Inferno, Canto 29
Dante Alighieri · Italian original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Dante lingers after the ninth bolgia because of Geri del Bello, an unavenged kinsman, and Virgil redirects him toward the tenth bolgia, where falsifiers appear as diseased bodies. The canto moves through plague geographies, Aegina, scabbed alchemists, Griffolino of Arezzo, Sienese vanity, and Capocchio's final claim to have been nature's good ape.
Narrative arc
- Dante remains intoxicated by the ninth bolgia wounds until Virgil rebukes his fixed gaze and presses the limits of time
- Dante explains his desire to see Geri del Bello, and Virgil turns him away from unavenged kinship violence
- The poets reach the last cloister of Malebolge, where laments strike like pity-barbed arrows and disease imagery introduces the falsifiers
- The Aegina plague simile and the dark heaps of bodies frame falsification as corrupted life, matter, and movement
- Two scabbed alchemists scrape themselves like scaled fish while Virgil asks whether any Italians are among them
- The alchemists turn toward the living pilgrim, and Dante asks them to identify themselves in exchange for living memory
- Griffolino of Arezzo explains Albero of Siena, the Daedalus joke, and the distinction between his earthly death and his infernal alchemy
- Dante mocks Sienese vanity, Capocchio answers with the spendthrift catalogue, and names himself as an alchemical ape of nature
Central themes
- identity
- metamorphosis
- false counsel
- division
- falsification
Dante remains intoxicated by the ninth bolgia wounds until Virgil rebukes his fixed gaze and presses the limits of time XXIX.1–12
1La molta gente e le diverse piaghe
avean le luci mie sì inebrïate,
che de lo stare a piangere eran vaghe.
Ma Virgilio mi disse: «Che pur guate?
5perché la vista tua pur si soffolge
là giù tra l’ombre triste smozzicate?
Tu non hai fatto sì a l’altre bolge;
pensa, se tu annoverar le credi,
che miglia ventidue la valle volge.
10E già la luna è sotto i nostri piedi;
lo tempo è poco omai che n’è concesso,
e altro è da veder che tu non vedi».
1The many people and their different wounds
had so inebriated these eyes of mine
that they longed to stay and weep.
But Virgil said to me: "Why still stare?
5Why is your sight still fastened
down there among the sad, mangled shades?
You did not do this at the other bolgias;
think, if you believe you can count them,
that the valley winds twenty-two miles.
10And already the moon is beneath our feet;
the time now granted us is short,
and there is more to see than what you see."
Commentary
The opening gaze is morally unstable intoxication, not merely tender compassion: Dante is fixed on the wound-spectacle while Virgil presses the route, circumference, moon, and remaining time.
XXIX.4–6 soffolge is rendered as fastened to keep the pilgrim's gaze physically held on the wounded shades.
XXIX.4–6 soffolge is rendered as fastened to keep the pilgrim's gaze physically held on the wounded shades. Line 5: soffolge is rendered as fastened to keep the pilgrim's gaze physically held on the wounded shades.
XXIX.5 soffolge is rendered as fastened to keep the pilgrim's gaze physically held on the wounded shades. soffolge is rendered as fastened to keep the pilgrim's gaze physically held on the wounded shades.
XXIX.7–9 The twenty-two-mile circuit preserves Dante's measured infernal geography and time pressure.
XXIX.7–9 The twenty-two-mile circuit preserves Dante's measured infernal geography and time pressure. Line 9: The twenty-two-mile circuit preserves Dante's measured infernal geography and time pressure.
XXIX.9 The twenty-two-mile circuit preserves Dante's measured infernal geography and time pressure. The twenty-two-mile circuit preserves Dante's measured infernal geography and time pressure.
Dante explains his desire to see Geri del Bello, and Virgil turns him away from unavenged kinship violence XXIX.13–36
13«Se tu avessi», rispuos’ io appresso,
«atteso a la cagion per ch’io guardava,
15forse m’avresti ancor lo star dimesso».
