INFERNO IV
INFERNO IV
1–9. The last canto had come to its dramatic conclusion with a shaking of the earth accompanied—indeed perhaps caused by—a supernatural lightning bolt that made Dante fall into a fainting “sleep.” In medieval opinion such earthquakes were caused by winds imprisoned in the earth. Now he is awakened by the following thunder. As the last verse of Inferno III has him overcome by sleep (“sonno”), so in the first line of this canto that sleep is broken, overriding the sharp line of demarcation that a canto ending or beginning seems to imply, as at the boundary between Inferno II and III.
There has been a centuries-long debate over the question of whether this “thunder” (truono), the noise made by the sorrowing damned (v. 9), is the same as the thunderclap of v. 2 (truono [the reading in most MSS and editions]). Mazzoni (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 45–49, summarizes that debate. It seems best to understand that this noise is not the one that awakens Dante, but the one that he first hears from the inhabitants of Limbo, i.e., that the two identical words indicate diverse phenomena. [return to English / Italian]
13. That, even according to Virgil, who dwells in it, the world of Limbo is “blind” might have helped hold in check some of the more enthusiastic readings of this canto as exemplary of Dante’s “humanistic” inclinations. For important discussions along these lines see Mazzoni, Introduzione (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 29–35; Padoan (Pado.1965.1). And see Virgil’s own later “gloss” to Limbo (Purg. VII.25–30), where he describes his punishment for not believing in Christ-to-come as consisting in his being denied the sight of the Sun. Dante describes Limbo as being without other punishment than its darkness (and indeed here it is described as a “blind world” [cieco mondo]), its inhabitants as sighing rather than crying out in pain (v. 26). Had he wanted to make Limbo as positive a place as some of his commentators do, he surely would have avoided, in this verse, the reference to the descent that is necessary to reach it. Such was not the case for the neutrals in the previous circle, who apparently dwell at approximately the same level as the floor of the entrance through the gate of hell. This is the first downward movement within the Inferno. [return to English / Italian]
16–17. Virgil’s sudden pallor (v. 14) causes Dante to believe that his guide is fearful, as he himself had been at the end of the previous canto (III.131). [return to English / Italian]
18. Virgil has given comfort to Dante when the latter has succumbed to doubt in each of the first two cantos. [return to English / Italian]
19–21. Virgil makes plain the reason for his pallor: he is feeling pity for those who dwell in Limbo (and thus himself as well), not fear. That much seems plain enough. But there has been controversy over the centuries as to whether Virgil refers only to the inhabitants of Limbo or to all the damned. Mazzoni (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 58–65, offers a careful review of the problem and concludes that the better reading is the former, demonstrating that Dante has, in five passages in earlier works, made sighs (sospiri) the result of feeling anguish (angoscia)—as they are here (v. 26). [return to English / Italian]
25–27. As was true in the last Circle (where the neutrals were punished) the darkness is at first so great that Dante apparently cannot see; his first impressions are only auditory. Compare Inferno III.21–30. [return to English / Italian]
30. This line, seemingly innocent of polemical intent, is in fact in pronounced and deliberate disagreement with St. Thomas (though in accord with Virgil’s description of the crowds along the bank of Acheron [Aen. VI.306–307]). For Thomas, the inhabitants of Limbo were in one of two classes: the Hebrew saints, harrowed by Christ and taken to heaven, and all unbaptized infants. They are now of that second group alone. Dante’s addition of the virtuous pagans is put forward on his own authority. This is perhaps the first of many instances in which Dante chooses to differ with Thomas. For a helpful analysis of the ways in which Dante both follows and separates himself from “authoritative” accounts of the Limbus, see Mazzoni (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 70–80. Mazzoni shows that Dante is in total agreement with Thomas about the presence of the unbaptized infants in Limbo, but disagrees with him (following Bonaventure instead) about whether these infants suffer the pain that comes from knowing of their inability to see God—which Thomas allows himself to doubt. Dante (as does Bonaventure) holds a harsher view on this point. His view of the unbaptized pagans, however, is as mild as his view of the pain of the infants is severe. It is in sharp disagreement with the views of most Christians on this issue. Padoan (Pado.1969.1), p. 371, cites Guido da Pisa’s commentary to this verse as exemplary of early puzzled or hostile responses to Dante’s inclusion of the virtuous pagans in Limbo: “The Christian faith, however, does not hold that there are any here other than the innocent babes. Here, and in certain other passages, this poet speaks not as a theologian but as a poet.” [return to English / Italian]
