Read The Portable Dante Online
Authors: Dante Alighieri
The Portable Dante (43 page)
127. Pier Pettinaio, “Peter the Combseller, ” was supposedly a member of the Franciscan order who dwelt close to Siena and was known for his piety, the miracles he performed, and his honesty (he refused to sell a defective comb).
147. In the Antepurgatory a number of souls had asked of the Pilgrim that when he returned to earth he solicit prayers for them from their loved ones. This is probably what Dante had in mind when he offered to “move” his “mortal feet” (144) on Sapìa’s behalf.
They live with those who dream of Talamone, whose foolish hopes will make them lose much more than they lost looking for Diana’s bed— | 153 |
but, still, the admirals will lose the most. ”
T
HE CANTO OPENS
with the gossip of two blind souls excited by their awareness of the unprecedented presence before them of a man who is still alive; they finally ask the Pilgrim who he is and where he is from. Dante’s reference to his place of origin
—
the valley of the Arno
—
touches off a lengthy outburst of anti-Tuscan sentiment from one of his interlocutors. The Pilgrim then asks their names; the speaker identifies himself as Guido del Duca and his fellow shade as Rinier da Calboli
—
and immediately launches into another invective, this time against the recent degeneracy of Romagna. As the Pilgrim and Virgil are leaving the souls of the Envious, they hear the sharp crack of voices
—
screaming out exempla of Envy. The first voice is that of Cain, and the second, that of the Athenian princess Aglauros, who was turned to stone because she envied her sister, who was loved by the god Mercury.
“Who is this roaming round our mountainside before his soul is given wings by Death—opening his eyes and closing them at will?” | 3 |
“Who knows? All I know is he’s not alone. Why don’t you ask him, you are nearer him; speak nicely to him so he’ll answer you. ” | 6 |
1. This dramatic opening is a dialogue between two unknown speakers concerning a person standing before them whom they cannot see. | 9 |
And one said: “O soul, living prisoner within the flesh, but moving up to Heaven, console us in the name of love: please tell | 12 |
where you are from and who you are. The grace that God has given you fills us with awe, for this is something never seen before. ” | 15 |
And I said: “Through the heart of Tuscany a little river, born in Falterona, winds in its course more than a hundred miles, | 18 |
and from its banks I bring this body here; there is no point in telling you my name, for I have not as yet won fame on earth. ” | 21 |
“If I have clearly understood the gist of what you have just said, ” replied the shade, “it is the Arno you are speaking of. ” | 24 |
The other said to him: “Why would he want to keep the real name of that river hid, as if it were too horrible to say?” | 27 |
The shade who had been questioned answered back: “I don’t know why, but it could only be a blessing for that valley’s name to die. | 30 |
For from its source, where the steep mountain chain from which Pelorus is cut off is rich with waters that no other place can claim, | 33 |
down to the very point where it restores that which the sky has taken from the sea, thereby supplying rivers with their flow— | 36 |
virtue is loathed. Men run away from it as from a snake! Either the place is cursed, or else it’s old corruption guiding them. | 39 |
The dwellers in that miserable vale have let their nature be transformed—it is as if they lived on food from Circe’s sty. | 42 |
Past hoggish brutes who should be eating acorns rather than food prepared for human use, this river first directs its puny course; | 45 |
it keeps on dropping down, to run among packs of small curs who snarl more than they bite; disdainfully, it turns away its snout. | 48 |
Still farther down it falls; the more this damned and God-forsaken sewer-ditch expands the more the dogs give way to wolves; and then, | 51 |
through many deep-cut gorges it descends to run among those foxes steeped in fraud, who fear no trap contrived by human skill. | 54 |
I will not stop, though this man hears my words; in fact, it would be good for him to know what inspiration has revealed to me: | 57 |
I see your grandson now leading the chase, hunting down wolves, the ones that pack the banks of that wild stream—they live in terror there. | 60 |
He sells their flesh while they are still alive, and then, like worn-out cattle, slaughters them. Himself he robs of honor, them of life. | 63 |
He comes forth bloody from the wretched woods, which even in a thousand years from now could not re-wood itself as once it was. ” | 66 |
42. Circe was the daughter of Helios, god of the sun. She was an enchantress who had the power of turning men into beasts.
