Divine Comedy coverCanto 22
Canto 22

Book 3: HELL

Canto 22

Canto 22Visible text2 paragraphs
IT hath been heretofore my chance to see Horsemen with martial order shifting camp, To onset sallying, or in muster rang'd, Or in retreat sometimes outstretch'd for flight; Light-armed squadrons and fleet foragers Scouring thy plains, Arezzo! have I seen, And clashing tournaments, and tilting jousts, Now with the sound of trumpets, now of bells, Tabors, or signals made from castled heights, And with inventions multiform, our own, Or introduc'd from foreign land; but ne'er To such a strange recorder I beheld, In evolution moving, horse nor foot, Nor ship, that tack'd by sign from land or star.
With the ten demons on our way we went; Ah fearful company! but in the church With saints, with gluttons at the tavern's mess.