Dante's Divine Comedy: Purgatorio
Canto VI
Dante is besieged by a crowd of unshriven souls, all of whom ask for his help through prayer. He questions Virgil about its efficacy but the heathen can only give the pilgrim a superficial answer, and it is evident that Beatrice will be the one to reveal to Dante the more profound aspects of the Christian faith. Sordello, a Mantuan troubadour, acquaints the poets further with the inhabitants and the organization of Ante-Purgatory. Dante starts to inveigh against the political factions keeping Italy divided and then launches into a savage and ironic criticism on Florence and its perpetual shifts of power.
Whene'er is broken up the game of Zara,
He who has lost remains behind despondent,
The throws repeating, and in sadness learns;
The people with the other all depart;
One goes in front, and one behind doth pluck him,
And at his side one brings himself to mind;
He pauses not, and this and that one hears;
They crowd no more to whom his hand he stretches,
And from the throng he thus defends himself.
Even such was I in that dense multitude,
Turning to them this way and that my face,
And, promising, I freed myself therefrom.
There was the Aretine, who from the arms
Untamed of Ghin di Tacco had his death,
And he who fleeing from pursuit was drowned.[1]
There was imploring with his hands outstretched
Frederick Novello, and that one of Pisa
Who made the good Marzucco seem so strong.
I saw Count Orso; and the soul divided
By hatred and by envy from its body,
As it declared, and not for crime committed,
Pierre de la Brosse I say; and here provide
While still on Earth the Lady of Brabant,
So that for this she be of no worse flock!
As soon as I was free from all those shades
Who only prayed that some one else may pray,
So as to hasten their becoming holy,
Began I: "It appears that thou deniest,
O light of mine, expressly in some text,
That orison can bend decree of Heaven;[2]
And ne'ertheless these people pray for this.
Might then their expectation bootless be?
Or is to me thy saying not quite clear?"
And he to me: "My writing is explicit,
And not fallacious is the hope of these,
If with sane intellect 'tis well regarded;
For top of judgment doth not vail itself,
Because the fire of love fulfills at once
What he must satisfy who here installs him.
And there, where I affirmed that proposition,
Defect was not amended by a prayer,
Because the prayer from God was separate.
Verily, in so deep a questioning
Do not decide, unless she tell it thee,
Who light 'twixt truth and intellect shall be.
I know not if thou understand; I speak
Of Beatrice; her shalt thou see above,
Smiling and happy, on this mountain's top."
And I: "Good Leader, let us make more haste,
For I no longer tire me as before;
And see, e'en now the hill a shadow casts."
"We will go forward with this day" he answered,
"As far as now is possible for us;
But otherwise the fact is than thou thinkest.
Ere thou art up there, thou shalt see return
Him, who now hides himself behind the hill,
So that thou dost not interrupt his rays.
But yonder there behold! a soul that stationed
All, all alone is looking hitherward;
It will point out to us the quickest way."
We came up unto it; O Lombard soul,
How lofty and disdainful thou didst bear thee,
And grand and slow in moving of thine eyes![3]
Nothing whatever did it say to us,
But let us go our way, eyeing us only
After the manner of a couchant lion;[4]
Still near to it Virgilius drew, entreating
That it would point us out the best ascent;
And it replied not unto his demand,
But of our native land and of our life
It questioned us; and the sweet Guide began:
"Mantua," and the shade, all in itself recluse,
Rose tow'rds him from the place where first it was,
Saying: "O Mantuan, I am Sordello
Of thine own land!" and one embraced the other.[5]
Ah! servile Italy, grief's hostelry!
A ship without a pilot in great tempest!
No Lady thou of Provinces, but brothel!
That noble soul was so impatient, only
At the sweet sound of his own native land,
To make its citizen glad welcome there;
And now within thee are not without war
Thy living ones, and one doth gnaw the other
Of those whom one wall and one fosse shut in!
Search, wretched one, all round about the shores
Thy seaboard, and then look within thy bosom,
If any part of thee enjoyeth peace!
What boots it, that for thee Justinian
The bridle mend, if empty be the saddle?
