Paradiso (The Divine Comedy series Book 3)

by Dante

  Hollander (Holl.1980.2), p. 128, returning to this subject, offers a hypothetical reason for Dante’s change of mind: The poet wanted to associate his own vernacular Italian, in which the name of God coincides with Adamic pre-Hebrew vernacular, with that first of all vernaculars. And he might have cited (but in fact did not) the following passage in De vulgari (I.vi.2): “For whoever is so misguided as to think that the place of his birth is the most delightful spot under the sun may also believe that his own language—his mother tongue, that is—is pre-eminent among all others; and, as a result, he may believe that his language was also Adam’s” (tr. S. Botterill). This mocking of boosters of their own inconsequential towns perhaps also conveys Dante’s own hidden claim in the Commedia: Dante’s version of Tuscan is to be seen as in some way resurrecting Adamic vernacular, coinciding in the vowel “I,” which is the name of God in each. For a similar opinion, see Moevs (Moev.2005.1), p. 183. And see Paradiso XXIX.17 for the dative pronoun “i” referring to God.

  One might also speculate that Dante considered El as the name of God associated with Hebrew “grammaticality,” the written language of the scribes of the Bible; for this reason he must retract his earlier opinion (El) in favor of a truly “vernacular” solution (I). Further, we may reflect that when he considered the context of his remark in De vulgari (I.iv.4), he surely would have noted that there he had characterized Adam’s first word as an emotive exclamation, indeed a cry of joy. The word I, which we have just heard Adam use in the preceding verse (“pria ch’i’ scendessi”), may sound and feel “vernacular,” while El may sound and feel “grammatical,” that is, like a language learned in school. [return to English / Italian]

  135. God the Father had been stern with sinful Adam for more than five thousand years; then his Son drew him forth from the Limbus up to the Empyrean. We hear nothing of the possibility of purgation for pre-Christian Christians and so must assume that in His triumph (Par. XXIII.20), when he harrowed Hell, He brought them straight “home.” Anything less charitable (i.e., a visit to Purgatory) would seem picky, wouldn’t it? And so here is a paradox: Some saved Christians, even most (and it seems likely that this restriction applies to all but the saintliest of saints), bound for Heaven must pass through purgation, while the virtuous Hebrews who were harrowed by Christ (if not all the saved pagans—we do see Cato and Statius on the Mount of Purgatory) apparently do not have to repay any of their sins on earth. Merely a moment’s reflection puts David and Solomon in the dock of our understandable sense of retributive justice.… [return to English / Italian]

  136. For El as a name of God, see the note to verse 134. And see Moore (Moor.1889.1), pp. 487–92, for the history of this tormented verse in the manuscripts. [return to English / Italian]

  137–138. The recognition of the Horatian source (Ars poetica 60–63) of these verses begins with Benvenuto da Imola (comm. to vv. 124–129). Here is Horace, as cited, with a translation by Singleton (comm. to these verses):

  ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos,

  prima cadunt; ita verborum vetus interit aetas,

  et iuvenum ritu florent modo nata vigentque.

  debemur morti nos nostraque.…

  [As forests change their leaves with each year’s decline,

  and the earliest drop off: so with words, the old race dies,

  and, like the young of human kind, the new-born bloom and thrive.

  We are doomed to death—we and all things ours.] [return to English / Italian]

  139–142. The question of the length of time spent by Adam in Eden before the Fall is not uniformly dealt with. On the other hand, and as Thomas Hill (Hill.1982.1), p. 94, has demonstrated, Dante is not alone in stating that the first man’s innocence lasted only between six and seven hours, citing Petrus Comestor and Gulielmus Durandus as preceding him in this opinion.

  Dante obviously felt that the detail was of great enough interest to make it the climactic, canto-ending detail.

