The Divine Comedy — Chronicle

Canto 1 · Midway upon the journey of our life

Dante

Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Canto 1 · 📍 [[Rome]]

Virgilius Julio Augustus

‘Sub Julio’ was I born, though it was late, And lived at Rome under the good Augustus, During the time of false and lying gods.

Canto 1

Dante Virgilius

Therefore I think and judge it for thy best Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide, And lead thee hence through the eternal place,

Canto 1 · Then

Dante Virgilius

Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.

Canto 2

Dante Virgilius

But I, why thither come, or who concedes it? I not Aeneas am, I am not Paul, Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it. Therefore, if I resign myself to come, I fear the coming may be ill-advised; Thou’rt wise, and knowest better than I speak.”

Canto 2

Lucia Beatrice Dante

Lucia, foe of all that cruel is, Hastened away, and came unto the place Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel. “Beatrice” said she, “the true praise of God, Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so, For thee he issued from the vulgar herd? Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint? Dost thou not see the death that combats him Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?”

Canto 2 · when he had moved

Dante Virgilius

Now go, for one sole will is in us both, Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou.” Thus said I to him; and when he had moved, I entered on the deep and savage way.

Canto 3 · 📍 [[Acheron]]

Dante Virgilius

These things shall all be known To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay Upon the dismal shore of Acheron.

Canto 3 · 📍 [[Acheron]]

Virgilius Charon

And unto him the Guide: “Vex thee not, Charon; It is so willed there where is power to do That which is willed; and farther question not.”

Canto 3 · 📍 [[Acheron]]

Charon

So they depart across the dusky wave, And ere upon the other side they land, Again on this side a new troop assembles.

Canto 4 · 📍 [[Limbo]]

Dante Virgilius

Let us go on, for the long way impels us.” Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss.

Canto 4 · 📍 [[Limbo]]

Virgilius

Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent, And that of his son Abel, and of Noah, Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient

Canto 4 · 📍 [[Limbo]]

Dante Virgilius Homer Horace Ovid Lucan

Through portals seven I entered with these Sages; We came into a meadow of fresh verdure.

Canto 5

Minos

Judges, and sends according as he girds him.

Canto 5 · One day

Francesca

When as we read of the much-longed-for smile Being by such a noble lover kissed, This one, who ne’er from me shall be divided, Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.

Canto 5 · And all the while one spirit uttered this

Dante

I swooned away as if I had been dying, And fell, even as a dead body falls.

Canto 6 · 📍 [[third circle]]

Dante Ciacco

You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco; For the pernicious sin of gluttony I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain.

Canto 6

Ciacco Dante

They are among the blacker souls; A different sin downweighs them to the bottom; If thou so far descendest, thou canst see them.

Canto 7 · 📍 [[fourth chasm]]

Virgilius Plutus

Then he turned round unto that bloated lip, And said: “Be silent, thou accursed wolf; Consume within thyself with thine own rage. Not causeless is this journey to the abyss; Thus is it willed on high, where Michael wrought Vengeance upon the proud adultery.” Even as the sails inflated by the wind Involved together fall when snaps the mast, So fell the cruel monster to the earth.

Canto 7

Virgilius Fortune

He in like manner to the mundane splendours Ordained a general ministress and guide, That she might change at times the empty treasures From race to race, from one blood to another, Beyond resistance of all human wisdom.

Canto 7 · 📍 [[Styx]]

Dante Virgilius

Said the good Master: “Son, thou now beholdest The souls of those whom anger overcame; And likewise I would have thee know for certain Beneath the water people are who sigh And make this water bubble at the surface, As the eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turns.

Canto 8

Virgilius Dante Philippo Argenti

Then stretched he both his hands unto the boat; Whereat my wary Master thrust him back,

Canto 8 · 📍 Lucifer · Even now

Dante Virgilius

Even now, my Son, The city draweth near whose name is Dis,

Canto 8 · 📍 Lucifer

Virgilius Dante

They closed the portals, those our adversaries, On my Lord’s breast, who had remained without

Canto 9 · 📍 [[circle of Judas]] · once before

Virgilius Erictho

True is it, once before I here below Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho, Who summoned back the shades unto their bodies.

Canto 9

Dante Virgilius

Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close shut, For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it, No more returning upward would there be. Thus said the Master; and he turned me round Himself, and trusted not unto my hands So far as not to blind me with his own.

Canto 9 · 📍 [[the city]] · Within

Dante Virgilius

Within we entered without any contest; And I, who inclination had to see What the condition such a fortress holds, Soon as I was within, cast round mine eye, And see on every hand an ample plain, Full of distress and torment terrible.

Canto 10

Dante Virgilius

My Master, and I follow at his back.

Canto 10

Farinata Dante

After his head he with a sigh had shaken, “There I was not alone,” he said, “nor surely Without a cause had with the others moved. But there I was alone, where every one Consented to the laying waste of Florence, He who defended her with open face.”

Canto 10

Farinata Dante

But fifty times shall not rekindled be The countenance of the Lady who reigns here, Ere thou shalt know how heavy is that art;

Canto 10

Farinata Frederick II

With more than a thousand here I lie; Within here is the second Frederick, And the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not.

Canto 11

Dante Virgilius

Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons They separated are, and why less wroth Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.”

