The Commedia by Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Family was prominent in Florence (Italian city-state) Little is known about his education. Successful politician as well as poet. Political life is hostile; Italian city-states compete for power with each other and Holy Roman Empire Politics led to his exile from Florence during which he wrote Commedia.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Minor work Vitto Nuovo provides some information about Dante’s life. At age 9, fell in love “at first sight” with Beatrice Portinari; met her again at age 18; she died when Dante was 25 Love for Beatrice was a reason for living and writing She is often depicted as semi-divine in his writing

Commedia (1308-1321) Narrative poem in three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso. Allegory: journey from sin to redemption. Concerns: Politics Nature of justice Spiritual transformation Purpose of reading/writing poetry

Setting… Opens on Good Friday, the year 1300; poem spans the time of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection (3 days). Dante, the Pilgrim is mid-way through his own life (around 35 years old).

Setting… Dante finds himself lost in a Dark Wood and encounters 3 wild beasts: a leopard, lion, and she-wolf (symbols of the sins fraud, violence, and incontinence). The poet Virgil (Aeneid) appears and explains that he will guide Dante through Hell.

Style & Language Commedia or Comedy: poems were classified as High (“Tragedy”) or Low (“Comedy”). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects; High poems were for more serious subjects. Dante was the first to write about a high topic (the Redemption of Man) in the low style of comedy. Dante wrote in Italian, not in Latin (usually used for serious literature); accessible to more people.

Textual Influences Bible: central to people of Middle Ages; guide to knowing God and human conduct Stories of exile (Hebrews exiled from Egypt) Scholars (Scholastics) attempt to reconcile Old and New Testaments. Dante attempts to reconcile secular and religious texts.

Textual Influences Aeneid: Virgil’s epic poem about founding of Rome by Aeneas (son of Venus and Anchises) after fall of Troy Aeneas travels to underworld and is given vision of his destiny to found Rome and lead it to empire Dante extends to Holy Roman Empire and Church

Structure Christian theology influences structure: Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) Number 3 recurs throughout The Divine Comedy. Poem has 3 parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

Structure Each part has 33 Cantos (Inferno has 34). Each stanza contains 3 lines written in terza rima (the 1st and 3rd lines in each tercet rhyme; 2nd line indicates sound of next tercet: a,b,a…b,c,b…c,d,c). Inferno: 9 (3x3) levels of Hell; 3 beasts (lion, leopard, she-wolf) obstruct Dante’s passage to the Hill of Joy; 3 rivers run through Dante’s Hell (Acheron, Phlegethon, Styx).

Categories of Sin Three categories of sin punished in Inferno: sins of incontinence, violence, and fraud Sins of incontinence (Upper Hell) Lack of self-restraint; weakness Harmful things we do to ourselves

Categories of Sin Sins of violence (Lower Hell) Malice; intent to do evil; ill will Premeditated (full knowledge) and harmful to others Sins of fraud (Lower Hell) Also, malicious, premeditated, and harmful to others Involve betrayal and pride

Contrapasso Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224- 1274): Summa Theoligica: Contrapasso is “punishment that fits the crime” The soul’s suffering in Hell extends or reflects the sin that predominated it; sin is a negation or absence. Cold is the absence of heat energy, darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of moral energy The Opportunists: didn’t stand for anything in life; move (chase banner) eternally.

Dante on Love… Love is the movement of the spirit and energy of the universe; poetry is the medium to express the movement of love. Energy of love manifested in three actions: Romantic love: moves toward the object of love Philosophical love: contemplates the world of nature through the exercise of reason Mystical love: desires union with God

Five Attributes of Courtly Love: Aristocratic: practiced by noble lords and ladies in royal palace or at court. Ritualistic: gifts (songs, poems, bouquets, and ceremonial gestures) exchanged for approval. Secret: lovers “lived in their own world” (the secret rendezvous); rules, codes, and commandments.

Five Attributes of Courtly Love: Adulterous: escape from a political or economic marriage to produce royal offspring; not sexual, but sublime and sensual intimacy. Literary: courtly love first gained attention as a subject and theme in imaginative literature.

Cantos V-VIII: Mythological figures: Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas; perversions of classical figures. Canto V: parody of confession: Minos, Francesca; Dido, love not suicide; Arthur legend, romantic love and love of country cannot both survive

Cantos VI: Souls want to be remembered Ciaocco: political prophecy: Dante set poem ten years before time of writing; dramatic irony Aristotle: “As the soul becomes more perfect, so it is more perfect in its several operations”; souls will feel more pain after Last Judgment

Canto VII: Souls cannot be recognized; didn’t recognize what was important in life Fortune: appointed by God; changes in fortune fair because we shouldn’t care about what is fleeting, unimportant

Canto VII: Aristotle: 3 types of anger: Choleric (comes and goes quickly) Bitter (lasts long in the heart of the afflicted, not released easily) Difficult (hostile, directed toward those it should not be; only released if injury inflicted on an enemy) Wrathful (Choleric) Sullen (Bitter)

Canto VIII: Virgil praises Dante for feeling anger toward Filippo Argenti Time for feeling mercy is in life; in death, only feel justice Dante will continue to learn this throughout journey

Canto VIII: City of Dis: Phlegyas (continues wrathfulness) Rebellious Angels refuse to let Dante and Virgil enter Lower Hell

Cantos IX-XI: Heresy Heresy: lack of belief in Eternal life. Farinata: Dante respects because tried to save Florence; predicts Dante’s exile.

