Paradiso (91 page)

115–116.
   In a poem controlled by large metaphoric constructs (e.g., light, road, forest, mountain, sea, ship, wings, city, tree, plant, beast, etc.), the third
cantica
nonetheless stands out for its metaphoric exertions. The last
developed metaphor in a canto that began by studying the justification for metaphor, this passage (and many another after it) shows Dante’s determination to up the “poetic ante” for his reader, asked to follow a difficult mind, setting about its work giving expression to theological/philosophical concepts in emotionally charged lyric language. On the subject of metaphor in Dante (far less visited than the related topic of simile), see at least Raimondi (Raim.1986.1) and Pasquini (Pasq.1996.2 and Pasq.2001.1, pp. 179–217).

This particular metaphor has furnished the opening of
Purgatorio
XXI with its biblical material, the water of life that Jesus offers the Samaritan woman. And here it is Beatrice who is equated with Jesus, bringing the source of that water to humankind.
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118–138.
   Dante’s lengthy and flowery expression of his gratitude to Beatrice for her explanation and of his humility before God’s mysteries serves as
captatio benevolentiae
in disposing Beatrice to answer still one more question—not that she requires any such suasion. Once again, the needs of the poem come first.
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122.
   Dante addresses Beatrice with the respectful
voi
, as he will also do at verse 134; but see the note to vv. 136–138.
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130–132.
   Tozer (comm. to this tercet) explains this difficult text as follows: “ ‘Owing to this desire of knowing the Divine Verity, doubt arises at the foot of truth as saplings rise from the foot of a tree.’
Appiè del vero
: This is another way of saying that it springs from the root of truth, that idea being suggested by the metaphor: the doubt is a germ of truth.
è natura
, &c.: ‘it is a natural process, which impels us from height to height unto the summit.’ By the questions which arise from learning a truth, we are led on to the apprehension of a higher truth, and so onwards till the highest is reached.”
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136–138.
   Dante’s third question will be the subject of the first eighty-four verses of the following canto. Thus all of the present canto and over half of the next is devoted to three questions concerning the freedom of the will, the most important issue confronting a moralizing Christian writer. It is probably not accidental that Dante chose to put this discussion here, in the first sphere, that of the Moon, reflecting the fact that the first three realms of the heavens present saved souls whose virtues were unmistakably marred by significant defect (see the note to
Par
. III.47–49). Most
of
Paradiso
is concerned with the correction and perfection of Dante’s intellect. Its beginning offers a chance to reengage with the world of moral choice, so inviting to a writer who never gave up his engagement with the affairs of humankind in this life.
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139–142.
   This passage offers a variant on the theme of blindness already present in this canto in the reference to Tobias in verse 48 (and see the note to that verse) and reworked in Canto XXVI.12, with its reference to Ananias’s restoration of Saul’s sight. There Beatrice’s increasingly evident power completely (if only temporarily) destroys his power of sight; here Dante is weakened by Beatrice’s overpowering glance, his eyes so overcome that they, in a trope developed from military behavior, are temporarily routed by the Beatricean ocular “army.” Most unmilitary, Dante nearly faints, as he did, for very different reasons, at the conclusions of
Inferno
III and V.

A possible reason for the poet’s desire to underline the protagonist’s guilty feelings about Beatrice comes from the context we have just now entered, his first enunciation (at vv. 136–138) of his question (see Beatrice’s rephrasing of it in the following canto,
Par
. V.13–15) about the possibility of redemption for broken vows. We do know that Dante had made at least one vow that he had spectacularly failed to fulfill. In
Vita nuova
XLII.2 he had made a solemn promise: “Sì che, se piacere sarà di colui a cui tutte le cose vivono, che la mia vita duri per alquanti anni, io spero di dicer di lei quello che mai non fue detto d’alcuna” (Accordingly, if it be the pleasure of Him through whom all things live that my life continue for a few more years, I hope to write of her that which has never been written of any other woman [tr. M. Musa]).

And so, while Bosco/Reggio (comm. to verse 138) are probably correct that Dante’s question is meant to be understood as being addressed formally to all in bliss with Piccarda (and see Tommaseo comm. to vv. 136–138, citing verse 67, where Beatrice mentions “la nostra giustizia” [our justice] in much the same context), the earlier addresses to Beatrice (vv. 122, 134) stay in our ears and cause a certain ambiguity. Is Dante still addressing his
guida
, or is he pondering the opinion of the saints? This is perhaps a case of Dante trying to hide behind the mask of a more general appeal: “Do you all up here know if mortals are allowed to make broken vows good by substituting other things for them?” That is preferable to asking Beatrice if God can ever forgive his not making good the vow he made to honor her at the end of the
Vita nuova
, only to write
Convivio
instead, a work in which she is abandoned for the Lady Philosophy. Dante,
hidden behind that impersonal formulation (delivered by that noun used as a pronoun,
l’uom
[one]), wonders whether or not he might still make amends for his broken promise with this poem in Beatrice’s honor. Such a decision is not in the lap of these “gods,” in fact, but belongs to the Father. He has obviously decided in favor of the claimant, otherwise the voyage would not have been granted him.
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1–12.
   
