The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The third example (lines 31-33) cites Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, who was born rich and gave all his riches to the poor. A local minor nobleman found himself so poor that he could not provide dowries for his daughters. He was about to turn them over to a life of sin in order that they might make a living, when Nicholas heard of their plight and threw three bags of gold through the nobleman’s window, one on each of three successive nights. Thus the father was able to buy husbands for the girls, and thus Nicholas guided their youth to “virtuous steadiness.”
34-96. Hugh Capet: Dante seems to confuse Hugh, Duke of the Franks (died 956), and his son, Hugh Capet (King of France 987-996), into one person. Hugh Capet founded the Capetian dynasty of French kings, succeeding Louis V, the last of the Carlovingian line founded by Charlemagne.
Hugh Capet begins by replying to Dante’s customary promise of earthly recollection that he has little interest in any good the world can do him. Since he has been in Purgatory 344 years (by 1300), it seems reasonable enough to assume that he is well advanced in otherworldliness.
He then laments the degeneracy of the line he himself founded and prays God’s vengeance upon it soon, as it would already have fallen had Flanders the power to avenge itself. Douay, Lille, Bruges, and Ghent are the four principal cities of Flanders. Philip the Fair, King of France, and his brother, Charles of Valois, warred on Flanders. In 1299 Charles negotiated the surrender of Ghent by making liberal promises, which he later ignored, dealing harshly with the conquered. The vengeance Hugh Capet prayed for as of 1300 had already taken place by the time Dante wrote these lines, the Flemish having inflicted a major defeat upon the French at the Battle of Courtrai in 1302.
50. all the Philips and the Louis’: From 1060 to 1300 all the Kings of France bore one or another of these names.
52. a butcher’s son: Dante follows here a popular but erroneous legend: the meat business was not that good in tenth-century France. King Hugh Capet, as noted, was the son of Hugh Capet, Duke of France, of Burgundy, and of Aquitaine, and Count of Paris and of Orleans. The history that follows is full of similar confusions, some of which may best be left to scholars, but some of which must be explained for a basic understanding of the text.
53. the old line of kings: The Carlovingian dynasty.
54. one last heir, who wore a monk’s gray gown: There is no evidence that Charles of Lorraine, the last of the Carlovingians, took holy orders. He died in prison, put there by Hugh Capet. Two sons born to him while he was in prison were hustled away to Germany, where they disappeared.
58. my son’s head: The son of King Hugh Capet was Robert I, but Dante is clearly having King Hugh speak now as if he were Duke Hugh.
60. those consecrated bones: The Capetian kings. By the sacramental anointment which was part of the coronation, the King’s person became sacred.
61-63. the great dowry of Provence: Raymond Berengar was Count of Provence. After the Count’s death, Louis IX (St. Louis) married the eldest of the Count’s four daughters, and Louis’ brother, Charles of Anjou, married one of the younger daughters. The brothers then seized all of Provence, claiming it as their wives’ dowry. lost its sense of shame: Dante may have meant that in seizing Provence they acquired a title so ancient that it wiped out the taint of low origin Dante ascribes to the Capets. The more obvious meaning is that in waxing great on so much wealth, they lost all sense of just reckoning.
65. to make amends: The triple repetition is meant as bitter irony: after each bad action the French kings “make amends” by doing something worse.
66. Normandy, Ponthieu, and Gascony: Philip II took Normandy from England in 1202. Philip the Fair took Ponthieu and Gascony from England in 1295.
67. Charles: Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX. When Clement IV excommunicated Manfred (see III, 103 ff., note), he summoned Charles to Italy and crowned him King of Sicily. In 1266 Charles defeated Manfred at Benevento. In 1268 he defeated Conradin, Manfred’s nephew, at Tagliacozzo, and had him beheaded.
68-69. sent Saint Thomas back to Heaven: Dante is following an unfounded popular legend that Charles had Thomas Aquinas poisoned.
71. another Charles: Charles of Valois, brother of Philip the Fair. He was called Charles Sans Terre. Boniface VIII called him to Florence in 1301, presumably as peacemaker, but actually to destroy all who opposed Papal policy.
76. He wins no land there: A taunt at the fact that Charles had inherited no land. He will not improve his temporal state, says Hugh, and will only blacken his honor and his soul.
79. The third: The third Charles is Charles II of Anjou (Charles the Lame), King of Naples and of Apulia. He was born in 1243 and died in 1309. once hauled from his own ship: In June of 1284 the admiral of Peter III of Aragon sailed into the Bay of Naples. Charles, against express orders left by his father, allowed himself to be lured out to meet the Aragonese and was easily taken prisoner. Two hundred of his court were taken with him and were executed by the Aragonese to avenge the death of Conradin. Charles escaped with his life but remained a prisoner in Sicily until 1288.
80. selling his daughter: In 1305 Charles concluded a marriage contract between his very young daughter and Azzo (or Ezzo) VIII of Este, then 42. For the honor of marrying the king’s daughter, Azzo settled for practically no dowry, and made very valuable gifts to his father-in-law.
