The Author, the

the Tante Sre.

DRYDEN PRESS

J. DAVY AND SONS, 137, LONG ACRE, LONDON, W.C.

THE THIRD CORNICE (continued).-THE PUNISHMENT OF THE ANGRY.-MARCO LOMBARDO.

FREE WILL.-THE CORRUPTION OF THE WORLD.. DETERIORATION OF THE INHABITANTS OF LOMBARDY.

HE latter part of the last Canto was devoted to the consideration of how to avoid the sin of Anger. The present Canto treats mainly of its expiation.

Benvenuto divides the Canto into three parts. In Division I, from v. I to v. 24, the penalty of the Angry is described.

In Division II, from v. 25 to v. 51, Dante converses with the spirit of Marco Lombardo, who during his lifetime had been exceedingly prone to anger.

In Division III, from v. 52 to v. 114, Dante questions Marco about some remarks that had fallen from

him on the general corruption of the World, and Marco replies to him.

In Division IV, from v. 115 to v. 145, Marco dilates on the deplorable decline of virtue in Lombardy.

Division I. Dean Plumptre says: "The opening words of the Canto are deliberately chosen. To be conscious of Wrath is to be in Hell, with all its blackness of darkness, its bitterness and foulness. In the remedial methods which Dante depicts, we may find that which he had found effective in his own experience. To keep close to the highest human wisdom in its calmness was something, but the true remedy was found in the Agnus Dei, which the worshipper heard at every Mass and Litany. Of all sins, that of Anger was the most difficult for an Italian temper, with its tendencies to the proverbial vendetta to overcome, and Dante's letter to Henry VII against the Florentines, and the immediately preceding Canto show how strong a hold it had on him, even about the time that he was writing this Canto."

Benvenuto considers Dante happy in his mode of depicting the purgation of Wrath. The Angry are represented as doing penance in the midst of a very dense, black and foul smoke, so that one can neither see, nor discern anything in it. Now smoke is produced by fire, and Anger is a kind of fire, for it is the kindling of the blood round the heart. And as there cannot be smoke without fire, so cannot Anger exist without a preliminary darkening of the faculties. He, therefore, who would be thoroughly purged from

this sin must well understand its nature and property, for it both extinguishes the light of reason, and chokes it, as it were, in smoke.

Dante begins by stating that he never saw darkness equal to this in which he now finds himself enwrapped; neither that through which he has passed in lowest Hell, nor any darkness that he has known in the world. The effect of the smoke is so pungent, as to compel him to close his eyes.

Buio d' inferno e di notte privata

D' ogni pianeta sotto pover cielo,*
Quant' esser può di nuvol tenebrata,
Non fece al viso mio sì grosso velo,†

Come quel fummo ch' ivi ci coperse,
Nè a sentir di così aspro pelo ;

Chè l'occhio stare aperto non sofferse :
Onde la Scorta mia saputa e fida

Mi s' accostò, e l' omero m' offerse.

5

sotto pover cielo: "Allora si dice povero lo cielo quando niuna luce, nè chiarrezza à; e così fatto cielo quando à di sotto da sè notte, l'àe più oscura che quello che àe alcuna luce." Buti). Cesari (Bellezze, vol. ii, p. 286) explains the word well : Quel pover cielo afforza l'immagine, mostrando miseria (scarcity) d'ogni filo di lume. Anche i Latini usarono come assai operativo questo inops, dicendo inops aquæ, inops animi (scoraggiato), inops consilii (che non sa partito da prendere), etc." Scartazzini takes pover to refer to the limited amount of sky that one can see when looking up from a narrow valley.

+ si grosso velo: Benvenuto commends this simile, for he says that a veil is usually both light and transparent, so that a person wearing it can both see through it, breathe through it, and feel it of a soft texture to the skin; whereas this smoke blinded the eyes, choked the breath, and irritated the skin. "And note, how clearly Dante has represented this, for, in truth, no sin is committed among the living, or is punished in Hell among the dead, which so much darkens the eyes of the intellect as Anger; and therefore he has done well to depict the angry in Hell tearing and rending each other barbarously with their teeth.".

I saputa e fida: Buti thinks Virgil here represents theoretic

Gloom of Hell, and of a night bereft of every star
beneath a barren sky, as much darkened with clouds
as it can be, did not make to my eyes so dense a veil,
as did that smoke which there enshrouded us, nor of
so rough a texture to one's sense of feeling; for it
suffered not the eye to remain open; whereat my ex-
perienced and faithful guide drew near to me, and
offered me his shoulder.

Dante could no longer see Virgil. The man blinded by anger is totally unable to discern Reason. But Virgil, allegorically representing Reason, was able calmly to encounter the darkness himself, and to offer his aid and support.

Buti says that, when a man falls into the turbulence of anger, he must steady himself with Reason, or else he will not be able to disentangle himself from it without falling into sin; for Anger is natural to man, and is at times justifiable. "Be ye angry, and sin not." Reason will show us how the one thing is compatible with the other.

Benvenuto remarks that Dante wished in this beautiful simile to admonish the Angry to follow the examples of many wise men. He says that Plato, after a long journey, in which he had visited the philosophers of Egypt, Italy and Sicily, on his return found that by his steward's negligence, his property had been nearly destroyed, and yet, because he felt angry, would not exact penalties from him. And Archytas, the Tarentine, from whom Plato had learnt many things, for the same reason, would not beat his

Reason, which is both experienced (saputa) in not allowing itself to be deceived, and faithful (fida) in never deceiving. Tommaséo observes that the word saputa is still used in the Neapolitan dialect, in a good sense.