  Brownlee (Brow.1990.1), p. 396, points out that this period corresponds more or less exactly to the amount of time Dante himself has recently spent in the garden of Eden (see Purg. XXVII.133 and XXXIII.103–105). He might have added that Dante also spends six hours with Adam and his companions here in the Starry Sphere (starting at Par. XXII.129). See the note to Paradiso XXVII.79–81. And see the similar observation offered by P. Sabbatino, L’Eden della nuova poesia: Saggi sulla “Divina Commedia” (Florence: Olschki, 1991), p. 99, pointing out that Dante enters the earthly paradise on the sixth day of his otherwordly journey at the sixth hour of the day, while Adam, on the sixth day of Creation, fell at the sixth hour and while Christ was crucified to redeem fallen mankind at the sixth hour as well. Sabbatino’s observation of these numerical similarities is cited by Bognini (Bogn.2007.1), p. 82 (n. 32). [return to English / Italian]

  PARADISO XXVII

  * * *

  1–3. In celebration of the completion of Adam’s “education” of Dante in the eighth sphere—where Dante spends six hours (see Par. XXII.152, XXVII.79–81, and cf. Adam’s six hours in Eden) and six cantos, the longest time spent in any sphere—the entire consistory of heaven, first seen in Paradiso XXIII.19–33 and 82–139, now sings the “Gloria” to the Trinity. Bosco/Reggio point out that the poem contains the “great prayers” of the Church: “Paternoster” (Purg. XI.1–24), “Credo” (Par. XXIV.130–41), “Ave Maria” (Par. XXXIII.1–21), “Te Deum” (Purg. IX.139–41; Par. XXIV.112–14), and “Sanctus” (Par. XXVI.69). Here once again the souls sing in Italian. It seems possible that the blessed and the angels use Latin when they sing to one another and that, when they sing of Dante, their language is Italian. For the songs heard in this canticle, see the note to Paradiso XXI.58–60.

  For Dante’s “drunkenness” see Jeremiah 23:9, “quasi vir ebrius” (like a man who is drunk); but see also, as Bosco/Reggio cite Consoli as noting, Vita nuova III.2, where Dante, upon first hearing Beatrice’s voice, was taken by “tanta dolcezza, che come inebriato mi partio da le genti” (became so ecstatic that, like a drunken man, I turned away from everyone [tr. M. Musa]). He has come full circle. [return to English / Italian]

  4–6. Insisting on his “drunkenness,” the poet now says that to the first cause (the singing) was added a second inebriant, what seemed to him no less than a smile of universal proportions. [return to English / Italian]

  7–9. The five conditions apostrophized by the poet (happiness, joy, love, peace, riches) are all usually associated with life in this world. Here they are all rather imagined in their transmuted spiritual forms. [return to English / Italian]

  9. The word brama occurs six times in the poem and is always associated with a low longing, especially for wealth; in fact, it is twice associated with wolves (Inf. I.49; Par. IV.4). Bosco/Reggio (comm. to verse 9) cite Convivio III.xv.3: “[il desiderio] essere non può con la beatitudine, acciò che la beatitudine sia perfetta cosa e lo desiderio sia cosa defettiva” (desire is something that cannot coexist with blessedness, since blessedness is something perfect and desire something defective—tr. R. Lansing). [return to English / Italian]

  10–15. Peter, about to reenter the action as the primus inter pares yet again, has his flame turn from white to red. The pseudo-simile has it that Peter went from white to red as would Jupiter were he to exchange plumage with Mars; against those who find the figure of speech “strange” or “forced,” Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1997.1), p. 743, points out that an ancient tradition of representation presented the planets as birds, with rays as their feathers. Scott, in his essay “Su alcune immagini tematiche di Paradiso XXVII” (Scot.1977.1, pp. 195–237), demonstrates the precision of Dante’s apparently forced figure: The just God (Jove) will demonstrate His justness by righteous indignation (i.e., Mars-like—pp. 196–202). [return to English / Italian]

  16–18. Tozer (comm. to vv. 16–17) explains the reference as being to that aspect of Providence “ ‘which in Heaven assigns to each his fitting time and part’; vice is the occasion when this
or that person is to act, offizio the function which he is to perform. For the general principle which is here expressed, cp. Par. XXI.67–72” (i.e., Peter Damian expressing his subservience to God in accepting his mission to Dante). [return to English / Italian]

  19–21. Peter looks ahead to the transmogrification of every member of the Church Triumphant, reddening with righteous anger, when he unleashes his harsh words. Significantly enough, this is treated as occurring only after his reference to Satan in verse 27. [return to English / Italian]

