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    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
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    {
      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
      "url": "/sources/divine-comedy/"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 4,
    "slug": "canto-4",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 4",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1379,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 4\n\n\nCanto IV\n\nArgument\n\nThe Poet, being roused by a clap of thunder, and following his guide\nonward, descends into Limbo, which is the first circle of Hell, where he finds\nthe souls of those, who although they have lived virtuously and have not to\nsuffer for great sins, nevertheless, through lack of baptism, merit not the\nbliss of Paradise. Hence he is led on by Virgil to descend into the second\ncircle.\n\nBroke the deep slumber in my brain a crash\nOf heavy thunder, that I shook myself,\nAs one by main force roused. Risen upright,\nMy rested eyes I moved around, and search'd\nWith fixed ken, to know what place it was\nWherein I stood. For certain, on the brink\nI found me of the lamentable vale,\nThe dread abyss, that joins a thunderous sound\nOf plaints innumerable. Dark and deep,\n\nAnd thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain\nExplored its bottom, nor could aught discern.\n\n\"Now let us to the blind world there beneath\nDescend,\" the bard began, all pale of look:\n\"I go the first, and thou shalt follow next.\"\n\nThen I, his alter'd hue perceiving, thus:\n\"How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread,\nWho still art wont to comfort me in doubt?\"\n\nHe then: \"The anguish of that race below\nWith pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear\nMistakest. Let us on. Our length of way\nUrges to haste.\" Onward, this said, he moved;\nAnd entering led me with him, on the bounds\nOf the first circle that surrounds the abyss.\n\nHere, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard\nExcept of sighs, that made the eternal air\nTremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief\nFelt by those multitudes, many and vast,\nOf men, women, and infants. Then to me\nThe gentle guide: \"Inquirest thou not what spirits\nAre these which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass\nFarther, I would tkou know, that these of sin\nWere blameless; and if aught they merited,\nIf profits not, since baptism was not heirs,\nThe portal[1] to thy faith. If they before\nThe Gospel lived, they served not God aright;\nAnd among such am I. For these defects,\nAnd for no other evil, we are lost;\nOnly so far afflicted, that we live\nDesiring without hope.\" Sore grief assail'd\nMy heart at hearing this, for well I knew\nSuspended in that Limbo many a soul\nOf mighty worth. \"O tell me, sire revered!\nTell me, my master!\" I began, through wish\nOf full assurance in that holy faith\nWhich vanquishes all error; \"say, did e'er\nAny, or through his own or other's merit,\nCome forth from thence, who afterward was blest?\"\n\n[1: \"Portal.\" \"Porta della fede.\" This was an alteration made in the\ntext by the Academicians della Crusca, on the authority, as it would appear,\nof only two manuscripts. The other reading is, \"parte della fede,\" \"part of\nthe faith.\"]\n\nPiercing the secret purport[2] of my speech,\nHe answer'd: \"I was new to that estate\nWhen I beheld a puissant one[3] arrive\nAmongst us, with victorious trophy crown'd.\nHe forth the shade of our first parent drew,\nAbel, his child, and Noah righteous man,\nOf Moses lawgiver for faith approved,\nOf patriarch Abraham, and David king,\nIsrael with his sire and with his sons,\nNor without Rachel whom so hard he won,\nAnd others many more, whom He to bliss\nExalted. Before these, be thou assured,\nNo spirit of human kind was ever saved.\"\n\n[2: \"Secret purport.\" Lombardi well observes that Dante seems to have\nbeen restrained by awe and reverence from uttering the name of Christ in this\nplace of torment; and that for the same cause, probably, it does not occur\nonce throughout the whole of this first part of the poem.]\n\n[3: \"A puissant one.\" Our Savior.]