Canto XVI--Circle Seven: Round Three--the Violent Against Nature and Art
How is Dante recognized by "the three stooges"--Jacopo Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, and Tegghiaiao Aldobrandi?
What does Virgil do at the end?
Note the transitional sentence at the beginning of this canto. For your Infernos, you will need transitional sentences at the beginning and at the end of the cantos.
"We could already hear the rumbling drive / of the waterfall in its plunge to the next circle, / a murmur like the throbbing of a hive, / when three shades turned together on the plain, / breaking toward us from accompany / that went its way to torture in that rain" (1-6).
By the way--and a side note--DO NOT END YOUR INFERNOS WITH "AND THEN I WOKE UP" OR ANYTHING EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO THAT.
How does Virgil tell Dante to treat these sinners?
Note the following description and the simile. You will be describing and using similes and metaphors:
"As naked and anointed champions do / in feeling out their grasp and their advantage / before they close in for the thrust or blow--/ so circling, each one stared up at my height, / and as their feet moved left around the circle, / their necks kept turning backward to the right" (22-27).
Again, the sinners suffer the anxiety of not being remembered:
"'Therefore, if you win through this gloomy pass/ and climb again to see the heaven of stars; / when it rejoices you to say "I was," / speak of us to the living.' They parted then, / breaking their turning wheel, and as they vanished / over the plain, their legs seemed wings" (83-87).
Look at the end of this canto in its amazing descriptive and transitional nature. Think again of Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming" and the "rough beast."
"Reader, I swear / by the lines of my Comedy--so may it live--/ that I saw swimming up through that foul air / a shape to astonish the most doughty soul, / a shape like one returning through the sea / from working loose an anchor run afoul / of something on the bottom--so it rose, / its arms spread upward and its feet drawn close" (127-134).
Note the wonderful swimming motion--only it is swimming through air!
Canto XVII--Circle Seven: Round Three--the Violent Against Art and Geryon
Geryon is the monster of what particular vice?
It's not usury. By the way, how are the usurers punished?
Again, note the descriptive and transitional method of the opening. Note too the classical mythological allusions:
"'Now see the sharp-tailed beast that mounts the brink. / He passes mountains, breaks through walls and weapons. / Behold the beast that makes the whole world stink.' / These were the words my Master spoke to me; / then signaled the weird beast to come to the ground / close to the sheer end of our rocky levee. / The filthy prototype of Fraud drew near / and settled his head and breast upon the edge / of the dark cliff, but let his tail hang clear. / His face was innocent of every guile, / benign and just in feature and expression; / and under it his body was half reptile. / His two great paws were hairy to the armpits; / all his back and breast and both his flanks / were figured with bright knots and subtle circlets: / never was such a tapestry of bloom / woven on earth by Tartar or by Turk,/ nor by Arachne at her flowering loom. / As a ferry sometimes lies along the strand, / part beached and part afloat; and as the beaver, / up yonder in the guzzling Germans' land, / squats halfway up the bank when a fight is on--/ just so lay that most ravenous of beasts/ on the rim which bounds the burning sand with stone. / His tail twitched in the void beyond that lip, / thrashing, and twisting up the envenomed fork / which, like a scorpion's stinger, armed the tip" (1-27).
How are these sinners adorned?
"He half-arose, / twisted his mouth, and darted out his tongue / for all the world like an ox licking its nose" (67-69).
Note how frightening the following passage is and how it characterizes both narrator and guide:
"Returned, I found my Guide already mounted / upon the rump of that monstrosity. / He said to me: 'Now must you be undaunted: / this beast must be our stairway to the pit: / mount it in front, and I will ride between / you and the tail, lest you be poisoned by it.' / Like one so close to the quaternary chill / that his nails are already pale and his flesh trembles / at he very sight of shade or a cool rill--/ so did I tremble at each frightful word. / But his scolding filled me with that shame that makes / the servant brave in the presence of his lord. / I mounted the great shoulders of that freak / and tried to say 'Now help me to hold on!' / But my voice clicked in my throat and I could not speak" (73-87).
Again, note the wonderful description--using a simile. Note too the rhythms of the language, which make you feel as though you are actually riding the beast with them:
"As a small ship slides from a beaching on its pier, / backward, backward--so that monster slipped / back from the rim. And when he had drawn clear / he swung about, and stretching out his tail / he worked it like an eel, and with his paws/ he gathered in the air, while I turned pale" (94-99).
Note the reference to Icarus and Phaethon. Read the footnotes and know those stories. Both characters are famous "over-reachers."
Again, note where Yeats took from this particular canto for "The Second Coming":
"Slowly, slowly, he swims on through space, / wheels and descends, but I can sense it only / by the way the wind blows upward past my face. / Already on the right I heard the swell / and thunder of the whirlpool. Looking down / I leaned my head out and stared into Hell. / I trembled again at the prospect of dismounting / and cowered in on myself, for I saw fires / on every hand, and I heard a long lamenting. / And then I saw--till then I had but felt it--/ the course of our down-spiral to the horrors / that rose to us from all sides of the pit. / As a flight-worn falcon sinks down wearily / though neither bird nor lure has signalled it, / the falconer crying out: ' What! spent already!'--/ then turns and in a hundred spinning gyres / sulks from her master's call, sullen and proud--/ so to that bottom lit by endless fires / the monster Geryon circled and fell, / setting us down at the foot of the precipice / of ragged rock on the eighth shelf of Hell. / And once freed of our weight, he shot from there / in the dark like an arrow into air" (109-131).
