by Dante
There is one other problem of literal understanding that is as present today as it has always been, perhaps because it has never been treated, since readers do not see that it is problematic and simply assume that they understand what is meant. The word cima can mean various things (see the note to Purg. XI.91–93), but here it refers either to mountaintops (as we believe it does) or treetops (as it apparently does for most readers). The general sense is clear enough: Exemplary figures and clear arguments are both required to convince a reader. [return to English / Italian]
133–134. The metaphors and similetic comparisons (the poem is a “cry,” equated with the wind; its human subjects, metaphorically mountain peaks [or, according to not a few, treetops]) now make the poem lofty, that is, “tragic” in its stylistic reach. See the note to vv. 127–129. If there the author insisted on the comic essence of his work, he now insists equally vehemently on its tragic (or stylistically lofty) dimension. [return to English / Italian]
139. The reader notes that Dante does not here imagine people reading his poem, but hearing it being read. [return to English / Italian]
142. The poet surely forgets what he has not said at vv. 92–93. If ever there existed a “proof that remains obscure,” that lacuna qualifies.
This canto, with its lavish praise of Cangrande, may be thought of as Dante’s farewell to Verona, written between 1317 and 1318 according to Petrocchi (Petr.1988.2), pp. 335, 337. For the question, still somewhat vexed, of the exact date of Dante’s arrival in Ravenna (we assume soon after he left Verona), see Eugenio Chiarini, “Ravenna,” ED (IV [1973]), pp. 861–64. [return to English / Italian]
PARADISO XVIII
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1–3. This is a more difficult tercet than it may seem. The standard view in the first commentators is that Cacciaguida was delighting in what he had said to his great-great-grandson, while the protagonist was sharing in that joy. Scartazzini (comm. to verse 1) disentangles the tortuous skein of debate over this line, pointing out that the text suggests that each of the two participants contemplates different “words.” He offers what has become the standard modern view: The word verbo must here be understood as a translation of the Scholastic Latin term verbum (e.g., as defined by Thomas Aquinas, ST I, q. 34, a. 1), meaning “concept of the inner mind.” Thus, we at least may conjecture, Cacciaguida was enjoying his understanding, beyond these contingent events, of a higher form of being, in the light of Eternity, while Dante was seeing, sub specie humanitatis, the harmonious relation of his exile to his eventual happiness. This would mark an improvement in his cognition (seeing eventual concord where he was expecting only grief), which, nonetheless, remained limited by his mortal aspirations. To mark the differences in their levels of experience, as Torraca (comm. to this tercet) observes, Dante uses very different verbs: Cacciaguida savors (godeva) completely his inner concept of deity, while the protagonist has but a first taste (gustava) of his own higher awareness. [return to English / Italian]
3. Few commentators point out the obvious (but see at least Carroll [comm. to vv. 1–18]): The third verse reflects Cacciaguida’s promise (Par. XVII.43–45) of an eventual harmonious resolution of the problems inherent in Dante’s exile. The protagonist is now capable of a larger and wider view of the impending events in his life, knowing that they are a part of the divine plan, one that includes his writing this text and that corroborates the rightness of his political decisions in the greater scheme of things. Unlike Cacciaguida, however, he is not yet capable of seeing essences without their contingent trappings. [return to English / Italian]
5–6. Beatrice, perhaps having tuned in on the inner thoughts of both Cacciaguida and Dante, reminds her charge that God takes away any sense of loss in earthly circumstances that the saved may feel, according to Dante’s current understanding. Once saved, a soul is in patria, not in exile any longer.
