Canto 3. Dante's Inferno Canto 3 Summary and Analysis 2022-10-05
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In vain fair cheeks were furrowed with hot tears For Europe's flowers long rooted up before The trampler of her vineyards; in vain, years Of death, depopulation, bondage, fears, Have all been borne, and broken by the accord Of roused-up millions: all that most endears Glory, is when the myrtle wreathes a Sword, Such as Harmodius drew on Athens' tyrant Lord. And there was one soft breast, as hath been said, Which unto his was bound by stronger ties Than the church links withal; and—though unwed, That love was pure—and, far above disguise, Had stood the test of mortal enmities Still undivided, and cemented more By peril, dreaded most in female eyes; But this was firm, and from a foreign shore Well to that heart might his these absent greetings pour! The sky is changed! And thou, who there Standest, live spirit! Virgil tells Dante to take comfort in Charon's first refusal to carry him on the boat, because only condemned spirits come this way. And he had learned to love,—I know not why, For this in such as him seems strange of mood, The helpless looks of blooming Infancy, Even in its earliest nurture; what subdued, To change like this, a mind so far imbued With scorn of man, it little boots to know; But thus it was; and though in solitude Small power the nipped affections have to grow, In him this glowed when all beside had ceased to glow. Is the spot marked with no colossal bust? It is only the pains of Purgatory that oppress his soul by anticipation. There Harold gazes on a work divine, A blending of all beauties; streams and dells, Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine, And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells From gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells.
Dante and Virgil reach Acheron, the river which marks the border of hell. There, in a moment, we may plunge our years In fatal penitence, and in the blight Of our own Soul turn all our blood to tears, And colour things to come with hues of Night; The race of life becomes a hopeless flight To those that walk in darkness: on the sea The boldest steer but where their ports invite— But there are wanderers o'er Eternity Whose bark drives on and on, and anchored ne'er shall be. Then looking farther onwards I beheld A throng upon the shore of a great stream: Whereat I thus: "Sir! It seems that Ariel feels that Belinda either deserves or wishes to be violated, particularly since the snipping of the lock has sexual undertones. However, a refusal to choose is a choice, an idea Dante uses that has since become central in existentialist philosophy. Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain, That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches Hateful to God and to his enemies. He looks very humane: grumpy and conservative, Charon wants everything to go in proper order. They see those who were true only to themselves in their prior life; these people were not rebellious against God, and yet they were not committed to Him in their life on earth.
And thou, that yonder standest, living soul, Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead! Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain, That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches Hateful to God and to his enemies. Yet souls do not suffer any sense of deficiency or injustice because of this. None; but the moral's truth tells simpler so. He still calls them back to get the punishment and the souls response. . Commingled are they with that caitiff choir Of Angels, who have not rebellious been, Nor faithful were to God, but were for self. The dyssonance of the voices becomes louder and louder, turning into a pure chaos of pleads, threats, complaints and senseless screams.
Dante spies Pope Celestine V, who "made the great refusal" of giving up the chair of Peter after only five months, thereby clearing the way for Boniface VIII, to whom Dante was an implacable enemy. What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished? The loss counts for nothing now; the lowly worms devour their blood. Thine is a scene alike where souls united Or lonely Contemplation thus might stray; And could the ceaseless vultures cease to prey On self-condemning bosoms, it were here, Where Nature, nor too sombre nor too gay, Wild but not rude, awful yet not austere, Is to the mellow Earth as Autumn to the year. Is it not better, then, to be alone, And love Earth only for its earthly sake? Dante cried when he heard the sound of the wailing. What is this I hear? So, by forcing himself to pass through the gate Dante starts his road to Heaven, overcoming his first flaw — lack of determination. The Morn is up again, the dewy Morn, With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom— Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn, And living as if earth contained no tomb,— And glowing into day: we may resume The march of our existence: and thus I, Still on thy shores, fair Leman! Something too much of this:—but now 'tis past, And the spell closes with its silent seal— Long absent Harold re-appears at last; He of the breast which fain no more would feel, Wrung with the wounds which kill not, but ne'er heal; Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him In soul and aspect as in age: years steal Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb; And Life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.
