Purgatorio (97 page)

98.
   The angel’s wing-clap has had a result that will only become known at vv. 121–126: one of the P’s on Dante’s brow has been removed. This is perhaps another reason to believe that Dante has not spoken the last words, which might seem more self-congratulatory than humble.
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100–108.
   The simile is redolent of the Florence left behind by the exiled poet. The site of the church of San Miniato al Monte, which is set above and across the Arno from the city, afforded then (as it does now) one of the surpassingly beautiful views of Florence. The Rubaconte Bridge (now known as the Ponte alle Grazie) was named for its builder in 1237, the podestà Rubaconte da Mandello da Milano, according to Giovanni Villani’s
Cronica
(VI.26).

The phrase “the justly governed city” is obviously ironic. For Dante’s only use of this word see the last (and incomplete) sentence in
De vulgari eloquentia
(II.xiv.2) where poets are seen as either writing in praise or in blame of their subjects, i.e. (among other categories), either
gratulanter
or
yronice
.

The poet remembers the “good old days” when “registers and measures could be trusted,” i.e., before the civil authorities became corrupt, when they kept proper records and gave proper amounts of salt (without withholding some for their own profit). Documentation of these illicit activities may be found in ample detail in Singleton’s commentary to vv. 104–105.
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110.
   The ritual occurring here, involving an adaptation of a Beatitude spoken by Jesus, will recur on the next six terraces as well. The Sermon on the Mount seems to include eight beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–10). For discussion of Dante’s use of them, see Federigo Tollemache, “beatitudini evangeliche,”
ED
I (1970). Tollemache points out that St. Thomas, whose discussion of the Beatitudes (
ST
I.ii.69.3 ad 5) seems to govern Dante’s treatment of them, says there are seven, with “Blessed are the meek” (Matthew 5:5 [5:4 in the Vulgate]) omitted, while those that “hunger and thirst after righteousness” are remembered on separate terraces. Thomas considers “those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” to refer to
all
of the first seven categories. Here the reference is to the first: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” For a discussion of the program of the Beatitudes in
Purgatorio
see Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1984.2).
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111.
   The plural here is taken by the commentators as a singular, a stylistic liberty allowed for speech (perhaps because the words uttered are more than one). On all the terraces the fitting angel speaks his blessing unaccompanied. (For the program of angelic utterance in this
cantica
see note to
Purg
. XV.38–39.)
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112–114.
   This tercet is an evident return to the thematic opposition of
musica diaboli
and heavenly music (so present in purgatory once the gate is reached and entered in Canto IX). See note to
Inferno
XXI.136–139.
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121–123.
   It is a Christian commonplace, followed by Dante, that Pride is the root sin, notwithstanding the Pauline claim that “radix malorum est cupiditas” (avarice is the root of all evil—I Timothy 6:10). Clearly Dante holds to the former notion, as we are here told that the removal of the P of Pride erases most of the indented marks made by each of the other six P’s. For the question as to whether or not Dante uniquely has a P upon his forehead see notes to
Purgatorio
IX.112 and XXI.22–24.
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127–136.
   Anyone who has played the version of poker known as “hatband” will immediately understand this concluding simile, the lighthearted tone of which culminates only logically in Virgil’s smile. Having subdued his pride (and he knows how afflicted he is by this sin—see
Purg
. XIII.133–138), the protagonist feels lighter, better, as though his trip through purgation were half finished already. And thus this canto ends with a lighter and happier feeling than any that precedes it, offering a sort of foretaste of Edenic innocence.
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1–3.
   The whole mountain, by virtue of the way in which it is seven times sliced away, resembles a huge circular stairway cut in stone. The travelers’ arrival at the second of these terraces coincides with a canto beginning. This is the only time that such a coincidence occurs in this
cantica
. It is as though Dante wanted to acknowledge the reader’s expectation that the arrival at each terrace might coincide with the beginning of a canto, thus forcing that reader to speculate upon the aesthetic reasons for the poet’s not being overly “neat.”

The verb
dismalare
is almost certainly a Dantean coinage; we have tried to reflect its unusual character in our translation with an English coinage: “unsins.”
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7.
   The verse “Ombra non lì è né segno che si paia” (There are no shades nor any carvings) has drawn some more complicated discussions than our translation would call for. As does Musumarra (Musu.1967.1), p. 442, we believe that the word
ombra
here means a “shade,” and is to be distinguished from
segno
, which here means “designs,” i.e., such as the intaglios that were found on the preceding terrace. In other words, the travelers see neither penitents nor carvings as they first examine this new space. Some others are of the opinion that both words refer to the shapes and designs on the wall of the terrace of Pride and not even the first of them to the penitents themselves. However, once the latter become manifest to Dante and Virgil, they are referred to as
ombre
; in fact this word is used as often in this canto as in any other of the poem. It appears here and then at vv. 47, 68, 83, 100; it is clear that all four of these later uses also refer to “shades.”
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8–9.
   The barren “landscape” of the terrace of Envy contrasts with the highly wrought carvings that greet the travelers on that of Pride (
Purg
. X.28–33), as does the livid color of this place contrast with the gleaming whiteness found below. For all its vanity, Pride is a sin that has its vitality and brightness. Here all is the livid, or gray-blue (as in a bruise) color of stone. The sin of envy, as Dante has already acknowledged (
Inf
. I.111; and see accompanying note), was the cause of death’s entering the world because of the envy Satan felt for God. This sin, much less present in the modern imagination than it was in the minds of medieval thinkers, was seen as particularly pernicious and widespread. Most of us tend to think of envy as a form of jealousy, motivated by the desire to possess a good that someone else holds. In Dante’s time it represented, instead, the negative wish that this person lose his or her goods, his or her apparent advantage. It is thus not a form of avarice, but the expression of resentment against the perceived happiness of others. For a compelling modern example, see Prince Myshkin’s words to the agonized and resentful Ippolit in Dostoevsky’s
The Idiot
: “Forgive us our happiness.” In the next canto, Guido del Duca will give it a similar expression (see
Purg
. XIV.82–84).