Beatrice, who has been uncharacteristically silent in Mars (to make room for the poet’s “Cacciaguida voice,” which is expansive), now speaks for only the second time in this heaven. She has smiled twice (Par. XV.71 and XVI.14) and spoken once (Par. XVII.7–12); she will speak once more (vv. 20–21), as briefly as she does now. [return to English / Italian]
7–15. The insistent presence of first-person pronouns and pronominal adjectives in this passage (io is heard four times, the rhyming mio, three) is striking. It reminds us that, from the beginning, we have had to consider the strategic difference between the writing agent and the behaving protagonist, the first seeing all things in the light of his final vision of God, the second experiencing them cumulatively. [return to English / Italian]
8–12. This passage reflects the earlier one at Paradiso I.5–9, which similarly insists on the poet’s incapacity to retell what he has experienced and forgotten, since his memory was not up to containing so momentous an experience. [return to English / Italian]
8. The word conforto, used as a noun to describe another human being (e.g., “that person was my comfort”), has been employed three times before now (Inf. IV.18; Purg. III.22, IX.43), on each occasion assigned to Virgil; here, for the first (and last) time referring to anyone else, it obviously refers to Beatrice. [return to English / Italian]
16–18. Beatrice’s beauty is now understood to mirror the greatest beauty of all, that of God. See the note to Purgatorio XXXI.47–54 for a discussion of the verbal noun piacere, denoting the aesthetic aspect of divinity. For Aquinas on God’s aesthetic dimension, see ST I, q. 39, a. 8, where he argues that “the highest form and paradigm of beauty is the splendor of God as manifested through Christ, to whom … the name ‘Beauty’ is most fittingly attributed” (Masciandaro [Masc.1995.1], p. 329). [return to English / Italian]
19–21. Beatrice “conquers” Dante’s will by compelling him to look away from her eyes in order to turn his attention a final time to the words of his great-great-grandfather. This is the last smile she will direct at Dante for quite some time. See the note to Paradiso XXIII.46–48. [return to English / Italian]
22–27. This simile compares a particularly affection-bearing glance, perceived on earth, to the visibly increased flame of Cacciaguida’s desire to speak again to his descendant. [return to English / Italian]
28–36. Apparently having finished his performance, Cacciaguida, like Solomon (Par. XIV.37–60), returns for an encore. And, like Solomon’s, his has ramifications for our understanding of the genre of his poem. Solomon’s was a hymn to the Resurrection; his is a piece from a Christian martial epic. For this last as a Dantean genre, see Hollander (Holl.1989.1), arguing that, after an initial series of rebuffs to martial epic in Inferno, eventually in Paradiso the poet begins to associate himself, through Cacciaguida, with a Christian poetry of crusade, surely a martial subject. [return to English / Italian]
29. The image of the tree that is nourished from its topmost tip, that is, the “tree” of the saved in the Empyrean by God Himself, may reflect, as Battaglia Ricci suggests (Batt.1995.1, p. 11), biblical language in general or perhaps Matthew 13:22 and/or Ezechiel 47:12. [return to English / Italian]
31–33. See the note to Paradiso IX.38–42 for the sort of fame that is praiseworthy, even in a Christian context. [return to English / Italian]
33. For the word musa as meaning “poet” (or, as seems more likely, “poem,” according to Bosco/Reggio [comm. to this verse]), see the note to Paradiso XV.26. For the meaning “poem,” Bosco/Reggio cite Virgil, Eclogues III.84 and VIII.5; Horace, Epistles I.xix.28; Satires II.vi.17. [return to English / Italian]
34–36. Cacciaguida promises that, as he names each of these heroic figures, it will traverse the “arms” of the cross, looking like lightning flashing in a cloud (cf. the first description of these lights as flames glowing behind alabaster, Par. XV.22–24). [return to English / Italian]
36. This verse is the last spoken by Cacciaguida. See the note to Paradiso XIV.52–57 for the similarly talkative Thomas Aquinas. Of the 628 verses in the heaven of the Sun, 287 are spoken by him (46 percent); o
f the 553 in Mars, 297 are spoken by Cacciaguida (54 percent). [return to English / Italian]
37–51. For Dante’s knowledge of the French tradition of the Neuf preus (Nine Worthies), see Hollander (Holl.1989.1), pp. 83–85, citing Joan Ferrante (Ferr.1984.1), p. 277n., and pointing to the first frontal study of Dante’s eclectic treatment of this traditional subject, a then-forthcoming article by Lauren Scancarelli Seem. See also the discussion in Picone (Pico.2002.5), pp. 268–71. Picone rightly notes that Seem’s article (accepted by Forum Italicum around 1989) never appeared. See also Battaglia Ricci (Batt.1995.1), pp. 13–14. Trucchi (comm. to vv. 34–36) observes only that the exemplary fighters are nine, “a symbolic and perfect number,” but is unaware, as is the entire commentary tradition, of the likely presence of a reference to the Nine Worthies. Seem, in her unpublished article, argues that Dante knew the tradition of these nine heroes, three Jewish, three pagan, three Christian, from either Les Voeux du paon, by Jacques de Longuyon (ca. 1298–1309), or from the earlier Latin and French tradition, dating from the eleventh century (with somewhat differing lists of heroes), that Jacques himself relied on.
