Inferno
Canto XXVIII
The ninth chasm punishes the Schismatics with fearful mutilations, surpassing even the horrors of the wars which from early times devastated Southern Italy (Apulia). First appears Mahomet, regarded by Dante as a perverter of Christianity. He asks Dante to warn Fra Dolcino, an unorthodox fanatic, that he may be starved out (as he was) in his stronghold by the ecclesiastical authorities of Novara. Similarly, Pier da Medicina, who kept the houses of Polenta and Malatesta embroiled, asks Dante to warn two men of Fano that the younger Malatesta (half-brother of Francesca’s husband) means to have them drowned on their way to a conference to which he will invite them. Next Dante is shown Curio, who, when Caesar was at Rimini, counselled him to persist in his march on Rome; Mosca, through whom arose the Guelf and Ghibelline factions at Florence; and Bertran de Born, the Troubadour, who sowed strife between Henry II of England and his eldest son Henry, called “the young king.”
WHO even in words untrammelled, though ’twere told
Over and over, could tell full the tale
Of blood and wounds before me now unrolled?
Truly there is no tongue that could avail,
Seeing that our speech and memory are small
And for so great a comprehension fail.
Nay, were it possible to assemble all
Who of old upon Apulia’s fated soil
Wailed their spilt blood and friendless burial,
Wrought by the Trojans, or in that long moil [10][i]10-18. “By the Trojans”: the Romans, whose ancestors came from Troy; the allusion is to their conquest of the Samnites.—The “long moil of war” is the Second Punic War: after the battle of Cannae Hannibal's troops took from the dead Romans more than three thousand bushels of rings.—“Robert Guiscard”: the Norman conqueror who overran southern Italy in the eleventh century.—“At Ceperano . . .”: in the battle of Benevento, in 1266, where ManSed, son of Frederick 1, was defeated by Charles of Anjou, and Eilled; he had been deserted by the Apulian troops.—At “Tagliacozzo,” in 1268, the Imperial forces were again defeated b Charles of Anjou. The victory was due to the wit of a Frenc general, Erard (or “Alard”) de Valéry.
Of war which heaped, as Livy writes nor errs,
Of Roman rings so marvellous a spoil,
With those who, Robert Guiscard’s serried spears
Defying, met great hurt and sore distress,
And those whose bones the plough still disinters
At Ceperano, where their faithlessness
The Apulians proved, and Tagliacozzo, where
The aged Erard conquered weaponless;
And one should make his riddled carcase bare
And another show his limbs cut off; yet shapes [20]
Of fouler fashion in the. Ninth Chasm were.
A cask that has lost side- or mid-piece gapes
Less wide than one I saw, chopped from the chin[ii]23. “One I saw . . .”: Mahomet.
Down to that part wherefrom the wind escapes.
The bowels trailed, drooping his legs between;
The pluck appeared, the sorry pouch and vent
That turns to dung all it has swallowed in.
While gazing on him I stood all intent,
He eyed me, and with his hands opened his breast,
Saying: “Now see how I myself have rent. [30]
How is Mahomet maimed, thou canst attest.
Before me Ali, weeping tear on tear,[iii]32. “Ali”: the husband of Mahomet’s favourite daughter, and one of his most zealous followers.
Goes with face cloven apart from chin to crest.
And all the others whom thou seèst here
Were, alive, sowers of schism and of discord,
And therefore in this wise they are cloven sheer.
There is a devil behind us who hath scored
His mark on us, and brings each of this crew
Again to the edge of his most cruel sword
When the forlorn road we have circled through; [40]
For all our wounds are healed of blood and bruise
Ere any of us before him comes anew.
But who art thou who on the crag dost muse,
Haply to postpone thine apportioned pain,
Whatever confessed sins thy soul accuse?”
“Death comes not yet to him, nor guilty stain,”
Replied my Master, “chastisement to wreak;
But, that the full experience he obtain,
I, who am dead, am missioned through Hell’s reek
From zone to zone to lead him undeterred; [50]
And this is true as that to thee I speak.”
More than a hundred spirits, as him they heard,
Forgetting anguish in astonishment,
Halted amid the fosse and on me stared.
