Worldview of the Western World II

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Worldview of the Western World II
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Dont Panic

• This is a help, not a requirement
• For Dante read Sayers book, comments, perhaps
  http//dante.dartmouth.edu.
• This follows the same format as Quines book.
  There are many notes on the slide in the note
  section, these are extra for explanation e.g. in
  PowerPoint click L. lower corner for notes.

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TERZA RIMA

• Terza Rima is a poetic rhyme scheme which involve
  interlocking rhymes, written in iambic tercets.
• iambic is a metrical foot consisting of one short
  syllable followed by one long syllable or of one
  unstressed syllable followed by one stressed
  syllable
• tercet is one of the 3-line stanzas in terza rima
• Terza Rima was written in hendecasyllable, or 11
  syllables

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Lay Down All Hope , You That Go In By Me
"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate"
(3.9)Leave behind all hope, you who enter ,
Click box
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TERZA RIMA

• The rhyme scheme is aba bcb cdc ded (and
  soforth)
• The last tercet stands alone and rhymes with the
  preceding mid tercet, or the middle preceding
  line.

A B A
THROUGH ME THE ROAD TO THE CITY OF DESOLATION,
THROUGH ME THE ROAD TO SORROWS DIUTURNAL,
THROUGH ME THE ROAD AMONG THE LOST CREATION.
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? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
A B A

• THROUGH ME THE ROAD TO THE CITY OF DESOLATION,
• THROUGH ME THE ROAD TO SORROWS DIUTURNAL,
• THROUGH ME THE ROAD AMONG THE LOST CREATION.
• JUSTICE MOVED MY GREAT MAKER GOD ETERNAL
• WROUGHT ME THE POWER, AND THE UNSEARCHABLY
• HIGH WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE SUPERNAL.
• NOTHING ERE I WAS MADE WAS MADE TO BE
• SAVE THINGS ETERNE, AND I ETERNE ABIDE
• LAY DOWN ALL HOPE, YOU THAT GO IN BY ME.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
B C B
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
C D C
? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Notes
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Terza Rima

•  Perhaps introduced to literature by Dante
• It was well suited to The Divine Comedy, since it
  gives a propulsive marching cadence
• The three-line stanzas reflects other trinity
  groupings in The Divine Comedy which contribute
  to a complex symbolism.
• the triune God,
• Inferno three beasts in the first canto
• three holy women send Virgil to guide him
• Satan has three heads and chews on three sinners.
  
• The entire work is divided into the Inferno,
  Purgatorio, and Paradiso

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Terza Rima

• The Inferno has three subdivisions
• Ante-Inferno, Upper Hell, and Lower Hell.
• Hell is divided into nine circles
• Purgatorio
• Ante-Purgatory, Lower Purgatory, and Upper
  Purgatory
• Peters Gate with Three steps and acts of
  Penance
• Paradiso has 33 cantos like Purgatorio and
  Inferno (which has a general intro for the whole)
  
• Overall the idea of the Trinity pervades the
  work, and reflects the Triune aspect of God in
  His Creation

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• BACKGROUND INFORMATION from The Catholic
  Catechism
• The Final Purification - Purgatory
• All who die in God's grace and friendship, but
  still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of
  their eternal salvation but after death they
  undergo purification, so as to achieve the
  holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven
  (1030).
• The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final
  purification of the elect, which is entirely
  different from the punishment of the damned.
  (Council of Trent 1563, Counsel of Florence 1304,
  and Benedict XII, Benedicts Deus 1330). The
  Church formulated her doctrine of faith on
  Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence
  and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by
  reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks
  of a cleansing fire (I Corinthians 315 and I
  Peter 17)
• As for certain lesser faults, we must believe
  that, before the final judgment, there is a
  purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever
  utters blasphemy against the Holy spirit will be
  pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to
  come. From this sentence we understand that
  certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but
  certain others in the age to come (St. Gregory
  the Great).
• This teaching is also based on the practice of
  prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred
  Scripture. "Therefore Judas Maccabees made
  atonement for the dead, that they might be
  delivered from their sin (II Mac. 1246). From
  the beginning the Church has honored the memory
  of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for
  them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so
  that , thus purified, they may attain the
  beautiful vision of God (Council of Lyons 1274).
  The Church also commands alms giving,
  indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on
  behalf of the dead.
• Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons
  were purified by their father's sacrifices, why
  would we doubt that our offerings for the dead
  bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate
  to help them who have died and to offer our
  prayers for them (St. John Chrysostom).

note
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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Questions to Consider when you read The Divine
  Comedy Purgatory by DanteWhat is Dante's view
  of purgatory?
• What does the Bible say about ...
• The death of Jesus and our purification?
• Our position in Christ?

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN YOU READ PURGATORY ...
• Excommunication - a punishment for sin.
• If a person has been excommunicated from the
  Church he can either ..
• Repent and reconcile with the Church and thereby
  go to Purgatory
• Repent at the end of life, but not have time to
  be restored to the Church, and go to
  Ante-Purgatory
• Not repent and go, like other non-repentants, to
  Hell.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Peter's Gate
• Seven Roots of Sinfulness (Seven Deadly Sins)
  Around it run seven terraces, on which are
  punished severally the Seven Deadly Sins. Rough
  stairways, cut in the rock, lead up from terrace
  to terrace, and on the summit the garden of the
  Terrestial Paradise (Longfellow).
• Pride
• Envy
• Anger
• Sloth
• Avarice and Prodigality
• Gluttony
• Lust.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Ante-Purgatory Lower Purgatory Upper Purgatory
• The Mountain of Purgatory is a vast conical
  mountain, rising steep and high from the waters
  of the Southern Ocean, at a point antipodal to
  Mount Sion in Jerusalem. In Canto III. 14, Dante
  speaks of it as
• The hill That highest tow'rds the heaven uplifts
  itself
• and in Paradiso, XXVI. 139, as
• The mount that rises highest o'er the wave.
• The threefold division of the Purgatorio, marked
  only by more elaborate preludes, or by a natural
  pause in the action of the poem, is, -- 1. From
  Canto I. to Canto IX. 2. From Canto IX. to Canto
  XXVIII. 3. From Canto XXVIII. to the end. The
  first of these divisions describes the region
  lying outside the gate of Purgatory the second,
  the Seven Circles of the mountain and the third,
  the Terrestrial Paradise on its summit
  (Longfellow).

