Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2)

by Dante

  52–54. The candlesticks, now seen as a single shape, are all flaming at their tips, brighter than the full moon at its apex in the sky on a clear night. This image, and many that are to follow, reflect passages in the Book of Revelation, here Apocalypse 4:5, the seven lamps burning before the great throne of Judgment, “which are the seven spirits of God,” as was first noted by Pietro di Dante (1340). [return to English / Italian]

  55–57. For a useful discussion of the meaning of stupore (amazement) see De Fazio (DeFa.1993.1), pp. 436–45. She considers this passage alongside its precursor, with which it has evident similarities (Purg. XXVIII.139–148), in which Statius and Virgil smile at the revelation that this place, the earthly paradise, was what they understood as Parnassus. Now Dante seeks only to see the reaction of Virgil to the pageant of Revelation and finds that his guide is amazed as are those who cannot understand, for all their wonder and reverence, what they are gazing at. Thus, for her, Dante’s ammirazione and Virgil’s stupore have different valences. For this to be Virgil’s final observed behavior in the poem shows Dante’s desire to control his admiration for his auctor. [return to English / Italian]

  60. The reference to the modest gait of newly wedded brides as they leave the church to go to their husband’s house introduces the theme of the wedding ceremony to the procession and to the poem, where it will reappear in a number of guises, including parody, throughout the rest of the scenes in the earthly paradise. [return to English / Italian]

  61–63. Matelda calls Dante’s and our attention to what will be, at that moment, the theological high point in the poem, the pageant of the Church Triumphant. For useful studies of the entirety of the scene that follows, see Moore (Moor.1903.1), pp. 178–220, “The Apocalyptic Vision”; Cristaldi (Cris.1988.1); Pertile (Pert.1998.2), pp. 23–42 (for the particular relevance of the Song of Songs). For the artistic sources of this procession, particularly those found in mosaics in and near Ravenna, see Bosco/Reggio (1979). For the iconography and meaning of the symbolic elements in it, see Friedman (Frie.1987.1). And see Lansing (Lans. 1994.1) for the way in which Dante has designed the earthly paradise as an “eighth terrace.” [return to English / Italian]

  64–66. Those dressed in the white of faith in Christ to come (we will soon find out that they represent the Hebrew Scriptures) are presented as followers of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit or of the seven spirits of God (Apocalypse 4:4), not as the leaders they surely were on their own terms. [return to English / Italian]

  67–69. Dante, facing east, has the stream to his left, as he has all along, and sees the pageant approach him on the far side of the narrow water.

  That the poet emphasizes his left side so strongly may indicate his sense of his mortal unworthiness to look upon such wonders. [return to English / Italian]

  73–78. The candlestick-paintbrushes leave streaks above the entire procession, as the sun colors the rainbow and the moon (Delia, Diana, born on the island of Delos) its halo. [return to English / Italian]

  79–81. These banners form, as it were, a canopy over the entire procession. The ten paces that separate the two outer ones are sometimes allegorized by commentators. On the other hand, they may simply imply the triumphal perfection of the procession, since ten is known as the number of God’s perfection (as is 100, 1,000, etc.), since 1+0=1. [return to English / Italian]

  83–84. The twelve ranks, two abreast, dressed in white (see vv. 64–66) and crowned with white lilies, are the twenty-four books of the Old Testament. In the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse 4:4) there are twenty-four elders, clothed in white, seated around the throne of Judgment. They are sometimes interpreted as representing the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. Here they clearly represent the books of the Old Testament according to St. Jerome’s accountancy in his Prologue to his Latin translation of the Bible. (Pietro di Dante [1340] cites Jerome’s discussion of the books of the Old Testament in his Prologue to the Book of Daniel.) It is clear also that Dante is in this part of the procession referring to books and not authors, for these would be fewer (e.g., Moses was “author” of five of them). He will change tactics when he comes to the New Testament. See vv. 133–144, below. [return to English / Italian]

  85–87. The faith in Christ to come of the Hebrew Scriptures is indicated by the elders’ salute to Mary as mother of Christ. See Luke 1:28: “Blessèd are you among women.” Mary does not appear in the procession. [return to English / Italian]