55. When the speaker here, Guido del Duca (whose name is withheld until line 81), says the words “this man, ” he is referring to the other penitent soul sitting beside him, who is Rinieri da Calbolì (whose name is not revealed until verses 88-89).
58. Rinieri’s grandson, Fukieri da Calboli, infamously cruel and a perpetrator of atrocities against the White Guelphs (Dante’s party) as well as the Ghibellines, was podestà of Florence in 1303.
As at the news of some impending doom the face that listens shows the shock received, no matter from what side the danger looms— | 69 |
just so that shade, intent on listening, revealed his consternation and his grief, as he took in the meaning of those words. | 72 |
The words of one of them, the other’s face, made me so curious to know the pair, I asked them, begged them, to reveal their names. | 75 |
At this the shade who spoke to me at first replied: “And you want me to bring myself to do what you refused to do for me? | 78 |
But since God wills His grace to shine in you so generously, stingy I shall not be: Guido del Duca used to be my name. | 81 |
Envy was quick to fire up my blood: whenever I would see someone rejoice, you’d see me turning livid at his joy. | 84 |
I sowed this envy, now I reap this straw! O human race, why do you place your hopes where partnership must always be denied? | 87 |
This is Rinier; this is the pride and joy of Calboli—a house without an heir who might inherit any of his worth. | 90 |
From Po to mountains, Reno to the sea, their house is not the only one stripped bare of all that’s good in life and chivalry; | 93 |
for all the land within these boundaries is choked by poisonous weeds which would resist all efforts to prepare the soil for seeds. | 96 |
81. Little is known about Guido del Duca. Possibly he was the son of Giovanni del Duca of the Onesti family of Ravenna, who settled in Bertinoro. 88. Rinier, Rinieri de’ Paolucci da Calboli, was a Guelph from the city of Forlì and podestSaG of Faenza (1247), Parma (1252), and Ravenna (1265). He was defeated by Guido da Montefeltro in 1276 and died at Forlì in 1296. | 99 |
When in Bologna will there grow again a Fabbro? When, a Fosco in Faenza, that noble scion of a lowly plant? | 102 |
O Tuscan, I must weep when I recall Ugolin d’Azzo, Guido da Prata, too, who lived among us once. And what about | 105 |
Federigo di Tignoso and his friends, the Traversaro clan, the Anastagi, both families without an heir? And those | 108 |
97. Mainardi, “the good Lizio, ” was a contemporary of Guido del Duca and Pier Traversaro and was taken prisoner with the latter by the Faentines in 1170. He was reputed to be a virtuous man with knightly qualities.
Lizio da Valbona was born in the first half of the thirteenth century, a nobleman of Romagna and a contemporary of Rinieri.
98. Pier (ca. 1145-1225) belonged to the powerful Traversaro family of Ravenna. He was a staunch supporter of the Ghibellines and a close friend of the emperor Frederick II.
Guido di Carpigna’s family seems to have been established in the district of Montefeltro in Ravenna as early as the tenth century. Dante is probably alluding to Guido the younger, who was podestà of Ravenna 1251. He was dead before 1283.
101. Fabbro de’ Lambertazzi was a Ghibelline leader of Bologna, whose family was said to have descended from the dukes of Ravenna in the twelfth century.
Bernardo di Fosco was reputed by early commentators to have been of humble origin, but through his own merits, he distinguished himself to the point of being accepted by the nobility of his city of Faenza on their own level.
104. Ugolino of Azzo was a member of the powerful Ubaldini family. He seems to have been a wealthy landholder who was well known in Romagna; he died in January of 1293.
Guido da Prata also appears to have been a landholder of some importance in the vicinity of Ravenna. He died before 1245.
