In su l'estremità d'un'alta ripa
che facevan gran pietre rotte in cerchio,
venimmo sopra più crudele stipa;
e quivi, per l'orribile soperchio
del puzzo che 'l profondo abisso gitta,
ci raccostammo, in dietro, ad un coperchio
d'un grand' avello, ov' io vidi una scritta
che dicea: “Anastasio papa guardo,
lo qual trasse Fotin de la via dritta.”
“Lo nostro scender conviene esser tardo,
sì che s'ausi un poco in prima il senso
al tristo fiato; e poi no i fia riguardo.”
Così 'l maestro; e io “Alcun compenso,”
dissi lui, “trova che 'l tempo non passi
perduto.” Ed elli: “Vedi ch'a ciò penso.”
“Figliuol mio, dentro da cotesti sassi,”
cominciò poi a dir, “son tre cerchietti
di grado in grado, come que' che lassi.
Tutti son pien di spirti maladetti;
ma perché poi ti basti pur la vista,
intendi come e perché son costretti.
D'ogne malizia, ch'odio in cielo acquista,
ingiuria è 'l fine, ed ogne fin cotale
o con forza o con frode altrui contrista.
Ma perché frode è de l'uom proprio male,
più spiace a Dio; e però stan di sotto
li frodolenti, e più dolor li assale.
Di vïolenti il primo cerchio è tutto;
ma perché si fa forza a tre persone,
in tre gironi è distinto e costrutto.
A Dio, a sé, al prossimo si pòne
far forza, dico in loro e in lor cose,
come udirai con aperta ragione.
Morte per forza e ferute dogliose
nel prossimo si danno, e nel suo avere
ruine, incendi e tollette dannose;
onde omicide e ciascun che mal fiere,
guastatori e predon, tutti tormenta
lo giron primo per diverse schiere.
Puote omo avere in sé man vïolenta
e ne' suoi beni; e però nel secondo
giron convien che sanza pro si penta
qualunque priva sé del vostro mondo,
biscazza e fonde la sua facultade,
e piange là dov' esser de' giocondo.
Puossi far forza ne la deïtade,
col cor negando e bestemmiando quella,
e spregiando natura e sua bontade;
e però lo minor giron suggella
del segno suo e Soddoma e Caorsa
e chi, spregiando Dio col cor, favella.
La frode, ond' ogne coscïenza è morsa,
può l'omo usare in colui che 'n lui fida
e in quel che fidanza non imborsa.
Questo modo di retro par ch'incida
pur lo vinco d'amor che fa natura;
onde nel cerchio secondo s'annida
ipocresia, lusinghe e chi affattura,
falsità, ladroneccio e simonia,
ruffian, baratti e simile lordura.
Per l'altro modo quell' amor s'oblia
che fa natura, e quel ch'è poi aggiunto,
di che la fede spezïal si cria;
onde nel cerchio minore, ov' è 'l punto
de l'universo in su che Dite siede,
qualunque trade in etterno è consunto.”
E io: “Maestro, assai chiara procede
la tua ragione, e assai ben distingue
questo baràtro e 'l popol ch'e' possiede.
Ma dimmi: quei de la palude pingue,
che mena il vento, e che batte la pioggia,
e che s'incontran con sì aspre lingue,
perché non dentro da la città roggia
sono ei puniti, se Dio li ha in ira?
e se non li ha, perché sono a tal foggia?”
Ed elli a me “Perché tanto delira,”
disse, “lo 'ngegno tuo da quel che sòle?
o ver la mente dove altrove mira?
Non ti rimembra di quelle parole
con le quai la tua Etica pertratta
le tre disposizion che 'l ciel non vole,
incontenenza, malizia e la matta
bestialitade? e come incontenenza
men Dio offende e men biasimo accatta?
Se tu riguardi ben questa sentenza,
e rechiti a la mente chi son quelli
che sù di fuor sostegnon penitenza,
tu vedrai ben perché da questi felli
sien dipartiti, e perché men crucciata
la divina vendetta li martelli.”
“O sol che sani ogne vista turbata,
tu mi contenti sì quando tu solvi,
che, non men che saver, dubbiar m'aggrata.
Ancora in dietro un poco ti rivolvi,”
diss' io, “là dove di' ch'usura offende
la divina bontade, e 'l groppo solvi.”
“Filosofia,” mi disse, “a chi la 'ntende,
nota, non pure in una sola parte,
come natura lo suo corso prende
dal divino 'ntelletto e da sua arte;
e se tu ben la tua Fisica note,
tu troverai, non dopo molte carte,
che l'arte vostra quella, quanto pote,
segue, come 'l maestro fa 'l discente;
sì che vostr' arte a Dio quasi è nepote.
Da queste due, se tu ti rechi a mente
lo Genesì dal principio, convene
prender sua vita e avanzar la gente;
e perché l'usuriere altra via tene,
per sé natura e per la sua seguace
dispregia, poi ch'in altro pon la spene.
Ma seguimi oramai che 'l gir mi piace;
ché i Pesci guizzan su per l'orizzonta,
e 'l Carro tutto sovra 'l Coro giace,
e 'l balzo via là oltra si dismonta.”
Upon the margin of a lofty bank
Which great rocks broken in a circle made,
We came upon a still more cruel throng;
And there, by reason of the horrible
Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out,
We drew ourselves aside behind the cover
Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing,
Which said: "Pope Anastasius I hold,
Whom out of the right way Photinus drew."
"Slow it behoveth our descent to be,
So that the sense be first a little used
To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it."
The Master thus; and unto him I said,
"Some compensation find, that the time pass not
Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that.
My son, upon the inside of these rocks,"
Began he then to say, "are three small circles,
From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving.
They all are full of spirits maledict;
But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,
Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.
Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven,
Injury is the end; and all such end
Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.
But because fraud is man's peculiar vice,
More it displeases God; and so stand lowest
The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.
All the first circle of the Violent is;
But since force may be used against three persons,
In three rounds 'tis divided and constructed.
To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we
Use force; I say on them and on their things,
As thou shalt hear with reason manifest.
A death by violence, and painful wounds,
Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance
Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;
Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly,
Marauders, and freebooters, the first round
Tormenteth all in companies diverse.
Man may lay violent hands upon himself
And his own goods; and therefore in the second
Round must perforce without avail repent
Whoever of your world deprives himself,
Who games, and dissipates his property,
And weepeth there, where he should jocund be.
Violence can be done the Deity,
In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.
And for this reason doth the smallest round
Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.
Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung,
A man may practise upon him who trusts,
And him who doth no confidence imburse.
This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers
Only the bond of love which Nature makes;
Wherefore within the second circle nestle
Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,
Falsification, theft, and simony,
Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.
By the other mode, forgotten is that love
Which Nature makes, and what is after added,
From which there is a special faith engendered.
Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is
Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated,
Whoe'er betrays for ever is consumed."
And I: "My Master, clear enough proceeds
Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes
This cavern and the people who possess it.
But tell me, those within the fat lagoon,
Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,
And who encounter with such bitter tongues,
Wherefore are they inside of the red city
Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,
And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?"
And unto me he said: "Why wanders so
Thine intellect from that which it is wont?
Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?
Hast thou no recollection of those words
With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses
The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,—
Incontinence, and Malice, and insane
Bestiality? and how Incontinence
Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?
If thou regardest this conclusion well,
And to thy mind recallest who they are
That up outside are undergoing penance,
Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons
They separated are, and why less wroth
Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer."
"O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,
Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!
Once more a little backward turn thee," said I,
"There where thou sayest that usury offends
Goodness divine, and disengage the knot."
"Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it,
Noteth, not only in one place alone,
After what manner Nature takes her course
From Intellect Divine, and from its art;
And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,
After not many pages shalt thou find,
That this your art as far as possible
Follows, as the disciple doth the master;
So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild.
From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind
Genesis at the beginning, it behoves
Mankind to gain their life and to advance;
And since the usurer takes another way,
Nature herself and in her follower
Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.
But follow, now, as I would fain go on,
For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,
And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies,
And far beyond there we descend the crag."
The word stipa ('throng' – from the verb stipare or stivare) in Dante (see Inf. VII.19; Inf. XXIV.82) seems to refer to animals or people crowded together as in a pen or in the hold of a ship (cf. the English 'steerage'). Here the term refers to those crowded together in the more restricted area of the narrowing lower three circles of hell, i.e., the subject of Virgil's discourse throughout this canto, the shortest (along with Inf. VI, which also has but 115 lines) of the poem.
The stench of the sins of Circles 7-9 is greater than any the travelers have heretofore experienced. For notice of the stench of sin in the Visio Pauli see Francesco Mazzoni, Canto XI dell'“Inferno” (Lectura Dantis Neapolitana), dir. P. Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 1985), pp. 7-8, citing Theodore Silverstein (“Dante and the Visio Pauli,” Modern Language Notes 47 [1932], pp 392-98). And see Virgil, Aeneid VI.201, where the doves of Venus avoid the jaws of stinking Avernus ('olentis Averni'), a passage perhaps first noted by Pietro di Dante (Pietro2, comm. to Inf. X.4-5).
This lid of a second funereal monument is similarly not fully described. See the note to Inf. X.8-9. Are these lids suspended in air or do they rest on the ground, tilted against the side of the tombs?
Dante may have confused Pope Anastasius II (496-98) with the emperor Anastasius I (491-518). In the commentaries there is also a question as to whether Dante's Photinus was a deacon of Thessalonica or the bishop of Sirmium. Further, the grammatical structure of the passage would allow us to understand either that Photinus misled Anastasius into heresy or was himself thus misled by the pope. A passage in Isidore of Seville, if it happens to be Dante's direct or indirect source, resolves two of these three issues. Isidore is speaking of the various kinds of heresy: 'Photiniani a Photino Gallograeciae Sirmiae episcopo noncupati, qui Ebionitarum haeresim suscitans adseruit Christum a Maria per Ioseph nuptiali coitu fuisse conceptum' (Etym. VIII.v.37). Thus, according to him, the Photinians are named after Photinus the bishop of Sirmium, who followed the Ebionite heresy (see Etym. VIII.5.36) in promulgating the notion that Jesus was born from the natural union of Joseph and Mary. And thus it was Photinus who misled the pope, since this very heresy is named after him. For an English gloss to this passage see Singleton (comm. to Inf. XI.8-9). The more usual view in the commentary tradition is that the Photinus in question was the deacon of Thessalonica, a follower of Acacius, but this is probably not the better interpretation.
Dante, as though speaking through Virgil to his reader, would seem to be admitting that this canto is not nearly as exciting as those that have gone before (and those that will come after), since it involves nothing but pedantic lecturing. In his little joke the excuse for his reader-unfriendly behavior is that the protagonist's olfactory powers required a rest so that they might become accustomed to the stench of lower hell. No experiential learning being possible, the class had to retire to the schoolroom. Virgil's discourse is thus presented as little more than filler – even if the reader realizes that the canto has no lesser purpose than that of establishing a system for the organization of the sins of humankind.
For the notion that the number of this canto functions as a numerological indicator see Victoria Kirkham (“Eleven Is for Evil: Measured Trespass in Dante's Commedia,” Allegorica 10 [1989]), pp. 38-39. She argues for this interpretation on the basis of the argument first advanced by Augustine (De civ. Dei XV.20) – and then by other fathers of the Church – that eleven is a number meant to be understood as being in excess of the Decalogue, i.e., that it represents transgression because it 'exceeds' the Law. Thus canto XI, by offering a comprehensive listing of all the sins punished in Inferno, is marked as a place dedicated to the display of evil.
Again the text insists that its sole concern is the nature of the three Circles beneath the sixth, that is, the rest of Inferno, cantos XII-XXXIV.
Perhaps the key passage for our understanding of the organization of lower hell. All sins punished therein are sins of malizia, 'malice,' in the sense that these sinners all willfully desire to do harm (the incontinent may indeed end up doing harm to others or to themselves, but their desire is for another kind of gratification altogether). Heresy, because it lies within the iron walls of Dis, and is thus also punished as a sin of the will rather than of the appetite (surely it seems closer to malice than to appetite), is perhaps less readily considered a desire to harm others (even though it assuredly, to Dante's mind, does so). Ingiuria has thus both its Latin meaning, injustice, acting in opposition to the law (iniuria), and its other meaning, the doing of harm. As Mazzoni (Canto XI dell'“Inferno” [Lectura Dantis Neapolitana], dir. P. Giannantonio [Naples: Loffredo, 1985], p. 14) points out, Daniello (comm. to Inf. XI.22-24) was the first commentator explicitly to link this passage with its almost certain source in Cicero (De officiis I.xiii.41): 'Cum autem duobus modis, id est aut vi aut fraude, fiat iniuria; fraus quasi vulpeculae, vis leonis videtur; utrumque alienissimum ab homine est, sed fraus odio digna maiore.' (Mazzoni notes that Dante had already cited this text in Conv. IV.xi.10-11, where 'aut vi aut fraude' is translated 'per forza o per fraude.') Marc Cogan's monograph (The Design in the Wax: The Structure of the “Divine Comedy” and Its Meaning [Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999]) attempts to revise our understanding of the organizing principles of Dante's structure of the vices, claiming that they are essentially only Aristotelian (the Nicomachean Ethics as explained by St. Thomas). Cogan disregards the importance of Cicero in this respect entirely (although this passage is mentioned once in a note). This omission may help explain how Cogan could have decided that the sins of the seventh Circle are not sins of the will, but of irascible appetite (pp. 24-36), an interpretation that almost certainly cannot be accepted.
Here malice is divided into two sub-groups, force (violence) and fraud. Fraud itself will shortly be divided into two sub-groups (see the note to Inf. XI.61-66); but for now Dante has only divided the sins of violence (cantos XII-XVII) and fraud (cantos XVIII-XXXIV) into these two large groups. On malizia see Mazzoni, pp. 10-14; he demonstrates that for Dante, following St. Thomas, malice reflects voluntas nocendi, the will to do harm.
Virgil divides the sins of violence (synonymous with those of force) into three subsidiary 'rings' (gironi). These are, in order of their gravity, violence against God (cantos XIV-XVIII), against one's self (canto XIII), and against one's neighbor (canto XII). As Mazzoni explains (Canto XI dell'“Inferno” [Lectura Dantis Neapolitana], dir. P. Giannantonio [Naples: Loffredo, 1985], p. 15), these three categories are derived from St. Thomas, Summa I-II, q. 72, a. 4.
Now, in the order in which we witness them, Virgil describes the three categories of the sin of violence more fully, here violence against others, whether directed against their persons or their property (canto XII).
Those violent against themselves or their own property are in the second ring (canto XIII).
The third ring encloses those who are violent against God by blaspheming him (canto XIV); 'violent' against nature in the commission of unnatural sexual acts (sodomy, identified by the reference to Sodom, punished in canto XV – see the confirmation at Purg. XXVI.79, where the penitent homosexuals cry out 'Soddoma' against their past sins); violent against 'art,' exemplified in the reference to Cahors, the town in southern France which, in the middle ages, had become synonymous with usury (see Virgil's further explanation at Inf. XI.97-111).
