preferred those that were more prose than poetry. If my first language was Italian I'm sure I would have enjoyed the original terza rima rhyme scheme, but any attempt at a similar rhyme scheme in English just doesn't work for me. Sadly, I found The Inferno and Purgatorio to be the most interesting realms of Dante's visit, but I'll chalk that up to the nature of Heaven being beyond our human ability to even imagine. I would hate to be one of the many whose sins were called out by the author so blatantly, but I have to admit that if the work were contemporary I might even find it humorous at times. At least I would be able to relate better. Overall it is an interesting and fairly quick read (if you skip all of the footnotes and commentary that take more lines than the poem itself) that I would recommend to anyone curious about this acclaimed work of literature.
    • 5/5
      This is the sort of work that seems beyond review. It is a classic of the highest order, one which I have only just scratched the surface. From even the barest reading, it is obvious that this work would reward close study and careful consideration. As someone who is not a specialist in poetry, particularly of this era, Christian theology, or the historical context, I can only record my impressions as someone reading this for its literary value. This review is based on the Everyman's Library edition of the Divine Comedy, which includes the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is translated by Allen Mandelbaum. I found the translation pleasurable to read, and it shows through some of Dante's poetry. Having heard readings of it in its original language, I can hardly imagine any translation really capturing its poetic brilliance, but such is the challenge facing all translations of poetry. While I cannot compare it with other translations, I did find this one an enjoyable experience to read.This edition also contains extensive end notes throughout. Unless one is steeped in the theology and history, this work would be impenetrable without these notes. Dante is constantly alluding to individuals of historical note (often only within his context), the political rivalry between the Black and White Guelphs plays an important role and the work is rife with symbolism (beyond the obvious punishments detailed in the Inferno!). Further, and most importantly, Dante is engaged with the philosophical and theological debates of the day, and he tries to defend certain positions in this work. I would have been lost without the notes here. Indeed, one of the most rewarding things about reading the poem is learning about the history and philosophical/theological context. Reading an edition without extensive notes not only makes the text more difficult to understand for a modern reader, but deprives one of one of the most rewarding experiences in reading it.The Inferno is the most famous of the three books, and it is no small wonder why. Dante's depiction of the levels of hell is riveting and powerful. The imagery throughout is engrossing. It is interesting, however, that Dante recognizes that his abilities to describe, in imagistic terms, what he observes diminish as he rises through Pugatory and Heaven. He consistently invokes higher and higher deities to help him match these sights poetically. Yet, taken in the imagery of the poem, none of the works is more immediately powerful than the Inferno. One of the most interesting aspects of the poem is how Dante rises to meet this challenge. While in the Inferno, Dante is able to describe all manner of punishment and pain, his descriptions of heaven often turn on the blinding nature of its beauty. Its beauty is such that his eyes fail, and the correspondingly imaginative nature of his poetry falls short. He compensates by revealing the beauty of his heaven in other ways. Most notably is that he does so by showing how the divine nature of heaven can meet all of his questions and intellectual challenges. The joy and beauty of heaven is revealed in its ability to provide rational coherence. While I may be over-intellectualizing Dante here (I am no scholar of this material), it was the intellectual nature of his work that really struck me.One final portion of the work that I found particularly moving is that Dante is a human being observing what he does, and this comes through in his emotions and questions most of all. Though he recognizes that the punishments of hell must be just (because they are divine justice), he pities those who suffer them. I wrestled with the same questions, and the reader cannot help but feel sympathy for these souls as Dante describes their punishments. Dante is our guide through these questions, and even if I as a reader am less than satisfied with the answers Dante comes with, he struggles with them. It is not merely a description and celebration of the divine, but rather a real struggle to understand it, and reconcile it to our own conception of justice and the world. This makes the work an interactive intellectual exercise, one works on the same problems that Dante does.
    • 4/5
      Personally, I'm a bit of a purist. I was halfway through the Inferno section when I looked into the details behind the translation. The problem with translating a rhyme from one language to another--and keeping the phrase rhymed--required the translator to completely butcher both the wording of the original and the English language as a whole. At times, whole lines are added to the cantos that were not even in the original Italian version. I'm not touching it until I find a non-rhyming version that is more directly translated from the original.But still, it's a good read, so 4 stars.
    • 5/5
      I've read the book twice. First time I got lost after Purgatorio, second time I finished with astounding understanding even amazed myself. The book is more than just an imaginary piece of work. It was Dante's spiritual journey in his own understanding, marvelously relevant to anyone who is in his/her own pursuit. The book even violently shook me during my darkest spiritual struggle... Besides that, the structure, philosophy, language, you can never finish reading Dante.
    • 5/5
      The edition I'm reading is Cary's, and, while I appreciate his command of iambic pentameter, I find him much harder to follow than Mandelbaum. I would recommend Cary or Longfellow for poetry, and Mandelbaum for comprehension, if given the choice between various translations.As for the actual book itself - well, it's the Divine Comedy. It's amazing. The Inferno is my favorite of the three, with the sheer of joy of Paradiso bumping it up to second. Purgatorio is the last of the three, because it drags a bit more than the other two. I wish I could go back and read this with a literature class or something, so that I could catch all the allusions and references - not being an Italian contemporary of his leaves quite a bit of the book stuck in obscurity, but I imagine that's easy remedied with a competent Virgil of your own to guide you through it.
    • 4/5
      This Allegory is the completed works of Dante transgressing the three stations (hell, purgatory, and paradise) in a way where one can truly understand the pain and suffering he went through to literally discover himself. The Divine Comedy is still to this day a highly read book by all ages and should continue to be so. With this take on the Allegory however did not follow the original Italian Vernacular and there by took away the authenticity of the epic.

    Book preview

    The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri

    Dante Alighieri

    The Divine Comedy

    * * *

    Translated, with notes,
    by Henry Francis Cary

    With an introduction by

    Claire E. Honess, and additional

    notes to the Inferno by

    Stefano Albertini

    WORDSWORTH CLASSICS

    OF WORLD LITERATURE

    The Divine Comedy first published

    by Wordsworth Editions Limited in 2009

    Published as an ePublication 2012

    ISBN 978 1 84870 559 3

    Introduction © Claire E. Honess 2009

    Notes to Inferno © Stefano Albertini 1998

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    ANTHONY JOHN RANSON

    with love from your wife, the publisher

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    Introduction

    Dante and his Time

    Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265, at a time of intense political unrest. The power-struggle between the Church and the Empire was at its height, and the city-states of northern and central Italy were riven by factionalism as they struggled to maintain independence in the face of the external threat of these broader political forces, and to keep the peace in the face of internal rivalries and family feuds.

