Purgatorio (134 page)

51.
   The griffin now binds the
temo
(shaft), by means of which he had been drawing the chariot, to the tree. Most discussants currently believe that this instrument represents Christ’s cross. The first commentators argued that, since Adam’s sin had been disobedience, this scene showed the obedience to which Christ enjoined his Church, a reasonable enough understanding. While embracing it, Benvenuto (1380) reports that some others believe that this ligature is symbolic of the Incarnation, while still others believe it is related to the cross. This last interpretation eventually became dominant, and remains so today.

It was only with Scartazzini (1900), however, that the most likely source for this tercet, the fourteenth chapter of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, which Scartazzini claims is also the source of the lengthy paraphrase found in the gloss to the passage by Francesco da Buti (1385), came to light. Any number of medieval legends were developed from this text (see Longfellow [1867]). In it, Adam’s noncanonical son Seth visits the gates of the garden of Eden, now a wasteland, in search of some oil to ease Adam’s aching head (Adam has been in Limbo for nearly five thousand years). Seth is not allowed to enter by the guardian angel, but does see a very tall tree, denuded of its leaves. The angel gives him a branch from the tree (it is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) which he brings back to Adam, who has died before Seth returns to Limbo with the branch. Planted, it soon supplied the wood that would serve for the crucifixion of Jesus.

For a brief discussion of the “Legend of the Wood of the Cross” as being applicable to Dante’s phrasing here see Moore (Moor.1903.1), pp. 219–20. For these legends see Mussafia (Muss.1869.1). It is remarkable that the Gospel of Nicodemus has not made its way into other commentaries to this tercet, since it has been a staple of commentators since Torraca (1905 [to
Inf
. IV.54]) as a probable source for Dante’s sense of the harrowing of hell, witnessed by Virgil, as it is described in
Inferno
IV.52–63.
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52–60.
   The rays referred to are those of the sun when it moves from Pisces into Aries, i.e., at the first buds of springtime, and before the sun moves on and into Taurus. Our natural season of blossoming is compared, in this simile, to the miraculous and instantaneous flowering of the tree that had so long been dead, the color of its blossoms reminiscent of Christ’s blood.
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61–62.
   Dante leaves us with another of his little mysteries. What was the “hymn” that he heard sung but could not understand, except to know that it is not sung on earth? Dante tells us as much and, as a result, the Ottimo (1333) reasons, we cannot identify it. However, is there a hymn, known to be sung in Heaven, that we on earth have never heard?

