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Tue 17 Feb, 2009 06:21 pm
Dante Alighieri put this man in hell for that he was a stirrer up of strife.
Judge ye!
Have I dug him up again?
The scene is at his castle, Altaforte.
I
Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howls my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.
II
In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace,
And the lightnings from black heav'n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,
And through all the riven skies God's swords clash.
III
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,
Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!
Better one hour's stour than a year's peace
With fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music!
Bah! there's no wine like the blood's crimson!
IV
And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson.
And I watch his spears through the dark clash
And it fills all my heart with rejoicing
And pries wide my mouth with fast music
When I see him so scorn and defy peace,
His lone might 'gainst all darkness opposing.
V
The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson
But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth's won and the swords clash
For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill all the air with my music.
VI
Papiols, Papiols, to the music!
There's no sound like to swords swords opposing,
No cry like the battle's rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson
And our charges 'gainst "The Leopard's" rush clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry "Peace!"
ep
@Pythagorean,
Dante also put Ulysses in hell (a far more enigmatic decision).
Dante had been banished from Florence at the time he wrote the Divine Comedy, and a lot of the Inferno is a political vendetta against his contemporaries.
@Aedes,
He also put Socrates and Plato in hell, despite the fact that Plato did believe in a singular god, though not the christian definition. Also, as greeks, they would surely have known little of the jewish faith and so could could they have been held accountable for lack of faith in the abrahamic god? It's a lovely collection of literature, but I doubt Dante was right.
@Kolbe,
Socrates and Plato were not in Hell proper, but in Limbo which is essentially Heaven without God. Hell proper, the place for deliberate sinners, begins after Limbo - Minos judges these sinners, but does not judge the virtuous pagans.
@Didymos Thomas,
Did he? I could have sworn that the two were in the first circle, alongside Aristotle.....
@Kolbe,
Aristotle was also present: that's Limbo. You're not in Hell proper unless Minos has judged you and cast you into the appropriate circle.
Limbo is the first circle, but not Hell proper because the inhabitants of Limbo have not been judged as sinners: Limbo is, essentially, Heaven without the presence of God.
@Pythagorean,
Limbo is for the so called "virtuous heathens" -- there were other pagans whom he put lower in hell, like Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot (all of whom were being chewed in the jaws of Satan in the 9th circle).
Heathens were able to ascend as high as the top of purgatory. Remember that Virgil was Dante's guide. He accompanies Dante throughout the
Purgatorio all the way up to the fire on top of Purgatory. Dante's long lost love, Beatrice, is his guide in the
Paradiso.
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