Bertran De Born and Sordello: the Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy Author(S): Teodolinda Barolini Source: PMLA, Vol

Home , Arnaut Daniel, Bertran de Born, Planh, Sirventes, Sordello, Sordello (poem)

Bertran de Born and Sordello: The Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy Author(s): Teodolinda Barolini Source: PMLA, Vol. 94, No. 3 (May, 1979), pp. 395-405 Published by: Modern Language Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/461927 . Accessed: 01/04/2013 11:23

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This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TEODOLINDA BAROLINI

Bertrande Born and Sordello: The Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy

tant es lo PJT HE STATURE Dante grants Sordello in mortals dans qu'ieu non ai sospeisso the Comedy has long puzzled critics, since que jamais si revenha,s'en aital guiza no; li lo cor e manio l baro it seems greater than warranted by the qu'om traga que'n vivon descorat, auran de cor achievements of this ProvenCal poet. Not only que pueys pro. does the with Sordello, in the sixth canto meeting Premiers del so l'es of the serve as the for the manje cor, per que grans ops Purgatorio, catalyst l'emperairede Roma, s'elh vol los Milanes invective that concludes the stirring against Italy per forsa conquistar... canto, but Sordello is assigned the important task of guiding Vergil and Dante to the valley of the I want to lament Sir Blacatz in this princes and identifying for the two travelers its light melody, various inhabitants. This seems a with a sad and afflicted heart; and I have good royal large for in him I a a role for a who was-and is-best known reason, have lost lord and good poet and because all that is virtuous is lost in his as the author of a satirical lament with friend, political death. This damage is so fatal that I have no hope the lament for Blacatz. al- overtones, Indeed, that it can ever be remedied,if not in this way: let though there is a definite consonance between his heart be taken out and the barons eat of it the tone of that lament and the hortatory tone of who live without heart-then will they have heart. the character in the Comedy, Sordello's poetic oeuvre does not by itself convincingly account Let the first to eat of the heart, because he has great for his function in Dante's poem. In the absence need of it, be the Emperorof Rome, if he wants to of other explanations, however, critics have conquer the Milanese by force .. .2 traditionally agreed that we must turn to Sor- dello's for an of his planh understanding position Using throughout the poem the motif of Blacatz' in the Comedy.1 heart as a necessary source of courage for the In this so-called lament Sordello violently cowardly kings, Sordello pillories a different satirizes the of whom he criti- princes Europe, prince in each stanza. By the end he has indicted cizes for their cowardice; in fact, the work is the emperor, Frederick ii, as well as Louis ix of more a sirventes than a more a diatribe planh, France, Henry III of England, Ferdinand III of the than a lament for the dead. against living Castile and Le6n, James I of Aragon, Thibaut I The be- poem begins conventionally enough, of Navarre, Raymond vii of Toulouse, and Ray- wailing the death of Blacatz and in complaining, mond Berenger iv of Provence-all for being the usual manner, that all virtue and bravery too weak and spineless to fight for their rightful have died with him; it soon becomes apparent, territories. however, that this death is more a than a pretext The Sordello of Purgatorio vii is also given to theme. Blacatz is not mentioned Consequently, judging the behavior of rulers; here, too, he re- after the first verse: bukes the princes for negligence and for failing to govern properly, much as he had done in his lament while on earth. There has been a Planher vuelh en Blacatzen aquest leugier so, shift, ab cor trist e marrit;et ai en be razo, however, from the simple feudal attitude of the qu'en luy ai mescabatsenhor et amic bo, planh, in which the loss of land is considered a e quar tug l'ayp valent en sa mort perdutso; stain on the personal honor of the prince, to the 395

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 396 The Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy lofty Dantesque concept of the sovereign's moral vii is clearly the tribute of one poet to another. obligation to his subjects. Once this inevitable Without denying the validity of Bergin's transposition has been taken into account, the ProvenCal trio, I would comment that, although correspondences between the historical Sordello Dante is a poet of symmetries, his symmetries and the Sordello of the Comedy are clear enough are not necessarily straightforward or clear-cut. -and yet somehow inadequate, for the dis- In fact, Dante tends to establish contradictory crepancy between the poet's stature as a person or, rather, counterbalancing symmetrical struc- and his stature as a character remains. Neither tures, such as the odd asymmetrical canticle of Sordello's poetry nor his Lombard origins thirty-four cantos, which then creates a new (which permit him to greet Vergil with the fa- symmetry by bringing the total number of cantos mous verse "O Mantoano, io son Sordello / de to one hundred. Similarly, the neat symmetrical la tua terra!" 'O Mantuan, I am Sordello of your relationship between the Comedy's three Proven- land!') satisfactorily justify his prominence in the cal poets is marred by the presence of a fourth, Comedy-justify it, that is, in a more than Sordello, and again the solution may be overlap- mechanical way.3 ping symmetries: the trio pointed to by Bergin It is this gap between the real and the fictional and the duo that I am suggesting, which, signifi- that has made Sordello the subject of so much cantly, includes as its pivotal figure precisely the critical debate, to the point of being labeled poet excluded by the first arrangement. My "l'enigma dantesco" by a scholar who believed claim that Sordello should be juxtaposed with that the character would remain a problem until Bertran de Born, as Cacciaguida is with Bru- biographical material was discovered to explain netto, or Cunizza with Francesca, is based on Dante's esteem for him.4 In this paper, however, one simple but, I believe, telling observation: of I propose a reading for Sordello that requires no all the lyric poets in the Comedy only Bertran external data. I submit that there is an internal and Sordello are not love poets. In other words, coherence to the Sordello episode, that there are if we look, not at the restricted group of Proven- internal reasons both for his role and for his cal poets, but at the larger group of all lyric stature. A comparison between Sordello and an- poets in the Comedy-Bertran de Born, Sor- other of the Comedy's poets, Bertran de Born, dello, Bonagiunta da Lucca, Guido Guinizzelli, will, I believe, shed some light on Dante's under- Arnaut Daniel, and Folquet de Marselha (in lying logic and intentions. order of appearance)-the first two stand out as The analogy between Sordello and Bertran de poets whose major poetic concerns are different Born is by no means self-evident. Indeed, from those of the others; indeed, Bertran and Thomas Bergin sets up. a quite different pattern, Sordello are revealed as the Comedy's two "po- claiming that there is a trio of Provenqal poets in litical" poets. Surely this identifying bond be- the Comedy, composed of Bertran in the In- tween them is sufficient basis for comparison.6 ferno, Arnaut Daniel in the Purgatorio, and Fol- Before examining these two poets as they are quet de Marselha in the Paradiso. "Of all Dan- presented in the Comedy, I should like to say a te's triads," he writes, "the Provencal poets are word about the poetry of Bertran de Born. He, most obviously and architectonically disposed, too, was celebrated for laments; the two tradi- one for each cantica, each one clearly and prom- tionally attributed to him are both for Prince inently placed, varying only, I would say, in Henry, also called the Young King (because he their degree of integration with their milieu."5 was crowned during his father's lifetime, since But Bergin is then left with the problem of a Henry II of England hoped thus to ensure the fourth poet who wrote in the langue d'oc- succession), a prince with whom Bertran was Sordello-and is forced to conclude that Dante presumably on intimate terms.7 These poems did not intend Sordello "to 'count' as a Proven- are the famous "Si tuit li dol e lh plor e lh mar- cal figure. . . . Dante sees in Sordello not the rimen" and the less well known "Mon chan Provencal poet but the Italian-born patriot and fenisc ab dol et ab maltraire."8 It is worth not- judge of princes" (p. 25). This interpretation ing that, unlike Sordello's planh for Blacatz, violates one sense of the episode, for Sordello's these are true laments. They follow the planh's tribute to Vergil at the beginning of Purgatorio customary format of both praising the dead man

