CLC
334G
Ante-Purgatory
- before Purgatory proper (cantos 10-33) (name given by commentators)
- cantos 3-6 are late penitents
o reminded of Limbo, outside the gates of Dis and, the Desert (Inferno references)
o looser reigns à all souls go through all levels of Purgatory, but here can travel up and down at will, or choose to not move at all
o category blending
§ identities are being formed as more collective
- Canto 1
o milling around, troops, sheep (the newly arrived) à includes Dante and Virgil too
- Canto 2
o souls choosing (will) to be still
o Casella (sort of just disappears, but where is he going?)
§ be here for quite a while
- Canto 3
o excommunicated
§ buried on unconsecrated ground and, in Manfred’s case, dug up and scattered (3 times excommunicated)
o Manfred
§ anti-clerical comment
§ Epicurean
§ interested with Islam à open to their poets, scholars, “Muslim friendly”
- Canto 4
o Lethargic/lazy
§ Belacqua an example of this (this is a creation of Dante, commentators don’t know)
§ while others here are also slow, they are also dynamic, Belacqua is not
- Canto 5
o quite flocked
o victims of violence, repented as they were dying
- Canto 6
o worldly late penitents
o beginning of princes
o leader is Sordello
o neglected spiritual life, worldly
§ too late in reign do they realize they have to pay attention to the spirit
Terms
|
Last time |
This time |
|
canto corpo |
tempo anima |
- while there is a clear link between canto and tempo and corpo and anima, there is also a connection between canto and anima and corpo and tempo
- anima
o in today’s society it’s consciousness which is linked to the subconscious (secret things)
- tempo
o earth time (bell time)
§ time of mortals
o period of Purgatorial time (always looking in past and future)
§ related to ordained time
§ ordained time vs. prayer (Hope)
§ God’s view: sub specie aeternitatis
o 
· this is figural, but becomes imago of “God bubble”
o model and image with potency and act = Neo-Platonism
· our now is God beaming down “being” on us
o this is why trying to focus on now, but must meditate on past first and need hope for the future
o trying hard to remain conscious, therefore, when Dante talks to the souls, he is interrupting this focus
o psychological time (related to Purgatorial time)
§ memory, present consciousness, will
§ pleasure and pain
Canto 4
- definitely about tempo and related to anima
- initially, anima so distracted by senses that lose sense of tempo
- Dante philosopher is speaking to us here
o quoting Aristotle and Aquinas
- in cantos 2 and 3, Dante is distracted, now he philosophize/theologize with this
o Dante glossator and inquisitor
§ own, authoritative inquisitor as Purgatory (self-inquisition)
· make consciousness zero in on errors (moral and intellectual)
§ inquisitor: determines erroneous scripture
· Dante text skirted the boundaries, but now becomes his own
o Literal level is now frozen to deal with other tempos
§ compels reader to stop worrying about the story and reach understanding of what the soul is
Anima
- De anima
o book 2: 1-2
§ definition of the soul and use of the soul
- parts of anima (powers of the soul
o vegetative/nutritive
o sensitive/perceptions (Aristotle doesn’t give distinction here)
o desiderative
o locomotive
o intellect
- not just psychological, but connected to the body as well (movable parts)
- biological, there fore plants have a soul (vegetative)
o with sensitive, desiderative and locomotive included creates animals
o all five powers = human
- there is a hierarchy and it’s evolutionary (humans get spiration)
o Statius explains all this in Purgatory 25
-
now, go back and
look at first 6 cantos and Ante Purgatory
o Canto 1
§ reeds, souls are newly conceived, new bodies
o Cantos 2 and 3
§ Casella sings, sight important, “heard or seen”
o Canto 4
§ concerned with movement, grand desire “wings of desire”
o Canto 5
§ Dante’s motion is important
o Canto 6
§ intellect becomes apparently important (pp 57)
The Soul (related to Anima)
- Plato:
o motor, vehicle, directs body, driver
§ soul separable from the body
- Aristotle
|
potential accident body matter |
actual substance soul form |
- souls are hylomorphic compounds
o hylo=matter, morphe=form
o matter and form à conceptually distinguishable but not in reality
§ body and soul inseparable
§ soul is actualization of living body
· this is the first actualization
o realizing capabilities is actualization
§ when born
§ when reach maturity
§ pregnancy (for men intellect and artistic)