Cantos IX-XI: Heresy Calvalcanti: Dante’s guilt about Guido? Guido rejects what? Architecture of Hell based on two works of Aristotle: Ethics and Physics, in which Aristotle identifies types of sin.

Cantos XII-XIV: Violent Mythological beasts are half-human, half-animal: Minotaur, Centaurs, Harpies; heresy is distortion or perversion of what is natural. Old Man of Crete: represents downfall or corruption of man since the Golden Age (gold head down to clay feet).

Cantos XV-XVII: Violent Sodomites: ambiguous; both Dante and Virgil seem respectful of them; Brunetto Latini vernacular language; wrong vernacular? Usurers: can only see purses around necks; do not want to be known. Geryon: man, dragon, scorpion; symbol of fraud.

Cantos XVIII-XIX: Simple Fraud Style of low comedy: physical action, farcical situations, bawdy (indecent) or rude jokes. Vulgar language. Souls do not want to be known. Inverted castle.

Cantos XVIII-XIX: Simple Fraud Apostrophe: “O”; Address to a character not present or dead, an abstract idea; communicates strong emotion; Dante’s strong disapproval of simony. Virgil proud of Dante’s scorn for Nicholas III; lifts him up and carries him to next circle.

Cantos XX-XXIII: Simple Fraud Canto XX: long story of founding of Mantua; civic background of Florence as important to Dante. Continuation of distortion/perversion of God’s order: backward heads of Fortunetellers. Virgil scolds Dante for pitying souls.

Cantos XX-XXIII: Simple Fraud Cantos XXI & XXII: Demons; distortion of military procedures; obscenity. Obscene language not the problem; blasphemy is. No one trustworthy here. Hypocrites: contrapasso?

Cantos XXIV-XXV: Simple Fraud Vanni Fucci: prediction Transformations: substance stolen as they stole others’ substance. Cites Ovid and Lucan; transformation is a literary tradition. Cacus: thievery trumps violence

Cantos XXVI-XXVII: Simple Fraud Pilgrim in dangerous place XXXVI: Ulysses; power and danger of language/rhetoric; Strait of Gibraltar; don’t go past your place Dante implicates himself?; recognizes words are good and bad Makes up Ulysses’ speech; poem is not fiction

Cantos XXVI-XXVII: Simple Fraud XXXVII: In Middle Ages Virgil thought of as magician; Dante recasts Guido da Montefeltro falsely councils Colonna family for Boniface VIII, who had Dante exiled. Ciacco (glutton) predicts Boniface will exile Dante; Pope Nicholas (simonist) says waiting for Boniface. Boniface still alive when Dante is writing

Cantos XXVIII-XXXI: Simple Fraud Giants: Nimrod built Tower of Babel to challenge God; language divided into many tongues; we cannot understand each other Dante recognizes sinners or sinners recognize him through dialects. Language degrades as move through Hell

Cantos XXXII-XXIV: Cocytus Caina: Cain killed brother Abel; betrayers of family Antennora: Antenor, Trojan who sympathized with Greeks; betrayers of country Ptolomea: Ptolemy, governor of Jericho who betrayed his guest the Macabees; betrayers of guests Judecca: Judas Iscariot, gives up Jesus to authorities; betrayers of benefactors or leaders

Cantos XXXII-XXIV: Cocytus XXXIII: Ugolino (Francesca?); tells story even though pains (?) him because will cause Ruggiero suffering; “I did not weep” (49); Francesca tells to be gracious (?) to Dante. Where souls are from is important: Genoa, Pisa; Dante is critiquing the corruption in these places as well as Florence.

Cantos XXXII-XXIV: Cocytus Distortion of Trinity: Satan’s three faces, wings XXXIV: Satan absurd figure; no power.

Division, Free Will, & Unity Division is a tool for deeper understanding; good or bad depending on how we use it. Hell/Purgatory: divisions that make understanding of God’s love possible. Why is free will necessary? Choice is necessary in salvation: if not chosen, acts are meaningless/love is meaningless. Our unity with God will be better than Adam & Eve’s because choice is involved. St. Thomas Aquinas: our job as humans is to use reason to decide to act correctly.

Artwork inspired by The Divine Comedy In your notebook, record which character, scene, sin/punishment is being depicted in each of the following slides.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, painter, and printmaker. The Divine Comedy commissioned in 1826; series of engravings; he died before completed. Seven engravings; watercolors. Works reveal distrust materialism and corruptive nature of power. Doesn’t share Dante’s admiration for ancient poets and Dante’s seeming pleasure at assigning punishments in Hell.

Paul Gustave Dore (1832-1883) French artist, engraver, illustrator, sculptor. Wood and steel engravings. The Divine Comedy. Other works: Bible, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Poe’s“The Raven.”

Which do you prefer? Choose one set of images from the following slides to compare and contrast. Points of comparison to consider: aesthetics; art elements (line, space, form, texture, shape, color, value); subject (effectiveness of portrayal of sin and punishment); emotional impact (mood and tone). Write 2-3 paragraph comparison/contrast, indicating which artwork you prefer.

(Blake; Canto I The Dark Wood) (Dore; Canto I The Dark Wood)

(Dore; Canto V The Lustful) (Blake; Canto V The Lustful)

(Dore; Canto VII The Wrathful and Sullen) (Blake; Canto VII The Wrathful and Sullen)

(Dore; Canto VI Cerberus) (Blake; Canto VI Cerberus)

(Dore; Canto XVII Geryon (Blake; Canto XVII Geryon)

(Dore; Canto XIX The Simoniacs) (Blake; Canto XIX The Simoniacs)