  92–93. The four creatures clad in the green of hope are the representations of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, traditionally portrayed, respectively, as angel (or man), lion, ox, and eagle. These identifications derive from Ezechiel 10:4–14 and Apocalypse 4:6–8. [return to English / Italian]

  94–96. The six wings are found in the Apocalypse (4:8) but not in Ezechiel (1:6), where they are four (see verse 105). The reference is to the hundred eyes of Ovid’s Argus (see Metam. I.568–723). Jove chose Io as a victim of his desire. When jealous Juno came near them, he changed Io into a heifer, but Juno remained suspicious and sent Argus, with his hundred eyes, to watch over Io. Jove dispatched Mercury to slay him, which he did after telling a long tale that closed his eyes in sleep. Juno put those hundred eyes into the feathers of the peacock.

  Dante’s reference intrinsically distinguishes between the eyes of dead Argus and these living visionary eyes that have loftier purpose than guarding pretty heifers. For a study of the resonances of the Io narrative in the following cantos see Levenstein (Leve.1996.1). [return to English / Italian]

  97–99. This is the fifth address to the reader in this cantica. For the poet’s insistence on the constraints on his ability to expand his verse, see Purgatorio XXXIII.139–141 and note. [return to English / Italian]

  100–104. Dante refers us to the lengthy passage in Ezechiel (see the note to vv. 94–96) for the details of the appearance of the four Gospel beasts.

  Lombardi (1791) is perhaps unique in his understanding of why Dante preferred John’s six to Ezechiel’s four. Bishop Primasius, he says, the student of St. Augustine, commenting on Revelation 4, said that the beasts have six wings because six is the number of the sixth and final age, after which we will come to the fullness of time (plenitudo temporum). There is nothing like consensus on a solution for this problem, but Lombardi’s thesis is, if nothing else, original. [return to English / Italian]

  105. Dante’s claim here mirrors the pretext of the entire poem; his experience of the otherworld is to be treated as actual and not as imagined. As a result, his authority as teller of the tale is absolute, and even biblical testimony is secondary to his own. [return to English / Italian]

  106–107. The chariot, as will become evident, represents the Church, an opinion for which there is essential consensus. Its two wheels, however, are variously interpreted. Do they represent the two Testaments (but these are fully represented in the pageant, as Bosco/Reggio [1979] rightly object)? Wisdom and Love? The active and the contemplative life? We probably need to understand literally that Dante wanted his chariot to look something like, not a four-wheeled oxcart, but a two-wheeled Roman triumphal chariot. It may be better to leave allegory to one side. Scartazzini (1900) offers a scathing review of the attempts mentioned above and still others. [return to English / Italian]

  108. The griffin has only recently become a cause for controversy, even though for six hundred years it was assumed to signify Christ (e.g., Pietro di Dante [1340], to whom “Gryphon … figurat Christum” [the griffin figures Christ]). Beginning with Scartazzini (1900), commentators point to Isidore of Seville’s description (Etym. XII.xxii.17) of the griffin as being half lion and half eagle, and then going on to say that Christ is like both lion and eagle. For a review of the question and close to definitive restatement of the traditional view (the griffin symbolizes Christ), see Cristaldi (Cris.1988.2), answering Armour’s main objections to this understanding (e.g., Dante would not have used a hybrid creature to symbolize Christ) even before Armour (Armo.
1989.1) made them. And now see Pertile (Pert.1998.2), pp. 143–62, whose arguments in favor of the griffin as symbolizing Christ seem difficult to counter. [return to English / Italian]

  109–111. The griffin’s enormous wings go up, one on either side of the central pennon made by the fourth of the seven candlesticks’ flaming paintbrush, so as not to disturb the canopy in any way. [return to English / Italian]

  113–114. His mixture of immortal gold in the part of him that was eagle and the more “human” red-and-white parts of the lion would surely seem further to identify him with Christ. [return to English / Italian]

  115–120. This chariot is not only more splendid than those awarded either to Scipio Africanus (185–129 B.C.), conqueror of Hannibal and destroyer of Carthage, or to the great Augustus himself (63 B.C.–A.D. 14), the emperor at the “fullness of time,” when Christ was born in a world at peace under the rule of Augustus. Dante goes still further: this chariot makes the sun, become a chariot for Phaeton’s wild misadventure (Ovid, Metam. II.47–324), seem a poor thing by comparison. It is striking that this third chariot involves a tragic event—Phaeton’s death—while the first two are used to glorious purpose. We are reminded of God’s mercy and of his justice.

