CANTO XIV.

ARGUMENT.

Our Poet on this second cornice finds also the souls of Guido del Duca of Brettinoro, and Rinieri da Calboli of Romagna; the latter of whom, hearing that he comes from the banks of the Arno, inveighs against the degeneracy of all those who dwell in the cities visited by that stream; and the former, in like manner, against the inhabitants of Romagna. On leaving these, our Poets hear voices recording noted instances of envy.

"SAY1, who is he around our mountain winds,
Or ever death has pruned his wing for flight;
That opes his eyes, and covers them at will?

"I know not who he is, but know thus much;
He comes not singly. Do thou ask of him,
For thou art nearer to him; and take heed,
Accost him2 gently, so that he may speak."

Thus on the right two spirits, bending each
Toward the other, talk'd of me; then both
Addressing me, their faces backward lean'd,
And thus the one3 began: "O soul, who yet
Pent in the body, tendest towards the sky!
For charity, we pray thee, comfort us;
Recounting whence thou comest, and who thou art:
For thou dost make us, at the favour shown thee,
Marvel, as at a thing that ne'er hath been."

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"There stretches through the midst of Tuscany," I straight began, a brooklet 4, whose well-head Springs up in Falterona; with his race

Not satisfied, when he some hundred miles

Hath measured. From his banks bring I this frame.

1 Say.] The two spirits who thus speak to each other are, Guido del Duca of Brettinoro, and Rinieri da Calboli of Romagna. 2 Accost him.] It is worthy of remark, that the Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. agrees with Landino in reading "a colo," instead of "accolo," and interprets it as he does: "Nil aliud vult auctor dicere de colo, nisi quod cum interroget ita dulciter ut respondeat (sic) eum ad colum, id est quod tantum respondeat auctor eis quod animus eorum remaneat in quiete et non in suspenso.' "The author means to say, that the spirit should interrogate him courteously, that he may return such an answer as shall put a period to their suspense.' Still I have retained my translation of the common reading generally supposed to be put by syncope for "accoglilo," "accost him." 3 The one.] Guido del Duca. 4 A brooklet.] The Arno, that rises in Falterona, a mountain in the Apennine. Its course is a hundred and twenty miles, according to G. Villani, who traces it accurately.

To tell you who I am were words mis-spent:
For yet my name scarce sounds on rumour's lip."
"If well I do incorporate with my thought
The meaning of thy speech," said he, who first
Address'd me, "thou dost speak of Arno's wave."
To whom the other: "Why hath he conceal'd
The title of that river, as a man
Doth of some horrible thing?" The spirit, who
Thereof was question'd, did acquit him thus:
"I know not: but 'tis fitting well the name
Should perish of that vale; for from the source2,
Where teems so plenteously the Alpine steep
Maim'd of Pelorus3, (that doth scarcely pass 4
Beyond that limit,) even to the point

Where unto ocean is restored what heaven

Drains from the exhaustless store for all earth's streams,
Throughout the space is virtue worried down,

As 't were a snake, by all, for mortal foe;
Or through disastrous influence on the place,
Or else distortion of misguided wills

That custom goads to evil: whence in those,
The dwellers in that miserable vale,

Nature is so transform'd, it seems as they

Had shared of Circe's feeding. 'Midst brute swine 5,
Worthier of acorns than of other food

Created for man's use, he shapeth first

His obscure way; then, sloping onward, finds

Curs, snarlers more in spite than power, from whom
He turns with scorn aside: still journeying down,
By how much more the curst and luckless foss'
Swells out to largeness, e'en so much it finds

1 The other.] Rinieri da Calboli. 2 From the source.] "From the rise of the Arno in that 'Alpine steep,' the Apennine, from whence Pelorus in Sicily was torn by a convulsion of the earth, even to the point where the same river unites its waters to the ocean, Virtue is persecuted by all." 3 Maim'd of Pelorus.] Virg. Æn. lib. iii. 414. Lucan, Phars. lib. ii. 438. -A hill

Torn from Pelorus.

Milton, P. L. b. i. 232. 4 That doth scarcely pass.] "Pelorus is in few places higher than Falterona, where the Arno springs." Lombardi explains this differently, and, I think, erroneously. 5 Midst brute swine.] The people of Casentino. 6 Curs.] The Arno leaves Arezzo about four miles to the left. Foss.] So in his anger he terms the Arno.