Parte sen giva, e io retro li andava,
lo duca, già faccendo la risposta,
e soggiugnendo: «Dentro a quella cava
dov’ io tenea or li occhi sì a posta,
20credo ch’un spirto del mio sangue pianga
la colpa che là giù cotanto costa».
Allor disse ’l maestro: «Non si franga
lo tuo pensier da qui innanzi sovr’ ello.
Attendi ad altro, ed ei là si rimanga;
25ch’io vidi lui a piè del ponticello
mostrarti e minacciar forte col dito,
e udi’ ’l nominar Geri del Bello.
Tu eri allor sì del tutto impedito
sovra colui che già tenne Altaforte,
30che non guardasti in là, sì fu partito».
«O duca mio, la vïolenta morte
che non li è vendicata ancor», diss’ io,
«per alcun che de l’onta sia consorte,
fece lui disdegnoso; ond’ el sen gio
35sanza parlarmi, sì com’ ïo estimo:
e in ciò m’ha el fatto a sé più pio».
13"If you had," I answered him after that,
"attended to the cause for which I was looking,
15perhaps you would have allowed me still to stay."
My guide was moving on, and I behind him,
already making my answer
and adding: "Inside that hollow
where just now I held my eyes so fixedly,
20I think a spirit of my blood is weeping
for the guilt that down there costs so much."
Then the master said: "Let your thought
not break from here on over him.
Attend to something else, and let him remain there;
25for I saw him at the foot of the little bridge
pointing you out and fiercely threatening with his finger,
and I heard him named Geri del Bello.
You were then so entirely caught up
with him who once held Hautefort
30that you did not look that way; so he was gone."
"O my guide, the violent death
that has not yet been avenged for him," I said,
"by anyone who shares in the shame,
made him disdainful; so he went off
35without speaking to me, as I judge;
and in this he has made me more pitying toward him."
Commentary
Geri del Bello, private vengeance, kin shame, Bertran de Born/Hautefort, and the relation between pity and factional violence keep the passage from quietly endorsing revenge as justice.
XXIX.19–21 spirto del mio sangue keeps the blood-tie visible before the Geri del Bello vengeance passage.
XXIX.19–21 spirto del mio sangue keeps the blood-tie visible before the Geri del Bello vengeance passage. Line 20: spirto del mio sangue keeps the blood-tie visible before the Geri del Bello vengeance passage.
XXIX.20 spirto del mio sangue keeps the blood-tie visible before the Geri del Bello vengeance passage. spirto del mio sangue keeps the blood-tie visible before the Geri del Bello vengeance passage.
XXIX.22–24 The difficult si franga ... sovr' ello is kept as thought breaking over Geri, preserving the image of mental fixation rather than smoothing it into generic distraction.
XXIX.22–24 The difficult si franga ... sovr' ello is kept as thought breaking over Geri. Line 22: The difficult si franga ... sovr' ello is kept as thought breaking over Geri, preserving the image of mental fixation rather than smoothing it into generic distraction.
XXIX.22 The difficult si franga ... sovr' ello is kept as thought breaking over Geri. The difficult si franga ... sovr' ello is kept as thought breaking over Geri, preserving the image of mental fixation rather than smoothing it into generic distraction.
XXIX.28–30 Hautefort identifies Bertran de Born from Inferno XXVIII and marks Dante's missed chance to see Geri del Bello.
XXIX.28–30 Hautefort identifies Bertran de Born from Inferno XXVIII and marks Dante's missed chance to see Geri del Bello. Line 29: Hautefort identifies Bertran de Born from Inferno XXVIII and marks Dante's missed chance to see Geri del Bello.
XXIX.29 Hautefort identifies Bertran de Born from Inferno XXVIII and marks Dante's missed chance to see Geri del Bello. Hautefort identifies Bertran de Born from Inferno XXVIII and marks Dante's missed chance to see Geri del Bello.
