Crying, "Wo to you, wicked spirits! hope not
Ever to see the sky again. I come

To take you to the other shore across,
Into eternal darkness, there to dwell

In fierce heat and in ice.1 And thou, who there
Standest, live spirit! get thee hence, and leave
These who are dead." But soon as he beheld
I left them not, "By other way," said he,
"By other haven shalt thou come to shore,
Not by this passage; thee a nimbler boat2
Must carry."
Then to him thus spake my guide:
"Charon! thyself torment not: so 'tis will'd,
Where will and power are one: ask thou no more."
Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks
Of him, the boatman o'er the livid lake,3

Around whose eyes glared wheeling flames. Meanwhile

Those spirits, faint and naked, color changed,
And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words
They heard. God and their parents they blasphemed,
The human kind, the place, the time, and seed,
That did engender them and give them birth.

Then all together sorely wailing drew
To the cursed strand, that every man must pass
Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form,
With eyes of burning coal, collects them all,
Beckoning, and each, that lingers, with his oar

1 In fierce heat and in ice.]

The bitter change

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice

Their soft ethereal warmth.

Milton, P. L., b. ii. 601.

-The delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice.

Shaksp. Measure for Measure, a. iii. s. 1.

See note to C. xxxii. 23.

A nimbler boat.] He perhaps alludes to the bark "swift and light," in which the Angel conducts the spirits to Purgatory. See Purg., c. ii. 10.

3 The livid lake.] Vada livida. Virg. Æn., lib. vi. 320. -Totius ut lacûs putidæque paludis Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago.

4 With eyes of burning coal.]

Catullus, xviii. 10.

His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes,

Like two great beacons, glared bright and wide.

Spenser, F. Q., b vi. c. vii. st. 42.

Strike. As fall off the light autumnal leaves,1
One still another following, till the bough
Strews all its honors on the earth beneath;
E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood

Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore
Each at a beck, as falcon at his call.2

Thus go they over through the umber'd waye; And ever they on the opposing bank

Be landed, on this side another throng

Still gathers. "Son," thus spake the courteous guide,
"Those who die subject to the wrath of God
All here together come from every clime,
And to o'erpass the river are not loth:

For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear
Is turn'd into desire. Hence ne'er hath pass'd
Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain,
Now mayst thou know the import of his words."
This said, the gloomy region trembling shook
So terribly, that yet with clammy dews

Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast,
That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame,
Which all my senses conquer'd quite, and I
Down dropp'd, as one with sudden slumber seized

CANTO V.

ARGUMENT.

The poet, being roused by a clap of thunder, and following his guide onwards, descends into Limbo, which is the first circle of Hell, where he finds the souls of those, who, although they have lived virtuously, and have not to suffer for great sins, nevertheless, through lack of baptism, merit not the bliss of Paradise. Hence he is led on by Virgil to descend into the second circle.

BROKE the deep slumber in my brain a crash Of heavy thunder, that I shook myself,

As one by main force roused. Risen upright,

1 As fall off the light autumnal leaves.]
Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo
Labsa cadunt folia.

Virg. Æn., lib. vi. 309

Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks

In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades

High over-arch'd imbower. Milton, P. L., b. i. 304.

Compare Apoll. Rhod., lib. iv. p. 214.

2 As falcon at his call.] This is Vellutello's explanation, and seems preferable to that commonly given: "as a bird at is enticed to the cage by the call of another "

My rested eyes I moved around, and search'd,
With fixed ken. to know what place it was
Wherein I stood. For certain, on the brink
I found me of the lamentable vale,

The dread abyss, that joins a thundrous sound1 Of plaints innumerable. Dark and deep, And thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain Explored its bottom, nor could aught discern. "Now let us to the blind world there beneath Descend;" the bard began, all pale of look: "I go the first, and thou shalt follow next." Then I, his alter'd hue perceiving, thus: "How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread, Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt ?"

He then: "The anguish of that race below With pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear Mistakest. Let us on. Our length of way Urges to haste." Onward, this said, he moved; And entering led me with him, on the bounds Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss.

Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard Except of sighs, that made the eternal air Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief Felt by those multitudes, many and vast, Of men, women, and infants. Then to me The gentle guide: "Inquirest thou not what spirits Are these which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin Were blameless; and if aught they merited, It profits not, since baptism was not theirs, The portal to thy faith. If they before The Gospel lived, they served not God aright; And among such am I. For these defects, And for no other evil, we are lost;

Only so far afflicted, that we live

Desiring without hope."

Sore grief assail'd

A thundrous sound] Imitated, as Mr. Thyer has remarked, by Milton, P. L., b. viii. 242:

-But long, ere our approaching, heard

Noise, other than the sound of dance or song,
Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

2 Portal.] "Porta della fede." This was an alteration made in the text by the Academicians della Crusca, on the authority, as it would appear, of only two MSS. The other reading is "parte della fede;" "part of the faith."

8 Desiring without hope.]

And with dsire to languish without hope.

Milton, P. L., b. x 995.