Here envy was punished, and here the sharpest
pain pierced Dante's heart as he saw the penitents sit shoulder to
shoulder against the cliff, robed in sackcloth of the same livid color,
their eyelids, through which bitter tears trickled, sewed together with
wire. Sapia of Sienna first greeted Dante and entreated him to pray for
her. When she had told how, after having been banished from her city, she
had prayed that her townsman might be defeated by the Florentines, Dante
passed on and spoke with Guido of Duca, who launched into an invective
against Florence to his companion Rinieri. "The whole valley of the Arno
is so vile that its very name should die. Wonder not at my tears, Tuscan,
when I recall the great names of the past, and compare them with the curs
who have fallen heir to them. Those counts are happiest who have left no
families." Guido himself was punished on this terrace because of his envy
of every joyous man, and the spirit with whom he talked was Rinieri, whose
line had once been highly honored. "Go, Tuscan," exclaimed Guido, "better
now I love my grief than speech." As the poets passed on, the air was
filled with the lamentations of sinful but now repentant spirits.
Dazzled by the Angel's splendor, the poets passed up the stairs to the
third terrace, Dante in the mean time asking an explanation of Guido's
words on joint resolve and trust.
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