  22–24. Despite Peter’s vehemence about Rome’s centrality to the papacy, it is good to keep in mind the observation of V. H. H. Green (cited by Scott [Scot.2004.1], p. 253n.), that between 1100 and 1304 (and we should be aware of Dante’s insistence on the rightness of their being there), the popes were more absent from Rome than present, 122 years vs. 82 years. Further, for Dante, Boniface was both a bad pope and an improperly elected one. On either (or both) of those grounds, he may have considered the Papal See “vacant” in 1300, and thus felt he could represent Satan’s particular pleasure in Boniface’s improper stewardship. However, it seems likely that the passage is also meant to reflect the scandalously long period between the death of Bertrand de Got, Pope Clement V (20 April 1314), and the election of yet another Frenchman, Jacques d’Euse, as Pope John XXII (5 September 1316). On the other hand, it also seems probable that, to Dante’s eyes, if Boniface had left the papacy “vacant” because of his various shortcomings, both of his successors, one having moved the papacy to France and the other having kept it there, had left its true seat, in Rome, vacant. (Scartazzini [comm. to vv. 10–27] is of a somewhat different opinion, believing that Dante considered the Papal See “vacant” when John XXII, a simoniac pope if ever there was one, ruled the Church; half a dozen more recent commentators are also of this opinion.)

  Tommaseo (comm. to vv. 22–24) was apparently the first to point out that the repeated phrase “il luogo mio” recapitulates Jeremiah 7:4, the thrice-repeated “templum Domini” (the Lord’s temple). He is seconded by a number of other commentators between Poletto and Fallani, but then the commentaries go silent on this ascription.

  Peter’s triple repetition, not quite unique in the poem (see the santo, santo, santo of Par. XXVI.69), is nonetheless notable, perhaps reminding the reader of the Trinity as well as of the triple-tiered tiara worn by the pope. [return to English / Italian]

  25–27. For a discussion of this penultimate, if intrinsic, assault on Boniface, see Massimo Seriacopi (Seri.2003.1), pp. 220–25. The author goes on to describe Dante’s general attitude toward this great figure in the history of the papacy as follows: “[Boniface is to Dante] at once the pope and a simoniac; magnificent and yet obtuse; full of energy but arrogant” (p. 226). His book concludes with a helpful review of the varying views of Boniface, found in Dante’s margins, put forward by the fourteenth-century commentators (pp. 239–57). For a papal attempt (that of Benedict XV in 1921) to square Dante’s poem with the Church’s teaching, see Maria Lorena Burlot (Burl.2003.1), p. 551. [return to English / Italian]

  28–30. This detail is drawn from Ovid (Metam. III.183–185): Diana’s blush as seen by Actaeon. (See Grandgent [comm. to verse 28].) That blush fits the context of the blush of shame attributed to Beatrice in verse 34. [return to English / Italian]

  31–36. D’Ancona (Danc.1913.1), p. 460, was among the first to insist (see Steiner [comm. to vv. 31–34], in disagreement) that Beatrice went pale, that is, did not grow red with indignation. (But see Poletto’s [comm. to vv. 31–34] earlier report of Giuliani’s still earlier and similar interpretation, which he, similarly, does not accept.) This view has, nonetheless, been followed by a number of twentieth-century Dantists. But see Scott (Scot.1977.1), p. 209, for a rebuke of those who so argue. And see Bosco/Reggio (comm. to vv. 28–36) for a view similar to his; however, they go on to argue that the reference to the eclipse at Christ’s Passion (see Matthew 27:45) reflects not only her darkening, but that of all the saints of the Church Triumphant temporarily gathered here. [return to English / Italian]

  33. What probably makes the passage more difficult than it really should be is the adjective timido, understood by the early commentators as “ashamed” (a word readily associated with blushing), while modern ones think it means “timid” (an adjective more likely associated with facial pallor). The last seems a less likely significance, given the context. [return to English / Italian]

  37–39. Peter’s voice (vv. 19–27) was, we may be surprised to learn, not as angry in that utterance as it is soon to be. When we read back over the passage (vv. 19–39), we realize that the poet has carefully staged the development of this scene: (1) preparation for the change in color (vv. 19–21); (2) the occurrence of that change (vv. 28–36); (3) the further change in the quality of Peter’s voice (vv. 37–39). Cf. Dante’s own two-stage “drunkenness” in vv. 1–6, first at a sound, then at a sight. Here Peter modulates his appearance first, and then his voice. [return to English / Italian]

