{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/divine-comedy/inferno/canto-5.json"
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  "work": {
    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
      "url": "/sources/divine-comedy/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 5,
    "slug": "canto-5",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 5",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1298,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 5\n\n\nCanto V\n\nArgument\n\nComing into the second circle of Hell, Dante at the entrance beholds\nMinos the Infernal Judge, by whom he is admonished to beware how he enters\nthose regions. Here he witnesses the punishment of carnal sinners, who are\ntossed about ceaselessly in the dark air by the most furious winds. Amont\nthese, he meets with Francesca of Rimini, through pity at whose sad tale he\nfalls fainting to the ground.\n\nFrom the first circle I descended thus\nDown to the second, which, a lesser space\nEmbracing, so much more of grief contains,\nProvoking bitter moans. There Minos stands,\nGrinning with ghastly feature: he, of all\nWho enter, strict examining the crimes,\nGives sentence, and dismisses them beneath,\nAccording as he foldeth him around:\nFor when before him comes the ill - fated soul,\nIt all confesses; and that judge severe\nOf sins, considering what place in Hell\nSuits the transgression, with his tail so oft\nHimself encircles, as degrees beneath\nHe dooms it to descend. Before him stand\nAlways a numerous throng; and in his turn\nEach one to judgment passing, speaks, and hears\nHis fate, thence downward to his dwelling hurl'd.\n\"O thou! who to this residence of woe\nApproachest!\" when he saw me coming, cried\nMinos, relinquishing his dread employ,\n\"Look how thou enter here; beware in whom\nThou place thy trust; let not the entrance broad\nDeceive thee to thy harm.\" To him my guide:\n\"Wherefore exclaimest? Hinder not his way\nBy destiny appointed; so 'tis will'd,\nWhere will and power are one. Ask thou no more.\"\n\nNow 'gin the rueful wailings to be heard.\nNow am I come where many a plaining voice\nSmites on mine ear. Into a place I came\nWhere light was silent all. Bellowing there groan'd\nA noise, as of a sea in tempest torn\nBy warring winds. The stormy blast of Hell\nWith restless fury drives the spirits on,\nWhirl'd round and dash'd amain with sore annoy.\nWhen they arrive before the ruinous sweep,\nThere shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans,\nAnd blasphemies 'gainst the good Power in Heaven.\nI understood, that to this torment sad\nThe carnal sinners are condemn'd, in whom\nReason by lust is sway'd. As, in large troops\nAnd multitudinous, when winter reigns,\nThe starlings on their wings are borne abroad;\nSo bears the tyrannous gust those evil souls.\nOn this side and on that, above, below,\nIt drives them: hope of rest to solace them\nIs none, nor e'en of milder pang. As cranes,\nChanting their dolorous notes, traverse the sky,\nStretch'd out in long array; so I beheld\nSpirits, who came loud wailing, hurried on\nBy their dire doom. Then I: \"Instructor! who\nAre these, by the black air so scourged?\" \"The first\n'Mong those, of whom thou question'st,\" he replied,\n\"O'er many tongues was empress. She in vice\nOf luxury was so shameless, that she made\nLiking be lawful by promulged decree,\nTo clear the blame she had herself incurr'd.\nThis is Semiramis, of whom 'tis writ,\nThat she succeeded Ninus her espoused;\nAnd held the land, which now the Soldan rules.\nThe next in amorous fury slew herself,\nAnd to Sichaeus' ashes broke her faith:\nThen follows Cleopatra, lustful queen.\"\n\nThere mark'd I Helen, for whose sake so long\nThe time was fraught with evil; there the great\nAchilles, who with love fought to the end.\nParis I saw, and Tristan; and beside,\nA thousand more he show'd me, and by name\nPointed them out, whom love bereaved of life.