Canto 12 · 📍 [[Hell]] · a little Before His coming

Virgilius Dante

But truly, if I well discern, a little Before His coming who the mighty spoil Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle, Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley Trembled so, that I thought the Universe Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think The world ofttimes converted into chaos; And at that moment this primeval crag Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow.

Canto 12

Virgilius Chiron Nessus Dante

But by that virtue through which I am moving My steps along this savage thoroughfare, Give us some one of thine, to be with us, And who may show us where to pass the ford, And who may carry this one on his back; For ’tis no spirit that can walk the air.” Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about, And said to Nessus: “Turn and do thou guide them, And warn aside, if other band may meet you.”

Canto 12

Attila Pyrrhus Sextus Rinier da Corneto Rinier Pazzo

Justice divine, upon this side, is goading That Attila, who was a scourge on earth, And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and for ever milks The tears which with the boiling it unseals In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, Who made upon the highways so much war.

Canto 13

Dante Jacopo

Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn; And the trunk cried, “Why dost thou mangle me?”

Canto 13

Jacopo

When the exasperated soul abandons The body whence it rent itself away, Minos consigns it to the seventh abyss. It falls into the forest, and no part Is chosen for it; but where Fortune hurls it, There like a grain of spelt it germinates. It springs a sapling, and a forest tree; The Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves, Do pain create, and for the pain an outlet.

Canto 14 · 📍 [[Phlegra]]

Jove Capaneus

Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra, And shot his bolts at me with all his might,

Canto 14

Virgilius Capaneus

O Capaneus, in that is not extinguished Thine arrogance, thou punished art the more; Not any torment, saving thine own rage, Would be unto thy fury pain complete.”

Canto 14 · It is time now

Dante Virgilius

Then said he: “It is time now to abandon The wood; take heed that thou come after me; A way the margins make that are not burning,

Canto 15

Dante Brunetto Latini

Thus scrutinised by such a family, By some one I was recognised, who seized My garment’s hem, and cried out, “What a marvel!” And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me, On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes, That the scorched countenance prevented not His recognition by my intellect; And bowing down my face unto his own, I made reply, “Are you here, Ser Brunetto?”

Canto 15

Brunetto Latini Dante

But that ungrateful and malignant people, Which of old time from Fesole descended, And smacks still of the mountain and the granite, Will make itself, for thy good deeds, thy foe;

Canto 15

Brunetto Latini Priscian Francis of Accorso

Know them in sum, that all of them were clerks, And men of letters great and of great fame, In the world tainted with the selfsame sin. Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd, And Francis of Accorso;

Canto 16 · 📍 [[Hell]]

Dante Virgilius

Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive; He turned his face towards me, and “Now wait,” He said; “to these we should be courteous.

Canto 16 · 📍 [[Hell]]

Dante Guidoguerra Tegghiaio Aldobrandi Jacopo Rusticucci

I of your city am; and evermore Your labours and your honourable names I with affection have retraced and heard. I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits Promised to me by the veracious Leader; But to the centre first I needs must plunge.”

Canto 16 · 📍 [[Hell]]

Dante Guidoguerra Tegghiaio Aldobrandi Jacopo Rusticucci

Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places, And come to rebehold the beauteous stars, When it shall pleasure thee to say, ‘I was,’ See that thou speak of us unto the people.”

Canto 16

Dante Virgilius

After I this had all from me unloosed, As my Conductor had commanded me, I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled, Whereat he turned himself to the right side, And at a little distance from the verge, He cast it down into that deep abyss.

Canto 17

Dante Virgilius Geryon

I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders; I wished to say, and yet the voice came not As I believed, “Take heed that thou embrace me.” But he, who other times had rescued me In other peril, soon as I had mounted, Within his arms encircled and sustained me,

Canto 17

Dante Virgilius Geryon

Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom, Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock, And being disencumbered of our persons, He sped away as arrow from the string.

Canto 18

Venedico Caccianimico Ghisola Dante

I was the one who the fair Ghisola Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis, Howe’er the shameless story may be told.

Canto 18

[[Alessio Interminei]]

The flatteries have submerged me here below, Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited.

Canto 19 · 📍 [[third Bolgia]]

Simon Magus

O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples, Ye who the things of God, which ought to be The brides of holiness, rapaciously For silver and for gold do prostitute, Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound, Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.

Canto 19

[[Boniface]]

Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever That one shall come who I believed thou wast, What time the sudden question I proposed.

Canto 20

Dante Virgilius

Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said

Canto 20 · afterwards

Tiresias

Behold Tiresias, who his semblance changed, When from a male a female he became, His members being all of them transformed; And afterwards was forced to strike once more The two entangled serpents with his rod, Ere he could have again his manly plumes.

Canto 20 · 📍 [[Mantua]]

Casalodi Pinamonte

Its people once within more crowded were, Ere the stupidity of Casalodi From Pinamonte had received deceit.

Canto 20

Virgilius Eryphylus

Eryphylus his name was, and so sings My lofty Tragedy in some part or other;

Canto 21 · 📍 [[Malebolge]]

Dante Virgilius

And for no outrage that is done to me Be thou afraid, because these things I know, For once before was I in such a scuffle.”

Canto 21 · 📍 [[Malebolge]]

Dante Virgilius

Wherefore I started and came swiftly to him; And all the devils forward thrust themselves, So that I feared they would not keep their compact.

