Page:The Contrasts in Dante.djvu/20

 and Dante now shows that the voice proceeding from the tormented shade was of the same description:—


 * "So (here the words of woe, from not having at their commencement any vent or outlet from the fire, changed themselves into its language. But after that they had found their way up through the point, imparting to it that vibration which the tongue (of the imprisoned shade) had imparted to them in their passage (through its lips), we heard say: "O thou to whom I direct my voice, and who wast but now speaking Lombard, saying: 'Now get thee gone, no longer do I urge thee': though I may perchance have come a little late, let it not irk thee to stop and talk with me : See it irks not me, and I am burning."

It was Virgil's voice that the spirit had heard speaking Lombard. In fact he probably did not know that Virgil had a companion, for in that mondo cieco everything was concealed from his view. The difficulty of articulation on the part of these sinners seems to have been somewhat analogous to that of the Suicides in Inf. XIII., who had no power of utterance until blood flowing from a wound carried their voices with it.

The shade now continues to call up to Virgil, asking him if he is Italian, because if so, they are fellow-countrymen, he himself being from the Romagna, as to the dissensions in which he asks for news.


 * "If thou art but now fallen into this blind world from that sweet Latin land, from which I bring all my guilt, tell me if the Romagnoles have peace or war; for I was from that mountain region there between Urbino and the chain from which the Tiber is unlocked (i.e., takes its source)."

Dante calls all Italians south of the Po, Latini; and all to the north of it, Lombardi. He never once uses the term Italiani. Time will not allow of my quoting the references