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Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno
Author: Dante Alighieri
Translator: James Romanes Sibbald
Release date: December 2, 2012 [eBook #41537]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41537
Credits: David Starner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI: THE INFERNO ***
THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI
[Illustration]
THE
DIVINE
COMEDY
OF
DANTE
ALIGHIERI
A TRANSLATION
BY
JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD
EDINBURGH
PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS
MDCCCLXXXIV
_All Rights Reserved._
Edinburgh University Press:
T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY.
THE
INFERNO
A TRANSLATION
WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY
JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD
EDINBURGH
PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS
MDCCCLXXXIV
PREFACE.
A Translator who has never felt his self-imposed task to be a light one
may be excused from entering into explanations that would but too
naturally take the form of apologies. I will only say that while I have
striven to be as faithful as I could to the words as well as to the
sense of my author, the following translation is not offered as being
always closely literal. The kind of verse employed I believe to be that
best fitted to give some idea, however faint, of the rigidly measured
and yet easy strength of Dante's _terza rima_; but whoever chooses to
adopt it with its constantly recurring demand for rhymes necessarily
becomes in some degree its servant. Such students as wish to follow the
poet word by word will always find what they need in Dr. J. A. Carlyle's
excellent prose version of the _Inferno_, a work to which I have to
acknowledge my own indebtedness at many points.
The matter of the notes, it is needless to say, has been in very great
part found ready to my hand in existing Commentaries. My edition of John
Villani is that of Florence, 1823.
The Note at page cx was printed before it had been resolved to provide
the volume with a copy of Giotto's portrait of Dante. I have to thank
the Council of the Arundel Society for their kind permission to Messrs.
Dawson to make use of their lithograph of Mr. Seymour Kirkup's
invaluable sketch in the production of the Frontispiece--a privilege
that would have been taken more advantage of had it not been deemed
advisable to work chiefly from the photograph of the same sketch, given
in the third volume of the late Lord Vernon's sumptuous and rare edition
of the _Inferno_ (Florence, 1865). In this Vernon photograph, as well as
in the Arundel Society's chromolithograph, the disfiguring mark on the
face caused by the damage to the plaster of the fresco is faithfully
reproduced. A less degree of fidelity has been observed in the
Frontispiece; although the restoration has not been carried the length
of replacing the lost eye.
EDINBURGH, _February_, 1884.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
FLORENCE AND DANTE, xvii
GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE, cx
The Inferno.
CANTO I.
The Slumber--the Wood--the Hill--the three Beasts--Virgil--the
Veltro or Greyhound, 1
CANTO II.
Dante's misgivings--Virgil's account of how he was induced to
come to his help--the three Heavenly Ladies--the beginning of
the Journey, 9
CANTO III.
The Gate of Inferno--the Vestibule of the Caitiffs--the Great
Refusal--Acheron--Charon--the Earthquake--the Slumber of Dante, 17
CANTO IV.
The First Circle, which is the Limbo of the Unbaptized and of
the Virtuous Heathen--the Great Poets--the Noble Castle--the
Sages and Worthies of the ancient world, 24
CANTO V.
The Second Circle, which is that of Carnal Sinners--Minos--the
Tempest--The Troop of those who died because of their Love--
Francesca da Rimini--Dante's Swoon, 32
CANTO VI.
The Third Circle, which is that of the Gluttonous--the Hail and
Rain and Snow--Cerberus--Ciacco and his Prophecy, 40
CANTO VII.
The Fourth Circle, which is that of the Avaricious and the
Thriftless--Plutus--the Great Weights rolled by the sinners in
opposite directions--Fortune--the Fifth Circle, which is that
of the Wrathful--Styx--the Lofty Tower, 47
CANTO VIII.
The Fifth Circle continued--the Signals--Phlegyas--the Skiff--
Philip Argenti--the City of Dis--the Fallen Angels--the Rebuff
of Virgil, 55
CANTO IX.
The City of Dis, which is the Sixth Circle and that of the
Heretics--the Furies and the Medusa head--the Messenger of Heaven
who opens the gates for Virgil and Dante--the entrance to the
City--the red-hot Tombs, 62
CANTO X.
The Sixth Circle continued--Farinata degli Uberti--Cavalcante dei
Cavalcanti--Farinata's prophecy--Frederick II., 69
CANTO XI.
The Sixth Circle continued--Pope Anastasius--Virgil explains on
what principle sinners are classified in Inferno--Usury, 77
CANTO XII.
The Seventh Circle, First Division--the Minotaur--the River
of Blood, which forms the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle--
in it are those guilty of Violence against others--the
Centaurs--Tyrants--Robbers and Murderers--Ezzelino Romano--
Guy of Montfort--the Passage of the River of Blood, 84
CANTO XIII.
The Seventh Circle continued--the Second Division consisting
of a Tangled Wood in which are those guilty of Violence against
themselves--the Harpies--Pier delle Vigne--Lano--Jacopo da Sant'
Andrea--Florence and its Patrons, 91
CANTO XIV.
The Seventh Circle continued--the Third Division of it, consisting
of a Waste of Sand on which descends an unceasing Shower of Fire--
in it are those guilty of Violence against God, against Nature,
and against Art--Capaneus--the Crimson Brook--the Statue of Time--
the Infernal Rivers, 98
CANTO XV.
The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature--
Brunetto Latini--Francesco d'Accorso--Andrea de' Mozzi, Bishop
of Florence, 106
CANTO XVI.
The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature--
Guidoguerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci--
the Cataract--the Cord--Geryon, 115
CANTO XVII.
The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Art--Usurers--
the descent on Geryon's back into the Eighth Circle, 123
CANTO XVIII.
The Eighth Circle, otherwise named Malebolge, which consists of
ten concentric Pits or Moats connected by bridges of rock--in
these are punished those guilty of Fraud of different kinds--
First Bolgia or Moat, where are Panders and Seducers, scourged
by Demons--Venedico Caccianimico--Jaso Next |