Critical Companion to Dante: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work

567 Pages·2008·6.74 MB·English

by  Jay Rudd

CRITICAL COMPANION TO
Dante
A Literary Reference to His Life and Work
JAY RUUD
00i-x_Dante-fm.indd i 5/5/08 12:41:47 PM
For Jenny and Chris
Critical Companion to Dante
Copyright © 2008 by Jay Ruud
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ISBN: 978-0-8160-6521-9
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Ruud, Jay.
Critical companion to Dante / Jay Ruud.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8160-6521-9 (hc : alk. paper)
1. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.
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C
ONTENTS
Acknowledgments v
Introduction vii
Part I: Biography 1
Part II: Works A–Z 19
La commedia (The Divine Comedy) 21
Overview 21
Major Characters in the Commedia 23
Dante the Pilgrim 23
Virgil 25
Beatrice 26
Inferno 27
Introduction and Upper Hell (Virgil, the Vestibule, the Gate,
and Limbo; Cantos 1–4) 28
Sins of Incontinence (the She-Wolf)—(Circles 2–5: Lust,
Gluttony, Hoarders and Wasters, Wrathful and Slothful;
Cantos 5–7) 35
Walls of Dis and the Heretics (City Walls and Circle 6;
Cantos 8–11) 40
Sins of Violence (the Lion)—(Circle 7: Violence against
Neighbor, Self, God, Art, and Nature; Cantos 12–17) 47
Simple Fraud (the Leopard)—(Circle 8: Seducers, Panderers,
Flatterers, Simoniacs, Diviners, Grafters, Hypocrites, Thieves,
Evil Counselors, Sowers of Discord, Falsifiers; Cantos 18–30) 58
Compound Fraud (the Leopard)—(Circle 9: Treachery against
Kin, Country, Guests and Hosts, Lords and Benefactors;
Cantos 31–34) 88
Purgatorio 95
Ante-Purgatory (Entrance to Purgatory and the Three Ledges:
The Excommunicated, the Late Repentant, and the Negligent
Rulers; Cantos 1–9) 97
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Lower Purgatory—Love Perverted (The Proud, the Envious, the
Wrathful; Cantos 10–17) 116
Middle Purgatory—Love Defective (Terrace 4, the Slothful;
Canto 18) 132
Upper Purgatory—Love Misdirected (The Covetous, the
Gluttonous, the Lustful; Cantos 19–27) 134
Earthly Paradise and Meeting with Beatrice (Cantos 28–33) 157
Paradiso 172
Entry to Paradise: Sphere of Fire and Music of the Spheres
(Canto 1) 174
Lower Paradise (The Inconstant, the Seekers of Honor, the
Amorous; Cantos 2–9) 176
Circles of Souls—the Active and Contemplative Lives
(Doctors of the Church, Warriors of God, Just Rulers, the
Contemplative; Cantos 10–22) 191
Dante’s Examination: (Spheres of the Fixed Stars and the
Primum Mobile; Cantos 23–29) 222
The Empyrean: Mystic Rose and Thrones of the Blessed
(Cantos 30–33) 239
Il convivio (The Banquet) 249
Eclogues 281
Epistles 283
De monarchia (Monarchy) 297
Quaestio de aqua et terra (A Question about Water
and Earth) 309
Rime 311
La vita nuova (New Life) 349
De vulgari eloquentia (Eloquence in the Vernacular) 362
Part III: Related Entries 371
Part IV: Appendices 533
Chronology of Life and Works 535
Internet Sources on Dante 538
Bibliography of Dante’s Works 540
Bibliography of Secondary Sources 542
Index 551
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A
cknowledgments
Special thanks should go to Ali Welky, my particularly for their help in obtaining materials.
