Purgatorio (94 page)

138.
   A small but continuing dispute in the commentaries debates whether
pazïenza
should be interpreted as “suffering” or “patience.” Philologically there is probably no advantage to either solution. However, poetic logic points to a simple explanation (one shared by the vast majority of the commentators): what we face here is a relation of paradox rather than similarity. Even the most stoical of the sinners seemed to be expressing the thought (another case of “speech made visible”) “I can no more.” Of course the one who suffered most would be saying such a thing; that would not be worth mentioning. The point is that even the penitent least crushed by the weight of his former pride is suffering as much as one can possibly suffer.

Gerard Manley Hopkins offered, whether he wished to or not, a perfectly Dantean gloss to this verse. In his “terrible sonnet” named “Carrion Comfort” by Robert Bridges, Hopkins, more likely citing Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra
(IV.xv.59) than Dante, has his speaking voice cry out, “Not, I’ll not … cry
I can no more
. I can.” While Antony says “I can no more” and dies, Hopkins’s persona does not give in to despair and continues to strive toward God. Here, the penitents all seem to insist that they are at the end of their strength, yet all continue on the road toward making restitution to God by giving satisfaction for their sins and thus obtain their final absolution.
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1–24.
   As Singleton points out in his gloss to this passage, this is the only complete prayer recited in the entire poem. And, as Bosco/Reggio point out, the three forms of expiation that are found on every terrace are prayer, suffering, and meditation (on examples of the vice’s opposing virtue and on the vice itself). In this way the penitents attempt to accomplish their “satisfaction” (see note to vv. 70–72) before God for each particular offense into which they have fallen. (It will eventually become clear [e.g.,
Purg
. XXIII.90] that not every sinner must purge every sin, although it is certainly possible that any given sinner would have sinned not only intrinsically but in fact in all seven categories.)

Dante’s version of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4) is, as examination of the Vulgate reveals, an amalgam of the two passages, adapted so as to be particularly fit for the souls of those who are in essence saved but needful of purgation (as is made clear by vv. 22–24). It is clear that Dante is siding with those who have been involved in the vernacularization of the Bible, an activity fraught with danger in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. (The questions of the text of the Bible known to Dante and of his access to that text remain vital—and unanswered [see Angelo Penna, “Bibbia,”
ED
1 (1970), pp. 626–27].)
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4–6.
   Giacalone (1968) was perhaps the first Italian commentator to point out that Dante’s phrasing here (“laudato sia” [let your name be praised]…“da ogne creatura” [by every creature]) is not a translation from the Gospels but rather reflects the refrain of Francis of Assisi’s
Laudes creaturarum
. For possible earlier citations by Dante of Francis’s poem see note to
Inferno
I.26–27.

There is debate as to whether or not the Father is addressed as the Trinity or as Himself. Those who take the former position have apparent support in the word
vapore
(breath), which is often the sign of the Holy Spirit. Here, as some commentators, beginning with Lombardi (1791), believe, Dante is thinking along the lines found in Wisdom 7:25, where wisdom is described as “vapor … virtutis Dei” (aura of the power of God). Since the prayer is, indeed, the Paternoster, it is only natural that it be addressed to the Father, with whatever (inevitable) trinitarian overtones.
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11.
   According to St. Augustine (
De doctrina
II.xi),
osanna
and other Hebrew words of exclamation are never translated in the Latin Bible. (See Isidore of Seville on the untranslatability of interjections in the note to
Purg.
XXX.21.) This is the Hebrew word, used for a cry of joyful praise, most present in the
Commedia
, found a total of seven times.
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13–15.
   We have heard (
Purg.
VII.58–60) that even souls in grace are capable of going downward and, while knowing that they will not as a result be “unsaved,” nonetheless simply do not wish to move in a retrograde direction. Here the penitents of pride express a similar desire.
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19–24.
   This last part of the adaptation is sung on behalf of earthly sinners, since those already on the mountain can no longer be overcome by Satan, as their earthly brethren all too easily are.
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25.
   It is fair to say that no one is certain what the root of the word
ramogna
(translated here as “safe haven”) is or what it really means (see Porena [Pore.1947.1] and the entry for the word in
ED
IV [1973], pp. 848–49). The early commentators mainly believed it meant a good journey, but on what authority one does not know. A plurality of modern commentators believe it means “good wishes,” but it seems strange to argue that the souls are praying for good wishes, for that would come close to being a mere tautology. Our translation offers a variant of the earlier understanding.
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27.
   The brief comparison equates the rocks carried by the penitents and our dreams of the incubus. The Codice cassinese (1350?) cites Virgil (
Aen
. XII.908–12) as an example of dreaming of suffocation under an enormous weight.
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28.
   The souls are “unequally distressed” because they carry variously weighted burdens.
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31–36.
   This is, as it were, an indirect address to the reader, hoping that all of us “whose wills have roots in good” will pray for these penitents as they indeed pray for us.
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37–45.
   Virgil’s single speech in this canto begins with a reprise of Trajan’s climactic declaration of his willingness to help the widow, “
giustizia
vuole e
pietà
mi ritene” (justice wills it and compassion bids me stay), at
Purgatorio
X.93. It is as though Virgil, remembering the “visible speech” from the representation of Trajan’s humility, had assumed these words worked wonders on Christian hearts, and now puts
giustizia
and
pietà
(found in the same verse only in these two scenes) to work on his and Dante’s behalf.
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46–48.
   The source of the words heard by the travelers is necessarily obscure, since the faces of all these souls are obscured by the rocks that they bear upon their backs. At the same time it is morally appropriate that a penitent in pride must speak without identification, since pride is an insistence on the self, while this anonymity erases it. However, to argue that all are speaking together, as some do, is to miss the patent fact that only one soul is speaking (v. 52).
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53.
   Stiff-necked pride was a frequent complaint about the Hebrew people in the Old Testament, particularly in Exodus (32:9, 33:3, 33:5, 34:9) and Deuteronomy (9:6, 9:13, 10:16, 31:27).
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58–69.
   The speaker is Omberto Aldobrandesco, second son of Guglielmo Aldobrandesco (dead by 1256), count of Santafiora (see
Purg
. VI.111) and head of this powerful Ghibelline family. Omberto was murdered by Sienese Guelphs outside his fortified castle in 1259. He lays the fault for his death and the need for his current penance on his family’s pride in its name, which made the Aldobrandeschi consider themselves better than others merely by fact of being Aldobrandeschi.