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• On every Cornice the discipline of Penitence
  follows the same pattern
• The Penance
• The Meditation
• The Prayer
• The Benediction
• The Angel of the Cornice

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO I
• Cato of Utica( Line 31) Cato of Utica (born 95
  B.C.), one of the chief opponents of Caesar's
  measures. After the battle of Thapsus, he
  comitted suicide rather than fall into his
  enemy's hands (46 B.C.). This was regarded as the
  supreme act of devotion to liberty (Conv. iii. 5
  90 De Mon. ii. 5 98), and partly accounts for
  his position here (see vv. 71, 72) though
  Virgil's line -- secretosque pios, his dantem
  jura Catonem (AEn. viii. 670), which refers to
  the good set apart from the wicked in the world
  beyond, probably weighed more heavily with Dante.
  Our poet's general conception of Cato is derived
  from Lucan (Pharsalia, ii. 373-391) and his
  intense admiration of the man in and of his
  character finds expression in several passages of
  the Convito (iv. 5 103 6 71 27 23 28 92).
  Cato's position as warder of the Christian
  Purgatory is probably to be explained in a
  similar way as the position of Ripheus in
  Paradise (see Par. xx. 118 sqq., and note) note
  especially the allegorical significance of the
  stars in vv. 37-39, and the fact that Sole is
  often synonymous with God (Hermann Oelsner
  (1899), Purgatorio). See Carrolls note

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Cato of Utica http//danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/
purgatory/01antepurgatory.htmlcato
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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• The Holy Four Stars (Line 37) the Cardinal
  Virtues
• 1 - Justice
• 2 -Prudence
• 3 - Temperance
• 4 - Fortitude
• Seven Kingdoms (Line 82) the seven cornices where
  the seven sins are purged
• The Dew (Line 131) Virgil washed Dantes face
  after coming out of Hell
• The Reed -- The reader will remember that Dante's
  original rope-girdle was thrown over the Great
  Barrier between Upper and Nether Hell, to call up
  the monster Fraud. (See Inf. xvi. Images.) He is
  now given a new one, made of the pliant reed
  which symbolizes Humility, as a safeguard against
  Pride, which is the head and source of all the
  Capital Sins (Sayers, 78)

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO II
• The Ship Of Souls In Hell the souls of the
  damned assemble on the bank of the River Acheron,
  and are ferried to Hell by the Demon Charon the
  souls of the saved assemble at the mouth of the
  River Tiber, and are ferried by an Angelic Pilot
  across the whole width of the world to Purgatory.
  In each case, the ferryman selects his own
  boat-load. Charon plies an oar (which he uses,
  incidentally, to thump his passengers into
  submission) the Angel needs "no oar, no sail but
  his own wings". The damned, wailing and
  blaspheming, embark one by one (fellowship is
  lost) the saved sing their hymn in unison and
  disembark all together (fellowship is recovered).
  (Phlegyas note)
• See Notes At The End Of This Canto 1-9 The Sun
  By Now... It is sunset at Jerusalem (in the
  Northern Hemisphere) and consequently sunrise in
  Purgatory (at the Antipodes). The Ganges, in
  India, is taken as lying on the eastern horizon
  of Jerusalem, and the Pillars of Hercules on the
  western. Since (as we know from Inf. i. 37) the
  Sun is in Aries (the Ram), Night is located in
  the opposite sign from him - that of Libra (the
  Scales). The Scales "fall from the hand of Night"
  when the Sun enters the sign, i.e. at the autumn
  equinox, when the nights become longer than the
  days (Night's "hour of victory").
• 7 Fair Aurora the goddess of the dawn
• 17-24 A Light ... From Each Side Of It ... A
  White I Knew-not-what the boat coming from a
  distance over the horizon, what is odd is how
  great a distance the angel covers in a short
  time. The light was first the halo of the head
  of the angel and then the wings. Eventually the
  boat is seen.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO II
• 42So Swift And Light -- This is the "lighter
  skiff" to which Charon referred in Inf. iii.
  91-3, when he said that Dante should pass by
  "another road and other ferries (Sayers,85).
• 43Freehold Of Bliss
• 46 In Exitu Israel De Aegypto from Psalm 114
  Dante write to Can Grande della Scala how to
  under stand his book When Israel came out of
  Egypt and the House of Jacob from among a strange
  people, Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his
  dominion". For if we regard the letter alone,
  what is set before us is the exodus of the
  Children of Israel from Egypt in the days of
  Moses if the allegory, our redemption wrought by
  Christ if the moral sense, we are shown the
  conversion of the soul from the grief and
  wretchedness of sin to the state of grace if the
  anagogical, we are shown the departure of the
  holy soul from the thraldom of this corruption to
  the liberty of eternal glory. And although these
  mystical meanings are called by various names,
  they may all be called in general allegorical,
  since they differ from the literal and
  historical.
• The subject of the whole work, then, taken merely
  in the literal sense is "the state of the soul
  after death straightforwardly affirmed-, for the
  development of the whole work hinges on and about
  that. But if, indeed, the work is taken
  allegorically, its subject is "Man, as by good
  or ill deserts, in the exercise of his free
  choice, he becomes liable to rewarding or
  punishing Justice (Sayers, Hell, 15).

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 56 The Goat Capicorn
• 61 Virgil Replied ...
• 67 Whose Breathing Showed D. was breathing.
  Virgil was panting as he brought D. out off hell
  Hell, XXXIV83.
• 70 An Olive-bough
• 80-81 Three Times ... A dear friend of Dante,
  Casella was a singer and composer from Florence
  (or perhaps the nearby town of Pistoia). He set
  lyric poems to music and performed these
  arrangements, as he does here on the shores of
  Purgatory with Dante's canzone, "Love that speaks
  within my mind" (2.112) (click on black box).
  Casella died sometime before Easter Sunday 1300
  (when Dante arrives in Purgatory) and after July
  13, 1282, the date of a document from Siena
  reporting that he was fined for wandering about
  the city at night. Casella's own arrival now,
  after having previously been refused passage to
  Purgatory, is a result of the plenary indulgence
  granted by Pope Boniface VIII on Christmas 1299
  for the Jubilee year (1300). He smiles, showing
  both affection and bemusement, when Dante tries
  futilely to embrace his soul-body (2.76-84), a
  scene recalling how Aeneas sought to clasp the
  shade of his father, Anchises, in the underworld
  of Virgil's Aeneid (6.700-2).
• 98 For Some Three Months
• 101 Tiber notes

"Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona" (2.112)Love
that speaks within my mind 
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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO III
• Terrace I The Excommunicates Who Are They? notes
• Why Are They Here? Repented on their death bed,
  but excomunicated
• How Are They Described? unlike the impenitent in
  Hell, they endure their suffering in hope and
  patience
• How Long Must A Person Stay At This Level? 30 X
  years of contumacy
• 9 REPROACH FOR ONE SMALL SLIP When Cato's
  rebuke scattered the listening crowd toward the
  hill like a flock of startled doves, the two
  poets joined in the general flight. Dante,
  however, indicates plainly enough that he did not
  regard the fault for which they were so sharply
  reproved as a very serious one. Virgil hurries
  toward the Mountain with greater shame than the
  occasion calls for
• He seemed to me within himself remorseful,
• O noble conscience, and without a stain,
• How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee!
• This may seem scarcely consistent with the
  interpretation of the 'song of love' given in
  last chapter see comm. to Purg. 2.118-123. If,
  for instance, the pursuit of Philosophy is an
  element of that unfaithfulness to herself with
  which Beatrice charged Dante so sternly in the
  Earthly Paradise above, it is obvious that she at
  least did not regard it as a 'trivial fault.' Nor
  did Dante when he stood before her, scarce able
  to falter forth his grief for tears. What seems
  to his unpurified conscience at the foot of the
  Mountain a slight error, is seen at last to have
  been one of the fountain-heads of the Seven
  Deadly Sins, which he has purged away with so
  much pain and labour. (The relation of Philosophy
  to Dante's unfaithfulness to Beatrice, however,
  must not be exaggerated. It is only one element,
  and not the most important. The 'school' referred
  to in Purg. xxxiii. 85-90 is not, as is commonly
  assumed, Philosophy in general, but, as the
  entire context shows, the politico-theological
  school which claimed 'the two governments,'
  temporal and spiritual, for the Papacy. Aquinas
  advocates it in his De Regimine Principium, but
  his teaching is utterly repudiated by Dante in
  the De Monarchia and the Cantos dealing with the
  Earthly Paradise.) (Carroll)

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 18 MY SHADOWY OUTLINE
• 25 VESPER-TIDE -- It is 3 P.M. in Italy (where
  Virgil's body is buried) and therefore 6 P.M. in
  Jerusalem and 6 A.M. in Purgatory.
• 27 NAPLES RECEIVED IT FROM Brundisium -- Virgil
  died (19 B.C.) at Brundisium (Brindisi), in
  Apulia on the Adriatic coast, and his body was
  transferred by the orders of Augustus to Naples.
  His supposed tomb is still to be seen, on the
  road to Pozzuoli.
• 29-30 THE HEAVENS UNSTAYED As they move toward
  the heights, Dante tells us he was startled by
  noticing that while the sun threw his own shadow
  on the ground before him, it cast none of his
  companion. In terror lest he was forsaken, he
  turned eagerly to see if his 'Comfort' was still
  by his side. This is his first opportunity of
  noticing that Virgil cast no shadow, for the
  Inferno was a world of darkness in which the sun
  never shone. This seems to be introduced in order
  to follow up Cato's rebuke of Philosophy, for
  Virgil, in his character of Reason, uses it as a
  text to point out the limits of the human
  intellect. Dante's fear that he was deserted
  sprang from his ignoring the existence of such
  limits. His folly lay in assuming that God's
  creative power was confined to the one species of
  body with which he was familiar. Virgil's own
  body in which once he cast a shadow had been
  taken from Brundusium and now lay at Naples ('I
  cannot help quoting,' says Plumptre, 'a verse
  from the striking hymn said to have been sung at
  Mantua in the fifteenth century, and, it may be,
  earlier, in the Festival of St. Paul. St. Paul,
  it was said, went to Naples to visit the tomb of
  Virgil -- Ad Maronis mausoleum / Ductus, fudit
  super eum, / Pie rorem lacrymae / 'Quem te,'
  inquit, 'reddidissem, / Si te vivum invenissem, /
  Poetarum Maxime.'' He adds, however, that the
  evidence for this is hazy) but God had given him
  another quality of body, which no more obstructs
  the sunlight than the nine spheres of Heaven
  hinder the rays from descending from one to
  another. Moreover these transparent bodies are so
  made that they can 'suffer torments of heat and
  cold' (Aquinas, Summa, iii. Suppl. q. lxx, a. 1,
  2, 3).

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 31 BODIES LIKE MINE aery
• 37 content you with the quia Aristotle, and,
  following him, the Schoolmen, distinguish between
  two kinds of demonstration (I) the knowledge
  that a thing is, obtained by arguing a
  posteriori, from effect to cause this is the
  demonstration quia (2) the knowledge why a thing
  is as it is, obtained by arguing a priori, from
  cause to effect this is the demonstration
  propter quid. In this life, finite minds cannot
  (11. 32-6) know God as He is (in His quiddity),
  but only by His effects and must therefore be
  content to know only the quia of His mysterious
  Providence (Sayers, 93).
• 39 NO NEED HAD BEEN FOR MARY TO CONCEIVE -- Had
  it been possible for mankind to know all things
  propter quid, there would have been no need for
  the revelation in human terms by the Incarnation.
  And had Adam and Eve been contented with the
  quia, man would not have fallen, nor needed to be
  redeemed by Christ's death (cf. xxix. 23-30 and
  note, (Sayers, 93)).

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 42 WHICH NOW IS GIVEN THEM Inf. IV34-45
• They sinned not yet their merit lacked its
  chiefest
• Fulfilment, lacking baptism, which is
• The gateway to the faith which thou believest
• Or, living before Christendom, their knees
• Paid not aright those tributes that belong
• To God and I myself am one of these.
• For such defects alone - no other wrong -
• We are lost yet only by this grief offended
• That, without hope, we ever live, and long."
• Grief smote my heart to think, as he thus ended,
• What souls I knew, of great and soveran
• Virtue, who in that Limbo dwelt suspended
• 50 BETWEEN TURBIA AND LERICI
• 61 "MASTER" ...Here D. is one of faith, and now
  offers help to his guide who is not of faith. In
  63 others can counsel who are members of faith.
• 65 THIS LOITERING BAND those who have been
  excommunicated now loiter as they did in life.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 68 WHAT HERE WE'D CALL A THOUSAND PACES
• 70 THEY ALL SHRANK ...

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 112 MANFRED A handsome, warrior-like nobleman,
  Manfred (c. 1232-66) is the illegitimate son of
  the emperor Frederick II, who is listed among the
  heretics in Inferno 10. Raised in the
  cosmopolitan Hohenstaufen court in Sicily,
  Manfred knew several languages (including Hebrew
  and Arabic) and was a poet and musician as well
  as a patron of arts and letters (e.g., the
  "Sicilian School" of poetry). Dante praises both
  him and Frederick as exemplary rulers for their
  noble, refined character (De vulgari eloquentia
  1.12.4). Manfred also authored a document,
  "Manifesto to the Roman People" (May 24, 1265),
  that advances a political philosophy not unlike
  Dante's. Following the death of his father, and
  later his half-brother (Conrad IV), Manfred
  assumed power and had himself crowned King of
  Sicily in 1258. His political successes were
  perhaps not unrelated to the "horrible sins" to
  which he now alludes (3.121) (audio) he was
  alleged by some to have murdered his father,
  half-brother, and two nephews, and to have tried
  to assassinate the heir to the throne (his nephew
  Conradin). Allied with the ghibelline cause (he
  helped defeat the guelphs at Montaperti in 1260),
  Manfred was certainly no friend of the papacy he
  was twice excommunicated, first by Alexander IV
  in 1258 and then by Urban IV in 1261. So
  abhorrent was Manfred to popes of the period
  (they considered him a "Saracen" and "infidel")
  that they declared a crusade and sent an army
  under the command of Charles I of Anjou to defeat
  him. His troops vastly outnumbered, Manfred was
  betrayed by some of his own men and killed in
  battle at Benevento (southern Italy) on February
  26, 1266.

