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 grotefque circumstances, which make us laugh and fhudder at the fame time. In another department, Dante represents some of his criminals rolling themselves in human ordure. If his fubject led him to fuch 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 transcribe this grofs paffage, even in the disguise of the old Tuscan phraseology. Vidi Quindi giù nel foffo gente attuffata in uno fterco, Che dagli uman privati para moffo; Et mentre che laggiu con l'occhio cerco : Vidi un, co'l fi da merda lordo, Che non parea s'era laico, o cherco'. The humour of the last line does not make amends for the naftinefs of the image. It is not to be fuppofed, that a man of ftrong sense and genius, whofe understanding had been cultivated by a most exact education, and who had paffed his life in the courts of fovereign princes, would have indulged himself in these difgufting fooleries, had he been at all apprehenfive that his readers would have been disgufted. But rude and early poets de JOB, xxiv. 19. See fupr. vol. ii. 199. And ADD. EMEND. ibid. * CANT. Xviii. scribe every thing. They follow the public manners and if they are either obfcene or indelicate, it should be remembered that they wrote before obscenity or indelicacy became offenfive. 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 whose 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 fculls 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 Del capo ch'egli havea di retro guasto ". Ugolino quitting his companion's half-devoured fcull, begins his tale to this effect. "We are Ugolin count of Pifa, and archbishop Ruggieri. Trufting in the perfidious counfels of Ruggieri, I was brought to a miserable 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 "closely barred. I looked at my children, and could not speak. "L'hora s'appreffava "Che'l cibo ne foleva effere adotto; "E per fuo fogno ciafcun dubitava : ☐ CANT. XX. CANT. Xxxiii. They are both in the lake of ice. Ii 2 "Ed "Ed io fenti chiavar l'ufcio di sotto "I could not complain. I was petrified. My children cried: "and my little Anfelm, Anfelmuccio mio, faid, Father, you look "on us, what is the matter? "Tu guardi fi, padre, che hai ?" "I could neither weep, nor anfwer, all that day and the following night. When the scanty rays of the fun began to glim"mer through the dolorous prison, 66 "Com'un poco di raggio fi fù messo " and I could again fee thofe four countenances on which my ❝own image was stamped, I gnawed both my hands for grief. My children fuppofing I did this through a desire 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 fefli per voglia "Et differ, Padre, affai ci fia men doglia "I réftrained myself that I might not make them more mifer"able. We were all filent, that day and the following. Ab "cruel earth, why didft thou not swallow 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 "The other three expired, one after the other, between the "fifth and fixth days, famished as you fee me now. And I being seized with blindness began to crawl over them, foura ciascuno, on hands and feet; and for three days after they "were dead, continued calling them by their names. At length, famine finished 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 defcribed 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 fantaftic than his HELL. As his hell was a vast 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 outside of the cylinder. In these recefles, fome higher and fome lower, the wicked expiate their crimes, according to the proportion of their guilt. From one department they pafs to another by steps 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 fome 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 fapphire, 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, aftonished to see a living man in the manfion 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 shades alfo, 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 Progrefs, 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 chriftian idea regulates Dante's difpenfation of rewards and punishments. Statius paffes from Purgatory to Paradife, 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 conversation, 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 story of count Guido, in which are these inimitable lines. A Francifcan friar abandoned to Beelzebub thus exclaims. |