xxxiv. 124 it appears that Inferno was hollowed out of the earth; and at

_Parad._ vii. 124 the earth is declared to be 'corruptible and enduring short while;' therefore not eternal.

[205] _Hard, etc._: The injunction to leave all hope behind makes Dante hesitate to enter. Virgil anticipates the objection before it is fully expressed, and reminds him that the passage through Inferno is to be only one stage of his journey. Not by this gate will he seek to quit it.

[206] _True good, etc._: Truth in its highest form--the contemplation of God.

[207] _Uncouth accents_: 'Like German,' says Boccaccio.

[208] _Horror-stricken_: 'My head enveloped in horror.' Some texts have 'error,' and this yields a better meaning--that Dante is amazed to have come full into the crowd of suffering shades before he has even crossed Acheron. If with the best texts 'horror' be read, the meaning seems to be that he is so overwhelmed by fear as to lose his presence of mind. They are not yet in the true Inferno, but only in the vestibule or forecourt of it--the flat rim which runs round the edge of the pit.

[209] _Else triumph, etc._: The satisfaction of the rebel angels at finding that they endured no worse punishment than that of such as remained neutral.

[210] _A banner_: Emblem of the instability of those who would never take a side.

[211] _That death, etc._: The touch is very characteristic of Dante. He feigns astonishment at finding that such a proportion of mankind can preserve so pitiful a middle course between good and evil, and spend lives that are only 'a kind of--as it were.'

[212] _The great refusal_: Dante recognises him, and so he who made the great refusal must have been a contemporary. Almost beyond doubt Celestine V. is meant, who was in 1294 elected Pope against his will, and resigned the tiara after wearing it a few months; the only Pope who ever resigned it, unless we count Clement I. As he was not canonized till 1326, Dante was free to form his own judgment of his conduct. It has been objected that Dante would not treat with contumely a man so devout as Celestine. But what specially fits him to be the representative caitiff is just that, being himself virtuous, he pusillanimously threw away the greatest opportunity of doing good. By his resignation Boniface VIII. became Pope, to whose meddling in Florentine affairs it was that Dante owed his banishment. Indirectly, therefore, he owed it to the resignation of Celestine; so that here we have the first of many private scores to be paid off in the course of the _Comedy_. Celestine's resignation is referred to (_Inf._ xxvii. 104).--Esau and the rich young man in the Gospel have both been suggested in place of Celestine. To either of them there lies the objection that Dante could not have recognised him. And, besides, Dante's contemporaries appear at once to have discovered Celestine in him who made the great refusal. In Paradise the poet is told by his ancestor Cacciaguida that his rebuke is to be like the wind, which strikes most fiercely on the loftiest summits (_Parad._ xvii. 133); and it agrees well with such a profession, that the first stroke he deals in the _Comedy_ is at a Pope.

[213] _Caitiffs_: To one who had suffered like Dante for the frank part he took in affairs, neutrality may well have seemed the unpardonable sin in politics; and no doubt but that his thoughts were set on the trimmers in Florence when he wrote, 'Let us not speak of them!'

[214] _A veteran_: Charon. In all this description of the passage of the river by the shades, Dante borrows freely from Virgil. It has been already remarked on _Inf._ ii. 28 that he draws illustrations from Pagan sources. More than that, as we begin to find, he boldly introduces legendary and mythological characters among the persons of his drama. With Milton in mind, it surprises, on a first acquaintance with the _Comedy_, to discover how nearly independent of angels is the economy invented by Dante for the other world.

[215] _Other ways, etc._: The souls bound from earth to Purgatory gather at the mouth of the Tiber, whence they are wafted on an angel's skiff to their destination (_Purg._ ii. 100). It may be here noted that never does Dante hint a fear of one day becoming a denizen of Inferno. It is only the pains of Purgatory that oppress his soul by anticipation. So here Charon is made to see at a glance that the pilgrim is not of those 'who make descent to Acheron.'

[216] _As fowls, etc._: 'As a bird to its lure'--generally interpreted of the falcon when called back. But a witness of the sport of netting thrushes in Tuscany describes them as 'flying into the vocal ambush in a hurried, half-reluctant, and very remarkable manner.'

[217] _Courteous Master_: Virgil here gives the answer promised at line 76; and Dante by the epithet he uses removes any impression that his guide had been wanting in courtesy when he bade him wait.

[218] _Wherefore_: Charon's displeasure only proves that he feels he has no hold on Dante.

[219] _Trembled, etc._: Symbolical of the increase of woe in Inferno when the doomed souls have landed on the thither side of Acheron. Hell opens to receive them. Conversely, when any purified soul is released from Purgatory the mountain of purification trembles to its base with joy (_Purg._ xxi. 58).