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Teodolinda Barolini 397 and mourning his loss. The first stanza of "Si In these poems, Bertran constantly urges the tuit li dol" is representative of the poem and of barons on to battle, as does Sordello in his la- the genre: ment for Blacatz. Sordello, however, recom- mends war as an antidote for cowardly behavior, which he finds in and as a Si tuit li dol e-lh e'lh marrimen reprehensible princes, plor Ber- E las dolors e.lh dan e-lh chaitivier means of securing lost territory, whereas tran's reasons for are unabash- Qu'omanc auzis en est segle dolen warmongering Fossen ensems, semblerantot leugier edly mercenary and self-serving, and his only Contrala mort del jove rei engles, concern is loot. Therefore, even when Bertran Don rema pretz e jovens doloros and Sordello share similar social themes and a EBlmons oscurs e teintz e tenebros, similar polemical bent, Bertran's verse com- Sems de tot joi, ples de tristore d'ira. pletely lacks the didactic element that distin- guishes the poetry of Sordello. Sordello, in his If all the and sorrow, tears, anguish, pain, loss, lament for Blacatz, as in his "Ensenhamens which man has heard of in this sorrowfullife misery d'onor," wants to instruct us in correct chivalric were heaped together, they would all seem light and conduct (this is in the title compared to the death of the young English king; princely explicit of the "The Teachings of for him worth and youth grieve, and the world is longer work, Honor"). dark, covered over, and in shade, lacking all joy, It is this aspect of Sordello's poetry and person- full of sadnessand spite. (Die Lieder, p. 98) ality that must have initially appealed to Dante and provided him with the starting point for the character of the The of the is echoed in the Comedy. grief poet formally The canto in which the travelers first meet repetition of "marrimen" and "ira" at the end of Sordello, the sixth of the Purgatorio, is known as the first and last lines of each stanza. The Young one of the three "political" cantos of the Com- King ("jove rei engles") is also mentioned in edy, forming a triad with the sixth cantos of the each stanza, indeed always in the same place, at Inferno and the Paradiso (in the Inferno Dante the end of the fifth line, thus with constituting focuses on in the on "marrimen" and "ira" the obsessive about Florence, Purgatorio Italy, poles and in the Paradiso on the Although which the moves. empire). poem the of vi comes to the Bertran was also the author of numerous sir- political aspect Purgatorio fore most in the invective "Ahi ventes war, that take clearly beginning celebrating poems delight serva di dolore ostello" it is in the of the battlefield in Italia, (1. 76), sig- describing carnage naled from the line in which Dante vivid detail: apostro- phizes a soul, as yet unidentified, by referring to the part of Italy from which it came: "o anima m'a sabor Ie-us dic que tan no lombarda ..." (1. 61). This soul turns out to be ni beure ni dormir Manjar Sordello, whose Lombard Com auch cridar: "A lor!" origins immediately a, quan draw him to The invective D'ambaslas et auch ennir Vergil. against Italy partz derives from the ironic contrast between Sor- Chavals vochs per l'ombratge, Et auch cridar: "Aidatz!Aidatz!" dello's loving response to Vergil as a fellow E vei chazer per los fossatz Mantuan ("e l'un l'altro abbracciava" 'and one Paucs e grans per l'erbatge, embraced the other' [Purg. vi.75]) and the dis- E vei los mortz que pels costatz cord characteristic of Italy, where fellow citizens An los tronzos ab los cendatz. "gnaw" rather than embrace each other ("e l'un ]'altro si rode / di quei ch'un muro e una fossa I tell that there is no such savor for me in you eating serra" 'and one gnaws at the other, of those who or drinkingor sleeping, as when I hear men shout- are enclosed by one wall and one moat' [Purg. ing "At them!"from both sides, and hear the horses vi.83-84]). The "anima lombarda" in the shadows; and hear men cry "Help! appellation neighing to mind another Help!" and see small and great fall in the ditches, brings episode-also political- where an Italian is used as a form of on the grass; and when I see the dead, who through place-name their sides have the stumps of lances with silken address; I refer to Inferno x, where Farinata pennants. (Die Lieder, p. 93) degli Uberti calls out to Dante, "O Tosco che