    Although the factional conflicts of the mid-thirteenth century have traditionally been summarised in terms of the conflict between Guelfs (supporters of the Papacy) and Ghibellines (supporters of the Empire), the reality of the contemporary political situation was extremely complex. According to contemporary chroniclers, the Florentine factions had their origins not in any ideological division but in a bitter feud between two of the city’s leading families, the Buondelmonti and the Amidei, attributed to a broken promise of marriage. A similar overlapping of political and family concerns may be seen in Dante’s encounter with the Ghibelline leader, Farinata, in canto 10 of Inferno – an episode which functions almost as a microcosm of the whole Guelf-Ghibelline conflict. Here Farinata asks not to which party, but rather to which family, the pilgrim belongs: ‘Say, what ancestors were thine?’ (Inferno 10, 42). In fact, Dante’s ancestors had been Guelfs, and he himself fought in the battle of Campaldino in 1289 against the Ghibellines of Arezzo – a battle recalled in Inferno 22: ‘Light-armèd squadrons and fleet foragers | Scouring thy plains, Arezzo! have I seen’ (Inferno 22, 5–6).

    Dante joined the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries in 1295 – membership of a trade association being a necessary prerequisite for political activity at the time – and made his political debut in the same year. He participated actively in the discussions of the councils which ran the city, and his active involvement in Florentine politics was at its height in 1300 (the fictional date of the journey described in the Comedy), when he was elected to serve as Prior: the highest office open to a Florentine within the city’s government. In the same year, another longstanding family feud between the Cerchi and Donati families led the Guelf party to split into ‘White’ and ‘Black’ factions, and factional squabbles erupted into violence. Dante sided with the Whites, whose primary aim was to safeguard Florentine independence, against the Blacks, who favoured bringing the city under the control of Pope Boniface VIII and his Angevin allies, and in so doing sealed his fate. By the end of 1301 the Blacks had gained control of the city, exiling their White enemies and destroying their property. In January 1302 Dante – who was, at the time, in Rome as an ambassador of the Florentine commune – was found guilty of trumped-up charges of barratry and in March of the same year he was condemned to death should he ever return to the city.

    Dante spent the last twenty or so years of his life wandering from city to city, primarily in northern Italy, though some have suggested – unpersuasively – that he may have ventured as far afield as Paris or even Oxford. He never returned to Florence, and died in Ravenna in 1321.

    Dante’s Political Views

    Despite his earlier support for the White party, in exile Dante grew increasingly disillusioned with ‘party politics’ in any form. He came to see himself as having deliberately taken a ‘stand apart’ (Paradiso 17, 67) and factionalism as one of the great evils of the contemporary world. Dante realised that Florence was not capable of finding a solution to her own problems – problems to which he returns almost compulsively in the Comedy – and that salvation would have to come from beyond the city if peace and order were to be restored.

    It was, paradoxically, the poet’s hatred of factionalism that led him to embrace so enthusiastically the ‘Ghibelline’ ideal of Empire in later life. Dante had reached the conclusion that the human desire for ever greater power was such that discord between smaller political entities – kingdoms, cities, and even families – was inevitable. This discord is reflected very clearly in the Inferno which presents, in the City of Dis, an image of political life gone wrong. The poet believed that only a Universal Emperor, who held absolute power over all lesser political forces and who, therefore, was unable to desire greater power, would be able to keep this conflict in check and impose peace. The weakness and remoteness of the contemporary Emperors and their failure to return their power-base to Rome – the city seen by Dante as having been predestined by God to be the seat of Empire – are constant sources of sorrow for the poet. In Purgatorio he refers scathingly to ‘German Albert’ – the contemporary Emperor, Albert of Habsburg – whose abandonment of the imperial city reduces Rome to a ‘desolate widow’, crying out: ‘My Caesar, why dost thou desert my side?’ (Purgatorio 6, 98, 115–6). In the very depths of Hell, where Lucifer gnaws a sinner in each of his three mouths, it is therefore no coincidence that the pilgrim finds, alongside Judas Iscariot who betrayed Christ, the souls of Brutus and Cassius who betrayed Caesar, the epitome of the imperial ideal. Nor is it a coincidence that the first of the places in the Heavenly Rose of the Empyrean to be revealed to Dante by Beatrice is not that of some Christian saint, but that destined to be filled by ‘the great Harry’ (Paradiso 30, 135) – Henry of Luxemburg, or the Emperor Henry VII – whose (ultimately unsuccessful) Italian campaign of 1310–13 the poet enthusiastically supported, in a series of letters which hail Henry as a new Messiah.

    As Dante came to see the Empire as a force of order and stability, he also became convinced that the blame for much of the disorder and instability of the contemporary situation could be attributed to the political power that was in the hands of the Papacy. According to tradition, the Emperor Constantine had given the Papacy control over the western part of the Empire when he converted to Christianity. In Inferno 19, Dante laments Constantine’s ‘Donation’ – ‘that plenteous dower, | which the first wealthy Father gained from thee!’ (Inferno 19, 118–19) – and describes a Papacy more interested in power and money than in saving souls. The poet is particularly bitter in his criticism of Boniface VIII, whose desire to gain control over Florence he blamed for his own exile, and whom he ingeniously manages to ‘damn’ despite the fact that he was still alive in the year 1300 (see Inferno 19, 54–59), and this judgement is confirmed by none other than St Peter himself, who, from the authoritative vantage-point of the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, condemns Boniface for having turned his burial-place into a ‘sewer’ and maintains that, in the eyes of God, it is as if the papacy were vacant, such is the corruption of its present incumbent (see Paradiso 27, 19–23).

    Dante the Poet

    Although the Comedy and many of his other important works (treatises on philosophy, language and politics, as well as lyric verse) were written in exile, Dante was already a poet of considerable standing before 1302. His Vita Nuova (or ‘New Life’), written in the 1290s, gathers together some of his earliest love poetry, and adds a prose commentary which analyses the poems and explains how they came to be written. The book – which is narrated in the first person, although it should not be taken as necessarily reflecting Dante’s own experiences in a strictly autobiographical way – tells the story of the protagonist’s love for a woman called Beatrice, a love which develops from a selfish and wholly conventional emotion into a deeper spiritual love which is able to endure even beyond the grave. It also stands as a prelude to the Comedy, since at the end of the Vita Nuova the memory of Beatrice is able to lead the protagonist’s thoughts to Heaven, in the same way that the blessed soul of Beatrice will intervene to save her lover when he is lost in the Dark Wood (see Inferno 2, 53–115) and will be his guide on his journey to God in Paradiso.