The reference to every
fante
in Campagnatico, Omberto’s feudal holding with its castle, where he died in battle, is variously interpreted. The word in Dante’s Italian may mean (1) infantryman, (2) any man at all, especially one of the lower class, (3) a very young child. Most commentators support the third view (and we have followed them), but all three are potentially valid.
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70–72.
   Omberto is the first penitent in purgatory proper who speaks to the travelers (we have only heard penitential prayer until now) and his last words clearly identify the purpose of purgation in the process of absolution (for Dante, necessarily preceded by confession, contrition, and satisfaction—see note to
Purg
. IX.94–102). What seems to be the case is that all those who have penance to perform on any particular terrace need precisely to give satisfaction (see the verb
sodisfaccia
in verse 71 [as Tozer (1901) duly noted]) before God for their transgressions on earth. This implies that others, those who do
not
need to do penance on a particular terrace, either were without that sin or else had given satisfaction while they were still alive. This is the view taken by Nicola Fosca in his unpublished commentary, portions of which he has kindly made available to this writer.

Porena (1946), in his commentary to
Purgatorio
IX.112–114, also says that the penitence observed on the mountain is the form that
satisfactio operis
takes in these eventually redeemed souls.
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73.
   Dante’s bending down his face is a natural action taken in order to see his interlocutor’s face, yet it, too, reveals a moral significance (see note to vv. 46–48), as the protagonist’s own words will later confirm (
Purg
. XIII.136–138), when he will admit that, once he returns to the mountain in the next life, his head will be lowered under the same load he now is able to observe upon the backs of others.
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74–78.
   The next penitent is apparently less heavily weighted (and thus less burdened by pride) than Omberto, since he is able to move a little under his rock and thus twist his neck enough to get a glance at the features of Dante, now conveniently lowered by his desire to make out Omberto. As a result, Dante recognizes him.

Where the first penitent was still deeply involved in the feelings of the family pride that had afflicted him so greatly on earth, the next will represent all those who are prideful in their accomplishments (in this case, artistic ones); and we will see that he is more advanced in his penitence than Omberto.
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79–81.
   Oderisi d’Agobbio is praised by Dante as the great Italian master of the art of illuminating manuscripts, an art particularly associated with the French and with Paris. “Oderisi, who was the son of Guido d’Agobbio (Gubbio [a hill town in the Apennines, not far from Perugia]), was in residence at Bologna in 1268, 1269, and 1271; he is said to have gone to Rome in 1295, and to have died there in 1299. Vasari, who possessed some of his drawings, states that he was a friend of Giotto, and that he and Franco of Bologna were employed by Boniface VIII to illuminate MSS. in the Papal library at Rome. It appears from the text that Dante and Oderisi were acquainted, or at least knew each other by sight”
(T)
.
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82–87.
   Oderisi deflects Dante’s compliment, thus showing that his pride is at least greatly abated (if not utterly vanquished—see verse 84). What is at stake here is artistic merit, not the cry of the vulgar, a subject that will be before us within ten lines. What Oderisi can now admit is that, as good as he was at illuminating, in his own opinion Franco of Bologna was superior to him in his craftmanship—a truth that he knew but never would have permitted himself to admit during his emulous life on earth. It is interesting that Benvenuto da Imola says that, from the examples he has seen, Franco really
was
a better illuminator. By being willing to
share
the honor with Franco (this is exactly the burden of
Purg
. XIV.86–87, the words of Guido del Duca: “O race of men, why do you set your hearts / on things that of necessity cannot be shared?”), Oderisi shows himself now different from the man bent on his own excelling to the cost of all others.

Little is known of Franco, who apparently lived until about 1310. His work was the subject of an exhibition in Bologna in 2000.
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88–90.
   If Oderisi was known by Dante to have died in 1299, he certainly had made his way up the mountain quickly, apparently spending very little time in ante-purgatory. Compare the case of Forese (
Purg
. XXIII.76–90), the most detailed information we are given in this
cantica
about passing over certain terraces on the way toward the summit. And see the note to vv. 127–132.

Oderisi, nonetheless, must have reformed his ways very early, since the late-repentant spend equal time in ante-purgatory as they did while they were unrepentant on earth. Or perhaps Dante thought or knew that he had died earlier than we think.
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