graduate assistant, whose work (in particular For their contributions to the “Related Entries”
in editing the Divine Comedy section of the book) section of the book, the students in my graduate
was absolutely first-rate. I also want to thank my class in research methods also deserve my thanks:
two other graduate assistants, Stephanie Fritts and Paulette Bane, Briana Barentine, Katie Evans, Jes-
Joshua Gillespie, who worked with me for shorter sica Felkins, Robert Giles, Anthony Hafner, Jea-
periods but whose help was also quite valuable. I nette Holland, Whitney Jones, Paul Lewis, Angela
should also thank the Graduate School of the Uni- Mahan, Joshua Markham, Don Smith, Amy Stahl,
versity of Central Arkansas for the funding to hire and Mandi Tollett. I want to thank Gerardo Bruno
the three aforementioned graduate assistants. I also for occasional help with Italian.
want to thank Stacey Jones, who has, as always, Finally, I want to acknowledge my gratitude to
been a support and inspiration and whose advice on my literary agent, Jodie Rhodes, and to my editor,
editing matters also proved very beneficial. Jeff Soloway, and the staff at Facts On File.
I should thank, as well, the staff of the Torrey-
son Library at the University of Central Arkansas,

I
NTRODUCTION
Dante Alighieri was born nearly 750 years ago. ian and time-bound medieval Christian (Catholic)
While he achieved some acclaim among his afterlife, advocating an outmoded Imperial politi-
countrymen in his own lifetime, he died under a cal stance, employing a pre-Columbian view of
death sentence, in exile from his home in Florence, geography, a pre-Copernican view of astronomy, a
and in relative poverty, relying on the goodwill of precapitalist view of economics, and a pre-Enlight-
Guido Novello da Polenta, the lord of Ravenna, enment Aristotelian and medieval Scholastic view
for his livelihood. Today a quick Google search of philosophy and natural science, Dante seems an
brings up more than a million Web sites that men- archaic curiosity at best.
tion Dante. Hundreds of books and articles are But the afterlife, particularly Hell, has always
published annually concerning his works, his life, fascinated people, even those who do not believe in
and his literary influence. In the past dozen years it, and Dante’s vivid, sensuous descriptions of the
or so, at least 13 new English translations alone of torments of the damned have engrossed readers for
his most popular work, the Inferno, have seen print. centuries. For those with more spiritual yearnings,
Classic translations by Henry Wadsworth Longfel- his description of Paradise gives the impression of
low, Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Singleton, John a true mystical experience, an ineffable vision of
D. Sinclair, Dorothy Sayers, and John Ciardi have God. And there is no better literary representation
been reissued or are still in print. Three different of the moral struggles of everyday life than the Pur-
editions of Mark Musa’s translation are available. gatorio. Despite the outmoded politics of his impe-
Allan Mandelbaum, Robert Pinsky, Anthony Eso- rial vision, Dante’s insistence on the separation of
len, Robin Kirkpatrick, Robert Durling, Ciaran church and state and his righteous anger over cor-
Carson, and Robert Hollander all have recent and ruption in government (whether secular or eccle-
attractive paperback translations of the Inferno at siastical) are as timely now as they were in his day.
affordable prices available to every English-speak- His inflexible insistence on personal responsibility
ing reader in the world. and his refusal to allow the individuals represented
Such availability of his work, in so many forms, in his text to make excuses or avoid accountability
would have boggled Dante’s mind, living as he did for their actions display foundational values that
in a time when each individual text produced had speak to modern audiences more effectively than
to be painstakingly and expensively copied by hand, any contemporary self-proclaimed moralist.
so that a book might cost the equivalent of the But even if Dante’s subject matter were not
price of a car in today’s world. Indeed, Dante seems engaging in itself, the beauty of his poetry stands
at first a very unlikely candidate for such popular- out even in translation, particularly when the
ity. Writing in a foreign tongue in what many today translation is made by an accomplished English-
consider the ancient past, describing a very sectar- language poet. The ambiguity of Francesca’s
vii
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viii Critical Companion to Dante
reference to Paolo, deeply suggestive but leaving so might be considered as third or fourth members
much unsaid, is brilliantly memorable: of this exclusive group, at least in terms of their
influence on Western literature. While Dante has
“This one, who now will never leave my side,
never been accused of humility, even he might be
Kissed my mouth, trembling. A Galeotto, that
surprised to appear on this very short list, which
book!
does not include his own beloved Virgil. But cer-
And so was he who wrote it; that day we read
tainly ever since Longfellow enraged the trustees
No further.”
of Harvard University by daring to offer a course
(Inferno 5, ll. 121–124, Pinsky translation)
in Dante—whose poetry was written in a modern
The imagery of daily life for the outcast is cap- European language rather than in Greek or Latin,
tured vividly in lines like these from the Paradiso: the only fit languages for serious study—the Eng-
lish-speaking world has been enchanted by Dante.
