Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2)

by Dante

  The harlot and the giant, the whore of Babylon “with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication” (Apocalypse 17:2) and Philip IV of France, bring the terrible history to its conclusion. The chariot no longer has to do with Beatrice, replaced by this wanton spirit that gives herself to all and any, and is now controlled by France. Dante’s reaction to the “Avignonian captivity” is proof, if any is needed, that he is not the Protestant avant la lettre that some have tried to find in him. Indeed, the last and only potentially (if fleeting) hopeful sign we find in the gradually darkening antitriumph of the Church Militant is that the whore gazes on Dante, thus gaining for herself a beating from her gigantic paramour. What does Dante represent now? Is he the embodiment of the truly faithful Christians who hope that their Church will be cleansed? of the Italian faithful left back on this side of the Alps? or is he Dante himself? This penultimate detail of a difficult and encompassing allegorical pageant has left many readers perplexed. Its final one is clear in its pessimism. The giant responds to his lover’s wayward glance by releasing the chariot from its binding to the tree and dragging it deeper into the forest, which now looks less like Eden than it resembles France. [return to English / Italian]

  PURGATORIO XXXIII

  1–3. The last canto of Purgatorio begins, like those of Inferno and Paradiso, with poetry (see Inf. XXXIV.1 and Par. XXXIII.1–39). In all three cases, the poem cited is in another voice than Dante’s. In the first two cases this voice is Latin, first that of Venantius Fortunatus (his hymn of the cross), now that of David (his hymn for the desolation of Jerusalem, Psalm 78 [79], which begins, “O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance”). Thus do the seven virtues respond to the present culminating moment in the history of the Church Militant. As Benvenuto explains (1380), just as the various gentile nations had invaded and oppressed the Holy Land because of the sins of the Jews, so now has God again allowed foreigners, in this case the French, to take possession of Holy Church because of the sins of the latter-day “Romans.” [return to English / Italian]

  7–12. The words that Beatrice sings reflect closely Jesus’ words to his disciples (John 16:16), “A little while and you shall not see me; and again a little while and you shall see me, because I go to the Father.” Since the disciples are puzzled by these words, Jesus explains them: Now they may weep, but their sorrow will be turned to joy (John 16:20). The disciples are finally won over, finally believe that Jesus comes from God (John 16:30). Jesus ends his remarks by promising them peace after their tribulation and concludes, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Thus do these twelve opening verses of the last canto of Purgatorio move from a tragic sense of loss to a celebratory and comic vision of the eventual triumph of Christ and his Church.

  Beatrice’s words also have a particular and local meaning for Dante, who wept at her death and thought he had lost her forever; she has come back into his life. [return to English / Italian]

  13–15. This tercet reminds the reader exactly who is present in this scene (see the note to Purg. XXXII.88), Beatrice, her handmaids (the seven virtues), Dante, Matelda, and Statius. Not only is the Church Triumphant no longer in sight, the Church Militant has been dragged off to France.

  The way in which Statius is referred to (“the sage who had remained”) reminds the reader, yet again, of the absence of Virgil, denied this moment. [return to English / Italian]

  16–18. Those that allegorize the nine steps taken by Beatrice argue that they represent the years between the accession of Pope Clement V in 1305, who agreed to King Philip’s desire to move the papacy to France (which he did in 1309), and the deaths of Clement and Philip in 1314, thus possibly allowing the tenth step to point to the advent of the new leader in 1315. About such things there can be little or no certainty, but the hypothesis is attractive. Nonetheless, one should probably be aware that, except for a rather contorted effort by Francesco da Buti (1385), none of the early commentators, generally so fond of allegorizing, offers anything more than a literal reading of the detail. The allegorical reading of the ten steps as ten years is a nineteenth- and twentieth-century discovery, e.g., as it is found in Carroll (1904). [return to English / Italian]

  23. This is the first time Beatrice addresses Dante as “brother.” One senses, again, that her desire to rebuke Dante is (temporarily) suspended. But see vv. 85–90.