The word
inno
(hymn) occurs six times in the poem in five passages (
Inf.
VII.125;
Purg.
VIII.17; XXV.127 & 129; here;
Par
. XIV.123). In the occurrences previous to this one the word has been used once antiphrastically, to denigrate Plutus’s unintelligible shout, and then, in its next two appearances, to refer to the hymns “Te lucis ante” and “Summae Deus clementiae,” respectively. In other words, until now
inno
has either been used antiphrastically and thus in a general sense (i.e., “an utterance not like a hymn”) or with exactitude to indicate a particular Christian hymn. (For the final appearance of
inno
see the note to
Par
. XIV.118–126.) Are we supposed to be able to identify this song? It would be unusual for Dante to have introduced a riddle without offering us the grounds for solving it. We are looking for a song with two characteristics: it must be unknown on earth and it almost certainly must be in celebration of Jesus’ victory over death. Is there such a song? John of Serravalle (1416) thought so: the last book of the Bible speaks of a
canticum novum
(new song) that is sung before the throne of God (Apocalypse 14:3), a citation found, surprisingly enough, only once again in the commentary tradition (Steiner [1921] and then possibly again, referred to glancingly but not definitively by Trucchi [1936]). Kaske (Kask.1974.1), pp. 206–7, however, while unaware that he had at least two precursors, also sees a reference here to the
canticum novum
of Revelation. Kaske cites Apocalypse 5:9, which is also apposite, if the similar passage at 14:3 has a certain priority, as we shall see. In Revelation 5, Christ comes as a slain lamb (Apocalypse 5:6) to judge humankind, at which the twenty-four elders and the four Gospel beasts lower themselves before the king (5:8) and sing a “new song”
(canticum novum)
: “You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof;
for you were slain and have redeemed us to God
.…” (5:9, italics added). The related passage (Apocalypse 14:3) deepens the resonances with
Purgatorio
XXXII: “And they sang as it were a new song
[canticum novum]
before the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders;
and no man could learn that song
but the hundred and forty and four thousand, who were redeemed from earth” (italics added). It seems clear both what the song was and why it is not sung on earth. For the number of those in the procession as 144, the number of the 144,000 of the Church Triumphant, see the note to
Purg.
XXIX.145–150.
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63.
   Dante’s mystic sleep closes his experience of the Church Triumphant. Once he awakens, it will have returned to Heaven (vv. 89–90).
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64–69.
   Dante is willing to live dangerously. What other medieval poet, in a serious moment of a serious poem, would turn to Ovid and to self-conscious literary humor in a moment like this? Dante has already (
Purg.
XXIX.94–96; and see the note to that tercet) referred to this Ovidian material (
Metam.
I.568–723) in these cantos dedicated to the recovery of Eden. He compares himself to Argus of the hundred eyes (Dante of the hundred cantos?), watching over Io at Juno’s behest so that Jove cannot get at his bovine girlfriend, set to drowsiness and slumber (disastrously for him) by Mercury’s tale of Syrinx and Pan. At what point does Argus fall asleep? Just when Mercury’s tale reports on the musical sound that issues from the reeds that were Syrinx, who had escaped Pan’s lustful pursuit and vanished. Music and a disappearance are features of Dante’s scene, as well. The parallel scene is done with witty aplomb but is dealt with by the commentators only as serious business. It is funny, as is Dante’s aside to us that, if he could portray the moment of falling asleep, he would do so.
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70–71.
   Dante’s sleep and awakening in the garden is verbally reminiscent of Ugolino’s description of his awakening from his dreadful dream (
Inf.
XXXIII.27), the phrase “squarciò il velame” (the veil was rent) remembered in “squarciò il velo” (broke my veil of sleep [these are the only two occurrences of that verb in the poem]). It also reminds us that each of the three previous days on the mountain have ended in sleep and dream. On this fourth day, which will conclude his experience of the earthly paradise at noon, instead he has this mystic sleep
after
he has had a final visionary experience of the griffin and his Church.
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72.
   Rather than a reference to the “Surgite, et nolite timere” of Matthew 17:7, frequently cited in the commentaries (first by Jacopo della Lana [1324]), Aversano (Aver.1988.1), p. 168, prefers to believe that Matelda refers to Paul’s words (Ephesians 5:14), “Surge qui dormis” (Rise, you who are sleeping). And see his remarks on Paul’s overall importance for Dante, pp. 185–88. Nonetheless, the passage in Matthew seems still closer to the context here, so much so that it is all but impossible not to see it as controlling this scene: “And Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise
[Surgite]
and be not afraid.’ And when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no man, save Jesus only.” See the next note.
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73–84.
   In the scene of the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1–8) the three apostles Peter, James, and John ascend a mountain with Jesus, see him transformed in visage (it shines with light) and raiment (his clothes become white), then see him in the company of Moses and Elijah (who, representing the law and the prophets, respectively, both promised his advent), and then hear the voice of God from a cloud proclaim that Jesus is his Son, and finally find Moses and Elijah vanished. Just so, this simile insists, Dante thinks he finds himself (in the role of an apostle) in the company of Matelda alone.
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78.
   This verse also clearly refers to Christ’s resurrections of Jairus’s daughter and of Lazarus (Luke 8:54 and John 11:43).
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85.
   Dante’s phrase, “Where is Beatrice?” will be remembered when she leaves him for the final time at
Paradiso
XXXI.64 and he asks St. Bernard, “Ov’ è ella?” (Where is she?), as Poletto (1894) noted.
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86–87.
   Beatrice’s pose is one of humility, seated on the ground on a root of the newly reflorescent tree. Thus she who, rather than Matelda, really corresponds to Christ in the biblical parallel is the one who is “transfigured,” “changed in raiment,” as we shall see in a moment.
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88.
   Those who remain behind in the garden with Beatrice are her “handmaids,” the seven virtues, and Matelda. And of course there is the chariot. Dante and Statius are the spectators of the show that is to follow.
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89–90.
   We learn that the Church Triumphant has now returned to the Empyrean, just as it will do after it descends for Dante’s sake a second time, in the sphere of the Fixed Stars (
Par.
XXIII.70–72). (For the logistics of the arrival and departure of the participants in this pageant, see the notes to
Purg.
XXX.16–18 and XXXI.77–78.)
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94.
   That Beatrice is described as seated “on the bare ground” associates her with humility in general and, perhaps more pointedly, with St. Francis, who raised humility to an art form. See the note to
Purgatorio
XI.135; and see the portrait of Francis in
Paradiso
XI.
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95.
   No longer the triumphant figure who came into the garden by descending to her chariot, Beatrice is now here to witness its devastation and, once, to protect that chariot; she is no longer in the role of conqueror.
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98–99.
   Since the nymphs are seven and since the “candles” leading the procession (last referred to at verse 18) are seven, and since Benvenuto (1380) lent the hypothesis his considerable authority, some commentators have believed that those candles are the lamps held by the seven virtues. Both because the seven candles seem a part of the procession of the Church Triumphant and because they are extremely large, this hypothesis has not convinced every reader. On the other hand, other suggestions are all minority opinions. Francesco da Buti (1385) believed they represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, but many find his argument overly subtle and unsupported by the text. Torraca (1905) suggested the seven sacraments ordained by Christ. Bosco/Reggio (1979), uncomfortable with all earlier identifications, thought the reference was to the lamps of the wise virgins in the parable (Matthew 25:1–13) of the ten wise and foolish virgins; but the wise ones number only five. Pertile (1998.2), p. 198n., points (via Alain de Lille) to the “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God” (Apocalypse 4:5), thus giving support to Francesco da Buti’s view, which does seem the most palatable. For the biblical and postbiblical understanding of the winds from north (Aquilo) and south (Auster) as being the most destructive, see Pertile (Pert.1998.2), pp. 197–202.
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100–102.
   Beatrice’s words are clear in their promise. (Those who believe that she is speaking not of Dante’s next stay in the garden but of that time left him on earth cannot rationalize the disjunction caused by the fact that when Dante returns to earth he will be without Beatrice, who speaks here only of being with him in Heaven.) Most commentators now also agree that Beatrice is not alluding to the few minutes he will now be with her in the garden, but to the short stay he will have in his second visit to the earthly paradise, after his death and ascent. She then looks past his first and upcoming visit to paradise in order to fasten his attention on his final destination, when he, too, will be, with her, a citizen of the City of God, the new Jerusalem in which Christ is “Roman.” The “city of man” that is our militancy on earth is to become the heavenly Rome presided over by Christ as emperor, at least it will be for all those who will find themselves saved.
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