Nor weep

I here the sole Bolognian; nay,

The moat holds rather of them such good store

That fewer tongues this moment use to say

Sipa,' 'twixt Reno and Saveno's shore.

If proofs or witnesses must be displayed,
Recal our avaricious hearts of yore."
As he was speaking yet, a Demon laid

His lash upon him, saying, "Get thee gone,
Pandar! we've here no women of the trade."
Then to my escort I returned anon,

And having but a few steps trod, we found A rocky spur, which to the cliff joined on. Then to the right we turned us halfway round, And lightly mounting on the splintered cope, We parted from that everlasting bound. Arrived above the breach that yawns to ope

A passage for the scourged ones, "Now remain Here," said my guide, "and cast thine eye aslope, To front that other miscreated train,

Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the face,

As they have with us one direction ta'en.”

Thus from the ancient bridge we marked the race

That toward us from another quarter sped, And whom the scourges in like manner chase. My gracious guide before my asking said,

"Yon great one that approaches us behold,

That seemeth not a tear for pain to shed!
How much he keeps his royal port of old!

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Lo! Jason, who made nerve and brain prevail

To spoil the Colchians of the fleece of gold.
He at the isle of Lemnos lowered sail,

When the bold, mercy-lacking women there
Had given up to slaughter every male;
And by his tokens and his speeches fair

Beguiled Hypsipile, young maid, by whom

The others all before deluded were,

And left her then forlorn with laden womb;
This crime condemns him to this chastisement,
And for Medea's vengeance serves his doom.
All walk with him who cheat with like intent;
And this much for the foremost valley may
Suffice, and those who by its fangs are rent.”

Already came we, where the narrow way
Uniteth crosswise with another mole

The groundwork of a second arch to lay.
From thence we heard a tribe in the next hole

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That whines, and from the snout shudders and

blows,

And slaps and paws itself without control.

Over the banks a slimy coating grows,

That's by the effluvia from below sustained, Offensive to the eyes alike and nose.

The bottom was so murky that we gained

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No point of view till o'er the arch we strode,

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To where the rock its greatest height attained.

There having climbed, the ditch beneath us showed

A people in such ordure sticking fast,

As seemed from human privies to have flowed;
And as mine eye exploring through them past,
I saw one head so grimed with excrement,
That whether he with church or laymen classed
Was unapparent. "Why art so intent,"

He bawled, "on me in all the beastly sty?" "Because," I said, "if memory represent

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The truth, I've seen thee once with hair quite dry,

And thou'rt Alexius Intérminey

Of Lucca, therefore draw'st thou most mine eye."
Then smiting on his pate, he answered me,

"It is my flatteries have sunk me here,
Of which my tongue has never once been free."
My guide said not long afterwards, "Now peer
A little forward, till upon thy sight
The countenance may fall direct and clear,
Of yonder foul, dishevelled, girlish wight,

Who scrapes herself with fingers ordurous,
Now squatting on her hams, and now upright.
Thaïs the harlot is, who answered thus

Her paramour, that asked, 'Am I in great Favor with you?' 'In favor marvellous.' And so far to have seen our eyes may sate."

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CANTO XIX.

O SIMON MAGUS! O his proselytes

Wretched, who things divine, that should be mated With goodness, in your grasping appetites

For gold and silver have adulterated!

For you the trumpet now must wake its blast,

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Since you are in the third pit separated.

Already o'er the following tomb we'd past,

So far along the rock, a plumb-line there Would just midway across the moat be cast. O Supreme Wisdom, how much skill declare

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Thy works in earth, and heaven, and hell's profound,

And how thy wisdom deals to each his share!

I saw along the margins and the ground

Thick holes, that all the tawny rock disguise,

Of like dimensions and in figure round.

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