# Inferno Canto 32

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

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> 
> Canto XXXII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      This Canto treats of the first, and, in part, of the second of those
> rounds, into which the ninth and last, or frozen circle, is divided. In the
> former, called Caina, Dante finds Camiccione de' Pazzi, who gives him an
> account of other sinners who are there punished; and in the next, named
> Antenora, he hears in like manner from Bocca degli Abbati who his fellow -
> sufferers are.
> 
> Could I command rough rhymes and hoarse, to suit
> That hole of sorrow o'er which every rock
> His firm abutment rears, then might the vein
> Of fancy rise full springing: but not mine
> Such measures, and with faltering awe I touch
> The mighty theme; for to describe the depth
> Of all the universe, is no emprise
> To jest with, and demands a tongue not used
> To infant babbling. But let them assist
> My song, the tuneful maidens, by whose aid
> Amphion wall'd in Thebes; so with the truth
> My speech shall best accord. Oh ill - starr'd folk,
> Beyond all others wretched! who abide
> In such a mansion, as scarce thought finds words
> To speak of, better had ye here on earth
> Been flocks, or mountain goats. As down we stood
> In the dark pit beneath the giants' feet,
> But lower far than they, and I did gaze
> Still on the lofty battlement, a voice
> Bespake me thus: "Look how thou walkest. Take
> Good heed, thy soles do tread not on the heads
> Of thy poor brethren." Thereupon I turn'd,
> And saw before and underneath my feet
> A lake, whose frozen surface liker seem'd
> To glass than water. Not so thick a veil
> In winter e'er hath Austrian Danube spread
> O'er his still course, nor Tanais far remote
> Under the chilling sky. Roll'd o'er that mass
> Had Tabernich or Pietrapana[1] fallen,
> Not e'en its rim had creak'd. As peeps the frog
> Croaking above the wave, what time in dreams
> The village gleaner oft pursues her toil,
> So, to where modest shame appears, thus low
> Blue pinch'd and shrined in ice the spirits stood,
> Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork.
> His face each downward held; their mouth the cold,
> Their eyes express'd the dolour of their heart.
> 
> [1: Tabernich or Pietrapana." The one a mountain in Sclavonia, the
> other in that tract of country called the Garfagnana, not far from Lucca.]
> 
> A space I look'd around, then at my feet
> Saw two so strictly join'd, that of their head
> The very hairs were mingled. "Tell me ye,
> Whose bosoms thus together press," said I,
> "Who are ye?" At that sound their necks they bent;
> And when their looks were lifted up to me,
> Straightway their eyes, before all moist within,
> Distill'd upon their lips, and the frost bound
> The tears betwixt those orbs, and held them there.
> Plank unto plank hath never cramp closed up
> So stoutly. Whence, like two enraged goats,
> They clash'd together: them such fury seized.
> 
> And one, from whom the cold both ears had reft,
> Exclaim'd, still looking downward: "Why on us
> Dost speculate so long? If thou wouldst know
> Who are these two,[2] the valley, whence his wave
> Bisenzio slopes, did for its master own
> Their sire Alberto, and next him themselves.
> They from one body issued: and throughout
> Caina thou mayst search, nor find a shade
> More worthy in congealment to be fix'd;
> Not him,[3] whose breast and shadow Arthur's hand
> At that one blow dissever'd; not Focaccia,[4]
> 
> [2: Alessandro and Napoleone, sons of Alberto Alberti, who murdered
> each other. They were proprietors of the valley of Falterona, where the
> Bisenzio rises, falling into the Arno six miles from Florence.]
> 
> [3: Mordred, son of King Arthur. In the romance of Lancelot of the
> Lake, Arthur, having discovered the traitorous intentions of his son, pierces
> him through with his lance, so that the sunbeam passes through the body.]
> 
> [4: Focaccia of Cancellieri (the Pistoian family), whose atrocious
> act of revenge against his uncle is said to have given rise to the parties,
> Bianchi and Neri, in the year 1300.]
> 
> No, not this spirit, whose o'erjutting head
> Obstructs my onward view; he bore the name
> Of Mascheroni:[5] Tuscan if thou be,
> Well knowest who he was. And to cut short
> All further question, in my form behold
> What once was Camiccione.[6] I await
> Carlino[7] here my kinsman, whose deep guilt
> Shall wash out mine." A thousand visages
> Then mark'd I, which the keen and eager cold
> Had shaped into a doggish grin; whence creeps
> A shivering horror o'er me, at the thought
> Of those frore shallows. While we journey'd on
> Toward the middle, at whose point unites
> All heavy substance, and I trembling went
> Through that eternal chillness, I know not
> If will it were, or destiny, or chance,
> But, passing 'midst the heads, my foot did strike
> With violent blow against the face of one.
