The inferno - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ...thou deemest,' called to him the Sage, 'This is the Duke of Athens1 drawing nigh, Who war to the death with thee on earth did wage. Begone, thou brute, for this one passing by Untutored by thy sister has thee found, 20 And only comes thy sufferings to spy.' And as the bull which snaps what held it bound On being smitten by the fatal blow, Halts in its course, and reels upon the ground, The Minotaur I saw reel to and fro; And he, the alert, cried: To the passage haste; While yet he chafes 'twere well thou down shouldst go.' So we descended by the slippery waste2 Of shivered stones which many a time gave way 'Neath the new weight3 my feet upon them placed. 30 I musing went; and he began to say: ' Perchance this ruined slope thou thinkest on, Watched by the brute rage I did now allay. But I would have thee know, when I came down The former time4 into this lower Hell, The cliff had not this ruin undergone. 1 Duke of Athens: Theseus, in modem Tuscan a place where instructed by Ariadne, daughter earth or stones have been care-of Pasiphaë and Minos, how to lessly shot into a heap, outwit the Minotaur, entered the The new weight: The slope labyrinth in the character of a had never before been trodden victim, slew the monster, and by mortal foot, then made his way out, guided 4 The former time: When by a thread he had unwound as Virgil descended to evoke a he went in. shade from the Ninth Circle-The slippery waste: The (Inf. ix. 22). word used here, scarco, means It was not long, if I distinguish well, Ere He appeared who wrenched great prey from Dis1 From out the upmost circle. Trembling fell Through all its parts the nauseous abyss 40 With such a violence, the world, I thought, Was stirred by love; for, as they say, by this She back to Chaos2 has...