Canto 21 · 📍 [[Malebolge]] · Yesterday, five hours later than this hour

Malacoda Dante Virgilius

Then said to us: “You can no farther go Forward upon this crag, because is lying All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth arch. And if it still doth please you to go onward, Pursue your way along upon this rock; Near is another crag that yields a path.

Canto 21 · 📍 [[Malebolge]]

Dante Virgilius

And he to me: “I will not have thee fear; Let them gnash on, according to their fancy, Because they do it for those boiling wretches.”

Canto 22 · 📍 [[Logodoro]]

Virgilius Don Michael Zanche

Foregathers with him one Don Michael Zanche Of Logodoro; and of Sardinia To gossip never do their tongues feel tired.

Canto 22

Alichino Calcabrina

Infuriate at the mockery, Calcabrina Flying behind him followed close, desirous The other should escape, to have a quarrel. And when the barrator had disappeared, He turned his talons upon his companion, And grappled with him right above the moat. But sooth the other was a doughty sparhawk To clapperclaw him well; and both of them Fell in the middle of the boiling pond.

Canto 23 · 📍 [[fifth moat]]

Dante Virgilius

My Leader on a sudden seized me up, Even as a mother who by noise is wakened, And close beside her sees the enkindled flames,

Canto 23 · 📍 [[fifth moat]]

Catalano Loderingo

Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese; I Catalano, and he Loderingo Named, and together taken by thy city,

Canto 23 · 📍 [[fifth moat]]

Dante Virgilius Catalano

Nearer than thou hopest There is a rock, that forth from the great circle Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys,

Canto 24 · 📍 [[Malebolge]]

Vanni Fucci

And lo! at one who was upon our side There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders. Nor ‘O’ so quickly e’er, nor ‘I’ was written, As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly Behoved it that in falling he became. And when he on the ground was thus destroyed, The ashes drew together, and of themselves Into himself they instantly returned.

Canto 24 · 📍 [[Malebolge]]

Vanni Fucci

So low am I put down because I robbed The sacristy of the fair ornaments, And falsely once ’twas laid upon another;

Canto 25 · 📍 [[Hell]]

Dante Virgilius

My Master said: “That one is Cacus, who

Canto 25

Cianfa Agnello

Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax They had been made, and intermixed their colour; Nor one nor other seemed now what he was;

Canto 25

Ovid Cadmus Arethusa

Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa; For if him to a snake, her to fountain,

Canto 26

Dante Virgilius

We went our way, and up along the stairs The bourns had made us to descend before, Remounted my Conductor and drew me.

Canto 26

Ulysses Diomed

He answered me: “Within there are tormented Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.

Canto 26 · 📍 [[Gaeta]] · more than a year

Ulysses Circe

When I From Circe had departed, who concealed me More than a year there near unto Gaeta,

Canto 26

Ulysses

So eager did I render my companions, With this brief exhortation, for the voyage, That then I hardly could have held them back.

Canto 27 · 📍 [[Soracte]]

Constantine Sylvester

But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester To cure his leprosy, within Soracte,

Canto 28 · 📍 [[ninth Bolgia]]

Mahomet Ali

How mutilated, see, is Mahomet; In front of me doth Ali weeping go, Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;

Canto 28 · 📍 [[Cattolica]]

Pier da Medicina Guido Angiolello

That if foreseeing here be not in vain, Cast over from their vessel shall they be, And drowned near unto the Cattolica, By the betrayal of a tyrant fell.

Canto 28

Bertram de Born Young King

Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort. I made the father and the son rebellious;

Canto 29 · 📍 [[Malebolge]]

Geri del Bello

O my Conductor, his own violent death, Which is not yet avenged for him

Canto 30 · 📍 [[Thebes]]

Juno Semele Athamas Learchus

So reft of reason Athamas became, That, seeing his own wife with children twain Walking encumbered upon either hand, He cried: “Spread out the nets, that I may take The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;” And then extended his unpitying claws, Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus, And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock;

Canto 30

Gianni Schicchi Capocchio

One to Capocchio came, and by the nape Seized with its teeth his neck, so that in dragging It made his belly grate the solid bottom.

Canto 30 · 📍 [[Romena]] · while living

Master Adam

There is Romena, where I counterfeited The currency imprinted with the Baptist, For which I left my body burned above.

Canto 30

Master Adam Sinon

And one of them, who felt himself annoyed At being, peradventure, named so darkly, Smote with the fist upon his hardened paunch. It gave a sound, as if it were a drum; And Master Adam smote him in the face, With arm that did not seem to be less hard,

Canto 31

Dante Virgilius

Then tenderly he took me by the hand,

Canto 31

Dante Virgilius Nimrod

This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought One language in the world is not still used.

Canto 31 · 📍 [[Cocytus]]

Antaeus Dante Virgilius

But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up Judas with Lucifer, he put us down;

Canto 32 · 📍 [[Antenora]]

Dante Bocca

Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him, And said: “It must needs be thou name thyself, Or not a hair remain upon thee here.” Whence he to me: “Though thou strip off my hair, I will not tell thee who I am, nor show thee, If on my head a thousand times thou fall.” I had his hair in hand already twisted, And more than one shock of it had pulled out,

Canto 33

Count Ugolino Ruggieri

That, by effect of his malicious thoughts, Trusting in him I was made prisoner, And after put to death, I need not say;

Canto 33 · the fourth day

Count Ugolino Gaddo

When we had come unto the fourth day, Gaddo Threw himself down outstretched before my feet, Saying, ‘My father, why dost thou not help me?’ And there he died; and, as thou seest me, I saw the three fall, one by one, between The fifth day and the sixth;

Canto 33 · 📍 [[Ptolomaea]]

Friar Alberigo

Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea, That oftentimes the soul descendeth here Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it. And, that thou mayest more willingly remove From off my countenance these glassy tears, Know that as soon as any soul betrays As I have done, his body by a demon Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it, Until his time has wholly been revolved.