  40–45. Peter begins a list of some martyred popes with himself; he refers to or names six others in all. These may be broken down into three pairs, one from each of the first three centuries of the Church’s life (Linus and Cletus, Sixtus and Pius, Calixtus and Urban). [return to English / Italian]

  46–48. Christ will come in judgment and divide his flock into sheep (those who are saved) and goats (those eternally damned). The sitting pope (in 1300, Boniface VIII) is charged with dividing his people into two political factions, the Guelphs loyal to him (his sheep) and his Ghibelline enemies (the goats). This does not mean that Dante limited his list of papal offenders in this respect to one. [return to English / Italian]

  49–51. The first four of Peter’s complaints (vv. 40–54) about papal misconduct seem both generalizable and yet specific to Boniface’s reign (1294–1303). The papacy was often portrayed by Dante as using its temporal power incorrectly; this passage may particularly remember Boniface’s “crusade” against the Colonna family, already alluded to in Inferno XXVII.85–90, as Benvenuto (comm. to vv. 49–54) was the first to suggest. [return to English / Italian]

  52–54. This tercet reflects the sale of ecclesiastical privileges that bore the papal seal, the image of St. Peter. [return to English / Italian]

  55–57. Now we descend to the lesser ranks of the clergy. See Matthew 7:15 for the warning against wolves in sheep’s clothing, applied to those priests who betray their calling (and their parishioners).

  See Marietti (Mari.2003.1), pp. 435–40, for the way in which Dante considers himself a descendant of the prophet Jeremiah here and throughout the Comedy. And see Sapegno (comm. to these verses) for a citation of the prophet’s outcry against those shepherds who harm their flocks (Jeremiah 23:1). [return to English / Italian]

  58–60. Two French popes, the Gascon Clement V (1305–14—see the note to Inf. XIX.79–87) and John XXII (1316–34) of Cahors (for that city’s association with usury, see the note to Inf. XI.46–51), will attempt to gather wealth from the Church founded by the blood of the first martyred popes, representing the good beginning that will have so foul an end. [return to English / Italian]

  61–63. A first prophetic utterance, leading into the fuller prophecy at the end of the canto (vv. 142–148): Providence, which sided with Scipio (in 202 b.c. at the battle of Zama) to maintain Rome’s glory in the world (and it is clear that the text refers to imperial, and not ecclesiastical, Rome), will soon act to set things straight, as Peter conceives (for the force of this verb, see the notes to Inf. II.7–9, Inf. XXXII.1–9, and Purg. XXIX.37–42).

  For Dante’s lofty sense of Scipio, see Hollander and Rossi (Holl.1986.1), pp. 65–69. For his persistent presence in Convivio (IV.v), Monarchia (II.ix), and Commedia (Inf. XXXI, Purg. XXIX, Par. VI, and here), see the table (Holl.1986.1), p. 75, also listing the various appearances of the dozen and a half republican heroes referred to in Dante’s works.

  It is surely striking that, at the climax of his antipapal outburs
t, he turns to a great political figure and not to a religious one. For an earlier and more developed presentation of this view, see Scott (Scot.1977.1), pp. 216–20. A similar political frame of reference may inform Beatrice’s prophecy of the fortuna (verse 145) at the end of the canto. [return to English / Italian]

  64–66. These are the last words spoken by any character in the poem, except for Dante, Beatrice, and Bernard. Peter joins those who charge mortal Dante with his prophetic task, Beatrice (Purg. XXXII.103–105; XXXIII.52–57) and Cacciaguida (Par. XVII.124–142), thus making threefold the source of the poet’s authority to reveal his vision. This represents his final investiture in his role as God’s prophet.

  Peter’s flat-out acknowledgment that Dante is here in his flesh finally sets that question to rest. See previous discussions in the notes to Paradiso I.73, II.37–45, and XXII.129. [return to English / Italian]

  67–72. The Sun is in Capricorn (the Goat) in late December and the first two-thirds of January, when we earthlings may well witness snowflakes falling downward through the air. Just so did Dante see the souls in whom the celestial Rose consists making their way back up (and thus through the Primum Mobile) to the Empyrean. This is not, as we may first think, a reversal of gravity. The celestial pull is the obverse of the terrestrial one, upward toward God. They are snowing themselves back home. They have been away since Paradiso XXIII.19, more than five hundred verses in five cantos, and for roughly the same six hours that Dante has spent here.