Dante's Divine Comedy: Paradiso
Canto XVII
Beatrice tells Dante of the importance of conveying clearly to others the things he is learning. Dante is worried about what he has heard regarding his fate and Beatrice encourages him to ask Cacciaguida, his ancestor. He is told that he will be banished from Florence on false fraud charges but that the Della Scala family and Can Grande, Lord of Verona, will give him refuge. He is advised not to envy his neighbors because his future life will continue long after theirs. Dante is told not to be concerned about publishing his Divine Comedy. He has been shown the fate of the famous in order that mankind can learn from his account.
As came to Clymene, to be made certain
Of that which he had heard against himself,
He who makes fathers chary still to children,[1]
Even such was I, and such was I perceived
By Beatrice and by the holy light
That first on my account had changed its place.
Therefore my Lady said to me: "Send forth
The flame of thy desire, so that it issue
Imprinted well with the internal stamp;
Not that our knowledge may be greater made
By speech of thine, but to accustom thee
To tell thy thirst, that we may give thee drink."
"O my beloved tree, (that so dost lift thee,
That even as minds terrestrial perceive
No triangle containeth two obtuse,
So thou beholdest the contingent things
Ere in themselves they are, fixing thine eyes
Upon the point in which all times are present,)
While I was with Virgilius conjoined
Upon the mountain that the souls doth heal,
And when descending into the dead world,
Were spoken to me of my future life
Some grievous words; although I feel myself
In sooth foursquare against the blows of chance.
On this account my wish would be content
To hear what fortune is approaching me,
Because foreseen an arrow comes more slowly."[2]
Thus did I say unto that selfsame light
That unto me had spoken before; and even
As Beatrice willed was my own will confessed.
Not in vague phrase, in which the foolish folk
Ensnared themselves of old, ere yet was slain
The Lamb of God who taketh sins away,
But with clear words and unambiguous
Language responded that paternal love,
Hid and revealed by its own proper smile:
"Contingency, that outside of the volume
Of your materiality extends not,
Is all depicted in the eternal aspect.
Necessity however thence it takes not,
Except as from the eye, in which 'tis mirrored,
A ship that with the current down descends.
From thence, e'en as there cometh to the ear
Sweet harmony from an organ, comes in sight
To me the time that is preparing for thee.
As forth from Athens went Hippolytus,
By reason of his step-dame false and cruel,
So thou from Florence must perforce depart.[3]
Already this is willed, and this is sought for;
And soon it shall be done by him who thinks it,
Where every day the Christ is bought and sold.
The blame shall follow the offended party
In outcry as is usual; but the vengeance
Shall witness to the truth that doth dispense it.
Thou shalt abandon everything beloved
Most tenderly, and this the arrow is
Which first the bow of banishment shoots forth.
Thou shalt have proof how savoreth of salt
The bread of others, and how hard a road
The going down and up another's stairs.
And that which most shall weigh upon thy shoulders
Will be the bad and foolish company
With which into this valley thou shalt fall;
For all ingrate, all mad and impious
Will they become against thee; but soon after
They, and not thou, shall have the forehead scarlet.[4]
Of their bestiality their own proceedings
Shall furnish proof; so 'twill be well for thee
A party to have made thee by thyself.
Thine earliest refuge and thine earliest inn
Shall be the mighty Lombard's courtesy,
Who on the Ladder bears the holy bird,
Who such benign regard shall have for thee
That 'twixt you twain, in doing and in asking,
That shall be first which is with others last.
With him shalt thou see one who at his birth
Has by this star of strength been so impressed,
That notable shall his achievements be.
Not yet the people are aware of him
Through his young age, since only nine years yet
Around about him have these wheels revolved.
But ere the Gascon cheat the noble Henry,
Some sparkles of his virtue shall appear
In caring not for silver nor for toil.[5]
So recognized shall his magnificence
Become hereafter, that his enemies
Will not have power to keep mute tongues about it.
On him rely, and on his benefits;
By him shall many people be transformed,
Changing condition rich and mendicant;
And written in thy mind thou hence shalt bear
Of him, but shalt not say it"--and things said he
Incredible to those who shall be present.
Then added: "Son, these are the commentaries
On what was said to thee; behold the snares
That are concealed behind few revolutions;
Yet would I not thy neighbors thou shouldst envy,
Because thy life into the future reaches
Beyond the punishment of their perfidies."
When by its silence showed that sainted soul
That it had finished putting in the woof
Into that web which I had given it warped,
Began I, even as he who yearneth after,
Being in doubt, some counsel from a person
Who seeth, and uprightly wills, and loves:
"Well see I, father mine, how spurreth on
The time towards me such a blow to deal me
As heaviest is to him who most gives way.
Therefore with foresight it is well I arm me,
That, if the dearest place be taken from me,
I may not lose the others by my songs.
Down through the world of infinite bitterness,
And o'er the mountain, from whose beauteous summit
The eyes of my own Lady lifted me,
And afterward through heaven from light to light,
I have learned that which, if I tell again,
Will be a savor of strong herbs to many.
And if I am a timid friend to truth,
I fear lest I may lose my life with those
Who will hereafter call this time the olden."
The light in which was smiling my own treasure
Which there I had discovered, flashed at first
As in the sunshine doth a golden mirror;
Then made reply: "A conscience overcast
Or with its own or with another's shame,
Will taste forsooth the tartness of thy word;
But ne'ertheless, all falsehood laid aside,
Make manifest thy vision utterly,
And let them scratch wherever is the itch;
For if thine utterance shall offensive be
At the first taste, a vital nutriment
"Twill leave thereafter, when it is digested.
