Notes.
10 The poet employs the plural voi,
instead of tu, in addressing his ancestor Cacciaguida as a sign or respect, and
Beatrice’s reaction is compared to that of the Dame de Malebaut who came upon
Guinevere and Lancelot in their first amorous colloquy.
25 Saint John the Baptist was the patron
saint of Florence, as Mars was the pagan patron.
37 Those born with Mars under the sign of Leo
the Lion have warlike dispositions.
49 Cacciaguida begins a survey of old-line
families, great in his day, that have died off or degenerated by marriages with baser
stock. These nobles have been replaced by backwoods folk from Certaldo (l. 50), Trespiano
(l. 54), and other hamlets; among these low-born Snopses, Dante mentions Baldo
d’Aguglione, a politician, and Fazio dei Morubaldini of Signa, a lawyer, as two
typical swindlers (l. 56).
61 This person has not been identified.
64 Montemurlo, a castle north-west of
Florence, was sold by the Ghibelline Counts Guidi to the city in 1254.
65 The Cerchi clan, leaders of the White
Guelphs, came originally from Acone in Val di Sieve.
66 The Buondelmonti had a castle in
Valdigreve which Florence took over: the family moved to the city with dire consequences
(see ll. 135-147).
73 Luni and the other cities are given as
examples of dead and dying municipalities.
88 The Ughi are among Florentine families
that were illustrious in Cacciaguida’s day.
98 Berti dei Ravignani won praise in the
previous canto (ll. 112-114), and Count Guido Guerra, although among the sodomites,
receives honorable mention in Inferno XVI, ll. 34-39.
100 The Della Pressa, Galigaio, the Pigli
(whose arms bore a grey fur or vair), are other distinguished families of the past. The
Chiaramontesi were accused of fraudulently measuring salt (l. 105). The Uberti were once
high-minded, but ambition, like that of Farinata's, has undone them (ll. 109-110). The
same has happened to the Lamberti clan whose arms feature golden balls.
112 Cacciaguida continues with his list of
families fallen from grace: the Visdomini, Tosinghi, and Donati. The Adimari clan have
worked their way up into the social register through clever marriages (ll. 115-120).
126 The della Pera were an old noble family
of Florence.
129 Hugh of Brandenburg, Marquis of Tuscany,
died on Saint Thomas’ Day, December 21, 1006.
131 Giano della Bella, though of noble birth,
supported populist movements, like the reforms in 1293.
140 The Buondelmonti (see l. 66) provide the
climax of Cacciaguida’s speech. When Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonti, a Guelph, refused
to marry the daughter of the well-born Ghibelline Amidei family (l. 136), a death sentence
was passed on him in 1215, and a century of civil strife began (see also Inferno
XXVIII, l. 106, and note).
147 Buondelmonte was murdered at the foot of
the mutilated statue of Mars.
152 The standard of Florence showed a white
lily on a red background; her foes turned the banner upside-down as a sign
of defeat, and the Guelphs reversed the colors on their standard, making the
lily red (l. 154). |
|
- O our
inept nobility of blood!
- If
you make people glory in you here
- On
earth where our affections grow infirm,
-
- I
shall no longer be surprised at it,
- 5
Since there where appetite is not contorted,
- I
mean in heaven, I too gloried in you!
-
-
Plainly you are a mantle that soon shrinks,
- So
that, if cloth's not let out day by day,
- Time
will go round and round you with his scissors!
-
- 10
With formal "You" which was first used in Rome
- And
which her offspring hardly favor now,
- I
once again began to choose my words
-
- When
Beatrice, who stood slightly to one side,
-
Smiled, and seemed to me like her who coughed
- 15
At the first fault they tell of Guinevere.
-
-
"You are my father," was my opening word;
-
"You give me my full confidence to speak;
- You
so raise me I am more than myself.
-
-
"So many streams fill up my mind with joy
- 20
That now my mind rejoices in itself
- That
it can bear this gladness and not burst.
-
-
"Tell me then, dear root from which I spring,
- Who
were your forefathers and what the years
- Which
were recorded in your early youth?
-
- 25
"Tell me of the sheepfold of Saint John,
- How
large the flock was then and who the folk
-
Within it worthy of the highest places?"
-
- As at
the breathing of the winds a coal
-
Quickens into flame, so did I see
- 30
That light glow brighter with my reverent words.
-
- And
as it grew still lovelier to my eyes,
- So
with a sweeter and a softer voice,
- But
not in today’s idiom, he said,
-
-
"From that day whereon Ave was first uttered
- 35
Unto that birth when my now sainted mother
- Was
lightened of me with whom she had been ladened,
-
-
"This fiery planet came five hundred times
- And
fourscore to the Lion to rekindle
- Its
radiance beneath the burning paw.
-
- 40
"My forebears and I had our birthplace there
- Where
those who run within your annual race
- First
reach the farthest parish of the city.
-
-
"Thus much to hear suffices for my forebears;
- For
who they were and whence they hither came,
- 45
Silence is more honorable than speech.