Canto 34

Virgilius Dante Lucifer

He from before me moved and made me stop, Saying: “Behold Dis, and behold the place Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself.”

Canto 34

Lucifer [[Judas Iscariot]] Brutus Cassius

That soul up there which has the greatest pain,” The Master said, “is Judas Iscariot; With head inside, he plies his legs without.

Canto 34

Lucifer

Upon this side he fell down out of heaven; And all the land, that whilom here emerged, For fear of him made of the sea a veil,

Canto 34

Virgilius Dante

Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.

Canto 35

Beatrice Virgilius Dante

I came not of myself; A Lady from Heaven descended, at whose prayers I aided this one with my company.

Canto 35 · 📍 [[Utica]]

Cato

Thou know’st it; since, for her, to thee not bitter Was death in Utica, where thou didst leave The vesture, that will shine so, the great day.

Canto 35 · There

Virgilius Dante

There he begirt me as the other pleased; O marvellous! for even as he culled The humble plant, such it sprang up again Suddenly there where he uprooted it.

Canto 36

Angel of God

Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot; Beatitude seemed written in his face, And more than a hundred spirits sat within.

Canto 36 · 📍 [[Tiber]] · three months past

Casella

He, sooth to say, for three months past has taken Whoever wished to enter with all peace; Whence I, who now had turned unto that shore Where salt the waters of the Tiber grow, Benignantly by him have been received.

Canto 36

Dante Virgilius Casella

So that fresh company did I behold The song relinquish, and go tow’rds the hill, As one who goes, and knows not whitherward; Nor was our own departure less in haste.

Canto 37

Dante Virgilius

Now if in front of me no shadow fall, Marvel not at it more than at the heavens

Canto 37

Manfredi Costanza (daughter)

Go to my daughter beautiful, the mother Of Sicily’s honour and of Aragon’s, And the truth tell her, if aught else be told.

Canto 37 · 📍 [[Benevento]] · at that time

Manfredi Clement

The bones of my dead body still would be At the bridge-head, near unto Benevento, Under the safeguard of the heavy cairn.

Canto 37

Manfredi

Must wait upon the outside this bank Thirty times told the time that he has been In his presumption

Canto 38

Dante Virgilius

And he to me: “No step of thine descend; Still up the mount behind me win thy way, Till some sage escort shall appear to us.”

Canto 38

Dante Belacqua

Then knew I who he was; and the distress, That still a little did my breathing quicken, My going to him hindered not; and after I came to him he hardly raised his head, Saying: “Hast thou seen clearly how the sun O’er thy left shoulder drives his chariot?”

Canto 39

Dante Virgilius

And followed in the footsteps of my Guide,

Canto 39 · 📍 [[Archiano]]

Buonconte

My frozen body near unto its outlet The robust Archian found, and into Arno Thrust it, and loosened from my breast the cross I made of me, when agony o’ercame me; It rolled me on the banks and on the bottom, Then with its booty covered and begirt me.”

Canto 39

Pia

He knoweth it, who had encircled first, Espousing me, my finger with his gem.

Canto 40

Virgilius Sordello

Saying: “O Mantuan, I am Sordello Of thine own land!” and one embraced the other.

Canto 41 · the day declines

Sordello Virgilius Dante

So far as I can go, as guide I join thee. But see already how the day declines,

Canto 42

Dante Virgilius

And my Conductor: “Son, what dost thou gaze at Up there?” And I to him: “At those three torches With which this hither pole is all on fire.”

Canto 42 · this morn

Dante Nino

Noble Judge Nino! how it me delighted, When I beheld thee not among the damned!

Canto 42 · 📍 [[Valdimagra]]

Currado Malaspina

Currado Malaspina was I called; I’m not the elder, but from him descended; To mine I bore the love which here refineth.

Canto 43 · as day grew bright

Lucia Dante Virgilius

Sordello and the other noble shapes Remained; she took thee, and, as day grew bright, Upward she came, and I upon her footsteps.

Canto 43

Dante Virgilius

So did I change; and when without disquiet My Leader saw me, up along the cliff He moved, and I behind him, tow’rd the height.

Canto 43

Dante Virgilius

Then pushed the portals of the sacred door, Exclaiming: “Enter; but I give you warning That forth returns whoever looks behind.”

Canto 44

Trajan Gregory

There the high glory of the Roman Prince Was chronicled, whose great beneficence Moved Gregory to his great victory;

Canto 45

Oderisi

And yet I should not be here, were it not That, having power to sin, I turned to God.

Canto 45

Cimabue Giotto

In painting Cimabue thought that he Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry, So that the other’s fame is growing dim.

Canto 45 · 📍 [[Campo of Siena]] · When he in greatest splendour lived

Provenzan Salvani

Freely upon the Campo of Siena, All shame being laid aside, he placed himself; And there to draw his friend from the duress Which in the prison-house of Charles he suffered, He brought himself to tremble in each vein.