42. Virgil’s insistence that the inhabitants of Limbo “without hope live in longing” does not as greatly reduce the sense of punishment suffered here, as some argue. See St. Thomas, De malo, q. 5, art. 2 (cited by Mazzoni [Mazz.1965.1], p. 69): “Original sin is not fitly punished by sensation, but only by damnation itself, that is, the absence of the sight of God.” If their only punishment is that absence, it is nonetheless total. [return to English / Italian]
44. In at least one respect Inferno I and II are cantos paired in opposition, the first rooted in Dante’s fear (paura), the second in the reassurance granted by the word (parola), as spoken by Virgil and Beatrice. The same may be said for Cantos III and IV. Mazzoni, following the lead of Forti (Fort.1961.1), identifies the central subject of the first of this pair as “pusillanimità” (cowardice), of the second as “magnanimità” (greatness of soul—Mazz.1965.1, pp. 34–35). See note to Canto III.58–60. [return to English / Italian]
45. The word sospesi (“suspended”) has caused great dispute. Are the limbicoli “hanging” between heaven and hell? between salvation and damnation? Is there some potential better state awaiting them? Mazzoni’s note (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 89–93, leaves little doubt, and resolves their situation as follows: they are punished eternally for their original sin, but are aware (as are none of the other damned souls) of the better life that is denied them. They are “suspended,” in other words, between their punishment and their impossible desire. [return to English / Italian]
46–51. Dante’s question has caused discomfort. Why should he seek confirmation of Christ’s ascent to heaven from a pagan? Why should he need to confirm his Christian faith on this indisputable point of credence, without which there is no Christian faith? Neither Dante’s question nor Virgil’s answer concerns itself primarily with Christ’s descent to Limbo and ascent to heaven, but rather with the more nebulous facts regarding those who went up with Him after the harrowing of hell. See, for a modern recovery of the importance of the harrowing as a concern in Limbo, the work of Iannucci (Iann.1979.2; Iann.1992.1). “Did ever anyone, either by his own or by another’s merit, go forth from here and rise to blessedness?” Dante’s question refers, first, to the Hebrew patriarchs and matriarchs, second, to unbaptized infants and to all those who were later taken up from Limbo and whose ascent Virgil might have witnessed. Indeed, Virgil’s answer will identify more than twenty of those harrowed by Christ; thus we know how he understood Dante’s first concern. Dante was interested in confirming what he had heard about the harrowing. But his question does have a second point. Virgil has himself been elevated from hell, if but for a moment. Dante’s question alludes, tacitly, to him as well: “Are you one of the saved?” Dante’s “covert speech,” as the phrase intimates, is focused on the salvation of pagans, and on Virgil in particular. In his gloss to v. 51 Benvenuto da Imola characterizes Dante’s view of his own “covert speech” as follows: “… as though my words had hidden the thought, ‘you great philosophers and poets, your great wisdom, what did it, without faith, accomplish for your salvation? Certainly nothing at all, for even the ancient patriarchs, in their simple, faithful credence, were drawn up out of this prison, in which place you are to remain for ever and ever.’ ” [return to English / Italian]
52–54. Virgil tells Dante what he witnessed in 34 a.d., when he was “new” to his condition, some fifty-three years after his death in 19 B.C. He saw a “mighty one” (Christ recognized by Virgil only for his power, an anonymous harrower to the pagan observer). He is either crowned with the sign of victory or crowned and holding the sign of victory, a scepter representing the Cross. [return to English / Italian]
55–61. Virgil’s list of the patriarchs and matriarchs, beginning with “our first parent,” Adam (Eve, similarly harrowed, will be seen in the Empyrean [Par. XXXII.5]), Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Jacob, Isaac, the (twelve) sons of Jacob (and his daughter, Dinah? [but it seems unlikely that Dante was considering her]), and Rachel. The twenty-one (or twenty-two—if Dante counted Jacob’s progeny as we do) Hebrew elders will be added to in Par. XXXII.4–12: Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and Ruth, thus accounting for some of the “many others” whom Virgil does not name here, twenty-five men and seven women in all, when we include the others added along the way: Samuel (Par. IV.29), Rahab (Par. IX.116), Solomon (Par. X.109), Joshua (Par. XVIII.38), Judas Maccabeus (Par. XVIII.49), and Ezechiel (Par. XX.49). [return to English / Italian]
