The second Elo's court, where tempests raging, Shut close within a cave the winds encaging, With earthquakes shakes the Island, thunders sad pre saging. XLIII. The last downright falls to port Esquiline‡, More straight above, beneath still broader growing, Empties itself, far thence the filth out-throwing : To that §arch-city of this government, The three first pipes the ready feast convoy : Fling out the dregs which else the kitchen cloy. * The second is Colon (or the tormentor) because of the wind there staying and vexing the body. Elos appears to be used for Æolus, the god of winds. See Virg. Æn. Lib. 1. v. 56. The last called Rectum (or straight) hath no windings, short, larger towards the end, that the excrement may be more easily ejected, and retained also upon occasion. An allusion to the Porta Esquilina at Rome, through which dead bodies and criminals were conveyed to Mons Esquilinus. § The thin entrails serve for carrying and concocting the chyle. They are all sprinkledwith numberless little veins, that no part of the chyle might escape, till all be brought to the liver. + Epiploon or over-swimmer, descends below the navel, and ascends above the highest entrails. It is of skinny substance and entirely ever laid with fat. XLV. Two several *covers fence these twice three pipes: Close by +Pancreas stands, who ne'er complains; Next Hepar, chief of all these lower parts, Now hie we home; the pearled dew ere long The Mesentery, which ties and knits the entrails together. Pancreas or all-flesh, for so it seems, is laid as a pillow under the stomach, and sustains the veins, that are there dispread. L CANTO III. I. THE morning fresh, dappling her horse with roses, Never to be endur'd, but when he falls or rises. Thirsil from withy prison, as he uses, Lets out his flock, and on a hill stood heeding, Which bites the grass, and which his meat refuses; So his glad eyes fed with their greedy feeding. Straight flock a shoal of nymphs and shepherd-swains, While all their lambs rang'd on the flow'ry plains; Then thus the boy began, crown'd with their circling trains. III. "You gentle shepherds, and you snowy sires, To frame this curious Isle, whose framing yet Thou Shepherd-God, who only know'st it right, Thou who first mad'st, and never wilt forsake it: Else how shall my weak hand dare undertake it, When thou thyself ask'st counsel of thyself to make it. V. Next to Koilia, on the right side stands, Fairly dispread in large dominion, Th' *arch city Hepar, stretching her commands, Fenc'd with such bars and strongest situation; Hence are the walls, slight, thin; built but for sight and fashion. vi. To th' heart and to th' head-city surely tied‡ As over all the world, may no where else be seen. Much like a **mount, it easily ascendeth; The upper parts all smooth as slipp'ry glass: But on the lower many a crag dependeth, Like to the hangings of some rocky mass: * Of all this lower region, the Hepar, or liver, is the principal. The situation strong, and safe walled in by the ribs. + It is covered with one single tunicle, and that very thin and slight The liver is tied to the heart by arteries, to the head by nerves, and to both by veins, dispersed to both. § The liver consists of no ordinary flesh, but of a kind proper to itself. i. e. Fair, shining. ** The liver's upper part rises, and swells gently; is very smooth and even; the lower on the outside like to a hollow rock, rugged and craggy. F Here first the *purple fountain making vent, In this fair town the Isle's great steward dwells; Yet doth his flowing substance ne'er decay; And like that golden star, which cuts his way Through Saturn's ice, and Mars his fiery ball, X. Within, some say, §Love hath his habitation, *From it rise all the springs of blood that run in the veins. The steward of the whole Isle, is here fitly placed; because as all (that is brought in) is here fitted and disposed, so from hence returned and dispensed. The planet Jupiter. § Here Plato disposes the seat of love. |