1

Cari Dantisti:

Thus far we have been moving slowly, with just two cantos for a class session. Starting October 14, we take on more. Fasten your safety belt.

The format of the Alumni College is seminar rather than lecture, which means that I am not meant to dominate the scene but rather to facilitate discussion. That said, each week I want to make sure to give you what I can ahead of time to enrich our time together. Hence the prompt and the attachments I am including with this email or my suggestion that from time to time you investigate (https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/) Professor Barolini’s canto by canto commentary or video lectures.

One of the things Dante teachers must accept is that there are limits to what we can do with the text, whether studied twice a week over a year, as has been my custom, or in our eight-week, once a week format. It’s impossible to cover everything or go into depth as fully as the text warrants. Therefore, I’ll try to suggest the big picture and then choose places to focus. On October 14th, I’ve chosen to look at two episodes where Dante Pilgrim “loses” it. Francesca (INF 5) is one of the most beloved characters in the entire poem, which doesn’t mean that she is not problematic. (We are in and Dante is all empathy!) To many readers, INF 8 and Filippo Argenti are disturbing because of the hatred and violence between them. (Dante is all rage where wrath is being punished, which celebrates.) These are important episodes. I think I know what is going on in INF 5, but am not sure about INF 8.

No doubt, you have different kinds of time at your disposal and different levels of interest. Feel free only to read the text carefully as well as my weekly prompt. The rest is by way of well-intentioned extra, meant to be a blessing not a bane.

Peter

2

Alumni Prompt INF 5-9

Yale Alumni College October 14, 2020 INFERNO 5-9, Love, Rage, and a Helpless Virgil

Once we leave behind the gracious, luminous precincts of Limbo, we enter into the atmosphere of hell proper: dark, noisy, wretched, and urban. Punished at first entry are of the appetite (cantos 5-8), which are judged less grievous than those which follow within the City of , the sins of the will and intellect. In cantos 10-17 we find various sins of violence. Then, on the back of the winged Geryon, we descend into the sink hole of (18-31) with its exploration of the “clever” sins of fraud. Finally, another descent leads to the frozen bottom level of (32-24), where we get sins of treachery, the betrayal of deep human bonds. (The diagram on p. xvi of the Durling edition will give you the lay of the infernal land; the maps on pp. xiii and xiv the Italian reference points invoked throughout the journey.)

As the Pilgrim follows in Virgil’s footsteps he moves ever downward, across circles that are gradually diminishing in circumference. His movement is from bad to worse to worst, from expanse to contraction. A rationale of sins punished in Hell is given at length in INF. 11 once Virgil and Dante are inside the City of Dis. The intellectual territory here is an amalgam of and Aristotle, with some Christian outlier categories thrown in for good measure (i.e., the virtuous unbaptized in canto 4, heretics in 10). What we will see along the way is the law of contrapasso (INF 28.142) whereby the punishment of the damned more or less obviously fits or expresses their . What they were on earth they “get” forever in the . In our reading for today we find clustered sins of incontinence: lust (canto 5), gluttony (6), avarice-prodigality (7), and wrath (8). The lustful are swept along in a never-ending storm of desire, the gluttons wallow in filth, the wrathful attack one another in a muddy swamp, and so on.

Our discussion foci on 10/14 will be Dante’s meeting with Francesca in INF 5 and his altercation with Filippo Argenti in INF 8. In both cases note the passive or active role Virgil plays in the encounter, the wildly different emotional reactions of the Pilgrim to each, and what we can discern of the Poet’s intention for us as readers.

INFERNO 5 rewards careful attention in part because it is so intensely literary, allusive to other texts and so self-consciously rhetorical. One might well ask what lust has to do with it when highfalutin AMOR, AMOR, AMOR sweeps us up and along. To assist your appreciation of the canto’s rich complexity I am sending you two documents along with this prompt. “Texts in Context” is a brief anthology of texts that are “in the air” of the canto; “The Art of Reading INFERNO 5” suggests ways I have come to analyze the episode – things to notice and to look for. I’ll allude to this material in a recap rather than presenting it outright.

Keep close watch on the Pilgrim. He swoons with pity for Francesca’s eternal lot but then three cantos later rages violently against a Florentine contemporary, Filippo Argenti. In both cases he loses control of his emotions, fainting at Francesca’s story and vilifying his fellow Florentine with gusto. Note the contrast in mood and style between these two meetings, and in particular note Virgil’s biblical (!) accolade for the Pilgrim’s fury in a place where anger is being punished. (Is the poet losing control here?) 3

We see Virgil lose control at the end of canto 8 and beginning of 9. Until this point, he has been the all-purpose master and guide: knowledgeable, wise, authoritative, in charge. Suddenly, impotent before the locked gate of the City of Dis, he is unable to gain entry thanks to the machinations of and furies who turn his ghostly face a whiter shade of pale (8.82—120). The Pilgrim is terrified to hear the paragon of eloquence – praised by Beatrice for his efficacious “parola ornata” (2.67) – now sputtering in “parola tronca” (9.14), and hoping for someone else to come to the rescue. That happens when a messenger from heaven arrives on the scene. With merely a wave of his little wand (“vergetta,” 9. 88) he sends the demons scattering as the barricaded doors of Dis open up.

