Harvard Classics Volume 20. Golden Deer Classics

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ wealth,

      For which thou fearedst not in guile to take

      The lovely lady, and then mangle her?”

      I felt as those who, piercing not the drift

      Of answer made them, stand as if exposed

      In mockery, nor know what to reply;

      When Virgil thus admonish’d: “Tell him quick,

      ‘I am not he, not he whom thou believest.’”

      And I, as was enjoin’d me, straight replied.

      That heard, the spirit all did wrench his feet,

      And, sighing, next in woeful accent spake:

      “What then of me requirest? If to know

      So much imports thee, who I am, that thou

      Hast therefore down the bank descended, learn

      That in the mighty mantle I was robed,^[130]

      And of a she-bear was indeed the son,

      So eager to advance my whelps, that there

      My having in my purse above I stow’d,

      And here myself. Under my head are dragg’d

      The rest, my predecessors in the guilt

      Of simony. Stretch’d at their length, they lie

      Along an opening in the rock. ’Midst them

      I also low shall fall, soon as he comes,

      For whom I took thee, when so hastily

      I question’d. But already longer time

      Hath past, since my soles kindled, and I thus

      Upturn’d have stood, than is his doom to stand

      Planted with fiery feet. For after him,

      One yet of deeds more ugly shall arrive,

      From forth the west, a shepherd without law,^[131]

      Fated a cover both his form and mine.

      He a new Jason^[132] shall be call’d, of whom

      In Maccabees we read; and favor such

      As to that priest his King indulgent show’d,

      Shall be of France’s monarch^[133] shown to him.”

      I know not if I here too far presumed,

      But in this strain I answer’d: “Tell me now

      What treasures from Saint Peter at the first

      Our Lord demanded, when he put the keys

      Into his charge? Surely he ask’d no more

      But ‘Follow me!’ Nor Peter,^[134] nor the rest,

      Or gold or silver of Matthias took,

      When lots were cast upon the forfeit place

      Of the condemned soul.^[135] Abide thou then;

      Thy punishment of right is merited:

      And look thou well to that ill-gotten coin,

      Which against Charles^[136] thy hardihood inspired.

      If reverence of the keys restrain’d me not,

      Which thou in happier time didst hold, I yet

      Severer speech might use. Your avarice

      O’ercasts the world with mourning, under foot

      Treading the good, and raising bad men up.

      Of shepherds like to you, the Evangelist

      Was ware, when her, who sits upon the waves,

      With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld;

      She who with seven heads tower’d at her birth,

      And from ten horns her proof of glory drew,

      Long as her spouse in virtue took delight.

      Of gold and silver ye have made your god,

      Differing wherein from the idolater,

      But that he worships one, a hundred ye?

      Ah, Constantine!^[137] to how much ill gave birth,

      Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower,

      Which the first wealthy Father gain’d from thee.”

      Meanwhile, as thus I sung, he, whether wrath

      Or conscience smote him, violent upsprang

      Spinning on either sole. I do believe

      My teacher well was pleased, with so composed

      A lip he listen’d ever to the sound

      Of the true words I utter’d. In both arms

      He caught, and, to his bosom lifting me,

      Upward retraced the way of his descent.

      Nor weary of his weight, he press’d me close,

      Till to the summit of the rock we came,

      Our passage from the fourth to the fifth pier.

      His cherish’d burden there gently he placed

      Upon the rugged rock and steep, a path

      Not easy for the clambering goat to mount.

      Thence to my view another vale appear’d.

Canto XX

      Argument.—The Poet relates the punishment of such as presumed, while living, to predict future events. It is to have their faces reversed and set the contrary way on their limbs, so that, being deprived of the power to see before them, they are constrained ever to walk backward. Among these Virgil points out to him Amphiaraüs, Tiresias, Aruns, and Manto (from the mention of whom he takes occasion to speak of the origin of Mantua), together with several others, who had practised the arts of divination and astrology.

      And now the verse proceeds to torments new,

      Fit argument СКАЧАТЬ