CANTO THE THIRTY-FOURTH.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet arrives at the Station of the Infernal Monarch, whom he finds employed in the Punishment of JUDAS ISCARIOT, BRUTUS, and CASSIUS, who are considered here as guilty of the same Crime, Ingratitude and Perfidy, to their chief Benefactors. Thence, directed by VIRGIL, he finds his way by the Centre, and emerges with difficulty in the other Hemisphere, near the Mountain of PURGATION.

“ YONDER the flag of EREBUS unfurl’d,

Proclaims the Monarch of the nether world,”

The Bard exclaim’d, as now the fogs profound,

Dispersing slow before the rising gale,

Disclos’d, what seem’d a tow’r with shifting sail,

And warring tempests swept her vans around.

II.

Shook from his wings the fell Tornado grew,

And all the hideous scene disclos’d to view,

Beat with eternal storms, a barren coast !

Half in the whirlwind seiz’d, the Spirit caught

His trembling charge, and o’er the surface brought

With rapid wafture to the central post.

III.

Oh ! could the Muse describe in equal strain

The horrors of the wide CERULEAN plain,

For ever glaz’d beneath the Boreal blast !

The various postures of the tribes that lay

In silent shoals, beneath the frozen bay,

The lowest tenants of the wint’ry waste !

IV.

Some show’d their heels aloft, and some the head,

And some recumbent on their frozen bed,

In prostrate files posses’d the middle deep ;

While bending some, with head and heels conjoin’d,

Asunder each in crystal cells confin’d,

Feel thro’ their reins the icy horrors creep.

V.

Their rigid lips were seal’d in dumb despair,

Their stony eyes, unconscious of a tear,

Glar’d as we pass’d, but now the infernal Sire,

Ken’d from afar, his port majestic shew’d,

“ There fills the FOE OF MAN his dire abode,

Go ! and may Heav’n thy sinking soul inspire !”

VI.

He spoke ---the gloomy Chief in HADES fear’d,

’Midst plaintive shrieks, and warring winds, appear’d,

While nature thro’ my nerves convulsive shook :

New palsies seiz’d my agonizing frame,

And glowing now I felt the fever’s flame,

While life and death by turns my limbs forsook.

VII.

Half from the central Gulph he seem’d to spring,

But PHLEGRA’s Giant brood, and BABEL’s King,

To pigmies sunk before the STYGIAN LORD :

Less to the Monarch of the frozen main

They seem’d, than I to that gigantic train,

When late my suppliant pray’r their aid implor’d.

VIII.

If his meridian glories, ere he fell,

Equal’d his horrible eclipse in Hell,

No brighter Seraph led the heav’nly host :

And now, a tenant of the frozen tide,

The rebel justly merits to preside

O’er all the horrors of the STYGIAN coast.

IX.

Six shadowy wings invest his shoulders wide,

A GORGON face appear’d on either side,

And one before, that seem’d with rage to burn :

RANCOUR with sullen hue the next o’ercast,

And ENVY’s jaundic’d look distain’d the last

With GRIEF, that seem’d at other’s joy to mourn.

X.

He wav’d his sail-broad wings, and woke the storm,

COCYTUS shudder’d thro’ her tribes deform,

That felt the freezing pow’r in ev’ry gale :

Keen, polar blasts around his pinions sleet,

And o’er the region sift th’ eternal fleet,

And mould, with many a gust, the beating hail.

XI.

Disguis’d in gore the gloomy Chieftain stood,

From ev’ry mouth distill’d the streaming blood,

And lamentation loud and piercing cries

Were heard within.---His triple jaws divide,

And shew his deadly fangs on either side,

And each a sinner’s blood in crimson dyes.

XII.

We saw the pris’ners force their bloody way,

We saw his marble jaws with deadly sway,

At once descend and crush them in their flight :

Half seen again, the wretch for mercy calls,

High-pois’d again, the pond’rous engine falls,

And churns their quiv’ring limbs with stern delight.

XIII.

“ ISCARIOT there,” the mighty MANTUAN cry’d,

“ In dol’rous pangs atones his parricide !

Hark ! how he yells within, and flings abroad

His struggling feet ! in sullen fortitude

Here BRUTUS lies by torture unsubdu’d,

And CASSIUS bathes his mighty limbs in blood !”

