state. The dark forest in which the poet finds himself at the beginning is the labyrinth of sin and error. The three beasts which prevent him from climbing up the illuminated mountain are the human passions (lust, pride, and greed of gain) and at the same time Florence, France, and the corrupt papacy. It is inconsistent with Dante's rule to deny either the allegorical meaning, or the historical reality of the persons introduced, and to resolve them into mere abstractions. The last has been done frequently in the case of Beatrice and the Donna Pietosa. The most recent writer on Beatrice makes her simply an allegory of the ideal church, as the spouse of Christ, the Shulamite of the Song of Solomon, and explains her death to mean the transfer of the papacy to Avignon and the Babylonian exile.1 But Dante does not identify the church with the papacy, and attacks the papacy at Rome in the person of Boniface VIII., as well as the papacy at Avignon in the persons of Clement V. and John XXII. The severest rebuke of the Roman Church is put into the mouth of Beatrice and of St. Peter.2 Beatrice distinguishes herself from the church triumphant when she, with flaming face and eyes full of ecstasy, points Dante to "the hosts of Christ's triumphal march." She is only one among the most exalted saints, and occupies in Paradise the same seat with Rachel, the emblem of contemplation, below Eve and the Virgin Mary.* In calling one of his daughters Beatrice, Dante wished her to be a reflection of his saintly patron in heaven. His other 1 G. Gietmann (of the Society of Jesus); Beatrice, Geist und Kern der Dante'schen Dichtung, Freiburg i. B. 1889. This book came to hand while writing the essay. My views of Beatrice are given in the article on Dante, p. 290 sq. 2 Comp. Inf., XIX., 53; XXVII., 70, 85; Purg., XX., 87; XXXII., 149; XXXIII., 44; Par., IX., 132; XII., 90; XVII., 50. sq. ("Where every day the Christ is bought and sold"); XXVII., 18 sqq. (Peter's fearful censure of the Church of Rome); XXX., 145 sqq. (where Beatrice predicts that Clement V. shall soon be thrust down to keep company with Simon Magus). The death of Boniface and the removal to Avignon is prophesied as a deliverance of the Vatican "from the adulterer" (Boniface VIII.). Par. IX., 139-142. 3 Par. XXIII., 19-21. 4 Par., XXXII., 7; comp. Inf., II., 102: "Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel." daughter he named Imperia, probably with reference to his political ideal, the imperium Romanum, which he set forth in his work on the Monarchy. DESIGN OF THE COMMEDIA. To the double sense of the Commedia corresponds a double design; one is individual, the other is general. Dante says, in the same letter to Can Grande, that the poem aims to remove the living from the state of misery and to lead them to the state of felicity.1 The Commedia is Dante's own spiritual biography, his pilgrimage from the dark forest of temptation and sin through suffering and purification to the purity and peace of heaven. He is an interested spectator and participant in the awful sufferings of Hell, and a penitent in Purgatory, from whose heart the seven mortal sins, like the seven P's upon his forehead, are gradually purged away. Then only he obtains a foretaste of that happiness which he hoped and longed to inherit. And this longing increased as he advanced in life and grew weary of the corruptions of this evil world.5 1 "Finis totius et partis esse potest multiplex, scilicet propinquus et remotus. Sed omissa subtili investigatione, dicendum est breviter quod finis totius et partis est, removere viventes in hac vita de statu miseriæ, et perducere ad statum felicitatis. 2 Inf., v., 140 sqq: "The other one did weep so, that, for pity, I swooned away as if I had been dying, 3 Purg., IX., 112-114: "Seven P's upon my forehead he described With the sword's point, and 'Take heed that thou wash Par., v., 105; xxx., 135:- "Before thou suppest at this wedding feast.” "How long," I answered, "I may live, I know not; Yet my return will not so speedy be, But I shall sooner in desire arrive ; Because the place where I was set to live From day to day of good is more depleted, But the Commedia has a much wider meaning. It is the spiritual biography of man as man; it is the sinner's pilgrimage from earth to heaven. Ruskin calls Dante "the central man of all the world." Dante's conceptions of the universe and the locality of the future world have passed away with the Ptolemaic system; but the moral ideas of his poem remain. He knew no more than we do, and we know no more than he did about "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns." The supernatural geography is a subject of uncertain opinion and speculation, but not of revelation and of faith. We know nothing of the future world beyond that which God has chosen to reveal, and this is very little. There are more things in heaven and hell than "are dreamed of in our philosophy," or