dar! we've here no women of the trade." on to the right we turned us halfway round, ived above the breach that yawns to ope passage for the scourged ones, "Now remain e," said my guide, "and cast thine eye aslope, Front that other miscreated train, f whom thou hast not yet beheld the face, hey 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, 80 That seemeth not a tear for pain to shed! How much he keeps his royal port of old! 85 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; 40 This crime condemns him to this chastisement, 95 And for Medea's vengeance serves his doom. All walk with him who cheat with like intent; Already came we, where the narrow way The groundwork of a second arch to lay. 100 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 105 No point of view till o'er the arch we strode, 110 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; He bawled, "on me in all the beastly sty?" "Because," I said, "if memory represent 115 The truth, I've seen thee once with hair quite dry, Of Lucca, therefore draw'st thou most mine eye.” "It is my flatteries have sunk me here, Who scrapes herself with fingers ordurous, Her paramour, that asked, 'Am I in great Favor with you?' 'In favor marvellous.' And so far to have seen our eyes may sate." 125 130 135 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, So far along the rock, a plumb-line there 10 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. 15 |