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 398 The Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy per la citta del foco / vivo ten vai" 'O Tuscan, intrinsically connected by virtue of his historical who through the city of fire go alive' (1. 22). identity as a poet concerned about the behavior Many commentators have drawn the reader's of rulers in his day. Second, he is connected by attention to the similarities between Sordello and his situation in the sixth, political, canto of the Farinata; Croce called Sordello the "Farinata del Purgatorio, where his embrace of Vergil, "a Purgatorio."' Both appear in episodes dealing minute and touching demonstration of the uni- with the theme of love of one's native land, and tive power of the political community," gives there are deliberate correspondences in the pre- rise to the invective in which Dante deplores the sentations of the two characters, correspondences lack of unity in Italy.1l Third, Sordello is the that are heightened by intentional verbal echoes. poetic refocusing of Farinata, the lens through Both Farinata and Sordello are isolated and which the theme of love of one's native land haughty: "guardommi un poco, e poi, quasi reappears on the slopes of Mount Purgatory. sdegnoso" 'he looked at me for a moment, and The common denominator in these various then, almost disdainful' (Inf. x.41; italics added aspects of the Dantesque Sordello is the concept here and in succeeding quotations); "come ti of political unity, played against its contrary, stavi altera e disdegnosa" 'how you were discord and fragmentation. And here, it seems to haughty and disdainful' (Purg. vi.62). In each me, there is a particular feature of Sordello's encounter Vergil sees the soul first and points it career that would have greatly interested Dante, out to Dante, using the same expression: "Vedi enough to have determined Dante's development la Farinata che s'e dritto" 'See there Farinata, of Sordello's role. Sordello was that anomaly who has risen straight' (Inf. x.32); "Ma vedi la among poets-one who wrote in a language not un'anima" 'But see there a soul' (Purg. his own. Although an Italian from Goito near vi.58).10 Each time the necessary password is a Mantua, he wrote in Provencal. That Dante was sound evoking the soul's native land: Farinata intrigued by this is clear from what he has to say hears Dante's Tuscan accent, and Sordello reacts about Sordello in the De Vulgari Eloquentia: to the first word of Vergil's reply, "Mantua .. ." "[Sordellus] qui, tantus eloquentie vir existens, (1. 72). Furthermore, in both episodes a con- non solum in poetando, sed quomodocunque versation is interrupted, suspended, and sud- loquendo patrium vulgare deseruit."12 Dante denly resumed. Farinata and Dante are inter- finds it a particular sign of Sordello's "eloquen- rupted by Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti; they stop tia" that Sordello should have abandoned his conversing until he disappears and then begin native tongue not just "in poetando" but in again as though he had not existed. Similarly, "quomodocunque loquendo," in any form of the conversation between Sordello and Vergil is discourse whatsoever. Significantly, Dante does interrupted by the apostrophe to Italy, which not cite any of Sordello's poetry in the De Vul- cuts in and continues to the end of the sixth gari Eloquentia; all that seems to interest him is canto. So abrupt is the break that when the con- the concept of linguistic internationalism that versation resumes at the beginning of the sev- Sordello here embodies. The De Vulgari Elo- enth canto, Sordello does not yet know who quentia is, in part, a polemic against linguistic Vergil is. These devices serve rhetorically to provincialism; the "vulgare illustre" as practiced underscore Sordello as a purgatorial corrective by Dante and his friend Cino da Pistoia is con- to Farinata. In Hell, love of one's native land is ceived as the Italian that would be in common put into the context of "heresy" or divisiveness, use if Italy were not divided into many warring so that Farinata is able to turn common Tuscan city-states but were one united nation, an Italian origins into barriers of family allegiance and strained of provincial and municipal impurities. party affiliation. In Purgatory, common Lom- Dante singles out Sordello for praise because bard origins become the reason for an embrace; Sordello too reacted against the limitations of Sordello's immediate reaction to the word his regional dialect and, although it was not for "Mantiia" is part of a context that stresses unity, him to discover the Italian vulgare illustre, he here the unity resulting from a shared birthplace. did the next best thing: he turned to a vulgare Sordello, then, is related in three ways to the that was already illustre, namely Provengal. theme of politics in the Comedy. First, he is It is well known to what extent Dante asso-