The passage is difficult to understand. Who is the mysterious (8.52ff), who with a glance threatens to arrive and prevent the Pilgrim from going further? Why is Virgil blocked at this moment in the descent, and to what end this crisis in Virgilian authority? “O you who have sound intellects, gaze on the teaching that is hidden beneath the veil of the strange verses” (9. 61-63). What do you find there?

To help you navigate this sweep of cantos, I have a “cheat sheet” for you: “Alumni: INF 5-9. I hope it keeps you oriented in this welter of text.

4

Alumni INF 5-9

INFERNO 5-9

How to keep track of the poem when reading five cantos at a time? Start with spot recall: what character, image, situation, gesture, event comes immediately to mind?

(A) Upper hell. Three different appetitive sins displayed, punished; lust (5) gluttony (6), avarice/prodigality (7), anger expressed, repressed (8).

Further down, sins involving the will, the intellect, the ‘higher capacities’. We travel through cities: from Dis (10-17), descend Malebolgia( 18- 31), drop to Cocytus (32-34). Hell’s funnel shape, going down, getting smaller

(B) Four different atmospheres or landscapes:

(5) unrelenting storm

(6) ‘frozen rain,’ muck & merda, into which the damned are submerged, dissolving: indigestion

(7) level surface on which weights or boulders being rolled toward one another, colliding, then retreating and starting it up all over again, futility

(8) muddy swamp on the edge of a towered, mosque-like city, in which swamp the damned either tear at one another or gurgle beneath the surface in ‘passive aggression’

(9) -like city of Dis rising from swamp, whose gate is shut tight, whose ramparts are platforms for the Furies and “more than a thousand demons”

(C) Classical Guardian-Demons to carry on the relevance of the ancient world to poem: (5). the judge, (6) , (7) , (8) Phlegyas; (9)Erinys or Furies [Medusa]

(D) Different kinds of drama: (5) intimate conversation with Francesca, emotional reaction to her (6) friendly conversation with Ciacco (8) fight w/ Filippo (8), Demons, furies before Dis (8), Dante’s fear, V’s upset, before the locked gates (8-9) (9) Possibility of Medusa/The / petrification; spectacular angelic arrival

(E) Different kinds of Information: 5

(5) * distinct kinds of carnal sinners * Virgil’s Dido * medieval love literature

(6) *Florentine politics & first veiled prophecy of D’s future *Surprises re. who is where in afterlife *First prophecy of the second coming of Christ as judge *Post-resurrection “perfection” of afterlife condition, for worse and for better, once souls reunited with body

(7) *Predominance of clergy in avarice/prodigality *Revelation that much-reviled Fortuna is not a but an angel, who keeps stirring the pot, disrupting and distributing privilege along with deprivation

(9) * V’s recollected version of what happened once before, before Beatrice’s recruitment: a witch, Erichtho, bids V not long after his death -- around the same time as the – to descend to Giudecca and release a soul from very bottom of Inferno.

Narrative & Thematic Structure: a rhythm

*Hellish guardian encounter *Encounter with damned (up-close & personal, 5, 6 & 8; at remove, 7) *Unrecognizability of the damned (filth, merda, loss of personhood) *Dante’s questions, V’s answers *Reassurances of divine power *Accumulation of Virgilian authority as guide, teacher, authority, source of wisdom (5-8) – and then its crisis (8-9)

Two scenes for focus:

1) Dante and Francesca (See INF 5 material) 2) Dante and Filippo Argenti (8)

INF 8. 43-45

Luke 15: 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. (accurens cecidit super collum eius, et esculatus est eum).

Luke 11: 27 While [] was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of and obey it!” (27 factum est autem cum haec diceret extollens vocem quaedam mulier de turba dixit illi beatus venter qui te portavit et ubera quae suxisti 28 at ille dixit quippini beati qui audiunt verbum Dei et custodiunt.)

6

INF5 – Texts in Context

Yale Alumni College INF 5-9 Texts in Context: Inferno 5

Augustine, Confessions 1.1

You made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.

Confessions 8.12

“How long, how long? Tomorrow and tomorrow? Why not now? Why is there not this hour an end to my uncleanness?” I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart when, lo, I heard the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighboring house, chanting, and oft repeating, “Take up and read; take up and read.” Immediately my countenance was changed, and I began most earnestly to consider whether it was usual for children in any kind of game to sing such words; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So, restraining the torrent of my tears, I rose up, interpreting it as no other way than as a command to me from Heaven to open the book, and read the first chapter I should light upon. For I had heard of Antony, that, accidentally coming into church while the gospel was being read, he received the admonition as if what was read were addressed to him, “Go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me.” And by such counsel was he forthwith converted unto You. So quickly I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the volume of the apostles, when I rose thence. I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes fell first—“Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” No further would I read, nor did I need to do so; for instantly, as the sentence ended—by a light, as it were, of security infused into my heart—all the gloom of doubt vanished away.