  That the most significant element in the procession is a triumphal chariot makes it difficult not to see that this pageant represents the Church Triumphant, i.e., the Church as it shall be in eternity. It is only in Purgatorio XXXII that we shall observe a representation of the Church Militant. There is a resemblance in this rhythm to that which we have experienced on all the seven terraces, namely exempla of the opposed virtue preceding those of the vice to be purged. Here the perfected Church precedes its temporally prior and persecuted self in all its tribulations. For this observation, see Lansing (Lans.1994.1), pp. 106–8. [return to English / Italian]

  121–129. This part of the allegory escapes no one: the three ladies represent the three theological virtues, charity (red), hope (green), and faith (white). They stand at the right wheel of the cart, its better side. Faith, necessary to a proper form of love, first leads their dance; then it is the turn of Charity, necessary to a proper form of Hope. [return to English / Italian]

  130–132. At the left wheel we find the four cardinal virtues, associated with Roman virtue by their purple robes: temperance, justice, fortitude, and prudence (represented by the three-eyed lady, since she is knowledgeable about past, present, and future). [return to English / Italian]

  133–141. We now come to the second Christian section of the pageant, those who came after Christ. We recognize Luke as the doctor he was, author of the Acts of the Apostles; Paul as the sword-bearer (see Ephesians 6:17, where Paul speaks of the sword of the spirit, that is, the word of God). And, as Singleton points out (1973), the sword also represents Paul’s martyrdom.

  Here Dante uses the authors of New Testament texts to represent their works, and not vice versa, as he had done for the Old Testament. See the note to vv. 83–84. [return to English / Italian]

  142–144. The writers of the lesser Epistles (James, Peter, John, and Jude) are followed by the Apocalypse, its author John depicted as sleeping the mystic sleep of vision. [return to English / Italian]

  145–150. These seven authors or books all are typified not by the white of faith, as was the Old Testament, but by the red of love (for Christ come).

  Pierotti (Pier.1981.1), p. 220, n. 12 has offered the following census of the pageant:

  1) 24 books of the Old Testament

  2) 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

  3) 1 griffin

  4) 3 theological virtues (love, hope, faith)

  5) 4 cardinal virtues (prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice)

  6) 2 “authors” of Book of Acts & major Epistles: Luke and Paul

  7) 4 “authors” of lesser Epistles: Peter, James, John, Jude

  8) 1 Apocalypse: John

  Total: 43

  Canto XXX will add 100 angels and Beatrice to bring the number to 144, the mystical number (144,000) of the Church Triumphant. See Apocalypse 7:4, 14:1, 14:3. [return to English / Italian]

  151–154. The canto ends with the thunderclap, arresting all, from the front to the back of the procession, as they await an obviously momentous event. [return to English / Italian]

  PURGATORIO XXX

  1–7. This first simile in a canto that is heavily similetic seems deliberately difficult. Puzzled out, it compares the sevenfold spirit of the Church Triumphant, toward which all in the procession now turn for guidance as they do above in the Empyrean, to the Little Dipper, which locates the North Star for earthly navigators. The sevenfold Spirit of God [see the note to Purg. XXIX.64–66]) seems clearly to be identified with the Holy Spirit, one aspect of the triune God in the Empyrean. Porena (1946) points out that the stars of the constellation Ursa (whether Major or Minor) were construed as seven plowing oxen, septem triones, as is reflected in Dante’s word “settentrïon” (which may reflect Virgil’s “septem … trioni” at Georgics III.381). This higher sevenfold spirit, unlike Ursa Minor, never rises or sets but is constantly glowing with charity; it is also never hidden by a clouded sky, even though it is not visible to us because we exist in a “cloud” of our own sinfulness. [return to English / Italian]