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Teodolinda Barolini 399

ciated language and politics. The story of the nothing of crossing both the linguistic and the Tower of Babel as recounted at the beginning of political boundaries of his day, Sordello stands the De Vulgari Eloquentia shows how the frag- in opposition to the emperor, who in the invec- mentation of the original language into many tive of Canto vi is accused of not crossing new ones made it impossible for the builders to boundaries: by remaining in Germany, the em- work together and thus ultimately led to their peror allowed Italy to disintegrate into a swarm political division into different peoples: ". . . ut of warring factions and permitted the inherent qui omnes una eademque loquela deserviebant unity of the Holy Roman Empire to be dead opus, ab opere multis diversificati loquelis stroyed. desinerent et nunquam ad idem commertium As it happens, Bertran de Born is also men- convenirent" (Bk. i, Ch. vii, par. 6; italics mine). tioned in the De Vulgari Eloquentia, where he They came to the work with "one same lan- appears as the prototype of the poet of arms in a guage," but they left it "estranged from one an- Romance language, a martial poet for whom other by a multiplicity of languages." In the Dante can find no equivalent in Italian litera- Comedy Sordello stands for the reversal of this ture. His poetic credentials in the treatise are trend, for the initiative that would ideally lead excellent; he is in the company of Arnaut Da- back to the same language for all, which in turn niel, who represents love poetry and whose Italian would spell political harmony. Viewed in this counterpart is Cino da Pistoia, and Giraut de context, the words with which Sordello honors Bornelh, who as the Provencal "poet of recti- Vergil in Purgatorio vii become singularly ap- tude" is paired with Dante himself. The first propriate: verse of one of Bertran's sirventes, in which he rejoices in a forthcoming battle, is quoted in full (Bk. II, Ch. ii, 9). Moreover, unlike Sordello, "O gloria di Latin,"disse, "per cui par. Bertran in the Convivio as he is mostr6 cio che potea la lingua nostra, appears well; o pregio etterno del loco ond' io fui, the only poet in a group of nobles being praised qual merito o qual grazia mi ti mostra?" for their generosity.13 Yet, in the Comedy Ber- tran is in the ninth bolgia of the eighth circle of "O glory of the Latins," he said, "through whom Hell, among the "sowers of scandal and of our tongue showed what it could do, o eternal schism." honor of the place that I was from, what merit or Since the De Vulgari Eloquentia is a work of what reveals to me?" grace you criticism, its evaluations of poets must meet, or vii.16-19; italics (Purg. mine) at least appear to meet, certain minimal stan- dards of impartiality and objectivity. This re- No one has a better right than Sordello to speak spect for the "truth" is waived in the Comedy, of "Latins" or of "our" tongue; in his crossing where the history of a given poet (as indeed that of linguistic boundaries he showed himself to be of any other character) is often modified accord- a true cosmopolitan, or "Latin," aware of the ing to the part that the figure has been assigned common heritage that underlies all the languages to play in the Comedy's overall scheme. As a of "Romania" and makes them interchangeable, result, Dante's treatment of a poet in the De Vul- "ours" as it were. It is not because he is as great gari Eloquentia frequently differs from his treat- a poet as Vergil that Sordello is chosen to eulo- ment of the same poet in the Comedy: some gize him but because he demonstrates in his own figures, like Sordello, are "enlarged" in the latter person the unity of a linguistic tradition that is work, whereas others, like Bertran, are "dimi- rooted in Latin language and literature and that nished." Still, there is always some basis in fact cannot be divorced from a political tradition for Dante's distortions of history, for those as- rooted in the Roman Empire. As there is in fact pects of an actual figure or situation that he one language, shared by a Roman poet and a chooses to develop out of proportion to all else. Lombard troubadour, so should there be one We have seen how Dante focuses on certain empire. And thus we come back, by a slightly aspects of the historical Sordello-his birth- different route, to Sordello as an emblem of po- place, political poetry, and language shift-to litical unity in the Comedy. Because he thought create the character of Purgatorio vi, vii, and

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 400 The Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy viii. In his re-creation of the historical Bertran, Io feci il padre e '1figlio in se ribelli; Dante has as a starting point the amorality of Achitofel non fe piuid'Absalone e di David coi Bertran's verse, as well as its sanguinary and malvagi punzelli. Perch'io cosi bloodthirsty qualities, which Dante reproduces parti' giunte persone, in the of the ninth But Dante's partito porto il mio cerebro, lasso!, carnage bolgia. dal suo ch'e in troncone. elaboration of Bertran does not rest on principio questo primarily Cosi s'osservain me lo contrapasso." his poetry. The key to the Dantesque character lies in the about Bertran that circulated reports "And so that you may carry news of me, know in vidas. The or the Provengal vidas, biogra- that I am Bertran de Born, the one who gave the phies, exaggerate Bertran's already inflated no- evil counsels to the young king. I made the father tion of himself as Prince Henry's counselor; and the son into rebels against each other; Ahitho- hence, we learn from them that Bertran was phel did no more for Absalom and David with his Henry's chief adviser, personally responsible for wicked incitements. Because I disjoined persons thus I fanning the hostilities between the prince and his united, carry my brain, alas! disjoined from its root in this trunk. So in me the is father. Moreover, and more important, the vidas contrapasso observed." (Inf. xxviii.133-42) specify that Bertran did this with his poetry:

Et era seigner, totas vez qan se volia, del rei Henric The theme of Inferno xxviii, the sowing of dis- d'Englaterrae del fill de lui; mas totz temps volia cord, is fundamentally political. Bertran's sin lo fills e ill qu'ill aguesson gerra ensems, paire e.l was distinctly political; although the social unit l'uns ab e totz volc reis fraire, l'autre, temps qe'l he affected was technically the the family de Franssa e l reis family, d'Englaterra agessen gerra in was a one, so that his actions e s'il avian ni ades se question royal ensems; patz treva, penava had social and conse- e-is ab sos sirventes de desfar la patz necessarily political percassava In not Bertran's but all the e de mostrarcum chascuns era desonratzen la patz quences. fact, only [italics mine]. sins of Inferno xxviii can be classified as social and political. Mohammed and Ali (and Fra And he was lord, whenever he wished, of King Dolcino, who is mentioned by Mohammed) Henry of England and of his son. But he always brought schism into the church; Pier da Medi- wanted them to wage war against each other, the cina was a troublemaker in the courts of Ro- father and the son and the brother,the one against magna; Gaius Scribonius Curio indirectly started the and he wanted the of France other, always King the civil wars by inciting Caesar to cross the and the of to war. And if King England wage they Rubicon; Mosca de' Lamberti authorized the had or a he would himself to peace truce, put great of thus rise to the and strive with his sirventes to undo the killing Buondelmonte, giving pains Florentine factions and internecine of peace and to show how each one was dishonored fighting Dante's by peace.14 day. These souls are not developed as characters in are The sinners of the ninth bolgia are the sowers any way; they permitted only deper- sonalized existences under the label of "semi- of discord; the wounds they display on their bod- nator di scandalo e di scisma" ies correspond to the wounds that they inflicted (1. 35). They have no for Dante other than as on the social fabric during their lifetimes. Hence significance of a sin. This is Bertran arrives carrying his head before him like exempla particular especially obvious in the of Bertran de as a lantern; it is severed from his body to indicate depiction Born, that he severed the son from the father. His ac- such treatment is unexpected; the De Vulgari and the Convivio attest to Dante's co.unt of his sin conforms closely to the vida Eloquentia interest in (and Bertran (there are even similar turns of phrase; compare previous respect for) both as and as Yet here Ber- "lo paire e l fills e ill fraire, l'uns ab l'autre" with poet personality. is at a distance. He the "il padre e '1figlio in se"): tran, too, kept expounds nature of his sin and its exact repercussions in "E perche tu di me novella porti, Hell with mathematical clarity and precision; he sappi ch'i' son Bertramdal Bornio, quelli presents one by one, as though filling out a dos- che diedi al re giovane i ma' conforti. sier, his name, the sin for which he is in this