Turning at last to fraud, Virgil now divides it into two kinds, depending on whether or not it is practised against those who trust in one or not. He first describes the second and lesser kind, 'simple fraud,' as it were, committed by those who are punished in the eighth Circle, which we shall learn (Inf. XVIII.1) is called 'Malebolge' after the ten 'evil pockets' that contain them (cantos XVIII-XXX). Here Dante for whatever reason (to keep his readers on their toes?) allows Virgil to name the sins in no discernible order, while also omitting two of them: (6) hypocrisy, (2) flattery, (4) divination, (10) counterfeiting, (7) thievery, (3) simony, (1) pandering [and seducing, not mentioned here], (5) barratry; totally omitted from mention are (8) false counsel and (9) schismatic deeds.
The second form of fraud, that which severs not only the tie of affection that is natural to humans but that even more sacred one which binds human beings in special relationships of trust, is referred to as treachery (v. 66). Such sinners occupy the ninth Circle (cantos XXXI-XXXIV).
Having told Virgil that his discourse has been clear and convincing, the protagonist nonetheless reveals that he has not quite got it; why, he asks, are not the angry and sullen (canto VIII), the lustful (canto V), the gluttonous (canto VI), and the avaricious and prodigal (canto VII) punished inside the city of Dis if God holds them in his righteous anger? And if He doesn't, why are they in the state of affliction they are in? Dante has set up his reader with this inattentive question. The protagonist thinks that Virgil's analysis of God's wrath at Inf. X.22 makes God hate only malizia, and does not understand the relationship between that form of sin and incontinence.
After chastising Dante for his foolishness, Virgil clarifies the situation. Aristotle, he says, in the seventh book of the Ethics treats the three dispositions of the soul that Heaven opposes. These are incontinence, malice (the malizia of Inf. XI.22), and 'mad brutishness' (matta bestialitade). The clarity of this statement should not have left so much vexation in its wake, but it has. For a thorough review of the debate and a solution of the problems that caused it see Francesco Mazzoni's lengthy gloss to these verses, Canto XI dell'“Inferno” (Lectura Dantis Neapolitana), dir. P. Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 1985), pp. 25-45. 'Malice,' just as it did when it was first used, identifies violence and fraud; 'mad brutishness' refers to treachery. As Mazzoni demonstrates, both in Aristotle and in Thomas's commentary on the Ethics (and elsewhere in his work), 'bestiality' is one step beyond malice, just as it is here in Dante; in Thomas's words it is a 'magnum augmentum Malitiae,' i.e., a similar but worse kind of sin. Nonetheless, there are those who argue that, since malizia eventually comes to encompass both kinds of fraud (those punished in both the eighth and ninth Cirlces), matta bestialitade cannot refer to treachery. Yet if they consider the way in which Dante has handled his various definitions they might realize that he has done here just what he has done at vv. 22-24: he identifies 'malice' with violence and fraud and then (at vv. 61-66) adds a third category (and second category of fraud), treachery, just as he does here. Cesare Vasoli (“Il canto XI dell'Inferno,” L'Alighieri 3 [1992]), pp. 12-19, strongly supports Mazzoni's reading. For a strong and helpful summary (in English) of the debate, with arguments similar to and conclusions identical with Mazzoni's, see Alfred A. Triolo (“Malice and Mad Bestiality,” in Lectura Dantis: “Inferno”, ed. A. Mandelbaum, A. Oldcorn, C. Ross [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998], pp. 150-64), whose own initial work on the subject dates to 1968 (see his bibliographical note). Baranski (“L'esegesi medievale della Commedia e il problema delle fonti,” in his “Chiosar con altro testo”: Leggere Dante nel Trecento [Fiesole: Cadmo, 2001]), pp. 23-31, argues for the contradictory nature of the two passages without, however, bringing into play the observations of Triolo, Mazzoni, or Vasoli.
Now fully cognizant of the grand design of hell, Dante (like some of his readers?) admits he is having difficulty with one particular: usury. How does it 'offend God's goodness' (Inf. XI.48)?
Weaving strands of Aristotle and St. Thomas, Virgil demonstrates that nature takes her course from the divine mind, and that 'art' then follows nature. Mankind, fallen into sin, as is recorded in Genesis (Genesis 3:17), must earn its bread in the sweat of its brow, precisely by following the rules of nature and whatever craft it practices. And for this reason usurers are understood as sinning against nature, God's child, and her child, 'art' (in the sense of 'craft'), thus the 'grandchild' of God and all the more vulnerable to human transgression.
Telling time by the stars he cannot see but remembers (here the constellation Pisces ['the Fishes'] in the east and the Big Dipper [the Wain], lying to the northwest [Caurus, the northwest wind]), Virgil tells Dante it is time to continue the journey, since it is already ca. 4:00 am in Italy. They have been descending for ten hours, and have only fourteen left to them, since the entire trip down will take exactly twenty-four hours, 6:00 pm Friday evening until 6:00 pm Saturday (Jerusalem/Italian time).
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In su l'estremità d'un'alta ripa
che facevan gran pietre rotte in cerchio,
venimmo sopra più crudele stipa;
e quivi, per l'orribile soperchio
del puzzo che 'l profondo abisso gitta,
ci raccostammo, in dietro, ad un coperchio
d'un grand' avello, ov' io vidi una scritta
che dicea: “Anastasio papa guardo,
lo qual trasse Fotin de la via dritta.”
“Lo nostro scender conviene esser tardo,
sì che s'ausi un poco in prima il senso
al tristo fiato; e poi no i fia riguardo.”
Così 'l maestro; e io “Alcun compenso,”
dissi lui, “trova che 'l tempo non passi
perduto.” Ed elli: “Vedi ch'a ciò penso.”
“Figliuol mio, dentro da cotesti sassi,”
cominciò poi a dir, “son tre cerchietti
di grado in grado, come que' che lassi.
Tutti son pien di spirti maladetti;
ma perché poi ti basti pur la vista,
intendi come e perché son costretti.
D'ogne malizia, ch'odio in cielo acquista,
ingiuria è 'l fine, ed ogne fin cotale
o con forza o con frode altrui contrista.
Ma perché frode è de l'uom proprio male,
più spiace a Dio; e però stan di sotto
li frodolenti, e più dolor li assale.
Di vïolenti il primo cerchio è tutto;
ma perché si fa forza a tre persone,
in tre gironi è distinto e costrutto.
A Dio, a sé, al prossimo si pòne
far forza, dico in loro e in lor cose,
come udirai con aperta ragione.
Morte per forza e ferute dogliose
nel prossimo si danno, e nel suo avere
ruine, incendi e tollette dannose;
onde omicide e ciascun che mal fiere,
guastatori e predon, tutti tormenta
lo giron primo per diverse schiere.
Puote omo avere in sé man vïolenta
e ne' suoi beni; e però nel secondo
giron convien che sanza pro si penta
qualunque priva sé del vostro mondo,
biscazza e fonde la sua facultade,
e piange là dov' esser de' giocondo.
Puossi far forza ne la deïtade,
col cor negando e bestemmiando quella,
e spregiando natura e sua bontade;
e però lo minor giron suggella
del segno suo e Soddoma e Caorsa
e chi, spregiando Dio col cor, favella.
La frode, ond' ogne coscïenza è morsa,
può l'omo usare in colui che 'n lui fida
e in quel che fidanza non imborsa.
Questo modo di retro par ch'incida
pur lo vinco d'amor che fa natura;
onde nel cerchio secondo s'annida
ipocresia, lusinghe e chi affattura,
falsità, ladroneccio e simonia,
ruffian, baratti e simile lordura.
