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INFERNO CANTO 18 18.1 There Is a Place in Hell Called Malebolge

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INFERNO CANTO 18 18.1 There Is a Place in Hell Called Malebolge INFERNO CANTO 18 there are no women here for you to trick." 18.1 There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, 18.34 Both left and right, along the somber rock, made all of stone the color of crude iron, I saw horned demons with enormous whips, 18.67 I joined my escort once again; and then as is the wall that makes its way around it. who lashed those spirits cruelly from behind. with but few steps, we came upon a place where, from the bank, a rocky ridge ran out. 18.4 Right in the middle of this evil field 18.37 Ah, how their first strokes made those sinners lift is an abyss, a broad and yawning pit, their heels! Indeed no sinner waited for 18.70 We climbed quite easily along that height; whose structure I shall tell in its due place. a second stroke to fall-or for a third. and turning right upon its jagged back, we took our leave of those eternal circlings. 18.7 The belt, then, that extends between the pit 18.40 And as I moved ahead, my eyes met those and that hard, steep wall's base is circular; of someone else, and suddenly I said: When we had reached the point where that ridge 18.73 its bottom has been split into ten valleys. "I was not spared the sight of him before." opens below to leave a passage for the lashed, my guide said: "Stay, and make sure that the sight 18.10 Just as, where moat on moat surrounds a castle 18.43 And so I stayed my steps, to study him; in order to keep guard upon the walls, my gentle guide had stopped together with me the ground they occupy will form a pattern, and gave me leave to take a few steps back. 18.76 of still more ill-born spirits strikes your eyes, for you have not yet seen their faces, since 18.13 so did the valleys here form a design; That scourged soul thought that he could hide they have been moving in our own direction." 18.46 and as such fortresses have bridges running himself a right from their thresholds toward the outer bank, by lowering his face; it helped him little, 18.79 From the old bridge we looked down at the ranks for I said: "You, who cast your eyes upon of those approaching from the other side; they too were driven onward by the lash. 18.16 so here, across the banks and ditches, ridges ran from the base of that rock wall until 18.49 the ground, if these your features are not false, the pit that cuts them short and joins them all. must be Venedico Caccianemico; 18.82 And my good master, though I had not asked, but what brings you to sauces so piquant?" urged me: "Look at that mighty one who comes and does not seem to shed a tear of pain: 18.19 This was the place in which we found ourselves when Geryon had put us down; the poet 18.52 And he to me: "I speak unwillingly; held to the left, and I walked at his back. but your plain speech, that brings the memory 18.85 how he still keeps the image of a king! of the old world to me, is what compels me; That shade is Jason, who with heart and head deprived the men of Colchis of their ram. 18.22 Upon the right I saw new misery, I saw new tortures and new torturers, 18.55 For it was I who led Ghisolabella filling the first of Malebolge's moats. to do as the Marquis would have her do- 18.88 He made a landfall on the isle of Lemnos however they retell that filthy tale. after its women, bold and pitiless, had given all their island males to death. 18.25 Along its bottom, naked sinners moved, to our side of the middle, facing us; 18.58 I'm not the only Bolognese who weeps here; beyond that, they moved with us, but more quickly indeed, this place is so crammed full of us 18.91 With polished words and love signs he took in that not so many tongues have learned to say Hypsipyle, the girl whose own deception had earlier deceived the other women. 18.28 as, in the year of Jubilee, the Romans, confronted by great crowds, contrived a plan 18.61 sipa between the Sàvena and Reno; that let the people pass across the bridge, if you want faith and testament of that, 18.94 And he abandoned her, alone and pregnant; just call to mind our avaricious hearts." such guilt condemns him to such punishment; and for Medea, too, revenge is taken. 18.31 for to one side went all who had their eyes upon the Castle, heading toward St. Peter's, 18.64 And as he spoke, a demon cudgeled him and to the other, those who faced the Mount. with his horsewhip and cried: "Be off, you pimp, 18.97 With him go those who cheated so: this is enough for you to know of that first valley "I am plunged here because of flatteries- and of the souls it clamps within its jaws." of which my tongue had such sufficiency." 18.10 18.12 We were already where the narrow path At which my guide advised me: "See you thrust 0 7 reaches and intersects the second bank your head a little farther to the front, and serves as shoulder for another bridge. so that your eyes can clearly glimpse the face 18.10 18.13 We heard the people whine in the next pouch of that besmirched, bedraggled harridan 3 0 and heard them as they snorted with their snouts; who scratches at herself with shit-filled nails, we heard them use their palms to beat and now she crouches, now she stands upright. themselves. 18.13 That is Thaïs, the harlot who returned 18.10 3 And exhalations, rising from below, 6 her lover's question, 'Are you very grateful stuck to the banks, encrusting them with mold, to me?' by saying, 'Yes, enormously.'" and so waged war against both eyes and nose. 18.13 And now our sight has-had its fill of this." 18.10 6 The bottom is so deep, we found no spot 9 to see it from, except by climbing up the arch until the bridge's highest point. 18.11 This was the place we reached; the ditch beneath 2 held people plunged in excrement that seemed as if it had been poured from human privies. 18.11 And while my eyes searched that abysmal sight, 5 I saw one with a head so smeared with shit, one could not see if he were lay or cleric. 18.11 He howled: "Why do you stare more greedily 8 at me than at the others who are filthy?" And I: "Because, if I remember right, 18.12 I have seen you before, with your hair dry; 1 and so l eye you more than all: you are Alessio Interminei of Lucca." 18.12 Then he continued, pounding on his pate: 4 .
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