This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind,
Which smiteth most the most exalted summits,
And that is no slight argument of honor.
Therefore are shown to thee within these wheels,
Upon the mount and in the dolorous valley,
Only the souls that unto fame are known;
Because the spirit of the hearer rests not,
Nor doth confirm its faith by an example
Which has the root of it unknown and hidden,
Or other reason that is not apparent."
Footnotes
1. Clymene or Klymene is an Oceanid nymph who was loved by the sun-god Helios and became the mother by him of Phaethon and the Heliades. In most versions, Clymene is the one to reveal to Phaethon his divine parentage and encourage him to seek out his father, and even drive his solar chariot to catastrophic results.
Clymene is one of the three hundred Oceanid nymph daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Although she shares name and parentage with Clymene, the wife of Iapetus, who is also a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys (and thus one of her sisters), she is nevertheless distinguished from her.
2. This is not the first time Dante has "foretold" his own exile in the Divine Comedy. The poem is set during the week of Easter in the year 1300 but was completed circa 1320, giving Dante two decades' worth of events he could "predict." This device—foretelling a future that has already come—is not an attempt to trick the reader into crediting Dante with prophetic powers. He knows we, reading the poem after 1320, will know better and realize the literary form he is adopting of "predicting" something that has already occurred. Doing so has the extra value of understanding the past and present without venturing into prophecy other than expressing strong views and wishes for human betterment in the future based in some way on the lessons of Dante's own experiences that he chooses to set in a time to come. Moreover, given his concern with fame and posterity, Dante at least hopes his poem will be read centuries after his death. Those readers, presumably, will be even harder to fool about the timeline.
Why, then, does Dante include such gestures in his poem? One reason is the sense of historicity they impart. Throughout the Comedy, but particularly in Paradise, Dante is traveling outside the normal times and spaces of earthly human life. In the Inferno an d Purgatory, he at least offers some clues as to time of day and his location on Earth. In Paradise, however, such clues are almost entirely lacking. But by peopling Heaven with recognizable real-life figures and having them discuss real-life events, Dante anchors his poem in recognizable time and makes it relatable to earthbound readers. The Divine Comedy takes place after 1290 because Beatrice has died; it takes place before 1303 because Boniface VIII is still on the papal throne. Allusions like these cause the poem, abstract and dreamy as it sometimes is, to "snap back" into a precise historical frame of reference, always with the awareness that the poet is writing his epic long after the events he is describing and still within the same arena of struggles for power of Church and state, whether in Rome or nearer by in Florence.
Even more acutely, allusions to Dante's impending exile help to situate the event within the unfolding drama of his own life. They give the Divine Comedy a definite, terrestrial purpose: not just to save Dante from despair at Beatrice's death but to steel him against his own "future" suffering. Such references can also keep the joys of Paradise from seeming too cloying—otherwise a real danger in a poem of such length. By knowing the sorrow and struggle awaiting Dante on Earth that will lead him to write the Commedia they are reading centuries and centuries later, readers can appreciate his experiences in Heaven as poignantly short-lived.
3. Hippolytus of Rome (170–235 AD) was a bishop of Rome and one of the most important Christian theologians of the second and third centuries whose provenance, identity, and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Suggested communities include Rome, Palestine, Egypt, Anatolia, and other regions of the Middle East. The best historians of literature in the ancient church, including Eusebius and Jerome, openly admit they cannot name where Hippolytus the biblical commentator and theologian served in leader ship. They had read his works but did not possess evidence of his community. Photios I of Constantinople describes him in his Bibliotheca (cod. 121) as a disciple of Irenaeus, who was said to be a disciple of Polycarp; from the context, it seems Photios w as suggesting Hippolytus publicly identified himself in this way. But this assertion is doubtful. One older theory claims he came into conflict with the popes of his time and seems to have headed a schismatic group as a rival to the bishop of Rome, thus becoming an antipope. In this view, he opposed the Roman popes because they softened the penitential system to accommodate the large number of new pagan converts. However, he was reconciled to the Church before he died as a martyr.
4. The phrase "forehead scarlet" symbolizes shame or guilt, suggesting that those who act with bestiality or wrongdoing will ultimately bear the mark of their actions. This imagery reflects the idea that their true nature will be revealed , contrasting with the honor and virtue of the righteous.
The mention of "forehead scarlet" is linked to the character Cacciaguida, who prophesies Dante's future misfortunes. This prophecy includes the idea that Dante will encounter those who, despite their outward appearances, harbor wickedness. The scarlet forehead thus serves as a metaphor for the inner corruption that will eventually manifest outwardly.
5. The Gascon refers to a character who is likely a representation of a deceitful or treacherous figure, while the noble Henry is a reference to Henry of Luxembourg, who was a Holy Roman Emperor. This canto discusses themes of virtue and the consequences of betrayal in the context of historical figures.
Henry V the Blondell (1216–1281 AD), called the Great, was the Count of Arlon from 1226 to his death, Lord of Ligny from 1240 to his death, Count of Luxembourg and Laroche from 1247 to his death, and the Marquis of Namur between 1256 and 1264 as Henry III. He was the son and successor of Waleran III, Duke of Limburg and Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg.
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