85-93. But dwarfing all crimes, past or yet to be: The crime was the capture and humiliation of Pope Boniface VIII at the instigation of Philip the Fair. Philip had charged Boniface with heresy, and Boniface had prepared a bull excommunicating Philip. On September 7, 1303, before the bull could be published, Philip sent a large force to Alagna (now Anagni) under Guillaume de Nogaret and Sciarra (SHAH-rah) Colonna. They ransacked the palace and the cathedral treasury, and subjected Boniface to great indignities, threatening to haul him off in chains to execution. Boniface, then eighty-six, was released in a few days but his mind seems to have cracked, and he died of “hysterical seizures” in Rome within a few weeks, on October 12, 1303.
Dante’s attitude in this matter is characteristic. Much as he loathed Boniface for his corruption of the Papacy, Dante saw the office itself as sacred, for Boniface was officially Christ’s Vicar on Earth. Thus to offend his person was to offend the person of Christ Himself. King Philip’s all-dwarfing crime, therefore, was against the very body of Christ.
90. He dies again—with live thieves at His side: Christ died between dead thieves who had been crucified with Him. In the person of Boniface, He “died” again, but with live thieves (de Nogaret and Colonna) at His side.
91. another Pilate: Philip. As Pilate turned Christ over to His tormentors, so Philip turned Him over—in the person of His Vicar—to de Nogaret and Colonna.
93. enter the very Temple: Philip out-Pilated Pilate by breaking into the Temple. The reference here is to Philip’s suppression of the Knights Templars and the seizure of their lands and treasuries in 1314. He tortured those he captured and forced Pope Clement V to legalize the action. (See VII, 109, note.)
95-96. which, lying hidden: God’s retribution. It lies hidden from men, but is known to God in His omniscient prevision, and will take place at His pleasure. His anger, therefore, is sweetened by the fact that His vengeance is already calculated and certain.
97-120. THE REIN OF AVARICE. The Rein of Avarice consists of seven examples of the downfall caused by Avarice. Note that although Dante divides Avarice into its two extremes of Hoarding and Wasting, the examples of the downfall of the Avaricious are all of what might be called Acquisitive Avarice.
(103-105) Pygmalion: Brother of Queen Dido. He killed King Sichaeus in the temple, stole his gold, and drove Dido into exile. Dante calls him a parricide because Sichaeus was not only his brother-in-law but his uncle. (He is not to be confused with the Pygmalion of Greek legend who fell in love with a statue.) Thus Avarice led him to damnation. If Pygmalion’s crime is taken to be Treachery to his Host or Master, there is a strong probability (see Inferno, XXXIII, 128
(106-108) Midas: The famous King of Phrygia who did a favor for Bacchus and was promised the fulfillment of a wish. Midas wished for the power to change all things to gold at his touch. Bacchus granted the wish, but Midas began to starve since even his food turned to gold, and he had to beg Bacchus to take the power from him. The best-known version of the story is in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, XI, 85-145.
(109-111) Achan: After the fall of Jericho, Joshua commanded that all the booty should go into the Temple as the Lord’s. Achan pilfered some treasures for himself and Joshua had him and his family stoned to death. (Joshua, vii, 1-26.)
(112) Sapphira and her husband: They were entrusted to sell some property held in common by the apostles, but they returned only part of the sale price, representing it as the whole sum. When St. Peter reproved them for their fraud, they fell dead at his feet. (Acts, v, 1-11.)
(113) Heliodorus: He was sent to Jerusalem by the King of Syria with orders to steal the Treasury but was driven from the Temple by the apparition of a great horse that battered him with its forefeet. “And it seemed that he that sat upon the horse had complete harness of gold.” (II Maccabees, iii, 25.)
(114) Polymnestor: King of Thrace and a friend of King Priam. During the siege of Troy, Priam sent his youngest son, Polydorus, into Thrace for Polymnestor’s protection. A considerable treasure accompanied the boy, and Polymnestor killed him for it as soon as Troy fell. Hecuba, mother of Polydorus, later avenged her son by blinding Polymnestor and killing him. Aeneid, III, 19-68; Metamorphoses, XIII, 429-575; and Euripides’ Hecuba, all recount part of the story. (See also Inferno, XXX, 16, note.)
(116) Crassus: Marcus Licinius Crassus (114-53 B.C.), Triumvir of Rome with Julius Caesar and Pompey, and infamous for his avarice, bribe taking, and plundering. He was taken in battle by the Parthians and his head was brought to King Hyrodes, who had molten gold poured into its mouth, thus mocking the memory of Crassus’ bloody avarice by serving his severed head a last feast of gold.
130-132. Not even Delos . . . Latona . . . Heaven’s eyes: Latona was pregnant by Jupiter and was chased from place to place by the jealous Juno. According to one legend, Jupiter caused an earthquake to raise the island of Delos from the bottom of the sea as a place of refuge for Latona. According to another, Delos was a floating island left over from the original division of the sea and the land and tossed about by waves until Jupiter fixed it in place for Latona. On Delos, Latona gave birth to Apollo (the Sun) and Diana (the Moon), hence, the twin eyes of Heaven. Dante regularly draws parallel-and-contrasting examples from both the Classical and the Judeo-Christian worlds. Note that in this example and the next he cites divine birth in both of those worlds.
