"That one above," to me the master said,
"Is Judas 'Scariot, doom'd to greater pangs :-
His feet are quivering, while sinks down his head.
Of the other two, whose heads are plunged below,
Brutus the one, who from the black throat hangs ;
See how he writhes, yet speaks not in his woe!
Cassius the other, with such strength endued.
But night returns; and from the abyss of hell
'Tis time we went, since all hath now been view'd."
My master bidding, I his neck ascended;
Then, judging both his time and distance well,
He, when the pinions were enough extended,
Attach'd him closely to the shaggy side,
And made from lock to lock his downward way,
Between the wall of ice, and rugged hide.
When we had reach'd a station, where the thigh
Doth on the swelling of the haunches play,
My guide with much fatigue and urgency
To where his feet had been, moved round his head, 79
And, like to one who mounts, clung to the hair ;-
So that to hell again, methought, we sped.
Then panting, as a man forespent with toil-
My master said: "Take heed; for by such stair
Must we escape from this accursed soil."
Forth issued through a hollow rock my guide,
And on the brink providing me a seat,
Sate himself down, with caution by my side.
I raised my eyes ;-nor change did I expect
To find in Lucifer ;-when lo, his feet,
That late hung down, were seen in air erect!
And how I then with trouble was o'ercast,
Let grosser minds imagine--not with sense
Endow'd to mark the point that I had past.
Now spoke the master: "Rise-no more delay-
Long is the road and rough that leadeth hence,
And Phoebus soon will wake the early day."
No royal path was that on which we were,
But wrought by nature, savage, rough, and rude ;
Nor was there aught but troublous twilight there.
"Ere from the dark abyss we take our way,
Master," I said, when on my feet I stood,
"Some words bestow, lest I in error stray.
Where is the ice?-and wherefore is his head
Fix'd upside down? and tell the reason why
From night to morn the sun so soon hath sped."
Then he "Thou dost imagine we are still
On the other side the central point, where I
Clasp'd the earth-piercing worm, fell cause of ill.
So far as I continued to descend,
That side we kept; but when I turn'd, then we
Had pass'd the point to which all bodies tend.
Now art thou come the hemisphere beneath
Opposed to that which forms earth's canopy;
Under whose highest cope pour'd forth his breath
The Man who sinless lived and sinless died.
Thy feet upon a little sphere are placed;
Its other front is on Giudecca's side.
Morn rises here, when it is evening there ;
And he, whose locks to aid us we embraced,
Remains still fix'd, as when he form'd our stair.
Hither he fell from heaven, what time forsook
Its place, through dread of him, the dry land here,
And 'neath the veil of ocean, refuge took,
And reach'd our hemisphere :-so, through like dread,
The earth there rising, hence did disappear,
And sinking down, exalted there its head.
As far from Beelzebub as the profound
Abyss is deep, a place there is below,
Not known by sight, but only by the sound
Caused by a rivulet that downward borne
In gentle windings, by its constant flow
A channel in the stony rock hath worn."
guide and I this secret pathway chose,
To reconduct us to the world of light;
And up we journeyed, heedless of repose,
mounting first, while I his steps pursued ;-
Till, through an orifice, heaven's splendours bright
Burst on mine eyes :-emerging thence, we view'd
e stars once more unfolded to our sight.
red, yello
and hend
of Satan.
Page 298. (Line 1.) This is a parody on the first verse of a
tin hymn, sung by the Church in praise of the Cross. "Vex-
regis prodeunt." The king of hell is about to appear. (8.)
e wind is produced by the flapping of Lucifer's wings. See
e 51.
Page 299. (Line 18.) Lucifer or Satan,- -once an angel of
t; here called Dis. See Paradiso. xix. 47. "How art
u fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! yet
lt thou be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit."-
iah xiv. 12, 15. Alluding to this passage, Rossetti shows that
s or Satan is here intended to represent the Pope.-Sullo.
Er. Antip. page 47, 51. (32.) A similar argument is applied
the Deity, by Spenser. Hymn to Heavenly Beauty,—
"Cease then my tongue, and lend unto my mind
Leave to bethink how great that Beauty is,
Whose utmost parts so beautiful I find."
(108.) T
the Devi
Rev. xii.
Page
through
in Lucife
the lowe
Thus
(121.) "
celestial
body re
the othe
a great
(34.) Hence Milton. Par. Lost. i. 84.-
"If thou be'st he, but O! how fallen, how changed
From him, who in the happy realms of light,
Cloath'd with transcendent brightness, did'st outshine
Page 300. (Line 38.) According to Vellutello, the three faces,
red, yellow, and black, denote anger, envy, and melancholy;
and hence Mr. Cary observes, Milton derived his description
of Satan. Par. Lost. iv. 114.
"Each passion dimmed his face,
Thrice changed with pale ire, envy, and despair."
Page 302. (Line 95.) See Virgil. Æn. vi. 128. Hence Milton.
Par. Lost. ii, 432,
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light."
(108.) The worm is the great dragon or old serpent, " called
the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." Se
Rev. xii. 9.
Page 303, (Line 117.) Giudecca is the circle of Judas,
through which Dante had just past. Treachery, as instanced
in Lucifer and Judas, who are coupled together, is punished in
the lowest depth of hell, as the most abominable of crimes.
Thus Eschylus. Prom. Vinct. 1104.
τὲς γαρ προδότας μισεῖν ἔμαθον,
τησδ' ὂντιν' απέπτυσα μᾶλλον.
(121.) "Dante tells us, that when Lucifer was hurled from the
celestial regions, the arch-devil transfixed the globe; half his
body remained on our side the centre of the earth, and half on
the other side. The shock given to the earth by his fall drove
a great portion of the waters of the ocean to the southern he-
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