. . . You are to know the bitter taste
Dante himself saw the future when he insisted on
Of others’ bread, how salt it is, and know
writing the COMMEDIA in Italian, rather than in a
How hard a path it is for one who goes
classical language no longer spoken by his fellow
Descending and ascending others’ stairs.
Italians. He explains his reasons for this (in Latin)
(Paradiso 17, ll. 57–60,
in his DE VULGARI ELOQUENTIA, and history has
Mandelbaum translation)
proved him right. Dante speaks in a living lan-
And the power and finality of the lines inscribed guage, and he speaks eloquently to living readers.
on the gates of Hell give every reader pause: Many students are surprised to learn that Dante
was the author of several other works in addition to
Only those elements time cannot wear
the Divine Comedy. Aside from De vulgari eloquentia
Were made before me, and beyond time I stand.
he wrote the VITA NUOVA, which introduces read-
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
ers to his beloved Beatrice and relates her death;
(Inferno 3, ll. 7–9, Ciardi translation)
the Convivio, a vernacular “banquet” of knowledge
Lines like these and countless others inspired Boc- gleaned from Latin and Greek philosophers; DE
caccio and Petrarch. They also spoke to Chaucer MONARCHIA, a political text advocating the return
and Milton, and, after Henry Cary’s popular 1814 of imperial power to a single world ruler to counter
English translation of the Comedy, a long line of the secular power of the pope; several Latin epistles
19th- and 20th-century writers in English, includ- (in this book, covered in the entry EPISTLES), two
ing Coleridge, Shelley, Ruskin, Eliot, and Joyce and Latin eclogues (covered in the entry ECLOGUES),
ultimately Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Even if a scientific treatise on geography (covered in the
Dante were not fascinating in himself, he would be entry QUAESTIO DE AQUA ET TERRA), and more than
of interest to English readers through his influence 80 lyric poems (most are covered in the entry RIME,
on these English writers and, indeed, on the entire the title of the modern collection of Dante’s lyrics,
history of Western literature since the Middle Ages. though some are covered in the entries on IL CON-
A recent book edited by Peter S. Hawkins and VIVIO and the Vita nuova) through which he devel-
Rachel Jacoff, The Poets’ Dante, gathers essays and oped his poetic style and honed his genius before
pieces from 28 modern poets—from Pound, Eliot, embarking on the great project of his Commedia.
and Yeats through Auden, Lowell, and Nemerov to All of these works are summarized and analyzed in
Merrill, Heaney, Merwin, and Pinsky—all appre- this volume.
ciations of Dante’s art and genius. This critical companion makes no attempt to be
John Ruskin called Dante “the central man in comprehensive. The MLA International Bibliography
the world,” while T. S. Eliot is quoted as saying, lists 1,052 items published on Dante since the year
“Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between 2000—10,831 since the bibliography began in the
them. There is no third.” There are those who early 20th century. No single volume could hope
would propose that Homer, or perhaps Goethe, to encapsulate the sheer weight of this cumulated
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Introduction  ix
knowledge. Instead, this book attempts to fill a gap How to Use This Book
left by the now-outdated Handbook to Dante Studies Part I is a short biography of Dante that describes his
of Umberto Cosmos (1950). This book is intended life and situates him in his time. Part II consists of
to be an introduction to Dante and his works for entries on all of Dante’s works in alphabetical order,
students and general readers. Reading the summa- beginning with the Divine Comedy, which, given its
ries and commentaries on the various sections of prominence, is accorded a far more detailed syn-
the Divine Comedy should be a valuable aid for opsis and commentary than Dante’s other works.
