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      This very easily did we ascend,

       And turning to the right along its ridge,

       From those eternal circles we departed.

      When we were there, where it is hollowed out

       Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,

       The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike

      The vision of those others evil-born,

       Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,

       Because together with us they have gone."

      From the old bridge we looked upon the train

       Which tow'rds us came upon the other border,

       And which the scourges in like manner smite.

      And the good Master, without my inquiring,

       Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,

       And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;

      Still what a royal aspect he retains!

       That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning

       The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.

      He by the isle of Lemnos passed along

       After the daring women pitiless

       Had unto death devoted all their males.

      There with his tokens and with ornate words

       Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden

       Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.

      There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;

       Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,

       And also for Medea is vengeance done.

      With him go those who in such wise deceive;

       And this sufficient be of the first valley

       To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."

      We were already where the narrow path

       Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms

       Of that a buttress for another arch.

      Thence we heard people, who are making moan

       In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,

       And with their palms beating upon themselves

      The margins were incrusted with a mould

       By exhalation from below, that sticks there,

       And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.

      The bottom is so deep, no place suffices

       To give us sight of it, without ascending

       The arch's back, where most the crag impends.

      Thither we came, and thence down in the moat

       I saw a people smothered in a filth

       That out of human privies seemed to flow;

      And whilst below there with mine eye I search,

       I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,

       It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.

      He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager

       To look at me more than the other foul ones?"

       And I to him: "Because, if I remember,

      I have already seen thee with dry hair,

       And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;

       Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."

      And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:

       "The flatteries have submerged me here below,

       Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."

      Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust

       Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,

       That with thine eyes thou well the face attain

      Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,

       Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,

       And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.

      Thais the harlot is it, who replied

       Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I

       Great gratitude from thee?'—'Nay, marvellous;'

      And herewith let our sight be satisfied."

      Canto XIX. The Third Bolgia: Simoniacs. Pope Nicholas III. Dante's Reproof of corrupt Prelates.

       Table of Contents

      O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples,

       Ye who the things of God, which ought to be

       The brides of holiness, rapaciously

      For silver and for gold do prostitute,

       Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,

       Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.

      We had already on the following tomb

       Ascended to that portion of the crag

       Which o'er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.

      Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest

       In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,

       And with what justice doth thy power distribute!

      I saw upon the sides and on the bottom

       The livid stone with perforations filled,

       All of one size, and every one was round.

      To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater

       Than those that in my beautiful Saint John

       Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,

      And one of which, not many years ago,

       I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;

       Be this a seal all men to undeceive.

      Out of the mouth of each one there protruded

       The feet of a transgressor, and the legs

       Up to the calf, the rest within remained.

      In all of them the soles were both on fire;

       Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,

       They would have snapped asunder withes and bands.

      Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont

       To move upon the outer surface only,

       So likewise was it there from heel to point.

      "Master, who is that one who writhes himself,

       More than his other comrades quivering,"

       I said, "and whom a redder flame is sucking?"

      And he to me: "If thou wilt have me bear thee

       Down there along that bank which lowest lies,

       From him thou'lt know his errors and himself."

      And I: "What pleases thee, to me is pleasing;

       Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not

       From thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken."

      Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived;

       We turned, and on the left-hand side descended

       Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow.

      And the good Master yet from

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