f and hurries the rest
of his freight aboard, beating the laggards with the flat of his oar.
Because Dante wonders at such ill-treatment, Virgil explains that good
souls are never forced to cross this stream, and that the present
passengers have richly deserved their punishment. Just then an
earthquake shakes the whole region, and Dante swoons in terror.

_Canto IV._ When he recovers his senses, Dante finds himself no longer
in Charon's bark, but on the brink of a huge circular pit, whence arise,
like emanations, moans and wails, but wherein, owing to the dense gloom,
he can descry nothing. Warning him they are about to descend into the
"blind world," and that his sorrowful expression--which Dante ascribes
to fear--is caused by pity, Virgil conducts his disciple into the first
circle of hell. Instead of lamentations, only sighs are heard, while
Virgil explains that this semi-dark limbo is reserved for unbaptized
children, and for those who, having lived before Christ, must "live
desiring without hope." Full of compassion for these sufferers, Dante
inquires whether no one from above ever visited them, and is told that
One, bearing trophies of victory, once arrived there to ransom the
patriarchs Adam, Abel, Noah, and others, but that until then none had
ever been saved.

Talking busily, the two wend their way through a forest of sighing
spirits, until they approach a fire, around which dignified shades
have gathered. Informing Dante these are men of honored reputations,
Virgil points out among them four mighty figures coming to meet them,
and whispers they are Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. After conversing
for a while with Virgil, these bards graciously welcome Dante as sixth
in their poetic galaxy. Talking of things which cannot be mentioned
save in such exalted company, Dante walks on with them until he nears
a castle girdled with sevenfold ramparts and moat. Through seven
consecutive portals the six poets pass on to a meadow, where Dante
beholds all the creations of their brains, and meets Hector, Aeneas,
Camilla, and Lucretia, as well as the philosophers, historians, and
mathematicians who from time to time have appeared upon our globe.
Although Dante would fain have lingered here, his guide leads him on,
and, as their four companions vanish, they two enter a place "where no
light shines."

_Canto V._ Stepping down from this circle to a lower one, Dante and
Virgil reach the second circle of the Inferno, where all