he placed, according to his opinion of their merits, the various individuals who had taken part in public affairs, while he distributed various other natural and supernatural agents according to the suggestions of his poetic genius.

L'INFERNO.

[The infernal regions, as here represented, consist of nine circles, forming an inverted cone, each succeeding circle being lower and narrower than the former; while Lucifer is chained in the centre, and at the bottom of the dreadful crater. Each circle contains various cavities, where the punishments vary in proportion to the guilt that has been incurred; and there is a sensible augmentation in the intensity of suffering as the circles descend and contract.]

'Twas in the middle stage of human life,+
That once I found me in a darksome wood,
Astray and wandering; no easy task
It were to tell the horrors of that scene,
Which to remember only, still renews
Horror and bitterness not far from death.

I was presently beset by wild beasts, and ready to despair, when I perceived a human form, which proved to be that of Virgil.

'Art thou that Virgil, then? the fountain-head ›
Whence roll the streams of eloquence along?'-
Thus with a bashful front I humbly said:
"O light and glory of the sons of song!
So favour me as I thy page have sought

With unremitting love and study long!

Thou art the guide and master of my thought;

Sole author thou, from whom the inspirèd strain

That crowns my name with deathless praise I brought!'

He at once undertook to guide me, assuring me there was no way of escape from my perilous situation, except through the world of shades, less dreadful under his protection than the infested wood. I conjured him to lead on, as he proposed.

Now slowly sunk the sun, and night's dun robe
O'ercast the weary world; the brutes released
From toil, sank in repose; while I alone
Girded myself the conflict to sustain

Many hundred individuals are brought under notice in the poem; but in the following pages we shall seldom notice any of them, unless where connected with interesting episodes, as their introduction would demand copious explanatory

notes.

The vision is, therefore, to be considered as dating about the year 1300.

At once of danger on the dreadful road,
And pity for the souls I was to see.

O Muse! O lofty genius! lend your aid;
O Memory! that recorded what I saw,

Now rouse thyself, and shew thy noble powers!

But again I doubted and hesitated, and thereupon Virgil related the cause wherefore he had come; that as he remained in Limbo as a suspended spirit, he was visited by a beautiful lady, who revealed herself as Beatrice, and entreated him to hasten to the help of one whom she still loved so much. It was enough.

As tender flowers, which, in the frosty night,
Are bent and closed, but at the day's return,
Rise and unfold upon their dewy stems;
So was my drooping courage new restored.

Presently we arrived at the gate of hell, over the arch of which were inscribed these fearful words:

Through me you pass into the realm of wo;
Through me to regions of eternal pain;
Through me, among a people lost for aye.
Justice divine my strong foundation laid;
And Love, by Wisdom led, the limits drew.
My being was, when things create were none,
Save things eternal; and such thing am I.
Abandon hope, all ye that enter here.

The interior corresponded with this terrible introduction.
Here wailings, sighs, and lamentations loud,
Rung round the starless sky; and I, too, wept.
Discordant tongues, and cries of deep distress,
With hands together smote, and words of ire
Tumultuous rose, and through the darkened air
Sped like the sand by fiercest whirlwind borne.

This, however, was but the vestibule, occupied by those angels* who neither swelled the ranks of the faithful, nor joined the legions of Satan in the great apostasy, and who were therefore driven from heaven, and denied reception into the bosom of hell. Their human companions are those who have filled their places on earth without either singular merit or demerit.

Those miserables, who never truly lived;
No record of their names is left on high;
Justice and Mercy both alike disdain them.
Take we no note of them-look, and pass by.+

* A class, we need scarcely remark, of the poet's own imagination.

It would appear that Dante, deeply imbued with the spirit of republican faction, would thus consign to scornful oblivion those men who had maintained a selfish neutrality during the struggles of their country, exempting themselves from exertion and sacrifice while the conflict lasted, and holding themselves in readiness to enter into amicable relations with whichever party proved victorious.

Passing them, we arrived on the banks of the Acheron, where we found Charon, under the figure of an old man, with a gray beard and flaming eyes, conducting wretched souls across the stream.* He was indignant at seeing a living spirit among the passengers, and would have repelled me, but Virgil replied with stern authority:

'No more! 'Tis willed where will and power are onc.'
In silence fell the shaggy cheeks of Charon,
Quick from his eyeballs fled the rancorous fire.
Meanwhile those spirits, faint and naked, changed
Their colour as they heard the stern command;
And gnashed their teeth, and cursed their natal-day,
Their parent-clime, their lineage, and their God;
Then to the fatal strand together drew,
With wailings of despair. The demon form
Collects them, beckoning with his burning eyes;
And each that lingers, with his oar he strikes.
As fall the light and withered leaves of autumn,
One after other, till the bough has strewn
Its honours on the earth; so the lost sons
Of Adam's race, cast themselves one by one
Into the pinnace, and embark apace.

