Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2)

by Dante

  The term galeotto (helmsman, steersman) has been used for Phlegyas, who carried Dante and Virgil across the Styx in his skiff (Inf. VIII.17—galeoto). It had previously been used by Francesca (Inf. V.137), as a proper noun, to cast blame upon the character Gallehault in the Arthurian romance that led, according to her, to her undoing. The present galeotto is surely to be understood as a better-intentioned guide. Dante has been cleansed by Virgil to be in the purified condition fitting for his presence before exactly such a being, “il primo ministro … di paradiso” (Purg. I.98–99). Hell had its guardian demons; purgatory has guardian angels. [return to English / Italian]

  31–36. Virgil’s two balanced exclamations insist on the supernatural abilities of the angel. The first has the effect of reminding us of Ulysses. Where Ulysses made wings of oars (Inf. XXVI.135), this traveler over the same seas before the mount of purgatory requires neither oar nor sail. The word for “oar” was last heard in Ulysses’ speech (as was the phrase “suol marino” [ocean floor] of verse 15 at Inf. XXVI.129). The word for poop deck, poppa, introduced to the poem to describe Ulysses’ position as captain of his ship (XXVI.124, repeated at XXVI.140) now recurs to set this celestial steersman against his less worthy counterpart (verse 43). For this argument see Hollander (Holl.1990.1), pp. 34–35.

  The second tercet, describing the heaven-directed wings of the angel, may remind us of Satan’s (Inf. XXXIV.46–52) huge wings, if only by antithesis. [return to English / Italian]

  38. Lombardi (1791) pointed out that the “uccel divino” (heavenly bird) stands in opposition to the demon Farfarello, a “malvagio uccello” (filthy bird) at Inferno XXII.96. [return to English / Italian]

  39. This is the first time in the poem that Dante is “blinded by the light.” Such scenes will recur for the rest of the final two cantiche. [return to English / Italian]

  42. This detail almost necessarily reminds us of the contrary depiction of Charon’s skiff in Aeneid VI.413–414, sinking into the water of the swamp beneath Aeneas’s weight, as Daniello (1568) was perhaps the first to note explicitly. See also Inferno VIII.25–27, when Dante’s weight makes Phlegyas’s skiff sink in the muddy water of the Styx. And see the note to Inferno III.136. [return to English / Italian]

  44. A much-debated text. The vast majority of codices and commentators prefer the variant not chosen by Petrocchi: “tal che parea beato per iscripto” (in such manner as to seem blessed by inscription). Petrocchi chooses the variant “tal che faria beato pur descripto” (in such a way as to render blessed anyone who reads or hears him described). While we strongly side with the majority view, we have followed Petrocchi here as always. Were we to depart from him, our translation would run as follows: “whose look made him seem inscribed in blessedness.” See this writer’s earlier opinion (Holl.1990.1, p. 42): “My own view is that the verse should be read in the spirit of Landino’s gloss, which holds that he seemed ‘inscribed, that is, confirmed in bliss,’ in the sense (also tentatively lent support by Portirelli) that he is written in the Book of Life” (see Apoc. 20:12 and discussion in Holl.1982.1). [return to English / Italian]

  45. Dante’s “more than a hundred” is a poet’s allowable indefinite number, but one based on a very good number indeed, one hundred, number of God (1+0+0 = 1) and of the number of cantos in this poem. [return to English / Italian]

  46–48. The arriving pilgrims, seated in the ship that carries them to purgation and eventual salvation, sing the Psalm of the Exodus, 114–115 in the modern Bible, 113 in the Vulgate. The text states clearly that they sing all of it in their shared exhilaration. For the informing pattern of the Exodus in this canto (and in the poem as a whole) see, among others, Singleton (Sing.1960.1), Tucker (Tuck.1960.1), Freccero (Frec.1986.1), pp. 14–15, 55–69, and Armour (Armo.1981.1).

  For the program of Psalms and hymns utilized by Dante in the Purgatorio see Mastrobuono (Mast.1979.1), pp. 181–89, La Favia (LaFa.1984.1), and Ardissono (Ardi.1990.1). [return to English / Italian]

  49–51. Like the heavenly messenger at the walls of Dis (Inf. IX.100–103), this angel, after blessing his flock, also moves away from those he has helped as quickly as possible, but on this occasion not from disgust at the place in which he finds himself, but to return to Ostia for more saved souls.

