Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/326

306

A fate of different kind Nasidius found,—

A burning Prester gave the deadly wound,

And straight a sudden flame began to spread,

And paint his visage with a glowing red.

With swift expansion swells the bloated skin,—

Naught but an undistinguished mass is seen,

While the fair human form lies lost within;

The puffy poison spreads and heaves around,

Till all the man is in the monster drowned.

No more the steely plate his breast can stay,

But yields, and gives the bursting poison way.

Not waters so, when fire the rage supplies,

Bubbling on heaps, in boiling caldrons rise;

Nor swells the stretching canvas half so fast,

When the sails gather all the driving blast,

Strain the tough yards, and bow the lofty mast.

The various parts no longer now are known,

One headless, formless heap remains alone."

97. Ovid, Metamorph., IV., Eusden's Tr.:—

And V., Maynwaring's Tr.:—

See also Shelley's Arethusa:—

144. Some editions read la penna, the pen, instead of la lingua, the tongue.

151. Gaville was a village in the, where Guercio Cavalcanti was murdered. The family took vengeance upon the inhabitants in the old Italian style, thus causing Gaville to lament the murder.