title: Dante: The Banquet (Stanford French and Italian Studies)
author: Christopher Ryan
description: Text: English (translation)<br> Original Language: Italian
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  ![](embim1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In memory of Rick Beeston
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ‘The Friends n. General slang for members of an intelligence service;
  specifically British slang for members of the Secret Intelligence Service, or
  MI6.’
  
  
  
  
  
  ‘If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friends, I
  hope I should have the guts to betray my country. Such a choice may scandalise
  the modern reader, and he may stretch out his patriotic hand to the telephone
  at once and ring up the police. It would not have shocked Dante, though. Dante
  places Brutus and Cassius in the lowest circle of Hell because they had chosen
  to betray their friend Julius Caesar rather than their country Rome.’
  
  
  E. M. Forster, 1938
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  [Preface](preface.html)
  
  
  [Introduction](introduction.html)
  
  
  [1 Apprentice Spy](c1.html)
  
  
  [2 Section V](c2.html)
  
  
  [3 Otto and Sonny](c3.html)
  
  
  [4 Boo, Boo, Baby, I’m a Spy](c4.html)
  
  
  [5 Three Young Spies](c5.html)
  
  
  [6 The German Defector](c6