  Beatrice for the first time, and in keeping with the spirit of her citation of John 16:16 in vv. 10–12, turns her attention to the future, and to Dante’s future, now that the world’s and his own sinful past have been dealt with. [return to English / Italian]

  25–28. Benvenuto (1380) compares Dante to a student in the presence of his teacher, and indeed this is the opening moment in what might be called Dante’s education in theology, which will last for another thirty cantos. [return to English / Italian]

  31–33. Before she presents her prophecy, Beatrice charges Dante with the responsibility for reporting it precisely, not in the mode of a man who is talking in his sleep. Almost all the commentators take the passage literally and as applying in some general way. But Beatrice’s words are very hard on poor Dante, since she makes it clear that, at least in her (infallible) opinion, his actual words, uttered at some previous time, have indeed been correctly characterized in this way. But when? Perhaps the later passage in this canto (vv. 85–90) that is devoted to his previous intellectual meanderings may shed some light on exactly what she means. For now the subject is left unexplored. [return to English / Italian]

  34–36. The language, referring to the destruction of the Church as detailed in the preceding canto, is distinctly reflective of the Apocalypse (Apoc. 17:8, “The beast that you saw was, and is not”).

  The word suppe (here translated “hindrance” only to make sense in its context) has been variously understood. Many of the early commentators believed it referred to the cakes left on the tomb of a murderer’s victim in a Greek custom reborn in Florence; if the murderer came to the tomb and ate of these cakes for nine consecutive days, he would then be safe from the offended family’s vengeance (and for that reason the families of the slain person would keep watch over the tomb). See Portirelli (1804) for a restatement of this interpretation, which is at least as old as the commentary of Jacopo della Lana. Others think the reference is to the bread soaked in wine on which an oath is sworn between vassal and lord; still others of the offal which the veltro will despise (see Inf. I.103), and which is related to the “sop” to Cerberus of Aeneid VI.420. None of these “sops,” however, would seem to offer a cause for fear, and are thus difficult to rationalize in this context. [return to English / Italian]

  37–42. The opening verses of Beatrice’s extended prophecy seem clearly to indicate that the one who will come is related to the eagle of empire, i.e., that beneficent Roman empire that had begun so well under Augustus and then had become corrupt. It seems difficult to believe that this, as some maintain, is not an imperial prophecy. [return to English / Italian]

  43–45. This enigmatic passage has drawn an extraordinary amount of contradictory opinion. For a review of the entire question, see Pietro Mazzamuto, “Cinquecento diece e cinque,” ED II (1970), pp. 10b–14b. It is also helpful to consult Charles Davis’s similar review of the first and similar prophecy in the poem, the veltro (hound) of Inferno I.101 (“veltro,” ED V [1976], pp. 908a–912b). Most now argue, whether or not they believe that the number, if expressed by the Roman numerals DXV, is an anagram of DUX (or “leader” [the Roman “V” and “U” being equivalent letters]), that the context of the passage makes it apparent that Beatrice is here indicating the advent of a temporal leader, one who will deal with the excesses of the king of France and the delinquent Church. Further, if the canto is taken as having been written before his death in August 1313, many believe that the prophecy points to Henry VII. Some also believe that if the first reference is to a political leader, it also points beyond him to the second coming of Christ, the final emperor. See Hollander (Holl.1969.1)
, pp. 184–90, and the note to Inferno I.100–105. A standard and useful treatment of the problem remains that of Moore (Moor.1903.1), pp. 253–83. [return to English / Italian]

  46–51. The general sense of this passage is clear: future events will make plain the terms of the cloudy prophecy, which is compared to those made by Themis (Ovid, Metam. I.375–394) and by the Sphinx. Both of these monstrous females later appear in the same passage in Ovid (Metam. VII.759–765), where their hatred of humans is, as here, described in terms of the loss of human and animal life in the countryside. The key lines in the modern text of Ovid run as follows: “Carmina Laïades non intellecta priorum / solverat ingeniis …” (The son of Laius [Oedipus] solved the riddles which had baffled the intellects of all before him). We are close to being absolutely sure, however, that the text as Dante knew it substituted “Naïades” for “Laïades” and showed a plural form of the verb (solverant). And so Dante believed that it was the Naiads, water nymphs, who had solved the riddle of the Sphinx. This was the cruel monster who cast herself down from her rock, whence she had been killing clueless Thebans, once Oedipus realized that the variously footed creature in her riddle was man (the story that we know from Sophocles’ Oedipus, unknown, like nearly all of Greek letters, to Dante).