  The souls fling themselves upon the shore (si gittar) just as the damned fling themselves (gittansi) upon Charon’s boat (Inf. III.116), but with key elements in the scenes significantly reversed, though both groups are spurred by their desire for justice. [return to English / Italian]

  52–54. The second scene of the canto begins with the mutual pleasure and confusion of the two groups that play the major roles in it, the crowd of pilgrims and the two travelers, both less (in Virgil’s case) and more than saved souls, since Dante is destined to return and will then be a uniquely experienced penitent. [return to English / Italian]

  55–57. As Bosco/Reggio (1979) point out in their commentary to these lines, all the images in them are derived from hunting. The sun (Apollo as archer), now risen above the horizon, shoots its rays (arrows) everywhere, striking the constellation Capricorn, 90 degrees from Aries. Consequently, Capricorn moves several degrees down the sky from its highest point, where it was at dawn. [return to English / Italian]

  60. For the resemblances of the mount of purgatory to Mt. Sinai see Carol Kaske (Kask.1971.1). For her the mountain is not only its former self, site of the divine gift of Ten Commandments to Moses, but a place of Christian pilgrimage under the New Law. [return to English / Italian]

  63. Virgil’s reply to the saved souls identifies himself and Dante as being “pilgrims,” in the generic sense that they are travelers in a foreign land. In a more limited and Christian sense, only Dante and the new arrivals are truly on a pilgrimage. This is the first of nine uses of the noun or adjective peregrino that are distributed through the final two cantiche. For the view that the controlling idea of the Commedia is that of a pilgrimage see, among others, Demaray (Dema.1987.1), pp. 1–60; Basile (Basi.1990.1); Holloway (Holl.1992.3), esp. pp. 57–84; and Picone (Pico.1997.1). [return to English / Italian]

  65. Virgil’s recollection of the difficult journey up through hell is made to reflect the poet’s own formulation in Inferno I.5 exactly: aspra e forte (dense and harsh), the adjectives there referring to the “dark wood” of the world in which Dante found himself at the outset. [return to English / Italian]

  66. These are Virgil’s last words in the canto. In fact he nearly disappears from the scene once Dante and Casella take over center stage. He will be mentioned as forming part of the group of those who are rapt by Casella’s song (verse 115) and as departing in haste with Dante in the canto’s final verse (133). In both cases he is behaving less like a guide than like a lost soul. In a sense, this is the protagonist’s first solo flight in the Commedia, a moment in which he is potentially in command of the situation. His success is hardly dazzling. [return to English / Italian]

  69. Satan, with his three heads, had seemed a maraviglia to the protagonist in Inferno XXXIV.37. In the last canto it was the miraculous “resurrection” of the Christlike humble plant (verse 134) that had seemed a “wonder” to him. Now it is he who causes wonder in the onlookers, since he is present in the flesh. [return to English / Italian]

  70–74. This second simile of the canto compares Dante’s living visage to the olive branch carried by a messenger of peace. In other words, his very presence in this precinct is an additional assurance to the new souls that God’s justice and promise of a kingdom of peace as the final haven for a Christian life was truly offered and truly kept. They have arrived, even if the way before them is uncertain and difficult, since they still have to perform their ritual cleansing of even the memory of sin. Commentators point to two possible Virgilian sources: Aeneid VIII.115–116 and XI.100–101. In the second, messengers from the camp of Turnus, holding up olive branches, seek permission of Aeneas to gather the bodies of the dead for burial; in the first it is Aeneas himself, standing u
pon the puppis (quarterdeck) of his ship, who holds forth the branch of peace to Pallas, son of Evander. Pallas is amazed (obstipuit—verse 121) by Aeneas’s cordial gesture and accedes to it. The entire context there seems to fit the details of Dante’s scene better, Dante as Aeneas “invading” the homeland of those with whom he will be allied. [return to English / Italian]

  76–78. This as yet unidentified soul (we will learn his name, Casella, at verse 91) has recognized Dante and advances to embrace him; Dante, filled with a proper Christian affection, responds to his embracer’s emotion without any personalization, returning love for love without earthly distinctions. It is a very good beginning for a pilgrim in purgatory. [return to English / Italian]

