Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/203

Rh Would have me show to him the art; and only

Because no Dædalus I made him, made me

Be burned by one who held him as his son.

But unto the last Bolgia of the ten,

For alchemy, which in the world I practised,

Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned."

And to the Poet said I: "Now was ever

So vain a people as the Sienese?

Not for a certainty the French by far."

Whereat the other leper, who had heard me,

Replied unto my speech: "Taking out Stricca,

Who knew the art of moderate expenses,

And Niccolò, who the luxurious use

Of cloves discovered earliest of all

Within that garden where such seed takes root;

And taking out the band, among whom squandered

Caccia d' Ascian his vineyards and vast woods,

And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered!

But, that thou know who thus doth second thee

Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eye

Tow'rds me, so that my face well answer thee,

And thou shalt see I am Capocchio's shade,

Who metals falsified by alchemy;

Thou must remember, if I well descry thee,

How I a skilful ape of nature was."