    The Vita Nuova is particularly interesting, however, for the light which it sheds on the poetic tradition within which Dante was working. It makes clear that the writing of poetry in the vernacular is a relatively new phenomenon and one which still feels the need to justify its existence in the face of the older, Latin, tradition. Although Dante asserts the right of vernacular poets to appropriate the figures of speech and rhetorical devices used by Classical writers, his poetry is still, at this stage, traditional in form and restricted in content to the theme of love. The range of subject matter dealt with is expanded, in the poetry which Dante wrote in Italian between the Vita Nuova and the Comedy, to include philosophy, ethics and politics, and this process of expansion is taken to its logical conclusion in the Comedy.

    The very title of Dante’s Comedy (the epithet ‘divine’ was added by later admirers) is suggestive, since it points towards traditional notions of genre and style from which the poem itself diverges quite radically. In his treatise on language, De Vulgari Eloquentia, Dante had begun to lay down a set of rules for poetic composition in the Italian vernacular based around three stylistic ‘levels’. The ‘high style’ was to be used for tragedy, the ‘middle style’ for comedy and the ‘low style’ for elegy, and for each of these styles certain metrical forms, rhetorical devices and even elements of vocabulary were prescribed. However, the treatise is unfinished (it is, in fact, dramatically abandoned in mid-sentence) and the section on comedy was never written. Instead, in his own Comedy Dante definitively abandons this rigidly hierarchical poetic system. Here, rather, he seeks to push back the restrictive rules which had traditionally governed the writing of poetry, to produce a radically new, all-encompassing work, modelled not on the poetic creations of other writers but on Creation itself, which contains all things from the grotesque to the sublime. In the Comedy, Dante not only uses – and deliberately mixes or juxtaposes – elements from high, middle and low styles, he also has recourse to foreign and artificial languages, such as the Provençal used by Arnaut Daniel at the end of Purgatorio 26 or the Latin used by Cacciaguida at the beginning of Paradiso 15 (both of which are, however, rendered by Cary in English), and to language which is not ‘poetic’ at all, from vulgar expressions (which Cary’s more ‘refined’ version largely fails to render) to technical terms (the language of boat-builders in Inferno 21, 10–15, or of barrel-makers in Inferno 28, 21–22), and even to invented languages, such as Nimrod’s ‘Raphel baï ameth sabì almi’ (Inferno 31, 61). Far from being a comedy fixed within the narrow confines of the middle style, Dante’s Comedy becomes, therefore, a mid-point where radically different forms and styles of poetry can come together.

    This is not to say, however, that Dante rejects outright the model of his poetic predecessors. It is no coincidence that he chooses a poet, Virgil, as his guide through the first two realms of the afterlife. The whole Comedy may, in fact, be seen as a kind of ‘dialogue’ with earlier writers: Classical, vernacular and Biblical.

    In the Inferno it is the Classical tradition which is to the fore. From the very beginning, Dante sets himself up as a second Virgil: his pilgrim protests that he is ‘not Aeneas [ . . . ] nor Paul’ (Inferno 2, 34), yet his journey, as a mortal man, into the afterlife clearly does reflect that described in Book 6 of the Aeneid and many of the inhabitants of Dante’s first realm (particularly its monstrous guardians) – Charon, Minos, Cerberus, the hideous Geryon, and so on – are borrowed directly from Virgil. A similar process of assimilation is witnessed in Limbo, where the pilgrim meets a group of Classical poets, including not only Virgil but also Homer, Ovid, Horace and Lucan, and is accepted as ‘sixth amid so learn’d a band’ (Inferno 4, 97). Moreover, Dante is ‘sixth’ in this company only in chronological terms. As a Christian poet, chosen by God to make this journey and with God’s Creation as his model, Dante’s poetic superiority over his predecessors – who are eternally damned to Limbo – is clear. This much is underlined by Virgil’s failure to gain entry to the City of Dis and by the way in which he is tricked by the demons of the ‘bolgia’ of barratry. And on the poetic level, too, Dante draws on earlier writings only in order to surpass them, as is seen in his direct challenge to Lucan and Ovid in canto 25, where he compares their accounts of famous metamorphoses to his own description of the transformations effected by Divine Justice on the thieves: ‘Lucan in mute attention now may hear / [ . . . ] / [ . . . ] Ovid now be mute’ (Inferno 25, 85–87).

    In Purgatorio, the boundaries between Classical and Christian verse begin to be blurred, in a process which comes to a head with the introduction of the character of Statius, a poet in the Classical mould but – in Dante’s idiosyncratic portrayal – a secret Christian, and one whose conversion, he tells us, had been effected – in a powerful confirmation of the potential and value of Classical poetry – by reading none other than Virgil himself: ‘Poet and Christian, both to thee I owed’ (Purgatorio 22, 74). At the same time, the poetic family tree, which Dante traces back to the great poets of Antiquity in Inferno 4, is brought up-to-date in a series of encounters with contemporary, vernacular poets writing in a variety of languages, genres and styles: the political and moral poet, Sordello (an Italian who wrote in Provençal); the comic poet and great friend of Dante’s, Forese Donati; the Italian love poets, Bonagiunta da Lucca and Guido Guinizelli, and the Provençal, Arnaut Daniel. And all of these are set in a context rich in specifically Christian poetry. From the arrival of the group of new souls, singing Psalm 113 (‘In exitu Israel de Aegypto’) in Purgatorio 2, the realm of Purgatory is characterised throughout by its use of hymns and psalms: the souls in Ante-Purgatory sing the Te Deum, the Salve Regina and the Te lucis ante; the avaricious sing the line ‘My soul hath cleaved to the dust’ from Psalm 119; the gluttons sing a verse from Psalm 50, the Miserere; the lustful sing the Summae Deus clementiae, and so on.

    The focus on poetry in the Purgatorio prepares for the poetic ‘leap’ (Paradiso 23, 61) that Dante’s poem must make in approaching its description of the final stage of the journey. In Paradise, not even the Christian poetry of the Bible and liturgy can approach the truth of the experience which is the subject matter of this part of Dante’s text, an experience which can only take place through a ‘transhuman change’, which ‘Words may not tell’ (Paradiso 1, 68). Here, in the end, all language is rendered powerless: ‘At this point o’erpower’d I fail, | Unequal to my theme, as never bard | Of buskin or of sock hath failed before’. (Paradiso 30, 23–24) Cary’s ‘bard | Of buskin or of sock’ translates Dante’s more precise comico o tragedo (‘a comic or a tragic poet’) and suggests once again that, having surpassed its Classical and contemporary models, in Heaven the poetry of the Comedy itself finally falls short. And yet, against all odds, the thirty-three cantos of Paradiso are completed and the final vision of God – however inadequately – described, in what is, in the end, not a statement of poetry’s failure, but a testament to its beauty and power.