106. Federigo di Tignoso was a nobleman of Rimini noted for his wealth and hospitality.
107. The Traversaro clan was a powerful Ghibelline house of Ravenna, whose most distinguished member was Pier Traversaro (see note to Canto XIV, 98).
The Anastagi were another powerful Ghibelline family in Ravenna, who were most active in politics and antagonistic toward the Church.
ladies and knights, those feats, that courtly play which love and courtesy did once inspire in that domain where all hearts now grow vile? | 111 |
O, Bretinoro, why don’t you disappear! Your noble families and others, too, have fled from the corruption in your midst! | 114 |
Bagnacaval does well to have no sons; and Castrocaro’s wrong, and Conio more, in bothering to breed such counts as theirs. | 117 |
When the Pagani’s demon finally drops dead, they will be better off—although the record of their evil deeds remains. | 120 |
O Ugolin de’ Fantolin, your name is safe—since there’s no chance it will be stained by the degeneracy of future heirs. | 123 |
But now, go, Tuscan, I would rather weep, much rather weep, than say another word—our discourse has so wrung my sorrowing mind. ” | 126 |
We knew those good souls heard us move away; thus, by their silence we could be assured of having taken the right path to climb. | 129 |
112. Bretinoro was a small town in Romagna (now Bertinoro), located between Forlì and Cesena.
115. The town of Bagnacavallo in Romagna was a stronghold of the Malvicini, a Ghibelline family that expelled Guido da Polenta and the Guelphs from Ravenna in 1249.
116. Castrocaro, now a village, was once a castle in Romagna belonging to the counts of Castrocaro, who, though Ghibellines, submitted to the Church in 1282.
The castle of Cunio in Romagna (near Imola), once owned by the counts of Conio, who were for the most part Guelphs, was totally destroyed soon after 1295.
118. The Pagani were a noble Ghibelline family of Faenza and Imola. The “demon” among them was Maghinardo Pagano da Susinana, who ruled Faenza (1290), Forlì (1291), and Imola (1296) and died at Imola in 1302. Guido da Montefeltro refers to him (
Inferno
XXVII, 50) as “the Lion of the White Lair” (his coat of arms).
121-123. Ugolino de’ Fantolini, a Guelph, was podestà of Faenza (1253); he died in 1278.
As we were walking on our lonely road there came, like lightning ripping through the air, a voice, shot out at us from up ahead: | 132 |
“I shall be slain by all who find me!”—Then it rolled past us like thunder dying down after the sudden bursting of a cloud. | 135 |
Our ears had just begun recovering, when came the rumbling of a second voice— one clap of thunder thundering on the other: | 138 |
“I am Aglauros, who was turned to stone!” With that, instead of going on, I moved a little closer to my Poet. By now | 141 |
the air around us was serene once more. Then Virgil said: “That was the iron curb devised to keep a man within due bounds. | 144 |
But you men take the bait, swallow the hook, and let the Adversary reel you in—and neither rein nor spur avails for you. | 147 |
The heavens wheeling round you call to you, revealing their eternal beauties—yet, you keep your eyes fixed on the ground alone, | 150 |
and He, the All-Discerning, strikes you down. ”
T
HE PILGRIM IS
stunned by the light emanating from the Angel of Generosity, and Virgil explains that soon such a sight will not be a burden to his eyes but a great joy. As they climb past the angel, they hear from
below the singing of the beatitude “Blessed are the Merciful. ” At the Pilgrim’s prompting, Virgil delivers a discourse on the difference between earthly and heavenly possessions. When he has finished, the two poets find themselves on the Third Terrace. Here, the exempla of Meekness, the opposite of the sin of Wrath, present themselves in the form of ecstatic visions. The first vision is of the Virgin meekly questioning the Christ child as to why he has remained behind in the temple, causing his parents so much distress. The second vision is of Pisistratus, who, despite the imprecations of his wife, refused to take revenge on the young man who had embraced his daughter. The final example of Meekness is taken from the life of St. Stephen, the first martyr. The canto ends ominously with the menacing appearance of a thick black cloud of smoke, which envelops the Pilgrim and his guide.