Canto 46

Dante Virgilius

I had moved on, and followed willingly, The footsteps of my Master, and we both Already showed how light of foot we were,

Canto 46

Tomyris Cyrus

Displayed the ruin and the cruel carnage That Tomyris wrought, when she to Cyrus said, “Blood didst thou thirst for, and with blood I glut thee!”

Canto 46

Dante

I found but six the letters, that had carved Upon my temples he who bore the keys;

Canto 47

Sapia

And I was at another’s harm More happy far than at my own good fortune.

Canto 47

Pier Pettignano Sapia

Had it not been that in remembrance held me Pier Pettignano in his holy prayers, Who out of charity was grieved for me.

Canto 47 · 📍 [[Tuscany]]

Sapia Dante

And I implore, by what thou most desirest, If e’er thou treadest the soil of Tuscany, Well with my kindred reinstate my fame.

Canto 48

Guido del Duca Renier

Thy grandson I behold, who doth become A hunter of those wolves upon the bank Of the wild stream, and terrifies them all. He sells their flesh, it being yet alive; Thereafter slaughters them like ancient beeves; Many of life, himself of praise, deprives. Blood-stained he issues from the dismal forest; He leaves it such, a thousand years from now In its primeval state ’tis not re-wooded.

Canto 48

Dante Virgilius

“I am Aglaurus, who became a stone!” And then, to press myself close to the Poet, I backward, and not forward, took a step. Already on all sides the air was quiet; And said he to me: “That was the hard curb That ought to hold a man within his bounds;

Canto 49

Dante Virgilius

We mounting were, already thence departed, And “Beati misericordes” was Behind us sung

Canto 49

Dante

Soon as my soul had outwardly returned To things external to it which are true, Did I my not false errors recognize.

Canto 49

Dante Virgilius

This of our eyes and the pure air bereft us.

Canto 50

Dante Marco

“Lombard was I, and I was Marco called; The world I knew, and loved that excellence, At which has each one now unbent his bow. For mounting upward, thou art going right.”

Canto 50

Marco

Hence, if the present world doth go astray, In you the cause is, be it sought in you; And I therein will now be thy true spy.

Canto 50

Marco

Behold the dawn, that through the smoke rays out, Already whitening; and I must depart— Yonder the Angel is—ere he appear.”

Canto 51

Dante Virgilius

We at the point were where no more ascends The stairway upward, and were motionless, Even as a ship, which at the shore arrives; And I gave heed a little, if I might hear Aught whatsoever in the circle new; Then to my Master turned me round and said: “Say, my sweet Father, what delinquency Is purged here in the circle where we are? Although our feet may pause, pause not thy speech.”

Canto 52

Dante Virgilius

These were the words of him who was my Guide; And some one of those spirits said: “Come on

Canto 52 · erelong

Barbarossa San Zeno’s Abbot

Because his son, in his whole body sick, And worse in mind, and who was evil-born, He put into the place of its true pastor.

Canto 53

Siren Ulysses

“I am,” she sang, “I am the Siren sweet Who mariners amid the main unman, So full am I of pleasantness to hear. I drew Ulysses from his wandering way Unto my song, and he who dwells with me Seldom departs so wholly I content him.”

Canto 53 · 📍 [[the fifth circle]] · On the fifth circle

Dante Virgilius

On the fifth circle when I had come forth, People I saw upon it who were weeping, Stretched prone upon the ground, all downward turned.

Canto 54

Hugh Capet

That to the widowed diadem promoted The head of mine own offspring was, from whom The consecrated bones of these began.

Canto 54 · 📍 [[Italy]]

Charles Thomas of Aquinum

Thrust Thomas back to heaven, for amends.

Canto 54 · At that time

Polymnestor Polydorus

Polymnestor who murdered Polydorus.

Canto 55 · Five hundred years and more

Statius

And I, who have been lying in this pain Five hundred years and more, but just now felt A free volition for a better seat. Therefore thou heardst the earthquake, and the pious Spirits along the mountain rendering praise Unto the Lord, that soon he speed them upwards.

Canto 55 · In days when the good Titus

Titus Judas

In days when the good Titus, with the aid Of the supremest King, avenged the wounds Whence issued forth the blood by Judas sold,

Canto 56

Dante

Already was the Angel left behind us, The Angel who to the sixth round had turned us, Having erased one mark from off my face;

Canto 56

Statius

Then I perceived the hands could spread too wide Their wings in spending, and repented me As well of that as of my other sins;

Canto 56 · 📍 [[Limbo]]

Virgilius Terentius Caecilius Plautus Varro Persius Euripides Antiphon Simonides Agatho

These, Persius and myself, and others many, Replied my Leader, “with that Grecian are Whom more than all the rest the Muses suckled, In the first circle of the prison blind; Ofttimes we of the mountain hold discourse Which has our nurses ever with itself. Euripides is with us, Antiphon, Simonides, Agatho, and many other Greeks who of old their brows with laurel decked.

Canto 57

Forese Nella

Thus speedily has led me To drink of the sweet wormwood of these torments, My Nella with her overflowing tears; She with her prayers devout and with her sighs Has drawn me from the coast where one where one awaits, And from the other circles set me free.