    The Comedy and its characters

    The Comedy tells the story of the journey of a character who is, at one and the same time, both Dante himself and Everyman, through the three realms of the afterlife: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. Towards the end of the poem, in the encounter with Dante’s great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida (see Paradiso 17) – the reader learns that this journey has not merely been undertaken as a personal moral quest, a way out of the Dark Wood of sin in which its protagonist is trapped at the beginning of the story and an attempt to rediscover the lost ‘path direct’ (Inferno 1, 3). Rather, Dante’s pilgrim has been especially chosen by God to make this journey, not in order to guarantee his own salvation, but in order to encourage those who will read about his experiences to turn to God and make their own journey of conversion. Nothing that he sees or hears on this journey happens by chance, all is predestined to be included in his poem and is chosen specifically in order to make a particular impact on the reader.

    The need for the reader to believe in this journey and to be personally affected by it gives rise to one of the most striking features of Dante’s poem – the realism of its characterisation. In contrast to many contemporary works, whose characters are one-dimensional representations of a single salient vice, virtue or personality trait, the Comedy is peopled with characters who have fully-rounded personalities. This is possible because, with very few exceptions, Dante’s characters have a life outside of the text in which they appear: they are contemporaries of Dante, historical figures or even characters from earlier works of literature, but they are not mere ‘inventions’. Thus while, on one level, Virgil may represent the power of human reason, Classical poetry or the imperial ideal, he remains, nonetheless, more than an allegorical figure – he is always an individual, with his own emotions, interests and failings. Likewise Francesca is more than just an image of Lust, Brunetto Latini emerges more as Dante’s teacher than as a sodomite, and Ugolino is remembered for his horrific death of starvation rather than as a traitor. Even in Heaven, where the souls are, for the most part, divested of any last vestiges of human form, appearing as points of light, either individually or as part of larger symbolic shapes – a cross, an eagle, a ladder –, this realism of characterisation is preserved. Cacciaguida greets his descendant like a long-lost son (Paradiso 15); Justinian, the great leader and law-giver, holds forth in a lengthy speech (Paradiso 6); and St Peter responds to the pilgrim with the impetuosity that is a characteristic of his biblical persona.

    This psychological realism means that, in the Inferno, for example, the dreadful consequences of sin are presented not through a monotonous catalogue of crime and punishment, but through a series of meetings and discussions which are intensely varied in tone. The pilgrim feels pity for the seductive Francesca, inveighs bitterly against the simoniac popes, is respectful of the noble Ulysses, overwhelmed by fear in the face of Hell’s monstrous guardians and finally – seeing sin for what it is – actually becomes himself an agent of suffering, when he fails to remove the ice from the eyes of Friar Alberigo, despite having promised to do so if the sinner will reveal his identity. On his journey from Francesca to Lucifer the pilgrim learns to reject sin, but he also learns that sin may present itself in many guises – as an irresistible emotion, a noble gesture, an intellectual force – and that sinners are, on the whole, not monsters but people like himself (and like his readers), the reality of whose sin is ironically exposed through evocative punishments which Dante invents for them. While the glutton, Ciacco, speaks like a civilised Florentine, the fact that he is presented wallowing naked in mud and lashed by rain and hail reveals the true, animal-like, nature of his sin. Similarly, although Brunetto Latini’s homosexuality may not be made explicit in the episode in which he appears, there is no escaping the parallel between the flames which rain down on his charred and blackened body in Hell and the fire and brimstone which destroyed the biblical Cities of the Plain.

    No such irony is necessary in Purgatorio and Paradiso, where the souls speak eloquently and lucidly of their past lives, with their good and bad deeds. Yet the characterisation here is equally memorable and striking – nowhere more so than in the poetic tour de force of the description of the reappearance of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise. The reader’s expectation of a joyful reunion between lovers (an expectation encouraged and enhanced by Virgil’s frequent mentions of Beatrice throughout Inferno and Purgatorio) is spectacularly overturned when the noble but restrained figure of the Vita Nuova bursts dramatically onto the scene in a flurry of active verbs and masculine comparisons. While Virgil is here compared to the mother to whom the child-like pilgrim turns in his confusion on seeing his beloved once more, Beatrice herself is like an ‘admiral’ (Purgatorio 30, 57), addressing and judging her former lover in a harsh and disparaging manner which only a full confession of his past sins can soften. Like real people, therefore, the characters of the Comedy do not always behave in the way in which the reader would expect. Like real people, Dante’s characters are variously noble, grotesque, beguiling, fearful, ridiculous, admirable, horrific and tender. And by presenting his characters as real people, Dante is able to show how sin, repentance and virtue affect and transform real lives as he encourages his readers to follow his protagonist as he learns to avoid Hell and, through cleansing in Purgatory, to taste the joys of Heaven.

    The Cosmology of the Comedy and Dante’s Afterlife

    The cosmology of the Comedy is constructed on Aristotelian-Ptolemaic lines, with the Earth – static at the centre of the universe – surrounded by the seven planetary spheres (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), and beyond them the Heaven of the Fixed Stars. the Primum Mobile (or First Mover), and finally the Empyrean, which exists beyond space and time. The Earth itself can be divided into an inhabited northern hemisphere, at the central point of which is situated the city of Jerusalem, and an uninhabited southern hemisphere, made up exclusively of ocean, except for the island-mountain of Purgatory, which rises at the antipodes of Jerusalem with the Earthly Paradise at its summit. Beneath the Earth’s surface in the northern hemisphere is an abyss, within which Dante situates Hell. As the opposing structures of the abyss and the mountain might suggest, distance from, and progression towards, God form an essential component of this cosmology. The sins of the souls in Hell become more offensive to God the further down the pit they are punished, with Lucifer forming a sort of ‘plug’ at the very core of the Earth. Conversely, the souls in Purgatory climb the mountain (which, unlike its earthly counterparts, becomes easier to climb the higher one ascends) as they are progressively cleansed of their sins, until they are returned first to their state of original innocence in the Earthly Paradise, and finally to the full sight of God in the Empyrean.

    Dante’s presentation of the afterlife is strikingly original in its conception, with a very complex architecture and a coherent structure. Indeed, throughout his text, the poet emphasises, as a matter of course, the logic which underlies structures and systems of his afterlife, so that the reader is presented with a lucid and accessible guide to sin and virtue, salvation and damnation.

