Inferno
Canto XXI
The next chasm of Malebolge into which they look is that of the Barrators and Peculators who made a traffic of public offices. These are submerged in a river of boiling pitch and are kept under by a horde of demons armed with long hooks and called Malebranche or Evil-Talons. These demons threaten the poets, till Virgil appeases their chief, who gives them directions (afterwards proved false) and appoints ten of his band to escort them.
FROM bridge to bridge we came, with other talk
Which to recite my Comedy hath no care,
Keeping the summit of the stony baulk.
Then stopt we, on Malebolge’s following lair
To look, and other vain lamenting moil;
And marvellously dark I found it there.
As the Venetians in their arsenal boil[i]7-15. The mention of the pitch leads to a lifelike description of the great arsenal, or shipyard, in Venice, famous during and after the Middle Ages, where the sailors utilise the enforced idleness of winter to repair their damaged craft.
The lumps of pitch in winter, stiff as glue,
To caulk the ships whose timbers warp and spoil,
Since sail they cannot then; whereof in lieu, [10]
Some of a vessel worn with voyage plug
The ribs, and others build their craft anew;
Some shape oars, others plait ropes, twist and tug,
Some hammer at the poop, some at the prow,
Or mend sails, one the jib and one the lug:
So, not by fire, but divine art knows how,
Thick pitch down there boiled, and on every side
The bank was slimed with the overbrimming slough.
The pitch I saw, but naught therein espied
Except the bubbles which the boiling raised, [20]
And watched it all heave and comprest subside.
While downward fixedly thereon I gazed,
My Guide, suddenly saying “Have a care!”
Drew me to him from where I stood amazed.
I turned like one who cannot choose but dare
Turn round to look on that which he must flee
And who is undermined with sudden scare,
So that he puts not off his flight to see;
And there I saw a black devil ascend
The crag behind us, running easily. [30]
Ah, what a grimness did his look portend!
How sorely did his cruel gesture daunt,
Light on his feet and with his wings opened!
His shoulder, that was sharp and arrogant,
For burden a sinner by the haunches bore
And by the ankle he gript the miscreant.
“Ye Evil-Claws,” he cried down to the shore,
Beneath. “An elder of Santa Zita! Ho![ii]38. The chief magistrates of Lucca were called Elders. Santa Zita was the special patron saint of Lucca.
Thrust him well under while I go for more
To the city I filled with them to overflow. [40]
Barrators all, except Bonturo, and lief
Would each for money make a Yes of No.”[iii]42. “Except Bonturo” is ironical: Bonturo Dati, boss of Lucca, was the worst grafter of all.
He flung him down, then wheeled along the cliff;
And never from his leash did mastiff bound
With more alacrity to chase a thief.
The sinner plunged, then rose and writhed him round.
But covered by the bridge the Demons cried:
“Here are no Holy Faces to be found;[iv]48-49. The hunched-up shape of their victim suggests to the humorous demons the attitude of prayer.—The Serchio is a stream near Lucca.
Here’s other diving than on Serchio side.
Above the pitch then heave not up thy chin [50]
Unless thou care not from our hooks to hide.”
With more than a hundred prongs for discipline
They nicked him, crying, “There, thou dancer, lurk!
There’s privacy to try thy thieving in.”
Just so the cooks bid underlings at work
About the cauldron that they overlean
Thrust down the flesh from floating with the fork.
The good Master: “That it may not be seen
That thou art here, crouch in yon broken bay,
So that the splinter serve thee for a screen. [60]
And whatsoever violence they essay,
Fear not; for I these matters well have conned,
Having ere now been once in like affray.”
The head now of the bridge he passed beyond;
And when he set on the sixth bank his foot
A stedfast front he needed to have owned.
With such a fury and such tempestuous bruit
Wherewith the dogs rush out on the poor man
When, halting, he for alms makes hurried suit,
From underneath the bridge those demons ran, [70]
And turned on him with crooks raised up on high.
“Be none of you despiteful,” he began;
“Before your grapnels upon me you try
Let one of you come forth to hear me. Wait
And then consider if those hooks you ply.”
All cried: “Let Evil-Tail go!” And thereat
One moved, and the others stayed firm where they stood,
And came to him saying “What avails him that?”
“Thinkest thou, Evil-Tail, then, that I could,”
My Master said, “have come secure thus far [80]
Against all opposition of your brood
Without divine will and propitious star?
Let me pass on. ’Tis written in Heaven’s book
That I for another this wild path unbar.”
Then was his pride so fallen that his hook
He let drop at his feet and to the rest
Exclaimed, “No more now! let him not be struck!”
My Guide to me: “O thou who cowerest
Among the bridge’s jags where thou hast crept
Cowering, return, return now undistrest.” [90]
At which I moved and to him quickly stept.
Whereon the devils thronged us all about,
So that I feared the pact might not be kept.
Thus did I once the foot-men who marched out
Under safe-conduct from Caprona see,[v]95. “Caprona,” a town on the Amo, surrendered in 1289 to the “troops of Lucca and Florence. It is evident from these lines that Dante was serving with the Florentines.
Ringed by so many foemen, fear and doubt.
And to my Master with my whole body
I drew close, turning not aside my head
From the look of them, which seemed not good to me.
Their irons they lowered and to each other said, [100]
“Now shall I touch him on the rump?” and “Yes,”
Others would answer, “notch it for him red.”
But he whom my Guide held in talk of peace
Turned round immediately and looked askance,
And “Touzlemane,” he shouted, “cease there, cease!”
Then to us: “Further by this cliff advance[vi]106-114. To entrap Dante and his too-confiding guide, the leader of the Evil-Claws informs them that though the nearest bridge over the following valley is broken, the next bridge will afford them a safe passage. This arch was shattered, he says, when Christ descended into Hell, 1266 years ago.
Will not be possible, for the sixth arch there
Lies shattered over all the ground’s expanse.
And if it please you forward still to fare,
Follow along this ridge; not far away [110]
Another cliff will give you passage clear.
Five hours later than this hour yesterday
A thousand ten score sixty and six years
Were ended, since the shattering of this way.
Thither, to watch if any take the airs
Out of the pitch, I send some of my men.
Follow them, nor have fear of any snares.”
“Forth, Hellequin and Frostyharrow!” then
That fiend continued, “and Dogsnarler, thou!
And Beardabristle to command the ten. [120]
Furnacewind follow, and Dragonspittle too,
Fanged Swinewallow and Houndscratcher, and last
Farfarel and raging Scarletfury, you.
See that keen eyes upon the pitch ye cast.
Be these two safe, far as yon ridge of rock
That all unbroken spans the antres vast.”
“O Master, what is this?” In fear I spoke,
“Alone, if thou the way know, let us start.
Such escort’s aid I care not to invoke.
If thou beest wary, as wontedly thou wert, [130]
Dost thou not see them, how they grind their teeth
And with bent brows threaten us to our hurt?”
And he: “I'd have thee a brave spirit breathe.
Let them grind on, and threaten what they durst.
Tis all for those rogues in the tar that seethe.”
By the left bank they turned to go; but first,
With tongue between his teeth protruded, each
Made signal to his chief; and from him burst
A sound that made a trumpet of his breech.