The traditional list of the Nove prodi includes five not included in Dante’s revised list (the right-hand column in the two lists below):
Joshua [1 in Dante also]
David Roland [4]
Judas Maccabeus [2 in Dante]
Hector William of Orange [5]
Alexander the Great Renouard [6]
Julius Caesar Robert Guiscard [8]
King Arthur Cacciaguida [9]
Charlemagne [3 in Dante]
Godfrey of Bouillon [7 in Dante]
It seems clear that Dante is taking a canonical list and recasting it to conform to his special purposes. He includes two of the first three and the last pair of names (Joshua, Judas Maccabeus; Charlemagne, Godfrey), dropping the middle four, and then adding five more recent “Christian heroes,” three drawn from fictional treatments, sometimes of historical characters (Roland and William of Orange, if not Renouard) and two from history itself (Robert Guiscard, Cacciaguida), and “updating” the list, which had ended with Duke Godfrey, leader of the First Crusade (1096), by adding last his own ancestor, who had perished, a martyr, in the second (1147). [return to English / Italian]
38. Joshua, successor of Moses as leader of the Israelites, was, in Dante’s Christian eyes, the “first crusader” in that he conquered the Holy Land, restoring it to its rightful populace. [return to English / Italian]
39. This line makes it clear that the protagonist hears the names of the heroes spoken by his ancestor, who thus becomes, for a moment, the “author” of this part of the poem, and thus of a crusading epic. See the note to verse 51. However, and as Iorio (Iori.1989.1), p. 474, reminds us, there is not a word about their battles; this text presents them as they are, now and forever, in the sight of God, literally sub specie aeternitatis, with all that violence behind them. [return to English / Italian]
40. Judas Maccabeus fought successfully against two kings of Syria, both of whom wanted to extirpate the Jewish religion. He eventually was killed by a third in 160 b.c., but his mission had been accomplished by then. [return to English / Italian]
42. “It was joy that whipped that spinning top”: That is, joy “was the impulse which caused the rotation. The homely simile is borrowed from Virgil, Aeneid VII.378–384, where it is applied to Amata’s wild excitement when under the influence of the Fury” (Tozer, comm. to vv. 40–42).
