CANTO VII

The Divine Comedy - Inferno

by Dante Alighieri

Translated by Charles Eliot Norton

CANTO VII, THE DIVINE COMEDY - INFERNO by Alighieri Dante
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The Fourth Circle, that of the Avaricious and the
Prodigal.--Pluto.--Fortune.--The Styx.--The Fifth Circle, that of
the Wrathful and the Sullen.

"Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe,"--began Pluto with his clucking
voice. And that gentle Sage, who knew everything, said to comfort
me, "Let not thy fear hurt thee; for whatso power he have shall
not take from thee the descent of this rock." Then he turned to
that swollen lip and said, "Be silent, accursed wolf! inwardly
consume thyself with thine own rage: not without cause is this
going to the abyss; it is willed on high, there where Michael did
vengeance on the proud adultery."[1] As sails swollen by the wind
fall in a heap when the mast snaps, so fell to earth the cruel
beast.

[1] Adultery, in the sense of infidelity to God.


Thus we descended into the fourth hollow, taking more of the
woeful bank that gathers in the evil of the whole universe. Ah,
Justice of God! Who heapeth up so many new travails and penalties
as I saw? And why doth our sin so waste us? As doth the wave,
yonder upon Charybdis, which is broken on that which it
encounters, so it behoves that here the people counterdance.

Here saw I people more than elsewhere many, and from one side and
the other with great howls rolling weights by force of chest.
They struck against each other, and then just there each turned,
rolling backward, crying, "Why keepest thou?" and "Why flingest
thou away?" Thus they turned through the dark circle on either
hand to the opposite point, still crying out their opprobrious
verse; then each, when he had come through his half circle,
wheeled round to the other joust.

And I, who had my heart well-nigh pierced through, said, "My
Master, now declare to me what folk is this, and if all these
tonsured ones on our left were clerks."

And he to me, "All of these were so asquint in mind in the first
life that they made no spending there with measure. Clearly
enough their voices bay it out, when they come to the two points
of the circle where the contrary sin divides them. These were
clerks who have no hairy covering on their head, and Popes and
Cardinals, in whom avarice practices its excess."

And I, "Master, among such as these I ought surely to recognize
some who were polluted with these evils."

And he to me, "Vain thought thou harborest; the undiscerning life
that made them foul, to all recognition now makes them dim.
Forever will they come to the two buttings; these will rise from
the sepulchre with closed fist, and these with shorn hair.
Ill-giving and ill-keeping have taken from them the fair world,
and set them to this scuffle; such as it is, I adorn not words
for it. Now canst thou, son, see the brief jest of the goods that
are committed unto Fortune, for which the human race so scramble;
for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or that ever was, of
these weary souls could not make a single one repose."

"Master," said I to him, "now tell me further; this Fortune, on
which thou touchest for me, what is it, that hath the goods of
the world so in its clutches?

And he to me, "O creatures foolish, how great is that ignorance
that harms you! I would have thee now take in my judgment of her.
He whose wisdom transcendeth all made the heavens, and gave them
their guides, so that every part on every part doth shine,
equally distributing the light. In like wise for the splendors of
the world, He ordained a general ministress and guide, who should
ever and anon transfer the vain goods from race to race, and from
one blood to another, beyond the resistance of human wit.
Wherefore one race rules, and the other languishes, pursuant to
her judgment, which is occult as the snake in the grass. Your
wisdom hath no withstanding of her: she provides, judges and
maintains her realm, as theirs the other gods. Her permutations
have no truce; necessity compels her to be swift, so often cometh
he who obtains a turn. This is she who is so set upon the cross,
even by those who ought to give her praise, giving her blame
amiss and ill report. But she is blessed and hears this not. With
the other Primal Creatures glad she turns her sphere, and blessed
she rejoices. But now let us descend to greater woe. Already
every star sinks that was rising when I set out, and too long
stay is forbidden."

We crossed the circle to the other bank, above a fount that boils
and pours down through a cleft that proceeds from it. The water
was far darker than perse;[1] and we, in company with the dusky
waves, entered down through a strange way. A marsh it makes, that
is named Styx, this dismal little stream, when it has descended
to the foot of the malign gray slopes. And I, who stood intent to
gaze, saw muddy people in that swamp, all naked and with look of
hurt. They were smiting each other, not only with hands, but with
head, and with chest, and with feet, mangling one another
piecemeal with their teeth.

[1] Purple-black.


The good Master said, "Son, now thou seest the souls of those
whom anger overcame; and likewise I would have thee believe for
certain that beneath the water are folk who sigh, and make this
water bubble at the surface, as thine eye tells thee wherever it
turns. Fixed in the slime, they say, 'Sullen were we in the sweet
air that by the Sun is gladdened, bearing within ourselves the
sluggish fume; now we are sullen in the black mire.' This hymn
they gurgle in their throats, for they cannot speak with entire
words."[1]

[1] The sin here punished is that known to the Middle Ages as
acedia, or accidie,--slackness in good works, and spiritual gloom
and despondency. In the Parson's Tale Chaucer says: "Envie and
ire maken bitternesse in heart, which bitternesse is mother of
accidie."


Thus we circled a great arc of the foul fen, between the dry bank
and the slough, with eyes turned on those who guzzle the mire. We
came at length to the foot of a tower.