Then he replied: I am Friar Alberigo;
He am I of the fruit of the bad garden,
Who here a date am getting for my fig.
O, said I to him, now art thou, too, dead?
And he to me: How may my body fare
Up in the world, no knowledge I possess.
Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea,
That oftentimes the soul descendeth here
Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it.
And, that thou mayest more willingly remove
From off my countenance these glassy tears,
Know that as soon as any soul betrays
As I have done, his body by a demon
Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it,
Until his time has wholly been revolved.
He am I of the fruit of the bad garden,
Who here a date am getting for my fig.
O, said I to him, now art thou, too, dead?
And he to me: How may my body fare
Up in the world, no knowledge I possess.
Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea,
That oftentimes the soul descendeth here
Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it.
And, that thou mayest more willingly remove
From off my countenance these glassy tears,
Know that as soon as any soul betrays
As I have done, his body by a demon
Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it,
Until his time has wholly been revolved.
Ptolomaea is named for Ptolemy, who invited guests to a banquet and then killed them all. Here are resting on their backs, those who betrayed their guests, frozen in the ice for their treachery.
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