Canto
XXX can be seen as Dante’s moment of reckoning, and in Christian theological
terms a day of judgement. And while
Beatrice is not Christ, Dante is not dead and will return to the land of the
living. But the situation is constructed
to run analogous. Just as Christ would
lay out the case for the nature of our soul from our earthly journey at
judgement, Beatrice lays out the case for Dante’s soul from his journey toward
her.
How
Dante reacts is critical. If he reacts with
denials, he will be lying. If he reacts
with pride, say as a poet who needed to seek greater experiences like Ulysses
in Inferno, he will not be
worthy. But he reacts with humility, and
that is what a contrite sinner does.
Dante the author structures Cato XXXI to be analogous to a Catholic
sacrament of confession. This consists
of three parts, confessing, contrition, and absolution. He starts off the canto picking up from where
he left off in XXX, with Beatrice sharply concluding her case:
'O you on the far side of
the sacred stream,'
turning the point of her
words on me
had seemed sharp enough
with their edge,
she then went on without
a pause: 'Say it,
say if this is true. To
such an accusation
your confession must be
joined.' (XXXI. 1-6)
This
time she does not even call him by his name, but calls to him with an indirect
locution, and she forces the moment. He
cannot be allowed to evade because the fate of his soul is at stake. While her words may seem sharp, there is
purpose to their edge. Here Dante’s
emotions overwhelm him.
My faculties were so
confounded
that my voice struggled
up but spent itself
before it made its way
out of my mouth.
For a moment she held
back, then asked:
'What are you thinking?
Speak, for your memories
of sin have not been
washed away by water yet.'
Confusion and fear, mixed
together,
drove from my mouth a
yes--
but one had need of eyes
to hear it. (7-15)
She
is drawing him to reach a confession.
And he does. All he can muster is
a mouthed, inaudible “yes.” Now recall
Canto V of Purgatorio when Manfred
with an arrow in his throat, knowing that he will die, inaudibly appeals to the
Blessed Mother for salvation. All it
took was the smallest of efforts for God’s grace to pull Manfred into
salvation. Dante the character here
gives the same sort of simple but sincere effort, overwhelmed by the
complications of the situation. The
parallel is noticeable and certainly intended.
Then comes one of Dante’s incredible similes.
As a crossbow breaks with
too much tension
from the pulling taut of
cord and bow
so that the arrow strikes
the target with less force,
thus I collapsed beneath
that heavy load
and, with a flood of
tears and sighs,
my voice came strangled
from my throat. (16-21)
He
breaks like a crumpled crossbow and his body falls over like the loaded arrow
that impotently flops. But he hasn’t
fully confessed. The mouthed “yes” was
just an acknowledgment. She needs him to
plainly state his sin. She continues the
inquisition. She asks him what was it
that drew him away from her (22-30). Dante
struggles to speak.
After heaving a bitter
sigh
I hardly had the voice to
give the answer
my lips were laboring to
shape.
In tears, I said: 'Things
set in front of me,
with their false
delights, turned back my steps
the moment that Your
countenance was hidden.' (31-36)
That
is directly stating his sin. Next in the
confessional process is true contrition.
She continues, satisfied with what he has said, drawing out what is
truly in his heart.
'And if the highest beauty
failed you
in my death, what mortal
thing
should then have drawn
you to desire it?
'Indeed, at the very
first arrow
of deceitful things, you
should have risen up
and followed me who was
no longer of them.
'You should not have
allowed your wings to droop,
leaving you to other darts from some
young girl
or other novelty of such
brief use.
'The fledgling may allow
even a third attempt,
but all in vain is the
net flung or arrow shot
in sight of a
full-fledged bird.' (52-63)
The
key words in her speech there are “you should have” and “you should not
have.” She uses “should” three times in
three tercets and concludes with a metaphor of an immature bird. Three times he could have followed her, and
even a fledgling learns before three attempts.
At this shame burns in Dante’s heart.
