# Inferno Canto 28

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XXVIII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      They arrive in the ninth gulf, where the sowers of scandal, schismatics,
> and heretics, are seen with their limbs maimed or divided in different ways.
> Among these the Poet finds Mohammed, Piero da Medicina, Curio, Mosca, and
> Bertrand de Born.
> 
> Who, e'en in words unfetter'd, might at full
> Tell of the wounds and blood that now I saw,
> Though he repeated oft the tale? No tongue
> So vast a theme could equal, speech and thought
> Both impotent alike. If in one band
> Collected, stood the people all, who e'er
> Pour'd on Apulia's happy soil their blood,
> Slain by the Trojans, and in that long war,[1]
> When of the rings the measured booty made
> A pile so high, as Rome's historian writes
> Who errs not; with the multitude, that felt
> The griding force of Guiscard's Norman steel,[2]
> 
> [1: The war of Hannibal in Italy.]
> 
> [2: Robert Guiscard, conqueror of Naples, died 1110. See Paradise,
> Canto xviii.]
> 
> And those the rest,[3] whose bones are gather'd yet
> At Ceperano, there where treachery
> Branded the Apulian name, or where beyond
> Thy walls, O Tagliacozzo,[4] without arms
> The old Alardo conquer'd; and his limbs
> One were to show transpierced, another his
> Clean lopt away; a spectacle like this
> Were but a thing of naught, to the hideous sight
> Of the ninth chasm. A rundlet, that hath lost
> Its middle or side stave, gapes not so wide
> As one I mark'd, torn from the chin throughout
> Down to the hinder passage: 'twixt the legs
> Dangling his entrails hung, the midriff lay
> Open to view, and wretched ventricle,
> That turns the englutted aliment to dross.
> 
> [3: The army of Manfredi, which, through the treachery of the Apulian
> troops, was overcome by Charles of Anjou in 1265. See the Purgatory, Canto
> iii.]
> 
> [4: "O Tagliacozzo." He alludes to the victory which Charles gained
> over Conradino, by the sage advice of the Sieur de Valeri, in 1268.]
> 
> Whilst eagerly I fix on him my gaze,
> He eyed me, with his hands laid his breast bare,
> And cried, "Now mark how I do rip me: lo!
> How is Mohammed mangled: before me
> Walks Ali[5] weeping, from the chin his face
> Cleft to the forelock; and the others all,
> Whom here thou seest, while they lived, did sow
> Scandal and schism, and therefore thus are rent.
> A fiend is here behind, who with his sword
> Hacks us thus cruelly, slivering again
> Each of this ream, when we have compast round
> The dismal way; for first our gashes close
> Ere we repass before him. But, say who
> Art thou, that standest musing on the rock,
> Haply so lingering to delay the pain
> Sentenced upon thy crimes." "Him death not yet,"
> My guide rejoin'd, "hath overta'en, nor sin
> Conducts to torment; but, that he may make
> Full trial of your state, I who am dead
> Must through the depths of Hell, from orb to orb
> Conduct him. Trust my words; for they are true."
> 
> [5: The disciple of Mohammed.]
> 
> More than a hundred spirits, when that they heard,
> Stood in the foss to mark me through amaze
> Forgetful of their pangs. "Thou, who perchance
> Shalt shortly view the sun, this warning thou
> Bear to Dolcino:[6] bid him, if he wish not
> Here soon to follow me, that with good store
> Of food he arm him, lest imprisoning snows
> Yield him a victim to Novara's power;
> No easy conquest else": with foot upraised
> For stepping, spake Mohammed, on the ground
> Then fix'd it to depart. Another shade,
> Pierced in the throat, his nostrils mutilate
> E'en from beneath the eyebrows, and one ear
> Lopt off, who, with the rest, through wonder stood
> Gazing, before the rest advanced, and bared
> His wind - pipe, that without was all o'ersmear'd
> With crimson stain. "O thou!" said he, "whom sin
> Condemns not, and whom erst (unless too near
> Resemblance do deceive me) I aloft
> Have seen on Latian ground, call thou to mind
> Piero of Medicina,[7] if again
> Returning, thou behold'st the pleasant land[8]
> That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo;
> And there instruct the twain,[9] whom Fano boasts
> Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo,
> 
> [6: "Dolcino." In 1305, a friar, called Dolcino, who belonged to no
> regular order, contrived to raise in Novara, in Lombardy, a large company of
> the meaner sort of people, declaring himself to be a true apostle of Christ
> and promulgating a community of property and of wives, with many other such
> heretical doctrines. He blamed the Pope, cardinals, and other prelates of the
> holy Church, for not observing their duty, nor leading the angelic life, and
> affirmed that he ought to be pope. He was followed by more than three thousand
> men and women, who lived promiscuously on the mountains together, like beasts,
> and, when they wanted provisions, supplied themselves by depredation and
> rapine. After two years, many were struck with compunction at the dissolute
> life they led, and his sect was much diminished; and, through failure of food
> and the severity of the snows, he was taken by the people of Novara, and
> burnt, with Margarita, his companion, and many others, whom he had seduced.]