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Teodolinda Barolini 401 bolgia, a biblical comparison (should the vis- Bianchi; Farinata, in Inferno x, also alludes to itors need elucidation), and the correspondences Dante's exile, and then goes on to explain the between sin and punishment.15 It is no accident nature of foresight in Hell. Therefore, it hardly that he, of all the sinners in the Inferno, should seems coincidental that in Inferno xxviii "l'an- be the one to enunciate the law of the contra- tiveder" 'foresight' (1. 78) is once more prac- passo. The cold, clinical quality of his words is ticed, this time by Mohammed and Pier da heightened by the pathetic interpolations "Oh Medicina. These correspondences are signposts me!" and "lasso!" (11. 123, 140), so at vari- marking the similar thematic concerns that under- ance with the tone of the rest of his speech. In a lie all three cantos. canto where all the figures are exemplary, Ber- As a canto that deals with a political theme- tran de Born is served up as the last and su- specifically, the "unmaking of peace," to borrow preme exemplum: his sin is the worst, his pun- a phrase from the Provencal vida-Inferno ishment the most gruesome.1l xxviii stands in opposition to that canto of unity All Dante's efforts in Inferno xxviii, in terms and peacemaking, Purgatorio vi. Stylistic points of the characters he presents and the way in of comparison between the two cantos support which he presents them, are directed toward this conclusion. In his reading of Purgatorio vi, making a statement about schism, that is, Aurelio Roncaglia has drawn attention to the toward making a political statement. This inten- recurrence of expressions denoting separation; tion is reflected not only in the sins represented these expressions, like "nave sanza nocchiere" but in other, more subtle ways as well. The tone 'ship without helmsman,' "sella vota" 'empty of the canto is set from the beginning by the saddle,' and "vedova Roma" 'widowed Rome,' fifteen-line comparison describing five battles are concentrated in the invective against Italy. that encompass the political history of southern Roncaglia's conclusion is that "La frequenza di Italy from Roman times to the takeover by questa sigla avulsiva rappresenta la tormentosa Charles of Anjou in 1266 (11. 7-21). The refer- fissita d'uno stato sentimentale di lacerazione" ence by name to Livy, historian of Rome, is 'the frequency of this rending motif repre- noteworthy (it is the only time in the Comedy sents the tormenting fixity of a sentimental that he is mentioned), as is the bewildering state of laceration' (p. 419). Inferno xxviii also array of proper names, which has the effect of displays a motif of laceration tied to a discourse battering the reader with historical and political on politics; as is typical of Hell, however, the data. Furthermore, it is certainly significant that laceration is expressed, not through mere meta- Inferno xxviii contains clear reminiscences of phors of bereavement, but through physical other cantos in the Inferno where Dante airs his wounds. Hence we find, to mention only two of political beliefs, namely, Inferno vi, where he the bolgia's inhabitants, Ali "fesso nel volto dal discusses Florence with Ciacco, and Inferno x, mento al ciuffetto" 'with his face cleft from his where he meets the great Ghibelline leader, chin to his forelock' (1. 33) and Pier da Medicina Farinata. "che forata avea la gola / e tronco '1 naso infin In Inferno vi Dante questions Ciacco about sotto le ciglia, / e non avea mai ch'una orecchia the whereabouts of five well-known Florentines; sola" 'who had his throat pierced and his nose one of these men, Mosca de' Lamberti, turns up cut off up to his eyebrows and who had only one in Canto xxviii among the sowers of discord. ear' (11. 64-68). Another similarity is the mas- There the dialogue between Dante and Mosca is sive use of proper names in both cantos, which reminiscent of the dialogue between Dante and serves to stress the historical, specific, and Farinata in Canto x; in both passages Dante re- ephemeral nature of politics. For example, in torts acrimoniously, saying something that Inferno xxviii, between lines 14 and 18, the fol- causes the sinner even greater suffering. A last lowing names occur: Ruberto Guiscardo, link between these cantos is the prophesying that Ceperan, Pugliese, Tagliacozzo, and Alardo; in occurs in all of them (politics being in some Purgatorio vi, in only two lines, we find Mon- respects the art of successfully foretelling the fu- tecchi, Cappelletti, Monaldi, and Filippeschi. ture). In Inferno vi Ciacco hints at Dante's exile Inferno xxviii, then, stands in opposition to by predicting the overthrow of his party, the Purgatorio vi, and in much the same way as did

