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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,
Soon as the gate opes by the king's assign,

Empties itself, far thence the filth out-throwing :
This gate endow'd with many properties,
Yet for his office, sight and naming flies:
Therefore between two hills, in darkest valley lies.
XLIV.

To that §arch-city of this government,

The three first pipes the ready feast convoy :
The other three, in baser office spent,

Fling out the dregs which else the kitchen cloy.
In every one the Hepar keeps his spies,
Who if ought good with evil blended lies;
Thence bring it back again to Hepar's treasuries.

* 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:
The first from over-swimming takes his name,
Like cobweb-lawn woven with hundred stripes:
The second strengthen'd with a double frame,
From foreign enmity the pipes maintains:

Close by +Pancreas stands, who ne'er complains;
Though press'd by all his neighbours, he their state sustains.
XLVI.

Next Hepar, chief of all these lower parts,
One of the three, yet of the three the least.
But see, the sun, like to undaunted hearts,
Enlarges in his fall his ample breast.

Now hie we home; the pearled dew ere long
Will wet the mothers and their, tender young:
To-morrow with the day we may renew our song."

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,
(Vex'd at the ling'ring shades that long had left her,
In Tithon's freezing arms) the light discloses ;
And chasing night, of rule and heaven bereft her :
The Sun with gentle beams his rage disguises,
And like aspiring tyrants, temporises;

Never to be endur'd, but when he falls or rises.
II.

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,
That sit around, my rugged rhymes attending;
How may I hope to quit your strong desires,
In verse uncouth, such wonders comprehending?
Too well I know my rudeness, all unfit

To frame this curious Isle, whose framing yet
Was never throughly known to any human wit.
IV.

Thou Shepherd-God, who only know'st it right,
And hid'st that art from all the world beside;
Shed in my misty breast thy sparkling light,
And in this fog, my erring foot-steps guide :

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,
To all within this lower region;

Fenc'd with such bars and strongest situation;
So never fearing foreigners' invasion:

Hence are the walls, slight, thin; built but for sight and fashion.

vi.

To th' heart and to th' head-city surely tied‡
With firmest league and mutual reference:
His lieges there, theirs ever here abide,
To take up strife and casual difference:
Built Şall alike, seeming like rubies sheen ||,
Of some peculiar matter; such I ween,

As over all the world, may no where else be seen.
VII.

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,
By thousand rivers through the Isle dispent,
Gives every part fit growth, and daily nourishment.
VIII.

In this fair town the Isle's great steward dwells;
His porphry house glitters in purple dye;
In purple clad himself: from thence he deals
His store, to all the Isle's necessity:
And though the rent he daily, duly pay,

Yet doth his flowing substance ne'er decay;
All day he rent receives, returns it all the day...
IX.

And like that golden star, which cuts his way

Through Saturn's ice, and Mars his fiery ball,
Temp'ring their strife with his more kindly ray‡ :
So 'twixt the Splenion's frost and th' angry gall,
The jovial Hepar sits; with great expence
Cheering the Isle by his sweet influence;
So slakes their envious rage, and endless difference.

X.

Within, some say, §Love hath his habitation,
Not Cupid's self, but Cupid's better brother:
For Cupid's self dwells with a lower nation,
But this, more sure, much chaster than the other;
By whose command, we either love our kind,
Or with more perfect love, affect the mind;
With such a diamond knot, he often souls can bind.

*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.

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