The Malebranche (; "Evil Claws")

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic. Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somerv ...

, ''Hell'': notes on Cantos XXI and XXII, Penguin, 1949, . are the

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

s in the ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * ''Inferno'' (1980 film), an Italian ...

'' of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

'' who guard Bolgia Five of the Eighth Circle (

Malebolge In Dante Alighieri's '' Inferno'', part of the ''Divine Comedy'', Malebolge ( ; ; ) or Fraud is the eighth circle of Hell. It is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into ten concentric circular trenches or ditches, each called a or 'd ...

). They figure in

Canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from th ...

s XXI, XXII, and XXIII. Vulgar and quarrelsome, their duty is to force the corrupt politicians ( barrators) to stay under the surface of a boiling lake of pitch.

In ''The Divine Comedy''

When Dante and

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

meet them, the leader of the Malebranche,

Malacoda Malacoda is a character in Dante Alighieri's ''Inferno'' (Cantos 21-2), where he features as the leader of the Malebranche, the twelve demons who guard Bolgia Five of Malebolge, the eighth circle of Hell. The name ''Malacoda'' is roughly equiva ...

("Evil Tail"), assigns a troop to escort the poets safely to the next bridge. Many of the bridges were destroyed in the earthquake at the

crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being crucifixion, nailed to a cross.The instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus f ...

, which Malacoda describes, enabling the time this takes place to be calculated. The troop hooks and torments one of the narrators (identified by early commentators as Ciampolo), who names some Italian grafters and then tricks the Malebranche to escape back into the pit. The demons are dishonest and malicious: the promise of safe conduct the poets have received turns out to have limited value (and there is no "next bridge"), so Dante and Virgil are forced to escape from them. Within the ''Inferno'', the demons provide some moments of satirical black comedy. There are twelve Malebranche named in the poem: Inf

* Alichino (derived from Arlecchino, the

harlequin Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan ...

) * Barbariccia ("Curly Beard") * Cagnazzo ("Nasty Dog"Richard H. Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, ''The Dante Encyclopedia'': Devils, pp. 301–303, Taylor & Francis, 2000, .) * Calcabrina (possibly "Grace Stomper" or "Frost Trampler") * Ciriatto ("Wild Hog") * Draghignazzo ("Nasty Sneering Dragon") * Farfarello (possibly "Goblin") * Graffiacane ("Dog Scratcher" or "Scratcher-dog") * Libicocco (possibly "Libyan Hothead" or "Windy") *

, the leader ("Evil Tail") * Rubicante (possibly "Red-faced Terror" and a reference to Cante de' Gabrielli, who as

Podestà (), also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a c ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

condemned Dante to exile) * Scarmiglione (possibly "Trouble Maker" or "Disheveled") The last of these, for example, is introduced by Dante in lines 100–105 of Canto XXI:

They bent their hooks and shouted to each other: And shall I give it to him on the rump? And all of them replied, Yes, let him have it! But Malacoda, still in conversation with my good guide, turned quickly to his squadron and said: Be still, Scarmiglione, still!

It is common among commentators on the ''Inferno'' to interpret these names as garbled versions of the names of officials contemporary to Dante. For example, Barbariccia may suggest the Ricci family of

, or the Barbarasi of

Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

References

External links

* Dante's meeting with them at Wikisource, canto XXI and XXII. {{DISPLAYTITLE:Malebranche (''Divine Comedy'') Demons in the Divine Comedy Italian words and phrases

In ''The Divine Comedy''

See also

References

External links