The Divine Comedy of Dante Aligheri

Translated by Charles Eliot Norton

To

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

E come sare’ io sense lui corso?

It is a happiness for me to connect this volume with the memory of my friend and master from youth. I was but a beginner in the study of the Divine Comedy when I first had his incomparable aid in the understanding of it. During the last year of his life he read the proofs of this volume, to what great advantage to my work may readily be conceived.

When, in the early summer of this year, the printing of the Purgatory began, though illness made it an exertion to him, he continued this act of friendship, and did not cease till, at the fifth canto, he laid down the pencil forever from his dear and honored hand.

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
1 October, 1891

The text followed in this translation is, in general, that of Witte. In a few cases I have preferred the readings which the more recent researches of the Rev. Dr. Edward Moore, of Oxford, seem to have established as correct.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY

CANTO I.
Dante, astray in a wood, reaches the foot of a hill which he begins to ascend; he is hindered by three beasts; he turns back and is met by Virgil, who proposes to guide him into the eternal world.

CANTO II.
Dante, doubtful of his own powers, is discouraged at the outset.—Virgil cheers him by telling him that he has been sent to his aid by a blessed Spirit from Heaven.—Dante casts off fear, and the poets proceed.

CANTO III.
The gate of Hell. Virgil leads Dante in.—The punishment of the neither good nor bad.—Acheron, and the sinners on its bank.—Charon.—Earthquake.—Dante swoons.

CANTO IV.
The further side of Acheron.—Virgil leads Dante into Limbo, the First Circle of Hell, containing the spirits of those who lived virtuously but without Christianity.—Greeting of Virgil by his fellow poets.—They enter a castle, where are the shades of ancient worthies.—Virgil and Dante depart.

CANTO V.
The Second Circle: Carnal sinners.—Minos.—Shades renowned of old.—Francesca da Rimini.

CANTO VI.
The Third Circle: the Gluttonous.—Cerberus.—Ciacco.

CANTO VII.
The Fourth Circle: the Avaricious and the Prodigal.— Pluto.—Fortune.—The Styx.—The Fifth Circle: the Wrathful and the Sullen.

CANTO VIII.
The Fifth Circle.—Phlegyas and his boat.—Passage of the Styx.—Filippo Argenti.—The City of Dis.—The demons refuse entrance to the poets.

CANTO IX.
The City of Dis.—Eriehtho.—The Three Furies.—The Heavenly Messenger.—The Sixth Circle: Heresiarchs.

CANTO X.
The Sixth Circle: Heresiarchs.—Farinata degli Uberti.—Cavalcante Cavalcanti.—Frederick II.

CANTO XI.
The Sixth Circle: Heretics.—Tomb of Pope Anastasius.—Discourse of Virgil on the divisions of the lower Hell.

CANTO XII.
First round of the Seventh Circle: those who do violence to others.—Tyrants and Homicides.—The Minotaur.—The Centaurs.—Chiron.—Nessus.—The River of Boiling Blood, and the Sinners in it.

CANTO XIII.
Second round of the Seventh Circle: those who have done violence to themselves and to their goods.—The Wood of Self-murderers.—The Harpies.—Pier della Vigne.—Lano of Siena and others.

CANTO XIV.
Third round of the Seventh Circle those who have done violence to God.—The Burning Sand.—Capaneus.—Figure of the Old Man in Crete.—The Rivers of Hell.

CANTO XV.
Third round of the Seventh Circle: those who have done violence to Nature.—Brunetto Latini.—Prophecies of misfortune to Dante.

CANTO XVI.
Third round of the Seventh Circle: those who have done violence to Nature.—Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi and Jacopo Rusticucci.—The roar of Phlegethon as it pours downward.—The cord thrown into the abyss.

CANTO XVII.
Third round of the Seventh Circle: those who have done violence to Art.—Geryon.—The Usurers.—Descent to the Eighth Circle.

CANTO XVIII.
Eighth Circle: the first pit: Panders and Seducers.—Venedico Caccianimico.—Jason.—Second pit: false flatterers.—Alessio Interminei.—Thais.

CANTO XIX.
Eighth Circle: third pit: Simonists.—Pope Nicholas III

CANTO XX.
Eighth Circle: fourth pit: Diviners, Soothsayers, and Magicians.—Amphiaraus.—Tiresias.—Aruns.—Manto.— Eurypylus.—Michael Scott.—Asolente.

CANTO XXI.
Eighth Circle: fifth pit: Barrators.—A magistrate of Lucca.—The Malebranche.—Parley with them.

CANTO XXII.
Eighth Circle: fifth pit: Barrators.—Ciampolo of Navarre.—Brother Gomita.—Michael Zanche.—Fray of the Malebranche.

CANTO XXIII.
Eighth Circle. Escape from the fifth pit.—The sixth pit: Hypocrites.—The Jovial Friars.—Caiaphas.—Annas.—Frate Catalano.

CANTO XXIV.
Eighth Circle. The poets climb from the sixth pit.— Seventh pit: Fraudulent Thieves.—Vanni Fucci.—Prophecy of calamity to Dante.

CANTO XXV.
Eighth Circle: seventh pit: Fraudulent Thieves.—Cacus.—Agnello Brunellesehi and others.

CANTO XXVI.
Eighth Circle: eighth pit: Fraudulent Counsellors.—Ulysses and Diomed.

CANTO XXVII.
Eighth Circle: eighth pit: Fraudulent Counsellors.—Guido da Montefeltro.

CANTO XXVIII.
Eighth Circle: ninth pit: Sowers of discord and schism.—Mahomet and Ali.—Fra Dolcino.—Pier da Medicina.— Curio.—Mosca.—Bertran de Born.

CANTO XXIX.
Eighth Circle: ninth pit.—Geri del Bello.—Tenth pit: Falsifiers of all sorts.—Griffolino of Mezzo.—Capocchio.

CANTO XXX.
Eighth Circle: tenth pit: Falsifiers of all sorts.—Myrrha.—Gianni Schiechi.—Master Adam.—Sinon of Troy.

CANTO XXXI.
The Giants around the Eighth Circle.—Nimrod.—Ephialtes.—Antiens sets the Poets down in the Ninth Circle.

CANTO XXXII.
Ninth Circle: Traitors. First ring: Caina.—Counts of Mangona.—Camicion de’ Pazzi.—Second ring: Antenora.—Bocca degli Abati.—Buoso da Duera.—Count Ugolino.

CANTO XXXIII.
Ninth Circle: Traitors. Second ring: Antenora.— Count Ugolino.—Third ring: Ptolomaea.—Brother Alberigo.—Branca d’ Oria.

CANTO XXXIV.
Ninth Circle: Traitors. Fourth ring: Judecca.—Lucifer.—Judas, Brutus and Cassius.—Centre of the universe.—Passage from Hell.—Ascent to the surface of the Southern hemisphere.