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Politics are everywhere in the poem, which is far from being the purely religious text that some of its readers take it for.
The entire journey takes nearly precisely one week, Thursday evening to Thursday evening. It begins in fear and trembling on this earth and ends with a joyous vision of the trinitarian God.
What exactly is allegory? Simply put, it is the interpretive strategy of understanding one thing as meaning not itself but something other.
Virgil is not the Roman poet so much as he is human reason unenlightened by faith; when he acts or speaks in the poem he does so without the historical context supplied by his life or works. And what of the second guide in the poem, Beatrice? She, too, is removed from her historical role in Dante’s life, and is treated as an abstraction, in her case the truths discovered through faith, or perhaps revelation, or theology.
He is a sort of “Everyman,” and represents the ordinarily appetitive human soul.
The most significant actions performed in the poem, they thought, could best be understood as part of this single, developing metaphor, in which the flawed human soul called “Dante” is gradually educated, first by reason (referred to as “Virgil”), and then by theological certainty (code name “Beatrice”).
Virgil is the guide in Dante’s poem because he served in that role in Dante’s life. It was Virgil’s Aeneid and not the works of Aristotle or of Aquinas which served as model for the poem; it was Virgil who, more than any other author, helped to make Dante Dante.
And like one who rejoices in his gains → but when the time comes and he loses, 57 turns all his thought to sadness and lament,
‘Therefore, for your sake, I think it wise you follow me: I will be your guide, 114 leading you, from here, through an eternal place ‘where you shall hear despairing cries and see those ancient souls in pain 117 as they bewail their second death. → ‘Then you shall see the ones who are content to burn because they hope to come, 120 whenever it may be, among the blessed. ‘Should you desire to ascend to these, you’ll find a soul more fit to lead than I: → 123 I’ll leave you in her care when I depart. ‘For the Emperor who has His seat on high wills not, because I was a rebel to His law, →
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And as one who unwills what he has willed, → changing his intent on second thought 39 so that he quite gives over what he has begun, such a man was I on that dark slope.
‘your spirit is assailed by cowardice, ‘which many a time so weighs upon a man it turns him back from noble enterprise, 48 the way a beast shies from a shadow. →
“We should fear those things alone that have the power to harm. 90 Nothing else is frightening. ‘ “I am made such by God’s grace that your affliction does not touch, 93 nor can these fires assail me.
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE CITY OF WOE, → THROUGH ME THE WAY TO EVERLASTING PAIN, 3 THROUGH ME THE WAY AMONG THE LOST. → JUSTICE MOVED MY MAKER ON HIGH. → DIVINE POWER MADE ME, → 6 WISDOM SUPREME, AND PRIMAL LOVE. BEFORE ME NOTHING WAS BUT THINGS ETERNAL, → AND ETERNAL, I ENDURE. 9 ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE.
‘Here you must banish all distrust, 15 here must all cowardice be slain. ‘We have come to where I said you would see the miserable sinners 18 who have lost the good of the intellect.’
‘They have no hope of death, → and their blind life is so abject 48 that they are envious of every other lot. ‘The world does not permit report of them. Mercy and justice hold them in contempt. →
‘Woe unto you, you wicked souls, ‘give up all hope of ever seeing Heaven. I come to take you to the other shore, 87 into eternal darkness, into heat and chill.
‘all those who die in the wrath of God 123 assemble here from every land. ‘And they are eager to cross the river, for the justice of God so spurs them on → 126 their very fear is turned to longing.
‘The anguish of the souls → below us paints my face 21 with pity you mistake for fear.
‘O you who come to this abode of pain,’ said Minos when he saw me, pausing → 18 in the exercise of his high office, → ‘beware how you come in and whom you trust. Don’t let the easy entrance fool you. →
‘Hinder not his destined journey. → It is so willed where will and power are one, 24 and ask no more.’
I reached a place mute of all light, which bellows as the sea in tempest 30 tossed by conflicting winds. The hellish squall, which never rests, sweeps spirits in its headlong rush, 33 tormenting, whirls and strikes them. Caught in that path of violence, → they shriek, weep, and lament. 36 Then how they curse the power of God! I understood that to such torment the carnal sinners are condemned, 39 they who make reason subject to desire.
‘There is no greater sorrow → than to recall our time of joy 123 in wretchedness—and
I am in the third circle, of eternal, → hateful rain, cold and leaden, 9 changeless in its monotony.