Beatrice explains that she has flamed more brightly into Dante’s eyes, temporarily blinding him at the end of the last canto (vv. 141–142), because she enjoys perfect vision in God. Further, she sees (vv. 7–9) that the process that leads to such sight has now begun in Dante as well. In him it is at its earliest stage, since he interprets what he knows of God in human terms, as is reflected in his recently expressed desire (
Par
. IV.136–138) to know the “economics” of divine forgiveness.
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1–6.
   For a presentation of the
status questionis
of a problem that has bothered many readers of these verses, see Giuseppe Ledda (Ledd.2002.1), pp. 263–64. Whose sight (
veder
, verse 5) is perfect (
perfetto
), Beatrice’s or Dante’s? Plausible cases can be (and have been) made for each alternative. As is evident from our translation, we are inclined to side with those who think that the improved sight is Beatrice’s, as her apprehension of the divine Essence draws her farther into God’s sight, thus also causing her to shine with greater effulgence. But see the early gloss of Francesco da Buti to vv. 1–18; in our own time Leonella Coglievina (Cogl.1990.1), p. 50; Marina De Fazio (Defa.1995.1), p. 85; Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1997.1), comm. to vv. 4–6, all have worked on this passage; all of them believe that the more perfect vision mentioned by Beatrice belongs to Dante. Their case is made more difficult by the fact that currently the protagonist is having a very hard time seeing anything at all. And while majority vote is probably not a valid procedure for disentangling knotted skeins of Dante’s text, we are in accord with the wider opinion, given summarizing voice by Alessandro Niccoli, “perfetto,”
ED
IV [1973]. The most imposing criticism of Beatrice’s candidacy is based on verse 6: How can her will be described as being in motion toward God? Is she not already there? And the answer to that is found in the several expressions of eagerness on her part to get her peripatetic instruction of Dante completed so that she can get back “home,” first as she enters the poem (
Inf
. II.71); then in the earthly paradise when she makes clear that the temporary nature of a stay even in that most agreeable place is preferable to a permanent one (
Purg
. XXXII.100–102; XXXIII.10–12); finally, when she asks Dante to look back down the “ladder” he has climbed up through the heavens in order to reach the “ultima salute” (
Par
. XXII.124–132).
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1–2.
   The “heat of love” with which Beatrice is aflame may remind the reader of the kind of affection found in a previous fifth canto, that presenting
Francesca in
Inferno
; it is, however, better understood, as it was by John of Serravalle (comm. to vv. 1–6), specifically as the love breathed into Beatrice by the Holy Spirit.
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1.
   This first occurrence of a character’s speaking the opening verse of a canto in
Paradiso
may make a reader wonder how unusual it is to find the first verse(s) of a canto
spoken
by a person other than the narrator. In fact, this is not that unusual a phenomenon, occurring thirteen times in all. For a study of the nature of Dante’s
exordia
, see Blasucci (Blas.2000.1).
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6.
   For the image of the soul as having a foot, see (as Chiavacci Leonardi [Chia.1997.1], ad loc., points out) Augustine,
Enarr. in Ps
. IX.15: “pes animae recte intelligitur amor” (the foot of the soul is rightly construed as love).
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7.
   Marina De Fazio (Defa.1995.1), p. 72, cites Cesare Garboli’s notice (Garb. 1971.1, p. 7) of the highly probable dependence of Dante’s verse “Io veggio ben sì come già resplende” (I see clearly how, reflected in your mind) on Guido Cavalcanti’s line “Io veggio che negli occhi suoi risplende” (I see that, shining from her eyes …), verse 11 of his
Rime
XXV, “Posso degli occhi miei novella dire.” She goes on to discuss the contrastive use to which the verse is put, since Guido’s
amor
(“fundamentally unknowable and therefore conducive to error”) has a quite different valence, and since the love that Beatrice teaches (and represents) “is knowledge and leads to salvation.”
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10–12.
   See Tozer’s paraphrase of these verses and his comment on them: “ ‘And if aught else leads men’s … desires astray, this is nothing but a faint trace of that eternal light, misunderstood, which makes itself seen in the object of desire.’ The view here stated is the same which is found in
Purg
. XVII.103–5 and 127–9, viz., that both virtue and vice in man proceed from love, or the desire of what is good, only in the case of vice the desire is misled by a false appearance of good.”
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11.
   As for the word
vestigio
, Poletto was apparently the first commentator (comm. to vv. 7–12) to cite
Monarchia
I.viii.2: “cum totum universum nichil aliud sit quam
vestigium
quoddam divine bonitatis” (since the whole universe is simply an imprint of divine goodness [tr. P. Shaw]). The word is a “triple hapax,” that is, a word that appears exactly once in each
cantica
(cf. also
Inf
. XXIV.50 and
Purg
. XXVI.106; and, for occurrences of this phenomenon in general, see Hollander [Holl.1988.3], Appendix).
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13–15.
   
Beatrice repeats the burden of Dante’s third question (
Par
. IV.136–138). It is fair to say that it is urged by a single concern, but one that has both objective and personal focus for him (for the latter, see
Par
. IV.19–21 and note): If one has not fulfilled one’s vow, is there anything that may be offered in its place in order to make it good? Obviously there is, we may think, since Piccarda and Constance are both found in Paradise. The problem is, nonetheless, worked out painstakingly in the following seventy verses.

On the concept of the vow (
voto
), see Aglianò (
ED
V [1976], pp. 1150a–1152b); for Dante’s barely hidden polemic here against the Decretalist position on how broken vows may be amended (and thus finally become acceptable to God), see Pastore Stocchi (Past.1972.1), pp. 16–18; and see the study of the three canti devoted to the question (III, IV, V) in Mazzotta (Mazz.1993.1), pp. 34–55.

Beatrice’s lengthy intervention (vv. 1–15 and 19–84) brings the second-longest visit to any planetary heaven in
Paradiso
to its conclusion (I.73–V.85); only the space devoted to the Sun is greater (as is of course the longest heavenly episode, that of the Fixed Stars, which extends nearly five cantos). Had the poet not interrupted her here, her eighty-one-verse speech would have been the longest uninterrupted speech in the poem until this point (see the note to
Purg
. XVII.91–139). Reading the poem a second time, we probably anticipate the fact that Justinian will have the honor of having the longest uninterrupted speaking part in the
Commedia
, 145 verses (all of the next canto and the first three of VII).
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