Canto 58 · 📍 [[Olympus]]

Forese Piccarda

“My sister, who, ’twixt beautiful and good, I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing Already in her crown on high Olympus.”

Canto 58

Dante Buonagiunta

And I to him: “One am I, who, whenever Love doth inspire me, note, and in that measure Which he within me dictates, singing go.” “O brother, now I see,” he said, “the knot Which me, the Notary, and Guittone held Short of the sweet new style that now I hear.

Canto 58

Dante Virgilius Statius

I raised my head to see who this might be, And never in a furnace was there seen Metals or glass so lucent and so red As one I saw who said: “If it may please you To mount aloft, here it behoves you turn; This way goes he who goeth after peace.”

Canto 59

Diana Helice Venus

This also ended, cried they: “To the wood Diana ran, and drove forth Helice Therefrom, who had of Venus felt the poison.”

Canto 60

Guido Guinicelli

I’m Guido Guinicelli, and now purge me, Having repented ere the hour extreme.

Canto 60

Arnaut

Jeu sui Arnaut, que plor e vai chantan; Consiros vei la passada folor, E vei jauzen lo jorn qu’ esper denan.

Canto 61

Dante Virgilius Beatrice

Seeing me stand still motionless and stubborn, Somewhat disturbed he said: “Now look thou, Son, ’Twixt Beatrice and thee there is this wall.” As at the name of Thisbe oped his lids The dying Pyramus, and gazed upon her, What time the mulberry became vermilion, Even thus, my obduracy being softened, I turned to my wise Guide, hearing the name That in my memory evermore is welling.

Canto 62

Dante Matelda

And there appeared to me (even as appears Suddenly something that doth turn aside Through very wonder every other thought) A lady all alone, who went along Singing and culling floweret after floweret,

Canto 62

Dante Matelda

Here was the human race in innocence; Here evermore was Spring, and every fruit; This is the nectar of which each one speaks.

Canto 63

Dante Ezekiel John

But read Ezekiel, who depicteth them As he beheld them from the region cold Coming with cloud, with whirlwind, and with fire; And such as thou shalt find them in his pages, Such were they here; saving that in their plumage John is with me, and differeth from him.

Canto 64

Dante Virgilius

But us Virgilius of himself deprived Had left, Virgilius, sweetest of all fathers, Virgilius, to whom I for safety gave me:

Canto 64

Dante Beatrice

And into ways untrue he turned his steps, Pursuing the false images of good, That never any promises fulfil;

Canto 65

Dante Beatrice

Weeping I said: “The things that present were With their false pleasure turned aside my steps, Soon as your countenance concealed itself.”

Canto 65

Dante Beatrice

Such self-conviction stung me at the heart O’erpowered I fell, and what I then became She knoweth who had furnished me the cause.

Canto 65

Beatrice Dante

The beautiful lady opened wide her arms, Embraced my head, and plunged me underneath, Where I was forced to swallow of the water. Then forth she drew me, and all dripping brought Into the dance of the four beautiful,

Canto 65

Dante Beatrice

As in a glass the sun, not otherwise Within them was the twofold monster shining, Now with the one, now with the other nature.

Canto 66

Peter John James Elias Moses Christ

Peter and John and James conducted were, And, overcome, recovered at the word By which still greater slumbers have been broken, And saw their school diminished by the loss Not only of Elias, but of Moses, And the apparel of their Master changed;

Canto 66

Beatrice Dante

Therefore, for that world’s good which liveth ill, Fix on the car thine eyes, and what thou seest, Having returned to earth, take heed thou write.

Canto 66

Beatrice

But for his hideous sins upbraiding him, My Lady put him to as swift a flight As such a fleshless skeleton could bear.

Canto 66

Dante

Transfigured thus the holy edifice Thrust forward heads upon the parts of it, Three on the pole and one at either corner. The first were horned like oxen; but the four Had but a single horn upon the forehead;

Canto 67 · 📍 [[Eunoe]]

Beatrice Matilda Dante

But Eunoe behold, that yonder rises; Lead him to it, and, as thou art accustomed, Revive again the half-dead virtue in him.”

Canto 67

Dante

From the most holy water I returned Regenerate, in the manner of new trees That are renewed with a new foliage, Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.

Canto 68

Dante Beatrice

Thou art not upon earth, as thou believest; But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site, Ne’er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.

Canto 69 · 📍 [[first star]]

Dante Beatrice

Upward gazed Beatrice, and I at her; And in such space perchance as strikes a bolt And flies, and from the notch unlocks itself, Arrived I saw me where a wondrous thing Drew to itself my sight; and therefore she From whom no care of mine could be concealed, Towards me turning, blithe as beautiful, Said unto me: “Fix gratefully thy mind On God, who unto the first star has brought us.”

Canto 70

Dante Beatrice

True substances are these which thou beholdest, Here relegate for breaking of some vow.

Canto 70

Piccarda

And this allotment, which appears so low, Therefore is given us, because our vows Have been neglected and in some part void.

Canto 70

Costanza (daughter)

Of great Costanza this is the effulgence, Who from the second wind of Suabia Brought forth the third and latest puissance.

Canto 70

Piccarda

Thus unto me she spake, and then began “Ave Maria” singing, and in singing Vanished, as through deep water something heavy.

Canto 71

Beatrice Dante

They showed themselves here, not because allotted This sphere has been to them, but to give sign Of the celestial which is least exalted.

