Dante's Divine Comedy

• 1. Who is the winner, who the loser, and who the people in the simile that occupies the opening four tercets?

Dante is the winner, Virgil the loser, and the negligent souls begging for prayers are the people.

What do those named in the catalogue of additional souls (lines 13-24 and notes) who died violent deaths share in common?

Each of them died of causes related to political causes and enmities, all of them except one being Italian.

• 2. After Dante asks Virgil if the prayers the souls request of him can be efficacious in light of Virgil’s own writing in the Aeneid (lines 28-33), Virgil’s answer seems to be something of a hedge (lines 34-42) [as Esolen’s notes make clear]. How does he escape further explanation himself (lines 43-48)?

Virgil calls Dante’s question “deep,” adding that only Beatrice “who will be a light of truth” can untangle the problem when Dante reunites with her at the top of Mt. Purgatory.

How does Dante’s response effect an attitudinal change from his behavior so far at this level of Purgatory (lines 49-51)?

He asserts that they need to hurry along and get going to the top. He claims he is no longer so weary as he complained of in Canto V.

What mistaken notion does Virgil now have to correct? How does he correct it? (lines 52-57)

Virgil perceives that Dante expects to get to the mountaintop – and see Beatrice – before sunset.

He reminds the pilgrim that the journey will take longer than he imagines, that he will see at least another sunrise before achieving his goal.

• 3. When Dante and Virgil see the lone figure, Sordello, they imagine him to be a helpful guide (lines 58-60). How do lines 64-66 present Sordello in two different ways?

First, he recalls the solitary Belacqua in Canto IV, altogether reticent to speak.

The comparison of him to “a lion at rest,” watchful and unmoving, evokes for a critic named Tommaseo, referenced by Robert Hollander, Jacob’s description of Judah in Genesis 49:9— “Judah is a lion’s whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?” [This is the first biblical connection of Judah to the image of a lion found in Hosea 5:14 and Revelation 5:5.]

How does Sordello respond to their request for help (lines 67-71)?

Rather than answer Virgil’s inquiry, he asks about their native land and their identities.

How does he respond to Virgil’s reply to his question (line 72-75)?

He immediately declares himself a fellow countryman and gives his name.

• 4. Lines 76-151, the rest of the canto, consist of five consecutive apostrophes, each political in nature. To whom is the first addressed (lines 76-87)?

The first is addressed to Italy, lamenting its decline. It compares Italy to an inn of grief, a ship without a pilot in the storm, and a bordello. It has much occasion for grieving. It is a “state” without a unifying ruler, and it is place of immorality.

Starting with line 79, we see Sordello moved by patriotic pride running to embrace Virgil.

Lines 82-87 declare Italy to be a land that knows no peace.

Lines 88-90 that no one observes or executes Roman law. If they had no law, “their shame would be the less.”

To whom is the second addressed (lines 91-96)?

The second accuses the clergy. Herein, Dante criticizes the clergy who, especially the papacy, have ignored Christ’s command: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Luke 20:25)

To whom is the third addressed (lines 97-102)?

These lines address the lack of an emperor. The “bit,” the “saddle,” the “bridle,” the “spur,” and “saddlebows” all connect to the image of the emperor as the rider of the state (as a horse). Martinez sees the emperor “as the rightful rider of the ‘untamed and wild’ horse that is Italy.

The apostrophe criticizes Albert, the German Roman emperor, for not sitting astride that horse. Instead, he cared more for his German territories and failed to unite Italy fully under imperial authority even though he had been elected to be the Holy Roman Emperor. Dante blames the imperial neglect of Italy on the greed of Albert and his father, Rudolf.

The repetition of the word “come” underscores Albert’s absence.

To whom is the fourth addressed (lines 118-126)?

The fourth is addressed to God Himself. (The phrase “highest Jove” is a typical stand-in for God among Christian intellectual of the time.) It recalls Lamentations 5:20—"Why do You forget us forever, And forsake us for so long a time?” The apostrophe wonders if God is looking elsewhere.

It goes on to decry the lack of real leadership when everyone sees himself as a boss.

To whom is the fifth addressed (lines 127-151)?

The fifth speaks directly to Florence. The tone of line 129 is clearly sarcastic. In fact, the entire apostrophe reeks of it.

Though Florence claims superiority to both Athens and Sparta, Justinian had praised both as the originators of the two kinds of civil law: legislation and tradition.