who lived
unchaste lives are duly punished. Smaller in circumference than the
preceding circle,--for Dante's hell is shaped like a graduated
funnel,--this place is guarded by the judge Minos, who examines all
newly arrived souls, and consigns them to their appointed circles by
an equal number of convolutions in his tail.

For when before him comes the ill-fated soul,
It all confesses; and that judge severe
Of sins, considering what place in hell
Suits the transgression, with his tail so oft
Himself encircles, as degrees beneath
He dooms it to descend.

On beholding Dante, Minos speaks threateningly, but, when Virgil again
explains they have been sent hither by a higher power, Minos too
allows them to pass. Increasing sounds of woe now strike Dante's ear,
until presently they attain the intensity of a deafening roar. Next he
perceives that the whirlwind, sweeping violently round this abyss,
holds in its grasp innumerable spirits which are allowed no rest. Like
birds in a tempest they swirl past Dante, to whom Virgil hastily
points out Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris, and
Tristan, together with many others.

Obtaining permission to address two shades floating toward him, Dante
learns that the man is the Paolo who fell in love with his
sister-in-law, Francesca da Rimini. Asked how she happened to fall,
the female spirit, moaning there is no greater woe than to recall
happy times in the midst of misery, adds that while she and Paolo read
together the tale of Launcelot they suddenly realized they loved in
the same way, and thus fell into the very sin described in this work,
for "book and writer both were love's purveyors." Scarcely has she
confessed this when the wind, seizing Francesca and Paolo, again
sweeps them on, and Dante, hearing their pitiful moans, swoons from
compassion.

_Canto VI._ Recovering his senses, Dante finds Virgil has meantime
transferred him to the third circle, a region where chill rains ever
fall, accompanied by hail, sleet, and snow. Here all guilty of
gluttony are rent and torn by Cerberus, main ruler of this circle.
Flinging a huge fistful of dirt into the dog's gaping jaws to prevent
his snapping at them, Virgil leads Dante quickly past this
three-headed monster, to a place where they tread on the shades which
pave the muddy ground. One of these, sitting up, suddenly inquires of
Dante whether he does not recognize him, adding that he is the
notorious Floren