> 
> [5: Sassol Mascheroni, a Florentine, who murdered his uncle.]
> 
> [6: Camiccione de' Pazzi of Valdarno, by whom his kinsman Ubertino
> was treacherously put to death.]
> 
> [7: "Carlino." One of the same family. He betrayed the Castel di
> Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines, after the refugees of the
> Bianca and Ghibelline party had defended it against a siege for twenty - nine
> days, in the summer of 1302.]
> 
> "Wherefore dost bruise me?" weeping the exclaim'd;
> "Unless thy errand be some fresh revenge
> For Montaperto,[8] wherefore troublest me?"
> 
> [8: The defeat of the Guelfi at Montaperto through the treachery of
> Bocca degli Abbati, who, during the engagement, cut off the hand of Giacopo
> del Vacca de' Pazzi, the Florentine standard - bearer.]
> 
> I thus: "Instructor, now await me here,
> That I through him may rid me of my doubt:
> Thenceforth what haste thou wilt." The teacher paused
> And to that shade I spake, who bitterly
> Still cursed me in his wrath. "What art thou, speak,
> That railest thus on others?" He replied:
> "Now who art thou, that smiting others' cheeks,
> Through Antenora[9] roamest, with such force
> As were past sufferance, wert thou living still?"
> 
> [9: So called from Antenor, who, according to Dictys Cretensis (de
> Bello Troj. lib. v.) and Dares Phrygius (De Excidio Trojae) betrayed Troy his
> country," Lombardi.]
> 
> "And I am living, to thy joy perchance,"
> Was my reply, "if fame be dear to thee,
> That with the rest I may thy name enrol."
> 
> "The contrary of what I covet most,"
> Said he, "thou tender'st: hence! nor vex me more.
> Ill knowest thou to flatter in this vale."
> 
> Then seizing on his hinder scalp I cried"
> "Name thee, or not a hair shall tarry here."
> 
> "Rend all away," he answer'd, "yet for that
> I will not tell, nor show thee, who I am,
> Though at my head thou pluck a thousand times."
> 
> Now I had grasp'd his tresses, and stript off
> More than one tuft, he barking, with his eyes
> Drawn in and downward, when another cried,
> "What ails thee, Bocca? Sound not loud enough
> Thy chattering teeth, but thou must bark outright?
> What devil wrings thee?" - "Now," said I, "be dumb,
> Accursed traitor! To thy shame, of thee
> True tidings will I bear." - "Off!" he replied;
> "Tell what thou list: but, as thou 'scape from hence,
> To speak of him whose tongue hath been so glib,
> Forget not: here he wails the Frenchman's gold.
> 'Him of Duera,'[10] Thou canst say, 'I mark'd,
> Where the starved sinners pine.' If thou be ask'd
> What other shade was with them, at thy side
> Is Beccaria,[11] whose red gorge distain'd
> The biting axe of Florence. Further on,
> If I misdeem not, Soldanieri,[12] bides,
> With Ganellon,[13] and Tribaldello,[14] him
> Who oped Faenza when the people slept."
> 
> [10: Buoso of Cremona, of the family of Duera, bribed by Guy de
> Montfort to leave a pass between Piedmont and Parma, with the defence of which
> he had been intrusted by the Ghibellines, open to the army of Charles of
> Anjou, A. D. 1265, at which the people of Cremona were so enraged that they
> extirpated the whole family. G. Villani.]
> 
> [11: Abbot of Vallombrosa, Pope's legate at Florence, beheaded for
> his intrigues with the Ghibellines.]
> 
> [12: "Gianni Soldanieri," says Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. xiv., "put
> himself at the head of the people, in the hopes of rising into power, not
> aware that the result would be mischief to the Ghibelline party, and his own
> ruin." - A. D. 1266.]
> 
> [13: The betrayer of Charlemain, mentioned by Archbishop Turpin. He
> is a type of treachery with the poets of the Middle Ages.]
> 
> [14: Tribaldello de' Manfredi, bribed to betray the city of Faenza,
> 1282.]
> 
> We now had left him, passing on our way,
> When I beheld two spirits by the ice
> Pent in one hollow, that the head of one
> 
> Was cowl unto the other; and as bread
> Is raven'd up through hunger, the uppermost
> Did so apply his fangs to the other's brain,
> Where the spine joins it. Not more furiously
> On Menalippus' temples Tydeus gnaw'd,
> Than on that skull and on its garbage he.
> 
> "O thou! who show'st so beastly sign of hate
> 'Gainst him thou prey'st on, let me hear," said I,
> "The cause, on such condition, that if right
> Warrant thy grievance, knowing who ye are,
> And what the color of his sinning was,
> I may repay thee in the world above,
> If that, wherewith I speak, be moist so long."
>
> — *Inferno Canto 32*