Canto 72

Dante Beatrice

The greatest gift that in his largess God Creating made, and unto his own goodness Nearest conformed, and that which he doth prize Most highly, is the freedom of the will, Wherewith the creatures of intelligence Both all and only were and are endowed.

Canto 73

Justinian

Who, by the will of primal Love I feel, Took from the laws the useless and redundant;

Canto 73

Justinian Belisarius

And to my Belisarius I commended The arms, to which was heaven’s right hand so joined It was a signal that I should repose.

Canto 73 · 📍 [[Nile]]

Caesar Ptolemy Juba

Antandros and the Simois, whence it started, It saw again, and there where Hector lies, And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself. From thence it came like lightning upon Juba;

Canto 73

Raymond Berenger Romeo

And then malicious words incited him To summon to a reckoning this just man, Who rendered to him seven and five for ten.

Canto 74 · 📍 [[Paradise]]

God

Your nature when it sinned so utterly, In its own seed, out of these dignities Even as out of Paradise was driven,

Canto 74

God Christ

Considering who the Person was that suffered, Within whom such a nature was contracted. From one act therefore issued things diverse; To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing; Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened.

Canto 74

God

The Angels, brother, and the land sincere In which thou art, created may be called Just as they are in their entire existence;

Canto 75 · 📍 [[Palermo]]

Charles

If evil lordship, that exasperates ever The subject populations, had not moved Palermo to the outcry of ‘Death! death!’

Canto 75

Esau Jacob

Thence happens it that Esau differeth In seed from Jacob;

Canto 76

Charles Dante

Beautiful Clemence, after that thy Charles Had me enlightened, he narrated to me The treacheries his seed should undergo;

Canto 76 · 📍 [[Padua]] · soon

Cunizza Dante

But soon ’twill be that Padua in the marsh Will change the water that Vicenza bathes, Because the folk are stubborn against duty;

Canto 76

Folco Rahab Dante

Then know thou, that within there is at rest Rahab, and being to our order joined, With her in its supremest grade ’tis sealed.

Canto 76 · 📍 [[Holy Land]]

Rahab Joshua

Because she favoured the first glorious deed Of Joshua upon the Holy Land, That little stirs the memory of the Pope.

Canto 77

Dante

Give thanks, give thanks Unto the Sun of Angels, who to this Sensible one has raised thee by his grace!

Canto 78

Dante Beatrice

When I, from all these things emancipate, With Beatrice above there in the Heavens With such exceeding glory was received!

Canto 78

Bernard

So much so that the venerable Bernard First bared his feet, and after so great peace Ran, and, in running, thought himself too slow.

Canto 78

Francis Innocent

But regally his hard determination To Innocent he opened, and from him Received the primal seal upon his Order.

Canto 78

Francis Christ

On the rude rock ’twixt Tiber and the Arno From Christ did he receive the final seal, Which during two whole years his members bore.

Canto 79

God Noah

God set with Noah, presageful of the world That shall no more be covered with a flood,

Canto 79

Dominic

A spirit from this place went forth to name him With His possessive whose he wholly was. Dominic was he called;

Canto 79

Dominic

Then with the doctrine and the will together, With office apostolical he moved, Like torrent which some lofty vein out-presses; And in among the shoots heretical His impetus with greater fury smote,

Canto 80

Dante Beatrice

Now ope thine eyes to what I answer thee, And thou shalt see thy creed and my discourse Fit in the truth as centre in a circle.

Canto 80

Beatrice Sabellius Arius

Thus did Sabellius, Arius, and those fools Who have been even as swords unto the Scriptures In rendering distorted their straight faces.

Canto 81

Dante

When, glorious and sanctified, our flesh Is reassumed, then shall our persons be More pleasing by their being all complete;

Canto 81

Dante Beatrice

Then to uplift themselves mine eyes resumed The power, and I beheld myself translated To higher salvation with my Lady only.

Canto 81

Dante Helios

For with so great a lustre and so red Splendours appeared to me in twofold rays, I said: “O Helios who dost so adorn them!”

Canto 82 · 📍 [[ancient Baptistery]]

Mary Cacciaguida

Did Mary give me, with loud cries invoked, And in your ancient Baptistery at once Christian and Cacciaguida I became.

Canto 82 · afterward

Cacciaguida Emperor Conrad

I followed afterward the Emperor Conrad, And he begirt me of his chivalry, So much I pleased him with my noble deeds.

Canto 83 · 📍 [[Florence]]

Dante

All those who at that time were there between Mars and the Baptist, fit for bearing arms, Were a fifth part of those who now are living;

Canto 84

Dante

Thou shalt abandon everything beloved Most tenderly, and this the arrow Is Which first the bow of banishment shoots forth.

Canto 84 · ere the Gascon cheat the noble Henry

the Gascon Henry

But ere the Gascon cheat the noble Henry, Some sparkles of his virtue shall appear In caring not for silver nor for toil.

Canto 84

Henry

By him shall many people be transformed, Changing condition rich and mendicant;

Canto 85

Peter Paul

That Peter and that Paul, who for this vineyard Which thou art spoiling died, are still alive!

Canto 86 · 📍 [[the shore of Indus]]

a man born on the shore of Indus

He dieth unbaptised and without faith; Where is this justice that condemneth him? Where is his fault, if he do not believe?