Per l'altro modo quell' amor s'oblia
che fa natura, e quel ch'è poi aggiunto,
di che la fede spezïal si cria;
onde nel cerchio minore, ov' è 'l punto
de l'universo in su che Dite siede,
qualunque trade in etterno è consunto.”
E io: “Maestro, assai chiara procede
la tua ragione, e assai ben distingue
questo baràtro e 'l popol ch'e' possiede.
Ma dimmi: quei de la palude pingue,
che mena il vento, e che batte la pioggia,
e che s'incontran con sì aspre lingue,
perché non dentro da la città roggia
sono ei puniti, se Dio li ha in ira?
e se non li ha, perché sono a tal foggia?”
Ed elli a me “Perché tanto delira,”
disse, “lo 'ngegno tuo da quel che sòle?
o ver la mente dove altrove mira?
Non ti rimembra di quelle parole
con le quai la tua Etica pertratta
le tre disposizion che 'l ciel non vole,
incontenenza, malizia e la matta
bestialitade? e come incontenenza
men Dio offende e men biasimo accatta?
Se tu riguardi ben questa sentenza,
e rechiti a la mente chi son quelli
che sù di fuor sostegnon penitenza,
tu vedrai ben perché da questi felli
sien dipartiti, e perché men crucciata
la divina vendetta li martelli.”
“O sol che sani ogne vista turbata,
tu mi contenti sì quando tu solvi,
che, non men che saver, dubbiar m'aggrata.
Ancora in dietro un poco ti rivolvi,”
diss' io, “là dove di' ch'usura offende
la divina bontade, e 'l groppo solvi.”
“Filosofia,” mi disse, “a chi la 'ntende,
nota, non pure in una sola parte,
come natura lo suo corso prende
dal divino 'ntelletto e da sua arte;
e se tu ben la tua Fisica note,
tu troverai, non dopo molte carte,
che l'arte vostra quella, quanto pote,
segue, come 'l maestro fa 'l discente;
sì che vostr' arte a Dio quasi è nepote.
Da queste due, se tu ti rechi a mente
lo Genesì dal principio, convene
prender sua vita e avanzar la gente;
e perché l'usuriere altra via tene,
per sé natura e per la sua seguace
dispregia, poi ch'in altro pon la spene.
Ma seguimi oramai che 'l gir mi piace;
ché i Pesci guizzan su per l'orizzonta,
e 'l Carro tutto sovra 'l Coro giace,
e 'l balzo via là oltra si dismonta.”
Upon the margin of a lofty bank
Which great rocks broken in a circle made,
We came upon a still more cruel throng;
And there, by reason of the horrible
Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out,
We drew ourselves aside behind the cover
Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing,
Which said: "Pope Anastasius I hold,
Whom out of the right way Photinus drew."
"Slow it behoveth our descent to be,
So that the sense be first a little used
To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it."
The Master thus; and unto him I said,
"Some compensation find, that the time pass not
Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that.
My son, upon the inside of these rocks,"
Began he then to say, "are three small circles,
From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving.
They all are full of spirits maledict;
But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,
Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.
Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven,
Injury is the end; and all such end
Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.
But because fraud is man's peculiar vice,
More it displeases God; and so stand lowest
The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.
All the first circle of the Violent is;
But since force may be used against three persons,
In three rounds 'tis divided and constructed.
To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we
Use force; I say on them and on their things,
As thou shalt hear with reason manifest.
A death by violence, and painful wounds,
Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance
Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;
Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly,
Marauders, and freebooters, the first round
Tormenteth all in companies diverse.
Man may lay violent hands upon himself
And his own goods; and therefore in the second
Round must perforce without avail repent
Whoever of your world deprives himself,
Who games, and dissipates his property,
And weepeth there, where he should jocund be.
Violence can be done the Deity,
In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.
And for this reason doth the smallest round
Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.
Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung,
A man may practise upon him who trusts,
And him who doth no confidence imburse.
This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers
Only the bond of love which Nature makes;
Wherefore within the second circle nestle
Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,
Falsification, theft, and simony,
Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.
By the other mode, forgotten is that love
Which Nature makes, and what is after added,
From which there is a special faith engendered.
Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is
Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated,
Whoe'er betrays for ever is consumed."
And I: "My Master, clear enough proceeds
Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes
This cavern and the people who possess it.
But tell me, those within the fat lagoon,
Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,
And who encounter with such bitter tongues,
Wherefore are they inside of the red city
Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,
And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?"
And unto me he said: "Why wanders so
Thine intellect from that which it is wont?
Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?
Hast thou no recollection of those words
With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses
The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,—
Incontinence, and Malice, and insane
Bestiality? and how Incontinence
Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?
If thou regardest this conclusion well,
And to thy mind recallest who they are
That up outside are undergoing penance,
Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons
They separated are, and why less wroth
Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer."
"O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,
Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!
Once more a little backward turn thee," said I,
"There where thou sayest that usury offends
Goodness divine, and disengage the knot."
"Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it,
Noteth, not only in one place alone,
After what manner Nature takes her course
From Intellect Divine, and from its art;
And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,
After not many pages shalt thou find,
That this your art as far as possible
Follows, as the disciple doth the master;
So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild.
From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind
Genesis at the beginning, it behoves
Mankind to gain their life and to advance;
And since the usurer takes another way,
Nature herself and in her follower
Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.
But follow, now, as I would fain go on,
For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,
And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies,
And far beyond there we descend the crag."
The word stipa ('throng' – from the verb stipare or stivare) in Dante (see Inf. VII.19; Inf. XXIV.82) seems to refer to animals or people crowded together as in a pen or in the hold of a ship (cf. the English 'steerage'). Here the term refers to those crowded together in the more restricted area of the narrowing lower three circles of hell, i.e., the subject of Virgil's discourse throughout this canto, the shortest (along with Inf. VI, which also has but 115 lines) of the poem.
The stench of the sins of Circles 7-9 is greater than any the travelers have heretofore experienced. For notice of the stench of sin in the Visio Pauli see Francesco Mazzoni, Canto XI dell'“Inferno” (Lectura Dantis Neapolitana), dir. P. Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 1985), pp. 7-8, citing Theodore Silverstein (“Dante and the Visio Pauli,” Modern Language Notes 47 [1932], pp 392-98). And see Virgil, Aeneid VI.201, where the doves of Venus avoid the jaws of stinking Avernus ('olentis Averni'), a passage perhaps first noted by Pietro di Dante (Pietro2, comm. to Inf. X.4-5).
This lid of a second funereal monument is similarly not fully described. See the note to Inf. X.8-9. Are these lids suspended in air or do they rest on the ground, tilted against the side of the tombs?
Dante may have confused Pope Anastasius II (496-98) with the emperor Anastasius I (491-518). In the commentaries there is also a question as to whether Dante's Photinus was a deacon of Thessalonica or the bishop of Sirmium. Further, the grammatical structure of the passage would allow us to understand either that Photinus misled Anastasius into heresy or was himself thus misled by the pope. A passage in Isidore of Seville, if it happens to be Dante's direct or indirect source, resolves two of these three issues. Isidore is speaking of the various kinds of heresy: 'Photiniani a Photino Gallograeciae Sirmiae episcopo noncupati, qui Ebionitarum haeresim suscitans adseruit Christum a Maria per Ioseph nuptiali coitu fuisse conceptum' (Etym. VIII.v.37). Thus, according to him, the Photinians are named after Photinus the bishop of Sirmium, who followed the Ebionite heresy (see Etym. VIII.5.36) in promulgating the notion that Jesus was born from the natural union of Joseph and Mary. And thus it was Photinus who misled the pope, since this very heresy is named after him. For an English gloss to this passage see Singleton (comm. to Inf. XI.8-9). The more usual view in the commentary tradition is that the Photinus in question was the deacon of Thessalonica, a follower of Acacius, but this is probably not the better interpretation.
