INFERNO CANTO 19
| Proper
Name Index |
| Illustrations |
Longfellow Tr. |
Notes | Ann. |
O SIMON MAGUS, O forlorn disciples,
Ye who the things of God, which ought to be
The brides of holiness, rapaciously
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For silver and for gold do prostitute,
Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,
Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.
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We had already on the following tomb
Ascended to that portion of the crag
Which o er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.
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Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest
In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,
And with what justice doth thy power distribute !
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I saw upon the sides and on the bottom
The livid stone with perforations filled,
All of one size, and every one was round.
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To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater
Than those that in my beautiful Saint John
Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,
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And one of which, not many years ago,
I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;
Be this a seal all men to undeceive.
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Out of the mouth of each one there protruded
The feet of a transgressor, and the legs
Up to the calf, the rest within remained.
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In all of them the soles were both on fire;
Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,
They would have snapped asunder withes and bands.
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Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont
To move upon the outer surface only,
So likewise was it there from heel to point.
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"Master, who is that one who writhes himself,
More than his other comrades quivering,"
I said, "and whom a redder flame is sucking ?"
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And he to me: "If thou wilt have me bear thee
Down there along that bank which lowest lies,
From him thou'lt know his errors and himself."
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And I: "What pleases thee, to me is pleasing;
Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not
From thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken."
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Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived;
We turned, and on the left-hand side descended
Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow.
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And the good Master yet from off his haunch
Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me
Of him who so lamented with his shanks.
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"Whoe'er thou art, that standest upside down,
O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,"
To say began I, "if thou canst, speak out."
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I stood even as the friar who is confessing
The false assassin, who, when he is fixed,
Recalls him, so that death may be delayed.
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And he cried out: "Dost thou stand there already,
Dost thou stand there already, Boniface ?
By many years the record lied to me.
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Art thou so early satiate with that wealth,
For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud
The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe ?"
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Such I became, as people are who stand,
Not comprehending what is answered them,
As if bemocked, and know not how to answer.
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Then said Virgilius: "Say to him straightway,
' I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest."'
And I replied as was imposed on me.
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Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet,
Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation
Said to me: "Then what wantest thou of me ?
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If who I am thou carest so much to know,
That thou on that account hast crossed the bank,
Know that I vested was with the great mantle;
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And truly was I son of the She-bear,
So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth
Above, and here myself, I pocketed.
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Beneath my head the others are dragged down
Who have preceded me in simony,
Flattened along the fissure of the rock.
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Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever
That one shall come who I believed thou wast,
What time the sudden question I proposed.
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But longer I my feet already toast,
And here have been in this way upside down.
Than he will planted stay with reddened feet;
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For after him shall come of fouler deed
From tow'rds the west a Pastor without law,
Such as befits to cover him and me.
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New Jason will he be, of whom we read
In Maccabees ; and as his king was pliant,
So he who governs France shall be to this one."
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I do not know if I were here too bold,
That him I answered only in this metre:
"I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure
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Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first,
Before he put the keys into his keeping?
Truly he nothing asked but ' Follow me.'
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Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias
Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen
Unto the place the guilty soul had lost.
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Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished,
And keep safe guard o'er the ill-gotten money,
Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles.
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And were it not that still forbids it me
The reverence for the keys superlative
Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life,
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I would make use of words more grievous still;
Because your avarice afflicts the world,
Trampling the good and lifting the depraved.
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The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind,
When she who sitteth upon many waters
To fornicate with kings by him was seen;
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The same who with the seven heads was born,
And power and strength from the ten horns received,
So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing.
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Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver;
And from the idolater how differ ye,
Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?
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Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was mother,
Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower
Which the first wealthy Father took from thee !"
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And while I sang to him such notes as these.
Either that anger or that conscience stung him,
He struggled violently with both his feet.
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I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased,
With such contented lip he listened ever
Unto the sound of the true words expressed.
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Therefore with both his arms he took me up,
And when he had me all upon his breast,
Remounted by the way where he descended.
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Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him;
But bore me to the summit of the arch
Which from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage.
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There tenderly he laid his burden down,
Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep,
That would have been hard passage for the goats:
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Thence was unveiled to me another valley.
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