Canto 86 · 📍 [[the realm of Prague]] · ere long

Albert

There shall be seen, among the deeds of Albert, That which ere long shall set the pen in motion, For which the realm of Prague shall be deserted.

Canto 86 · 📍 [[Nicosia]] · now

Nicosia Famagosta

And shall appear to each one the foul deeds Of uncle and of brother who a nation So famous have dishonoured, and two crowns. And he of Portugal and he of Norway Shall there be known, and he of Rascia too, Who saw in evil hour the coin of Venice. O happy Hungary, if she let herself Be wronged no farther! and Navarre the happy, If with the hills that gird her she be armed! And each one may believe that now, as hansel Thereof, do Nicosia and Famagosta Lament and rage because of their own beast, Who from the others’ flank departeth not.

Canto 88

Dante Beatrice

We are uplifted to the seventh splendour,

Canto 88 · 📍 [[Catria]]

Peter Damiano

Therein Unto God’s service I became so steadfast, That feeding only on the juice of olives Lightly I passed away the heats and frosts, Contented in my thoughts contemplative.

Canto 89

Beatrice Dante

The gentle Lady urged me on behind them Up o’er that stairway by a single sign, So did her virtue overcome my nature;

Canto 89

Dante Hyperion Maia Dione

The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves Around and near him Maia and Dione.

Canto 90

Beatrice Dante

“Open thine eyes, and look at what I am: Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough Hast thou become to tolerate my smile.”

Canto 90

Angelic Love Mary Christ

“I am Angelic Love, that circle round The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb That was the hostelry of our Desire; And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while Thou followest thy Son, and mak’st diviner The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there.”

Canto 90

Mary

Thereafter they remained there in my sight, ‘Regina coeli’ singing with such sweetness, That ne’er from me has the delight departed.

Canto 91

Dante God

And I respond: In one God I believe, Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens With love and with desire, himself unmoved;

Canto 92

Dante Peter

Because into the Faith that maketh known All souls to God there entered I, and then Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled.

Canto 92 · 📍 [[Jerusalem]] · Or ever yet his warfare be completed

Dante

Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt To come into Jerusalem to see, Or ever yet his warfare be completed.

Canto 92 · 📍 [[Happy World]]

Dante Beatrice

Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed, When I turned round to look on Beatrice, That her I could not see, although I was Close at her side and in the Happy World!

Canto 93

Dante God

Have drawn me from the sea of love perverse, And of the right have placed me on the shore.

Canto 93

Adam Dante

The tasting of the tree Not in itself was cause of so great exile, But solely the o’erstepping of the bounds.

Canto 93

Adam God

‘El’ was on earth the name of the Chief Good, From whom comes all the joy that wraps me round ‘Eli’ he then was called

Canto 94 · 📍 [[Paradise]]

Beatrice

Even thus did Beatrice change countenance; And I believe in heaven was such eclipse, When suffered the supreme Omnipotence;

Canto 95

Beatrice Dante

Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady Had me provided with her clear response, And like a star in heaven the truth was seen.

Canto 95

Gregory

For he who saw it here revealed it to him, With much more of the truth about these circles.

Canto 96

God

So from its Lord did the triform effect Ray forth into its being all together, Without discrimination of beginning.

Canto 96

angels

Nor could one reach, in counting, unto twenty So swiftly, as a portion of these angels Disturbed the subject of your elements. The rest remained, and they began this art Which thou discernest, with so great delight That never from their circling do they cease.

Canto 96

angels

On which account their vision was exalted By the enlightening grace and their own merit, So that they have a full and steadfast will.

Canto 97 · 📍 [[heaven that is pure light]]

Dante Beatrice

With voice and gesture of a perfect leader She recommenced: “We from the greatest body Have issued to the heaven that is pure light;

Canto 97

Dante

There is no babe that leaps so suddenly With face towards the milk, if he awake Much later than his usual custom is, As I did, that I might make better mirrors Still of mine eyes, down stooping to the wave Which flows that we therein be better made.

Canto 97 · 📍 [[Rose Eternal]]

Dante Beatrice

On that great throne whereon thine eyes are fixed For the crown’s sake already placed upon it, Before thou suppest at this wedding feast Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come To redress Italy ere she be ready.

Canto 98

Beatrice Bernard Dante

To put an end to thy desire, Me Beatrice hath sent from mine own place.

Canto 98

Beatrice Dante

Thus I implored; and she, so far away, Smiled, as it seemed, and looked once more at me; Then unto the eternal fountain turned.

Canto 98

Beatrice Dante

Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom, By all those ways, by all the expedients, Whereby thou hadst the power of doing it.

Canto 99

Christ Mary

Because he is the one who bore the palm Down unto Mary, when the Son of God To take our burden on himself decreed.

Canto 99

Dante Virgilius

And thou shalt follow me with thy affection That from my words thy heart turn not aside.” And he began this holy orison.

Canto 100

Bernard Dante

Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling, That I should upward look; but I already Was of my own accord such as he wished;

Canto 100

Dante Christ

Within the deep and luminous subsistence Of the High Light appeared to me three circles, Of threefold colour and of one dimension, And by the second seemed the first reflected As Iris is by Iris, and the third Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed.

Canto 100

Dante

But now was turning my desire and will, Even as a wheel that equally is moved, The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.