\n\nWhen I had heard my sage instructor name\nThose dames and knights of antique days, o'erpower'd\nBy pity, well - nigh in amaze my mind\nWas lost; and I began: \"Bard! willingly\nI would address those two together coming,\nWhich seem so light before the wind.\" He thus:\n\"Note thou, when nearer they to us approach.\nThen by that love which carries them along,\nEntreat; and they will come.\" Soon as the wind\nSway'd them towards us, I thus framed my speech:\n\"O wearied spirits! come, and hold discourse\nWith us, if by none else restrain'd. As doves\nBy fond desire invited, on wide wings\nAnd firm, to their sweet nest returning home,\nCleave the air, wafted by their will along;\nThus issued, from that troop where Dido ranks,\nThey, through the ill air speeding: with such force\nMy cry prevail'd, by strong affection urged.\n\n\"O gracious creature and benign! who go'st\nVisiting, through this element obscure,\nUs, who the world with bloody stain imbrued;\nIf, for a friend, the King of all, we own'd,\nOur prayer to him should for thy peace arise,\nSince thou hast pity on our evil plight.\nOf whatsoe'er to hear or to discourse\nIt pleases thee, that will we hear, of that\nFreely with thee discourse, while e'er the wind,\nAs now, is mute. The land,[1] that gave me birth,\nIs situate on the coast, where Po descends\nTo rest in ocean with his sequent streams.\n\n[1: \"The land.\" Ravenna.]\n\n\"Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt,\nEntangled him by that fair form, from me\nTa'en in such cruel sort, as grieves me still:\nLove, that denial takes from none beloved,\nCaught me with pleasing him so passing well,\nThat, as thou seest, he yet deserts me not.\nLove brought us to one death: Caina[2] waits\nThe soul, who spilt our life.\" Such were their words;\nAt hearing which, downward I bent my looks,\nAnd held them there so long, that the bard cried:\n\"What art thou pondering?\" I in answer thus:\n\"Alas! by what sweet thoughts, what fond desire\nMust they at length to that ill pass have reach'd!\"\nThen turning, I to them my speech address'd,\n\n[2: \"Caina.\" The place to which murderers are doomed.]\n\nAnd thus began: \"Francesca![3] your sad fate\nEven to tears my grief and pity moves.\nBut tell me; in the time of your sweet sighs,\nBy what, and how Love granted, that ye knew\nYour yet uncertain wishes?\" She replied:\n\"No greater grief than to remember days\nOf joy, when misery is at hand. That kens\nThy learn'd instructor. Yet so eagerly\nIf thou art bent to know the primal root,\nFrom whence our love gat being, I will do\nAs one, who weeps and tells his tale. One day,\nFor our delight we read of Lancelot,[4]\nHow him love thrall'd. Alone we were, and no\nSuspicion near us. Oft - times by that reading\nOur eyes were drawn together, and the hue\nFled from our alter'd cheek. But at one point\nAlone we fell. When of that smile we read,\nThe wished smile so raptorously kiss'd\nBy one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er\nFrom me shall separate, at once my lips\nAll trembling kiss'd. The book and writer both\nWere love's purveyors. In its leaves that day\nWe read no more.\" While thus one spirit spake,\nThe other wail'd so sorely, that heart - struck\nI, through compassion fainting, seem'd not far\nFrom death, and like a corse fell to the ground.\n\n[3: \"Francesca.\" Francesca, the daughter of Guido da Polenta, Lord of\nRavenna, was given by her father in marriage to Gianciotto, son of Malatesta,\nLord of Rimini, a man of extraordinary courage, but deformed in his person.\nHis brother Paolo, who unhappily possessed those graces which the husband of\nFrancesca wanted, engaged her affections; and being taken in adultery, they\nwere both put to death by the enraged Gianciotto.]\n\n[4: \"Lancelot.\" One of the Knights of the Round Table, and the lover\nof Ginevra, or Guinever, celebrated in romance. The incident alluded to seems\nto have made a strong impression on the imagination of Dante, who introduces\nit again, in the Paradise, Canto xvi.]",
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    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}