As children in their
shame stand mute, their eyes
upon the ground,
listening,
acknowledging their
fault, repentant,
just so I stood… (64-67)
Indeed,
she continues to harp on the childishness of actions, telling him “to lift up
his beard” as to show the disconnection between his mature state and his
immature actions. Isn’t that what sin is,
an immature action? It reminds me of St.
Paul’s great observation from First
Corinthians: “When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a
child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish
things. At present we see indistinctly,
as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I
shall know fully, as I am fully known (1 Cor 11-12). When Beatrice died and was removed from his
sight, Dante failed to fully see as a man.
That is at the heart of his sin. With
Beatrice having now completed her indictment, Dante the character’s emotions
overtake him and his sight blurs. As he
collapses, he does see her turn to the Griffin, which stands for Christ, and
then he feels complete contrition.
The nettle of remorse so
stung me then
that whatever else had
lured me most to loving
had now become for me
most hateful.
Such knowledge of my
fault was gnawing at my heart
that I was overcome, and
what I then became
she knows who was the
reason for my state. (85-90)
The
contrition is unstated; it is purely in his heart. We don’t even know exactly what he is
contrite about. Whatever the fault that
gnaws at his heart, it is left unsaid.
Some have speculated there was another woman or women; some have
speculated a loss of faith; some have speculated the turn toward philosophy
without incorporation the three Christian virtues. But the contrition is sincere, and that is
what counts.
Finally
there is the absolution. In a typical
Catholic confession, absolution is the prayer the priest prays over you at the
end. Sometimes it is said in Latin, but
here is what is typically said in English:
God the Father of mercies,
through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to
himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through
the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you
from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
There
is no priest to say the words of absolution, but when Dante comes to from
passing out, he being held by Matelda, and is promptly submersed into the river
Lethe. Those all around him sing from
the great penitential Psalm 51, “Asperges
me,” “purge me.” The NAB translates
the line as such, “Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, and I
will be whiter than snow (Ps. 51:9). Some
might consider this submersion a baptism instead of the sacrament of
reconciliation, and it is of sorts. But
if you think about it, a confession is a sort of baptizing, but instead of the
cleansing of original sin, it cleans temporal sins.
It is interesting and fitting that the fifty-first psalm is sung at this moment. I have had a priest require me to read Psalm 51 as part of my satisfaction, the small prayer penance we are given after confession. Here Dante doesn’t pray a penance, but he is sort of incapacitated, and so we can consider those in the pageant pray the penance for him.
With
the submersion, absolution is complete, and not only are sins forgiven, but
they are forgotten. At least that’s how
most commentators read it. Anthony
Esolen, though, reads it as the sins are not forgotten but as if they were now
committed by another person. This makes
sense to me since Dante the character has to return home and write of this
experience. Plus, isn’t that how it feels
when one comes out of a confession? You
feel like a new person, and that it was another you who committed those
sins. Of course, within a half hour
we’re probably sinning again, but that’s a different matter.
I
think this completes the close reading of the meet up between Dante the
character and Beatrice. I’ll have one
more set of random comments on these last cantos to make before I complete my
thoughts on Purgatorio.
###
Kerstin
at Catholic Thought book club asked:
What I am not clear
about, and this puzzled me already when I read it, why is Beatrice's reaction
to Dante so strong regarding the fact that he didn't stay true to her? He had a
youthful infatuation, they were never betrothed or married. And, once you enter
heavenly paradise, aren't earthly attachments no longer of import? Why is she
bringing this up?
My
response:
It's even less than never
betrothed. They saw each other a grand total of two times in their lives, once
when Dante was nine years old and the other when he was eighteen. Dante the
real life person has made her into something of a conglomeration of a love, a
muse, and a spiritual guide. When I gave an introduction for Inferno I said
Dante's devotion to Beatrice was hard to understand. The best analogy I could
come up with was how some people have a devotion to a saint or the Blessed
Mother. But it's actually more than that too.
As to the situation in
the Divine Comedy, if Beatrice is that spiritual soul mate, then Dante the
character has betrayed that spiritual bond by looking toward philosophy or
other women or whatever the sin was. Beatrice is quite right to scold him, not
so much to express her anger but to draw out the contrition for the sake of
Dante's soul.
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