-
-
"All those fit to bear arms who at that time
- Were
present there between Mars and the Baptist
- Were
but the fifth of those who now are living.
-
-
"But then the citizenry, whose blood now mixes
- 50
With Campi and Certaldo and Figline,
- Ran
pure down to the lowest artisan.
-
-
"O how much better were it that those folk
- Of
whom I speak were neighbors and you shared
-
Galluzzo and Trespiano for your boundaries
-
- 55
"Than to have them within and bear the stench
- Of
Aguglione’s boor and Signa’s churl
- Whose
eye by now is keen for bartering!
-
-
"For had the folk who in this world are most
-
Degenerate not been a stepmother to Caesar
- 60
But, like a mother, been kindly toward her son,
-
-
"Then one who has become a Florentine
- And
trafficker and trader would have lived
- At
Simifonti where his grandsire begged.
-
-
"The counts would still possess Montemurlo,
- 65
The Cerchi would be in Acone parish,
- And
the Buondelmonti still in Valdigreve.
-
-
"Confusion of its persons has been ever
- The
prime source of malignance to the city,
- As an
excess of food is to the body.
-
- 70
"And a blind bull falls to the ground more headlong
- Than
the blind lamb, and frequently one sword
- Cuts
more deeply and oftener than five.
-
-
"If you consider Luni and Orbisaglia,
- How
they have perished and how after them
- 75
Chiusi and Senigallia now follow,
-
-
"No longer will you find it strange or hard
- To
hear how families finally come to fail
- When
even cities meet a fatal end.
-
-
"All things pertaining to you have their death,
- 80
As have yourselves, but some conceal their end
- By
lasting long, whereas your lives are short.
-
-
"And as the wheeling of the moon in heaven
- Veils
and unveils the shore unceasingly,
- In
such a manner Fortune deals with Florence;
-
- 85
"Wherefore it should appear no wondrous matter,
- What
I shall tell of the great Florentines
- Whose
reputation is obscured by time.
-
-
"I saw the Ughi and the Catellini,
-
Filippi, Greci, Ormanni, Alberichi,
- 90
Illustrious families, already in decline.
-
-
"And I saw too, as grand as they were ancient,
-
Dell’Arca with Della Sannella — also
-
Soldanieri, Ardinghi, and Bostichi.
-
-
"Above the gate which at the present time
- 95
Is laden with new felony so heavy
- That
jettison will soon drift from the ship,
-
-
"The Ravignani lived, from whom descended
- Count
Guido and whoever since that day
- Has
taken the high name of Bellincione.
-
- 100
"Already Della Pressa knew the way
- To
rule, and Galigaio had already
- The
gilded hilt and pommel in his house.
-
-
"Great was the vair of Pigli arms already,
-
Sacchetti, Giuochi, Fifanti, and Barucci,
- 105
Galli, and those who blush for the false bushel.
-
-
"The stock whence the Calfucci sprang was great
-
Already, and the Sizii and Arrigucci
- Were
raised already to the curule chairs.
-
-
"O what grand men I saw who are now ruined
- 110
By their own pride! Lamberti’s globes of gold
-
Festooning Florence in all her mighty feats!
-
-
"So did the fathers of the Visdomini
- Who,
when a vacancy comes in your church,
-
Fatten by stalling in the consistory.
-
- 115
"The overweening breed that plays the dragon
- To
one who runs off, but to one who shows
- His
teeth — or purse — is docile as a lamb
-
-
"Were on the rise already, but so low
- That
Ubertin Donato was not pleased
- 120
To have his father-in-law make them his kin.
-
-
"Already Caponsacco had come down
- To
the market from Fiesole; then Giuda
- And
Infangato were good citizens.
-
-
"One thing I tell, incredible but true:
- 125
You entered the small circuit of old walls
-
Through a gate named for the Della Pera.
-
-
"Each one who bears the handsome coat of arms
- Of
the great Baron whose name and whose renown
- The
feastday of Saint Thomas keeps alive
-
- 130
"Had knighthood from him and its privilege,
-
Though he who borders those arms now with gold
- This
day is siding with the multitude.
-
-
"There the Gualterotti and Importuni dwelt
-
Already, and the Borgo would be quiet still
- 135
If they had rid themselves of their new neighbors.
-
-
"The house from which your weeping has its birth,
- The
Amidei, in their just resentment
-
Slaying you and ending your glad life,
-
-
"Was honored for itself and for its consorts.
- 140
O Buondelmonte, how ill of you to fly
- From
plighted troth at promptings of another!
-
-
"Many who now mourn would have rejoiced
- If
God had thrown you to the Ema river
- The
first day you arrived before the city!
-
- 145
"But it was fitting, in her final peace,
- That
Florence should then sacrifice a victim
- Unto
the broken stone which guards the bridge.
-
-
"With all these folk and all the others with them
-
I saw Florence in such assured repose
- 150 That
she still had no reason to lament.
-
-
"With all these folk I saw her populace:
- So
glorious, so righteous, that the lily
- Had
never hung reversed upon the lance,
-
-
"Nor yet been dyed vermilion by division."
|
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