Volume 16 — Dante's Purgatorio. Canto Fifth.

[Note.—In this Canto, Dante introduces three other spirits, who relate the manner of their departure from the body, and recommend themselves to his prayers, that their penal sufferings may be alleviated.

The first of these penitents is Jacopo del Cassero, a townsman of Fano in Romagna, who, flying towards Padua from the vengeance of one of the tyrannous Este family, was waylaid and murdered in the marshes near Oriago.

The second is Buonconte, son of Guido di Montefeltro. He was a fellow-soldier with Dante in the battle of Campaldino, and there slain; but what became of his body was never known until this imaginary narration.

The third is the noble lady of Sienna, Pia de' Tolommei, whose story, told by Dante in three lines, has formed the subject of a five-act tragedy, recently illustrated in this country by the genius of Ristori.—Trans.]

Already parted from those shades, I went

Following the footsteps of my Guide, when one

Behind me towards my form his finger bent,

Exclaiming—“See! no ray falls from the sun

To the left hand of him that walks below!

And sure! he moveth like a living man.”

Mine eyes I turned, at hearing him say so,

And saw them with a gaze all wonder scan

Now me, still me, and now the broken light

My body caused. The Master then to me:

“Why let thy wonder keep thee from the height

To drag so slowly? what concerns it thee

What here is whispered? only follow thou

After my steps, and let the crowd talk on:

Stand like a tower, firm-based, that will not bow

Its head to breath of winds that soon are gone.

The man o'er whose thought second thought hath sway,

Wide of his mark, is ever sure to miss,

Because one force the other wears away.”

What could I answer but—“I come”—to this?

I said it something sprinkled with the hue

Which, in less faults, excuseth one from blame;

Meanwhile across the mountain-side there drew,

Just in our front, a train that as they came

Sang Miserere, verse by verse. When they

Observed my form, and noticed that I gave

No passage through me to the solar ray,

Into a long, hoarse “O!” they changed their stave.

And two, as envoys, ran up with demand,

“In what condition is it that ye go?”

[pg 320]

And my Lord said—“Return ye to the band

Who sent you towards us, and give them to know

This body is true flesh. If they delayed

At sight,—I deem so, of the shadow here

Thereby sufficient answer shall be made:

Him let them reverence,—it may prove dear.”

I never saw a meteor dart so quick

Through the serene at midnight, or a gleam

Of lightning flash at sunset, through a thick

Piled August cloud, but these would faster seem

As they retreated; having joined the rest,

Back like an unreined troop towards us they sped.

“This throng is large by whom we thus are pressed,

And come to implore of thee,” the Poet said—

“Therefore keep on, and as thou mov'st attend.”

“O soul who travellest, with the very frame

Which thou wert born with, to thy blessed end,

Stay thy step somewhat!”—crying thus they came.

“Look if among us any thou dost know,

That thou of him to earth mayst tidings bear.

Stay—wilt thou not? ah! wherefore must thou go?

We to our dying hour were sinners there:

And all were slain: but at the murderous blow,

Warned us an instant light that flashed from heaven,

And all from life did peacefully depart,

Contrite, forgiving, and by Him forgiven

To look on Whom such longing yearns our heart.”

“None do I recognize,” I answered, “even

Scanning your faces with mine utmost art;

But whatsoe'er, ye blessed souls! I may

To give you comfort, speak, and I will do;

Yea, by that peace which leads me on my way

From world to world such guidance to pursue.”

Jacopo di Fano.

“Without such protestation,” one replied,

“Unless thy will a want of power defeat,

In thy kind offices we all confide;

Whence I, sole speaking before these, entreat

If thou mayst e'er the territory see

That lies betwixt Romagna and the seat134

Where Charles hath sway, that thou so courteous be

As to implore the men in Fano's town

To put up prayers there earnestly for me

That I may purge the sins that weigh me down.

[pg 321]

There I was born; but those deep wounds of mine

Through which my life-blood issued, I received

Among the children of Antenor's line,135

Where most secure my person I believed:

'Twas through that lord of Este I was sped

Who past all justice had me in his hate.

O'ertook at Oriaco, had I fled

Towards Mira, still where breath is I might wait.

But to the marsh I made my way instead,

And there, entangled in the cany brake

And mire, I fell, and on the ground saw spread,

From mine own veins outpoured, a living lake.”

Buonconte di Montefeltro.

Here spake another: “O may that desire

So be fulfilled which to the lofty Mount

Conducts thy feet as thou shalt bring me nigher

To mine by thy good prayers. I am the Count

Buonconte: Montefeltro's lord was I.

Giovanna cares not, no one cares for me;

Therefore with these I go dejectedly.”

And I to him: “What violence took thee,

Or chance of war, from Campaldino then

So far that none e'er knew thy burial-place?”

“O,” answered he, “above the hermit's glen136

A stream whose course is Casentino's base,

Springs in the Apennine, Archiano called.

There, where that name is lost in Arno's flood,

Exhausted I arrived, footsore and galled,

Pierced in my throat, painting the plain with blood.

Here my sight failed me and I fell: the last

Word that I spake was Mary's name, and then

From my deserted flesh the spirit passed.

The truth I tell now, tell to living men;

God's Angel took me, but that fiend of Hell

Screamed out: 'Ha! thou from heaven, why robb'st thou me?

His soul thou get'st for one small tear that fell,

But of this offal other work I'll see.'

Thou know'st how vapors gathering in the air

Mount to the cold and there condensed distil

Back into water. That Bad Will which ne'er

Seeks aught but evil joined his evil will,

With intellect, and, from the great force given

By his fell nature, moved the mist and wind

And o'er the valley drew the darkened heaven,

Covering it with clouds as day declined

[pg 322]

From Pratomagno far as the great chain,137

So that the o'erburdened air to water turned:

Then the floods fell, and every rivulet's vein

Swelled with the superflux the soaked earth spurned.

When to large streams the mingling torrents grew

Down to the royal river with such force

They rushed that no restraint their fury knew.

Here fierce Archiano found my frozen corse

Stretched at its mouth, and into Arno's wave

Dashed it and loosened from my breast the sign,

Which when mine anguish mastered me I gave,

Of holy cross with my crossed arms: in fine,

O'er bed and bank my form the streamlet drave

Whirling, and with its own clay covered mine.”

Pia De' Tolomei.

“O stay! when thou shalt walk the world once more,

And have repose from that long way of thine,”—

Said the third spirit, following those before,

“Remember Pia! for that name was mine:

Sienna gave me birth: Maremma's fen

Was my undoing: he knows that full well

Who ringed my finger with his gem and then,

After espousal,—took me there to dwell.”