Inferno Viii: The 1 Who Weeps

Io dico, continuando…
I say, continuing…

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 foreign beginning. Or a re-beginning, according to some, afterwards a long hiatus. The legend goes that a relative of Dante constitute the papers on which the poet had written the firstly 7 cantos around the twelvemonth 1301, before his exile, as well as had them delivered to him via some other poet, Dino Frescobaldi, inward the northern Tuscan portion known equally the Lunigiana, some years afterwards he was chased away from Florence. Whereupon Dante supposedly decided to resume writing the Divine Comedy, as well as signalled it past times agency of that gerund, continuando. It’s a theory whose origins appointment dorsum to Giovanni Boccaccio himself, i of the rattling firstly scholars of Dante, as well as spell it’s almost sure enough incorrect, it is salutary to recollect that people accept spent 7 hundred years reading far likewise much into that unmarried word. Approaching the poesy form equally nosotros did non equally ordinary readers (whatever that means), but equally students, nosotros were also required to pay abnormal levels of attending to famous or famously ambiguous lines. Our demand to brand feel of the Comedy bore a straight human relationship with our mightiness to progress inward our studies.

Eugène Delacroix, Dante's boat (1822)

There is rattling lilliputian progress inward this canto. It is mired. We are stuck – as well as that’s mayhap the truthful feel of continuando – inward the 5th circle, looking at the side past times side score of the adventure, but unable to notice the actual entrance. We are even thence inward the Styx, a shallow marsh thick with the semi-submerged bodies of the wrathful, whose pastime is fierce each other apart. Beyond the marsh but clearly visible is a walled city, as well as beyond the walls, is fire. Beacons are lit. First one, as well as thence another. They signal to the infernal regular army the presence of a living man.

To hasten their locomote through the muddied waters, Dante as well as Virgil board the small-scale boat of Phlegyas, a figure of classical mythology whose labor inward Hell is rather unclear. His boat is non a ferry, as well as doesn’t behavior whatsoever souls. It’s non probable that he would serve equally referee with the Styx-dwellers, either, since the house is kept inward a self-regulating, perpetual nation of chaos as well as violence. He seems to hold out merely there, then, business office of the décor: some other vestigial demon from Virgil’s pre-Christian underworld, stripped of his powers as well as reduced to meaninglessness merely similar the onetime gods. Like some of the other extras encountered inward previous cantos, Phlegyas barks at Dante at first, but is shortly rebuked as well as silenced past times Virgil.

Dante steps on the boat, whose prow dips: for different the others, he is a matter of flesh. Yet the souls aren’t just immaterial, either. Soon nosotros run across i that tries to catch him. At firstly Dante doesn’t recognise him. ‘Who are you, who are thence disfigured?’ ‘Vedi che boy un che piango.’ I am i who weeps. But this appeal doesn’t trigger i of the pilgrim’s commons displays of pity. He lashes out at him instead.

Con piangere e con lutto,
spirito maladetto, ti rimani;
ch’i’ ti conosco, ancor sie lordo tutto.

May you lot hold weeping as well as wailing, cursed soul, for I accept recognised you, although you’re covered inward mud.

The obligatory Doré

The passage that follows is surprising. The soul lunges at Dante, as well as is pushed dorsum past times Virgil, who proceeds to praise his accuse for the disdain that he has shown. The twosome hug as well as kiss, equally if inward joyful celebration of this abrupt bout of hatred. As for Dante, he has only i wish: to consider the spirit who approached the boat attuffare inward questa broda, teach dunked into the broth: a prelude to violent assault past times the other souls. His wishing is at nowadays granted. ‘Everyone assault Filippo Argenti!’, yell the marsh-dwellers, as well as fifty-fifty he, Argenti himself, spirito bizzarro – extravagant spirit – joins into the frenzy as well as starts gnawing at his ain flesh.

We don’t know much most this Filippo Argenti, other than the fact that he belonged to a Florentine menage unit of measurement that Dante had reasons to detest. Many as well as most probable apocryphal stories accept cropped upward over the centuries to justify the personal, intimate nature of this hatred, including the allegation that Argenti i time slapped Dante inward the human face upward inward front end of other citizens: a populace humiliation that may teach some way towards explaining the wishing that he should endure inward front end of Dante’s ain eyes, equally if his eternal damnation wasn’t enough. But fifty-fifty if the stories were true, it would hold out an unconvincing explanation. The craven spite, ultimately, reflects badly on Dante. And maybe that’s the point: mired, unsure, made anxious past times those fires that announced his proximity to the walled city, the not-yet-redeemed poet shows his weakness. We don’t know for sure if he is amend than the deceased who accept been condemned to residue inward this place. He may yet come upward back, some day, minus his cloak of flesh, no longer able to weigh downward the prow of Phlegyas’ boat. He is non yet saved.

To underscore the point, the travellers accomplish the red-hot Fe walls of the urban center of Dis, only to notice the way blocked past times an regular army of demons raining from the sky. The demons demand to talk to Virgil, alone, as well as post Dante walking dorsum to the shore of the Styx. Don’t run out me, let’s plow back, he pleads to his guide. The parlay is short, but must seem similar an eternity to the all of a abrupt dejected poet, who only minutes before had disdainfully wished hurting on another. Finally, the doors of the urban center unopen on Virgil’s human face upward as well as he turns back, downcast, le ciglia rase d’ogni baldanza – his brow shorn of all its boldness. Thus the canto ends, with both the hero as well as his guide inward an apparent nation of crisis – equally if God’s ain excogitation could fail.

Previously: Inferno I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII.