Quote 76
[Dante to Bocca degli Abati]: "I am alive, and can be precious to you
if you want fame," was my reply, "for I
can set your name among my other notes."
And he to me: "I want the contrary;
so go away and do not harass me –
your flattery is useless in this valley."
At that I grabbed him by the scruff and said:
"You’ll have to name yourself to me
or else you won’t have even one hair left up here."
And he to me: "Though you should strip me bald,
I shall not tell you who I am or show it,
not if you pound my head a thousand times."
His hairs were wound around my hand already,
and I had plucked from him more than one tuft
while he was barking and his eyes stared down,
when someone else cried out: "What is it, Bocca?
Isn’t the music of your jaws enough
for you without your bark? What devil’s at you?"
"And now," I said, "you traitor bent on evil,
I do not need your talk, for I shall carry
true news of you, and that will bring you shame."
"Be off," he answered; "tell them what you like…" (Inf. XXXII, 91-112)
Bocca is the only sinner unimpressed by Dante’s offer to keep his memory alive in the mortal world. Here is a sinner so corrupt that he cares little what happens to his good name simply because he has none; it has already been irreparably besmirched by his well-known betrayal to his country. However, his indifference brings out a different and frightening side of Dante, proving – to some extent – that our poet has never had any intention of bringing glory to the sinners. Indeed, when provoked by Bocca, Dante threatens to do quite the opposite: to "carry / true news of you, and…bring you shame."