Inferno: Canto XIX

O Simon Magus! O ye wretched crew!
Who things of God, that should be brides of good,
To your own greed adulterate anew.

By lust of silver and of gold subdued;
Now is it meet the trump for you to sound,
Who in that Bolgia third in order stood.

Already on the next sepulchral mound
We had ascended to the mid-crag's height,
Whence a plumb-line goes down the abyss profound.

Sovran Wisdom! what strange skill and might
Thou show'st in Heaven and earth and that world drear,
And with what justice orderest all things right!'

I saw within the sides and bottom there
The livid rock all pierced with many a hole,
All of one size, and each did round appear."

Nor less nor greater seemed they, on the whole.
Than those which, in my beautiful St. John,
Are formed, where priests baptize each infant soul;.

Whereof, not many years back, I broke one.
To save a child that lay a-drowning there:
Let this be proof that men may falsehood shun.

Out of the mouth of each I saw appear
A sinner's feet, and upward to the thigh
The legs; all else was in that prison drear.

With all of them the feet in agony
And joints were writhing in the fierce fire's throe;
They would have burst all bands and withes that tie.

E'en as of things well oiled the fiery glow
Is wont to spread o'er all the surface wide,
So was it with these men from heel to toe.

"Who is that. Master, by such torment tried,
Who writhes himself above all others there,
O'er whom," said I, "a redder flame doth glide?'

And he to me: " If thou wilt let me bear
Thee down along the bank that lies most low,
Thou from himself of his own sin shalt hear."

And I: " My will with thy good- will doth go;
Thou art my Lord, and know'st I never slight
Thy will, and what I speak not thou dost know."

Then came we to the fourth embankment's height;
We turned, and on the left hand wound our way
Down to the narrow pit, with holes bedight;

Nor did my Master put my weight away
From off his hip till by the hole we stood
Of him whose legs went writhing so alway.

Whoe'er thou be whose head is downward bowed,
O doleful soul, like stake in earth deep driven,
Speak if thou can'st;" so spake I out aloud.

As stands the friar-confessor, who hath shriven
The base assassin, who, when fixed aright,
Recalls him, that some respite brief be given,

I stood: he cried: "And stand'st thou there upright,
Stand'st thou already here, O Boniface?
By many years my scroll hath erred from right;

Has that ill gain so soon lost all its grace,
For which thou didst not fear by fraud to seize
The beauteous bride and work her foul disgrace?

So stood I then, as men stand ill at ease,
Failing to see what meant the answers made.
As mocked, not knowing how to answer these.

Then, "Tell him quickly, quickly," Virgil said,
"'I am not he, not he whom thou dost guess.'"
And I, as he commanded me, obeyed.

Then writhed his feet that soul, in sore distress,
And sighing, with sad voice of deepest woe
Said to me, " What then bidd'st thou me confess?

If thou'rt so eager who I am to know,
That thou hast therefore by the bank come down,
Know that round me the sacred robe did flow;

I as the she-bear's son was truly known,
So eager to increase the bear-cubs' store;
There money, here myself, in purse I've thrown.

Beneath my head are dragged a many more,
My predecessors, stained with Simon's sin.
Now crushed where fissures through the hard rock bore.

I too shall downward fall when he shall win
His way here, who I thought had come in thee,
When I my sudden questions did begin.

But longer time my feet thus blistered be.
Longer have I been here, feet over head,
Than he shall stand with feet red-hot to see.

For after him comes one of fouler deed
From Western clime, a pastor without law,
Who him and me alike shall supersede.

Another Jason he, such as we saw
In Maccabees; and as on him his king
Then smiled, so shall the Prince who France doth awe

Treat this one." I scarce knew if 'twere a thing
Too bold, but I to him in verse replied:
"Tell me, I pray thee, what great sum to bring"

Our Lord bade Peter ere He would confide
The sacred keys into his custody?
Truly no more than ' Follow me ' He cried;

Nor those with Peter bade Matthias buy
With gold or silver, when by lot he gained
The place the false soul lost by treachery.

Therefore stay here; thou righteously art pained;
And keep thou well thy money basely earned.
Which thee to boldness against Charles constrained.

And were it not I have not quite unlearned
My awe and reverence for those keys supreme,
Which by thy hands in yon glad life were turned,

I would use words that harsher far would seem.
Because your avarice fills the world with woe,
Crushing the good, and those of vile esteem

Upraising. You the Evangelist did show,
Ye shepherds, when the harlot he displayed
Who, by the streams, doth kings as lovers know;

She who with seven heads born was there portrayed.
Who from the ten horns did her strength renew,"
As long as she the Bridegroom's law obeyed.

Silver and gold are now made gods by you,
And what divides you from the Paynim wild?
Ye worship hundreds, he to one is true.

Ah!.Constantine, what evil came as child,
Not of thy change of creed, but of the dower
Of which the first rich Father thee beguiled!

And while my song such notes as these did pour.
As anger or remorse his soul did sting,
Both feet he writhed as though in torment sore.

I think my Guide was pleased as I did sing.
With such contented lip he still did list
The sound of words that had a truthful ring.

Then both his arms around me he did twist,
And when he had me fast upon his breast,"
Retraced our downward path, nor footstep missed;

Nor was he with that weight of mine oppressed,
But to the summit of the arch did bear.
Where the fourth dike upon the fifth doth rest.

Gently he laid his burden from him there,
Gently upon the rugged rock and steep,
Which wild goats would have found it hard to clear:

Then was disclosed another valley deep.