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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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CANTO III

The Gate and Vestibule of Hell. Moral and Spiritual Cowards and Neutrals. Pilate. Acheron

Of this, which is one of the strongest, though least frequently appreciated, cantos of the whole Inferno, the outstanding figure is the Pilate whom Dante, in contrast to the Cowards whom he “recognized,” “knew” at once, as unmistakably the greatest conceivable illustration of the despicable class, which does not understand that human tears, and even blood, are made sublime, when shed for a noble cause.