XXXIII/2 One of Dante's most appalling images isobf the souls so hell-bent in life that they are pre-condemned and inhabit its deepest regions before their bodily death, while dark spirits inhabit their earthly frames to take them through the motions of the world's business. The two figures are (as the pair of loving figures in Canto XXIII/2) quoted from Eth Deutsches Requiem (cf. Works/Texts P. 150). They seemed to me to epitomise, as they strode across the postcards of Frankfurt and Dusseldorf (from which they are perhaps unfairly taken to this grim eternity), the ruthless businessman who would trade souls for gain. Each is shown here twice to echo their dual locations of body and spirit. One strides down to Hell with the same determination and urgency as he is seen striding towards his appointment: the other hurries towards his task, a black spirit already occupying his heart: meanwhile in the Underworld he is fixed in the ice that matches his unyieldingly frozen heart. (Revisiting the image of the `heart's lake' near the beginning of the first Canto.) The backgrounds of the figures are adapted from their original appearances to echo the bars of a prison and steps descending. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.