Dogs turning into wolves'. Descending still
Through yet more hollow eddies, next he meets
A race of foxes 2, so replete with craft,
They do not fear that skill can master it.
Nor will I cease because my words are heard 3
By other ears than thine. It shall be well
For this man, if he keep in memory
What from no erring spirit I reveal.
Lo! I behold thy grandson5, that becomes
A hunter of those wolves, upon the shore

Of the fierce stream; and cows them all with dread.
Their flesh, yet living, sets he up to sale,
Then, like an aged beast, to slaughter dooms.
Many of life he reaves, himself of worth
And goodly estimation.
Mark how he issues from the rueful wood;
Leaving such havoc, that in thousand years
It spreads not to prime lustihood again."

Smear'd with gore,

As one, who tidings hears of woe to come,
Changes his looks perturb'd, from whate'er part
The peril grasp him; so beheld I change
That spirit, who had turn'd to listen; struck
With sadness, soon as he had caught the word.
His visage, and the other's speech, did raise
Desire in me to know the names of both;
Whereof, with meek entreaty, I inquired.

The shade, who late address'd me, thus resumed :
"Thy wish imports, that I vouchsafe to do
For thy sake what thou wilt not do for mine.
But, since God's will is that so largely shine
His grace in thee, I will be liberal too.
Guido of Duca know then that I am.
Envy so parch'd my blood, that had I seen
A fellow man made joyous, thou hadst mark'd
A livid paleness overspread my cheek.

1 Wolves.] The Florentines. 2 Foxes.] The Pisans.

3 My words are heard.] It should be recollected that Guido still addresses himself to Rinieri. For this man.] "For Dante, who has told us that he comes from the banks of Arno." 5 Thy grandson.] Fulcieri da Calboli, grandson of Rinieri da Calboli who is here spoken to. The atrocities predicted came to pass in 1302. See G. Villani, lib. viii. c. lix. 6 What Dante having declined telling him his name. See v. 22.

thou wilt not do.]

1

Such harvest reap I of the seed I sow'd.

O man! why place thy heart where there doth need
Exclusion of participants in good?

This is Rinieri's spirit; this, the boast
And honour of the house of Calboli;
Where of his worth no heritage remains.
Nor his the only blood, that hath been stript
('Twixt Po, the mount, the Reno, and the shore 2)
Of all that truth or fancy3 asks for bliss:
But, in those limits, such a growth has sprung
Of rank and venom'd roots, as long would mock
Slow culture's toil. Where is good Lizio1? where
Manardi, Traversaro, and Carpigna5?

O bastard slips of old Romagna's line!
When in Bologna the low artisan",
And in Faenza yon Bernardin7 sprouts,
A gentle cyon from ignoble stem.
Wonder not, Tuscan, if thou see me weep,
When I recal to mind those once loved names,
Guido of Prata3, and of Azzo him 9

Why place.] This will be explained in the ensuing Canto.

Fancy.

2 'Twixt Po, the mount, the Reno, and the shore.] The boundaries of Romagna. "Trastullo." Quadrio, in the notes on the second of the Salmi Penitenziali of our author, understands this in a higher sense, as meaning that joy which results from an easy and constant practice of virtue. See Opere di Dante, Zatta ediz. tom. iv. part ii. p. 193. And he is followed by Lombardi. Lizio.] Lizio da Valbona introduced into Boccaccio's Decameron, G. v. N. 4. 5 Manardi, Traversaro, and Carpigna.] Arrigo Manardi of Faenza, or, as some say, of Brettinoro; Pier Traversaro, lord of Ravenna; and Guido di Carpigna of Montefeltro.

6 In Bologna the low artisan.] One who had been a mechanic, named Lambertaccio, arrived at almost supreme power in Bologna.

Quando in Bologna un Fabro si ralligna :
Quando in Faenza un Bernardin di Fosco.

The pointing and the marginal note of the Monte Casino MS. entirely change
the sense of these two lines. There is a mark of interrogation added to
each; and by way of answer to both there is written, "Quasi dicat num-
quam." Fabro is made a proper name, and it is said of him: "Iste fuit
Dom. Faber de Lambertaciis de Bononia;" and Benvenuto da Imola calls
him "Nobilis Miles." I have not ventured to alter the translation so as to
make it accord with this interpretation, as it must have been done in the face,
I believe, of nearly all the editions, and, as far as may be gathered from the
silence of Lombardi, of the MSS. also which that commentator had consulted.
But those, who wish to see more on the subject, are referred to Monti's Pro-
posta, tom. iii. pte 2, under the word "Rallignare." 7 Yon Bernardin.]
Bernardin di Fosco, a man of low origin, but great talents, who governed at
Faenza. 8 Prata.] A place between Faenza and Ravenna.
Azzo him.] Ugolino, of the Ubaldini family in Tuscany.

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