§ Purgatorial actualization
§ everything living can have a soul
Dante’s Reaction to those in Purgatory vs. the Inferno
- Dante’s reaction in the Inferno cycled from emphatic to apathetic (and aggressive)
- in Purgatory, we have seen him react only with empathy so far
o Casella
o Manfred
- Belacqua à seems initially to be moving towards aggressive, but not really
o Dante starts with a critique, but really like old style
o tenzone à critical bantering exchange
o Dante mocks Belacqua, when he wants to sit himself (pot calling the kettle black)
§ leads to discussion that while physically unmoving, mentally meditation, waiting for his time
· meditate and he’s demonstrating patience
· Dante reads him as tropological vice, but wrong à he is working in bell time but not the same time
o Dante must learn to reread characters (even tropologically)
o sings read in new way and tell of something different
o have to discuss anima and will then see the new corpo as penitent
Dante’s Smile
-
in Paradiso, see smile of Universe (reminded of cat in
Contrasting the souls in Purgatory with counterparts in
Inferno
- “o brother” signifies Ulysses in relation to Belacqua
|
Ulysses |
Belacqua |
|
- false counselor - leads crew astray - always moving (in life and in death – fire) |
- clarifies reason for not moving (consciousness) - leads Dante onto right path, urges him to slow, not speed up - not moving at all (rock instead of fire) |
- think back to the circles diagram
o Dante poet had poem in mind, even at the beginning of the Inferno
o sense in Purgatory that rewriting corresponding canto of the Inferno
§ uncanny superhuman grasp of whole (divine view)
- comparing Canto 5 of the Inferno and Purgatory
|
Inferno
5 |
Purgatory
5 |
|
- wind blows souls around - 2 souls (Francesca and Paolo) à come down in Inferno, also defined souls - Dante stops and faints, immobile in Inferno - focus on self-centered souls - met violent deaths, unrepentant - dark - rebellion, sighing - independent, the man weeps here - pity and desire (here Dante has pity and Francesca wants desire) - Dido - line about first husband (good and loyal husband) - Francesca - a lot of talking - no potential for movement |
- here, the souls, in a wind remain as still as a rock - 2 messengers à go up in Purgatory, represent a collection of souls - here, keeps walking and they follow - focus becomes centered on Dante - met violent deaths, repentant - awash with light - peace, singing - collective, a single tear can mean salvation - pity and desire (here, not manipulating, desire for salvation and pity felt for those who have no one to pray for them) - La Pia - echoes Dido, ironic relationship of marriage (good and loyal wife) - La Pia (both have a murderous husband) - very little talking - going all the way up |
- firs word Dante utters in the Divine Comedy is Miserere
o implication that he’s already a Purgatorian (in potentia)
- we read two different nows and begin to imagine one more (Paradiso)
o like God
o participating in creation of Paradiso
o circular poem: go to read Inferno again, and it’s a completely different poem
The Psalm
- like us at church à sing at mass, the souls in Purgatory sing together
- monk = purgatorial
- section 4 of psalm
o consciousness of sin and divine justice
§ theodical consciousness
· theodicy à those in Inferno don’t have theodical understanding
- section 5 of psalm
o all started as original sin (mess of damnation)
§ humility for Purgatorial soul (we all started off that way, so it’s not just me)
o focus on Mom here, in Inferno it is the “bad dad”
§ at mother’s conceiving (Statius give lecture in Purg. 25)
- section 6 of psalm
o hidden parts: where work is happening (Belacqua)
- section 8 of psalm
o all in earthly state (violently killed)
- section 9 of psalm
o prophetic prayers (purgation transformation)
- section 10 of psalm
o damned cast out (put in Inferno)
- section 12 of psalm
o Dante looking for free will, liberty
Buonconte
- anima corpo connections
o body never found, relatives disowned him (no closure)
o we have to pray for him
o crosses himself (sign of penitence)
§ true sign as he sheds a single tear
- vs. Aeneid 6
o without body, still get in, there is no difference about what happens to your earthly body
o if you truly repent, you’ll be OK
- corpo can undergo substantial change, but no difference with anima (just forms new corpo)
o Jacopo and pool of blood (soul was said to have left the body with the blood à Medieval thought)