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  "work": {
    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
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  "parents": [
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      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 10,
    "slug": "canto-10",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 10",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1887,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 10\n\n\nCanto X\n\nArgument\n\nDante, having obtained permission from his guide, holds discourse with\nFarinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, who lie in their fiery tombs\nthat are yet open, and not to be closed up till after the last judgment.\nFarinata predicts the Poet's exile from Florence; and shows him that the\ncondemned have knowledge of future things, but are ignorant of what is at\npresent passing, unless it be revealed by some newcomer from earth.\n\nNow by a secret pathway we proceed,\nBetween the walls, that hem the region round,\nAnd the tormented souls: my master first,\nI close behind his steps. \"Virtue supreme!\"\nI thus began: \"Who through these ample orbs\nIn circuit lead'st me, even as thou will'st;\nSpeak thou, and satisfy my wish. May those,\nWho lie within these sepulchres, be seen?\nAlready all the lids are raised, and none\nO'er them keeps watch.\" He thus in answer spake:\n\"They shall be closed all, what - time they here\nFrom Josaphat[1] return'd shall come, and bring\nTheir bodies, which above they now have left.\nThe cemetery on this part obtain,\nWith Epicurus, all his followers,\nWho with the body make the spirit die.\nHere therefore satisfaction shall be soon,\nBoth to the question ask'd, and to the wish[2]\nWhich thou conceal'st in silence.\" I replied:\n\"I keep not, guide beloved! from thee my heart\nSecreted, but to shun vain length of words;\nA lesson erewhile taught me by thyself.\"\n\n[1: \"Josaphat.\" It seems to have been a common opinion among the\nJews, as well as among many Christians, that the general judgment will be held\nin the valley of Josaphat, or Jehoshaphat. \"I will also gather all nations,\nand will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with\nthem there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered\namong the nations, and parted my land.\" - Joel, iii. 2.]\n\n[2: \"The wish.\" The wish that Dante had not expressed was to see and\nconverse with the followers of Epicurus; among whom, we shall see, were\nFarinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante Cavalcanti.]\n\n\"O Tuscan! thou, who through the city of fire\nAlive art passing, so discreet of speech:\nHere, please thee, stay awhile. Thy utterance\nDeclares the place of thy nativity\nTo be that noble land, with which perchance\n\nI too severely dealt.\" Sudden that sound\nForth issued from a vault, whereat, in fear,\nI somewhat closer to my leader's side\nApproaching, he thus spake: \"What dost thou? Turn:\nLo! Farinata[3] there, who hath himself\nUplifted: from his girdle upwards, all\nExposed, behold him.\" On his face was mine\nAlready fix'd: his breast and forehead there\nErecting, seem'd as in high scorn he held\nE'en Hell. Between the sepulchres, to him\nMy guide thrust me, with fearless hands and prompt;\nThis warning added: \"See thy words be clear.\"\n\n[3: \"Farinata.\" Farinata degli Uberti, a noble Florentine, was the\nleader of the Ghibelline faction, when they obtained a signal victory over the\nGuelfi at Montaperto, near the river Arbia. Macchiavelli calls him \"a man of\nexalted soul, and great military talents.\" - \"Hist. of Flor.\" b. ii. His\ngrandson, Bonifacio, commonly called Fazio degli Uberti, wrote a poem,\nentitled the \"Dittamonodo,\" in imitation of Dante.]\n\nHe, soon as there I stood at the tomb's foot,\nEyed me a space; then in disdainful mood\nAddress'd me: \"Say what ancestors were thine.\"\n\nI, willing to obey him, straight reveal'd\nThe whole, nor kept back aught: whence he, his brow\nSomewhat uplifting, cried: \"Fiercely were they\nAdverse to me, my party, and the blood\nFrom whence I sprang: twice,[4] therefore, I abroad\nScatter'd them.\" \"Though driven out, yet they each time\nFrom all parts,\" answer'd I, \"return'd; an art\nWhich yours have shown they are not skill'd to learn.\"\n\n[4: \"Twice.\" The first time in 1248, when they were driven out by\nFrederick the Second. See G. Villani, lib. vi. c. xxxiv.; and the second time\nin 1260. See note to v. 83.]\n\nThen, peering forth from the unclosed jaw,\nRose from his side a shade,[5] high as the chin,\nLeaning, methought, upon its knees upraised.\nIt look'd around, as eager to explore\nIf there were other with me; but perceiving\nThat fond imagination quench'd, with tears\nThus spake: \"If thou through this blind prison go'st,\nLed by thy lofty genius and profound,\n\n[5: \"A shade.\" The spirit of Cavalcante Cavalcanti, a noble\nFlorentine, of the Guelf party.]\n\nWhere is my son?[6] and wherefore not with thee?\"\nI straight replied: \"Not of myself I come;\nBy him, who there expects me, through this clime\nConducted, whom perchance Guido thy son\nHad in contempt.\"[7] Already had his words\nAnd mode of punishment read me his name,\nWhence I so fully answer'd. He at once\nExclaim'd, up starting, \"How! said'st thou, he had?\nNo longer lives he? Strikes not on his eye\nThe blessed daylight?\" Then, of some delay\nI made ere my reply, aware, down fell\nSupine, nor after forth appear'd he more.\nMeanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom\nI yet was station'd, changed not countenance stern,\nNor moved the neck, nor bent his ribbed side.\n\"And if,\" continuing the first discourse,\n\"They in this art,\" he cried, \"small skill have shown;\nThat doth torment me more e'en than this bed.\nBut not yet fifty times[8] shall be relumed\nHer aspect, who reigns here queen of this realm,[9]\nEre thou shalt know the full weight of that art.