Purgatorio
Canto V
The poets, continuing the ascent, meet a band of spirits who are astonished that Dante casts no shadow. These all died by violence and repented only at the last moment. Three of them speak to Dante in turn; Jacopo del Cassero; Buonconte da Montefeltro, who tells how his body was carried down a stream into the Arno, through the malignity of a devil who had in vain contended for his soul; and lastly Pia de’ Tolomei, done to death in secret by her husband.
FROM those shades now I had a little gone
And was ascending where my Master led,
When, pointing with his finger at me, one
Behind me cried: “See, it seems no light is shed
Upon the left of the lower of those two,
And he behaves like one who is not dead.”
At that word’s sound mine eyes turned back, and lo!
They all were with amazement eyeing me,
Me only, and where the light was broken through.
“Why dost thou let thy mind entangled be,” [10]
My Lord said, “that thou falterest on the hill?
If here they whisper, what is that to thee?
Follow behind me and let them talk their fill:
Stand like a tower whose summit never shakes
For the wind’s blowing, and stays immovable.
For always he in whom thought overtakes
The former thought, his goal less clearly sees,
Because the one the other must relax.”
What could I answer save “I come”? and this
I said, suffused with something of that hue [20]
Which sometimes wins a man forgivenesses.
Meanwhile across the mountain-side there drew
A people chanting, a little above our course,
The Miserere in alternation due.
When they perceived that I opposed perforce
My body to the passage of the ray,
They changed their chant to an “Oh” long and hoarse.
And two of them, as envoys, broke away,
Running to meet us, and began to plead:
“Make known to us your condition, we do pray.” [30]
My Master spoke then: “Backward ye may speed
To those who sent you, and carry this report,
That the body of this man is flesh indeed.
If because seeing his shadow they stopt short,
As I suppose, they have their answer given.
He is one whom it may profit them to court.”[i]36. They are in need of the prayers of the living, which Dante may procure for them.
Never saw I at nightfall the clear heaven
By kindled vapours cleft so swift in twain
Or, in the sunset, clouds of August riven,
But in less time they had sped up again, [40]
And, there arrived, wheeled toward us with the rest
Like a troop hurrying with loosened rein.
“Many is the folk that toward us cometh prest”
The poet said: “They come to implore thy grace:
But to go on, and going listen, is best.”
“O soul that goest into blissfulness
With those members that thou wert born with,” they
Came crying out “arrest awhile thy pace.
If ever any of us thou sawest, say,
So that of him news thou mayst yonder bear: [50]
Ah, why go on, ah, why wilt thou not stay?
We all were slain by violence, and were
Sinners to the last hour’s extremity.
Then warning light from Heaven made us aware,
So that, repenting and forgiving, we
Came out of life atoned in peace with God
Who pierceth us with longing, him to see.”
And I: “Though long I gaze on you, I could
Recognise none: but if to pleasure you
I can do aught, speak, spirits born for good. [60]
This for the sake of that peace will I do
Which following in the steps of such a guide
From world to world I am bounden to ensue.”
One spoke then: “We do all of us confide
In thy good office, nor thine oath demand,
If to the will the power be not denied.
Wherefore I, who only speak before this band,
Pray thee, if e’er by thee be visited
The country ’twixt Romagna and Charles’s land,[ii]69-76. The country between “Romagna” and “Charles’s land,” i.e., the kingdom of Naples, which belonged to Charles II of Anjou, is the March of Ancona. The speaker is Jacopo del Cassero, a leading citizen of Fano. He fell out with Azzo of Este, and was murdered.—“The Antenori’s home”: Padua.
Me with thy favourable prayers bestead [70]
In Fano, that right pleading may o’ercome
The offences that were heavy upon my head.
There was I born: but the deep wounds, wherefrom
Issued the blood my life had for its seat
Were dealt me in the Antenori’s home,
There where I thought me safest in retreat.
He of Este had it done, whose anger ran
Far beyond that which justice findeth meet.
But had I fled then toward La Mira, when
At Oriaco I was trapped and found [80]
I should be yonder still with breathing men.
I ran to the marsh, and reed and mud enwound
My feet, so that I fell, and there saw I
A pool grow from my veins upon the ground.”
Another then: “So that desire on high
Be achieved which draws thee up the Mount, do thou
Pity, and help me mine to satisfy.
Buonconte I am, of Montefeltro, and now[iii]88. Count Buonconte of Montefeltro, a Ghibelline leader, was captain of the Aretines in the disastrous battle of Campaldino in 1289. Joan was his wife.
Not Joan nor other of me has any thought.
Wherefore ’mid these I go with humbled brow.” [90]
And I: “What chance or violence on thee wrought
To cause thee stray so far from Campaldin,
That no man of thy burial-place knew aught?”
“O,” answered he, “below the Casentin[iv]94-96.“The Casentin” is a mountainous district in Tuscany; the “Hermitage” is the monastery of Camaldoli.
A stream named Archiano runs across
That over the Hermitage springs in Apennine.
There where its name is changed from what it was
Did I arrive, with the throat deeply cleft,
Fleeing on foot and bloodying the grass.
There lost I sight and there of speech was reft, [100]
Ending on Mary’s name, and there did give
My ghost up, and my flesh alone was left.
I will tell truth; tell it thou where men live.
The angel of God took me; and he of Hell
Cried, ‘Thou from Heaven, why dost thou me deprive?
The eternal part in this man thou dost steal,
Snatching him from me for one little tear.
But otherwise with the other part I'll deal.’
Thou knowest how the clammy mists prepare
And turn again to water where they find [110]
The cold condensing them in upper air.
The ill will, only on ill bent, he combined
With cunning, and by virtue of that power
His nature gave, he roused the mist and wind.
When day was spent, the valley he spread o’er
From Pratomagno to the mountain-chain
With cloud, and made the sky above to lour,
So that the charged air changed to water; rain
Came down and to the rivulets compelled
All of it that the earth could not contain. [120]
And as it merged and into torrents swelled
So swiftly to the royal stream it prest
That nothing its impetuous rush withheld.
My frozen body at its mouth the crest
Of foaming Archian found and bore me down
Into Arno, and loosed the cross upon my breast
I had made of me when the strong pangs came on.
It rolled me about its bed from side to side
Then wrapt me in all the plunder it had won.”
“Ah, when, the long way ended, thou dost bide [130]
At peace, returned into the world again”[v]133. Pia de’ Tolomei of Siena was wedded to Nello della Pietra, who, wishing to marry another woman, murdered her in his castle in the Tuscan Maremma.
The third after the second spirit sighed,
“Remember me, who am La Pia, then.
Siena made me and Maremma unmade:
He knows who had ringed me with his jewel, when
The vows of marriage we together said.”