XXIX.31–33 The shame is shared by kin inside the private-vengeance frame; the line does not make private vengeance a divine-justice endorsement.
XXIX.33 The shame is shared by kin inside the private-vengeance frame; the line does not make private vengeance a divine-justice endorsement. The line's onta is a shared affront within Geri's kinship vengeance context, not a claim that private reprisal is itself divine justice.
XXIX.34–36 pio is rendered as pitying toward him, continuing Inferno's ethically unstable pity field.
XXIX.34–36 pio is rendered as pitying toward him, continuing Inferno's ethically unstable pity field. Line 36: pio is rendered as pitying toward him, continuing Inferno's ethically unstable pity field.
XXIX.36 pio is rendered as pitying toward him, continuing Inferno's ethically unstable pity field. pio is rendered as pitying toward him, continuing Inferno's ethically unstable pity field.
The poets reach the last cloister of Malebolge, where laments strike like pity-barbed arrows and disease imagery introduces the falsifiers XXIX.37–57
37Così parlammo infino al loco primo
che de lo scoglio l’altra valle mostra,
se più lume vi fosse, tutto ad imo.
40Quando noi fummo sor l’ultima chiostra
di Malebolge, sì che i suoi conversi
potean parere a la veduta nostra,
lamenti saettaron me diversi,
che di pietà ferrati avean li strali;
45ond’ io li orecchi con le man copersi.
Qual dolor fora, se de li spedali
di Valdichiana tra ’l luglio e ’l settembre
e di Maremma e di Sardigna i mali
fossero in una fossa tutti ’nsembre,
50tal era quivi, e tal puzzo n’usciva
qual suol venir de le marcite membre.
Noi discendemmo in su l’ultima riva
del lungo scoglio, pur da man sinistra;
e allor fu la mia vista più viva
55giù ver’ lo fondo, la ’ve la ministra
de l’alto Sire infallibil giustizia
punisce i falsador che qui registra.
37So we spoke as far as the first place
where the crag shows the other valley
down to its bottom, if there were more light.
40When we were above the last cloister
of Malebolge, so that its lay brothers
could appear to our sight,
different laments shot into me,
whose arrows had iron points of pity;
45so I covered my ears with my hands.
What pain would there be, if from the hospitals
of Valdichiana between July and September,
and from Maremma and Sardinia, all the ills
were together in one ditch:
50such it was there, and such a stench came out
as is wont to come from rotting limbs.
We descended onto the final bank
of the long crag, still by the left hand;
and then my sight was more alive
55down toward the bottom, where the minister
of the high Lord, infallible Justice,
punishes the falsifiers she records here.
Commentary
The transition into the tenth bolgia turns on sharp boundary-making: last cloister, lay brothers, laments as pity-barbed arrows, diseased hospitals, and Justice recording falsifiers.
XXIX.40–42 chiostra and conversi create bitter monastic imagery for the last bolgia of Malebolge.
XXIX.40–42 chiostra and conversi create bitter monastic imagery for the last bolgia of Malebolge. Line 40: chiostra and conversi create bitter monastic imagery for the last bolgia of Malebolge.
XXIX.40 chiostra and conversi create bitter monastic imagery for the last bolgia of Malebolge. chiostra and conversi create bitter monastic imagery for the last bolgia of Malebolge.
XXIX.43–45 The laments become arrows whose iron points are pity, shifting the assault from sight to hearing.
XXIX.43–45 The laments become arrows whose iron points are pity, shifting the assault from sight to hearing. Line 44: The laments become arrows whose iron points are pity, shifting the assault from sight to hearing.
XXIX.44 The laments become arrows whose iron points are pity, shifting the assault from sight to hearing. The laments become arrows whose iron points are pity, shifting the assault from sight to hearing.
XXIX.46–48 Valdichiana, Maremma, and Sardinia are kept as concrete disease geographies rather than generalized plague regions.