are taught us in the Bible. One thing is certain, however, that there is somewhere within or without the created universe a heaven and a hell, or a future state of reward and punishment. Without this final solution the present life has no meaning. Sin and misery is hell; repentance and godly sorrow is purgatory; holiness and bliss is heaven-already here on earth, and more fully hereafter. The way to heaven leads through knowledge of sin and through repentance. In Dante's Inferno all is darkness and despair; in the Purgatorio, sunlight and hope; in the Paradiso, pure light and bliss. In the first we are repelled, shocked and disgusted by the pictures of moral deformity and hopeless misery; in the second we are moved to tears by the struggles of penitent souls, their prayers, their psalms, their aspirations for purity and longings for peace; in the third we are lost in the raptures of the beatific vision. Purgatory, as a third or distinct place and state in the future world, is a medieval fiction and has lost its significance in the Protestant creeds; but as a poetic description of the transition state from sin to holiness, it comes home to our daily experience and appeals to our sympathies. For this life is a school of moral discipline and a constant battle between the flesh and the spirit. The Inferno is diabolic, the Purgatorio is human, the Paradiso is angelic. THE WAY TO PARADISE. On this pilgrimage from earth to heaven man needs the guidance of reason and revelation. The former is embodied in Virgil, the latter in Beatrice. The Scholastic theology regarded Aristotle as the representative of reason and philosophy, who, like another John the Baptist, prepared the way for Christ. Dante himself calls him the "master of those who know," who presides over the philosophic family in the border land of the Inferno. Nevertheless, he chose Virgil as his guide, for several reasons: Virgil was a poet and Dante's master and favorite author; he had described the descent to the spirit world and thereby anticipated the Commedia; he was the prophet of imperial Rome and its successor, the holy Roman empire. Virgil and Aristotle combined represent the highest wisdom-poetry and philosophy-of which human reason is capable without the aid of divine grace. Virgil came to Dante, not of his own accord, but at the request of Beatrice, who had been urged by St. Lucia at the desire of the Virgin Mary. Sympathetic, intercessory, and prevenient grace made use of human wisdom in the preparatory process of salvation. Reason is under higher influence and subservient to revelation. Virgil leads Dante through the Inferno and Purgatorio, but is most at home in the former, where he takes sure steps and well knows the way. Only in that region where Hell has changed its form by reason of the earthquake at the death of 1 Inf., IV., 131 sq : 2 Inf., I., 85 sqq : "Vidi il Maestro di color che sanno, 66 Thou art my master, and my author thou, Thou art alone the one from whom I took In Inf., VIII., 110, and Purg., XXVII., 52, he calls him his " lo dolce padre. 3 In the sixth book of the Æneid. 4 Inf., II., 52 sqq.; 94 sqq. father sweet," Christ is he forced to enquire the way. In Purgatory he calls himself a stranger and takes uncertain and timid steps.2 Hence, he himself needs the guidance of angels from terrace to terrace. He represents here that prophetic anticipation which goes beyond ordinary paganism. Human reason knows much of sin and misery, but very little of repentance unto life. Having reached the summit of the Mount of Purgatory or the terrestrial Paradise, Virgil is compelled to return to the infernal region of darkness. Philosophy can only lead to the threshold of revelation. A higher guide is now needed. Beatrice conducts the poet from the terrestrial to the celestial Paradise in the name of revealed wisdom and the three Christian graces-faith, hope, love-which dance around her." God is love, and love only can know God. Hence St. Bernard of Clairvaux is given a prominent place in Paradise.5 His motto was: "God is known as far as he is loved." He is the champion of orthodox mysticism which approaches divine truth by devout contemplation and prayer; while scholasticism tries to reach it by a process of reasoning. He leads Dante to gaze upon the mystery of the Holy Trinity after preparing himself for it by prayer to the Holy Virgin.? The Virgin Mary, St. Bernard, St. Lucia, Beatrice and all 1 Inf., XII., 91-94; XXIII., 127-132 (comp. ver. 37 sqq.). 2 Purg., II., 61-63 : 66 And answer made Virgilius :-'Ye believe, Perchance that we have knowledge of this place, Purg., XVIII., "And he to me: What reason seeth here, Myself can tell thee; beyond that await Purg., XXXI., 130–135. Par., XXXI., 94 sqq.; 139 sqq.; XXXII., 1 sqq. "Tantum Deus cognoscitur quantum diligitur.” Par., XXXIII., 1 sqq.: "Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, Humble and high beyond all other creatures." |