    Hell, then, is divided into nine circles according to a complex organisational principle – actually a series of interlocking principles – explained by Virgil in canto 11. Hell is divided by the walls of the City of Dis (entered in canto 9) into two main sections, Upper and Lower Hell, which correspond to two main categories of sin, as described by Aristotle in his Ethics: Sins of Incontinence and Sins of Malice. While the former arise from weakness and a lack of self-restraint (resulting in the sins of Lust, Gluttony, Avarice and Wrath) the latter arise from a conscious breaking of the laws which govern God’s relationship with humanity, not from weakness but from deliberate choice. These Sins of Malice are then further sub-divided, using a categorisation taken from Cicero, into Sins of Violence and Sins of Fraud, with Fraud, which involves a misuse of the God-given gift of Reason, being ‘more displeasing’ (Inferno 11, 27) to God and therefore punished at a lower point within Hell’s abyss. Each of these categories is then further broken down: Violence has three sub-sections, which are, in turn, reduced to even more precise categories (Violence against others, Violence against oneself, in the form of Suicide or Prodigality, and Violence against God, Nature and Art, which translates into the sins of Blasphemy, Sodomy and Usury), while Fraud is divided depending on whether those deceived had a special reason to trust the sinner or not, with the eighth circle – Malebolge (Inferno 18, 2) – having ten sub-circles and the ninth – the ice-lake, Cocytus – having a further four. Moreover, with typically Dantean syncretism, this Aristotelian-Ciceronian system is extended to encompass specifically Christian sinners, such as the ignavi ‘who lived | Without or praise or blame’ (Inferno 3, 34–35), the souls in Limbo (Virtuous Pagans and unbaptised children alike) and the heretics punished in the sixth circle.

    The structure of Dante’s Hell maps an extremely well-developed and nuanced picture of human sinfulness, the complexity of which emerges in sharp relief when the multi-layered structure of Hell is compared with the much more straightforward constitution of Purgatory, with its seven terraces based on the Seven Deadly Sins – Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust – framed by the waiting area of Ante-Purgatory, where those who delayed repentance in life must also delay commencement of the suffering that will free them from sin, and the Garden of Eden at the mountain’s summit, where souls are prepared to enter Heaven by washing in the rivers Lethe and Eunöe. There is little to distinguish the suffering which the souls undergo in Hell and in Purgatory; indeed, in both realms Dante makes the punishment fit the crime in the very specific way (known as the contrapasso) which Bertran de Born explains so lucidly in Inferno 28. For the crime of having turned Henry, the ‘Young King’, against his father Henry II of England, Bertran is punished as a ‘sower of scandal and schism’ (Inferno 28, 34–35); for having divided those who should have been bound together by ties of both familial and political loyalty, he is himself literally, bodily divided by having his head cut off from his body:

    For parting those so closely knit, my brain

    Parted, alas, I carry from its source,

    That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law

    Of retribution fiercely works in me.

    Inferno 28, 135–38

    Other forms of suffering in both Hell and Purgatory echo the sins committed equally memorably. Hell’s lustful are blown about on a wind which is as out-of-control as their earthly passions (Inferno 5); the suicides, who denied the sanctity of their bodies by taking their own lives, are in Hell denied human form and inhabit trees and bushes (Inferno 13); the soothsayers, who tried to see into the future, are denied all forward vision by having their heads turned around over their buttocks; and, in Purgatory, the envious, who cast resentful glances on the property or achievements of their fellows, have their eyes sewn shut with wire (Purgatorio 13).

    But if there is little difference between the ways in which punishments of Hell and of Purgatory are enacted on the souls, whether sinners or penitents, the purpose behind them could not be more different. And an analysis of the different functions of Hell and of Purgatory also helps to explain the very different structures of the two realms. Whereas Purgatory aims to cleanse the soul of the inclinations to sin which lay at the root of its sinful actions in life (that is, to remove the impulse to sin), Hell punishes the individual sinful acts committed. Thus the sinful impulse of Wrath, cleansed on the third terrace of Purgatory, may lead to any number of actual sinful actions, from the angry feeling itself (in Hell, a sin of Incontinence), to an act of violence, a seduction, a theft or a betrayal (sins of Fraud), and so on. Likewise, while (heterosexual) Lust and Sodomy are punished as separate sins in Hell, in Purgatory the lustful impulse which leads the soul to commit them is seen as being fundamentally identical, and the two groups are punished together on the mountain’s seventh terrace.

    In contrast to the clearly signposted structures of Hell and Purgatory, Dante’s conception of Heaven seems at first sight to lack a clear organising principle. Initially, each of the planetary heavens seems to contain a specific category of souls, as in the circles and terraces of the earlier realms. In the case of the spheres which remain within the shadow of the Earth (the Moon, Mercury, Venus) the categorisation seems to be based on some (now-forgiven) shortcoming or flaw (the breaking of a vow, concern with earthly political affairs or earthly loves); in those beyond the Earth’s shadow each sphere seems to hold souls who demonstrated a particular virtue: wisdom in the Heaven of the Sun, the readiness to accept martyrdom in the Heaven of Mars, a love of justice in the Heaven of Jupiter, and contemplation in the Heaven of Saturn. Beyond this, however, this system seems to break down: in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, Dante’s pilgrim witnesses the Triumph of Christ and is examined on the three theological virtues by Saints Peter, James and John; and in the Primum Mobile he experiences a vision of the nine orders of angels. Moreover, it is made clear from the beginning of the third cantica that these spheres do not themselves constitute Heaven, but merely function to explain certain aspects of this realm to the pilgrim (and the reader), in the same way in which scripture attributes hands and feed to God in order to render divinity comprehensible in human terms. The spheres are ‘a sign’ – necessary ‘Since from things sensible alone ye learn’ (Paradiso 4, 41) – pointing towards the true, eternal heaven of the Empyrean. Here – like petals of a celestial rose (Paradiso 31, 1) – the blessed participate eternally in the love and glory of God. Here, finally, the pilgrim glimpses the reality of that love and that glory in the miracle of three circles within a single circumference; but here even Dante’s ‘towering fantasy’ (Paradiso 33, 132) is overwhelmed. The reality of Heaven, ultimately, cannot be described but only experienced directly.

    Cary’s Translation of the Comedy

    Henry Cary was an Anglican clergyman, poet, and critic, who had developed a passion for Dante while a student at Christ Church, Oxford between 1790 and 1794. His translation of the Comedy was first published, with the title The Vision, in 1814, although a version of the Inferno had appeared some years earlier. He translated the poem into blank verse, with no attempt to reproduce the triple rhyme-scheme of Dante’s Italian, and with accuracy and fidelity to the original his primary aims. The translation was published at Cary’s own expense and had very limited success until a chance meeting in 1817 brought it to the attention of Coleridge, who received it with great enthusiasm. In the following year a glowing review of the work by the Italian poet, Ugo Foscolo, appeared in The Edinburgh Review, leading to a thorough and positive re-evaluation of the translation. As the first widely-known version of Dante’s masterpiece in English, Cary’s translation was responsible for introducing Dante to a generation of English poets, including Wordsworth, Keats and Blake (who produced a series of drawings of scenes from the poem). A further three editions of the work had appeared by the time of Cary’s death in 1844.