In the days before mechanized toys, children used to keep their top spinning (once they had imparted energy to it by rapidly pulling a cord wrapped around its top) by following it and “whipping” its sides with a long, thin stick, thus maintaining its rotating motion. [return to English / Italian]
43. Charlemagne (742–814) fought against the Saracens in Spain. He is the only emperor in the group. Roland, while a historical figure (counted among the Christian dead at the battle of Roncesvalles), is better known from the Chanson de Roland and other medieval epic poems. [return to English / Italian]
46. William, Duke of Orange (ca. 750–812), adviser of Charlemagne and leader in several military successes of the Christian forces, but still better known from the cycle of poems celebrating his valor. Renouard, while not a historical figure, was perhaps believed by Dante to be one. As Charlemagne and Roland were paired in one cycle of French chansons de geste, so were William and Renouard in another. [return to English / Italian]
47. Godfrey of Bouillon (1058–1100) led the First Crusade, resulting in the conquest of Jerusalem. [return to English / Italian]
48. Robert Guiscard (“Robert the Astute”), a historical figure (1015–85), was also celebrated in a Latin poem, Gesta Roberti Wiscardi. Exactly why Dante wanted to include him in this list is not clear, indeed is the subject of a certain scholarly puzzlement. Further, he violates the chronology established by the inclusion of Godfrey before him. Dante has previously mentioned him (Inf. XXVIII.13–14) as having defeated the Saracens in Puglia, and that may have been his single largest qualification in the poet’s eyes. [return to English / Italian]
49. Cacciaguida has rejoined the temporary residents of the cross and now he also streaks along its radial beam. [return to English / Italian]
51. The word artista, as Hollander (Holl.1992.2), pp. 217–18, has argued, is perhaps used here for the first time in Italian with its modern sense, that is, not only as the practitioner of one of the liberal arts (in this case, music), but as a full-fledged “artist,” both composer and performer of his own work, performing his “mini-epic” of nine crusading spirits, his personal version of the Nine Worthies. Its second such use will be in Paradiso XXX.33, where Dante will join his great-great-grandfather as one of the only two “artists” so designated in the Commedia.
The musical reference of this canto, its concerns so often expressed in musical terms, is studied by Heilbronn-Gaines (Heil.1995.2). [return to English / Italian]
52–69. The ascent from Mars to Jupiter is accomplished during the course of a single action (Dante looks into Beatrice’s eyes [vv. 52–57]), which is amplified by two similes (vv. 58–63, 64–69). The first combines awareness of the slowness of process with the suddenness of the realization that a change has finally occurred; the second presents a subtle change (the return of normal complexion) that follows a fairly dramatic event (a blush of modesty in response to some sort of embarrassment) that recedes perceptibly over a brief period. See the note to vv. 64–66. The first simile refers to the ascent from Mars and arrival in Jupiter in spatial terms, while the second reflects the colors of the two planets, respectively red and silvery white. Each refers to a subtle process, occurring over an indeterminate period of time, that is suddenly perceived as having involved fairly dramatic change. [return to English / Italian]
56–57. As we may have suspected, Beatrice, in this her latest presence to Dante as they both ascend to a new realm, is even more beautiful than ever. See vv. 7–21, the last time he looked upon his lady in the heaven of Mars. [return to English / Italian]
61–62. Dante has become aware that the segment of the ideal circle traversed by his body in each sphere is increasing in circumference the higher he rises, a natural result of his progress up through the heavens. [return to English / Italian]
64–66. Beginning with Scartazzini (comm. to verse 64) and Poletto (comm. to vv. 64–69), some readers have turned to Ovid for a source for this blush in Arachne’s face (Metam. VI.45–49). The scene is a troubling one: Athena appears (first disguised as an old woman) to accept Arachne’s challenge to a contest in weaving. When the goddess reveals herself, the other mortals present show reverence, except for Arachne, whose involuntary blush is only momentary, and quickly fades, like the red sky at dawn. Picone (Pico.2002.5), p. 272, points out that the figuring element and the thing figured are reversed in Dante’s use of the passage, reflecting an even more significant reversal, from a negative experience (Arachne’s transformation into a spider) to a positive
one (the letter M’s transmutation into a lily and then an eagle).
For some resonances of this Ovidian moment, see, among others, Barolini (Baro.1987.1) and Macfie (Macf.1991.1). [return to English / Italian]
70. As Poletto (comm. to vv. 70–72) points out, the word facella (from Latin fax, “torch”) has been used once before to mean “star”; see Purgatorio VIII.89. [return to English / Italian]