Dante, as though speaking through Virgil to his reader, would seem to be admitting that this canto is not nearly as exciting as those that have gone before (and those that will come after), since it involves nothing but pedantic lecturing. In his little joke the excuse for his reader-unfriendly behavior is that the protagonist's olfactory powers required a rest so that they might become accustomed to the stench of lower hell. No experiential learning being possible, the class had to retire to the schoolroom. Virgil's discourse is thus presented as little more than filler – even if the reader realizes that the canto has no lesser purpose than that of establishing a system for the organization of the sins of humankind.
For the notion that the number of this canto functions as a numerological indicator see Victoria Kirkham (“Eleven Is for Evil: Measured Trespass in Dante's Commedia,” Allegorica 10 [1989]), pp. 38-39. She argues for this interpretation on the basis of the argument first advanced by Augustine (De civ. Dei XV.20) – and then by other fathers of the Church – that eleven is a number meant to be understood as being in excess of the Decalogue, i.e., that it represents transgression because it 'exceeds' the Law. Thus canto XI, by offering a comprehensive listing of all the sins punished in Inferno, is marked as a place dedicated to the display of evil.
Again the text insists that its sole concern is the nature of the three Circles beneath the sixth, that is, the rest of Inferno, cantos XII-XXXIV.
Perhaps the key passage for our understanding of the organization of lower hell. All sins punished therein are sins of malizia, 'malice,' in the sense that these sinners all willfully desire to do harm (the incontinent may indeed end up doing harm to others or to themselves, but their desire is for another kind of gratification altogether). Heresy, because it lies within the iron walls of Dis, and is thus also punished as a sin of the will rather than of the appetite (surely it seems closer to malice than to appetite), is perhaps less readily considered a desire to harm others (even though it assuredly, to Dante's mind, does so). Ingiuria has thus both its Latin meaning, injustice, acting in opposition to the law (iniuria), and its other meaning, the doing of harm. As Mazzoni (Canto XI dell'“Inferno” [Lectura Dantis Neapolitana], dir. P. Giannantonio [Naples: Loffredo, 1985], p. 14) points out, Daniello (comm. to Inf. XI.22-24) was the first commentator explicitly to link this passage with its almost certain source in Cicero (De officiis I.xiii.41): 'Cum autem duobus modis, id est aut vi aut fraude, fiat iniuria; fraus quasi vulpeculae, vis leonis videtur; utrumque alienissimum ab homine est, sed fraus odio digna maiore.' (Mazzoni notes that Dante had already cited this text in Conv. IV.xi.10-11, where 'aut vi aut fraude' is translated 'per forza o per fraude.') Marc Cogan's monograph (The Design in the Wax: The Structure of the “Divine Comedy” and Its Meaning [Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999]) attempts to revise our understanding of the organizing principles of Dante's structure of the vices, claiming that they are essentially only Aristotelian (the Nicomachean Ethics as explained by St. Thomas). Cogan disregards the importance of Cicero in this respect entirely (although this passage is mentioned once in a note). This omission may help explain how Cogan could have decided that the sins of the seventh Circle are not sins of the will, but of irascible appetite (pp. 24-36), an interpretation that almost certainly cannot be accepted.
Here malice is divided into two sub-groups, force (violence) and fraud. Fraud itself will shortly be divided into two sub-groups (see the note to Inf. XI.61-66); but for now Dante has only divided the sins of violence (cantos XII-XVII) and fraud (cantos XVIII-XXXIV) into these two large groups. On malizia see Mazzoni, pp. 10-14; he demonstrates that for Dante, following St. Thomas, malice reflects voluntas nocendi, the will to do harm.
Virgil divides the sins of violence (synonymous with those of force) into three subsidiary 'rings' (gironi). These are, in order of their gravity, violence against God (cantos XIV-XVIII), against one's self (canto XIII), and against one's neighbor (canto XII). As Mazzoni explains (Canto XI dell'“Inferno” [Lectura Dantis Neapolitana], dir. P. Giannantonio [Naples: Loffredo, 1985], p. 15), these three categories are derived from St. Thomas, Summa I-II, q. 72, a. 4.
Now, in the order in which we witness them, Virgil describes the three categories of the sin of violence more fully, here violence against others, whether directed against their persons or their property (canto XII).
Those violent against themselves or their own property are in the second ring (canto XIII).
The third ring encloses those who are violent against God by blaspheming him (canto XIV); 'violent' against nature in the commission of unnatural sexual acts (sodomy, identified by the reference to Sodom, punished in canto XV – see the confirmation at Purg. XXVI.79, where the penitent homosexuals cry out 'Soddoma' against their past sins); violent against 'art,' exemplified in the reference to Cahors, the town in southern France which, in the middle ages, had become synonymous with usury (see Virgil's further explanation at Inf. XI.97-111).
Turning at last to fraud, Virgil now divides it into two kinds, depending on whether or not it is practised against those who trust in one or not. He first describes the second and lesser kind, 'simple fraud,' as it were, committed by those who are punished in the eighth Circle, which we shall learn (Inf. XVIII.1) is called 'Malebolge' after the ten 'evil pockets' that contain them (cantos XVIII-XXX). Here Dante for whatever reason (to keep his readers on their toes?) allows Virgil to name the sins in no discernible order, while also omitting two of them: (6) hypocrisy, (2) flattery, (4) divination, (10) counterfeiting, (7) thievery, (3) simony, (1) pandering [and seducing, not mentioned here], (5) barratry; totally omitted from mention are (8) false counsel and (9) schismatic deeds.
The second form of fraud, that which severs not only the tie of affection that is natural to humans but that even more sacred one which binds human beings in special relationships of trust, is referred to as treachery (v. 66). Such sinners occupy the ninth Circle (cantos XXXI-XXXIV).
Having told Virgil that his discourse has been clear and convincing, the protagonist nonetheless reveals that he has not quite got it; why, he asks, are not the angry and sullen (canto VIII), the lustful (canto V), the gluttonous (canto VI), and the avaricious and prodigal (canto VII) punished inside the city of Dis if God holds them in his righteous anger? And if He doesn't, why are they in the state of affliction they are in? Dante has set up his reader with this inattentive question. The protagonist thinks that Virgil's analysis of God's wrath at Inf. X.22 makes God hate only malizia, and does not understand the relationship between that form of sin and incontinence.
