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    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
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      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 23,
    "slug": "canto-23",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 23",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1653,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 23\n\n\nCanto XXIII\n\nArgument\n\nThe enraged Demons pursue Dante, but he is preserved from them by Virgil.\nOn reaching the sixth gulf, he beholds the punishment of the hypocrites; which\nis, to pace continually round the gulf under the pressure of caps and hoods,\nthat are gilt on the outside, but leaden within. He is addressed by two of\nthese, Catalano and Loderingo, Knights of St. Mary, otherwise called Joyous\nFriars of Bologna. Caiaphas is seen fixed to a cross on the ground, and lies\nso stretched along the way, that all tread on him in passing.\n\nIn silence and in solitude we went,\nOne first, the other following his steps,\nAs minor friars journeying on their road.\nThe present fray had turn'd my thoughts to muse\nUpon old Aesop's fable,[1] where he told\nWhat fate unto the mouse and frog befell;\nFor language hath not sounds more like in sense,\nThan are these chances, if the origin\nAnd end of each be heedfully compared.\nAnd as one thought bursts from another forth,\nSo afterward from that another sprang,\nWhich added doubly to my former fear.\nFor thus I reason'd: \"These through us have been\nSo foil'd, with loss and mockery so complete,\nAs needs must sting them sore. If anger then\nBe to their evil will conjoin'd, more fell\nThey shall pursue us, than the savage hound\nSnatches the leveret panting 'twixt his jaws.\"\n\n[1: \"Aesop's fable.\" The fable of the frog, who offered to carry the\nmouse across a ditch, with the intention of drowning him, when both were\ncarried off by a kite. It is not among those Greek fables which go under the\nname of Aesop.]\n\nAlready I perceived my hair stand all\nOn end with terror, and look'd eager back.\n\n\"Teacher,\" I thus began, \"if speedily\nThyself and me thou hide not, much I dread\nThose evil talons. Even now behind\nThey urge us: quick imagination works\nSo forcibly, that I already feel them.\"\n\nHe answer'd: \"Were I form'd of leaded glass,\nI should not sooner draw unto myself\nThy outward image, than I now imprint\nThat from within. This moment came thy thoughts\nPresented before mine, with similar act\nAnd countenance similar, so that from both\nI one design have framed. If the right coast\nIncline so much, that we may thence descend\nInto the other chasm, we shall escape\nSecure from this imagined pursuit.\"\n\nHe had not spoke his purpose to the end,\nWhen I from far beheld them with spread wings\nApproach to take us. Suddenly my guide\nCaught me, even as a mother that from sleep\nIs by the noise aroused, and near her sees\nThe climbing fires, who snatches up her babe\nAnd flies ne'er pausing, careful more of him\nThan of herself, that but a single vest\nClings round her limbs. Down from the jutting beach\nSupine he cast him to that pendent rock,\nWhich closes on one part the other chasm.\n\nNever ran water with such hurrying pace\nAdown the tube to turn a land - mill's wheel,\nWhen nearest it approaches to the spokes,\nAs then along that edge my master ran,\nCarrying me in his bosom, as a child,\nNot a companion. Scarcely had his feet\nReach'd to the lowest of the bed beneath,\nWhen over us the steep they reach'd: but fear\nIn him was none; for that high Providence,\nWhich placed them ministers of the fifth foss,\nPower of departing thence took from them all.\n\nThere in the depth we saw a painted tribe,\nWho paced with tardy steps around, and wept,\nFaint in appearance and o'ercome with toil.\n\nCaps had they on, with hoods, that fell low down\nBefore their eyes, in fashion like to those\nWorn by the monks in Cologne.[2] Their outside\nWas overlaid with gold, dazzling to view,\nBut leaden all within, and of such weight,\nThat Frederick's[3] compared to these were straw.\nOh, everlasting wearisome attire!\n\n[2: They wore unusually large cowls.]\n\n[3: The Emperor Frederick II is said to have punished those who were\nguilty of high treason by wrapping them up in lead and casting them into a\nfurnace.]\n\nWe yet once more with them together turn'd\nTo leftward, on their dismal moan intent.\nBut by the weight opprest, so slowly came\nThe fainting people, that our company\nWas changed, at every movement of the step.\n\nWhence I my guide address'd: \"See that thou find\nSome spirit, whose name may by his deeds be known;\nAnd to that end look round thee as thou go'st.\"\n\nThen one, who understood the Tuscan voice,\nCried after us aloud: \"Hold in your feet,\nYe who so swiftly speed through the dusk air.\nPerchance from me thou shalt obtain thy wish.\"\n\nWhereat my leader, turning, me bespake:\n\"Pause, and then onward at their pace proceed.