For great desire presses me to learn 84 whether Heaven sweetens or Hell embitters them.’
‘Master,’ I asked, ‘after the great Judgment will these torments be greater, less, 105 or will they stay as harsh as they are now?’ And he replied: ‘Return to your science, → which has it that, in measure of a thing’s perfection, 108 it feels both more of pleasure and of pain. ‘Although these accursèd people → will never come to true perfection, 111 they will be nearer it than they are now.’
‘Do not be overcome by fear. However powerful he may be, 6 he’ll not prevent our climbing down this cliff.’ Then he turned to that bloated face and said: ‘Silence, accursèd wolf! → 9 Let your fury feed itself inside you. ‘Not without sanction is this journey down the pit. → It is willed on high, where Michael 12 did avenge the proud rebellion.’
‘You muster an empty thought. The undiscerning life that made them foul 54 now makes them hard to recognize.
‘All the gold that lies beneath the moon, or ever did, could never give a moment’s rest 66 to any of these wearied souls.’
‘He whose wisdom transcends all made the heavens and gave them guides, 75 so that all parts reflect on every part ‘in equal distribution of the light. Just so, He ordained for worldly splendors 78 a general minister and guide ‘who shifts those worthless goods, from time to time, from race to race, from one blood to another 81 beyond the intervention of human wit.
The good master said: ‘Son, now you see the souls of those whom anger overcame. 117 And I would have you know for certain ‘that plunged beneath these waters, → as your eyes will tell you, are souls whose sighs 120 with bubbles make the water’s surface seethe. ‘Fixed in the slime they say: “We were sullen in the sweet air that in the sun rejoices, 123 filled as we were with slothful fumes. ‘ “Now we are sullen in black mire.” This hymn they gurgle in their gullets, 126 for they cannot get a word out whole.’
And I to him: ‘In weeping and in misery, → accursèd spirit, may you stay. 39 I know you, for all your filth.’
‘How many now above who think themselves great kings will lie here in the mud, like swine, 51 leaving behind nothing but ill repute!’
‘O outcasts of Heaven, race despised,’ → he began on the terrible threshold, ‘whence 93 comes this insolence you harbor in your souls? → ‘Why do you kick against that will which never can be severed from its purpose, 96 and has so many times increased your pain?
‘Every evil deed despised in Heaven → has as its end injustice. Each such end 24 harms someone else through either force or fraud. ‘But since the vice of fraud is man’s alone, it more displeases God, and thus the fraudulent 27 are lower down, assailed by greater pain.
‘Violence may be committed against God → when we deny and curse Him in our hearts, 48 or when we scorn nature and her bounty.
‘By toil and nature, if you remember Genesis, near the beginning, it is man’s lot 108 to earn his bread and prosper. ‘The usurer, who takes another path, scorns nature in herself and in her follower, 111 and elsewhere sets his hopes.
‘O, Capaneus, 63 because your pride remains unquenched ‘you suffer greater punishment. In your own anger lies your agony, 66 a fitting torment for your rage.’
I asked him to supply the food 93 for which he had provoked the appetite.
‘Lethe you shall see: not in this abyss but where the spirits go to cleanse themselves 138 once their repented guilt has been removed.’
Ah, how cautious we should be with those who do not see our actions only, 120 but with their wisdom peer into our thoughts!
Behold the one whose stench afflicts the world!’
O Supreme Wisdom, what great art you show in Heaven, on earth, and in the evil world, 12 and what true justice does your power dispense!
‘I would resort to even harsher words because your avarice afflicts the world, 105 trampling down the good and raising up the wicked.
‘You have wrought yourselves a god of gold and silver. How then do you differ from those who worship idols 114 except they worship one and you a hundred?
Who is more impious than one who thinks 30 that God shows passion in His judgment?
The rapid tranformations of human states are summarized by the Casini/Barbi commentary to v. 96 as follows: a given human being may typically move, along eight points on Fortune’s wheel, from humility, to patience, to peace, to riches, to pride, to impatience, to war, to poverty. This is a typical “ride” of anyone tied to Fortune’s wheel, ending back at the starting point.
“Fraud begins its work by inspiring trust (the face of a just man); then weaves its deceit (the serpentine trunk); and at last strikes its final blow (the pointed tail).”