XXIX.46–48 Valdichiana, Maremma, and Sardinia are kept as concrete disease geographies rather than generalized plague regions. Line 47: Valdichiana, Maremma, and Sardinia are kept as concrete disease geographies rather than generalized plague regions.
XXIX.47 Valdichiana, Maremma, and Sardinia are kept as concrete disease geographies rather than generalized plague regions. Valdichiana, Maremma, and Sardinia are kept as concrete disease geographies rather than generalized plague regions.
XXIX.55–57 Justice is the feminine minister of the high Lord here; the translation capitalizes it to mark the personified divine office. falsador is rendered falsifiers, the governing category of the tenth bolgia.
XXIX.55–57 Justice is the feminine minister of the high Lord here; the translation capitalizes it to mark the personified divine office. Line 56: Justice is the feminine minister of the high Lord here; the translation capitalizes it to mark the personified divine office. Line 57: falsador is rendered falsifiers, the governing category of the tenth bolgia.
XXIX.56 Justice is personified as the feminine minister of the high Lord here; capitalization marks that divine office. The Italian sets la ministra de l'alto Sire beside infallibil giustizia, so capitalized Justice registers the grammar of personified divine office rather than adding a new doctrinal claim.
XXIX.57 falsador is rendered falsifiers, the governing category of the tenth bolgia. falsador is rendered falsifiers, the governing category of the tenth bolgia.
The Aegina plague simile and the dark heaps of bodies frame falsification as corrupted life, matter, and movement XXIX.58–72
58Non credo ch’a veder maggior tristizia
fosse in Egina il popol tutto infermo,
60quando fu l’aere sì pien di malizia,
che li animali, infino al picciol vermo,
cascaron tutti, e poi le genti antiche,
secondo che i poeti hanno per fermo,
si ristorar di seme di formiche;
65ch’era a veder per quella oscura valle
languir li spirti per diverse biche.
Qual sovra ’l ventre e qual sovra le spalle
l’un de l’altro giacea, e qual carpone
si trasmutava per lo tristo calle.
70Passo passo andavam sanza sermone,
guardando e ascoltando li ammalati,
che non potean levar le lor persone.
58I do not think a greater sadness
was there to see in Aegina, the whole people sick,
60when the air was so full of malice
that the animals, down to the little worm,
all fell; and then the ancient peoples,
according to what the poets hold as sure,
were restored from the seed of ants,
65than there was to see through that dark valley
the spirits languishing in different heaps.
One over the belly and one over the shoulders
lay on another, and one on all fours
transmuted himself along the sad path.
70Step by step we went without speech,
looking at and listening to the sick
who could not lift their bodies.
Commentary
The Aegina plague, Ovidian ant-seed restoration, malizia, biche, and si trasmutava keep plague, heap, harvest, and alchemical transformation pressures active.
XXIX.58–60 malizia names pestilential malignity in the Aegina plague scene while still echoing Inferno's larger moral malice field.
XXIX.58–60 malizia names pestilential malignity in the Aegina plague scene while still echoing Inferno's larger moral malice field. Line 60: malizia names pestilential malignity in the Aegina plague scene while still echoing Inferno's larger moral malice field.
XXIX.60 malizia names pestilential malignity in the Aegina plague scene while still echoing Inferno's larger moral malice field. malizia names pestilential malignity in the Aegina plague scene while still echoing Inferno's larger moral malice field.
XXIX.64–66 The ant-seed restoration preserves the Ovidian Myrmidon allusion compactly. biche are heaps or stacks, and harvest/Last-Judgment pressure remains.
XXIX.64–66 The ant-seed restoration preserves the Ovidian Myrmidon allusion compactly. Line 64: The ant-seed restoration preserves the Ovidian Myrmidon allusion compactly. Line 66: biche are heaps or stacks, and harvest/Last-Judgment pressure remains.