\"\n\nI staid, and saw two spirits in whose look\nImpatient eagerness of mind was mark'd\nTo overtake me; but the load they bare\nAnd narrow path retarded their approach.\n\nSoon as arrived, they with an eye askance\nPerused me, but spake not: then turning, each\nTo other thus conferring said: \"This one\nSeems, by the action of his throat, alive;\nAnd, be they dead, what privilege allows\nThey walk unmantled by the cumbrous stole?\"\n\nThen thus to me: \"Tuscan, who visitest\nThe college of the mourning hypocrites,\nDisdain not to instruct us who thou art.\"\n\n\"By Arno's pleasant stream,\" I thus replied,\n\"In the great city I was bred and grew,\nAnd wear the body I have ever worn.\n\nBut who are ye, from whom such mighty grief,\nAs now I witness, courseth down your cheeks?\nWhat torment breaks forth in this bitter woe?\"\n\n\"Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue,\"\nOne of them answer'd, \"are so leaden gross,\nThat with their weight they make the balances\nTo crack beneath them. Joyous friars[4] we were,\nBologna's natives; Catalano I,\nHe Loderingo named; and by thy land\nTogether taken, as men used to take\nA single and indifferent arbiter,\nTo reconcile their strifes. How there we sped,\nGardingo's vicinage[5] can best declare.\"\n\n[4: \"Joyous friars.\" \"Those who ruled the city of Florence on the\npart of the Ghibellines perceiving this discontent and murmuring, which they\nwere fearful might produce a rebellion against themselves, in order to satisfy\nthe people, made choice of two knights, Frati Gaudenti (joyous friars) of\nBologna, on whom they conferred the chief power in Florence; one named M.\nCatalano de' Malavolti, the other M. Loderingo di Liandolo; one an adherent of\nthe Guelf, the other of the Ghibelline party. It is to be remarked, that the\nJoyous Friars were called Knights of St. Mary, and became knights on taking\nthat habit: their robes were white, the mantle sable, and the arms a white\nfield and red cross with two stars: their office was to defend widows and\norphans, they were to act as mediators; they had internal regulations, like\nother religious bodies. The above - mentioned M. Loderingo was the founder of\nthat order. But it was not long before they too well deserved the appellation\ngiven them, and were found to be more bent on enjoying themselves than on any\nother object. These two friars were called in by the Florentines, and had a\nresidence assigned them in the palace belonging to the people, over against\nthe Abbey. Such was the dependence placed on the character of their order, it\nwas expected they would be impartial, and would save the commonwealth any\nunnecessary expense; instead of which, though inclined to opposite parties,\nthey secretly and hypocritically concurred in promoting their own advantage\nrather than the public good.\" - G. Villani, b. vii. c. xiii. This happened in\n1266.]\n\n[5: The name of that part of the city which was inhabited by the\npowerful Ghibelline family of the Uberti, and destroyed under the partial and\niniquitous administration of Catalano and Loderingo.]\n\n\"O friars!\" I began, \"your miseries -\"\nBut there brake off, for one had caught mine eye,\nFix'd to a cross with three stakes on the ground:\nHe, when he saw me, writhed himself, throughout\nDistorted, ruffling with deep sighs his beard.\nAnd Catalano, who thereof was 'ware,\nThus spake: \"That pierced spirit,[6] whom intent\nThou view'st, was he who gave the Pharisees\nCounsel, that it were fitting for one man\n\n[6: \"That pierced spirit.\" Caiaphas.]\n\nTo suffer for the people. He doth lie\nTransverse; nor any passes, but him first\nBehoves make feeling trial how each weighs.\nIn straits like this along the foss are placed\nThe father of his consort,[7] and the rest\nPartakers in that council, seed of ill\nAnd sorrow to the Jews.\" I noted then,\nHow Virgil gazed with wonder upon him,\nThus abjectly extended on the cross\nIn banishment eternal. To the friar\nHe next his words address'd: \"We pray ye tell,\nIf so be lawful, whether on our right\nLies any opening in the rock, whereby\nWe both may issue hence, without constraint\nOn the dark angels, that compell'd they come\nTo lead us from this depth.\" He thus replied:\n\"Nearer than thou dost hope, there is a rock\nFrom the great circle moving, which o'ersteps\nEach vale of horror, save that here his cope\nIs shatter'd. By the ruin ye may mount:\nFor on the side it slants, and most the height\nRises below.\" With head bent down awhile\nMy leader stood; then spake: \"He warn'd us ill,\nWho yonder hangs the sinners on his hook.\"\n\n[7: Annas, father - in - law to Caiaphas.]\n\nTo whom the friar: \"At Bologna erst\nI many vices of the Devil heard;\nAmong the rest was said, 'He is a liar,\nAnd the father of lies!'\" When he had spoke,\nMy leader with large strides proceeded on,\nSomewhat disturb'd with anger in his look.\n\nI therefore left the spirits heavy laden,\nAnd, following, his beloved footsteps mark'd.",
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