After chastising Dante for his foolishness, Virgil clarifies the situation. Aristotle, he says, in the seventh book of the Ethics treats the three dispositions of the soul that Heaven opposes. These are incontinence, malice (the malizia of Inf. XI.22), and 'mad brutishness' (matta bestialitade). The clarity of this statement should not have left so much vexation in its wake, but it has. For a thorough review of the debate and a solution of the problems that caused it see Francesco Mazzoni's lengthy gloss to these verses, Canto XI dell'“Inferno” (Lectura Dantis Neapolitana), dir. P. Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 1985), pp. 25-45. 'Malice,' just as it did when it was first used, identifies violence and fraud; 'mad brutishness' refers to treachery. As Mazzoni demonstrates, both in Aristotle and in Thomas's commentary on the Ethics (and elsewhere in his work), 'bestiality' is one step beyond malice, just as it is here in Dante; in Thomas's words it is a 'magnum augmentum Malitiae,' i.e., a similar but worse kind of sin. Nonetheless, there are those who argue that, since malizia eventually comes to encompass both kinds of fraud (those punished in both the eighth and ninth Cirlces), matta bestialitade cannot refer to treachery. Yet if they consider the way in which Dante has handled his various definitions they might realize that he has done here just what he has done at vv. 22-24: he identifies 'malice' with violence and fraud and then (at vv. 61-66) adds a third category (and second category of fraud), treachery, just as he does here. Cesare Vasoli (“Il canto XI dell'Inferno,” L'Alighieri 3 [1992]), pp. 12-19, strongly supports Mazzoni's reading. For a strong and helpful summary (in English) of the debate, with arguments similar to and conclusions identical with Mazzoni's, see Alfred A. Triolo (“Malice and Mad Bestiality,” in Lectura Dantis: “Inferno”, ed. A. Mandelbaum, A. Oldcorn, C. Ross [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998], pp. 150-64), whose own initial work on the subject dates to 1968 (see his bibliographical note). Baranski (“L'esegesi medievale della Commedia e il problema delle fonti,” in his “Chiosar con altro testo”: Leggere Dante nel Trecento [Fiesole: Cadmo, 2001]), pp. 23-31, argues for the contradictory nature of the two passages without, however, bringing into play the observations of Triolo, Mazzoni, or Vasoli.
Now fully cognizant of the grand design of hell, Dante (like some of his readers?) admits he is having difficulty with one particular: usury. How does it 'offend God's goodness' (Inf. XI.48)?
Weaving strands of Aristotle and St. Thomas, Virgil demonstrates that nature takes her course from the divine mind, and that 'art' then follows nature. Mankind, fallen into sin, as is recorded in Genesis (Genesis 3:17), must earn its bread in the sweat of its brow, precisely by following the rules of nature and whatever craft it practices. And for this reason usurers are understood as sinning against nature, God's child, and her child, 'art' (in the sense of 'craft'), thus the 'grandchild' of God and all the more vulnerable to human transgression.
Telling time by the stars he cannot see but remembers (here the constellation Pisces ['the Fishes'] in the east and the Big Dipper [the Wain], lying to the northwest [Caurus, the northwest wind]), Virgil tells Dante it is time to continue the journey, since it is already ca. 4:00 am in Italy. They have been descending for ten hours, and have only fourteen left to them, since the entire trip down will take exactly twenty-four hours, 6:00 pm Friday evening until 6:00 pm Saturday (Jerusalem/Italian time).
Commentary text is copyrighted and reproduced by permission.
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In su l'estremità d'un'alta ripa
che facevan gran pietre rotte in cerchio,
venimmo sopra più crudele stipa;
e quivi, per l'orribile soperchio
del puzzo che 'l profondo abisso gitta,
ci raccostammo, in dietro, ad un coperchio
d'un grand' avello, ov' io vidi una scritta
che dicea: “Anastasio papa guardo,
lo qual trasse Fotin de la via dritta.”
“Lo nostro scender conviene esser tardo,
sì che s'ausi un poco in prima il senso
al tristo fiato; e poi no i fia riguardo.”
Così 'l maestro; e io “Alcun compenso,”
dissi lui, “trova che 'l tempo non passi
perduto.” Ed elli: “Vedi ch'a ciò penso.”
“Figliuol mio, dentro da cotesti sassi,”
cominciò poi a dir, “son tre cerchietti
di grado in grado, come que' che lassi.
Tutti son pien di spirti maladetti;
ma perché poi ti basti pur la vista,
intendi come e perché son costretti.
D'ogne malizia, ch'odio in cielo acquista,
ingiuria è 'l fine, ed ogne fin cotale
o con forza o con frode altrui contrista.
Ma perché frode è de l'uom proprio male,
più spiace a Dio; e però stan di sotto
li frodolenti, e più dolor li assale.
Di vïolenti il primo cerchio è tutto;
ma perché si fa forza a tre persone,
in tre gironi è distinto e costrutto.
A Dio, a sé, al prossimo si pòne
far forza, dico in loro e in lor cose,
come udirai con aperta ragione.
Morte per forza e ferute dogliose
nel prossimo si danno, e nel suo avere
ruine, incendi e tollette dannose;
onde omicide e ciascun che mal fiere,
guastatori e predon, tutti tormenta
lo giron primo per diverse schiere.
Puote omo avere in sé man vïolenta
e ne' suoi beni; e però nel secondo
giron convien che sanza pro si penta
qualunque priva sé del vostro mondo,
biscazza e fonde la sua facultade,
e piange là dov' esser de' giocondo.
Puossi far forza ne la deïtade,
col cor negando e bestemmiando quella,
e spregiando natura e sua bontade;
e però lo minor giron suggella
del segno suo e Soddoma e Caorsa
e chi, spregiando Dio col cor, favella.
La frode, ond' ogne coscïenza è morsa,
può l'omo usare in colui che 'n lui fida
e in quel che fidanza non imborsa.
Questo modo di retro par ch'incida
pur lo vinco d'amor che fa natura;
onde nel cerchio secondo s'annida
ipocresia, lusinghe e chi affattura,
falsità, ladroneccio e simonia,
ruffian, baratti e simile lordura.
Per l'altro modo quell' amor s'oblia
che fa natura, e quel ch'è poi aggiunto,
di che la fede spezïal si cria;
onde nel cerchio minore, ov' è 'l punto
de l'universo in su che Dite siede,
qualunque trade in etterno è consunto.”
E io: “Maestro, assai chiara procede
la tua ragione, e assai ben distingue
questo baràtro e 'l popol ch'e' possiede.
Ma dimmi: quei de la palude pingue,
che mena il vento, e che batte la pioggia,
e che s'incontran con sì aspre lingue,
perché non dentro da la città roggia
sono ei puniti, se Dio li ha in ira?
e se non li ha, perché sono a tal foggia?”
Ed elli a me “Perché tanto delira,”
disse, “lo 'ngegno tuo da quel che sòle?
o ver la mente dove altrove mira?
Non ti rimembra di quelle parole
con le quai la tua Etica pertratta
le tre disposizion che 'l ciel non vole,
incontenenza, malizia e la matta
bestialitade? e come incontenenza
men Dio offende e men biasimo accatta?
Se tu riguardi ben questa sentenza,
e rechiti a la mente chi son quelli
che sù di fuor sostegnon penitenza,
tu vedrai ben perché da questi felli
sien dipartiti, e perché men crucciata
la divina vendetta li martelli.”
“O sol che sani ogne vista turbata,
tu mi contenti sì quando tu solvi,
che, non men che saver, dubbiar m'aggrata.
Ancora in dietro un poco ti rivolvi,”
diss' io, “là dove di' ch'usura offende
la divina bontade, e 'l groppo solvi.”
“Filosofia,” mi disse, “a chi la 'ntende,
nota, non pure in una sola parte,
come natura lo suo corso prende
dal divino 'ntelletto e da sua arte;
e se tu ben la tua Fisica note,
tu troverai, non dopo molte carte,
che l'arte vostra quella, quanto pote,
segue, come 'l maestro fa 'l discente;
sì che vostr' arte a Dio quasi è nepote.
Da queste due, se tu ti rechi a mente
lo Genesì dal principio, convene
prender sua vita e avanzar la gente;
e perché l'usuriere altra via tene,
per sé natura e per la sua seguace
dispregia, poi ch'in altro pon la spene.
Ma seguimi oramai che 'l gir mi piace;
ché i Pesci guizzan su per l'orizzonta,
e 'l Carro tutto sovra 'l Coro giace,
e 'l balzo via là oltra si dismonta.”