\nSo to the pleasant world mayst thou return,\nAs thou shalt tell me why, in all their laws,\nAgainst my kin this people is so fell.\"\n\n\"The slaughter[10] and great havoc,\" I replied,\n\"That color'd Arbia's flood with crimson stain -\n\n[6: \"My son.\" Guido, the son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti; \"he whom I\ncall the first of my friends,\" says Dante in his \"Vita Nuova\" where the\ncommencement of their friendship is related. From the character given of him\nby contemporary writers, his temper was well formed to assimilate with that of\nour Poet. \"He was,\" according to G. Villani, lib. viii. c. xli., \"of a\nphilosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too delicate and\nfastidious.\"]\n\n[7: \"_____ Guido they soon Had in contempt.\" Guido Cavalcanti, being\nmore given to philosophy than poetry, was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil.]\n\n[8: \"Not yet fifty times.\" \"Not fifty months shall be passed, before\nthou shalt learn, by woeful experience, the difficulty of returning from\nbanishment to thy native city.\"]\n\n[9: \"Queen of this realm.\" The moon, one of whose titles in heathen\nmythology was Proserpine, queen of the shades below.]\n\n[10: \"The slaughter.\" \"By means of Farinata degli Uberti, the Guelfi\nwere conquered by the army of King Manfredi, near the river Arbia, with so\ngreat a slaughter, that those who escaped from that defeat took refuge, not in\nFlorence, which city they considered as lost to them, but in Lucca.\" -\nMacchiavelli, \"Hist. of Flor.\" b. ii. and G. Villani, lib. vi. c. lxxx. and\nlxxxi.]\n\nTo these impute, that in our hallow'd dome\nSuch orisons[11] ascend.\" Sighing he shook\nThe head, then thus resumed: \"In that affray\nI stood not singly, nor, without just cause,\nAssuredly, should with the rest have stirr'd;\nBut singly there I stood,[12] when, by consent\nOf all, Florence had to the ground been razed,\nThe one who openly forbade the deed.\"\n\n[11: \"Such orisons.\" This appears to allude to certain prayers which\nwere offered up in the churches of Florence, for deliverance from the hostile\nattempts of the Uberti; or, it may be that the public councils being held in\nchurches, the speeches delivered in them against the Uberti are termed\n\"orisons,\" or prayers.]\n\n[12: \"Singly there I stood.\" Guido Novello assembled a council of the\nGhibellini at Empoli; where it was agreed by all, that, in order to maintain\nthe ascendancy of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany, it was necessary to destroy\nFlorence, which could serve only (the people of that city being Guelfi) to\nenable the party attached to the church to recover its strength. This cruel\nsentence, passed upon so noble a city, met with no opposition from any of its\ncitizens or friends, except Farinata degli Uberti, who openly and without\nreserve forbade the measure; affirming, that he had endured so many hardships,\nwith no other view than that of being able to pass his days in his own\ncountry. Macchiavelli, Hist. of Flor. b. ii.]\n\n\"So may thy lineage find at last repose,\"\nI thus adjured him, \"as thou solve this knot,\nWhich now involves my mind. If right I hear,\nYe seem to view beforehand that which time\nLeads with him, of the present uninform'd.\"\n\n\"We view, as one who hath an evil sight,\"\nHe answer'd, \"plainly, objects far remote;\nSo much of his large splendor yet imparts\nThe Almighty Ruler: but when they approach,\nOr actually exist, our intellect\nThen wholly fails; nor of your human state,\nExcept what others bring us, know we aught.\nHence therefore mayst thou understand, that all\nOur knowledge in that instant shall expire,\nWhen on futurity the portals close.\"\n\nThen conscious of my fault,[13] and by remorse\nSmitten, I added thus: \"Now shalt thou say\nTo him there fallen, that his offspring still\nIs to the living join'd; and bid him know,\nThat if from answer, silent, I abstain'd,\n\n[13: \"My fault.\" Dante felt remorse for not having returned an\nimmediate answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, from which delay he was led to\nbelieve that his son Guido was no longer living.]\n\n'Twas that my thought was occupied, intent\nUpon that error, which thy help hath solved.\"\n\nBut now my master summoning me back\nI heard, and with more eager haste besought\nThe spirit to inform me, who with him\nPartook his lot. He answer thus return'd:\n\"More than a thousand with me here are laid.\nWithin is Frederick,[14] second of that name,\nAnd the Lord Cardinal,[15] and of the rest\nI speak not.\" He, this said, from sight withdrew.\nBut I my steps toward the ancient bard\nReverting, remunated on the words\nBetokening me such ill. Onward he moved,\nAnd thus, in going, question'd: \"Whence the amaze\nThat holds thy senses wrapt?\" I satisfied\nThe inquiry, and the sage enjoin'd me straight:\n\"Let thy safe memory store what thou hast heard,\nTo thee importing harm; and note thou this,\"\nWith his raised finger bidding me take heed,\n\"When thou shalt stand before her gracious beam,[16]\nWhose bright eye all surveys, she of thy life\nThe future tenor will to thee unfold.\"\n\n[14: \"Frederick.\" The Emperor Frederick II., who died in 1250. See\nnotes to Canto xiii.]\n\n[15: \"The Lord Cardinal.\" Ottaviano Ubaldini, a Florentine, made\ncardinal in 1245, and deceased about 1273. On account of his great influence,\nhe was generally known by the appellation of \"the Cardinal.\" It is reported of\nhim that he declared if there were any such thing as a human soul he had lost\nhis for the Ghibellini.]\n\n[16: \"Her gracious beam.\" Beatrice.]\n\nForthwith he to the left hand turn'd his feet:\nWe left the wall, and toward the middle space\nWent by a path that to a valley strikes,\nWhich e'en thus high exhaled its noisome steam.",
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