Confessions 1.13

I was compelled to learn about the wanderings of a certain , oblivious of my own wanderings, and to weep for Dido dead, because she slew herself for love; while at the same time I brooked with dry eyes my wretched self dying far from You, in the midst of those things, oh God, my life.

What can be more wretched than the wretch who pities not himself shedding tears over the death of Dido for love of Aeneas, but shedding no tears over his death in not loving You, O God, light of my heart, and bread of the inner mouth of my soul, and the power that wed my mind with my innermost thoughts? . . . I was not ashamed to be such a 7 man, though I wept for Dido, who sought death at the sword’s point, all the while seeking out the lowest of your creatures — having forsaken, You—earth tending to the earth [.]

Confessions 13.9

Our rest is our place. Love lifts us up thither, and your good Spirit lifts our lowliness from the gates of death. In your good pleasure lies our peace. The body by its own weight gravitates toward its own place. Weight does not go downward only, but to its own place. Fire tends upwards, a stone downwards. They are propelled by their own weights, they seek their own places. Oil poured under the water is raised above the water; water poured under oil sinks under oil. They are propelled by their own weights, they seek their own places. Out of order, they are restless; restored to order, they are at rest. My weight is my love; by it I am borne wherever I am borne. By your gift we are inflamed, and are borne upwards; we wax hot inwardly, and go forwards. We ascend your ways that are in our heart, and sing the song of degrees; we glow inwardly with your fire, with your good fire, and we go, because we go upwards to the peace of Jerusalem; for glad was I when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” It is there your good pleasure has placed us, that we may desire no other thing than to dwell there forever.

Peter Abelard, Historia Calamitatum

Why should I say more? We were united first in the dwelling that shattered our love, and then in the hearts that burned with it. Under the pretext of study we spent our hours in the happiness of love, and learning held out to us the secret opportunities that our passion craved. Our passion was more of by love than of the books which lay open before us; our kisses far outnumbered our reasoned words. Our hands sought less the book than each other’s bosoms; love drew our eyes together far more than the lesson drew them to the pages of our text. In order that there might be no suspicion, there were, indeed, sometimes blows, but love gave them, not anger; they were the marks, not of wrath, but of a tenderness surpassing the most fragrant balm in sweetness. What followed? No degree in love’s progress was left untried by our passion, and if love itself could imagine any wonder yet unknown, we discovered it. And our inexperience of such delights made us all the more ardent in our pursuit of them, so that our thirst for one another was still unquenched.

8

The Art of Reading Dante (Inf 5)

The Art of Reading INFERNO 5: Simile, canto, sweep of cantos

Context: Dante lost and found (1), fearful and reassured (2), enters gates, sees neutrals, and , faints, 4) Limbo, greats of antiquity, enclosure of light in dark.

Virgilian landscapes, characters, figures of speech: this continues in Inf. 5 with Minos, Dido, Fields of Mourning (those who killed themselves for love).

New element and emphasis: a sophisticated confessor, each soul confesses (“tutta si confessa”), in parody of Catholic priestly confessor and confession.

Attention to D’s vulnerability: 1)Explicit: Minos, “guarda .. di cui tu ti fide” (v. 19), 2) Implicit: reappearance of prologue scene words (“smarrito,” “affanato,” “passo”). Subtexts:

Explicit: Not only 6 but French Lancelot romance (Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, Gallehault) Guido Guinizelli: “Love and the gentle heart are one thing” Dante’s imitation of that poem in Vita Nuova

Implicit: Abelard’s History of my Calamity Augustine’s Confessions (elder Augustine looks back at younger self) “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” (1) Weeping for Dido, blind to himself (1) Reading, reaching a point in the text and thereafter reading no longer (8)

NB Metaliterary quality of canto: books, readers, consequences of reading, interpretation.

Getting the Lay of the Land

Structural units within the canto (1)1-23 Set-up in hell: placement, “mechanics” (2)24-69 Contrapasso: shot, environment, starling and crane similes (3)70-108 Focus, close-up on pair of doves: Francesca’s 1st speech (4)109-120 Dante’s reaction to her (V’s reaction to Dante, “Che pense?” v. 111) (5)121-138 Flashback: Francesca’s 2nd speech (6)139-142 Dante’s reaction to her NB Note also opening lines of next canto, 6. 1-3

Important “theme” words Amor, amante (11x) love, beloved; Pietà, pietade (3x), pity; Pace (3x) peace; Libro, leggere (5x), book, read

Big Question: what’s at stake in the canto? What’s lust got to do with it?