62–63. Virgil’s conclusion effectively voids the second part of Dante’s question. He has told only of those who were taken by Christ for their own merits. [return to English / Italian]
72. This new place, the only place in hell in which light is said to overcome darkness (vv. 68–69), is immediately linked to the “key word” of this section of the canto, “honor.” This is the densest repetition of a single word and its derivates in the Comedy: seven times in 29 lines (72–100: at vv. 72, 73, 74, 76, 80, 93, 100), with a “coda” tacked on at v. 133. Can there be any doubt that honor and poetry are indissolubly linked in Dante’s view of his own status? As lofty as noble actions and great philosophy may be for him (but that part of the canto, vv. 106–147, has only a single occurrence of the word “honor”), it is poetry that, for Dante, is the great calling. [return to English / Italian]
73. Padoan’s gloss on Dante’s phrase is worth noting: scïenzïa (“knowledge”) is represented by philosophy and the seven liberal arts, while arte (“art” in a more restricted sense than is found in the modern term) has to do with the means of expressing knowledge. [return to English / Italian]
78. Dante’s enthusiasm for the power of great poetry is such that he claims that God, in recognition of its greatness, mitigates the punishment of these citizens of Limbo with respect to that of the others there who dwell in darkness (and who were not, we thus conclude, great poets—or doers of great deeds or accomplishers of philosophic wisdom, for these, too, dwell in this lightest part of hell [vv. 106–147]). [return to English / Italian]
79. There has been debate over the identity of the speaker of the following two lines. Since Dante does not say, specifically, that Homer speaks them, we cannot know that it was he who spoke. Dante steps back and lets us make the ascription. Who else would have spoken? Horace? Perhaps. Certainly not Ovid, not exactly Virgil’s greatest supporter. And even less Lucan, whose work rather pointedly attacks what Virgil champions. But the scene makes its inner logic clear: the leader of the group is Homer, who “comes as lord before the three” (v. 87). He speaks first, and Virgil responds. [return to English / Italian]
80–81. Homer’s great compliment to Virgil has so claimed our affectionate attention, resonating in its grave “o” and “a” sounds, that we have not seen the drama in the following verse: “his shade returns that had gone forth.” What did Homer and Virgil’s other companions think when Beatrice came to Limbo to draw Virgil up to the world of the living? They have witnessed this sort of event before, at least once (the harrowing), and perhaps at least once more (Trajan’s latter-day resurrection). A student, Elizabeth Statmore (Princeton ’82), in a seminar in February 1982 offered an interesting hypothesis (see Holl.1984.2, p. 219): Virgil’s companions thought that he, too, had now been harrowed. But no, here he is again, right back where he belongs. [return to English / Italian]
86. The sword in Homer’s hand indicates not only that he was an epic poet, not only that he is the first among poets, but that, as a result, epic poetry is to be taken as the foremost poetic genre. See note to vv. 95–96. [return to English / Italian]
88–90. Alessio and Villa argue that the Latin poets in Dante’s bella scola are divided into generic categories as follows: Virgil: tragedy; Ovid: elegy; Horace: satire; Lucan: history. Missing from such a list is a representative of comedy. They argue that almost any reader would have expected to find Terence’s name here, and go on to surmise that Dante has deliberately excluded Terence as the representative of comedy because he has taken that role unto himself (Ales.1993.1, pp. 56–58). For Dante’s knowledge of Terence see Vill.1984.1.
For all these authors consult the entries found in the Enciclopedia dantesca: Guido Martellotti, “Omero” (ED, vol. 4, 1973), pp. 145a–48a; Ettore Paratore, “Ovidio” (ED, vol. 4, 1973), pp. 225b–36b; Giorgio Brugnoli and Roberto Mercuri, “Orazio” (ED, vol. 4, 1973), pp. 173b–80b; Ettore Paratore, “Lucano” (ED, vol. 3, 1971), pp. 697b–702b. [return to English / Italian]
88. See Mazzoni’s discussion of what Dante who, not having Greek, could not and did not read Homer’s texts, could in fact know about him (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 137–39. And see Brugnoli (Brug.1993.1). [return to English / Italian]
89. For Horace’s medieval reputation as a satirist see Mazzoni (Mazz. 1965.1), pp. 139–40, Villa (Vill.1993.1), and Reynolds (Reyn.1995.1). [return to English / Italian]
90. In recent years there has been a growing amount of concerted attention finally being paid to Dante’s enormous debt to Ovid, historically overshadowed by the at least apparently even greater one to Virgil. E.g., Jaco.1991.1, containing seven essays on Dante’s responses to Ovid, and Pico.1991.1, Pico.1993.1, Pico.1994.1. And see the lengthy treatment by Marthe Dozon (Dozo.1991.1).