Upon the margin of a lofty bank
Which great rocks broken in a circle made,
We came upon a still more cruel throng;
And there, by reason of the horrible
Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out,
We drew ourselves aside behind the cover
Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing,
Which said: "Pope Anastasius I hold,
Whom out of the right way Photinus drew."
"Slow it behoveth our descent to be,
So that the sense be first a little used
To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it."
The Master thus; and unto him I said,
"Some compensation find, that the time pass not
Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that.
My son, upon the inside of these rocks,"
Began he then to say, "are three small circles,
From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving.
They all are full of spirits maledict;
But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,
Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.
Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven,
Injury is the end; and all such end
Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.
But because fraud is man's peculiar vice,
More it displeases God; and so stand lowest
The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.
All the first circle of the Violent is;
But since force may be used against three persons,
In three rounds 'tis divided and constructed.
To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we
Use force; I say on them and on their things,
As thou shalt hear with reason manifest.
A death by violence, and painful wounds,
Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance
Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;
Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly,
Marauders, and freebooters, the first round
Tormenteth all in companies diverse.
Man may lay violent hands upon himself
And his own goods; and therefore in the second
Round must perforce without avail repent
Whoever of your world deprives himself,
Who games, and dissipates his property,
And weepeth there, where he should jocund be.
Violence can be done the Deity,
In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.
And for this reason doth the smallest round
Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.
Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung,
A man may practise upon him who trusts,
And him who doth no confidence imburse.
This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers
Only the bond of love which Nature makes;
Wherefore within the second circle nestle
Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,
Falsification, theft, and simony,
Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.
By the other mode, forgotten is that love
Which Nature makes, and what is after added,
From which there is a special faith engendered.
Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is
Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated,
Whoe'er betrays for ever is consumed."
And I: "My Master, clear enough proceeds
Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes
This cavern and the people who possess it.
But tell me, those within the fat lagoon,
Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,
And who encounter with such bitter tongues,
Wherefore are they inside of the red city
Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,
And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?"
And unto me he said: "Why wanders so
Thine intellect from that which it is wont?
Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?
Hast thou no recollection of those words
With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses
The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,—
Incontinence, and Malice, and insane
Bestiality? and how Incontinence
Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?
If thou regardest this conclusion well,
And to thy mind recallest who they are
That up outside are undergoing penance,
Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons
They separated are, and why less wroth
Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer."
"O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,
Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!
Once more a little backward turn thee," said I,
"There where thou sayest that usury offends
Goodness divine, and disengage the knot."
"Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it,
Noteth, not only in one place alone,
After what manner Nature takes her course
From Intellect Divine, and from its art;
And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,
After not many pages shalt thou find,
That this your art as far as possible
Follows, as the disciple doth the master;
So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild.
From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind
Genesis at the beginning, it behoves
Mankind to gain their life and to advance;
And since the usurer takes another way,
Nature herself and in her follower
Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.
But follow, now, as I would fain go on,
For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,
And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies,
And far beyond there we descend the crag."
The word stipa ('throng' – from the verb stipare or stivare) in Dante (see Inf. VII.19; Inf. XXIV.82) seems to refer to animals or people crowded together as in a pen or in the hold of a ship (cf. the English 'steerage'). Here the term refers to those crowded together in the more restricted area of the narrowing lower three circles of hell, i.e., the subject of Virgil's discourse throughout this canto, the shortest (along with Inf. VI, which also has but 115 lines) of the poem.
The stench of the sins of Circles 7-9 is greater than any the travelers have heretofore experienced. For notice of the stench of sin in the Visio Pauli see Francesco Mazzoni, Canto XI dell'“Inferno” (Lectura Dantis Neapolitana), dir. P. Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 1985), pp. 7-8, citing Theodore Silverstein (“Dante and the Visio Pauli,” Modern Language Notes 47 [1932], pp 392-98). And see Virgil, Aeneid VI.201, where the doves of Venus avoid the jaws of stinking Avernus ('olentis Averni'), a passage perhaps first noted by Pietro di Dante (Pietro2, comm. to Inf. X.4-5).
This lid of a second funereal monument is similarly not fully described. See the note to Inf. X.8-9. Are these lids suspended in air or do they rest on the ground, tilted against the side of the tombs?
Dante may have confused Pope Anastasius II (496-98) with the emperor Anastasius I (491-518). In the commentaries there is also a question as to whether Dante's Photinus was a deacon of Thessalonica or the bishop of Sirmium. Further, the grammatical structure of the passage would allow us to understand either that Photinus misled Anastasius into heresy or was himself thus misled by the pope. A passage in Isidore of Seville, if it happens to be Dante's direct or indirect source, resolves two of these three issues. Isidore is speaking of the various kinds of heresy: 'Photiniani a Photino Gallograeciae Sirmiae episcopo noncupati, qui Ebionitarum haeresim suscitans adseruit Christum a Maria per Ioseph nuptiali coitu fuisse conceptum' (Etym. VIII.v.37). Thus, according to him, the Photinians are named after Photinus the bishop of Sirmium, who followed the Ebionite heresy (see Etym. VIII.5.36) in promulgating the notion that Jesus was born from the natural union of Joseph and Mary. And thus it was Photinus who misled the pope, since this very heresy is named after him. For an English gloss to this passage see Singleton (comm. to Inf. XI.8-9). The more usual view in the commentary tradition is that the Photinus in question was the deacon of Thessalonica, a follower of Acacius, but this is probably not the better interpretation.
Dante, as though speaking through Virgil to his reader, would seem to be admitting that this canto is not nearly as exciting as those that have gone before (and those that will come after), since it involves nothing but pedantic lecturing. In his little joke the excuse for his reader-unfriendly behavior is that the protagonist's olfactory powers required a rest so that they might become accustomed to the stench of lower hell. No experiential learning being possible, the class had to retire to the schoolroom. Virgil's discourse is thus presented as little more than filler – even if the reader realizes that the canto has no lesser purpose than that of establishing a system for the organization of the sins of humankind.
For the notion that the number of this canto functions as a numerological indicator see Victoria Kirkham (“Eleven Is for Evil: Measured Trespass in Dante's Commedia,” Allegorica 10 [1989]), pp. 38-39. She argues for this interpretation on the basis of the argument first advanced by Augustine (De civ. Dei XV.20) – and then by other fathers of the Church – that eleven is a number meant to be understood as being in excess of the Decalogue, i.e., that it represents transgression because it 'exceeds' the Law. Thus canto XI, by offering a comprehensive listing of all the sins punished in Inferno, is marked as a place dedicated to the display of evil.
Again the text insists that its sole concern is the nature of the three Circles beneath the sixth, that is, the rest of Inferno, cantos XII-XXXIV.
