Purgatorio: Canto VIII
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Dante Alighieri and Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
“O,” said I unto him, “through your domains I never passed, but where is there a dwelling Throughout all Europe, where they are not known?
That fame, which doeth honour to your house, Proclaims its Signors and proclaims its land, So that he knows of them who ne’er was there.
And, as I hope for heaven, I swear to you Your honoured family in naught abates The glory of the purse and of the sword.
It is so privileged by use and nature, That though a guilty head misguide the world, Sole it goes right, and scorns the evil way.”
And he: “Now go; for the sun shall not lie Seven times upon the pillow which the Ram With all his four feet covers and bestrides,
Before that such a courteous opinion Shall in the middle of thy head be nailed With greater nails than of another’s speech,
Unless the course of justice standeth still.”