In the first circle were neither cries nor tears, but the eternal sighs of those who, having never received Christian baptism, were for ever excluded from the abodes of bliss. Virgil explained their unhappy case, adding that himself was one of their number; and that their only suffering consisted in an intense but hopeless desire for the happiness of heaven. Here, too, were Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, and I was gratified by receiving their salutations, as one whose genius was worthy to rank with theirs, while my superior religious privileges exempted me from their eternal doom. Other compartments of the same circle included the virtuous sages and heroes of antiquity, as well as all unbaptised infants.

At the entrance of this second circle was seated Minos, the infernal judge, to whom each soul confessed its faults, and who indicated the circle to which each was doomed by winding his tail so many times round his body. The interior of this circle is appropriated to the punishment of those whose souls have been lost by the indulgence of guilty love, and who are tossed about by furious winds in the darkened air.

As during winter's reign, full many a troop
Of starlings on the wing are borne abroad;
So bears the tyrannous blast those carnal souls.
Now on this side, now that, above, below,

It drives them, hopeless of e'er finding rest.

*The poet makes no scruple about mixing up the old hell with the new one, as it was perfectly orthodox in his day to consider the gods of heathen mythology as identical with the evil spirits of the Christian revelation.

Among them, Virgil pointed out Semiramis, Cleopatra, Helen, Paris, and Tristan; and I myself recognised the unhappy Francesca da Rimini,* and Paulo, her lover.

Then I Afflicted pair! descend and say,
Why thus ye mourn?' The gentle ghosts obey,
And light, attentive to my warm request:
As, with her faithful mate, the turtle-dove
Descends obedient to the call of love,

On steady wing, and seeks the nuptial nest.

Dido they left, that led the numerous flight,
And through the shadows of eternal night,

Struck by the potent charm, the lovers came:
'Mortal,' they cried, 'whose friendly thoughts impel
Thy feet to wander through the shades of hell,
To learn our woes the fates allow your claim!

Ah! could the fruitless prayers that hence arise,
Bend the stern Ruler of the distant skies,

Thine were the joys of everlasting rest!
So sweet the pause thy adjurations gain
For us, ill-fated pair, untimely slain

Where PADUS rolls the tribute of the west!

This mangled form was fated to inspire
The gentle Paulo's breast with amorous fire;
From his to mine the soft infection spread:
Too soon the fatal secret I divined;

Too soon with his my guilty wish combined,

Wretch that I was! who shared his brother's bed!

Love linked our souls above, and links below,
But far beneath, in scenes of deeper wo,

The eldest murderer and his mates prepare

Already to receive the ruffian's soul:
Where Caina reaches to the nether pole

With fratricides the penal doom to share.'

When she paused, I begged of her to tell how they came to understand each other's feelings.

She wept, and,' Oh! how grievous to relate

Past joys, and tread again the paths of fate,

Francesca, daughter of Guido da Polenta, the last and most generous of Dante's patrons, had been tenderly attached to Paulo, son of the Lord of Rimini; but her father, from political motives, obliged her to marry the elder brother, Lancillotto, whose ungainly appearance and unamiable temper were little calculated to reconcile her to the restraint that had been put on her affections. Francesca and Paulo had frequent opportunities of meeting; the result was disastrous to conjugal honour; and Lancillotto put both to death on the spot, hurrying them unprepared into the eternal world.

Let him who sang Eliza's woes declare:
But since unsated still, the wish remains
To know the source of our eternal pains,
Thou shalt not vainly breathe the pious prayer.

'One day-a day I ever must deplore!—
The gentle youth, to spend a vacant hour,
To me the soft seducing story read,
Of Launcelot and fair Genevra's love,
While fascinating all the quiet grove,

Fallacious Peace her snares around us spread,

'Too much I found the insidious volume charm,
And Paulo's mantling blushes rising warm-
Still as he read, the guilty secret told:
Soon from the line his eyes began to stray;
Soon did my yielding looks my heart betray,
Nor needed words our wishes to unfold.

'Eager to realise the storied bliss,

Trembling he snatched the half-resented kiss,
To ill soon lessoned by the pander-page!
Vile pander-page! it smoothed the paths of shame.'
While thus she spoke, the partner of her flame

Turned his deep sorrows to the whirlwind's rage.

Now my feelings overcame me, and I fell fainting on the ground. On my recovery, I found myself in the third circle, where gluttons were punished by being obliged to lie in the mire under a continued storm of hail, snow, and discoloured water; while Cerberus barked over them through his threefold throat, and tore them piecemeal with his claws. One of these, who on earth was named Ciacco (a hog), foretold to me the divisions by which Florence was soon to be torn, the ruin of the Guelph party, and the arrival of Charles de Valois. Passing thence, I asked Virgil concerning the future lot of these sinners.

'Shall hell increase these torments, or abate,
When the last day the final sentence brings,
Or leave their pangs as now?'-'Let science tell,'
My guide replied: it has the question solved,

6

That everything, as it perfection nears,

More sensible becomes to bliss or pain.

Though never to perfection may arrive

These wretched souls, yet nearer then than now
They must approach it.'

The entrance of the fourth circle was guarded by Plutus, while within it was filled with misers and spendthrifts, rolling immense weights against each other in direful conflict, and with mutual upbraidings. Among them were conspicuous some with tonsured