“Thou, then, who to the sun may’st win ascent
Erelong, bid Fra Dolcino his granaries[iv]56. “Fra Dolcino”: see the Argument.
(Unless to hurry hither he be bent)
Replenish well, that to the Novarese
Victory come not through the blockading snow,
Which else it were no easy thing to seize.” [60]
After he had lifted up one foot to go
Away, these words to me Mahomet said,
Then on the ground stretched it, departing slow.
Another, who had his throat pierced through, and bled
With nose cut off up to the eyebrows’ hair,
And had but one sole ear upon his head,
Standing in wonder with the rest to stare,
Before the rest opened his weazand wide
Which outwardly was crimsoned everywhere,
Saying: “Thou who art damned not and who hast not died, [70]
And whom I have seen on Latin earth, I trow,
Unless in too great likeness I confide,
Remember Pier da Medicina; and oh,[v]73-74. “Pier da Medicina”: see the Argument. “The sweet plain” is the plain of the Po.
If ever thou revisit the sweet plain
That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo,
Hie thee to Fano and to her worthiest twain,
To Guido and to Angiolello, and say
That if the foresight given us be not vain,
Out of their ship they shall be cast away
By a fell tyrant’s cruelty and guile, [80]
Tied up in sacks nigh La Cattolica.[vi]81. “Cattolica”: a place on the Adriatic.
Never ‘twixt Cyprus and Majorca’s isle[vii]82. From one end of the Mediterranean to the other.
Not even by pirates or by Grecian spawn
Saw Neptune such a crime his waves defile.[viii]84. “That traitor”: the younger Malatesta, who had only one eye.
That traitor who with one eye sees alone
And holds the city, one who is with me here
Would wish his eyes had never looked upon,
Will summon them in parley to confer,
And then so act that they shall need no prayer[ix]89-90. They need have no fear of being shipwrecked, because they will be already drowned.
Or vow, Focara’s stormy cape to clear.” [90]
And I to him: “Show to me and declare,
If news of thee I carry up to the sun,
Who is he that had the bitter sight to bear?”
Then laid he his hand upon the jaw of one
Of his companions, and the mouth opened,
Saying: “This is he, and all his speech is done.
He it is who, banished, made in Caesar end[x]97. “He it is who . . .”: Curio (see the Argument).
The doubt, affirming that to men prepared
Delay is loss no patience can amend.”
O how affrighted now to me appeared, [100]
With his tongue slit and in his gullet stopt,
Curio, who in speech so greatly dared.
And one who at the wrist had both hands lopt
Raising the stumps through the dim air on high
So that their blood befouled him as it dropt,
Said: “Thou’lt remember too the Mosca’s cry
‘A thing done makes an end.’ Alas, how bad
Was the seed sown for Tuscan folk thereby!”
“And for thy kin death,” thereto did I add:
So that, accumulating pain on pain, [110]
He went away like one with anguish mad.
But I remained to look on the sad train,
And saw a thing which without proof more sure
I should have fear even to tell again
Saving that conscience holdeth me secure,
That good companion which doth fortify
With a strong breastplate one who knows him pure.
Verily I saw and still have in mine eye
A headless trunk that followed in the tread
Of the others of that desolate company. [120]
And by the hair it held the severed head
That in its hand was like a lantern swayed,
And as it looked at us, “Oh me!” it said.
Thus of itself a lamp for itself it made;
And they were two in one and one in two;
How this can be, He knows who is there obeyed.
When it was just at the arch and close below,
It raised its arm high and with it the head
That it might bring its words the nearer so,
Which were: “Behold what I have merited! [130]
Thou who, still breathing, goest the dead to view
See if any suffer punishment as dread.
Know, that thou may’st bear tidings of me true,
Bertran de Born am I, and the Young King[xi]134. “Bertran de Born”: see the Argument.
My evil promptings to rebellion drew.
Father and son did I to quarrel bring.
Ahitophel wrought not more on Absalom
And David with the malice of his sting.
Such union since I made asunder come,
I carry alas! dissevered this my brain [140]
From the live marrow it fed its vigour from.
Thus retribution’s law do I maintain.”