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The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. The Italian Text with a Translation in English Blank Verse and a Commentary by Courtney Langdon, vol. 1 (Inferno) (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1918).

Author: Dante Alighieri
Translator: Courtney Langdon

Part of: The Divine Comedy, in 3 vols. (Langdon trans.)

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INTERPRETATIVE ANALYSIS CANTO I

Introduction to the Allegory of the Divine Comedy. Dante, Man. The Wood and the Mountain. The Three Wild Beasts. Virgil, Man’s Reason

In the translation it will be noticed that line has been printed in two parts, which together form a regular blank verse line; this was done here, as elsewhere in the book, so as to avoid padding the thought, and leaving a blank line on the printed page.

The usual rendering of line is: “The time was at the morning’s first beginning,” which, while a possible meaning of the Italian, does not seem as apposite as the permissible translation adopted.