XXIX.64 The ant-seed restoration preserves the Ovidian Myrmidon allusion compactly. Dante's ant-seed restoration points to Ovid's Aegina plague story, where Aeacus receives a restored people associated with ants; ant-seed keeps that Myrmidon intertext compactly visible.
XXIX.66 biche are heaps or stacks, and harvest/Last-Judgment pressure remains. biche are heaps or stacks, and harvest/Last-Judgment pressure remains.
XXIX.67–69 si trasmutava is kept as transmuted himself to anticipate alchemical falsification and echo the thieves' transformations.
XXIX.67–69 si trasmutava is kept as transmuted himself to anticipate alchemical falsification and echo the thieves' transformations. Line 69: si trasmutava is kept as transmuted himself to anticipate alchemical falsification and echo the thieves' transformations.
XXIX.69 si trasmutava is kept as transmuted himself to anticipate alchemical falsification and echo the thieves' transformations. si trasmutava is kept as transmuted himself to anticipate alchemical falsification and echo the thieves' transformations.
Two scabbed alchemists scrape themselves like scaled fish while Virgil asks whether any Italians are among them XXIX.73–90
73Io vidi due sedere a sé poggiati,
com’ a scaldar si poggia tegghia a tegghia,
75dal capo al piè di schianze macolati;
e non vidi già mai menare stregghia
a ragazzo aspettato dal segnorso,
né a colui che mal volontier vegghia,
come ciascun menava spesso il morso
80de l’unghie sopra sé per la gran rabbia
del pizzicor, che non ha più soccorso;
e sì traevan giù l’unghie la scabbia,
come coltel di scardova le scaglie
o d’altro pesce che più larghe l’abbia.
85«O tu che con le dita ti dismaglie»,
cominciò ’l duca mio a l’un di loro,
«e che fai d’esse talvolta tanaglie,
dinne s’alcun Latino è tra costoro
che son quinc’ entro, se l’unghia ti basti
90etternalmente a cotesto lavoro».
73I saw two sitting, propped against each other,
as pan is propped against pan to be heated,
75spotted from head to foot with scabs;
and I never saw a currycomb plied
by a stableboy whose master waits for him,
nor by one who keeps watch unwillingly,
as each of them often plied the bite
80of his nails over himself, from the great fury
of the itch that has no other help;
and the nails dragged down the scab
as a knife does the scales of a bream
or of some other fish that has them larger.
85"O you who with your fingers strip off your mail,"
my guide began to one of them,
"and who sometimes make pincers of them,
tell us whether any Italian is among these
who are in here, so may your nail suffice
90eternally for this labor."
Commentary
The scab-scraping passage has concrete bodily force without euphemism: pan against pan, currycomb, nail-bite, itch, scab, fish scales, mail, and pincers stay tactile and ugly.
XXIX.73–75 The scabbed bodies begin the disease-of-matter image that frames alchemical falsification.
XXIX.73–75 The scabbed bodies begin the disease-of-matter image that frames alchemical falsification. Line 75: The scabbed bodies begin the disease-of-matter image that frames alchemical falsification.
XXIX.75 The scabbed bodies begin the disease-of-matter image that frames alchemical falsification. The scabbed bodies begin the disease-of-matter image that frames alchemical falsification.
XXIX.85–87 The mail metaphor keeps the scabs as a grotesque scale-armor surface before the fish-scale simile.
XXIX.85–87 The mail metaphor keeps the scabs as a grotesque scale-armor surface before the fish-scale simile. Line 85: The mail metaphor keeps the scabs as a grotesque scale-armor surface before the fish-scale simile.
XXIX.85 The mail metaphor keeps the scabs as a grotesque scale-armor surface before the fish-scale simile. The mail metaphor keeps the scabs as a grotesque scale-armor surface before the fish-scale simile.
XXIX.88–90 Latino is rendered Italian in this local speech-recognition context, matching the earlier Malebolge usage.
