The Malebranche (; "Evil Claws")

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

, ''Hell'': notes on Cantos XXI and XXII, Penguin, 1949, . are the demons in the ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'' of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...

'' who guard Bolgia Five of the Eighth Circle (

Malebolge In Dante Alighieri's '' Inferno'', part of the '' Divine Comedy'', Malebolge () is the eighth circle of Hell. Roughly translated from Italian, Malebolge means "evil ditches". Malebolge is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into ten ...

). They figure in

Canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the ...

s XXI, XXII, and XXIII. Vulgar and quarrelsome, their duty is to force the corrupt politicians ( barrators) to stay under the surface of a boiling lake of pitch.

In ''The Divine Comedy''

When Dante and

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

meet them, the leader of the Malebranche, Malacoda ("Evil Tail"), assigns a troop to escort the poets safely to the next bridge. Many of the bridges were destroyed in the earthquake that happened at the death of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, which Malacoda describes, enabling the time this takes place to be calculated. The troop hook and torment one of the barrators (identified by early commentators as Ciampolo), who names some Italian grafters and then tricks the Malebranche in order to escape back into the pitch. The demons are dishonest and malicious: the promise of safe conduct the poets have received turns out to have limited value (and there is no "next bridge"), so that Dante and Virgil are forced to escape from them. Within the ''Inferno'', the demons provide some moments of satirical black comedy. There are twelve Malebranche named in the poem: Inf

* Alichino (derived from Arlecchino, the

harlequin Harlequin (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the '' zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian '' commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditional ...

) * Barbariccia ("Curly Beard") * Cagnazzo ("Nasty Dog"Richard H. Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, ''The Dante Encyclopedia'': Devils, pp. 301–303, Taylor & Francis, 2000, .) * Calcabrina (possibly "Grace Stomper" or "Frost Trampler") * Ciriatto ("Wild Hog") * Draghignazzo ("Nasty Sneering Dragon") * Farfarello (possibly "Goblin") * Graffiacane ("Dog Scratcher" or "Scratcher-dog") * Libicocco (possibly "Libyan Hothead" or "Windy") * Malacoda, the leader ("Evil Tail") * Rubicante (possibly "Red-faced Terror" and a reference to Cante de' Gabrielli, who as

Podestà Podestà (, English: Potestate, Podesta) was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of Central and Northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

condemned Dante to exile) * Scarmiglione (possibly "Trouble Maker" or "Disheveled") The last of these, for example, is introduced by Dante in lines 100–105 of Canto XXI:

They bent their hooks and shouted to each other: And shall I give it to him on the rump? And all of them replied, Yes, let him have it! But Malacoda, still in conversation with my good guide, turned quickly to his squadron and said: Be still, Scarmiglione, still!

It is common among commentators on the ''Inferno'' to interpret these names as garbled versions of the names of officials contemporary to Dante. For example, Barbariccia may suggest the Ricci family of

, or the Barbarasi of Cremona.

References

External links

* Dante's meeting with them at Wikisource, canto XXI and XXII. {{DISPLAYTITLE:Malebranche (''Divine Comedy'') Demons in the Divine Comedy Fictional demons and devils

In ''The Divine Comedy''

See also

References

External links