140. who first heard that hymn: The shepherds of Bethlehem. It was first sung, according to Luke, ii, 14, to announce the birth of Christ.
145-152. I have taken substantial liberties with these lines in trying to make Dante’s intent clear. A literal rendering might read: “No ignorance ever with so much war [within me] made me so desirous to know—if my memory does not err in this—as I seemed to be at this time, pondering [the explanation of the earthquake and the shout]; nor, since we were hurrying so, did I dare ask; nor could I by myself see anything (that would explain them) there: thus I moved on, timid and deep in thought.”
Canto XXI
THE FIFTH CORNICE
The Hoarders and Wasters (The Avaricious)
Statius
Burning with desire to know the cause of the “shock and shout,” Dante hurries after Virgil along the narrow way. Suddenly they are overtaken by a figure that salutes them. Virgil answers, and the new soul, taking the Poets to be souls who may not enter Heaven, expresses astonishment at finding them in this place.
Virgil explains his and Dante’s state and asks the explanation of the earthquake and of the great cry. The new soul explains that these phenomena occur only when a soul arises from its final purification and begins its final ascent to Heaven. The newcomer then reveals that he is STATIUS and recites his earthly history, ending with a glowing statement of his love for the works of Virgil. To have lived in Virgil’s time, says Statius, he would have endured another year of the pains he has just ended.
Virgil warns Dante, with a glance, to be silent, but Dante cannot suppress a half smile, which Statius notices, and asks Dante to explain. He thus learns that he is, in fact, standing in the presence of Virgil. Immediately he kneels to embrace Virgil’s knees, but Virgil tells him to arise at once, for such earthly vanities are out of place between shades.
The natural thirst that nothing satisfies
except that water the Samaritan woman
begged of Our Lord, as St. John testifies,
burned me; haste drove me on the encumbered way
behind my Guide, and I was full of grief
at the just price of pain those spirits pay;
when suddenly—just as Luke lets us know
that Christ, new risen from the tomb, appeared
to the two travelers on the road—just so
as we moved there with bowed heads lest we tread
upon some soul, a shade appeared behind us;
nor did we guess its presence till it said:
“Brothers, God give you peace.” My Guide and I
turned quickly toward his voice, and with a sign
my Master gave the words their due reply.
Then he began: “May the True Court’s behest,
which relegates me to eternal exile,
establish you in peace among the blest.”
“But how, if you are souls denied God’s bliss,”
he said—and we forged onward as he spoke—
“have you climbed up the stairs as far as this?”
My Teacher then: “You cannot fail to see,
if you observe the Angel’s mark upon him,
that he will reign among the just. But she
whose wheel turns day and night has not yet spun
the full length of the thread that Clotho winds
into a hank for him and everyone.
Therefore, his soul, sister to yours and mine,
since it cannot see as we do, could not
climb by itself. And, therefore, Will Divine
has drawn me out of the great Throat of Woe
to guide him on his way, and I shall lead him
far as my knowledge gives me power to go.
But tell me, if you can, what was the shock
we felt just now? And why did all the mountain
cry with one voice down to its last moist rock?”
He struck the needle’s eye of my desire
so surely with his question, that my thirst,
by hope alone, lost something of its fire.
The shade began: “The holy rules that ring
the mountain round do not permit upon it
any disordered or unusual thing,
nor any change. Only what Heaven draws
out of itself into itself again—
that and nothing else—can be a cause.
Therefore, there never can be rain nor snow,
nor hail, nor dew, nor hoarfrost higher up
than the little three-step stairway there below.
Neither dense clouds nor films of mist appear,
nor lightning’s flash, nor Thaumas’ glowing daughter,
who shifts about from place to place back there;
nor can dry vapors raise their shattering heat
above the top of these three steps I mentioned
upon which Peter’s vicar plants his feet.
Shocks may occur below, severe or slight,
but tremors caused by winds locked in the earth
—I know not how—do not reach to this height.
It trembles here whenever a soul feels
so healed and purified that it gets up
or moves to climb; and then th
The soul, surprised, becomes entirely free
to change its cloister, moved by its own will,
which is its only proof of purity.
Before purgation it does wish to climb,
but the will High Justice sets against that wish
moves it to will pain as it once willed crime.
And I, who in my torments have lain here
five hundred years and more, have only now
felt my will free to seek a better sphere.
It was for that you felt the mountain move
and heard the pious spirits praise the Lord—
ah may He call them soon to go above!”
These were the spirit’s words to us, and mine
cannot express how they refreshed my soul,
but as the thirst is greater, the sweeter the wine.
And my wise Leader: “Now I see what snare
holds you, how you slip free, why the mount trembles,
and why your joint rejoicing fills the air.
Now it would please me greatly, if you please,
to know your name and hear in your own words
why you have lain so many centuries.”
“In the days when the good Titus, with the aid