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Manfred
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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• (Manfred cont) He now shows Dante his battle
  scars (an eye-brow split by a sword-stroke and a
  wound on his chest) and relates the fate of his
  poor body. An excommunicate, Manfred was refused
  burial in sacred ground and left on the
  battlefield, but, the legend goes, each enemy
  soldier as he passed by placed a stone on the
  grave. Later, according to Dante's version, the
  Archbishop of Cosenza, at the behest of Pope
  Clement IV, had Manfred's bones disinterred and
  cast outside the kingdom onto the banks of the
  river Verde (3.124-32). The excommunicates,
  Manfred informs Dante, must wait in
  Ante-Purgatory thirty times the length of their
  period of excommunication, unless the sentence is
  shortened by prayers of the living (3.136-41).
• 115-116 THE MAJESTIES OF SICILY AND ARAGON --
  Manfred's daughter Constance married Peter III of
  Aragon, and had three sons who succeeded one
  another as kings of Aragon and Sicily (v. subt.
  vii. 115-20).
• 121 MY SINS WERE HORRIBLE Manfred was further
  accused (rightly or wrongly) of having murdered
  his father, his brother Conrad, and two of his
  nephews, and of attempting to murder his nephew
  Conradin. These charges are chronicled by
  Brunetto Latini in his Livre dou Tresor, which
  Dante had certainly read (Inf. xv. 3o and note).

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO IV
• Terrace 2 (Line 48) The Late-repentant - The
  Indolent Who Are They? They were death bed
  repenters, they waited till death to repent.
• Why Are They Here? waiting
• How Are They Described? Slothful, almost sleeping
• How Long Must A Person Stay At This Level? The
  number of years of their earthly life.
• 6 THAT SOUL IS KINDLED ABOVE SOUL IN US - Dante
  is here repudiating the theory (ascribed to
  Plato, and reproduced with some modifications by
  the Manichaeans) that man possesses a plurality
  of souls, each with its own organs. Aristotle
  combats this theory and so does St Thomas
  Aquinas (S. TM', q. 26, a. 3) giving among other
  reasons, the fact that "when one operation of the
  mind is intense, it impedes others, a thing which
  could nowise happen unless the principle of
  actions was essentially one". This is Dante's
  argument here. (For the full Aristotelian-Thomist
  doctrine of the three powers, Nutritive,
  Sensitive, and Intellectual, blended to form "one
  single soul complete", see Purg. xxv. 52 sqq. and
  notes.)
• 10-12 THAT WHICH MARKS IT...
• 16 FIFTY DEGREES ... 930 a.m.
• 24 WHEN THAT FLOCK LEFT US ...

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 25-26 You CAN MOUNT UP...
• 41 THE LINE FROM CENTRE ... 45
• 48 A LEDGE OF ROCK 2nd terrace
• 57 50 THAT HE SMOTE US ON THE LEFTWARD HAND the
  sun
• 61-62 CASTOR ... AND POLLUX "If it were June
  instead of March, and the Sun therefore in Gemini
  (the sign of the Twins, Castor and Pollux),
• 62-63 THAT BURNING MIRROR the Sun, which
  receives the divine light from above (i.e. from
  the Empyrean) and reflects it upward to God and
  downward to the earth.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 68-70 THINK OF ZION "Think of Purgatory as
  being at the exact antipodes of Zion
  (Jerusalem)." The horizon is here not, of course,
  the visible but the astronomical horizon "a
  great circle of the celestial sphere, the plane
  of which passes through the centre of the earth
  and is parallel to the sensible visible horizon
  of a given place." (O.E.D. Sayers,101)
• 21 THAT ROAD ILL-TRIED BY PHAETON --Phaëton, the
  son of Phoebus Apollo, in order to prove his
  parentage, which had been doubted, asked his
  father to let him drive the chariot of the sun
  for one day. The request was granted, but Phaeton
  was too weak to hold in the chargers, scorched a
  portion of the Heavens and almost set the Earth
  on fire. To save the latter from destruction,
  Jupiter put a stop to Phaeton's erratic course by
  killing him with a thunderbolt (cf. Par. xvii.
  1-3)(Hermann Oelsner (1899), Inferno 17.106-108).
• 79-84 THE EQUATOR OF THE SKY... As they thus
  sit facing the East, Dante notices to his great
  surprise that the sun is on his left hand,
  whereas he was accustomed in this position to see
  it on his right. Virgil gives him a long
  astronomical explanation, the substance of which
  is that they are now in the Southern Hemisphere,
  at the exact antipodes of Jerusalem and that
  being on the other side of the Equator, the sun
  is of necessity on his other hand. If this has
  any symbolic significance, which is doubtful, it
  must be connected with the left hand, which
  represents the dark, sinful side of human life.
  When the soul has climbed even a little way out
  of its sin, that sin becomes clearer to it -- the
  Divine light shines upon the left hand, revealing
  how great is the evil that remains. It may,
  however, be nothing more than one of the many
  instances of Dante's love of astronomical
  studies. (The suggestion about the meaning of the
  sun revealing the left or sinful side may be
  regarded as one of those over-subtleties into
  which commentators are apt to fall but we have
  undoubtedly the same idea in the reflection of
  Dante's 'left flank' in Lethe in Canto xxix.
  67-69.) (John S. Carroll (1904), Purgatorio
  4.57-84)

35
Sayers, 100
36
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 88 THIS MOUNT IS SUCH...penitence gets easier
  the higher up the mt. one goes. How does Virgil
  know about the climb up Mt. Purgatory. The
  commentators hold that at times D. must guide
  Virgil. See notes.
• 122 BELACQU -- Florentine, contemporary of D.,
  said by the old commentators to have been a
  musical instrument-maker modern research has
  suggested his identification with one Duccio di
  Bonavia detto Belacqua, a notary he is placed by
  D. in Ante-purgatory among those who neglected
  their repentance until just before death, Purg.
  iv. (Toynbee, 69-70)
• 129 THAT BIRD OF GOD Angel of God
• 137-139 THE SUN DOTH STAND noon

37
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO V
• Miserere (Line 24) This Is The Special Prayer Of
  The Unshriven Have Mercy Upon Me, 0 Lord...Psalm
  51 a Penitential Psalm, (also Ps
  6,32,38,102,130,139,143)
• Terrace 2 (Line 52...) The Late-repentant - The
  Unshriven Who Are They? This second group
  consists of those who were cut off in their sins
  by battle or murder, and so died unshriven. Since
  circumstances are partly responsible for their
  death, they occupy a slightly higher position
  than the Indolent, and have a prayer of their
  own but they are still surrounded by the
  atmosphere of haste and agitation which attended
  their last moments.
• Why Are They Here? They did not repent till the
  hour of their death.
• How Are They Described? In haste and agitation,
  as they were at death.
• How Long Must A Person Stay At This Level? till
  their sins are purged away, which may be a
  lifetime as the indolent on this terrace, unless
  prayer by those on earth intercede.