  Dante does not “nod” often, but this is one of the most egregious errors in the Comedy, even if it has some reasonable excuse behind it. In fact, all of the early commentators accept Dante’s reading, thus indicating that their texts also had “Naiads” where they should have had Laius’s son. The better reading had to wait for Nikolaes Heinsius (1620–81), the Dutch Latin poet and scholar, one of the great Renaissance textual editors of the Latin classics. His edition (Florence, 1646) of the Metamorphoses restored the reading Laïades. It is thus only with the commentary of Venturi (1732) that the better reading is made known to the world of Dante’s commentators, and even then some of them try to object to it, seeking a way to understand the Naiads as interpreters of prophetic utterance. Ghisalberti (Ghis.1932.1) offers a comprehensive discussion of the problem. [return to English / Italian]

  52. Beatrice’s use of the verb notare here may remind us of its last use with this sense (setting something down as a text) in Dante’s self-description as inspired poet, one who only records what he hears from the “dictator” (Purg. XXIV.53). [return to English / Italian]

  54. Dante’s often admired phrase, describing life as a “correre alla morte” (race to death) reflects St. Augustine (DcD XIII.10): “Our time for this life is nothing other than a race to death (cursus ad mortem),” as was suggested by Mattalia (1960). [return to English / Italian]

  55–57. As her scribe, Dante is instructed by Beatrice not to conceal from his eventual readers the condition of the tree, now robbed of its possessions twice. Bosco/Reggio (1979) review the divided opinions of the early commentators, who variously believe that the reference is to Adam and the giant, to Adam and the eagle, or to the eagle and the giant. In their view, all three seem plausible glosses. However, it has seemed to others that, since, from Beatrice’s words we gather that Dante has witnessed these two devastations (and not that of Adam, which is referred to in a following tercet [vv. 61–63]), it is the first and last attacks upon the tree that are referred to here: its defoliation by the eagle (the imperial persecutions of Purg. XXXII.112–114) and its having the chariot detached from it by the giant (the removal to Avignon, referred to in Purg. XXXII.158). [return to English / Italian]

  58–63. Beatrice’s accusation now widens, blaming Adam as the first despoiler of the tree and praising Christ for redeeming him. For the calculation of the length of Adam’s life (930 years) and of his punishment in Limbo (4,302 years) see Paradiso XXVI.118–120 and the note to that passage. After 25 March the year 1300 is the 6,499th year since the creation of Adam. [return to English / Italian]

  66. For the downward-pointing branches of the tree, set at an angle that makes climbing it difficult or impossible, see Purgatorio XXXII.40–42. [return to English / Italian]

  67–78. For a paraphrase of this somewhat contorted utterance see the Outline of this canto. [return to English / Italian]

  67. The river Elsa in Tuscany, because of its high concentration of minerals, was known for the crusting overlay it would leave on objects immersed in it. [return to English / Italian]

  69. For Pyramus, Thisbe, and the mulberry tree, see the note to Purgatorio XXVII.37–42. [return to English / Italian]

  72. The word “moralmente” was understood, even in some of the earliest commentators (e.g., Jacopo della Lana [1324]), as having a technical meaning here, i.e., “con lo senso tropologico” (with the tropological [i.e., third] sense [of fourfold exegesis of the Bible]). See the section on allegory in the introduction to Inferno. Various later commentators are of the same opinion, e.g., Tommaseo (1837), Scartazzini (1900), Poletto (1894). What this signifies is that the meaning applies now to current history. God’s original “interdiction,” broken by Adam, whose sin was redeemed by the cross on which Christ sacrificed Himself, is now binding on us, as well, even though we are at least potentially saved. Even now we, new Adams, are not meant to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. [return to English / Italian]

  77–78. That is, Dante, bringing back this message, will seem like a pilgrim returned from the Holy Land, his “staff” decorated with the sign of the distant and holy place to which he has been. [return to English / Italian]

  79–84. These lines offer a fairly rare instance of a speaker in the poem expressing himself by use of a simile. Dante is saying that what Beatrice tells him seems to be completely clear, but that he really cannot understand what she means. [return to English / Italian]

