Inferno
Canto I
It is the eve of Good Friday, 1300, and Dante is thirty-five years old. He comes to himself in the darkness of the wood of Error, not knowing how he had lost the true way. Gaining the foot of a hill, the Delectable Mountain, or hill of virtue, he is cheered by the morning sun, and begins the ascent, but is baffled by a Leopard (Lust), then dismayed by a Lion (Pride), and a She-Wolf (Avarice). Turning to run back to the valley, he is met by the spirit of Virgil, the poet of his adoration, who in the Vision typifies human wisdom. Virgil tells him that he cannot pass the She-Wolf, though a saviour of Italy is one day to arise who will chase her into Hell; and Dante is to follow him and be shown the spirits who are in pain and have no hope, and the spirits who through pain are to come to bliss; and from these he will be led by another (Beatrice, Dante’s early love, typifying Heavenly Wisdom) to see the spirits in Paradise. Dante follows in Virgil’s steps.
Midway life’s journey I was made aware
That I had strayed into a dark forest,
And the right path appeared not anywhere.
Ah, tongue cannot describe how it oppressed,
This wood, so harsh, dismal and wild, that fear
At thought of it strikes now into my breast.
So bitter it is, death is scarce bitterer.
But, for the good it was my hap to find,
I speak of the other things that I saw there.
I cannot well remember in my mind [10]
How I came thither, so was I immersed
In sleep, when the true way I left behind.
But when my footsteps had attained the first
Slope of a hill, at the end of that drear vale
Which with such terror had my spirit pierced,
I looked up, and beheld its shoulders pale
Already in clothing of that planet’s light[i]17. “That planet”: the sun, which is just rising. The sun, here and elsewhere, typifies enlightenment, perhaps righteous choice, the intelligent use of the free will.
Which guideth men on all roads without fail.
Then had my bosom a little of respite
From what had all the pool of my heart tost [20]
While I so piteously endured the night.
As one, whom pantings of his breath exhaust,
Escaped from the deep water to the shore,
Turns back and gazes on the danger crost,
So my mind, fleeing still and stricken sore,
Turned back to gaze astonished on that pass
Which none hath ever left alive before.
When my tired body had rested a brief space
I trod anew the slope, desert and bare, [30]
With the firmer foot still in the lower place.[ii]30. This perplexing and much discussed line seems to describe the act of cautiously feeling one’s way up a slope.
And at the ascent, as ’t were on the first stair,
Behold! a Leopard, very swift and light[iii]32. When Dante tries to scale the hill, three beasts beset his path. These animals evidently stand for Dante’s vicious habits, which prevent his reform. The ravening wolf is Incontinence of any kind, the raging lion is Violence, the swift and stealthy leopard is Fraud. We may understand, from the episode, that Dante could perhaps have overcome the graver sins of Fraud and Violence, but was unable, without heavenly aid, to rid himself of some of the habits of Incontinence.
And covered with a hide of mottled hair.
And it would not depart, but opposite
On my path faced me, so that many a time
I turned me to go back, because of it.
The moment was the morning’s earliest prime,
And the sun mounted up, accompanied
By those stars that with him began to climb[iv]39-41. It was believed that when the universe was created, the heavenly bodies were placed in their vernal positions. The sun is in the sign of Aries from March 21 to April 20 inclusive.
When divine Love first made through heaven to glide [40]
Those things of beauty, so that hope I caught
Of that wild creature with the gaudy hide.
The hour of time and the sweet season wrought
Thus on me; yet not so much, but when appeared
A Lion, terror to my heart he brought.
He seemed coming against me with head reared
Ravening with hunger, and so terrible
That the very air seemed of his breath afeared;
And a She-Wolf, that in her famished fell
Looked all infuriate craving (she hath meant [50]
To many ere now that they in misery dwell)
On me with grimness of her aspect sent
A burden that my spirit overpowered,
So that I lost the hope of the ascent.
As one that is with lust of gain devoured,
When comes the time that makes him lose, will rack
His thoughts, lamenting all his hope deflowered,
To such state brought me, in dread of his attack,
That restless beast, who by degrees perforce
To where the Sun is silent drove me back. [60]
While I was rushing on my downward course
Suddenly on my sight there seemed to start
One who appeared from a long silence hoarse.[v]63. At this crisis Reason, personified in Virgil, comes, at divine bidding, to the sinner’s rescue. The voice of Reason has not been heeded for so long that it comes faintly to the sinner’s ear.