38
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 10-13 As the Pilgrims turn away to resume their
  journey, a curious incident occurs. One of the
  souls startles his lazy comrades into looking up
  by a cry that Dante casts a shadow and acts as
  one alive. Turning, Dante finds them all gazing
  at him and his shadow in amazement, and for this
  pause Virgil administers a sharp rebuke
• 'Why is thy mind so much entangled,'
• The Master said, 'that thou thy pace dost
  slacken?
• What matters it to thee what there is whispered?
• Come behind me, and let the people talk.
• Stand as a steadfast tower, that never shakes
• Its summit for the blowing of the winds
• For ever the man in whom thought wells up
• Over thought, removes from him the mark,
• Because the onset of the one dissolves the
  other.'

39
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Dante, with the colour 'which sometimes makes a
  man worthy of pardon,' can only answer humbly, 'I
  come.' It is the second time he has had cause to
  be ashamed during the few hours he has been in
  Purgatory, though on the former occasion Virgil
  himself was a sharer in the blame. It is not easy
  to decide what precisely the fault is. Plumptre,
  for example, sees in it 'two elements of the
  poet's nature (1) an almost morbid sensitiveness
  to the criticism of others on what seems to them
  strange or startling in his acts or words (2)
  the scorn of that criticism to which his higher
  nature, impersonated in Virgil, leads him.' This,
  however, goes on the assumption that the
  criticism here is adverse and of this there is
  no sign. Taking the incident as it stands, it was
  not his vanity that was wounded, but his pride
  that was flattered, and that in a very peculiar
  way. The thing which astonished these laggard
  souls was not simply that a man who cast a shadow
  should visit the disembodied world but rather
  that he should repent while still alive. They
  themselves had been utterly unable to part with
  sin till they were parting with life and it is
  matter of amazement to see a man who can pause
  and make the great impossible surrender in
  midtime of his days. In short, Dante confesses
  that in the presence of these laggards he was
  attacked by the subtle temptation to be proud of
  his unique virtue in repenting so early
• I saw them gazing in astonishment
• At me alone, me alone, and the broken light.
• Mark the repetition 'me alone, me alone' -- the
  only man they had ever seen who had repented
  before the end. Virgil rebukes this spiritual
  pride on two grounds. In the first place, it is a
  turning away from Reason 'Come behind me, and
  let the people talk.' It is an irrational thing
  to be proud of one's repentance no matter how
  early it come, it is all too late. In the second
  place, it is a great hindrance in 'pressing
  toward the mark' when a man begins to be proud
  of his repentance, the repentance itself comes to
  a standstill, for the simple reason the Pride, as
  St Gregory says, is 'the queen and mother of all
  vices.' (Carroll)
• 55 PENITENT AND PARDONING in their dying
  moments they have made an act of (a) contrition
  for their own sins, (b) forgiveness of the sins
  of others, and are therefore at peace both with
  God and man.

40
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 64 SAID ONE (SEE NOTE) Jacopo del Cassero
  (probably related to the Guido of Inf. xxviii.
  77), a Guelf of Fano (situated in the mark of
  Ancona, between Romagna and the kingdom of
  Naples, which was ruled by Charles II. of Anjou)
  was Podestà of Bologna in 1296. Having incurred
  the wrath of Azzo VIII. of Este (for whom see
  Inf. xii. 110-112 cf. also Purg. xx. 80), whose
  designs on the city he had frustrated, he hoped
  to escape his vengeance by exchanging the office
  at Bologna for a similar one at Milan (1298). He
  was, however, murdered by Azzo's orders among
  the assassins being Riccardo da Cammino, for whom
  see Par. ix. 49- 51 while on his way thither, at
  Oriaco, between Venice and Padua the Paduans are
  called Antenori in v. 75, from their reputed
  founder Antenor, for whom see Inf. xxxii. 88,
  note his escape to Italy after the fall of Troy,
  and his building of Padua are recorded by Virgil,
  AEn. i. 242 sqq.. Oriaco is situated in a marshy
  country, while La Mira would have been easier of
  access to Jacopo in his flight (vv. 79-81).
  Hermann Oelsner (1899), Purgatorio 5.63-84
• 88 DA MONTEFELTRO (SEE NOTE) Dante wishes to
  show, from two contrasted sides, the final and
  absolute necessity of repentance, and that
  independently of the presence or absence of the
  Church's absolution. Guido, Buoncontes father,
  appeared to have done everything that could be
  done to secure salvation -- had made his peace
  with the Church, joined a religious order,
  received a promise of pardon from Christ's own
  Vicar. The one thing he had not done was --
  repent. . . On the other hand, the one thing his
  son Buonconte did was to repent. He had no time
  for all the ecclesiastical ritual of absolution
  with which the father was so careful to secure
  himself.
• Who did he pray to (101)? Follow link to
  Buonconte and full quote.

41
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Virgil notes that the prayers of Dante could aid
  these souls in the remission of their sins, V36
  and they request this prayers V86.
• 132 well rested from the weary way
  Characteristically, Dante depicts this solitary
  lady (for the other spirits mentioned are all
  male) as being the only inhabitant of
  Ante-Purgatory to show this self-effacing
  consideration for his health and convenience. She
  appears to have had no friend or relation left on
  earth who could be asked to pray for her.
• 133 that am called Piety (La Pia) Pia dei
  Tolomei, daughter of a Sienese family, is said to
  have married Nello, or Paganello, dei
  Pannocchieschi, a Guelf leader, lord (among other
  castles) of the Castello della Pietra in the
  Maremma. Whether through jealousy or because he
  wanted to marry a richer heiress, Nello took her
  away to Pietra and there (in 1295) murdered her -
  some say by exposing her to the unhealthy air of
  the place (see xxix. 48 and Glossary) others, by
  throwing her from the castle window down a
  precipice others say simply, "so secretly that
  nobody ever knew how." Since Dante classes her
  among the victims of sudden and unprepared death,
  he probably discounts the first of these theories.

42
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 1. 135 who plighted troth to me she emphasizes
  the solemnity of the bonds uniting her to her
  murderous husband she was first troth-plight and
  afterwards married to him. (Betrothal was a
  contract binding in law and in religion, which
  pledged the parties to one another and could not
  be dissolved without a formal dispensation. After
  a longer or shorter period, during which neither
  party was free to marry elsewhere, the marriage
  was celebrated and could be consummated.)