  79–81. This much-admired scene is modeled on another, but which one? Aeneid II.792–794 and VI.700–702 contain three identical lines of verse describing a failed embrace. The first commentators opt for the latter, Aeneas’s attempt to hold fast Anchises’ paternal ghost. But John of Serravalle (1416) thinks, in a departure from that opinion, of Aeneas’s identical effort to embrace the dead form of his wife, Creusa, in the second book. He was followed by Vellutello (1544). Modern commentators almost universally return to the more familiar scene in Book VI, and it has been rare in the last century of glossing to find anyone even contemplating the earlier scene involving Creusa. One would expect, perhaps, that commentators would at least discuss their options. But such is not the case. For reasons to prefer the less favored text, see Hollander (Holl.1990.1, p. 38), pointing out that (1) the poet will later and unmistakably refer to Aeneas’s attempted embrace of Anchises (Par. XV.25–27) and arguing that it would be less than likely for him to do so here as well, since he had two such moments to choose from; (2) the context, in which Casella will shortly be singing a song of love to Dante, would argue for the greater appropriateness of Creusa than Anchises.

  For the apostrophe of the “empty shades, except in seeming” see, as Tommaseo suggested in 1837, Inferno VI.36, the phrase “lor vanità che par persona” (their emptiness, which seems real bodies). The shades of the gluttons there and of all posthumous souls have this in common, but we must wait for Statius’s long disquisition in Canto XXV to learn how the “aerial body” of the dead is produced. [return to English / Italian]

  83. Casella’s smile is the first one we have seen since Limbo, when Virgil smiled to see the poets of antiquity welcome Dante as they prepared to include him in their noble company (Inf. IV.99). Smiles, understandably absent from the visages of those in hell, will be more frequent in purgatory, some dozen of them, and still more so in paradise (two dozen). [return to English / Italian]

  85–87. Only after Dante hears Casella’s voice does he recognize him, so distant seems the world of earth. See the entirely similar moment with Forese Donati (Purg. XXIII.43–45) and one somewhat similar with his sister Piccarda (Par. III.58–63). [return to English / Italian]

  91. Casella, finally named, was obviously, from the context of the scene, a musician. That is really all we know with any certainty about him. Nonetheless, it is clear that he is someone whom Dante actually knew. Whether he was from Florence or Pistoia (or even Siena—the commentators are puzzled and offer these possibilities, most of them plumping for Florence) we do not know. Whether he actually set one or more of Dante’s poems to music, we do not know. For some sense of his possible identity and activity see Peirone, “Casella,” ED I (1970), Bisogni (Biso.1971.1), and Elsheikh (Elsh.1971.1). [return to English / Italian]

  93. Casella has evidently been dead some time (for at least slightly more than three months, as verse 98 will make plain) and Dante wonders why he has been so long between death and his first step toward salvation, arrival in purgatory. Beginning with Poletto (1894) and Moore (Moor.1896.1), p. 168, commentators have seen a connection here with Charon’s unwillingness to take certain of the waiting shades across Acheron (they all are eager to be taken) and in fact picking and choosing among the waiting throng (Aen. VI.315–316). We might continue the thought: In Dante’s poem Charon takes all bound for hell at once; only those bound for purgatory need to be winnowed by the transporting angel, with some having to stay longer in the world, near Ostia, thus mirroring a sort of prepurgation that the poet has invented, offstage, as it were. [return to English / Italian]

  94–105. Casella’s startling narrative at times escapes the sort of attention it requires. This is what we learn: Before the Jubilee Year’s plenary indulgence announced by Pope Boniface in February 1300 (retroactive to Christmas of 1299), all those who came to the region around Ostia, where the souls of the saved are gathered, had to await the pleasure of the angel to be taken aboard the ship that we have just seen Casella and the others disembark from. Before 25 December 1299, Casella was denied many times a seat in the ship. We are forced to understand that he was not gifted with a particularly energetic desire for God; i.e., he was a perfect “brother” to the Dante we meet at the beginning of this canto, a man like those “who think about the way and in their hearts go on—while still their bodies linger” (vv. 11–12). Purgatory thus has three places: the mountain of purgation itself, ante-purgatory, and “pre-ante-purgatory,” located somewhere never described but at or near Ostia. And the laws of this place themselves underwent a change in late 1299, for after that date anyone who wanted to depart for the “holy land” would be accommodated by the angel. (Dante has apparently, on no authority but his own, decided that the plenary indulgence for sinners extended to the souls of the justified dead as well.)

