[629] _At Bologna_: Even in Inferno the Merry Friar must have his joke. He is a gentleman, but a bit of a scholar too; and the University of Bologna is to him what Marischal College was to Captain Dalgetty. CANTO XXIV. In season of the new year, when the sun Beneath Aquarius[630] warms again his hair, And somewhat on the nights the days have won; When on the ground the hoar-frost painteth fair A mimic image of her sister white-- But soon her brush of colour is all bare-- The clown, whose fodder is consumed outright, Rises and looks abroad, and, all the plain Beholding glisten, on his thigh doth smite. Returned indoors, like wretch that seeks in vain 10 What he should do, restless he mourns his case; But hope revives when, looking forth again, He sees the earth anew has changed its face. Then with his crook he doth himself provide, And straightway doth his sheep to pasture chase: So at my Master was I terrified, His brows beholding troubled; nor more slow To where I ailed[631] the plaster was applied. For when the broken bridge[632] we stood below My Guide turned to me with the expression sweet 20 Which I beneath the mountain learned to know. His arms he opened, after counsel meet Held with himself, and, scanning closely o'er The fragments first, he raised me from my feet; And like a man who, working, looks before, With foresight still on that in front bestowed, Me to the summit of a block he bore And then to me another fragment showed, Saying: 'By this thou now must clamber on; But try it first if it will bear thy load.' 30 The heavy cowled[633] this way could ne'er have gone, For hardly we, I holpen, he so light, Could clamber up from shattered stone to stone. And but that on the inner bank the height Of wall is not so great, I say not he, But for myself I had been vanquished quite. But Malebolge[634] to the cavity Of the deep central pit is planned to fall; Hence every Bolgia in its turn must be High on the out, low on the inner wall; 40 So to the summit we attained at last, Whence breaks away the topmost stone[635] of all. My lungs were so with breathlessness harassed, The summit won, I could no further go; And, hardly there, me on the ground I cast 'Well it befits that thou shouldst from thee throw All sloth,' the Master said; 'for stretched in down Or under awnings none can glory know. And he who spends his life nor wins renown Leaves in the world no more enduring trace 50 Than smoke in air, or foam on water blown. Therefore arise; o'ercome thy breathlessness By force of will, victor in every fight When not subservient to the body base. Of stairs thou yet must climb a loftier flight:[636] 'Tis not enough to have ascended these.