43
La Pia
44
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO VI
• Terrace 2 The Late-repentant
• 22 Line 22 Pierre de la Brosse was surgeon and
  afterwards chamberlain of King Philip III. of
  France. On the sudden death, in 1276, of Louis,
  Philip's son by his first wife, and heir to the
  throne, his second wife, Mary of Brabant, was
  suspected of having poisoned him, so that her own
  son might succeed. Among her accusers was Pierre
  de la Brosse. She determined to poison all minds
  against him and bring about his downfall.
  According to popular tradition she accused him of
  having made an attempt on her honour but as
  Pierre was eventually (in 1278) hanged on a
  charge of treasonable correspondence with
  Philip's enemy, Alfonso X. of Castile, it seems
  more probable that she attaincd her end by
  causing these letters to be forged. (Hermann
  Oelsner (1899), Purgatorio 6.19-24)

45
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Line 28-29 Thou Didst Condemn Expressly Once
  (See Note) the reference is to Aen. vi. 376.
  Aeneas (see Glossary) on his visit to Hades meets
  the shade of the drowned steersman Palinurus, who
  begs to be conveyed across Styx, the passage of
  which is forbidden to those whose bodies are
  unburied. The Sibyl rebukes Palinurus with the
  words "Cease to hope that prayer can alter the
  fixed decree of the gods. (Sayers, 115)
• Line 37-43 High Justice does Not Stoop (See
  Note) Virgil explains that (a) when one person
  assumes another's debt of restitution and pays it
  all off in one moment of burning charity, the
  divine Justice is not diminished, since all its
  demands are fulfilled but that (b) in the case
  of Palinurus and Aeneas, who were heathens,
  neither the petitioner nor the mediator was
  qualified to utter that "prayer from a soul in
  grace" which alone is effective (v. Purg. iv.
  133-5, xi. 33). The delay in Ante- Purgatory
  being purely penal, it can be remitted when
  satisfaction is made by another (see
  Introduction, pp. 63-4). (Sayers, 115)

46
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Line 71 Mantua (See Note) Virgil is doubtless
  about to quote the inscription on his tomb in
  Naples (see iii. 25 and note) which begins
  "Mantua me genuit - Mantua gave me birth."
• Line 74 Sordello the troubadour was born at
  Goito near Mantua about 1200. After wandering
  from court to court of Italy, Provence, Spain,
  Poitou, Portugal, and various parts of France, he
  attached himself to Charles of Anjou (who thought
  highly of him) and spent most of his later life
  in Provence. All record of him is lost after
  1269, but there is a tradition that he died a
  violent death. Later in the Comedy we are
  reminded of Sordello's intrigue with Cunizza
  (wife to Ricciardo di San Bonifazio and sister to
  Ezzelino III da Romano) whom Dante places in the
  Heaven of Venus (Para. ix. 25-36) the repentance
  of this pair of lovers seems to be of Dante's own
  imagining. Sordello wrote all his poems (some
  forty of which are preserved), not in his own
  language but in Provencal incidentally there is
  nothing in them to support Browning's fanciful
  treatment of him (in Sordello) as a kind of
  fore-runner of Dante himself. One poem, the
  Lament of Blacatz, contains an impassioned and
  reproachful address to all the foremost princes
  of Europe, and it is presumably because of this
  that Dante chooses him, in the next canto (q.v.),
  to point out and name the various sovereigns in
  the Valley of the Rulers, besides echoing the
  Lament in the great passage of reproach which
  here follows. Sayers,115)

47
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Since Virgil (whether considered literally as an
  Ancient and a heathen, or allegorically as the
  Natural Man) cannot of himself know all the
  inhabitants of Mount Purgatory or explain its
  organization in detail, an interpreter is
  provided at each stage of the journey to supply
  the deficiency. Sordello performs this office in
  Ante-Purgatory, as does Statius later on in
  Purgatory Proper, and Matilda in the Earthly
  Paradise. In this canto we are still in the
  region of the Unshriven. (Sayers, 114)
• 97 German Albert Albert I of Austria
  (1248-1308) elected Emperor in succession to his
  father, Rudolph of Hapsburg, in 1298. Dante's
  attitude to the Hapsburg emperor is ambivalent,
  according as he regards him (a) as King of the
  Germans - i.e. the feudal head of an invading and
  usurping race, or (b) as Roman Emperor - i.e. the
  divinely ordained guardian of law and
  civilization (see Inf. Introduction, p. 45).
  Compare his attitude to Julius Caesar (see Inf.
  xxxiv. Images under Judas, Brutus, Cassius) and
  to Pope Boniface VIII (see Inf. Introduction, p.
  35, and Purg. xx. 86-90 and note).
• 100-3 let judgement fall, etc. a prophetic
  allusion to the murder of Albert by his nephew
  John, eight years after the supposed date of
  Dante's vision. Thine heir i.e. Henry VII of
  Luxemburg, the emperor on whom Dante built such
  high hopes (see Inf. Introduction, pp. 43-7).

48
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Line 106-11 Come, See The Capulets And Montagues
  (See Note) The two noble families of Verona, the
  Montagues and Capulets, whose quarrels have been
  made familiar to the English-speaking world by
  Romeo and Juliet --
• Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
• By thee, old Capulet and Montague,
• Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets,
• And made Verona's ancient citizens
• Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
• To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
• Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867), Purgatorio
  6.106
• Line 115 Most High Jove Jehovah the name
  "Jove" (possibly on account of its resemblance to
  "Jehovah") is used more than once by Petrarch to
  accurate theologian, never hesitates to call the
  Second Person of the Trinity "God", without
  qualification, in whatever connexion (Sayers,
  116-17).
• Line 125 Marcellus a Roman consul, who
  supported Pompey against Julius Caesar, and was a
  violent opponent of the Empire. Dante means that
  any demagogue who defies the constitution is
  hailed by the populace as a hero.

49
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO VII
• Line 3 Who Are You ... Virgil is here plural
  but Sordello's excitement at hearing Virgil's
  name makes him forget to ask about Dante and
  since the sun is behind the mountain (vi. 56-7),
  there is no betraying shadow to arouse his
  curiosity.
• Where Does Virgil Say He Dwells And How Does He
  Describe It? ere to this mount, etc. i.e.,
  before Christ's Harrowing of Hell. Previous to
  that, "no human soul had ever seen salvation"
  (Inf. iv. 63) the souls of the elect had gone,
  not to Purgatory, but to Limbo, from which Christ
  released them. . . Aen. vi. 673-5, where the
  Sibyl asks "What region of Hades, what place
  is the abode of Anchises?" and is answered
  "Nulli certa. domus - none has any fixed abode
  we inhabit the shady groves, the river-banks are
  our bed, the freshly- watered meadows our
  dwelling."