\n\nWe, while he spake, ceased not our onward road,\nStill passing through the wood; for so I name\nThose spirits thick beset. We were not far\nOn this side from the summit, when I kenn'd\nA flame, that o'er the darken'd hemisphere\nPrevailing shined. Yet we a little space\nWere distant, not so far but I in part\nDiscover'd that a tribe in honour high\nThat placed possess'd. \"O thou, who every art\nAnd science valuest! who are these, that boast\nSuch honor, separate from all the rest?\"\n\nHe answer'd: \"The renown of their great names,\nThat echoes through your world above, acquires\nFavor in Heaven, which holds them thus advanced.\"\nMeantime a voice I heard: \"Honor the bard\nSublime! his shade returns, that left us late!\"\nNo sooner ceased the sound, that I beheld\nFour mighty spirits toward us bend their steps,\nOf semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.\n\nWhen thus my master kind began: \"Mark him,\nWho in his right hand bears that falchion keen,\nThe other three preceding, as their lord.\n\nThis is that Homer, of all bards supreme:\nFlaccus the next, in satire's vein excelling;\nThe third is Naso; Lucan is the last.\nBecause they all that appellation own,\nWith which the voice singly accosted me,\nHonouring they greet me thus, and well they judge.\"\n\nSo I beheld united the bright school\nOf him the monarch of sublimest song,[4]\nThat o'er the others like an eagle soars.\n\n[4: \"The monarch of sublimest song.\" Homer.]\n\nWhen they together short discourse had held,\nThey turn'd to me, with salutation kind\nBeckoning me; at the which my master smiled:\nNor was this all; but greater honour still\nThey gave me, for they made me of their tribe;\nAnd I was sixth amid so learn'd a band.\n\nFar as the luminous beacon on we pass'd,\nSpeaking of matters, then befitting well\nTo speak, now fitter left untold. At foot\nOf a magnificent castle we arrived,\nSeven times with lofty walls begirt, and around\nDefended by a pleasant stream. O'er this\nAs o'er dry land we pass'd. Next, through seven gates,\nI with those sages enter'd, and we came\nInto a mead with lively verdure fresh.\n\nThere dwelt a race, who slow their eyes around\nMajestically moved, and in their port\nBore eminent authority: they spake\nSeldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet.\n\nWe to one side retired, into a place\nOpen and bright and lofty, whence each one\nStood manifest to view. Incontinent,\nThere on the green enamel of the plain\nWere shown me the great spirits, by whose sight\nI am exalted in my own esteem.\n\nElectra[5] there I saw accompanied\nBy many, among whom Hector I knew,\nAnchises' pious son, and with hawk's eye\nCaesar all arm'd, and by Camilla there\nPenthesilea. On the other side,\nOld King Latinus seated by his child\nLavinia, and that Brutus I beheld\nWho Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Cato's wife\nMarcia, with Julia[6] and Cornelia there;\nAnd sole apart retired, the Soldan fierce.[7]\n\n[5: Daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus, founder of Troy.]\n\n[6: \"Julia.\" The daughter of Julius Caesar, and wife of Pompey.]\n\n[7: \"The Soldan fierce.\" Saladin, or Salaheddin, the rival of Richard\nCoeur de Lion.]\n\nThen when a little more I raised my brow,\nI spied the master of the sapient throng,[8]\nSeated amid the philosophic train.\nHim all admire, all pay him reverence due.\nThere Socrates and Plato both I mark'd\nNearest to him in rank, Democritus,\nWho sets the world at chance,[9] Diogenes,\nWith Heraclitus, and Empedocles,\nAnd Anaxagoras, and Thales sage,\nZeno, and Dioscorides well read\nIn nature's secret lore. Orpheus I mark'd\nAnd Linus, Tully and moral Seneca,\nEuclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates,\nGalenus, Avicen, and him who made\nThat commentary vast, Averroes.[10]\n\n[8: \"The master of the sapient throng.\" \"Maestro di color che sanno.\"\nAristotle.]\n\n[9: \"Who sets the world at chance.\" Democritus, who maintained the\nworld to have been formed by the fortuitous concourse of atoms.]\n\n[10: Averroes, called by the Arabians Ibn Roschd, translated and\ncommented on the works of Aristotle.]\n\nOf all to speak at full were vain attempt;\nFor my wide theme so urges, that oft - times\nMy words fall short of what bechanced. In two\nThe six associates part. Another way\nMy sage guide leads me, from that air serene,\nInto a climate ever vex'd with storms:\nAnd to a part I come, where no light shines.",
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}