Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/354

334 to revenge, and had he fallen, his sacred character alone would probably have procured for him a milder destiny."

Villani, VII. 128, gives this account of the imprisonment:—

"The Pisans, who had imprisoned Count Ugolino and his two sons and two grandsons, children of Count Guelfo, as we have before mentioned, in a tower on the Piazza degli Anziani, ordered the door of the tower to be locked, and the keys to be thrown into the Arno, and forbade any food should be given to the prisoners, who in a few days died of hunger. And the five dead bodies, being taken together out of the tower, were ignominiously buried; and from that day forth the tower was called the Tower of Famine, and shall be forever more. For this cruelty the Pisans were much blamed through all the world where it was known; not so much for the Count's sake, as on account of his crimes and treasons he perhaps deserved such a death, but for the sake of his children and grandchildren, who were young and innocent boys; and this sin, committed by the Pisans, did not remain unpunished."

Chaucer's version of the story in the Monkes Tale is as follows:—

"Of the erl Hugelin of Pise the langour

Ther may no tonge tellen for pitee.

But litel out of Pise stant a tour,

In whiche tour in prison yput was he,

And with him ben his litel children three,

The eldest scarsely five yere was of age:

Alas! fortune, it was gret crueltee

Swiche briddes for to put in swiche a cage.

Dampned was he to die in that prison,

For Roger, which that bishop of Pise,

Had on him made a false suggestion,

Thurgh which the peple gan upon him rise,

And put him in prison, in swiche a wise,

As ye han herd; and mete and drinke he had

So smale, that wel unnethe it may suffise,

And therwithal it was ful poure and bad.

And on a day befell, that in that houre,

Whan that his mete wont was to be brought,

The gailer shette the dores of the toure;

He hered it wel, but he spake right nought.

And in his herte anon ther fell a thought,

That they for hunger wolden do him dien;

Alas! quod he, alas that I was wrought!

Therwith the teres fellen fro his eyen.

His yonge sone, that three yere was of age,

Unto him said, fader, why do ye wepe?

Whan will the gailer bringen our potage?

Is ther no morsel bred that ye do kepe?

I am so hungry, that I may not slepe.

Now wolde God that I might slepen ever,

Than shuld not hunger in my wombe crepe;

Ther n'is no thing, sauf bred, that me were lever.

Thus day by day this childe began to crie,

Til in his fadres barme adoun it lay,

And saide, farewel, fader, I mote die;

And kist his fader, and dide the same day.

And whan the woful fader did it sey,

For wo his armes two he gan to bite,

And saide, alas! fortune, and wala wa!

Thy false whele my wo all may I wite.

His children wenden, that for hunger it was

That he his armes gnowe, and not for wo,

And sayden: fader, do not so, alas!

But rather ete the flesh upon us two.

Our flesh thou yaf us, take our flesh us fro,

And ete ynough: right thus they to him seide,

And after that, within a day or two,

They laide hem in his lappe adoun, and deide.