    Claire E. Honess

    University of Leeds

    Select Bibliography

    1. Translations of Dante’s Works

    La Vita Nuova, translated by B. Reynolds (Penguin Classics, 1969)

    Dante’s Lyric Poetry, edited and translated by K. Foster and P. Boyde, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967)

    Convivio (The Banquet), translated by R. Lansing (New York: Garland, 1990)

    De vulgari eloquentia, edited and translated by S. Botterill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)

    Monarchia, edited and translated by P. Shaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)

    Dante Alighieri, Four Political Letters, translated with an introduction and commentary by Claire E. Honess (London: MHRA, 2007)

    Very many translations of the Comedy are available. Three recent editions, all of which have useful facing-page translations and helpful notes in English, are:

    Inferno (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996) and Purgatorio (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), translated by R. Durling and R. L. Martinez; the Paradiso volume in this series has yet to appear.

    Inferno (New York: Random House, 2000); Purgatorio (New York: Random House, 2003); Paradiso (New York: Random House, 2007), translated by R. and J. Hollander

    Inferno (Penguin Classics, 2006); Purgatorio (Penguin Classics, 2007); Paradiso (Penguin Classics, 2007), translated by R. Kirkpatrick.

    2. Secondary Reading

    The bibliography of works on Dante is vast. The list given below is intended to provide a starting-point for the general reader. Further, and more specialised, bibliographical indications may be found in the books listed here.

    R. Hollander, Dante: A Life in Works (Yale University Press, 2001)

    J. Larner, Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch 1216–1380 (London & New York: Longman, 1980)

    G. Holmes, Dante (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980)

    R. Jacoff (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Dante, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

    R. Kirkpatrick, Dante: The ‘Divine Comedy’ (Cambridge University Press, 1987)

    R. Lansing (ed.), The Dante Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 2000)

    J. A. Scott, Understanding Dante (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004)

    3. Web Resources

    Columbia University Digital Dante Project:

    http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/new/

    Dartmouth Dante Project:

    http://dante.dartmouth.edu/

    Leeds Centre for Dante Studies:

    http://www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/centrefordantestudies.htm;

    Princeton Dante Project:

    http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/

    Note on Pronunciation

    In Cary’s iambics, the name ‘Beatrice’ is treated as four syllables (i.e. pronounced as in Italian), occasionally reduced to three, for the purposes of the metre, by eliding the first two into one.

    Author’s Preface

    In the years 1805 and 1806, I published the first part of the following translation, with the text of the original. Since that period, two impressions of the whole of the Divina Commedia, in Italian, have made their appearance in this country. It is not necessary that I should add a third: and I am induced to hope that the Poem, even in the present version of it, may not be without interest for the mere English reader.

    The translation of the second and third parts, the Purgatory and the Paradise, was begun long before the first, and as early as the year 1797; but, owing to many interruptions, not concluded till the summer before last. On a retrospect of the time and exertions that have been thus employed, I do not regard those hours as the least happy of my life, during which (to use the eloquent language of Mr. Coleridge) ‘my individual recollections have been suspended, and lulled to sleep amid the music of nobler thoughts;’ nor that study as misapplied, which has familiarised me with one of the sublimest efforts of the human invention.

    To those, who shall be at the trouble of examining into the degree of accuracy with which the task has been executed, I may be allowed to suggest, that their judgment should not be formed on a comparison with any single text of my Author; since, in more instances than I have noticed, I have had to make my choice out of a variety of readings and interpretations, presented by different editions and commentators.

    In one or two of those editions is to be found the title of The Vision, which I have adopted, as more conformable to the genius of our language than that of The Divine Comedy. Dante himself, I believe, termed it simply The Comedy; in the first place, because the style was of the middle kind: and in the next, because the story (if story it may be called) ends happily.

    Instead of a Life of my Author, I have subjoined, in chronological order, a view not only of the principal events which befell him, but of the chief public occurrences that happened in his time: concerning both of which the reader may obtain further information, by turning to the passages referred to in the Poem and Notes.

    January, 1814

    Chronological View

    of the age of Dante

    A.D.

    1265 Dante, son of Alighieri degli Alighieri and Bella, is born at Florence. Of his own ancestry he speaks in the Paradiso, Cantos 15 and 16.

    In the same year, Manfredi, king of Naples and Sicily, is defeated and slain by Charles of Anjou: Inferno 28.13; Purgatorio 3.110.

    Guido Novello of Polenta obtains the sovereignty of Ravenna: Inferno 27.38.

    1266 Two of the Frati Godenti chosen arbitrators of the differences at Florence: Inferno 23.104.

    Gianni de’ Soldanieri heads the populace in that city: Inferno 32.118.

    1268 Charles of Anjou puts Conradine to death, and becomes King of Naples: Inferno 28.16; Purgatorio 20.66.

    1272 Henry III of England is succeeded by Edward I: Purgatorio 7.129.

    1274 Our Poet first sees Beatrice, daughter of Folco Portinari.

    Rodolph acknowledged emperor.

    Fra. Guittone d’Arezzo, the poet, dies: Purgatorio 24.56.

    Thomas Aquinas dies: Purgatorio 20.67; Paradiso 10.96.

    Buonaventura dies. Paradiso 12. 25.

    1275 Pierre de la Brosse, secretary to Philip III of France, executed: Purgatorio 6.23.

    1276 Giotto, the painter, is born: Purgatorio 11.95.

    Pope Adrian V dies: Purgatorio 19.97.

    Guido Guinicelli, the poet, dies: Purgatorio 11.96, and 26.83.

    1277 Pope John XXI dies: Paradiso 12.126.

    1278 Ottocar, king of Bohemia, dies: Purgatorio 7.97.

    1279 Dionysius succeeds to the throne of Portugal: Paradiso 19.135.

    1280 Albertus Magnus dies: Paradiso 10.95.

    1281 Pope Nicholas III dies: Inferno 19.71.

    Dante studies at the universities of Bologna and Padua.

    1282 The Sicilian vespers: Paradiso 8.80.

    The French defeated by the people of Forli: Inferno 27.41.

    Tribaldello de’ Manfredi betrays the city of Faenza: Inferno 32.119.

    1284 Prince Charles of Anjou is defeated and made prisoner by Rugiez de Lauria, admiral to Peter III of Arragon: Purgatorio 20.78.

    Charles I, king of Naples, dies: Purgatorio 7.111.

    1285 Pope Martin IV dies: Purgatorio 24.23.

    Philip III of France, and Peter III of Arragon, die: Purgatorio 7.101,110.