XXIX.88–90 Latino is rendered Italian in this local speech-recognition context, matching the earlier Malebolge usage. Line 88: Latino is rendered Italian in this local speech-recognition context, matching the earlier Malebolge usage.
XXIX.88 Latino is rendered Italian in this local speech-recognition context, matching the earlier Malebolge usage. Latino is rendered Italian in this local speech-recognition context, matching the earlier Malebolge usage.
The alchemists turn toward the living pilgrim, and Dante asks them to identify themselves in exchange for living memory XXIX.91–108
91«Latin siam noi, che tu vedi sì guasti
qui ambedue», rispuose l’un piangendo;
«ma tu chi se’ che di noi dimandasti?».
E ’l duca disse: «I’ son un che discendo
95con questo vivo giù di balzo in balzo,
e di mostrar lo ’nferno a lui intendo».
Allor si ruppe lo comun rincalzo;
e tremando ciascuno a me si volse
con altri che l’udiron di rimbalzo.
100Lo buon maestro a me tutto s’accolse,
dicendo: «Dì a lor ciò che tu vuoli»;
e io incominciai, poscia ch’ei volse:
«Se la vostra memoria non s’imboli
nel primo mondo da l’umane menti,
105ma s’ella viva sotto molti soli,
ditemi chi voi siete e di che genti;
la vostra sconcia e fastidiosa pena
di palesarvi a me non vi spaventi».
91"Italians are we, whom you see so ruined
here, both of us," one answered, weeping;
"but who are you who asked about us?"
And the guide said: "I am one who descends
95with this living man, down from ledge to ledge,
and I intend to show Hell to him."
Then their common prop broke apart;
and trembling, each turned toward me,
with others who heard the words rebound.
100The good master drew himself close to me,
saying: "Say to them whatever you wish";
and I began, once he had wished it:
"So may your memory not be stolen
in the first world from human minds,
105but may it live beneath many suns,
tell me who you are and of what people;
let your unseemly and disgusting pain
not frighten you from revealing yourselves to me."
Commentary
The Italian/Latin speech-recognition and memory exchange echo earlier Malebolge encounters, preserving Dante's living power to carry names back to the first world.
XXIX.97–99 The two sinners' mutual bodily support breaks when Dante's living exception is announced.
XXIX.97–99 The two sinners' mutual bodily support breaks when Dante's living exception is announced. Line 97: The two sinners' mutual bodily support breaks when Dante's living exception is announced.
XXIX.97 The two sinners' mutual bodily support breaks when Dante's living exception is announced. The two sinners' mutual bodily support breaks when Dante's living exception is announced.
XXIX.103–105 Memory language keeps the exchange tied to Dante's power to preserve or erase reputations in the living world.
XXIX.103–105 Memory language keeps the exchange tied to Dante's power to preserve or erase reputations in the living world. Line 103: Memory language keeps the exchange tied to Dante's power to preserve or erase reputations in the living world.
XXIX.103 Memory language keeps the exchange tied to Dante's power to preserve or erase reputations in the living world. Memory language keeps the exchange tied to Dante's power to preserve or erase reputations in the living world.
XXIX.106–108 pena is rendered pain here, keeping the immediate bodily condition visible even though punishment is also implied.
XXIX.106–108 pena is rendered pain here, keeping the immediate bodily condition visible even though punishment is also implied. Line 107: pena is rendered pain here, keeping the immediate bodily condition visible even though punishment is also implied.
XXIX.107 pena is rendered pain here, keeping the immediate bodily condition visible even though punishment is also implied. pena is rendered pain here, keeping the immediate bodily condition visible even though punishment is also implied.
Griffolino of Arezzo explains Albero of Siena, the Daedalus joke, and the distinction between his earthly death and his infernal alchemy XXIX.109–120
109«Io fui d’Arezzo, e Albero da Siena»,
110rispuose l’un, «mi fé mettere al foco;
ma quel per ch’io mori’ qui non mi mena.