50
Sordello
51
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• The Rule Of The Mountain The Rule of the
  Mountain Throughout the Purgatory, the Sun is
  frequently taken as the symbol of God (e.g. in 1.
  26 of this canto). Allegorically therefore, the
  meaning of the Rule of the Mountain, which
  prevents all ascent between sunset and sunrise,
  is that no progress can be made in the penitent
  life without the illumination of Divine Grace.
  When this is withheld, the soul can only mark
  time, if it does not lose ground, while waiting
  patiently for the renewal of the light. Nights in
  Purgatory thus correspond to those periods of
  spiritual darkness or "dryness" which so often
  perplex and distress the newly-converted. (Cf.
  John xi. 9-1o.) 9 Others were saying, This is
  he, still others were saying, No, but he is
  like him. He kept saying, I am the one.10 So
  they were saying to him, How then were your eyes
  opened?(Sayers, 122)
• Terrace 2 The Late-repentant - The Preoccupied
  Who Are They? The Preoccupied. The third class of
  the Late- Repentant is composed of those who
  neglected their spiritual duties through too much
  preoccupation with worldly cares. They occupy the
  highest and most beautiful place upon the Second
  Terrace, because their concern was, after all,
  for others rather than for themselves. As with
  the other inhabitants of Ante-Purgatory, the
  taint or habit of their former sin still clings
  to them they continue to discuss and worry about
  the affairs of the family or the nation.
• Why Are They Here? Preoccupied with the affairs
  of state, however see Henry
• How Are They Described? Still worried about the
  affairs of state

52
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• 82 SALVE REGINA THE ... HYMN TO THE BLESSED
  VIRGIN, BEGINNING "HAIL, 0 QUEEN, MOTHER OF
  MERCY, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS AND OUR HOPE,
  HAIL! TO THEE WE CRY, THE EXILED CHILDREN OF EVE,
  TO THEE WE SIGH, WEEPING AND LAMENTING IN THIS
  VALLEY OF TEARS
• 94 Emperor Rudolph Rudolph of Hapsburg (see
  Glossary) mentioned in vi. 103 in connexion with
  his son Albert I. He is placed in this section of
  Ante-Purgatory probably on account of having been
  so preoccupied with affairs at home that he
  neglected the Empire to which he had been
  divinely called (vi. 103-6).
• line. 96 there's one shall come i.e. Henry VII
  of Luxemburg (see Inf. Introduction, pp. 43-7)
• line. 109 The Pest of France Philip N of
  France, called "the Fair", for whom Dante never
  has a good word (see Inf. xix. 87 Purg. xx. 91,
  xxxii. 152 Para. xix. 118-2o). He was the son of
  Philip the Bold, and married Joan, the daughter
  of Henry the Fat. (See Glossary.)
• 112-13 the burly form is that of Peter III of
  Aragon, called "the Great", who married Manfred's
  daughter Constance 143). Hook- nose is Charles I
  of Anjou, whom Peter drove from the throne of
  Sicily. The two former enemies now "sing in
  concert".

53
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Into his estimate of these princes Sordello
  manages to weave a severe criticism of their
  descendants, and a curious suggestion concerning
  the doctrine of heredity, a subject in which
  Dante was greatly interested. Almost without
  exception the sons are declared inferior to their
  fathes. Ottocar in swaddling-clothes was better
  than his son Wenceslaus as a bearded man,
  consumed in lust and ease (Carroll, extra notes).
  
• Line 130-I the king of simple life ... Harry of
  England Henry III. Dante's estimate of him seems
  to be derived from Villani's Chronicle "Of
  Richard I, Coeur-de-Lion was born Henry his son
  who reigned after him, but was a simple man and
  of good faith and of little worth. Of the said
  Henry was born the good King Edward I, still
  reigning at the present time, who did great
  things" (v. 4) and in another passage "Henry,
  father of the good Edward, was a man of simple
  life, so that the barons held him for naught"
  (vii. 39). Dante can scarcely have thought that
  Henry neglected his soul in his care for his
  subjects, since he died, after 56 years of
  incompetent misgovernment, with a great
  reputation for piety "In proportion as the king
  was held to be lacking in prudence in worldly
  actions, so he was the more distinguished for
  devotion to Our Lord for it was his custom to
  hear three sung masses daily and, since this was
  not enough for him he assiduously attended
  private masses" (Matthew Paris). In his case,
  therefore, the fault which he is expiating in
  Ante-Purgatory may be the neglect of his kingly,
  through preoccupation with his religious, duties
  (since to pray when one ought to be working is as
  much a sin as to work when one ought to be
  praying). This may be the reason why he sits
  apart from the others, though the reason usually
  given is that England was outside the Empire.
  Henry is one of the rulers blamed by Sordello for
  sloth and cowardice in The Lament for Blacatz
  (Sayers,124).

54
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO VIII
• Terrace 2 The Late-repentant The Preoccupied
• The Serpent - The intrusion of the Serpent "such
  as gave Eve the bitter fruit, maybe", into this
  Eden-like valley naturally raises the question
  whether, in the literal story, the souls in
  Ante-Purgatory are still liable to temptation and
  sin. It would appear that they are - not in the
  conscious will, which in the hour of death was
  firmly set towards God - but in the subconscious,
  the region of dreams, which is not yet subject to
  the will, so that a special intervention of
  Divine Grace is needed to protect it from
  assault. (The souls in Purgatory Proper are
  definitely beyond the reach of sin - see Canto
  xi. 22 and note.)
• The Angels Robes The green robes of the Angels
  are the colour of Hope - specifically the hope of
  salvation.
• Fiery Swords Their fiery swords remind us of the
  flaming sword of Gen. iii. 24, set at the gate of
  Eden after the expulsion of Adam and Eve
• The Blunted Points but these are blunted at the
  point "salvation, in these souls, is now working
  out the reversal of the Fall" U. D. Sinclair).
  The blunted points are usually taken to signify
  Mercy as opposed to Judgement but it is,
  perhaps, rather that the contest with the Serpent
  is now hardly more than a fencing bout the
  creature needs only to be routed and not slain,
  for sin "has retreated to its last stronghold"
  (J. S. Carroll), and is reduced to a mere
  fantasy, which can only trouble and not
  corrupt.(Saqyers, 130)

