Dante Alighieri (31 page)

    
Villani, whose chronicle repeatedly echoes the
Commedia
, gives the following account of the poem :—

    
“Dante also wrote the
Commedia
, in which in polished rime, treating of grave and subtle questions of moral and natural philosophy, astrology, and theology, with beautiful and wonderful figures, similes, and poetical devices, he discoursed in a hundred
capitoli
or cantos of the nature and condition of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, in as lofty a style as language will allow, as may be gathered from the poem itself by any one who has sufficient understanding. Albeit in the
Commedia
he took delight in scolding and crying out, after the fashion of poets, perhaps somewhat more than is altogether seemly; but maybe his exile was the cause of this.”
³

    
In his letter to Can Grande, in which he dedicates to him the
Paradiso
, Dante gives his own explanation of the subject and aim of the poem, and of the reasons why he called it a comedy.

    
“The subject of this work,” he writes, “must be understood as taken according to the letter, and then as interpreted according to the allegorical meaning. The subject, then, of the whole work, taken according to the letter alone, is simply a consideration of the state of souls after death; for from and around this the action of the whole work turns. But if the work is considered according
to its allegorical meaning, the subject is man, liable to the reward or punishment of justice, according as through the freedom of the will he is deserving or undeserving. . . . The aim of the work is to remove those living in this life from a state of misery and to guide them to a state of happiness. . . . The title of the book is ‘Here beginneth the Comedy
⁴
of Dante Alighieri, a Florentine by birth, but not by character'. And for the comprehension of this it must be understood that . . . comedy is a certain kind of poetical narrative which differs from all others. It differs from tragedy in its subject matter,—in this way, that tragedy in its beginning is admirable and quiet, in its ending or catastrophe foul and horrible. . . . Comedy, on the other hand, begins with adverse circumstances, but its theme has a happy termination. . . . Likewise they differ in their style of language, for tragedy is lofty and sublime, comedy lowly and humble. . . . From this it is evident why the present work is called a comedy. For if we consider the theme, in its beginning it is horrible and foul, because it is Hell; in its ending fortunate, desirable, and joyful, because it is Paradise; and if we consider the style of language, the style is lowly and humble, because it is the vulgar tongue, in which even housewives hold converse.”
⁵

    
The form of Dante's poem (or vision, as he claims it to have been) is triple, the three divisions corresponding with the three kingdoms of the next world, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Each division or cantica contains thirty-three cantos (with an introductory one to the first cantica). The opening canto of the
Inferno
forms an introduction to the whole poem, which thus contains a hundred cantos, the square of the perfect number ten.
⁶
These contain in all, 14,233 lines, namely, 4,720 in the
Inferno
, 4,755 in the
Purgatorio
, and 4,758 in the
Paradiso
.

    
Dante places the date of the action of the poem in the Jubilee year 1300.
⁷
Thus he describes his vision as having taken place “midway upon the pathway of our life” (
Inferno
, i 1), that is, in his thirty-fifth year, the days of our life, according to the Psalmist, being “three-score years and ten,” and Dante having been born in 1265.

    
As regards the duration of the action of the poem there is considerable difference of opinion. The most probable estimate, on the whole, seems to be that which puts it at seven days. Of these, twenty-four hours would be occupied in traversing Hell (i.e. from nightfall on the evening of Good Friday, 8 April, 1300, until shortly after sunset on Easter-eve); four days
in
traversing Purgatory (i.e. one day in Ante-Purgatory, two days in Purgatory proper, and one day in the Earthly Paradise at the summit of the mountain of Purgatory) ; and one day in traversing
Paradise; the remaining time being occupied by the passage from Hell to Purgatory, and from Purgatory to Paradise.
⁸

    
The dates of the completion of the several parts of the poem have not been fixed with any certainty, but the following limitations may be accepted:—The
Inferno
must have been completed after 20 April, 1314, the date of the death of Pope Clement V, because of the allusion to that event in the nineteenth canto (11. 76-87); and not later than 1319, since it is referred to as finished in a Latin poem addressed to Dante in that year by a Bolognese professor, Giovanni del Virgilio, as well as in Dante's poem in reply.
⁹
The
Purgatorio
must have been completed not later than 1319, since it is alluded to as finished in the same poems. The
Paradiso
must have been completed after 7 August, 1316, the date of the accession of Pope John XXII, since that Pope is alluded to in the twenty-seventh canto (11. 58-59); its latest limit is fixed by the date of Dante's death, 14 September, 1321.

