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    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 22,
    "slug": "canto-22",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 22",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1431,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 22\n\n\nCanto XXII\n\nArgument\n\nVirgil and Dante proceed, accompanied by the Demons, and see other\nsinners of the same description in the same gulf. The device of Ciampolo, one\nof these, to escape from the Demons, who had laid hold on him.\n\nIt hath been heretofore my chance to see\nHorsemen with martial order shifting camp,\nTo onset sallying, or in muster ranged,\nOr in retreat sometimes outstretch'd for flight:\nLight - armed squadrons and fleet foragers\nScouring thy plains, Arezzo! have I seen,\nAnd clashing tournaments, and titling jousts,\nNow with the sound of trumpets, now of bells,\nTabors,[1] or signals made from castled heights,\nAnd with inventions multiform, our own,\nOr introduced from foreign land; but ne'er\nTo such a strange recorder I beheld,\nIn evolution moving, horse nor foot,\nNor ship, the tack'd by sign from land or star.\n\n[1: \"Tabour, a drum, a common accompaniment of war, is mentioned as\none of the instruments of martial music in this battle (in Richard Coeur - de\n- Lion) with characteristical propriety. It was imported into the European\narmies from the Saracens in the holy war.\" Warton's Hist. of English Poetry,\nvi.i. (a) 4, p. 167.]\n\nWith the ten Demons on our way we went;\nAh, fearful company! but in the church\nWith saints, with gluttons at the tavern's mess.\n\nStill earnest on the pitch I gazed, to mark\nAll things whate'er the chasm contain'd, and those\nWho burn'd within. As dolphins that, in sign\nTo mariners, heave high their arched backs,\nThat thence forewarn'd they may advise to save\nTheir threaten'd vessel; so, at intervals,\nTo ease the pain, his back some sinner show'd,\nThen hid more nimbly than the lightning - glance.\n\nE'en as the frogs, that of a watery moat\nStand at the brink, with the jaws only out,\nTheir feet and of the trunk all else conceal'd,\nThus on each part the sinners stood; but soon\nAs Barbariccia was at hand, so they\nDrew back under the wave. I saw, and yet\n\nMy heart doth stragger, one, that waited thus,\nAs it befalls that oft one frog remains,\nWhile the next springs away: and Graffiacan,\nWho of the fiends was nearest, grappling seized\nHis clotted locks, and dragg'd him sprawling up,\nThat he appear'd to me an otter. Each\nAlready by their names I knew, so well\nWhen they were chosen I observed, and mark'd\nHow one the other call'd. \"O Rubicant!\nSee that his hide thou with thy talons flay,\"\nShouted together all the cursed crew.\n\nThen I: \"Inform thee, Master! if thou may,\nWhat wretched soul is this, on whom their hands\nHis foes have laid.\" My leader to his side\nApproach'd, and whence he came inquired; to whom\nWas answer'd thus: \"Born in Navarre's domain,[2]\nMy mother placed me in a lord's retinue:\nFor she had borne me to a losel vile,\nA spendthrift of his substance and himself.\nThe good King Thibault[3] after that I served:\nTo peculating here my thoughts were turn'd,\nWhereof I give account in this dire heat.\"\n\n[2: His name is said to be Ciampolo.]\n\n[3: \"Thibault I, King of Navarre, died on June 8, 1233, as much to be\ncommended for the desire he showed of aiding the war in the Holy Land, as\nreprehensible and faulty for his design of oppressing the rights and\nprivileges of the Church. Thibault undoubtedly mertis praise, as for his other\nendowments, so especially for his cultivation of the liberal arts, his\nexercise and knowledge of music and poetry, in which he so much excelled that\nhe was accustomed to compose verses and sing them to the viol, and to exhibit\nhis poetical compositions publicly in his palace, that they might be\ncriticised by all.\"]\n\nStraight Ciriatto, from whose mouth a tusk\nIssued on either side, as from a boar,\nRipp'd him with one of these. 'Twixt evil claws\nThe mouse had fallen: but Barbariccia cried,\nSeizing him with both arms: \"Stand thou apart\nWhile I do fix him on my prong transpierced.\"\nThen added, turning to my guide his face,\n\"Inquire of him, if more thou wish to learn,\nEre he again be rent.