55
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• The Three Stars (Faith - Hope - Love) When Virgil
  describes to Sordello his position in the
  afterlife (assigned to Limbo, the first circle of
  Hell), he says he resides among those who while
  "not clothed in the three holy virtues" did in
  fact follow the other virtues (7.34-6). These
  "other virtues" are the four cardinal virtues,
  also known as the moral or classical virtues
  fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence.
  Their place in medieval Christian thought, based
  on such classical authorities as Plato,
  Aristotle, and Cicero, was established by Ambrose
  and, later, Thomas Aquinas. The three holy (or
  theological virtues) are faith, hope, and
  charity. They were first listed as a group by the
  apostle Paul (1 Cor. 1313). The stars seen in
  Purgatory are likely meant to symbolize the
  virtues Dante initially sees four stars that
  illuminate Cato's face (1.22-39), and he now
  learns that their position in the sky has been
  taken by three other stars (8.88-93). note
• 13 Te lucis ante terminum "Before the ending
  of the day" the compline hymn of St Ambrose, for
  protection against evil dreams and phantoms of
  the night (Creator of all things, before the end
  of light, we beg you to guard and protect us with
  your usual compassion. Let the dreams and
  fantasies of night retreat repress our enemy
  lest our bodies be defiled. Grant this, almighty
  Father, through Jesus Christ the Lord who rules
  with you and the Holy Spirit forever.).
• Line 36 As Every Sense Is Vanquished by Excess
  Dante Is Quoting From Aristotle, De Anima, ii.
  12 "The excess of the sensibles corrupts the
  senses" i.e. a too strong light dazzles, a too
  loud noise deafens, a too concentrated scent
  paralyses the sense of smell, or a too pungent
  taste, the palate
• Line 37 From Mary's BosomThe Help And
  Protection Of The Queen Of Heaven Were Invoked
  Previously In The Salve Regina.

note
56
THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Line 54 Worthy Judge Nino See Note. Nino
  (Ugolino) Visconti, Justiciary of Gallura in
  Sardinia, was on the mother's side a grandson of
  Count Ugolino della Gherardesca (see Inf xxxiii.
  13 and note), and his rival in the leadership of
  the Guelfs in Pisa, to which city Sardinia at
  that time (1288) belonged. After the Ghibellines
  under Ruggieri degli Ubaldini had driven him from
  Pisa and assumed power in the city, Nino became
  head of the Tuscan Guelf league against Pisa, to
  which he returned in 1293. Later he went to
  Sardinia to punish Fra Gomita, his vicar in
  Sardinia, for bribery and corruption (see Inf.
  xxii. 81 and note). He appears to have been
  personally known to Dante, whom he may have met
  when visiting Florence from time to time between
  1288 and 1293 on business connected with the
  Guelf league, if he was not actually his
  companion in arms at Caprona (see Inf. xxi. 9S
  and note). He died in 1296 in Sardinia. The old
  commentators speak of him as a man of noble
  spirit, stout, courageous, and well-bred
  (Sayers,131).
• 71 my Giovanna Nino's daughter by Beatrice
  d'Este. In 1300 (see 11. 73 sqq.), four years
  after Nino's death, Beatrice was remarried to
  Galeazzo Visconti of Milan. Nino's "measured
  anger", with which Dante sympathizes, at this
  infidelity to the dead appears to us scarcely
  justified but it must be remembered that the
  medieval Church had no great liking for second
  marriages.
• Line 74 Weeds Of White See Note. the widow's
  dress black robe with white veil such as we
  see still used in the "deuil blanc" portrait of
  Mary Queen of Scots. The suggestion in 1. 75,
  that Beatrice will soon repent her marriage,
  refers to the misfortunes which overtook the
  Visconti family from 1302 onwards.

note
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• Line 104 The Heavenly Falcons The Angels
• Line 120 That Love Which Here We Purify See
  Note Conrad implies that it was absorption in
  family pride and family affection which placed
  him among the Preoccupied.
• Line 130-131 The Great Lord Of Misrule Probably
  Satan Possibly Either Pope Boniface Viii Or The
  Emperor.
• Dante has said that he has never visited Conrad's
  domain (Lunigiana) but knows the generosity of
  the Malaspina family by repute. Conrad replies
  that he will before long know it by experience
  (thus prophesying Dante's coining exile and
  dependence on the hospitality of his patrons).

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• CANTO IX
• Line 51 Peter's Gate there is an Angel he is
  usually taken as representing the ideal
  Confessor, or the ideal Priesthood, and so, in
  the immediate context, he is but in a wider
  sense he might be called, I think, the Angel of
  the Church. He wears the ashen garments of
  penitence, not only because the good confessor
  must himself be a penitent, but because the
  Church, so long as she sojourns in Time, must
  sojourn in sorrow and tribulation he bears "the
  sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God"
  and he is invested with the Keys of the Kingdom
  of Heaven, which were given to Peter as the
  Church's authority to bind or unloose the bonds
  of sin. The Gate itself is the "Peter's Gate"
  mentioned in Inf. i. 134 and we may note that
  the soul which is within the Gate and set on the
  Way of Purgation is already within "the Kingdom
  of Heaven.(Sayers,139)
• Dante's Dream Of The Eagle he dreams that he is
  walking, like Ganymede, upon Mount Ida, and, like
  Ganymede, is caught up to heaven by an eagle. The
  dream is induced by a reality (Dante's
  dream-psychology is always plausible) he has
  actually been carried up the face of the Mountain
  by St Lucy, and this movement both induces and
  fulfils the dream which symbolizes it. See 2nd
  point below.
• Ganymede Ganymede was the son of Tros, ancestor
  of Aeneas and mythical founder of Troy. Enamoured
  of his beauty, Jove sent the divine eagle to
  fetch him one day as he was hunting with his
  friends upon Mount Ida, overlooking Troy, and
  Ganymede was carried away to Olympus to become
  cupbearer to the gods. The legend thus provides
  two threads of symbolism. (1) Primarily, it is a
  story in which God takes the initiative, moved by
  love for a human being, and carries the beloved
  away to be with Himself. (We need not let any
  prejudices about Olympian morality interfere with
  our, or Dante's, allegorizing of the myths.) (2)
  Secondly, throughout the Comedy, the Eagle always
  symbolizes the true Empire and, in particular,
  the Justice of the Empire - a concept which we
  shall see fully elaborated in the Paradiso, in
  the Heaven of Jupiter (Para. xviii. xix. xx). To
  this true Empire ("The Rome where Christ Himself
  is a Roman", Para. xxxii. jot) the souls of men
  are brought by the purgatorial path, which is the
  fulfilling of Justice. (See Introduction, pp. 54
  sqq.) Ganymede the Trojan, of the line that
  founded Rome, is thus the type of human society,
  taken up into the City of God, here and
  hereafter. (Sayers, 138-9)

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• CANTO IX
• old Adam's nature Dante was still wearing his
  earthly body, which needed sleep. Note that it is
  only in Purgatory, which is situated in time,
  that Dante sleeps at all not in Hell or Heaven,
  which are eternal states.
• Line.13 the sad swallow Tereus, King of
  Thrace, the husband of Procne, violated her
  sister Philomena and cut out her tongue, so that
  she should not betray his crime. Philomena,
  however, by means of a p