    Henry II, king of Cyprus, comes to the throne: Paradiso 19.144.

    Simon Memmi, the painter, celebrated by Petrarch, is born.

    1287 Guido dalle Colonne (mentioned by Dante in his De Vulgari Eloquio) writes The War of Troy.

    1288 Haquin, king of Norway, makes war on Denmark: Paradiso 19.135. Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi dies of famine: Inferno 33.14.

    1289 Dante is in the battle of Campaldino, where the Florentines defeat the people of Arezzo, June 11: Purgatorio 5.90.

    1290 Beatrice dies: Purgatorio 33.2.

    Dante serves in the war waged by the Florentines upon the Pisans, and is present at the surrender of Caprona in the autumn: Inferno 21.92.

    1291 Dante marries Gemma de’ Donati, with whom he lives unhappily. By this marriage he had five sons and a daughter.

    Can Grande della Scala is born, March 9: Inferno 1.98; Purgatorio 20.16; Paradiso 17.75 and 27.135.

    The renegade Christians assist the Saracens to recover St John d’Acre: Inferno 27.84.

    The Emperor Rodolph dies: Purgatorio 6.104 and 7.91.

    Alonzo III of Arragon dies, and is succeeded by James II: Purgatorio 7.113; Paradiso 19.133.

    1294 Clement V abdicates the papal chair: Inferno 3.56.

    Dante writes his Vita Nuova.

    1295 Dante’s preceptor, Brunetto Latini, dies: Inferno 15.28.

    Charles Martel, king of Hungary, visits Florence: Paradiso 8.57; and dies in the same year.

    Frederick, son of Peter III of Arragon, becomes king of Sicily: Purgatorio 7.117; Paradiso 19.127.

    1296 Forese, the companion of Dante, dies: Purgatorio 33.44.

    1300 The Bianca and Nera parties take their rise in Pistoia: Inferno 32.60.

    This is the year in which Dante supposes himself to see his Vision: Inferno 1.1 and 21.109.

    Dante is chosen chief magistrate, or first of the Priors of Florence; and continues in office from June 15 to August 15.

    Cimabue, the painter, dies: Purgatorio 40.93.

    Guido Cavalcanti, the most beloved of our Poet’s friends, dies: Inferno 10.59; Purgatorio 11.96.

    1301 The Bianca party expels the Nera from Pistoia: Inferno 24.142.

    1302 January 27. During his absence at Rome, Dante is mulcted by his fellow-citizens in the sum of 8000 lire, and condemned to two years’ banishment.

    March 10. Dante is sentenced, if taken, to be burned.

    Fulcieri de’ Calboli commits great atrocities on certain of the Ghibelline party: Purgatorio 14.61.

    Carlino de’ Pazzi betrays the castle di Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines: Inferno 33.67.

    The French vanquished in the battle of Courtrai: Purgatorio 20.47.

    James, king of Majorca and Minorca, dies: Paradiso 19.133.

    1303 Pope Boniface VIII dies: Inferno 19.55; Purgatorio 20.86 and 32.146; Paradiso 27.20.

    The other exiles appoint Dante one of a council of twelve, under Alessandro da Romena. He appears to have been much dissatisfied with his colleagues: Paradiso 17.61.

    1304 Dante joins with the exiles in an unsuccessful attack on the city of Florence.

    May. The bridge over the Arno breaks down during a representation of the infernal torments exhibited on that river: Inferno 26.9.

    July 20. Petrarch, whose father had been banished two years before from Florence, is born at Arezzo.

    1305 Winceslaus II, king of Bohemia, dies: Purgatorio 7.99; Paradiso 19.123.

    A conflagration happens at Florence: Inferno 26.9.

    1306 Dante visits Padua.

    1307 Dante is in Lunigiana with the Marchese Marcello Malaspina: Purgatorio 8.133 and 19.140.

    Dolcino, the fanatic, is burned. Inferno 28.53.

    Edward II of England comes to the throne.

    1308 The Emperor Albert I murdered: Purgatorio 6.98; Paradiso 19.114.

    Corso Donati, Dante’s political enemy, slain: Purgatorio 24.81.

    Dante seeks an asylum at Verona, under the roof of the Signori della Scala: Paradiso 17.69.

    Dante wanders, about this time, over various parts of Italy. See his Convito. He is at Paris a second time; and, as one of the early commentators reports, at Oxford.

    Duns Scotus dies. He was born about the same time as Dante.

    1309 Charles II, king of Naples, dies: Paradiso 19.125.

    1310 The Order of the Templars abolished: Purgatorio 20.94.

    1313 The Emperor Henry of Luxemburg, by whom Dante had hoped to be restored to Florence, dies: Paradiso 17.80 and 30.135.

    Dante takes refuge at Ravenna with Guido Novello da Polenta.

    1314 Pope Clement V dies: Inferno 19.86; Paradiso 27.53 and 30.141.

    1314 Philip IV of France dies: Purgatorio 7.108; Paradiso 19.117.

    Ferdinand IV of Spain dies: Paradiso 21.122.

    Giacopo da Carrara defeated by Can Grande: Paradiso 9.45.

    1316 John XXII elected Pope: Paradiso 27.53.

    1321 July. Dante dies at Ravenna, of a complaint brought on by disappointment at his failure in a negotiation which he had been conducting with the Venetians, for his patron Guido Novello da Polenta. His obsequies are sumptuously performed at Ravenna by Guido, who himself died in the ensuing year.

    Inferno

    Canto 1

    The writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and being hindered by certain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, is met by Virgil, who promises to show him the punishments of Hell, and afterwards of Purgatory; and that he shall then be conducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He follows the Roman Poet.

    In the midway of this our mortal life,

    I found me in a gloomy wood, astray

    Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell,

    It were no easy task, how savage wild

    That forest, how robust and rough its growth,

    Which to remember only, my dismay

    Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

    Yet, to discourse of what there good befell,

    All else will I relate discovered there.

    How first I entered it I scarce can say, [10]

    Such sleepy dullness in that instant weighed

    My senses down, when the true path I left;

    But when a mountain’s foot I reached, where closed

    The valley that had pierced my heart with dread,

    I looked aloft, and saw his shoulders broad

    Already vested with that planet’s beam,

    Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.

    Then was a little respite to the fear,

    That in my heart’s recesses deep had lain

    All of that night, so pitifully passed: [20]

    And as a man, with difficult short breath,

    Forespent with toiling, ’scaped from sea to shore,

    Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands

    At gaze; e’en so my spirit, that yet failed,

    Struggling with terror, turned to view the straits

    That none hath passed and lived. My weary frame

    After short pause recomforted, again

    I journeyed on over that lonely steep,

    The hinder foot still firmer. Scarce the ascent

    Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light, [30]

    And covered with a speckled skin, appeared;

    Nor, when it saw me, vanished; rather strove

    To check my onward going; that oft-times,

    With purpose to retrace my steps, I turned.