> 
> [7: "Medicina." A place in the territory of Bologna. Piero fomented
> dissensions among the inhabitants of that city, and among the leaders of the
> neighboring states.]
> 
> [8: Lombardy.]
> 
> [9: "The twain." Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of
> the worthiest and most distinguished citizens of Fano, were invited by
> Malatestino da Rimini to an entertainment, on pretence that he had some
> important business to transact with them; and, according to instructions given
> by him, they were drowned in their passage near Cattolica, between Rimini and
> Fano.]
> 
> That if 'tis given us here to scan aright
> The future, they out of life's tenement
> Shall be cast forth, and whelm'd under the waves
> Near to Cattolica, through perfidy
> Of a fell tyrant. 'Twixt the Cyprian isle
> And Balearic, ne'er hath Neptune seen
> An injury so foul, by pirates done,
> Or Argive crew of old. That one - eyed traitor
> (Whose realm there is a spirit here were fain
> His eye had still lack'd sight of) them shall bring
> To conference with him, then so shape his end
> That they shall need not 'gainst Focara's wind[10]
> Offer up vow nor prayer." I answering thus:
> "Declare, as thou dost wish that I above
> May carry tidings of thee, who is he,
> In whom that sight doth wake such sad remembrance."
> 
> [10: "Focara's wind." Focara is a mountain, from which a wind blows
> that is peculiarly dangerous to the navigators of that coast.]
> 
> Forthwith he laid his hand on the cheek - bone
> Of one, his fellow - spirit, and his jaws
> Expanding, cried: "Lo! this is he I wot of:
> He speaks not for himself: the outcast this,
> Who overwhelm'd the doubt in Caesar's mind,[11]
> Affirming that delay to men prepared
> Was ever harmful." Oh! how terrified
> Methought was Curio, from whose throat was cut
> The tongue, which spake that hardy word. Then one,
> Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom
> The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots
> Sullied his face, and cried: "Remember thee
> Of Mosca[12] too; I who, alas! exclaim'd,
> 
> [11: "The doubt in Caesar's mind." Curio, whose speech (according to
> Lucan) determined Julius Caesar to proceed when he had arrived at Rimini (the
> ancient Ariminum), and doubted whether he should prosecute the civil war.]
> 
> [12: "Mosca." Buondelmonte was engaged to marry a lady of the Amidei
> family, but broke his promise, and united himself to one of the Donati. This
> was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves and their
> kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging the insult. Mosca
> degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, persuaded them to resolve on the assassination
> of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them, "the thing once done, there is an end."
> This counsel and its effects were the source of many terrible calamities to
> the State of Florence. "This murder," says G. Villani, lib. v. cap. xxxviii,
> "was the cause and beginning of the accursed Guelf and Ghibelline parties in
> Florence." It happened in 1215. See the Paradise, Canto xvi. 139.]
> 
> 'The deed once done, there is an end,' that proved
> A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race."
> 
> I added: "Ay, and death to thine own tribe."
> 
> Whence, heaping woe on woe, he hurried off,
> As one grief - stung to madness. But I there
> Still linger'd to behold the troop, and saw
> Thing, such as I may fear without more proof
> To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm,
> The boon companion, who her strong breastplate
> Buckles on him, that feels no guilt within,
> And bids him on and fear not. Without doubt
> I saw, and yet it seems to pass before me,
> A headless trunk, that even as the rest
> Of the sad flock paced onward. By the hair
> It bore the sever'd member, lantern - wise
> Pendent in hand, which look'd at us, and said,
> "Woe's me!" The spirit lighted thus himself;
> And two there were in one, and one in two.
> How that may be, he knows who ordereth so.
> 
> When at the bridge's foot direct he stood,
> His arm aloft he rear'd, thrusting the head
> Full in our view, that nearer we might hear
> The words, which thus it utter'd: "Now behold
> This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go'st
> To spy the dead: behold, if any else
> Be terrible as this. And, that on earth
> Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I
> Am Bertrand,[13] he of Born, who gave King John
> The counsel mischievous. Father and son
> I set at mutual war. For Absalom
> And David more did not Ahitophel,
> Spurring them on maliciously to strife.
> For parting those so closely knit, my brain
> Parted, alas! I carry from its source,
> That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law
> Of retribution fiercely works in me."
> 
> [13: "Bertrand." Bertrand de Born, Vicomte de Hautefort, near
> Perigueux in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, Henry II
> of England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the Provencal poets.]
>
> — *Inferno Canto 28*