    
The scheme of the
Commedia
is briefly as follows:—

    
Inferno
. The Hell of Dante consists of nine concentric circles, of which the first and uppermost is co-extensive with the hemisphere of the Earth, which forms, as it were, a cover to it. The remaining circles successively diminish in circumference, forming roughly a sort of immense inverted cone or funnel, the lowest point of which is the centre of the Earth and of the Universe (
Inf
. xxxii. 73-4; xxxiv. 110-11). Each of the nine circles is presided over by one or more demons or evil spirits, and in each a distinct class of sinners is punished. Hell, as a whole, may
be divided into two principal parts, which comprise four regions. Of these two parts, the first, in which sins of incontinence are punished, forming what may be described as Upper Hell, lies outside the City of Dis, which begins at the sixth circle; the other, or Lower Hell, in which sins of malice are punished, is situated within the City of Dis.

    
Upper Hell consists of the first five circles, which are contiguous. These are arranged as follows:—On the upper confines of the abyss, above the first circle, is a region which forms, as it were, an Ante-hell, where are placed those who did neither good nor evil, the neutrals, who were not “worthy” to enter Hell proper (iii. 16-69). In the first circle, or Limbo (under the guardianship of Charon, the ferryman, who conveys the souls of the damned across the river Acheron), are placed unbaptized infants, and the good men and women of antiquity ; these are free from torture (iii. 70-iv. 151). At the entrance to the second circle (where the lustful are punished) is stationed Minos, the judge, who assigns to each soul its station and punishment; here begin the torments of Hell (v. 1-142). Circles two to five are appropriated to sins of incontinence; viz. gluttony in circle three (presided over by Cerberus) (vi. 1-111);avarice and prodigality in circle four (presided over by Pluto or Plutus) (vii. 1-66); wrath in circle five (under the guardianship of Phlegyas, ferryman of Styx) (vii. 100-63). Then come the walls of the City of Dis, which form the division between Upper and Lower Hell (viii. 67-ix. 105). Within these walls (guarded by the Furies) lies the sixth circle, where heretics are punished (ix. 106-xi. 9). After this circle comes a deep descent (xii. 10), and the second region is reached, which contains the three rounds of the seventh circle (under the guardianship of the Minotaur), appropriated to
three classes of violence, viz. against God, Nature, or art, (e.g. blasphemers, sodomites, usurers), against self or one's possessions (e.g. suicides, spendthrifts), against one's neighbour or his possessions (e.g. tyrants, murderers, robbers) (xii. 11-xvii. 78). After a still more precipitous descent (xvi. 114), comes the third region, comprising the ten pits of the eighth circle, called
Malebolge
(under the guardianship of Geryon), appropriated to ten classes of fraud, viz. seducers and panders, flatterers, simoniacs, soothsayers, barrators, hypocrites, thieves and robbers, evil counsellors, schismatics, and, lastly, falsifiers (comprising alchemists, personaters, coiners, liars) (xviii. 1-xxx. 148) ; these pits lie concentrically one below another on a slope, like the rows of an amphitheatre, and are divided from each other by banks, crossed at right-angles by radial bridges of rock, resembling the transverse gangways of a theatre. Below
Malebolge
is a third abyss (xxxi. 32), at the bottom of which lies the fourth or frozen region, consisting of an immense lake of ice formed by the frozen waters of the river Cocytus, and comprising the four divisions of the ninth circle (under the guardianship of the Giants), appropriated to four classes of traitors, and named respectively
Caina
(after Cain), where are those who have betrayed their kindred;
Antenora
(after Antenor of Troy), where are those who have betrayed their country;
Tolomea
(after Ptolemy of Jericho), where are those who have betrayed their guests and companions ; and
Giudecca
(after Judas Iscariot), where are those who have betrayed their benefactors (xxxi. 11-xxxiv. 69). In the last of these, in the nethermost pit of Hell, is fixed Lucifer (xxxiv. 20-67). Down through Hell, from end to end, flows the infernal stream, under the various names of Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and Cocytus.

