CANTO XXX.

ARGUMENT.

IN the same gulf are punished Impostors of various kinds, coiners and counterfeiters, who are afflicted with horrible diseases, fevers aud dropsies. Gianni Scicchi, Sinon, and Adamo; between whom takes place a most comical dialogue.

WHAT time, incensed against the Theban maid,

Juno pour'd out her wrath upon the land ;

That wrath the Goddess more than once display'dSo lost to reason Athamas became,

That when he saw his wife, in either hand

Bearing a child, he furious did exclaim,

"Extend the nets, that at the pass I may

Enclose the lioness and both her young."

Then, stretching forth his talons to the prey,
He seized Learchus; and against a stone,
Insensate-dash'd him; while the mother sprung

Deep into ocean with her other son.

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Or when, bereft of her imperial sway,

Troy, once all daring, was in ruin laid,

And king and kingdom wholly swept away— The wretched Hecuba, sad, captive queen, When she Polixena a corpse survey'd, And on the margin of the deep had seen Her Polydorus-mournful interview !— In frenzy bark'd, like to a dog ;—so great The power of grief her reason to subdue. But never furies, whencesoe'er they came, Trojan, or Theban, with such rancorous hate Tormented beasts-much less the human frame,—

As two pale naked spirits that I saw,

Who, like a hog let loose from out the sty,
Came running furiously with open jaw.

One seized Capocchio's neck, and rent him sore
With fang infix'd; then, as he drew him by,
Grated his body o'er the rocky floor.

The Aretine, all trembling with alarm,

Said: "Gianni Scicchi is the fiend you see,
Who roves infuriate, working other's harm."
"Oh," I exclaim'd, "may ne'er the other sprite
Tear with its fangs thy back, as thou tell me
What is her name, ere hurried from our sight."

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Then answer'd he;

Know, Myrrha is her name 37

That wicked one, who cherish'd in her breast
For her own father an unhallow'd flame.
Her wicked purpose that she might obtain,
In borrow'd robes fictitiously she dress'd;
Like him that goeth yonder; who, to gain
The Lady of the herd, dared represent

Buossi Donati, and upon him took

To sign and seal a forged testament.”
Then, when this furious pair had onward pass'd,
Whom I had scann'd with such an eager look,
Tow'rds other tortured souls mine eyes I cast.

One I beheld who like a lute was made,

Had but the groin been amputated there
Where in the human form the fork 's display'd.
The dropsy, which with noxious humours charged,
An ill proportion makes the body bear
Unto the face, not equally enlarged,

Made him distend both lips ;-as, parch'd within,
One lip the hectic raises to his nose,

While the other he drops downward to the chin.
“O ye,” he said, "who free from punishment-
(And why I know not)-to this realm of woes
Are come, behold, and let your ear be lent

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To master Adam's miserable strain.

What I desired on earth, I compass'd-all;
One drop of water now I crave in vain.
The rivulets, which from the verdant hills

Of Casentino into Arno fall,

Cooling the channels with their limpid rills, Seem always in my sight; nor idly so,—

For their fond image more dries up my skin Than all the torture which my features show. Stern Justice, racking me with inward throesE'en from the very region of my sin

Occasion takes to aggravate my woes:

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There is Romena, where that coin I learnt

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To forge, which John the Baptist's image bore;

For which offence my earthly frame was burnt:
But could the sight of Guido greet me here,
Or Alexander's hapless soul once more,
I'd change it not for Branda's fountain clear.
One here below I might already view,

If the mad souls that pace around speak truth
But fetter'd thus, alas! what can I do?
Were I so light that in a century

I could advance a single inch forsooth,
Already on my journey should I be

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In search of him among this people vile,
Although eleven miles the vale is spread,

Nor less in width extends than half a mile.

To them I owe this cursed society;

By them to stamp the florins was I led,
Mix'd with three carats of alloy." Thus he.-
And I rejoin'd: "Who are that wretched pair
That on the right lie smoking, like a hand
In water steep'd, and then exposed in air?"
"Since first I found them here," was his reply,
"When down I fell to this ill-fated strand,
They ne'er have turn'd, nor will, I think, for aye.
One-the false dame who Joseph dared accuse;

Sinon the other-that false Greek from Troy :
Their burning fever doth this steam diffuse."
And one of them, who, at this title rude
-Experienced haply somewhat of annoy,

Struck with his fist the other's stomach crude, That sounded like a drum :—with arm uprear'd,

Adam return'd the blow upon his face,

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Which no less hard than his own paunch appear'd ;—

Exclaiming "Ha! although I am debarr'd

By these unwieldly limbs from change of place,

Still I've an arm for my defence prepared."