\" My leader thus:\n\"Then tell us of the partners in thy guilt;\nKnowest thou any sprung of Latin land\n\nUnder the tar?\" \"I parted,\" he replied,\n\"But now from one, who sojourn'd not far thence;\nSo were I under shelter now with him,\nNor hook nor talon then should scare me more.\"\n\n\"Too long we suffer,\" Libicocco cried;\nThen, darting forth a prong, seized on his arm,\nAnd mangled bore away the sinewy part.\nHim Draghinazzo by his thighs beneath\nWould next have caught; whence angrily their chief,\nTurning on all sides round, with threatening brow\nRestrain'd them. When their strife a little ceased,\nOf him, who yet was gazing on his wound,\nMy teacher thus without delay inquired:\n\"Who was the spirit, from whom by evil hap\nParting, as thou hast told, thou camest to shore?\"\n\n\"It was the friar Gomita,\"[4] he rejoin'd,\n\"He of Gallura, vessel of all guile,\nWho had his master's enemies in hand,\nAnd used them so that they commend him well.\nMoney he took, and them at large dismiss'd;\nSo he reports; and in each other charge\nCommitted to his keeping play'd the part\nOf barterer to the height. With him doth herd\nThe chief of Logodoro, Michel Zanche.[5]\nSardinia is a theme whereof their tongue\nIs never weary. Out! alas! behold\nThat other, how he grins. More would I say,\nBut tremble lest he mean to maul me sore.\"\n\n[4: He was intrusted by Nino de' Visconti with the government of\nGallura, one of the four jurisdictions of Sardinia. He took a bribe from his\nmaster's enemies and allowed them to escape. See also Canto xxxiii and\nPurgatory, Canto viii.]\n\n[5: President of Logodoro, of the four Sardinian jurisdictions. See\nCanto xxxiii. Note to v. 136.]\n\nTheir captain then to Farfarello turning,\nWho roll'd his moony eyes in act to strike,\nRebuked him thus: \"Off, cursed bird! avaunt!\"\n\n\"If ye desire to see or hear,\" he thus\nQuaking with dread resumed, \"or Tuscan spirits\nOr Lombard, I will cause them to appear.\nMeantime let these ill talons bate their fury,\nSo that no vengeance they may fear from them,\n\nAnd I, remaining in this self - same place,\nWill, for myself but one, make seven appear,\nWhen my shrill whistle shall be heard; for so\nOur custom is to call each other up.\"\n\nCagnazzo at that word deriding grinn'd,\nThen wagg'd the head and spake: \"Hear his device,\nMischievous as he is, to plunge him down.\"\n\nWhereto he thus, who fail'd not in rich store\nOf nice - wove toils: \"Mischief, forsooth, extreme!\nMeant only to procure myself more woe.\"\n\nNo longer Alichino then refrain'd,\nBut thus, the rest gainsaying, him bespake:\n\"If thou do cast thee down, I not on foot\nWill chase thee, but above the pitch will beat\nMy plumes. Quit we the vantage ground, and let\nThe bank be as a shield; that we may see,\nIf singly thou prevail against us all.\"\n\nNow, reader, of new sport expect to hear.\n\nThey each one turn'd his eyes to the other shore,\nHe first, who was the hardest to persuade.\nThe spirit of Navarre chose well his time,\nPlanted his feet on land, and at one leap\nEscaping, disappointed their resolve.\n\nThem quick resentment stung, but him the most\nWho was the cause of failure: in pursuit\nHe therefore sped, exclaiming, \"Thou art caught.\"\n\nBut little it avail'd; terror outstripp'd\nHis following flight; the other plunged beneath,\nAnd he with upward pinion raised his breast:\nE'en thus the water - fowl, when she perceives\nThe falcon near, dives instant down, while he\nEnraged and spent retires. That mockery\nIn Calcabrina fury stirr'd, who flew\nAfter him, with desire of strife inflamed;\nAnd, for the barterer had 'scaped, so turn'd\nHis talons on his comrade. O'er the dyke\nIn grapple close they join'd; but the other proved\nA goshawk able to rend well his foe;\nAnd in the boiling lake both fell. The heat\nWas umpire soon between them; but in vain\nTo lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued\nTheir pennons. Barbariccia, as the rest,\nThat chance lamenting, four in flight despatch'd\nFrom the other coast, with all their weapons arm'd.\nThey, to their post on each side speedily\nDescending, stretch'd their hooks toward the fiends,\nWho flounder'd, inly burning from their scars:\nAnd we departing left them to that broil.",
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