nonexpert readers of that text. The Related Entries Part III includes entries on Dante’s contemporaries,
section lists and describes most of the important writers and thinkers who influenced him, charac-
figures Dante meets in the Comedy, as well as many ters (both real and mythological) who appear in the
other people, places, and topics important to the Comedy, places, battles, movements, and other sig-
understanding of Dante’s life and work. nificant related items. Part IV contains appendices,
The book may also serve as a reference for more including a chronology of Dante’s life and times, an
experienced teachers and scholars in providing annotated list of valuable Internet sites devoted to
handy reviews of details from the various texts, dis- Dante, a bibliography of Dante’s works (focusing
cussions of individual characters in the Comedy or in on English translations), and a bibliography of sec-
Dante’s life, and an extensive bibliography of works ondary sources. To indicate a cross-reference, any
in English, particularly comprehensive with regard name or term that appears as a main entry in Part II
to publications since 2000 and generous in its cover- or Part III is printed on first appearance in an entry
age of significant publications prior to that time. in small capital letters.
P I
ART
Biography
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Biography 3
Dante Alighieri
(1265–1321)
DANTE’S WORLD
The world into which Dante Alighieri was born
was a turbulent hotbed of violent partisan poli-
tics that reflected the power struggle between
the papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor on the
international level across Italy and Germany and
that spilled over to affect local politics as well.
In Italy the major factions were known as the
GUELPHs and the GHIBELLINEs, Italianized forms
of the names of two rival German factions: the
Waiblings, whose name was taken from that of
a castle—Waiblingen—the owners of which, the
Hohenstaufen family, ultimately produced the
Emperors Frederick Barbarossa and FREDERICK II
OF SWABIA, and the Welfs, the family that became
the greatest political rivals of the Hohenstaufens.
Their partisan rivalry, which was essentially the
rivalry between pro- and anti-Imperial factions,
The Yale Dante, attributed to the school of Angelo
spread into Italy.
Bronzino ca. 1575 but possibly of earlier date, is the
In the 16th Canto of his PARADISO, Dante recalls
finest Dante portrait in the United States. From Dante
the event that opened FLORENCE to this rivalry: and His World, by Thomas Caldecot Chubb, Boston:
When Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti, heir of an
Little, Brown and Company, 1966.
ancient and wealthy Florentine family, forsook the
daughter of the Amidei family on their wedding
day in order to marry instead the daughter of Gual- Dante was to become the last 20 years of his life: a
drada Donati, the Amidei avenged the dishonor by Florentine expatriate.
murdering Buondelmonti at the foot of the statue In Florence the Ghibelline party was made up
of Mars at the Ponte Vecchio in 1215. Thus began largely of the landed feudal nobility, while the Guelph
a bitter feud, and the two families sought support party comprised the city’s artisan class as well as the
from allies outside Florence: the Amidei from lesser aristocracy, the group to which Dante’s fam-
Imperial allies, and the Buondelmonti from allies in ily belonged. On the national level the Ghibellines
allegiance with the papacy. were identified generally by their allegiance to the
As a result of this feud, between 1215 and 1278, authority of the emperor in secular matters, while the
the Guelphs and Ghibellines of Dante’s native Guelphs as a group generally supported the power of
TUSCANY were involved in a power struggle that the pope as the chief political rival of the emperor.
included numerous plots, betrayals, strange alli- As time went on, however, these distinctions became
ances, and sometimes open warfare. Authority blurred and less important, and local concerns like
shifted constantly from one party to the other. family feuds and private interests tended to dominate
Each change in power in the chief Tuscan city of partisan agendas. The issues dividing the Guelphs
Florence brought with it new orders for the expul- and Ghibellines of Florence later in the 13th century
sion or exile of prominent members of the losing tended (like the Buondelmonti murder) to be mat-
side, so that it was not at all unusual to be what ters of specifically Florentine import.
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