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The divine comedy

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Title: The divine comedy

Author: Dante Alighieri

Illustrator: Gustave Doré

Translator: Henry Francis Cary

 
Release date: September 1, 2005 [eBook #8800]
 Most recently updated: April 8, 2026

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8800

Credits: David Widger

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY ***

THE DIVINE COMEDY

THE VISION
of
HELL, PURGATORY, AND PARADISE

BY DANTE ALIGHIERI

TRANSLATED BY
THE REV. H. F. CARY, M.A.

Illustrated by M. Gustave Doré

LIST OF CANTOS

 HELL
 Canto 1
 Canto 2
 Canto 3
 Canto 4
 Canto 5
 Canto 6
 Canto 7
 Canto 8
 Canto 9
 Canto 10
 Canto 11
 Canto 12
 Canto 13
 Canto 14
 Canto 15
 Canto 16
 Canto 17
 Canto 18
 Canto 19
 Canto 20
 Canto 21
 Canto 22
 Canto 23
 Canto 24
 Canto 25
 Canto 26
 Canto 27
 Canto 28
 Canto 29
 Canto 30
 Canto 31
 Canto 32
 Canto 33
 Canto 34

 PURGATORY
 Canto 1
 Canto 2
 Canto 3
 Canto 4
 Canto 5
 Canto 6
 Canto 7
 Canto 8
 Canto 9
 Canto 10
 Canto 11
 Canto 12
 Canto 13
 Canto 14
 Canto 15
 Canto 16
 Canto 17
 Canto 18
 Canto 19
 Canto 20
 Canto 21
 Canto 22
 Canto 23
 Canto 24
 Canto 25
 Canto 26
 Canto 27
 Canto 28
 Canto 29
 Canto 30
 Canto 31
 Canto 32
 Canto 33

 PARADISE
 Canto 1
 Canto 2
 Canto 3
 Canto 4
 Canto 5
 Canto 6
 Canto 7
 Canto 8
 Canto 9
 Canto 10
 Canto 11
 Canto 12
 Canto 13
 Canto 14
 Canto 15
 Canto 16
 Canto 17
 Canto 18
 Canto 19
 Canto 20
 Canto 21
 Canto 22
 Canto 23
 Canto 24
 Canto 25
 Canto 26
 Canto 27
 Canto 28
 Canto 29
 Canto 30
 Canto 31
 Canto 32
 Canto 33

HELL
OR THE INFERNO

CANTO I

In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Yet to discourse of what there good befell,
All else will I relate discover'd there.
How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,
Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd
My senses down, when the true path I left,
But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd
The valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread,
I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad
Already vested with that planet's beam,
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.

Then was a little respite to the fear,
That in my heart's recesses deep had lain,
All of that night, so pitifully pass'd:
And as a man, with difficult short breath,
Forespent with toiling, 'scap'd from sea to shore,
Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands
At gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd
Struggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits,
That none hath pass'd and liv'd. My weary frame
After short pause recomforted, again
I journey'd on over that lonely steep,

The hinder foot still firmer. Scarce the ascent
Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light,
And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd,
Nor, when it saw me, vanish'd, rather strove
To check my onward going; that ofttimes
With purpose to retrace my steps I turn'd.

The hour was morning's prime, and on his way
Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,
That with him rose, when Love divine first mov'd
Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope
All things conspir'd to fill me, the gay skin
Of that swift animal, the matin dawn
And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chas'd,
And by new dread succeeded, when in view
A lion came, 'gainst me, as it appear'd,

With his head held aloft and hunger-mad,
That e'en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf
Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd
Full of all wants, and many a land hath made
Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear
O'erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appall'd,
That of the height all hope I lost. As one,
Who with his gain elated, sees the time
When all unwares is gone, he inwardly
Mourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I,
Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace,
Who coming o'er against me, by degrees
Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests.

While to the lower space with backward step
I fell, my ken discern'd the form one of one,
Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech.
When him in that great desert I espied,
"Have mercy on me!" cried I out aloud,
"Spirit! or living man! what e'er thou be!"

He answer'd: "Now not man, man once I was,
And born of Lombard parents, Mantuana both
By country, when the power of Julius yet
Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past
Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time
Of fabled deities and false. A bard
Was I, and made Anchises' upright son
The subject of my song, who came from Troy,
When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.
But thou, say wherefore to such perils past
Return'st thou? wherefore not this pleasant mount
Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?"
"And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,
From which such copious floods of eloquence
Have issued?" I with front abash'd replied.
"Glory and light of all the tuneful train!
May it avail me that I long with zeal
Have sought thy volume, and with love immense
Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou and guide!
Thou he from whom alone I have deriv'd
That style, which for its beauty into fame
Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.
O save me from her, thou illustrious sage!

"For every vein and pulse throughout my frame
She hath made tremble." He, soon as he saw
That I was weeping, answer'd, "Thou must needs
Another way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape
From out that savage wilderness. This beast,
At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none
To pass, and no less hindrance makes than death:
So bad and so accursed in her kind,
That never sated is her ravenous will,
Still after food more craving than before.
To many an animal in wedlock vile
She fastens, and shall yet to many more,
Until that greyhound come, who shall destroy
Her with sharp pain. He will not life support
By earth nor its base metals, but by love,
Wisdom, and virtue, and his land shall be
The land 'twixt either Feltro. In his might
Shall safety to Italia's plains arise,
For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,
Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.
He with incessant chase through every town
Shall worry, until he to hell at length
Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.
I for thy profit pond'ring now devise,
That thou mayst follow me, and I thy guide
Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,
Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see
Spirits of old tormented, who invoke
A second death; and those next view, who

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