Withouten this the shame would be the less.[6]
Ah! people, thou that oughtest to be devout,
And to let Caesar sit upon the saddle,
If well thou hearest what God teacheth thee,[7]
Behold how fell this wild beast has become,
Being no longer by the spur corrected,
Since thou hast laid thy hand upon the bridle.
O German Albert! who abandonest
Her that has grown recalcitrant and savage,
And oughtest to bestride her saddle-bow,[8]
May a just judgment from the stars down fall
Upon thy blood, and be it new and open,
That thy successor may have fear thereof;
Because thy father and thyself have suffered,
By greed of those transalpine lands distrained,
The garden of the empire to be waste.
Come and behold Montecchi and Cappelletti,
Monaldi and Fillippeschi, careless man!
Those sad already, and these doubt-depressed![9]
Come, cruel one! come and behold the oppression
Of thy nobility, and cure their wounds,
And thou shalt see how safe is Santafiore![10]
Come and behold thy Rome, that is lamenting,
Widowed, alone, and day and night exclaims,
"My Caesar, why hast thou forsaken me?"[11]
Come and behold how loving are the people;
And if for us no pity moveth thee,
Come and be made ashamed of thy renown!
And if it lawful be, O Jove Supreme!
Who upon Earth for us wast crucified,
Are thy just eyes averted otherwhere?[12]
Or preparation is 't, that, in the abyss
Of thine own counsel, for some good thou makest
From our perception utterly cut off?
For all the towns of Italy are full
Of tyrants, and becometh a Marcellus
Each peasant churl who plays the partisan![13]
My Florence! well mayst thou contented be
With this digression, which concerns thee not,
Thanks to thy people who such forethought take!
Many at heart have justice, but shoot slowly,
That unadvised they come not to the bow,
But on their very lips thy people have it!
Many refuse to bear the common burden;
But thy solicitous people answereth
Without being asked, and crieth: "I submit."
Now be thou joyful, for thou hast good reason;
Thou affluent, thou in peace, thou full of wisdom!
If I speak true, the event conceals it not.
Athens and Lacedaemon, they who made
The ancient laws, and were so civilized,
Made towards living well a little sign[14]
Compared with thee, who makest such fine-spun
Provisions, that to middle of November
Reaches not what thou in October spinnest.
How oft, within the time of thy remembrance,
Laws, money, offices, and usages
Hast thou remodeled, and renewed thy members?
And if thou mind thee well, and see the light,
Thou shalt behold thyself like a sick woman,
Who cannot find repose upon her down,
But by her tossing wardeth off her pain.
Illustrations of Purgatorio
Malebolge
Footnotes
1.Having already heard the stories of Jacopo, Buonconte, and Pia in the previous canto, Dante mentions six more in that crowd of souls seeking remembrance and prayers from their families and friends in the world. The first of these six is Benincasa da Laterina, the Aretine judge murdered by Ghino di Tacco of Siena. Benincasa passed a sentence of death on Ghino's brother for highway robbery, and soon after this he was appointed as a judge at the Papal court of Boniface VIII in Rome. Ghino followed him there, burst into the court room, attacked him, beheaded him, and escaped. According to Bocaccio (Decameron X,ii),Ghino, who had been exiled from Siena and became a highwayman himself, later changed his life and became a noble character.
The second reference here is not named, but most commentators identify him by moving backward from his drowning in the Arno. Apparently he was Guccio de’Tarlati di Pietramala. According to Hollander, he was a Ghibelline from Arezzo, and was either part of a group that attacked the Bostoli Guelfs at their castle in Arezzo, or he was fleeing from a counterattack by the Bostoli-–the text can be read both ways. One way or another, it seems that his horse ran uncontrolled into the Arno where he was drowned. Some suggest he may have drowned following either the battles of Campaldino or Montaperti.
The third soul is Federigo Novello, son of Guido Novello of the famous Conti Guidi of Romea (see Inf. 30:58ff). He was a Ghibelline, killed while helping the Aretine Tarlati in the attack by the Bostoli.
