Milton, has its origin in the legendary hell of the monks. The hint feems to have been taken from an obfcure text in the Book of JOB, dilated by faint Jerom and the early commentators'. The torments of hell, in which the punishment by cold is painted at large, had formed a vifionary romance, under the name of faint Patrick's Purgatory or Cave, long before Dante wrote. The venerable Bede, who lived in the seventh century, has framed a future manfion of existence for departed fouls with this mode of torture. In the hands of Dante it has affumed many fantastic and grotesque circumstances, which make us laugh and fhudder at the fame time. In another department, Dante represents fome of his criminals rolling themselves in human ordure. If his fubject led him to such a description, he might at least have used decent expreffions. But his diction is not here lefs fordid than his imagery. I am almost afraid to tranfcribe this grofs paffage, even in the difguife of the old Tuscan phrafeology. Quindi giù nel foffo Vidi gente attuffata in uno fterco, Et mentre che laggiu con l'occhio cerco: Che non parea s'era laico, o cherco*. The humour of the laft line does not make amends for the naftinefs of the image. It is not to be supposed, that a man of strong sense and genius, whose understanding had been cultivated by a moft exact education, and who had paffed his life in the courts of fovereign princes, would have indulged himself in thefe difgufting fooleries, had he been at all apprehensive that his readers would have been difgufted. But rude and early poets de scribe every thing. They follow the public manners: and if they are either obfcene or indelicate, it fhould be remembered that they wrote before obscenity or indelicacy became offensive. Some of the Guilty are made objects of contempt by a transformation into beaftly or ridiculous fhapes. This was from the fable of Circe. In others, the human figure is rendered ridiculous by distortion. There is one fet of criminals whofe faces are turned round towards their backs. E'l piante de gli occhi Le natiche bagnava per lo feffo". But Dante has difplayed more true poetry in defcribing a real. event than in the best of his fictions. This is in the story of Ugolino count of Pisa, the subject of a very capital picture by Reynolds. The poet, wandering through the depths of hell, fees two of the Damned gnawing the sculls of each other, which was their daily food. He enquires the meaning of this dreadful repast. La bocca follevò dal fiero pafto Quel peccator, forbendola a capelli his tale to this effect. Ugolino quitting his companion's half-devoured fcull, begins "We are Ugolin count of Pisa, and archbishop Ruggieri. Trusting in the perfidious counsels of Ruggieri, I was brought to a miferable death. I was com"mitted with four of my children to the dungeon of hunger. "The time came when we expected food to be brought. In"stead of which, I heard the gates of the horrible tower more 66 clofely barred. I looked at my children, and could not speak. "L'hora s'appressava "Che'l cibo ne foleva effere adotto; ༽,:; CANT, XX. * CANT. Xxxiii. They are both in the lake of ice. Ii 2 "Ed "Ed io fenti chiavar l'uscio di sotto "I could not complain. I was petrified. My children cried : " and my little Anfelm, Anfelmuccio mio, faid, Father, you look 66 on us, what is the matter? "Tu guardi fi, padre, che hai ?" "I could neither weep, nor answer, all that day and the following night. When the scanty rays of the fun began to glim"mer through the dolorous prison, "Com'un poco di raggio fi fù meffo "Nel dolorofo carcere, "and I could again fee those four countenances on which my own image was ftamped, I gnawed both my hands for grief. My children fuppofing I did this through a defire to eat, lifting themselves fuddenly up, exclaimed, O father, our grief "would be lefs, if you would eat us! "Ambo le mani per dolor mi morfi: "E quei penfando ch'io'l feffi "Di manicar, di fubito levorfi per voglia "Et differ, Padre, affai ci fia men doglia "I reftrained myself that I might not make them more mifer"able. We were all filent, that day and the following. Ah "cruel earth, why didst thou not fwallow us up at once! "Quel di, et l'altro, ftemmo tutta muti. "The fourth day being come, Gaddo falling all along at my "feet, cried out, My father, why do not you help me, and died. "The other three expired, one after the other, between the fifth and fixth days, famished as you fee me now. And I "being feized with blindness began to crawl over them, foura *ciafcuno, on hands and feet; and for three days after they "were dead, continued calling them by their names. At length, famine finifhed my torments." Having faid this, the poet adds, with distorted eyes he again fixed his teeth on the mangled fcull *. It is not improbable, that the fhades of unfortunate men, who described under peculiar fituations and with their proper attributes, are introduced relating at large their hiftories in hell to Dante, might have given the hint to Boccace's book DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, On the Misfortunes of Illuftrious Perfonages, the original model of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. Dante's PURGATORY is not on the whole lefs fantastic than his HELL. As his hell was a vaft perpendicular cavity in the earth, he fuppofes Purgatory to be a cylindric mass elevated to a prodigious height. At intervals are receffes projecting from the -outfide of the cylinder. In these receffes, fome higher and fome lower, the wicked expiate their crimes, according to the proportion of their guilt. From one department they pass to -another by fteps of ftone exceedingly fteep. On the top of the whole, or the fummit of Purgatory, is a plat-form adorned with trees and vegetables of every kind. This is the Terreftrial Paradise, which has been transported hither we know not how, and which forms an avenue to the Paradife Celestial. It is extraordinary that some of the Gothic painters fhould not have given us this fubject. Dante describes not difagreeably the first region which he traverses on leaving Hell. The heavens are tinged with sapphire, and the ftar of love, or the fun, makes all the orient laugh. He fees a venerable fage approach. This is Cato of Utica, who, astonished to see a living man in the mansion of ghosts, questions Dante and Virgil about the business which brought them hither. Ibid. See fupr. vol. i. 390. And ESSAY ON POPE, p. 254. Y PURGAT. CANT. i. Virgil answers and Cato advises Virgil to wash Dante's face, which was foiled with the fmoak of hell, and to cover his head with one of the reeds which grew on the borders of the neighbouring river. Virgil takes his advice; and having gathered one reed, fees another spring up in its place. This is the golden bough of the Eneid, uno avulfo non deficit alter. The fhades also, as in Virgil, croud to be ferried over Styx: but an angel performs the office of Charon, admitting fome into the boat, and rejecting others. This confufion of fable and religion destroys the graces of the one and the majesty of the other. Through adventures and fcenes more strange and wild than any in the Pilgrim's Progress, we at length arrive at the twentyfirst Canto. A concuffion of the earth announces the deliverance of a foul from Purgatory. This is the foul of Statius, the favorite poet of the dark ages. Although a very improper companion for Virgil, he immediately joins our adventurers, and accompanies them in their progrefs. It is difficult to discover what pagan or christian idea regulates Dante's dispensation of rewards and punishments. Statius paffes from Purgatory to Paradise, Cato remains in the place of expiation, and Virgil is condemned to eternal torments. Dante meets his old acquaintance Forefe, a debauchee of Florence. On finishing the converfation, Forese asks Dante when he shall have the pleasure of seeing him again. This question in Purgatory is diverting enough. Dante answers with much ferious gravity, "I know not the time of death: but it cannot "be too near. Look back on the troubles in which my country " is involved!" The dispute between the pontificate and the empire, appears to have been the predominant topic of Dante's mind. This circumstance has filled Dante's poem with strokes of fatire. Every reader of Voltaire must remember that lively writer's paraphrafe from the INFERNO, of the ftory of count Guido, in which are these inimitable lines. A Francifcan friar abandoned to Beelzebub thus exclaims. - CANT. xxiv. "Monfieur |