From his bounds Heaven drove them forth, Not to impair his lustre, nor the depth Of Hell receives them, lest th' accursed tribe Should glory thence with exultation vain. The inscription reminds those who enter that they must give up all hope; they make the trip to hell as a choice and cannot return. How in an hour the Power which gave annuls Its gifts, transferring fame as fleeting too! This pope abdicated in 1294 and was replaced by Boniface. The Baron moves to chop off the lock. They are also weeping and pleading for mercy, but, unlike the ignorant ones Dante saw before, there is no mercy for them.
Out of the tearful ground there moaned a blast Whence lightning flashed forth red and terrible, Which vanquished all my senses; and, as cast In sudden slumber, to the ground I fell. Choosing to cross the river is their final choice, just as their desire for sin on Earth was also their choice. Not vainly did the early Persian make His altar the high places, and the peak Of earth-o'ergazing mountains,—and thus take A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek The Spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak Upreared of human hands. And thou, O living soul, who there dost stand, From 'mong the dead withdraw thee. As he was not canonized till 1326, Dante was free to form his own judgment of his conduct. Meanwhile Those spirits, faint and naked, color chang'd, And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words They heard.
Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold The star which rises o'er her steep, nor climb? When Dante observes the souls waiting in the line, he notices that no one of them tries to escape or does something more than weeping. Empress Constance died in 1198, daughter of the King of Naples and Sicily and wife of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. When some of these I recogniz'd, I saw And knew the shade of him, who to base fear Yielding, abjur'd his high estate. I send the lilies given to me— Though long before thy hand they touch, I know that they must withered be, But yet reject them not as such; For I have cherished them as dear, Because they yet may meet thine eye, And guide thy soul to mine even here, When thou behold'st them drooping nigh, And know'st them gathered by the Rhine, And offered from my heart to thine! No hope of death is to the wretches known; So dim the life and abject where they sigh They count all sufferings easier than their own. It may be here noted that never does Dante hint a fear of one day becoming a denizen of Inferno. Belinda is in danger of being beaten, but recovers in the last trick so as to just barely win back the amount she bid.
Celestine preferred to return to the obscurity of non-commitment, rather than face the problems of the papacy. When the sinners did at least something to be condemned and still be the part of the divine plan, the cowards are just forgotten and erased from it: their existence is meaningless and this makes them suffer even more than any physical tortures. Beatrice encourages Dante to speak to them. The wretches, who when living showed no trace Of life, went naked, and were fiercely stung By wasps and hornets swarming in that place. He feigns astonishment at finding that such a proportion of mankind can preserve so pitiful a middle course between good and evil, and spend lives that are only 'a kind of--as it were. Sager than in thy fortunes; for in them Ambition steeled thee on too far to show That just habitual scorn, which could contemn Men and their thoughts; 'twas wise to feel, not so To wear it ever on thy lip and brow, And spurn the instruments thou wert to use Till they were turned unto thine overthrow: 'Tis but a worthless world to win or lose; So hath it proved to thee, and all such lot who choose. The heart's bleed longest, and but heal to wear That which disfigures it; and they who war With their own hopes, and have been vanquished, bear Silence, but not submission: in his lair Fixed Passion holds his breath, until the hour Which shall atone for years; none need despair: It came—it cometh—and will come,—the power To punish or forgive—in one we shall be slower.
Of them the world endures no memory; Mercy and justice them alike disdain. Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by. There can be no farewell to scene like thine; The mind is coloured by thy every hue; And if reluctantly the eyes resign Their cherished gaze upon thee, lovely Rhine! Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede, Beckoning to them, collects them all together, Beats with his oar whoever lags behind. Justice incited my sublime Creator; Created me divine Omnipotence, The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. If in your bright leaves we would read the fate Of men and empires,—'tis to be forgiven, That in our aspirations to be great, Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, And claim a kindred with you; for ye are A Beauty and a Mystery, and create In us such love and reverence from afar, That Fortune,—Fame,—Power,—Life, have named themselves a Star.
