Although no epics of great note were written thereafter, Alamanni composed “Girone il Cortese” and the “Avarchide,” which are intolerably long and wearisome.

“The poet who set the fashion of fantastic ingenuity” was Marinus, whose epic “Adone,” in twenty cantos, dilates on the tale of Venus and Adonis.  He also wrote “Gerusalemme Distrutta” and “La Strage degl’ Innocenti,” and his poetry is said to have much of the charm of Spenser’s.

The last Italian poet to produce a long epic poem was Fortiguerra, whose “Ricciardetto” has many merits, although we are told the poet wagered to complete it in as many days as it has cantos, and won his bet.

The greatest of the Italian prose epics is Manzoni’s novel “I Promessi Sposi,” which appeared in 1830.  Since then Italian poets have not written in the epic vein, save to give their contemporaries excellent metrical translations of Milton’s Paradise Lost, of the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Argonautica, the Lusiad, etc.

DIVINE COMEDY

THE INFERNO

Introduction. In the Middle Ages it was popularly believed that Lucifer, falling from heaven, punched a deep hole in the earth, stopping only when he reached its centre.  This funnel-shaped hole, directly under Jerusalem, is divided by Dante into nine independent circular ledges, communicating only by means of occasional rocky stairways or bridges.  In each of these nine circles are punished sinners of a certain kind.

Canto I. In 1300, when thirty-five years of age, Dante claims to have strayed from the straight path in the “journey of life,” only to encounter experiences bitter as death, which he relates in allegorical form to serve as warning to other sinners.  Rousing from a stupor not unlike sleep, the poet finds himself in a strange forest at the foot of a sun-kissed mountain.  On trying to climb it, he is turned aside by a spotted panther, an emblem of luxury or pleasure (Florence), a fierce lion, personifying ambition or anger (France), and a ravening wolf, the emblem of avarice (Rome).  Fleeing in terror from these monsters, Dante beseeches aid from the only fellow-creature he sees, only to learn he is Virgil, the poet and master from whom he learned “that style which for its beauty into fame exalts me.”

Then Virgil reveals he has been sent to save Dante from the ravening wolf (which also personifies the papal or Guelf party), only to guide him through the horrors of the Inferno, and the sufferings of Purgatory, up to Paradise, where a “worthier” spirit will attend him.

Canto II. The length of the journey proposed daunts Dante, until Virgil reminds him that cowardice has often made men relinquish honorable enterprises, and encourages him by stating that Beatrice, moved by love, forsook her place in heaven to bid him serve as Dante’s guide.  He adds that when he wondered how she could leave, even for a moment, the heavenly abode, she explained that the Virgin Mary sent Lucia, to bid her rescue the man who had loved her ever since she was a child.  Like a flower revived after a chilly night by the warmth of the sun, Dante, invigorated by these words, intimates his readiness to follow Virgil.