The fourth is Farinata, a respected Pisan lawyer or judge and son of Marzucco degli Scornigiani. He was involved in many affairs of state within and out of Pisa until the rise of Count Ugolino da Gherardesca and Archbishop Ruggieri (see Inf. 33). By this ti me, Farinata had left civic life and joined the Franciscans. Either Ugolino or one of his sons murdered Farinata’s son. As a Franciscan monk, his noble civic reputation was enhanced by his peaceful and forgiving request to Ugolino for the body of his son, which Ugolino granted. Later, Farinata is said to have moved to the monastery of Santa Croce in Florence where Dante may have known him.
The fifth soul is Count Orso degli Alberti della Cerbaia. He is sadly memorable as being unlike his father, Napoleone, and his uncle Alessandro, two notorious sinners buried in the ice of the traitors at the bottom of Hell. These two brothers killed each other in a fight over their inheritance. Count Orso was killed by his cousin, Alberto, son of Alessandro degli Alberti–-possibly as a continuation of the feud between their fathers. Benvenuto says that the Count was murdered by being mauled by a bear at the hands of Alberto.
The sixth and final soul is Pierre de la Brosse, chamberlain of Philip III of France, and falsely accused of treason by Queen Mary of Brabant. King Philip’s son and heir to the throne, Louis, died suddenly, and accusations were made that the queen was to blame because she wanted her son, the future Philip the Fair, to succeed to the throne. It seems that Pierre de la Brosse was among the accusers. He was soon arrested, imprisoned, tried, and hanged . There was considerable upset about the speed and secrecy surrounding the reasons for the execution. Some said Pierre took advantage of the queen’s virtue, others that he was in secret communication (letters apparently forged by the Queen) with Alphonso X, King of Castile. He and Philip were at war. Mary of Brabant died just a few months before Dante.
2. Orison, Latin, ōrātiō, ōrātiōnem, “discourse, prayer”, English form: oration.
3. Someone from Lombardy, a region in north central Italy bordering on the Alps in the north, the Po along its southern border, including the city of Milan to the west, and close to Verona in the east.
4. Dante takes his time before he has this mysterious Lombard identify himself as Sordello. Why he is here by himself we aren’t told, but he has a regal and solemn bearing reminiscent of some of the great souls Dante described when he and Virgil passed through Limbo. Dante describes him like a crouching lion, but Virgil approaches him without ceremony and asks for directions. Strangely enough, this soul ignores the question and, instead, probes Virgil about his origins. Learning that Virgil is from Mantua, every thing changes. The soul almost jumps at Virgil and embraces him as a fellow Mantuan.
5. Sordello was born at Goito, a few miles to the north of Mantua around the year 1200. He was a poet, became the most famous of the Italian troubadours, and was held in high regard by Dante. He lived a complex and adventurous life, and nowadays one might have read of him in society gossip columns or seen his face among the racks of sensational tabloids that populate check-out counters in supermarkets. The fact that he appears by himself suggests that he is not one of the late-repentant souls in this part of Ant e-Purgatory who died a violent death, though he may have been simply a late-repentant. It is said that he died in Provence, and he is last mentioned in a document from 1269. What we will soon see, however, is that he will accompany Dante and Virgil through the next two cantos as an informative guide.
To say that Sordello had a checkered past is an understatement. And, perhaps, for this reason he fits here among the unrepentant. There were a few delicious scandals with women that he was involved in–some quite dangerous. There is a secret marriage with a lady of the Strasso family near Treviso which necessitated their fleeing that area. For a time after this he was attached to the notorious tyrant, Ezzelino III da Romano, whom Dante consigns to the river of boiling blood in Canto 12 of the Inferno. And it should not seem strange that Sordello formed an attachment with Ezzelino’s sister. Cunizza, which necessitated his flight from Treviso altogether. Cunizza, not to be outdone by her scandalous life with several husbands and lovers, will be found saved and sainted in Canto 9 of the Paradiso!