Perhaps the key passage for our understanding of the organization of lower hell. All sins punished therein are sins of malizia, 'malice,' in the sense that these sinners all willfully desire to do harm (the incontinent may indeed end up doing harm to others or to themselves, but their desire is for another kind of gratification altogether). Heresy, because it lies within the iron walls of Dis, and is thus also punished as a sin of the will rather than of the appetite (surely it seems closer to malice than to appetite), is perhaps less readily considered a desire to harm others (even though it assuredly, to Dante's mind, does so). Ingiuria has thus both its Latin meaning, injustice, acting in opposition to the law (iniuria), and its other meaning, the doing of harm. As Mazzoni (Canto XI dell'“Inferno” [Lectura Dantis Neapolitana], dir. P. Giannantonio [Naples: Loffredo, 1985], p. 14) points out, Daniello (comm. to Inf. XI.22-24) was the first commentator explicitly to link this passage with its almost certain source in Cicero (De officiis I.xiii.41): 'Cum autem duobus modis, id est aut vi aut fraude, fiat iniuria; fraus quasi vulpeculae, vis leonis videtur; utrumque alienissimum ab homine est, sed fraus odio digna maiore.' (Mazzoni notes that Dante had already cited this text in Conv. IV.xi.10-11, where 'aut vi aut fraude' is translated 'per forza o per fraude.') Marc Cogan's monograph (The Design in the Wax: The Structure of the “Divine Comedy” and Its Meaning [Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999]) attempts to revise our understanding of the organizing principles of Dante's structure of the vices, claiming that they are essentially only Aristotelian (the Nicomachean Ethics as explained by St. Thomas). Cogan disregards the importance of Cicero in this respect entirely (although this passage is mentioned once in a note). This omission may help explain how Cogan could have decided that the sins of the seventh Circle are not sins of the will, but of irascible appetite (pp. 24-36), an interpretation that almost certainly cannot be accepted.
Here malice is divided into two sub-groups, force (violence) and fraud. Fraud itself will shortly be divided into two sub-groups (see the note to Inf. XI.61-66); but for now Dante has only divided the sins of violence (cantos XII-XVII) and fraud (cantos XVIII-XXXIV) into these two large groups. On malizia see Mazzoni, pp. 10-14; he demonstrates that for Dante, following St. Thomas, malice reflects voluntas nocendi, the will to do harm.
Virgil divides the sins of violence (synonymous with those of force) into three subsidiary 'rings' (gironi). These are, in order of their gravity, violence against God (cantos XIV-XVIII), against one's self (canto XIII), and against one's neighbor (canto XII). As Mazzoni explains (Canto XI dell'“Inferno” [Lectura Dantis Neapolitana], dir. P. Giannantonio [Naples: Loffredo, 1985], p. 15), these three categories are derived from St. Thomas, Summa I-II, q. 72, a. 4.
Now, in the order in which we witness them, Virgil describes the three categories of the sin of violence more fully, here violence against others, whether directed against their persons or their property (canto XII).
Those violent against themselves or their own property are in the second ring (canto XIII).
The third ring encloses those who are violent against God by blaspheming him (canto XIV); 'violent' against nature in the commission of unnatural sexual acts (sodomy, identified by the reference to Sodom, punished in canto XV – see the confirmation at Purg. XXVI.79, where the penitent homosexuals cry out 'Soddoma' against their past sins); violent against 'art,' exemplified in the reference to Cahors, the town in southern France which, in the middle ages, had become synonymous with usury (see Virgil's further explanation at Inf. XI.97-111).
Turning at last to fraud, Virgil now divides it into two kinds, depending on whether or not it is practised against those who trust in one or not. He first describes the second and lesser kind, 'simple fraud,' as it were, committed by those who are punished in the eighth Circle, which we shall learn (Inf. XVIII.1) is called 'Malebolge' after the ten 'evil pockets' that contain them (cantos XVIII-XXX). Here Dante for whatever reason (to keep his readers on their toes?) allows Virgil to name the sins in no discernible order, while also omitting two of them: (6) hypocrisy, (2) flattery, (4) divination, (10) counterfeiting, (7) thievery, (3) simony, (1) pandering [and seducing, not mentioned here], (5) barratry; totally omitted from mention are (8) false counsel and (9) schismatic deeds.
The second form of fraud, that which severs not only the tie of affection that is natural to humans but that even more sacred one which binds human beings in special relationships of trust, is referred to as treachery (v. 66). Such sinners occupy the ninth Circle (cantos XXXI-XXXIV).
Having told Virgil that his discourse has been clear and convincing, the protagonist nonetheless reveals that he has not quite got it; why, he asks, are not the angry and sullen (canto VIII), the lustful (canto V), the gluttonous (canto VI), and the avaricious and prodigal (canto VII) punished inside the city of Dis if God holds them in his righteous anger? And if He doesn't, why are they in the state of affliction they are in? Dante has set up his reader with this inattentive question. The protagonist thinks that Virgil's analysis of God's wrath at Inf. X.22 makes God hate only malizia, and does not understand the relationship between that form of sin and incontinence.
After chastising Dante for his foolishness, Virgil clarifies the situation. Aristotle, he says, in the seventh book of the Ethics treats the three dispositions of the soul that Heaven opposes. These are incontinence, malice (the malizia of Inf. XI.22), and 'mad brutishness' (matta bestialitade). The clarity of this statement should not have left so much vexation in its wake, but it has. For a thorough review of the debate and a solution of the problems that caused it see Francesco Mazzoni's lengthy gloss to these verses, Canto XI dell'“Inferno” (Lectura Dantis Neapolitana), dir. P. Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 1985), pp. 25-45. 'Malice,' just as it did when it was first used, identifies violence and fraud; 'mad brutishness' refers to treachery. As Mazzoni demonstrates, both in Aristotle and in Thomas's commentary on the Ethics (and elsewhere in his work), 'bestiality' is one step beyond malice, just as it is here in Dante; in Thomas's words it is a 'magnum augmentum Malitiae,' i.e., a similar but worse kind of sin. Nonetheless, there are those who argue that, since malizia eventually comes to encompass both kinds of fraud (those punished in both the eighth and ninth Cirlces), matta bestialitade cannot refer to treachery. Yet if they consider the way in which Dante has handled his various definitions they might realize that he has done here just what he has done at vv. 22-24: he identifies 'malice' with violence and fraud and then (at vv. 61-66) adds a third category (and second category of fraud), treachery, just as he does here. Cesare Vasoli (“Il canto XI dell'Inferno,” L'Alighieri 3 [1992]), pp. 12-19, strongly supports Mazzoni's reading. For a strong and helpful summary (in English) of the debate, with arguments similar to and conclusions identical with Mazzoni's, see Alfred A. Triolo (“Malice and Mad Bestiality,” in Lectura Dantis: “Inferno”, ed. A. Mandelbaum, A. Oldcorn, C. Ross [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998], pp. 150-64), whose own initial work on the subject dates to 1968 (see his bibliographical note). Baranski (“L'esegesi medievale della Commedia e il problema delle fonti,” in his “Chiosar con altro testo”: Leggere Dante nel Trecento [Fiesole: Cadmo, 2001]), pp. 23-31, argues for the contradictory nature of the two passages without, however, bringing into play the observations of Triolo, Mazzoni, or Vasoli.
Now fully cognizant of the grand design of hell, Dante (like some of his readers?) admits he is having difficulty with one particular: usury. How does it 'offend God's goodness' (Inf. XI.48)?
Weaving strands of Aristotle and St. Thomas, Virgil demonstrates that nature takes her course from the divine mind, and that 'art' then follows nature. Mankind, fallen into sin, as is recorded in Genesis (Genesis 3:17), must earn its bread in the sweat of its brow, precisely by following the rules of nature and whatever craft it practices. And for this reason usurers are understood as sinning against nature, God's child, and her child, 'art' (in the sense of 'craft'), thus the 'grandchild' of God and all the more vulnerable to human transgression.
Telling time by the stars he cannot see but remembers (here the constellation Pisces ['the Fishes'] in the east and the Big Dipper [the Wain], lying to the northwest [Caurus, the northwest wind]), Virgil tells Dante it is time to continue the journey, since it is already ca. 4:00 am in Italy. They have been descending for ten hours, and have only fourteen left to them, since the entire trip down will take exactly twenty-four hours, 6:00 pm Friday evening until 6:00 pm Saturday (Jerusalem/Italian time).
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