When I beheld him in that great desert
“Have pity on me!” I cried out to his face,
“Whatsoever—shade or very man—thou art.”
He answered me: “Not man; man once I was.
My parents both were of the Lombard name,
Of Mantua by their country and by their race,
Sub Julio was I born, though late I came: [70][vi]70-71. “Sub Julio”: at the time of Julius Caesar; but so late that he was identified with the reign of Augustus, and not that of Caesar. Virgil was barely twenty-six when Caesar perished.
In Rome the good Augustus on me shone,
In the time of the false Gods of lying fame.[vii]72. Repeatedly Virgil makes pathetic but always dignified and reticent allusion to his lack of Christianity and his consequent eternal exclusion from the presence of God.
Poet was I, and sang of that just son[viii]73. “That just son”: Aeneas.
Of old Anchises, who came out from Troy
After the burning of proud Ilion.
But thou, why turn’st thou back to such annoy?
Why climbest not the Mount Delectable
The cause and the beginning of all joy?”
“And art thou, then, that Virgil, and that well
Which pours abroad so ample a stream of song?” [80]
I answered him abashed, with front that fell.
“O glory and light of all the poets’ throng!
May the ardent study and great love serve me now
Which made me to peruse thy book so long![ix]84. We learn from Inf. XX, 114 that Dante knew the Aeneid by heart.
Thou art my Master and my Author thou.
Thou only art he from whom the noble style
I took, wherein my merit men avow.
Regard yon beast from which I made recoil!
Help me from her, renownèd sage, for she
Puts all my veins and pulses in turmoil.” [90]
“Needs must thou find another way to flee,”
He answered, seeing my eyes with weeping fill,
“If thou from this wild place wouldst get thee free;
Because this beast, at which thou criest still,
Suffereth none to go upon her path,
But hindereth and entangleth till she kill,
And hath a nature so perverse in wrath,
Her craving maw never is satiated
But after food the fiercer hunger hath.
Many are the creatures with whom she hath wed, [100]
And shall be yet more, till appear the Hound[x]101-105. This Hound is obviously a redeemer who shall set the world aright. If we compare this passage with another prophecy in Purg. XXX, 40-45, it is tolerably clear that he is to be a temporal rather than a spiritual saviour—a great Emperor, whose mission it shall be to establish the balance of power, restore justice, and guide erring humanity. Such an Emperor, destined to come at the end of the world, was not unknown to legend. As the prediction was still unfulfilled at the time of the writing, Dante naturally made it vague. We know that the poet entertained great hopes of the youthful leader, Can Grande della Scala, in Dante’s last years the chief representative of the Imperial power in Italy. “Feltro and Feltro” may point to the towns of Feltre and Monte Feltro.
By whom in pain she shall be stricken dead.
He will not batten on pelf or fruitful ground,
But wisdom, love, and virtue shall he crave.
‘Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his folk abound.
He that abasèd Italy shall save,
For which Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus died,
For which her virgin blood Camilla gave.[xi]108. Camilla, a warrior virgin who fought against the Trojans.
And her through every city far and wide
Back into Hell’s deep dungeon shall he chase, [110]
Whence envy first let loose her ravening stride.
Wherefore I judge this fittest for thy case
That I should lead thee, and thou follow in faith,
To journey hence through an eternal place,
Where thou shalt hear cries of despairing breath,
Shalt look on the ancient spirits in their pain,
Such that each calls out for a second death.
And thou shalt see those who in fire refrain[xii]118-119. The souls in Purgatory.
From sorrow, since their hope is in the end,
Whensoever it be, to the blessèd to attain. [120]
To whom if thou desirest to ascend
There shall be a spirit worthier than I,[xiii]122. Beatrice.
When I depart, who shall thy steps befriend.
For that Lord Emperor who reigns on high,
Because I was not to his law submiss,
Wills not that I to his city come too nigh.
In every part he ruleth, and all is his,
There is his city, there is his high seat:
O happy, whom he chooseth for that bliss!”
And I to him: “O Poet, I entreat [130]
In the name of that God whom thou didst not know,
So that I ’scape this ill and worse ill yet,
Lead me where thou hast spoken of but now,
So that my eyes St. Peter’s gate may find[xiv]134. The gate of Purgatory, opened only to the elect.
And those whom thou portrayest in such woe!”
Then he moved onward: and I went behind.