Throughout much of his life, Sordello was involved with political figures and their activities, and often his poetry reflected these associations. In Provence, Sordello became part of the court of Charles of Anjou and joined him when he took possession of t he Kingdom of Sicily from Manfred, whom we have already met. Charles rewarded him with several fiefdoms. In his commentary, Singleton notes: “About the year 1240 he wrote a very fine planch (or song of lamentation) on the death of Blacatz, himself a poet an d one of the barons of Count Raymond Berenger IV. In this poem the leading sovereigns and princes of Europe are exhorted to eat of the dead man’s heart, so that their courage may increase, and they be fired on to noble deeds. These verses may have indirectly inspired the patriotic outburst for which the appearance of Sordello is made the pretext…” Dorothy Sayers goes further in terms of placing Sordello in the Poem at this point. She writes: “Sordello in his lifetime was certainly no patriot: he was an expatriate, who had renounced even his own language and had fought against Italy under a French banner; this perhaps is why we find him so solitary and self-absorbed. The emotion stirred in him by the mere mention of his birthplace is for that very reason the more striking, and thus provokes Dante to his diatribe against Italy.”
6. Justinian is famous for updating and systematizing the old code of Roman law.
7. One is reminded here of Jesus’ words in St. Luke’s Gospel (20:25): “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Already in the Inferno and yet to come in the rest of the Poem, Dante has and will denounce the Church for its abandonment of the Gospel, its worldliness, its grasping for power, and for its meddling in and attempts to usurp the authority of the state. He is consistent in insisting that the realm of the Church is the spiritual (see Matthew 18:36) and the realm of the state is the temporal.
8. King Albert, a Hapsburg, ruled as Emperor from 1298 until his assassination in 1308.
9. Dante used these four family names as examples of the major warring Ghibelline and Guelf factions. The Montecchi were Ghibelline leaders of Verona; the Cappelletti Guelf faction in Cremona. Perhaps the modern reader might recognize these two warring families as the Montagues and Capulets of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Monaldi (Guelfs) battled against the Filippeschi (Ghibellines) for the control of Orvieto.
10. Santafiora was a small county in the Sienese Maremma (southern Tuscany). Until Dante’s time, it had been governed by the Aldobrandeschi, a family of powerful Ghibellines. But by 1300, it was ruled by the Sienese Guelfs.
11. The reference to Rome brings to mind the seat of the original empire, now long gone and squalid, but still the seat of Church and the papacy. Dante’s language here echoes the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible (1:1-2: “How solitary sits the city, once filled with people. She who was great among the nations is now like a widow. Once a princess among the provinces, now a toiling slave. She weeps incessantly in the night, her cheeks damp with tears. She has no one to comfort her from all her lovers; he r friends have all betrayed her, and become her enemies.”
12. The invocation of a pagan god here might sound strange to us, but the name of Christ is used only in the Paradiso. Several times in the Poem Dante uses Jove as a reference to the Christian God. The use of the name Jove makes for a subtle segue between the earlier reference to Rome, which was in Dante’s time a far cry from the seat of empire it was in its glory days. At the same time, there is a tinge of hope expressed here as we consider whether God has abandoned the city or whether its present dreadful state is part of God’s plan for something better that we mortals cannot understand. And the reference to Marcellus brings us back to Jove and ultimately to Rome.
13. However, the mention of Marcellus here has led to divided opinions among commentators through the centuries. As it turns out, there were actually three consuls named Marcellus, all of whom were opponents of Caesar. Singleton lists them: (1) Marcus Claudius Marcellus, consul in 51 BC, who was pardoned by Caesar (46 BC) on the intercession of the senate, and was afterwards murdered by one of his own attendants in Greece; (2) Gaius Claudius Marcellus, brother of Marcus, consul in 49 BC, when the civil war broke out; and (3) Gaius Claudius Marcellus, first cousin of the preceding consul, who assumed the position in 50 BC. However, as Singleton notes, it is certainly to the first, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, that most commentators think Dante refers. In his Pharsalia (I, 313), Lucan mentions him, together with Cato and Pompey, as being among Caesar’s bitterest enemies. It seems that what Dante is suggesting here is that, because of lack of imperial control, Italian cities were filled with tyrants who usurped the emperor's authority with impunity and, like fools, thought of themselves as a new Marcellus.
14. Athens and Lacedaemon (Sparta) set a standard for law and good order for the rest of the Western world, so much so that even the emperor Justinian praised their civic stability in his Institutes (I:2.10). On the other hand, Florence, which touted itself as so advanced could hardly keep the laws they made for a month! On this point, some commentators also note a reference here to the constant shifting between political factions in Florence which Dante himself experienced, and which led to his exile.
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