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 402 The Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy Inferno x. In the episodes of Farinata and Sor- vacuum; in fact, after the stil novo phase, in dello the theme "division versus unity" is treated which he addressed himself to a small group of under the rubric, so to speak, of "love of one's initiates, Dante kept on enlarging his audience native land." In the episodes of Bertran and until it included, in the Comedy, anyone capable Sordello, the same theme is treated under the of following him. One could almost say that the rubric "poets who in their poetry fostered either larger the audience, the greater the poet. Politi- divisiveness or unity." The Provencal vida spe- cal poets by necessity address themselves to a cifically declares that Bertran strove to stir up larger audience than do love poets; hence theirs trouble between father and son "ab sos sirven- is a greater responsibility. As one would expect, tes" 'with his sirventes'; there is perhaps an al- the poet in Hell, Bertran, is the exemplum of the lusion to this in Dante's verse "quelli / che diedi political poet who misused his position in life. al re giovane i ma' conforti" 'the one who gave By abetting disobedience and revolt, Bertran put the evil counsels to the young king,' where the his poetry to bad use, mishandling the responsi- nature of the "conforti" is not specified but cer- bility that a poet has to his audience. Sordello, in tainly implied. Bertran is Sordello's poetic coun- Purgatory, is the counterexemplum: the political terpart; this is confirmed and thrown into relief poet who behaved responsibly and put his poetry by their being the only two lyric poets in the to good use. Comedy who are not love poets. Bertran's polit- We can now see why Sordello is treated far ical poetry fostered disunity and schism by en- more sympathetically in the Comedy than his in- couraging the Young King to disobey his father. fluence or position in life would lead us to expect. Sordello's political poetry, by criticizing the The historical Sordello has been absorbed by a princes in a way that prefigures Dante's own crit- Sordello whose function confers on him some ical stance in Purgatorio vi and vii, served the signal honors and privileges not granted to any final goal of political unity. Their poetry thus other lyric poet. For instance, only the epic becomes emblematic of everything that each poets are permitted to move in the Comedy, comes to stand for in the Comedy: one for sep- while the lyric poets remain fixed in their respec- arating, disjoining, undoing, taking apart what tive circles, terraces, or heavens. And yet Sor- ought to be united; the other for crossing over, dello moves. Although it is true that, since he bringing together, reuniting what has been torn cannot leave Ante-Purgatory, he cannot move asunder. The relationship between the two polit- "up" in the way that Vergil and Statius do, he is ical poets is one more strand in the web of over- nonetheless the only lyric poet to move at all. (I lapping political themes that converge in the do not refer to movement that is part of punish- sixth and seventh cantos of the Purgatorio and ment or purgation, like Guinizzelli's motion that could be diagramed as follows: through the flames.) Sordello's presence spans three cantos, from Purgatorio vi to viii (he is mentioned for the last time in ix.58: vi Purgatorio Inferno "Sordel rimase e l'altre forme" 'Sordello prophecyregarding Purgatoriovi and genti Florence vii remained and the other noble souls'), thus hold- the than other He apostropheto Italy ing stage longer any lyric poet. Inferno x greets Vergil in a manner that foreshadows Farinata-love of- Sordello-love of Statius' greeting of Vergil later on. Most impor- "patria" "patria" tant, he serves as a guide to the travelers, even saying "a guida mi t'accosto" 'I will take your xxviii Inferno Sordello-political side as guide' (Purg. vii.42), thus implicitly poet Bertran-political aligning himself with the other two poet-guides, poet Vergil and Statius. All in all, Sordello's pre- eminence among the lyric poets in the Comedy is In the Comedy, therefore, Dante uses Bertran quite out of keeping with his worldly fame; one and Sordello as exempla of the uses to which a could say that he enjoys quasi-epic status. poet can put his poetry in the service of the This status is underscored by the similarity state. For Dante, a poet does not function in a between the valley of the princes and Limbo, the