Lucan, not studied enough as source for so many of Dante’s verses, is also beginning to receive more attention. For a recent study arguing for Dante’s close and highly nuanced reading of Lucan, one that helps to account for much of the portrait of his Ulysses, see Stull and Hollander (Stul.1991.1). [return to English / Italian]
93. Virgil is not suggesting that his fellow ancient poets do well to praise him, but that in praising him they honor their shared profession. If there is a “humanistic” gesture in this canto, we find it here, “a solemn celebration of the worth of poetry” (Padoan’s comment). [return to English / Italian]
95–96. Two problems of interpretation continue to assault these lines. (1) Is the “lord of loftiest song” Homer or Virgil? Most today agree that Homer is meant. (2) Does the relative pronoun che in v. 96 refer to the singer or the song? That is, is it Homer (or Virgil) who soars above all other poets, or is it the lofty style of epic that flies higher than all other forms of poetic expression? Most today prefer the second reading. This argument depends heavily upon the reference of the adjective altri. Those who think that the second meaning is most likely point out that the adjective seems to refer to canto in the preceding line, while a reference to the “other poets” can only be assumed, since there is no noun to attach to them. Our translation leaves the meaning ambivalent, as Dante seems to do. [return to English / Italian]
99. The poets’ greeting of Dante is the occasion for the only smile found in Inferno. [return to English / Italian]
101. In Inferno II.105 Lucy tells Beatrice that Dante, for her sake, had left “the vulgar herd” (la volgare schiera). Exactly what this means is a matter of some dispute, yet some believe that it refers to his distancing himself from the rest of contemporary vernacular poets in his quite different championing of his own and most special lady. (See note to Inf. II.105.) Such an interpretation is lent support by the fact that here the word (schiera) returns to designate a quite different group of poets, the great auctores. (Of the nineteen uses of the noun in the poem, only these two make it refer to a group that Dante either leaves or joins.) In this interpretation Dante makes himself unique among contemporary poets in part because of his adherence to Beatrice, in part because of his involvement with Virgil and the other great poets of antiquity. [return to English / Italian]
102. For a review of the various sorts of discomfort among the commentators occasioned by Dante’s promotion of his own poetic career in this verse (some going so far as to insist that he displays humility here rather than pride) see Mazzoni (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 147–54. It is clear that Dante is putting himself in very good company on the basis of very little accomplishment: a series of lyrics, the Vita nuova, two unfinished treatises, and three cantos of the Comedy. His daring is amazing. However, we ought to consider that most of his readers today will readily agree that he is not only justly included in this company of the great poets of all time between Homer and Dante, but is one of its foremost members. It was a dangerous gesture for him to make. It is redeemed by his genius.
For a possible source for this verse see Gmel.1966.1, p. 91: Ovid’s Tristia, IX.x.54, where that poet makes himself fourth in the line of poets after Tibullus, Gallus, and Propertius. And we should look ahead to Purg. XXI.91 when the inclusion of Statius will make Dante not the sixth but the seventh in this group.
That there are forty named or otherwise identified inhabitants in Limbo is probably not accidental (the five poets and the thirty-five souls later observed in the precincts of the noble castle). In one tradition of medieval numerology the “number” of man is four (of God, three). In a widely practiced mode of medieval “counting,” 40 = 4 + 0 = 4. [return to English / Italian]
104–105. What was the subject under discussion that is now not reported? Mazzoni (Mazz.1965.1, pp. 154–56), following an early indication of D’Ovidio’s, argues that the subject is poetry, or the secrets of those involved in this sacred art, adducing as evidence two passages in Purg. XXII (104–105; 127–129). In the first of these Virgil tells Statius that he and his poetic companions in Limbo often speak of the Muses; then Dante is allowed to overhear Statius and Virgil speaking of the art of poetic making. To be sure, the poet deliberately refuses (and this will not be the last time) to tell us what was said. Yet it is clear that we are meant to wonder what it was, and to come up with some sort of reasonable hypothesis in explanation. No writer would otherwise include such a provocative detail. [return to English / Italian]
