Purgatorio (128 page)

42.
   The thoughts behind the verses are “hard” because of their exalted and difficult subject—allegories of the Bible—according to De Fazio (DeFa.1993.1), p. 435.
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43–45.
   Like Matelda, who also seemed other than what she finally comes to mean to the protagonist, the seven candlesticks (verse 50) are perceived first and erroneously by him as seven trees. Carroll (1904) comments upon them as follows: “They represent the seven ‘gifts of the Spirit,’ as named in the Vulgate of Isaiah 11:2–3, namely, Wisdom, Intellect, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.” Dante discusses them in
Convivio
IV.xxi.11–12.
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47–51.
   The “common object” is a technical term derived from Scholastic discussions of sense perception. Strictly speaking, it refers to things that can be perceived simultaneously by more than one of the five senses (e.g., taste and touch and perhaps smell for something in one’s mouth; or sight, smell, and hearing [an animal in a field]) and are thus more likely to be misperceived. For instance, one might have a pebble in one’s mouth and smell a clove and think the pebble is a candy; or one might be looking at a horse in the distance in a cow pasture and smell manure, thus taking horse for cow. Dante discusses the term as the
sensibile comune
(that which is perceivable by several senses) in
Convivio
III.ix.6.

Dante here has two senses in play, sight and hearing. He was thus at first unable to make out what is being uttered (see verse 36) nor what is present at the uttering. By now he realizes that the “trees” are candlesticks and the song “Hosanna.” Dante is, strictly speaking, “cheating,” in that it is not the combination of confused senses that caused his problem, but merely distance, in each case.

The word
Osanna
, an untranslatable expression of joyous praise, is Dante’s most frequent Hebraism in the
Comedy
(see the note to
Purg
. XI.11). It derives from the salute to Jesus offered as he enters Jerusalem (Matthew 21:19 [“Hosanna in altissimis”]; Mark 11:10 [“Hosanna in excelsis”]).
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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).
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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
.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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