"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Dante's Paradiso Cantos I - V, Summary

Canto I

After Dante (the author, not the character) gives glory to God, he points out that one who returns from up high can neither fully explain nor fully grasp his experience, but he will do what he can.  In emulation of the classics, he invokes Apollo, the god of the sun, to help him in this effort.  It is now noon and Dante (the character) turns to loom at Beatrice, who is staring at the sun.  The light reflecting off her eyes pours into Dante’s soul so strongly that he can only sustain it for a short time.  But as he continues to gaze on her, he feels changed within.  Through her, he can see the heavens spinning like wheels, bright as the sun and on fire.  He feels his body lifting and asks, how could this be?  Beatrice explains that it is natural to be lifted toward the heavens, and that it is unnatural—because sin is the unnatural state in man—to be held down to earth.

Canto II

In a naval metaphor, Dante (the author) warns the reader that not all are fit to follow him on this journey.  Because of their innate thirst for God, the two pilgrims (Dante the character and Beatrice his guide) rise with the speed of an arrow shot to the first heavenly sphere, the moon.  Dante asks Beatrice, what do the dark spots on the moon signify?  She turns the question on him and asks him what he thinks they are.  After Dante answers incorrectly, Beatrice goes on to explain first why he is wrong (it has nothing to do with rare or dense matter) and second proposes an experiment of mirrors to arrive at the truth.  If the mirrors are staggered, then a light shining into them appears different size but the original light is the same for each mirror.  The differences in light and dark coloration on the moon is due to the different distribution of graces God has used to create the universe, though it’s the same light that shines on all.  It is the matter which has varying capacity to absorb it.


Canto III

As Dante was about to confess his error on the moon spots, he sees the outline of faces as if in the bottom of a pool of water.  The faces are all eager to speak to him.  Beatrice explains to him these beings are assigned under the sphere of the moon—the moon associated with inconstancy—because they in life failed in maintaining their vows.  She urges him to speak to them, and he finds the one who speaks back to be his cousin-in-law, Piccarda, mentioned in Purgatorio (cantos XXIII & XXIV) when Dante met her brother and his friend, Donato Farese.  In life she had vowed to be a nun but was forced out of the convent by her other brother to marry for political reasons.  Dante asks her if she is content to be in the lowest sphere of heavenly blessedness.  She responds that she has no desire for more, that she would not be blessed in the first place if her will was discordant with God’s.  She replies with the famous line, “In His will is our peace.”  She speaks of the spirit beside her, Constanza, the Empress and wife of Henry VI, who was also pulled out of a convent to marry.  So both have failed in keeping their religious vows, though both forced.  Piccarda then fades into the mist, singing Ave Maria.

Canto IV

Still at the sphere of the moon, Dante (the character) is perturbed by two equally perplexing implications of his encounter with Piccarda.  Beatrice reads his mind and formulates for him the two questions at the root of Dante’s confusion.  She answers the second question first by explaining that these souls do not reside in these heavenly spheres but appear to him at the sphere as a sign to reflect the distinct heavenly graces that people receive.  These spirits at the moon reside in Empyrean with all the other spirits in heaven but here reflect the lower rank they received.  This, she continues, is in complete contradiction to what is generally understood on earth.  He then answers the first question, pertaining to the justice of people forced from their vows being of lower rank.  It is true, they were forced, but nonetheless their wills to maintain their vows was incomplete.  Their will could have found an escape or even death to uphold their vows.  Satisfied, Dante asks a third question, can a person make up in some other way for a vow left unfulfilled?  Beatrice looked at Dante with eyes so radiant that it almost overpowered him.


Canto V


Beatrice first addresses Dante's inability to directly look at her, telling him that she has flamed out more brightly because having moved closer toward God, she has more perfect vision.  Then she reformulates his question on whether a vow left unfulfilled can be made up.  Beatrice explains that one's free will given to God in a sacred pledge, one sacrifices further freedom.  The only allowable substitution for an unfulfilled vow must be of a significantly greater vow granted through God's representative, the Church.  She cautions about making foolish vows.  As fast as an arrow shot the two rise up out of the moon and reach the sphere of Mercury.  He sees a number of spirits there as if they are fish in a pond, and one approaches to speak to him.  He tells Dante that he and the spirits around him are on fire from the light from heaven, and then asks Dante whether he would like to receive some of this light.  Dante responds that he doesn't know who the spirit is and why he is under the influence of this sphere.  With apparent joy, the spirit glows even brighter.


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