Fernando Salsano presents the salient features of this sin in Dante; see his entry “invidia,”
ED
III (1971); for a discussion of the sin in English see Cassell, “Envy,” in the
Dante Encyclopedia
(Lans.2000.1).
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10–12.
   Virgil again (as he did in
Purg
. III.52–56), seeing no one present who may give directions, assumes that the situation is worse than it actually is.
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13–21.
   Virgil’s prayer to the sun (his only prayer in the poem) has drawn conflicting interpretations over the centuries. Is it, as most early commentators believed, a prayer to the Christian God (possibly for his grace), expressed in a metaphor (and surely the sun is a frequent metaphor for God in medieval culture and in this poem)? Is it directed to disembodied “speculative reason” as some other early commentators, followed by many moderns, believed? Or is it a prayer to the sun itself, unallegorized, for the light that will reveal the path that must be chosen? This is the position of a number of moderns, Porena (1946) perhaps the most convincing of these, citing
Purgatorio
I.107–108, where Cato tells the travelers that the sun’s light will show them their way. Bosco/Reggio (1978), in a similar anti-allegorical vein, point out that the next lines (vv. 19–21) speak only of the physical properties of the sun’s light, as was true in the verses spoken by Cato in the first canto of this
cantica
. It seems prudent to allow a literal meaning that makes sense to stand alone, without further interpretive scaffolding. Indeed, if, as Virgil says, the sun’s light should serve as guide unless a better source be found, he cannot be speaking of any final authority, whether God or rational certainty, neither of which may be superseded by secondary causes.
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25–27.
   Virgil’s prayer to the sun is not answered; instead, supernatural voices are heard flying overhead, bearing the identities of the positive exemplary figures of the virtue opposed to envy, charity. This “banquet” of affection recalls the controlling metaphor of Dante’s unfinished treatise,
Convivio
.
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28–30.
   Mary’s voice is—we are not surprised to discover, given our experience of the positive exemplars in
Purgatorio
X.40–45—the first whose words are represented by a flying voice. Dante never makes clear how these sounds are made or by whom, but we may be sure that their sources are not present on this terrace, as we know that Mary is in paradise (while one of the negative exemplars, Cain, in
Purg
. XIV.133, is probably in hell, since one of its final zones is named for him [see
Inf.
V.107 and XXXII.58]).

The biblical scene invoked is that of the marriage feast at Cana of Galilee when Mary tells Jesus there is no wine left for the guests (“Vinum non habent”) and Jesus shortly thereafter turns water to wine (John 2:1–7).
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31–33.
   Orestes is known to Dante in two basic contexts, first as the avenger of his family honor as the killer of his adulterous mother, Clytemnestra; second, as the friend of Pylades. When, after these two friends have also killed the adulterous Aegisthus and Orestes is sought for capital punishment, Pylades cries out “Ego sum Orestes” (I am Orestes), while Orestes, not to be outdone, shouts “Immo enimvero ego sum, inquam, Orestes” (But I truly am, I say to you, Orestes—Cicero,
De finibus
V.xxii.63 [and see
De amicitia
VII.24]). According to the commentators, this second voice is either that of Orestes, of Pylades, or somehow relates to both of these. We believe the speaker is Pylades.
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34–36.
   The third exemplar is Jesus Christ, calling on his disciples to return love for hatred (see Matthew 5:44, where the words are a bit more expansive than they are here: “Diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite his qui oderunt vos [love your enemies, do good to those who hate you]). The first two voices are identical with their sources, the first, Latin word for Latin word; the second, a perfect Italian translation of the Latin original. The last, however, is a looser Italian version of the Vulgate’s Latin.
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37–42.
   This is the first precise verbal formulation of the mode of purgatorial instruction by examples: first one is spurred to imitate the good, then dissuaded from following the bad, the goad and the bit that we have already encountered and will continue to come to know on each terrace. Having understood how these functions were experienced on the first terrace, Virgil now correctly surmises that, if the travelers have now heard the goad, they will hear the bit before they confront the angel with his blessing and leave this terrace.
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43–48.
   The coloration of the garments worn by the penitents in Envy is so close to that of the rocks themselves that it has taken Virgil a long while to make them out; he only now calls them to Dante’s attention—and the protagonist has had no sense of their presence at all.

Envy, which is so clearly aware of difference, is cloaked in a uniform that makes distinction of difference nearly impossible. As Dante interacts with these penitents, it is clear that he has a hard time making out the features of any one of them.
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