Vero è ch’i’ dissi lui, parlando a gioco:
“I’ mi saprei levar per l’aere a volo”;
e quei, ch’avea vaghezza e senno poco,
115volle ch’i’ li mostrassi l’arte; e solo
perch’ io nol feci Dedalo, mi fece
ardere a tal che l’avea per figliuolo.
Ma ne l’ultima bolgia de le diece
me per l’alchìmia che nel mondo usai
120dannò Minòs, a cui fallar non lece».
109"I was of Arezzo, and Albero of Siena,"
110one answered, "had me put to the fire;
but what I died for does not bring me here.
It is true that I told him, speaking in jest:
'I would know how to lift myself through the air in flight';
and he, who had eagerness and little sense,
115wanted me to show him the art; and only
because I did not make him Daedalus, he had
one who held him as a son burn me.
But to the last bolgia of the ten,
for the alchemy that I practiced in the world,
120Minos, who is not allowed to err, condemned me."
Commentary
Griffolino's Arezzo/Siena story distinguishes the fraud that got him burned from the alchemy that condemns him, while Albero's credulity and the Daedalus joke stay compact.
XXIX.109–111 The speaker is Griffolino d'Arezzo, though Dante does not name him in the line.
XXIX.109–111 The speaker is Griffolino d'Arezzo, though Dante does not name him in the line. Line 109: The speaker is Griffolino d'Arezzo, though Dante does not name him in the line.
XXIX.109 The speaker is Griffolino d'Arezzo, though Dante does not name him in the line. The speaker is Griffolino d'Arezzo, though Dante does not name him in the line.
XXIX.112–114 vaghezza is local eagerness or curiosity; the line keeps Albero's credulity visible.
XXIX.112–114 vaghezza is local eagerness or curiosity; the line keeps Albero's credulity visible. Line 114: vaghezza is local eagerness or curiosity; the line keeps Albero's credulity visible.
XXIX.114 vaghezza is local eagerness or curiosity; the line keeps Albero's credulity visible. vaghezza is local eagerness or curiosity; the line keeps Albero's credulity visible.
XXIX.115–117 Daedalus connects Griffolino's flight joke to earlier failed-flight and overreaching images.
XXIX.115–117 Daedalus connects Griffolino's flight joke to earlier failed-flight and overreaching images. Line 116: Daedalus connects Griffolino's flight joke to earlier failed-flight and overreaching images.
XXIX.116 Daedalus connects Griffolino's flight joke to earlier failed-flight and overreaching images. Daedalus connects Griffolino's flight joke to earlier failed-flight and overreaching images.
XXIX.118–120 Alchemy is the specific falsification that brings Griffolino to the tenth bolgia, not the cause of his earthly execution.
XXIX.118–120 Alchemy is the specific falsification that brings Griffolino to the tenth bolgia, not the cause of his earthly execution. Line 119: Alchemy is the specific falsification that brings Griffolino to the tenth bolgia, not the cause of his earthly execution.
XXIX.119 Alchemy is the specific falsification that brings Griffolino to the tenth bolgia, not the cause of his earthly execution. Alchemy is the specific falsification that brings Griffolino to the tenth bolgia, not the cause of his earthly execution.
Dante mocks Sienese vanity, Capocchio answers with the spendthrift catalogue, and names himself as an alchemical ape of nature XXIX.121–139
121E io dissi al poeta: «Or fu già mai
gente sì vana come la sanese?
Certo non la francesca sì d’assai!».
Onde l’altro lebbroso, che m’intese,
125rispuose al detto mio: «Tra’mene Stricca
che seppe far le temperate spese,
e Niccolò che la costuma ricca
del garofano prima discoverse
ne l’orto dove tal seme s’appicca;
130e tra’ne la brigata in che disperse
Caccia d’Ascian la vigna e la gran fonda,
e l’Abbagliato suo senno proferse.