  This requires that we understand that during the past three months Casella did not want to travel south toward heaven. Given his behavior once he arrives at the shore, however, this is not totally surprising. Finally, precisely three months after the merciful decree was made, he decided that he wanted to leave. The date: 25 March 1300, the Florentine New Year. Is it coincidence that this, the most likely date for the beginning of Dante’s journey (see notes to Inf. I.1; I.11; Purg. I.19–21), is also that on which Casella probably set out? Whether or not it is, we have the delightful spectacle of these two miraculous voyagers, each starting somewhere in Italy, one gliding over the seas, the other moving under the earth, arriving at the antipodes within minutes of one another, reunited in friendship and peace. (Poletto’s discussion [1894] of some of these problems is one of the few in which these complex matters are closely and suggestively examined.) [return to English / Italian]

  106–108. The protagonist’s language is laced with diametrically opposed terms: “new law” and “songs of love.” Merely hearing them, one intuits that there is an oppositional relationship between them. Daniello’s commentary (1568) asserts that there is indeed a “new law” in purgatory, where “one does not sing vain and lascivious things, but hymns and psalms in praise of God, and prays to Him.” In this first confrontation, looking ahead to the song not yet sung, the 113th Psalm is that of the “New Law,” and is juxtaposed against the love song that Dante wrote for a woman in the last century. It is this kind that, earthbound as he now again is, the protagonist longs for.

  Petrocchi’s text for verse 108 reads “doglie” (sorrows) and not “voglie” (longings). Hardly any Dantist currently admires this choice, and the vast majority urge a return to the 1921 reading, including the translators. [return to English / Italian]

  111. Dante’s soul, wearied by his bodily weight, remembers his condition at the beginning of Inferno (I.22): in simile, his mind, in stress, is like the breath of a man escaping from death by drowning, affannata (laboring). If he seems better off now than he was then, he is still in considerable difficulty. [return to English / Italian]

  112. Casella’s song is Dante’s song, the second canzone found in Convivio. It was composed in celebration of Lady Philosophy. That sounds innocent or even positive. On the other hand, she is, early on in Convivio, specifically designated as having replaced Beatrice in Dante’s affections. Within the confines of Convivio this is not problematic. In the Commedia, in which Beatrice is the moving force for
so much, it is.

  For discussions of the possibility that Casella actually set this canzone of Dante see Marti (Mart.1962.1), pp. 81–88, and Bisogni (Biso.1971.1). [return to English / Italian]

  113–114. The sweetness of the song is memorable even now, says the poet. One can see why most readers of this scene take these words as confirming the poet’s approval of a positive feeling. But see Inferno XXVI.19–24, where the poet “grieves again” as he “grieved then” for the lost Ulysses. Both Ulysses and his own Convivial ode are marked as temptations the strength of which are both still vividly felt by him, even though he now knows better than to accede to them. [return to English / Italian]

  118–121. Cato’s return was not in the program, as is clear from verse 106 in the previous canto. He evidently believed that this specially privileged Christian visitor to purgatory would know how to behave better than he does. But now he has not only backslid himself, but is involving the whole new contingent of the saved into behaving similarly. Cato sounds exactly like St. Paul, urging them all to “put off the old man and put on the new” (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9). For the closeness of Dante’s thought here to Colossians 2 and 3 see Holl.1975.1, p. 357. See also Hollander (Holl.1990.1), pp. 40–41: “And Cato’s identity here is not only Pauline, for the scene is clearly reminiscent of Moses’s discovery of the falsely worshipping Hebrews before that golden calf (Exodus 32:18–19—see Kaske [Kask.1971.1]) which the text of Psalm 113 had already set before the minds of all who listened to what their own lips were singing only moments before. Echoing God’s command and Moses’s compliance (‘neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount’—Exodus 34:3), Cato sends the music-lovers flying.” For the Pauline references see also Rigo (Rigo.1994.1), pp. 93–94. [return to English / Italian]