MS. Holkham misc. 48 (formerly Norfolk, Holkham Hall, MS. 514). Dante, Divine Comedy, in Italian; North Italy, Genoa(?); 14th cent., third quarter. MS. Holkham misc. 48, p. 4. Inferno, Canto III. Dante (part of scene destroyed), souls; the lukewarm, stung by insects, follow a banner.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/mss/holkham/misc/048.a.htm
Closer:
In a letter dated 16 June 1949 George Orwell answered questions put to him by Francis A. Henson of the United Automobile Workers. He expressed unhappiness with readers who would tie the novel to one place and time:
My recent novel is NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter but as a show-up of the perversions to which a centralised economy is liable and which have already been partly realised in Communism and Fascism. I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe (allowing of course for the fact that the book is a satire) that something resembling it could arrive. I believe also that totalitarian ideas have taken root in the minds of intellectuals everywhere, and I have tried to draw these ideas out to their logical consequences. The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasise that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere. (502)
Radiohead has had a similar position on Hail to the Thief, denying that it targets America. Thom Yorke (in this interview) has said that the title is “trying to express, without getting angry about it, the absurdity of everything. Not just a single Administration.”
… “To cast off sloth
Now well behooves you,” said my master then:
“For resting upon soft down, or underneath
The blanket’s cloth, is not how fame is won�
Without which, one spends life to leave behind
As vestige of himself on earth the sign
Smoke leaves on air, or foam on water. So stand
And overcome your panting�with the soul,
Which wins all battles if it does not despond
Under its heavy body’s weight. And still
A longer ladder remains for us to climb.” (XXIV, 46-56, pg. 249)
 Dante Alighieri, The Inferno of Dante, trans. Robert Pinsky (London: J.M. Dent, 1994).
‘The time has come,’ my master said, ‘to prove
yourself; for never in a feather bed
did hero leave behind a lasting groove
upon the planet; without fame, the dead
leave such a mark as foam upon the wave,
or smoke in air, so lift your weary head!
Get up! breathe with the soul, for it is brave
in every battle, and will always win,
unless the heavy body be its grave.
A longer ladder must be climbed’ (XXIV, 46-55, pg. 165)
— Dante Alighieri, The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, trans. Ciaran Carson (London: Granta Books, 2002).
Near the end of “2+2=5” on Hail to the Theif, the lyrics read:
I swat ’em like flies but like flies the buggers keep coming back
This line echoes Condoleezza Rice’s quotation of President Bush in her prepared statement delivered to the 9/11 Commission on April 8, 2004:
We also moved to develop a new and comprehensive strategy to eliminate the al-Qaida terrorist network. President Bush understood the threat, and he understood its importance. He made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al-Qaida one attack at a time. He told me he was “tired of swatting flies.â€
After her prepared statement, Rice was interviewed by the commission. Bob Kerrey asked as follows (from the transcript):
MR. KERREY: Did — you’ve used the phrase a number of times, and I’m hoping with my question to disabuse you of using it in the future. You said the President was tired of swatting flies. Can you tell me one example where the President swatted a fly when it came to al Qaeda prior to 9/11?
MS. RICE: I think what the President was speaking to was —
MR. KERREY: No, no, what fly had he swatted?
MS. RICE: Well, the disruptions abroad was what he was really focusing on.
MR. KERREY: No, no —
MS. RICE: When the CIA would go after Abu Sayyaf, go after this guy, and — that was what was meant.
MR. KERREY: Dr. Rice, we didn’t — we only swatted a fly once, on the 20th of August, 1998. We didn’t swat any flies afterwards. How the hell could he be tired?
MS. RICE: We swatted at — I think he felt that what the agency was doing was going after individual terrorists here and there, and that’s what he meant by swatting flies. It was simply a figure of speech.
MR. KERREY: Well, I think it’s an unfortunate figure of speech…
“Up on your feet! This is no time to tire!”
my Master cried. “The man who lies asleep
will never waken fame, and his desire
and all his life drift past him like a dream,
and the traces of his memory fade from time
like smoke in air, or ripples on a stream.
Now, therefore, rise. Control your breath, and call
upon the strength of soul that wins all battles
unless it sink in the gross body’s fall.
There is a longer ladder yet to climb.” (XXIV, 46-55, pg. 190)
— Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, trans. John Ciardi (New York: New American Library, 2003).
“Thus tried, thou must thine indolence disown,”
The Maser said; “for seats of downy plume
And quilted couches lead not to renown;
Without acquiring which, who life consume,
Leave of themselves on earth such trace behind,
As froth on water; in the air, as fume.
Up therefore quick: with energy of mind
Conquer thy gasping: mind can never fail
Save when the cumbrous flesh its impulse bind.
A longer stair it needs thee yet to scale” (XXIV, lines unnumbered, pg. 94)
— Dante Alighieri, The Divina Commedia of Dante, trans. James Ford (London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1870).
“From sloth,” the master said, “thou needs must now
Escape, for never into fame men come
Lying on down, or coverlet below;
And who without it doth his life consume
Leaves of himself on earth no greater trace
Than smoke in air or in the water foam.
Therefore rise up! Conquer thy weariness
With spirit that conquereth in every fight,
If not too much the body’s weight oppress.
A longer stair way must be climbed.” (XXIV, 46-55, pgs. 180-81)
— Dante Alighieri, The Inferno of Dante, trans. Lacy Lockert (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1931).
‘Henceforward it behoves that thou brace thyself thus,’ said the Master; ‘for not by sitting on feathers does one come into fame, nor under quilts; without the which whoso consumes his life leaves such trace on earth of himself as smoke in air or its froth on water. And therefore lift up, conquer the task with the mind that wins every battle, if with its heavy body it throw not itself down. A longer stair has need to be ascended” (XXIV, lines unnumbered, pg. 286)
— Dante Alighieri, The Hell of Dante Alighieri, trans. Arthur John Butler (London: Macmillan and Co., 1894).
“Put off this sloth,” the master said, “for shame!
Sitting on feather-pillows, lying reclined
Beneath the blanket is no way to fame —
Fame, without which man’s life wastes out of mind,
Leaving on earth no more memorial
Than foam in water or smoke upon the wind.
Rise up; control thy panting breath, and call
The soul to aid, that wins in every fight,
Save the dull flesh should drag it to a fall.
More stairs remain to climb—a longer flight” (XXIV, 46-55, pg. 221)
— Dante Alighieri, Cantica I: Hell, The Comedy of Dante Alighieri, The Florentine, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers (Hammondsworth: Penguin Books, 1949).