    
Purgatorio
. Purgatory, the place of purgation and
of preparation for the life of eternal blessedness (
Purg
. i. 4-6), according to Dante's conception, consists of an island-mountain, formed by the earth which retreated before Lucifer as he fell from Heaven into the abyss of Hell (
Inf
. xxxiv. 122-6). This mountain, which has the form of an immense truncated cone, rises out of the ocean in the centre of the southern hemisphere, where, according to the Ptolemaic system of cosmography followed by Dante, there was nothing (except of course, in Dante's view, the mountain of Purgatory) save a vast expanse of water. The mountain is the exact antipodes of Jerusalem (
Purg
. ii. 3; iv. 68; xxvii . 2), the central point of the northern hemisphere (
Inf
. xxxiv. 114) where Christ suffered for the sin of Adam (
Purg
. xxvii. 2), committed in the Garden of Eden (i.e. the Terrestrial Paradise at the summit of the mountain). The lower part of the mountain is not a department of Purgatory proper, but forms an Ante-purgatory, where are located the spirits of those who died without having availed themselves of the means of penitence offered by the Church. These are divided into four classes, viz. those who died in contumacy of the Church, and only repented at the last moment; those who in indolence and indifference put off their repentance until just before their death; those who died a violent death, without absolution, but repented at the last moment; and, lastly, kings and princes who deferred their repentance owing to the pressure of temporal interests, these last being placed in a valley full of flowers (
Purg
. ii. i-viii. 139). Purgatory proper, which is entered by a gate guarded by an angel, consists of seven concentric terraces, each about seventeen feet wide (x. 22-4; xiii. 4-5), which rise in succession with diminished circuit (xiii. 4-6) as they approach the summit, where is situated the Terrestrial Paradise. The ascent to the gate of Purgatory is by three steps of diverse colours,
the first being of polished white marble; the second of rock, almost black, rough and burnt as with fire, and marked across its length and breadth, in the shape of a cross; the third and topmost of porphyry of a bright blood-red colour.
¹⁰
The threshold of the gate, whereon is seated the guardian angel, is of adamantine rock (ix. 76-105). The terraces within the gate are connected by steep and narrow stairways, the steps of which become successively less steep as each terrace is surmounted. Each of the seven terraces or circles corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins, from the traces of which the soul is there purged. The seven terraces, together with Ante-purgatory and the Terrestrial Paradise, form nine divisions, thus corresponding to the nine circles of Hell, and the nine spheres of Paradise.

    
At the foot of the mountain is stationed Cato of Utica as guardian (i. 31); at the entrance to Purgatory proper, and at the approach to each of the terraces, stands an angel, who chants one of the Beatitudes to comfort those who are purging them of their sins. In the first circle, where the sin of pride is purged, the angel of humility sings
Beati pauperes spiritu
(xii. 110). In the second circle, where the sin of envy is purged, the angel of charity sings
Beati misericordes
(xv. 38). In the third circle, where the sin of wrath is purged, the angel of peace sings
Beati pacifici
(xvii. 68). In the fourth circle, where the sin of sloth is purged, the angel of the love of God sings
Beati qui lugent
(xix. 50). In the fifth circle, where the sin of avarice is purged, the angel of justice sings
Beati qui sitiunt justitiam
(xxii. 5). In the sixth circle, where the sin of gluttony is purged, the angel of abstinence sings
Beati qui esuriunt justitiam
(xxiv. 151). In the seventh circle, where the sin of lust is purged, the angel of purity sings
Beati mundo corde
(xxvii. 8). The system of purgation is explained by Dante as follows :—Love exists in every creature, and as, if rightly directed, it is the spring of every good action, so, if ill directed, it is the spring of every evil action ; love may err through a bad object (thus giving birth to pride, envy, anger), through defect of vigour in pursuit of good (thus giving birth to sloth), through excess of vigour in the same (thus giving birth to avarice, gluttony, lust). The manner of purgation is threefold, consisting in, firstly, a material punishment intended to mortify the evil passions and incite to virtue; secondly, a subject for meditation, bearing on the sin purged, and its opposite virtue, with examples of persons conspicuous for the one or the other drawn from sacred and profane history; thirdly, a prayer, whereby the soul is purified and strengthened in the grace of God.
¹¹