    The hour was morning’s prime, and on his way

    Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,

    That with him rose when Love divine first moved

    Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope

    All things conspired to fill me, the gay skin

    Of that swift animal, the matin dawn, [40]

    And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chased,

    And by new dread succeeded, when in view

    A lion came, ’gainst me as it appeared,

    With his head held aloft and hunger-mad,

    That e’en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf

    Was at his heels, who in her leanness seemed

    Full of all wants, and many a land hath made

    Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear

    O’erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appalled,

    That of the height all hope I lost. As one, [50]

    Who, with his gain elated, sees the time

    When all unwares is gone, he inwardly

    Mourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I,

    Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace,

    Who coming o’er against me, by degrees

    Impelled me where the sun in silence rests.

    While to the lower space with backward step

    I fell, my ken discerned the form of one

    Whose voice seemed faint through long disuse of speech.

    When him in that great desert I espied, [60]

    ‘Have mercy on me,’ cried I out aloud,

    ‘Spirit, or living man, whate’er thou be.’

    He answered: ‘Now not man, man once I was,

    And born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both

    By country, when the power of Julius yet

    Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was passed,

    Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time

    Of fabled deities and false. A bard

    Was I, and made Anchises’ upright son

    The subject of my song, who came from Troy, [70]

    When the flames preyed on Ilium’s haughty towers.

    But thou, say wherefore to such perils past

    Return’st thou? Wherefore not this pleasant mount

    Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?’

    ‘And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,

    From which such copious floods of eloquence

    Have issued?’ I with front abashed replied.

    ‘Glory and light of all the tuneful train!

    May it avail me, that I long with zeal

    Have sought thy volume, and with love immense [80]

    Have conned it o’er. My master thou, and guide!

    Thou he from whom alone I have derived

    That style, which for its beauty into fame

    Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.

    O save me from her, thou illustrious sage!

    For every vein and pulse throughout my frame

    She hath made tremble.’ He, soon as he saw

    That I was weeping, answered, ‘Thou must needs

    Another way pursue, if thou wouldst ’scape

    From out that savage wilderness. This beast, [90]

    At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none

    To pass, and no less hindrance makes than death:

    So bad and so accursèd in her kind,

    That never sated is her ravenous will,

    Still after food more craving than before.

    To many an animal in wedlock vile

    She fastens, and shall yet to many more,

    Until that greyhound come, who shall destroy

    Her with sharp pain. He will not life support

    By earth nor its base metals, but by love, [100]

    Wisdom, and virtue; and his land shall be

    The land ’twixt either Feltro. In his might

    Shall safety to Italia’s plains arise,

    For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,

    Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.

    He, with incessant chase, through every town

    Shall worry, until he to hell at length

    Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.

    I, for thy profit pondering, now devise

    That thou mayst follow me; and I, thy guide, [110]

    Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,

    Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see

    Spirits of old tormented, who invoke

    A second death; and those next view, who dwell

    Content in fire, for that they hope to come,

    Whene’er the time may be, among the blest,

    Into whose regions if thou then desire

    To ascend, a spirit worthier than I

    Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,

    Thou shalt be left: for that Almighty King, [120]

    Who reigns above, a rebel to his law

    Adjudges me; and therefore hath decreed

    That, to his city, none through me should come.

    He in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds

    His citadel and throne. O happy those,

    Whom there he chooses!’ I to him in few:

    ‘Bard, by that God, whom thou didst not adore,

    I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse

    I may escape) to lead me where thou said’st,

    That I Saint Peter’s gate may view, and those [130]

    Who, as thou tell’st, are in such dismal plight.’

    Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued.

    Canto 2

    After the invocation, which poets are used to prefix to their works, Dante shows that, in a consideration of his own strength, he doubted whether it sufficed for the journey proposed to him, but that, being comforted by Virgil, he at last took courage, and followed him as his guide and master.

    Now was the day departing, and the air,

    Imbrowned with shadows, from their toils released

    All animals on earth; and I alone

    Prepared myself the conflict to sustain,

    Both of sad pity, and that perilous road,

    Which my unerring memory shall retrace.

    O Muses, O high genius, now vouchsafe

    Your aid. O mind, that all I saw hast kept

    Safe in a written record, here thy worth

    And eminent endowments come to proof. [10]

    I thus began: ‘Bard, thou who art my guide,

    Consider well, if virtue be in me

    Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise

    Thou trust me. Thou hast told that Silvius’ sire,

    Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among

    The immortal tribes had entrance, and was there

    Sensibly present. Yet if heaven’s great Lord,

    Almighty foe to ill, such favour showed

    In contemplation of the high effect,

    Both what and who from him should issue forth, [20]

    It seems in reason’s judgment well deserved;

    Sith he of Rome and of Rome’s empire wide,

    In heaven’s empyreal height was chosen sire:

    Both which, if truth be spoken, were ordained

    And stablished for the holy place, where sits

    Who to great Peter’s sacred chair succeeds.

    He from this journey, in thy song renowned,

    Learned things, that to his victory gave rise

    And to the papal robe. In after-times

    The chosen vessel also travelled there, [30]

    To bring us back assurance in that faith

    Which is the entrance to salvation’s way.

    But I, why should I there presume? Or who

    Permits it? Not Aeneas I, nor Paul.

    Myself I deem not worthy, and none else

    Will deem me. I, if on this voyage then

    I venture, fear it will in folly end.

    Thou, who art wise, better my meaning know’st,

    Than I can speak.’ As one, who unresolves

    What he hath late resolved, and with new thoughts [40]

    Changes his purpose, from his first intent

    Removed; e’en such was I on that dun coast,

    Wasting in thought my enterprise, at first

    So eagerly embraced. ‘If right thy words

    I scan,’ replied that shade magnanimous,

    ‘Thy soul is by vile fear assailed, which oft

    So overcasts a man, that he recoils

    From noblest resolution, like a beast

    At some false semblance in the twilight gloom.

    That from this terror thou mayst free thyself, [50]

    I will instruct thee why I came, and what

    I heard in that same instant, when for thee

    Grief touched me first. I was among the tribe,

    Who rest suspended, when a dame, so blest

    And lovely I besought her to command,

    Called me; her eyes were brighter than the star

    Of day; and she, with gentle voice and soft,

    Angelically tuned, her speech addressed:

    "O courteous shade of Mantua, thou whose fame

    Yet lives, and shall live long as nature lasts! [60]

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