Not even Lybia, with her fruitful sand,
More Cenchris, and more Jaculi can boast,

Or Amphisbæna, in her scorching land;
Though Ethiopia also should have brought

Her many poisons; and the Red sea's coast

Add all the pests with which her soil is fraught.
Among this swarm, most loathsome to survey,

d:

Ran spirits naked, and with terror pale :

No hiding place, no heliotrope had they.

85

91

73

79

97

Their hands with serpents were behind them bound ;
These through their loins thrust forth the head and tail,
Which meeting in the front were coil'd around.
Lo, near the bank, on which our feet we stay'd,
A serpent rose, and pierced the form of one,
Where to the neck is join'd the shoulder blade.
So quickly ne'er was written O, or I,

As he took fire and burnt, and, falling prone,

Was turn'd to ashes instantaneously.

While thus upon the ground his dust was strew'd, 103
Spontaneous it collected on the plain,

And suddenly its former shape renew'd.

So-as by mighty sages we are told,

The Phoenix dies, and springs to life again,

When o'er her head five hundred years have roll'd:

Nor grain, nor herb she tastes, with life endow'd, 109

But cinnamon and tears of frankincense;

And myrrh and spikenard form her latest shroud. And e'en as one that falleth to the ground,

And knows not whether demon violence, Or epileptic fit his sense hath boundWhen he arises, turns his eyes around,

All stupified with anguish, and at gaze

Stands, as distracted, uttering sighs profound;

So that vile sinner speedily arose.

115

Inflicting in his wrath such deadly blows!

"What was his name?" enquired my faithful guide: 121 "Not long ago, from Tuscany I came,

Rain'd down to this dire gullet," he replied:

"I led the life of beasts and not of men

Mule that I was; Van Fucci is my name,

And foul Pistoia was my worthy den."

66

I to my guide: Entreat him to remain,

And ask the crime for which he here is pent;
I knew him erst, defiled with bloody stain."
Dissembled not the thief when this was said;

But straight to me his soul and look he bent,
With melancholy hue of shame o'erspread:

127

T

int

sin

2927

', '

And in these words began:

"More am I grieved

ɔud.

133

That thou hast found me in this wretched hole,

Than all I suffer'd, when of life bereaved :

Thy wishes I no longer can deny.

Here am I thrust so low because I stole
The hallow'd treasures of the sacristy :
One who was innocent incurr'd the blame.

If e'er released from this dark pit thou be,

Lest aught of joy thou reap for this my shame-
Open thine ears, and hear what I declare :

First shall the Neri from Pistoia flee :

Her race and laws shall Florence then forswear.
From Valdimagra Mars collects around

139

145

A vapour, wrapt with clouds o'ercharged and fell; Which thence, with tempest fierce, and angry sound, Shall clash in combat on Piceno's plain;

Whence suddenly the cloud he shall dispel,

127

Whereby shall each Bianco there be slain ;
This, to o'erwhelm thee with despair, I tell."

151

NOTES.

Page 207. (Line 1.) At the end of January the sun enters into Aquarius. "The opening of this canto, and this new simile, taken from Nature itself, possesses great beauty."—

Biagioli. "In no writer, not even in Homer, have the similes more life and variety than in Dante."-Ugo Foscolo. Edinb. Review. Vol. xxix. "Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh."Jeremiah, xxxi. 19. “ Δή ρα τοτ' ᾤμωξεν τε, καὶ ὢ πεπλήγετο unpq."-Homer. Iliad, xii. 162.

Page 209. (Line 37.) i.e., Since the whole region of Malebolge slopes towards the centre, every part must possess the same inclination. (47.)

"Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise

(

la

b

th

"Renown is not the child of indolent repose."

Thomson. Castle of Indolence.

“ Ει δε τίς ὄλβος εν άν

θρωποισιν, άνευ καματε

8 paieral."-Pindar. Pythii Ult.

(55.) The mountain of Purgatory.

Page 211. (Line 93.) Heliotrope was supposed to possess the power of counteracting poison, and rendering persons invisible. The fraudulent are tortured by serpents, the emblem of their crime. (107.)

"Una est, quæ reparet, seque ipsa reseminet, ales; Assyrii Phoenica vocant:-non fruge, neque herbis, Sed thuris lacrymis, et succo vivit amomi."

Ovid. Met. xv. 392.

"That holy bird

Who sings at the last his own death's lay,
And in music and perfume dies away."

Moore. Lalla Rookh. Paradise and the Peri,
"And though her body dies, her fame revives."
Milton. Samp. Agon.

(112.) This passage would almost seem to have been trans-
lated by Walter Scott. "Like a man borne down on all sides
by the pressure of some invisible force, which crushes him to
the earth without power of resistance."-Ivanhoe, vol. i.
p. 86, 1837. (125.) Vanni Fucci was a natural child of the
family of Lazari, in Pistoia, and of the Neri party—a man of
infamous character.

cap. vii.

Page 213. (Line 133.) “Vanni Fucci is ashamed of being found by a Bianco in such a humiliating situation among the robbers."-Rossetti. (139.) Having robbed the church of St. James, in Pistoia, Vanni Fucci charged Vanni della Monna with the sacrilege, who was put to death in consequence (142.) Vanni Fucci, in revenge, foretels the circumstances that led to Dante's banishment, viz. the division of the Guelf party into the Neri and Bianchi, which originated at Pistoia. See note, canto vi. 60. (145.) "The commentators explain this prophetical threat to allude to the victory obtained by the Marquis Morello Malaspina, of Valdimagra, a tract of country now called the Lunigiana, who put himself at the head of the Neri, and defeated their opponents the Bianchi in the Campo Piceno, near Pistoia."—Cary.