A read-through of the third terrace of Purgatory proper: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, line 85 through Canto XVII, line 72. We’ll explore the smoky terrace of wrath or anger and hear the great speech of Marco of Lombardy which takes center place in the entire poem of COMEDY, all about the free will and the (surprising!) gender of the soul.
Read MoreDante comes out of his ecstatic visions to get razzed by Virgil, who wonders if the pilgrim is drunk or really sleepy. It’s a rare moment of humor in PURGATORIO and perhaps yet another answer to the problem of wrath: laughter. And it may even explain Dante’s taunt about all these “not false errors” he has.
Read MoreDante the pilgrim has already had one ecstatic vision as he stepped onto the third terrace of Purgatory proper: the Virgin Mary’s return to Jerusalem to find Jesus after Passover. Now the pilgrim has two more visions in quick succession: Pisistratus and his wife, then the martyrdom of Stephen. These visions give us a clue as to Dante’s antidote for anger or wrath. It’s found on the face, in the countenance.
Read MoreDante and Virgil step onto the third terrace of Purgatory proper and the pilgrim is immediately struck with an ecstatic vision, the first such vision in a poem that itself may seem like one big ecstatic vision. This time, it’s Mary at the door, reprimanding Jesus and speaking in medieval Florentine.
Read MoreDante has heard Virgil’s explanation of the good becoming more, the more it’s shared (at least in heaven); yet Dante is not satisfied. So the pilgrim goes back for a second helping in this passage that continues Virgil’s lesson, turning the “good” into love and light, a move that will set us up for the grand revelations in the central cantos of COMEDY.
Read MoreThe long awaited angel finally arrives and ushers Dante and Virgil to the stairway up to the third terrace of Purgatory. As the two climb this easier ascent, Dante takes a moment to get Virgil to gloss two lines spoken by Guido del Duca in Canto XIV. Both in Dante’s question and in Virgil’s answer, we can sense the changing notion of COMEDY as we enter the middle cantos of the poem.
Read MoreDante the poet begins the complex and brilliant process of helping us convert what seems into what is. But seeming and being are interconnected in so many ways that we can feel the ground shift under our feet as we begin our exit from the second terrace of Purgatory proper. And if all that were not enough, Virgil, Dante’s guide, undertakes a redefinition of “pleasure” or “delight.”
Read MoreDante and Virgil walk away from the envious on the second terrace of Purgatory . . . and straight into the sun. Meanwhile, we walk straight into Dante’s poetics, which are becoming more and more complex as we enter the liminal space that forms the central cantos of COMEDY.
Read MoreAs Dante the pilgrim and Virgil begin to walk away from the envious penitents on the second terrace of Purgatory proper, Virgil, silent for a long while, suddenly pipes up to refocus and reinterpret our entire experience in cantos XII and XIV, transforming the linearity espoused by Sapia and Guido del Duca into the comedic circularity of Dante’s poem.
Read MoreWith Guido del Duca lost to his tears, Dante the pilgrim and Virgil begin to walk on to find a way up to the third terrace of Purgatory. Before they go very many steps, two more voices on the wind strike them head-on: Cain, after his fratridice and banishment; and Aglauros, laded with the sickness of envy from Ovid’s METAMORPHOSES.
Read MoreGuido del Duca continues his diatribe about the descent of his culture, finally ending with a long passage bemoaning the end of the glory days, the fine families and courts of Romagna, now long gone. Here’s the big question: Is this Dante the poet’s lament or is his a function of Guido del Duca’s character?
Read MoreDante finally finds out who these two penitent souls are on the terrace of envy: Guido del Duca and Rinier (or Rinieri) da Calboli. Knowing who they are forces back up to the top of PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, to reassess what’s the political strife underlying its theology and to reinterpret their relation to each other and to Dante.
Read MoreDante has been quite cagey in saying where he’s from. His coy game has led him to use periphrasis, one of his favorite poetic techniques. He’s about to learn his lessons. One of the envious penitents is going to beat him at his periphrastic game and bring the entire prophetic denunciation of Tuscany into incredibly complicated metaphoric space.
Read MoreThe two envious penitent souls of PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, make a mess out of Dante’s fancy rhetorical skills and one of them sets into a typical Dantean diatribe against Tuscany . . . all the while making hash out of the very theology of Purgatory itself.
Read MoreTwo envious penitents interrupt the action of PURGATORIO at the opening of Canto XIV. They seem to be gossiping about Dante the pilgrim, then they turn to him and use some of his own words to get what they want, all the while dividing his soul from his body. Dante replies with one of his favorite rhetorical techniques: periphrasis. And he engages in modesty . . . or maybe reticence . . . or maybe truth-telling.
Read MoreA coda to our episodes with Sapia, one of the most complex and intriguing souls in all of Dante’s COMEDY. Is this passage incredibly uneven or textured with a great deal of irony? How does it reflect back to INFERNO, Canto XIII? And how does it set us up for the canto ahead, PURGATORIO XIV?
Read MoreDante the pilgrim (and even Dante the poet!) may have met his match with Sapia on Purgatory’s second terrace, the ledge of the envious. She manipulates him into a confessional moment, then either turns that confession into flattery or comedy, all to get what she wants: a refurbished reputation back among the living. She’s caught in the human dilemma: neither good nor bad but a wild mix in-between.
Read MoreDante the pilgrim gets more than he asked for: Sapia’s incredible monologue, a master stroke of rhetoric, part honesty, part manipulation, all wrapped around one of the most blasphemous lines in all of COMEDY. The terrace of envy is full of surprises . . . none bigger than this woman who matches wits with Dante.
Read MoreDante the pilgrim, goaded by Virgil, has worked up the courage (or the flattery) to prompt one of the souls to speak on Purgatory’s second terrace, the landscape of the envious. She does . . . and gives Dante both more and exactly what (or in fact, perhaps a bit less) than he asked for. Her reticence, her generosity: the combined tension inside the human problem of envy.
Read MoreDante tiptoes by the envious on Purgatory’s second terrace, thinking he’s making some gaffe by staying silent. But Virgil is having none of it. He tells Dante to be brief . . . and Dante launches into overblown flattery (reminiscent of a certain moment for Virgil in INFERNO XIII). How much irony is found in the texture of this seemingly simple passage from PURGATORIO.
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