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home of the classical poets; as Bergin points out, carries the light behind him and helps not him- "The garden of the princes is the 'amoenus self, but makes those who come after him wise' locus' corresponding to the Limbo of the In- (11. 67-69). Bertran is a grotesque inversion of ferno."'7 Moreover, the word "onesto," etymo- Vergil: in one there is total severance, a self- logically related to the word "onore," which sufficiency that is not strength but meaningless- occurs eight times in various forms in Inferno iv ness, whereas in the other there is a sharing, a and which is Limbo's verbal talisman, is twice passing on, and an illumination of others even at used in connection with Sordello: "e nel mover the expense of oneself. de li occhi onesta e tarda" 'and in the movement To end, I should like to return briefly to the of your eyes how dignified and slow' (Purg. world outside the Comedy. As we have seen, a vi.63); "Poscia che l'accoglienze oneste e liete" comparison of the poetry of Bertran and Sor- 'After the dignified and joyful greetings' (Purg. dello reveals how different their attitudes are. It vii.1; my italics in both quotations). These ef- is interesting that Dante's treatment of these fig- forts to link Sordello to the Comedy's epic and ures parallels the actual disparity; he sets them classical poets also serve to separate and distin- up for comparison in order to reveal them as guish him from the Comedy's lyric love poets. polar opposites. In some ways, however, Dante By the time Dante came to write the Comedy reverses the real-life situation. Sordello, who he was incapable of an unalloyed aesthetic wrote a biting and savage poem (which, had it judgment; hence Sordello, owing to his role as a been acted on, would have resulted in fighting in moral and political poet in the service of politi- every corner of Europe), is reincarnated as an cal unity, is given marks of distinction not ac- emblem of unity; whereas Bertran, whose poems corded to other lyric poets, even though this in fact had little political impact, becomes an group includes some whom we would consider emblem of schism. The point is that both these poetically greater than he. For that matter, Ber- decisions, although justifiable, are not without tran too is a greater poet than Sordello, objec- their arbitraryfeatures. Dante was not interested tively speaking, and we have seen how little this in finding for each character in his poem a niche fact counts in the final judgment. Sordello's posi- to correspond exactly to the merits of that per- tion depends entirely on the importance Dante son as a historical figure; he is interested in attaches to political unity and peace as the basis, creating ideal categories that will illuminate the the sine qua non, of mankind's temporal well- structure of reality as he sees it. Into these cate- being.18 Sordello's poetry does not have the gories he fits his characters. Only in this way educational value of epic poetry, nor does it could his poem avoid being an inventory of dead speak to all humanity; Dante feels, however, that souls and become what he wanted it to be and it comes closer to these ideals than does any other what it is-an insight into the nature of things so form of lyric poetry. Consequently, Dante delib- compelling that it directs the wills of the living erately links Sordello to the epic poets. He also and obliges them, through a recognition of real- takes care to make clear that, in this respect as ity, to be saved. well, Bertran is the exact opposite of Sordello. So it is for souls in general, and so it is for The description of Bertran in Inferno xxviii as poets. If Dante has two political poets, they one who carries his head like a lantern ("e '1 must perforce have more than gossip value; they capo tronco tenea per le chiome, / pesol con must illustrate more than the fate that each mano a guisa di lanterna" 'and it was holding found on dying. The ideal categories would nat- the truncated head by the hair, dangling in its urally have to do with the use or misuse of their hand like a lantern' [11. 121-22]) and lights the poetry, and Dante would look for figures whose way for himself by himself ("Di s6 facea a se biographies and poetic output worked well stesso lucerna" 'Of itself it was making for itself a within these categories, even if not slavishly cor- lamp' [1. 124]) cannot but call to mind Statius' responding in all details. Accordingly, in his tribute to Vergil in Purgatorio xxii: "Facesti treatment of Bertran de Born and Sordello we come quei che va di notte, / che porta il lume have a clear example of Dante's deliberate revi- dietro e se non giova, / ma dopo se fa le persone sion of history for didactic purposes, to impart a dotte" 'You did as one who goes by night, who moral lesson concerning the ways we use our

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:23:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 404 The Poetry of Politics in Dante's Comedy gifts vis-at-vis society, and an instance of the can learn from these episodes not only some- truth of Irma Brandeis' precept that "Dante in thing about the poetry of politics but a little his Comedy never serves history; he uses it . .." about the politics of poetry as well. (p. 61). Dante's handling of the poets Bertran and Sordello thus permits us a fascinating University of California glimpse into the workings of his own creative Berkeley and poetic strategies; to put it another way, we

Notes

1 In "Dante and Sordello," Comparative Literature, 5 dello as the two political poets among the Comedy's (1953), 1-15, C. M. Bowra makes a case for the im- lyric poets, comes from my dissertation, in which I portance of Sordello's long narrative poem, "Ensen- analyze Dante's treatment of all the Comedy's poets hamens d'onor," noting that "each point made by ("Dante's Poets: A Study in Poetic Revisionism" Co- Dante [in the invective of Purgatorio vi] can be paral- lumbia 1978). leled by something said by Sordello [in the "Ensenha- 7 For the legend of Bertran de Born and the Young mens"]" (p. 7). Ultimately, however, Bowra gives more King, see Olin H. Moore, The Young King: Henry weight to the lament for Blacatz, thus joining all other Plantagenet 1155-1183, in History, Literature and scholars who have written on the subject. Of the older Tradition (Columbus: Ohio State Univ., 1925), and studies, the best is E. G. Parodi's "Rassegna di studi William D. Paden, Jr., "Bertran de Born in Italy," in sordelliani," Bullettino della societa dantesca italiana, 4 Italian Literature: Roots and Branches [Essays in (1897), 185-97; here all the issues to be endlessly dis- Honor of Thomas Goddard Bergin], ed. Giose Rimanelli cussed by later critics are first raised. Of more recent and Kenneth John Atchity (New Haven: Yale Univ. studies, the most illuminating are Aurelio Roncaglia's Press, 1976), pp. 39-66. Although Moore suggests that "11 canto vi del Purgatorio," Rassegna della letteratura Bertran may not have been so intimate with Prince italiana, 60 (1956), 409-26, and Guido Favati's "Sor- Henry as the poet claims (pp. 38-47), Dante and his dello," Cultura e scuola, 4 (1965), 551-65. contemporaries certainly believed in this intimacy. 2 Sordello: Le poesie, ed. Marco Boni (Bologna: Li- 8 Modern scholarship has raised the question of the breria Antiquaria Palmaverde, 1954), pp. 156-60. The authenticity of "Si tuit li dol." Carl Appel, in his edi- translations from the Provengal are my own; I have tion of Bertran (Die Lieder Bertrans von Born [Halle: attempted to make them as literal as possible. Max Niemeyer, 19321), places "Si tuit li dol" among 3 Purgatorio vi.74-75; from the text established by the poems of doubtful attribution, as does L. E. Kast- Giorgio Petrocchi, La Commedia secondo l'antica vul- ner in "Notes on the Poems of Bertran de Born," gata, 4 vols. (Milan: Mondadori, 1966-67). All further Modern Language Review, 32 (1937), 219. For a quotations from the Comedy are from this edition. The resume of the critical opinion on this matter, see translations are my own. D'Arco Silvio Avalle, ed., Peire Vidal: Poesie (Milan: 4 Vincenzo de Bartholomaeis, Primordi della lirica Riccardo Ricciardi, 1960), 1, cxvi, n. 1. The traditional d'arte in Italia (Turin: Societa Editrice Internazionale, attribution of "Si tuit li dol" to Bertran is so firmly 1943), p. 208. ingrained that the poem has been included in antholo- >Thomas G. Bergin, "Dante's Provengal Gallery," gies under his name even by scholars who acknowledge Speculum, 40 (1965), 15. The idea of three trouba- that the authorship is questionable; see, e.g., Anthology dours in the Comedy, one for each canticle, was antic- of the Provencal Troubadours, ed. R. T. Hill and T. G. ipated by E. Hoepffner in "Dante et les Troubadours," Bergin, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged by Thomas Bergin, ttudes Italiennes, 4 (1922), 193-210. with the collaboration of Susan Olson, William D. 6 1 have deliberately omitted Pier della Vigna and Paden, Jr., and Nathaniel Smith (New Haven: Yale Forese Donati from my list of the Comedy's lyric Univ. Press, 1973), ii, 37, and Medieval Song: An poets. The linguistic point Dante is making about Piero Anthology of Hymns and Lyrics, trans. and ed. James J. is. I believe, that he is a representative of the highly Wilhelm (New York: Dutton, 1971), p. 164. The only rhetorical prose style of the chancellery of Frederick in, recent compiler to omit "Si tuit li dol" from a selection not that he is a poet of the scuola siciliana; and the of Bertran's poems is Frederick Goldin, in Lyrics of the episode of Forese Donati, like Dante's tenzone with Troubadours and Trouveres (New York: Anchor-Dou- Forese, tells us more about a moment in Dante's life bleday, 1973). and poetic development than it does about Forese. But 9 Benedetto Croce, La poesia di Dante (Bari: Laterza, even if I were to take these two figures into considera- 1922), p. 112. tion, my observation regarding Bertran de Born and 10 Giovanni Gentile poipts out the use of "Vedi la" Sordello would remain unchanged. I should mention in both episodes ("II canto vi del Purgatorio" [19401; that this study, based on the idea of Bertran and Sor- rpt. in Letture scelte sulla Divina Commedia, ed. Gio-