XIV.

“ Here ends our long survey ---for now above

Young HESPER lights his ev’ning lamp of love,

And calls us upwards to the bounds of day :

Now other worlds our weary steps invite

Another passage to the bounds of light,

Up to the world, along laborious way.”

XV.

He gave the sign, and soon with pious haste,

I clung around his neck, and bending waist ;

Then, tow’rd the Fiend, he bore his trembling charge,

And, when he saw his mighty wings display’d,

Boldly he plung’d beneath the waving shade,

And seiz’d his shaggy back, and shoulders large.

XVI.

Thence, soft and slow, his giant sides along

He bore his load, ’till from his cincture hung,

We saw beneath the shelving ice divide ;

Then, plung’d at once amid the central womb,

And, trembling, pass’d the unsubstantial gloom,

Where worlds met worlds around the dismal void.

XVII.

At once I found my Guide his hold forego,

And turn with labour to the world of woe :

His shifting feet, as if again to try

With long repeated search the frozen sound,

“ Prepare with me,” he cry’d, “ to climb around

Those giant limbs that seem to prop the sky.

XVIII.

“ Now turn, and try this column’d height to scale,”

The Bard exclaim’d, as from the dismal vale,

Thro’ a wide arch of adamant we press’d :

Awhile he stood the wondrous scene to view,

Then up with pain his mortal burden drew,

And both a moment seiz’d of welcome rest.

XIX.

Then gazing upwards from our shelving seat,

We saw the STYGIAN LORD’s inverted state,

His feet sublime, and head depending far :

Now weigh, ye tribes of earth ! my lengthen’d toil ;

Think with what pain I pass’d the central isle,

And cross’d with weary limbs the mighty bar.

XX.

“ Arise !” the Bard exclaim’d ; “ the mounting sun

Expects to meet us ere his race be run,

And long and dismal lies the way to light !

No splendid palace fronts the flow’ry path,

But cliffs of horrid height, and shades of death,

And hov’ring dread, and everlasting night.

XXI.

“ O Sire !” I cry’d, “ these wondrous things explain,

How pass’d we unawares the frozen main ?

And why suspends the Fiend his feet above ?

What Angel’s speed has urg’d the star of day

So sudden to relume his morning ray,

Since HESPER woke his ev’ning lamp of love ?”

XXII.

“ Suppose the centre past,” the Poet said,

“ Since first at yonder point I turn’d my head,

And lab’ring feet on SATAN’s scaly side :

Thither unforc’d you sunk with downward weight,

With labour now you climb the stony strait,

Tho’ I sustain you thro’ the gloomy void.

XXIII.

“ Beneath our feet the plains of ASIA lie,

There PALESTINE surveys the nether sky,

Where bled the SINLESS MAN a world to save ;

Pale ev’ning there ascends, in sober grey,

While here the morning points a purple ray,

And gilds with light the broad antarctic wave.

XXIV.

“ Around the centre sleeps the frozen flood,

Where SATAN stands embath’d in Traitors blood ;

His giant limbs the meeting worlds unite :

Flaming from yonder southern sky he fell,

The plain broke inwards, and thro’ lowest hell

Before him fled, ’till ASIA stopp’d her flight.

XXV.

“ Portentous there it rose, a scared hill,

Where angel hands their richest balm distil,

And MARY’s son reclin’d his sacred head ;

Nor ceas’d the central shock, ’till, hither borne,

Another hill its horrid way had torn,

Which overlooks afar its oozy bed.”

XXVI.

Now many a league above the wint’ry sound

We hung, and darkness hover’d still around :

Yet on we pass’d, admonish’d by the ear ;

For hoarse and dismal thro’ the gloomy steep,

A falling torrent sought the central deep,

Thro’ many a rifted rock, and stony sphere.

XXVII.

Still up the wave-worn cliff the MANTUAN press’d,

I follow’d faint, deny’d a moment’s rest ;

’Till dim and dubious thro’ the rocks on high,

A ray of welcome light disclos’d our path ;

Joyful we left the shadowy realms of death,

And hail’d the op’ning glories of the sky.

END OF THE INFERNO OF DANTE.