  8–9. The twenty-four elders, representing the Old Testament, turn toward the chariot as to the awaited messiah who, in His first coming, crowned their time of militance with peace and who now will come in Judgment. See Ephesians 2:14, “Ipse enim est pax nostra” [For He is our peace], a text cited by Singleton (1973). Since the procession in the garden represents the Church Triumphant, the Mystical Body of Christ after its progress through history, it seems advisable to realize that we deal here with a scene that is meant to reflect the final advent of Christ for the Day of Judgment. See Singleton (Sing.1958.1), pp. 72–85, citing St. Bernard on the three advents of Christ (Patrologia Latina 183, col. 35ff.). See also Thomas Merton (Mert.1953.1), Mark Musa (Musa.1974.1), and the note to Purgatorio VIII.103–108. [return to English / Italian]

  10–12. The elder who sings alone is clearly the Song of Songs, whether the book itself or its “author,” Solomon, his words repeating the phrasing “Veni…, veni…, veni” of the Canticle of Canticles 4:8 (“Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon, come”). We would be forgiven if we believed we were about to witness a wedding ceremony of some kind, featuring Beatrice in the role of bride. A strange “wedding” it will turn out to be, characterized by tears more than by smiles. In fact, no canto in the poem displays more words for weeping than this one (Inferno XXXIII has exactly as many): lagrime (vv. 91, 145), lagrimando (54), piangere (56, 57, 107, 141).

  Chiarini (Chia.1967.2), p. 1112, points out that these verses constitute the longest sentence (twelve lines) in the poem. [return to English / Italian]

  13–15. The reference is to the trumpet blast that will summon the souls of the dead to judgment (I Corinthians 15:52).

  The word “hallelujah” seems so familiar that it may be surprising to discover that it occurs (and occurs four times) only in a single biblical text, the nineteenth chapter of John’s Book of Revelation, where the saints (Apocalypse 19:1, 19:3), the elders and the four Gospel beasts (Apocalypse 19:4), and a great multitude (Apocalypse 19:6, reasonably understood as the souls of the blessed, to whom, in fact, Dante refers here) all cry out this word in welcome of the coming reign of the true God and of his Judgment. [return to English / Italian]

  16–18. As will arise all those who will be saved at the Last Judgment, a hundred angels (“ministers and messengers of life eternal”) rise up upon the chariot itself to welcome Beatrice, who, in a moment, will come to it. Where do these angels come from? We are not told whether they suddenly manifest themselves upon the chariot now just as Beatrice comes, or descended from the Empyrean with her, or with the chariot when it came to show itself to Dante in Eden. See the notes to Purgatorio XXXI.77–78 and XXXII.89–90.

  These Beatricean angels have a prehistory.
In Vita nuova XXIII.7, Dante imagines Beatrice’s death and sees a band of angels who return with her to heaven, mounting after a little white cloud, and singing “Osanna in altissimis.” Charles Singleton (Sing.1954.1), p. 57, was perhaps the first to make the necessary connections between that scene and this one. This procession began with voices singing “Hosanna” (Purg. XXIX.51); Beatrice returns with her host of angels and again she is obscured by a cloud.

  These verses draw Dante’s imagining of Beatrice’s departure from this life in Vita nuova into obvious relation to his presentation of her return to earth here in the garden of Eden. In both cases the word “Hosanna” associates her with Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem: in the Vita nuova, the New Jerusalem that is life eternal in the Empyrean; here, a triumphant descent to earth modeled on Christ’s return in judgment. [return to English / Italian]

  16. The rare word basterna has caused difficulty. Benvenuto (1380) says that it is a vehicle made of soft skins, used to transport noblewomen; he suggests that it fits the context here because it is drawn by two animals (this chariot, he notes, is pulled by a two-natured beast) and because Beatrice is the most noble of women. According to Servius’s gloss of Aeneid VIII.666 (cited first by Lombardi [1791] and then by Trucchi [1936]), the basterna was a cart, festooned with veils, found in Gaul, where it was used to transport chaste matrons to sacred festivals. [return to English / Italian]

  17. The Latin phrase ad vocem tanti senis (at the words of so great an elder) is Dante’s own, opening a series of three rhyming Latin endings of lines, the next two from Mark and Virgil respectively. The effect is to make three Latin “authors,” Dante, Mark, and Virgil, each contribute part of a Latin verse for the advent of Beatrice. [return to English / Italian]