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vanni Getto [Florence: Sansoni, 1970], pp. 577-93). There are echoes of Bertran's poetry throughout In- Indeed, most of these similarities between the two ferno xxviii, starting with the imitation of the opening cantos, with the exception of the interruptedconversa- of "Si tuit li dol" in 11.7-21. (See the commentary on tion motif, which I mention below and which I have the Inferno in The Divine Comedy, trans., with com- not come across elsewhere, have been previously noted mentary, Charles S. Singleton [Princeton: Princeton in one commentary or another. Univ. Press, 1970-75], pp. 496, 502, 506.) 11 Irma Brandeis, The Ladder of Vision: A Study of For the distancing rhetoric of this canto, which Dante's Comedy (New York: Doubleday, 1960), p. 84. deliberately depersonalizes the sinners, see the ex- 12 De Vulgari Eloquentia, ed. Aristide Marigo, 3rd cellent study by Mario Fubini, "I1 canto xxvIII dell' ed. (Florence: Le Monnier, 1968), Bk. i, Ch. xv, par. 2. Inferno," Lectura Dantis Scaligera (Florence: Le Mon- 13Convivio, ed. G. Busnelli and G. Vandelli, 2nd nier, 1967), pp. 999-1021. ed. (Florence: Le Monnier, 1964), Bk. iv, Ch. xi, par. Regarding the criticism of this canto, the classic 14. The source for Bertran's generosity would be the studies are Michele Scherillo's "Bertram dal Bornio e razos and perhaps two passages in the sirventes; see il Re Giovane," Nuova antologia, 154 (1897), 452-78; Moore, pp. 52, 57. It is worth noting that the only other and Vincenzo Crescini's "II canto xxvIII dell'Inferno," contemporary poets mentioned in the Convivio are Lectura Dantis (Florence: Sansoni, 1907); rpt. in Giraut de Bornelh and Guido Guinizzelli; Bertran is Letture scelte sulla Divina Commedia, ed. Giovanni therefore one of a very select group. Getto (Florence: Sansoni, 1970), pp. 383-98. An in- 14 This passage is from the first of the two biographies teresting recent article is Marianne Shapiro's "The of Bertran de Born. The text is from Le biografie Fictionalization of Bertran de Born," Dante Studies, 92 trovadoriche, ed. Guido Favati (Bologna: Libreria (1974), 107-16, which deals with the episode as a Antiquaria Palmaverde, 1961), p. 147. The case for moment in the Comedy's "askesis of the entire trou- Dante's knowledge both of Bertran's poetry and of the badour tradition" (p. 109). Provencal biographies is stated by Moore, pp. 74-78. 17 "Dante's Provengal Gallery," p. 29; for the 1> Bertran compares himself to Ahithophel, a coun- similarities of the valley to Limbo, also see Parodi, selor who urged Absalom to rebel against his father, p. 193. In showing that Sordello is "one of the im- King David. Interestingly, Dante is not the first to portant and impressive figures in the Purgatory," Ber- suggest a parallel between these biblical figures and gin points out that "his presence takes in three cantos" the Young King and his father. William of Newburgh and that "he is a true guide" (p. 25). reports that when Prince Henry escaped to his father- 18 See the Monarchia, ed. Pier Giorgio Ricci (Verona: in-law, Louis vii of France, in 1173, Henry II sent a Mondadori, 1965), Bk. I, Ch. iv, par. 2: "Unde mani- committee to Louis demanding the return of his "Ab- festum est quod pax universalis est optimum eorum salom" (see Moore, p. 10). que ad nostram beatitudinem ordinantur" 'Thus it is 16 On a textual level as well, the entire canto is a shown that universal peace is the best of those things preparationfor its piece de r6sistance, Bertrande Born. that are regulatedfor our happiness' (translation mine).

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