Ma perché sappi chi sì ti seconda
contra i Sanesi, aguzza ver’ me l’occhio,
135sì che la faccia mia ben ti risponda:
sì vedrai ch’io son l’ombra di Capocchio,
che falsai li metalli con l’alchìmia;
e te dee ricordar, se ben t’adocchio,
com’ io fui di natura buona scimia».
121And I said to the poet: "Was there ever
a people so vain as the Sienese?
Certainly not the French, not by a long way!"
Then the other leper, who heard me,
125answered my words: "Leave out Stricca,
who knew how to keep expenses temperate,
and Niccolo, who first discovered
the rich custom of the clove
in the garden where such seed takes root;
130and leave out the company in which
Caccia d'Asciano squandered the vineyard and great estate,
and Abbagliato displayed his wisdom.
But so you may know who supports you
against the Sienese, sharpen your eye toward me,
135so that my face may answer you well:
then you will see that I am Capocchio's shade,
who falsified metals with alchemy;
and you ought to remember, if I see you rightly,
how I was nature's good ape."
Commentary
The Sienese vanity catalogue, Stricca, Niccolo, cloves, Caccia d'Asciano, Abbagliato, Capocchio, falsified metals, and nature's ape appear, with detailed identifications left open.
XXIX.121–123 francesca is taken as the French people, proverbial for vanity in this comparison.
XXIX.121–123 francesca is taken as the French people, proverbial for vanity in this comparison. Line 123: francesca is taken as the French people, proverbial for vanity in this comparison.
XXIX.123 francesca is taken as the French people, proverbial for vanity in this comparison. francesca is taken as the French people, proverbial for vanity in this comparison.
XXIX.124–126 The praise of Stricca's temperate spending is bitterly ironic inside the Sienese spendthrift catalogue.
XXIX.124–126 The praise of Stricca's temperate spending is bitterly ironic inside the Sienese spendthrift catalogue. Line 126: The praise of Stricca's temperate spending is bitterly ironic inside the Sienese spendthrift catalogue.
XXIX.126 The praise of Stricca's temperate spending is bitterly ironic inside the Sienese spendthrift catalogue. The praise of Stricca's temperate spending is bitterly ironic inside the Sienese spendthrift catalogue.
XXIX.127–129 The clove marks luxury and imported expense rather than a literal agricultural discovery in Siena.
XXIX.127–129 The clove marks luxury and imported expense rather than a literal agricultural discovery in Siena. Line 128: The clove marks luxury and imported expense rather than a literal agricultural discovery in Siena.
XXIX.128 The clove marks luxury and imported expense rather than a literal agricultural discovery in Siena. The clove marks luxury and imported expense rather than a literal agricultural discovery in Siena.
XXIX.130–132 Abbagliato is retained as a name; the displayed wisdom is ironic.
XXIX.130–132 Abbagliato is retained as a name; the displayed wisdom is ironic. Line 132: Abbagliato is retained as a name; the displayed wisdom is ironic.
XXIX.132 Abbagliato is retained as a name; the displayed wisdom is ironic. Abbagliato is retained as a name; the displayed wisdom is ironic.
XXIX.136–138 Capocchio's metal-falsifying closes the canto by naming alchemy as counterfeit art.
XXIX.136–138 Capocchio's metal-falsifying closes the canto by naming alchemy as counterfeit art. Line 137: Capocchio's metal-falsifying closes the canto by naming alchemy as counterfeit art.
XXIX.137 Capocchio's metal-falsifying closes the canto by naming alchemy as counterfeit art. Capocchio's metal-falsifying closes the canto by naming alchemy as counterfeit art.
XXIX.139 Nature's good ape preserves the art-as-imitation motif and Capocchio's reputation for mimicry. Nature's good ape preserves the art-as-imitation motif and Capocchio's reputation for mimicry.