106–111. The noble castle with its seven walls and surrounding stream that Dante and the poets walk over as though it were dry land in order then to pass through the seven gates and into a green meadow: what do these things signify? It is clear that here we are dealing with the conventional kind of allegory, in which poetic objects stand for abstract ideas. But which ones? As is often the case, allegories (here, a brief extended metaphor) of this kind have proven to be extremely difficult for Dante’s readers, and not only for his modern readers. Mazzoni (Mazz.1965.1) presents the history of the question (pp. 156–68); yet it cannot be said that he has resolved it. Is the castle the good life of the human being without Grace, all that can be done with the moral and speculative virtues that pagans could perfect despite their lack of faith (Mazzoni)? Or does the castle represent philosophy, with its seven disciplines (physics, metaphysics, ethics, politics, economics, mathematics, and dialectic [Padoan’s comment])? Or something else? And what does it mean that the pagan poets and Dante all can cross the stream as though it were not water? Surely that stands for some impediment that keeps the rest of the inhabitants of Limbo out, since apparently only those worthy of entrance can move over it. There are thirty-five designated inhabitants within the walls and fully two-fifths of these are “actives” (and the majority of these are women: eight of the fourteen). The more numerous “contemplatives”—had they been the only inhabitants discussed—might indicate that the castle stands for “philosophy.” But what have Caesar, Camilla, Latinus, or Lavinia got to do with philosophy? What, then, do the castle and its surroundings stand for? The best that human beings can be without God, in whatever precise further formulation: that seems a plausible, if not satisfying, response to Dante’s riddle. [return to English / Italian]
115–117. The resemblance to the vision of the Elysian fields, the best place in the pagan underworld, in Aen. VI.752–755 was not lost on Boccaccio—nor on Pietro di Dante before him, in the third redaction of his commentary, as discussed by Mazz.1965.1, p. 172. [return to English / Italian]
121–122. The first group is Trojan: Electra, mother of Dardanus, founder of Troy; Hector; Aeneas. The line becomes Roman with Aeneas. [return to English / Italian]
123. For Caesar as the first emperor of Rome see Convivio IV.v.12. For the source in Suetonius of his falcon-like eyes see Campi’s comment to this verse. That Caesar is here in armor may well be a reminder of his crossing of the Rubicon in arms to attack Rome (see Stul.1991.1, p. 36). [return to English / Italian]
124–126. The next group is Latian, those who fought and lost against Aeneas; first named are two warrior maidens, then Latinus, king of Latium, and his daughter, Lavinia. Aeneas won the right to marry her by his victory over the forces led by Turnus. [return to English / Italian]
127–128. This group is associated with the Roman Republic, first its founder, Lucius Brutus, and then four of its matronly heroines. [return to English / Italian]
129. That Saladin, for all the good report that he enjoyed, is included by Dante in Limbo (along with two other “infidels,” Avicenna and Averroes, at vv. 143–144) is nonetheless extraordinary. They are the only three “moderns” in Limbo, all representatives of that Islamic culture which Dante usually saw in negative terms and only as the enemy of Christendom. [return to English / Italian]
131. This “master” of knowledge, the teacher of philosophy for nearly every major thinker in the Middle Ages, is, of course, Aristotle. For two important studies in English of the Aristotelian basis of Dante’s thought see Boyde (Boyd.1981.1 and Boyd.1993.1). [return to English / Italian]
134–140. Socrates and Plato lead the listing of other Greek philosophers. Dante’s knowledge of the pre-Socratics is, of course, limited; but his interest in them was great. [return to English / Italian]
140–141. The group of four combines poets (Orpheus, Linus) and moral philosophers (Cicero, Seneca). [return to English / Italian]
142–144. The last grouping combines classical mathematicians and doctors of medicine with two “moderns,” both Muslims, Avicenna (eleventh-century philosopher) and Averroes (twelfth-century commentator of Aristotle). For Dante’s surprising “liberality” in including Avicenna and Averroes in Limbo see note to v. 129. [return to English / Italian]
145–147. Dante’s abrupt switch to the role of author from that of narrator is noteworthy. With the exception of the invocation in Inferno II.7, this is the first time he has assumed that role, this time addressing remarks about the poem to us, his readers: “I cannot give account of all of them, for the length of my theme so drives me on, the telling often comes short of the fact.” The effect is, as we have observed before (note to vv. 64–66, above), to put together an appeal to his experience as voyager, returned from a veracious visit to the otherworld, and insistence on his absolute control over what he has in fact invented. As readers we are aware that it is he who has created the inhabitants of Limbo; his remark both insists that he is only recording what he observed and simultaneously allows a shared understanding of his contrivance. What is genial in it is that it turns his reader into a collaborator. The use of the word tema (here “poetic subject”) underlines the literary nature of the enterprise. [return to English / Italian]