  85–90. Beatrice is charging Dante with having attempted to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As some commentators (e.g., the Ottimo [1333], Scartazzini [1900]) have understood, the point here seems to be that Dante turned from theology to philosophy in his effort to do that. The current majority view of the nature of Dante’s aberration is well represented by Bosco/Reggio (1979): Dante had, in the Convivio, set theology to one side in order to study philosophy, a decision he now deplores. For the notion that this fairly common view is incorrect, see Scott (Scot.1991.1). [return to English / Italian]

  94–99. Beatrice’s response to Dante is worthy of the Inquisition. That he can no longer remember his sins (because he has drunk from Lethe, the river of oblivion) is proof that he had committed them. [return to English / Italian]

  97. Dante’s phrasing, “if from seeing smoke we argue there is fire,” might remind a reader of St. Augustine’s discussion of signs in De doctrina christiana (II.i.1): “A sign is a thing that causes us to think of something beyond the impression the thing itself makes on the senses. Thus, if we see a track, we think of the animal that made the track; if we see smoke, we know that there is a fire that causes it” (translation adapted from that of D. W. Robertson, Jr., italics added). [return to English / Italian]

  100–102. Not only does Beatrice speak more plainly for the rest of this canto, but the poet does as well, allowing most of his verse to be more immediately understandable than is his custom. [return to English / Italian]

  103–105. The sun takes “slower steps” the higher it is above us, moving quickest at dawn and dusk, slowest as it approaches and departs from noon. While the absolute position of the sun is not in doubt, the earthly observer will have a sense of the location of the meridian circle containing it that varies according to that observer’s position. [return to English / Italian]

  112. Dante indicates to the reader that he knows very well that the rivers in the garden of Eden in fact (i.e., in Genesis 2:14) include Tigris and Euphrates (and not Lethe and Eunoe, which are here by his invention). See the note to Purgatorio XXVIII.127–132. [return to English / Italian]

  119. While it is only now that we hear Matelda’s name, we have observed her actions so long that we may feel that we understand her function. See the notes to Purgatorio XXV
III.1 and 40–42. [return to English / Italian]

  121–123. Matelda did indeed tell Dante the name of this river (Eunoe) at Purgatorio XXVIII.131. As opposed to his forgetting his sins in Lethe he is now forgetting the promise of that good resolution of his plight, so deeply, we may well imagine, has he been stung by Beatrice’s accusations. [return to English / Italian]

  128–135. Only now, and in less than completely clear terms, do we learn about Matelda’s function in the garden, which seems to be to serve as “baptizer” of the souls as they finish their purification, first in Lethe (as she draws Dante through that river at Purg. XXXI.91–102) and finally in Eunoe. There is a dispute as to whether or not Matelda’s role in the garden is Dante-specific (which it has been, from all that we have seen, until now) or “universal” (see the note to Purg. XXVIII.40–42). Indeed, Contini has argued (Cont.1976.1), p. 174n., that the verb usa (as you are accustomed) in the present tense should be understood as a past definite (già praticasti [as once you used to]) and thus implies that Matelda had such a role in Dante’s earlier life. This is a case of interpreting (or indeed revising) the text in order to create or preserve a desired interpretation. Contini’s point would be worth considering except for a single, crucial, and indeed determinative final point, Matelda’s last words in the poem, which are addressed to Statius (vv. 134–135): “Now come with him.” Thus, and only at the very last moment, we learn that Matelda’s function in the garden is not limited to ministrations on behalf of Dante alone (i.e., she deals either with all the saved souls who come through here or with some of them). (See Filippo Villani’s similar view in Bellomo’s edition of his commentary to Inf. I [Bell.1989.1], p. 92, n. 90.) To be sure, Dante alone is mentioned as receiving her ministrations at the river Lethe (Purg. XXXI.91–105). From this later passage, however, we are probably forced to consent to the notion that she there presided over Statius’s submersion as well as Dante’s, a scene that, like much involving Statius’s (and Virgil’s) presence in the garden, is allowed to disappear from Dante’s page. For this view see Singleton (Sing.1958.1), p. 181, n. 17. [return to English / Italian]