The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri
iTiii THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. for eternal felicity in a celestial Paradise. The whole working out of the Purgatory is Dante's own invention ; but the Christian Inferno differs nothing from the "domes Ditis vacuas, et inania regna" of the Latin poet, and it is wholly on the grand design laid out by Virgil that Dante has raised his own magnificent superstructure.
In the sixth book of the " -ffineid" Virgil makes his hero descend into Hell, and whatever opinion may be formed of the epic powers of the Augustan poet, in that book, and in that description, it must be acknowledged that he has concentrated all the strength of his genius and produced one of the highest efforts of the human imagination.
As Dante tells us that he had spent his days and nights in the study of his favourite master, we may be sure that his own spirit was saturated with the beauties of Virgil's masterpiece, which he reproduced in his own great work.
Although this book of the "-^Eneid" has, of course, been frequently pointed out as one of the sources of Dante's own poem, the subject of Dante's obligations to Virgil has not yet been treated fully, and I believe that a comparison carried out in some detail may be of interest at least to classical readers.
The Hell of Virgil may be broadly divided into three piincipal divisions : ''a neutral region for those who are unfortunate rather than blameworthy, a barred and bolted prison-house of torture for the bad, a heroic Valhalla for prowess, genius, and worth," divisions which the most cursory reader of Dante's poem will see that he has accepted.
In the ** Inferno" we have the vestibule, after passing through the gate, at which all who enter leave hope behind, and there are crowds so vast that the poet says : — " io non avrei creduto Che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta. And those are described as the sad souls of those who lived without infamy and without praise.
Then, after crossing Acheron, we come to Limbo, the fii*st true circle of the • Inferno, which answers to Virgil's Elysian fields. Here are no tortures, no punishment. The worthies of old time, who
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIBGIL. lix from ignorance of the Christian dispensation could not share the Christian Paradise, are left in the serene enjoyment of their broad Eljsium and the joyful fields : Dante is greeted by Homer and his brother poets as one worthy of their order, and with them he enters the company of the heroes of old :— '* Into a meadow green we entered all.
People they were with slowly moving eyes, And great authority was in their port, Karely they spake with sweet- voiced cadences. Then we withdrew into a further court, An open place, both lofty and serene. Where all could be beheld who there resort. And straightway there upon the enamelled green Were shown me the great souls who there arise — Well may I boast of all whom I have seen. "HeU," Canto IV., lines 111—120.
In this first circle of Hell there is serenity, there is Ught, and the description, brief as it is, corresponds with Virgil's happy seats :-^— ^ Largior hie campos sether, et lumine vestit Purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt. Lines 640—1. It is only when Dante proceeds from here on his dreadful journey that he enters on darkness and horror: — " My chief conducts me by another way, Out of the stillness to the trembling air.
And now I come where no more shines the day." /* HeU," Canto IV., lines 149-61.
Virgil does not make ^neas visit the Tartarus, the abodes of the damned : his guide, the Sibyl, pointing out two ways, tells him that the one they have to follow leads to Elysium, while '^ Nulli £eis casto sceleratum insistere limen.'' ^Sneas, shuddering at the gate, is told briefly, and in a summary, the various horrors that are going on within, and to this rapid sketch Dante has applied the whole ingenuity of his constructive genius, and worked out the details of his entire primitive Hell.
Ix THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIBGIL. Dante is, of course, no mere imitator. In the same way as Virgil had taken the materials supplied bj his predecessors and made them his own, so Dante appropriates Virgil's wealth, and sends it forth again as a new coinage, stamped with his own effigy. The jewels of the old master are not misplaced in Dante's work, but shine in their new surroundings with even enhanced lustre.
It requires, howeyer, only a careful comparison of this portion of Virgil's epic with the whole "Inferno" to perceive how thoroughly Dante had saturated his spirit in the work of him whom he expressly cites as his master.
In the personified woes and ills of mortality, which Virgil places in the vestibule, and the elm-tree on which dreams are clinging like bats under the leaves, I have been able to trace no counterpart in Dante, but after the entrance we come at once to the Biver Acheron and its ferryman Charon, whom Dante has introduced almost without variation : — " Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento Canities inculta jacet, stant lumina flammd, Sordidus ex humeris nodo dependet amictus.
Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat, Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba. Jam senior, sed cruda Deo viridisque senectus.'' Lines 298-304. On first coming Charon is described by Dante : — " When lo, upon a bark there towards us came A very old man, with age- whitened hair. " Hell," III., lines 82, 88. And when his opposition is controlled :^ " The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew Of that dread pilot of the livid lake.
Around whose eyes the whirling lightning flew. Lines 97—99. And again : — " The demon Charon, with his eyes ablaze. Line 109. Around the bank, and eager to be ferried over, press the countless shades.
iTiii THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. for eternal felicity in a celestial Paradise. The whole working out of the Purgatory is Dante's own invention ; but the Christian Inferno differs nothing from the "domes Ditis vacuas, et inania regna" of the Latin poet, and it is wholly on the grand design laid out by Virgil that Dante has raised his own magnificent superstructure.
In the sixth book of the " -ffineid" Virgil makes his hero descend into Hell, and whatever opinion may be formed of the epic powers of the Augustan poet, in that book, and in that description, it must be acknowledged that he has concentrated all the strength of his genius and produced one of the highest efforts of the human imagination.
As Dante tells us that he had spent his days and nights in the study of his favourite master, we may be sure that his own spirit was saturated with the beauties of Virgil's masterpiece, which he reproduced in his own great work.
Although this book of the "-^Eneid" has, of course, been frequently pointed out as one of the sources of Dante's own poem, the subject of Dante's obligations to Virgil has not yet been treated fully, and I believe that a comparison carried out in some detail may be of interest at least to classical readers.
The Hell of Virgil may be broadly divided into three piincipal divisions : ''a neutral region for those who are unfortunate rather than blameworthy, a barred and bolted prison-house of torture for the bad, a heroic Valhalla for prowess, genius, and worth," divisions which the most cursory reader of Dante's poem will see that he has accepted.
In the ** Inferno" we have the vestibule, after passing through the gate, at which all who enter leave hope behind, and there are crowds so vast that the poet says : — " io non avrei creduto Che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta. And those are described as the sad souls of those who lived without infamy and without praise.
Then, after crossing Acheron, we come to Limbo, the fii*st true circle of the • Inferno, which answers to Virgil's Elysian fields. Here are no tortures, no punishment. The worthies of old time, who
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIBGIL. lix from ignorance of the Christian dispensation could not share the Christian Paradise, are left in the serene enjoyment of their broad Eljsium and the joyful fields : Dante is greeted by Homer and his brother poets as one worthy of their order, and with them he enters the company of the heroes of old :— '* Into a meadow green we entered all.
People they were with slowly moving eyes, And great authority was in their port, Karely they spake with sweet- voiced cadences. Then we withdrew into a further court, An open place, both lofty and serene. Where all could be beheld who there resort. And straightway there upon the enamelled green Were shown me the great souls who there arise — Well may I boast of all whom I have seen. "HeU," Canto IV., lines 111—120.
In this first circle of Hell there is serenity, there is Ught, and the description, brief as it is, corresponds with Virgil's happy seats :-^— ^ Largior hie campos sether, et lumine vestit Purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt. Lines 640—1. It is only when Dante proceeds from here on his dreadful journey that he enters on darkness and horror: — " My chief conducts me by another way, Out of the stillness to the trembling air.
And now I come where no more shines the day." /* HeU," Canto IV., lines 149-61.
Virgil does not make ^neas visit the Tartarus, the abodes of the damned : his guide, the Sibyl, pointing out two ways, tells him that the one they have to follow leads to Elysium, while '^ Nulli £eis casto sceleratum insistere limen.'' ^Sneas, shuddering at the gate, is told briefly, and in a summary, the various horrors that are going on within, and to this rapid sketch Dante has applied the whole ingenuity of his constructive genius, and worked out the details of his entire primitive Hell.
Ix THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIBGIL. Dante is, of course, no mere imitator. In the same way as Virgil had taken the materials supplied bj his predecessors and made them his own, so Dante appropriates Virgil's wealth, and sends it forth again as a new coinage, stamped with his own effigy. The jewels of the old master are not misplaced in Dante's work, but shine in their new surroundings with even enhanced lustre.
It requires, howeyer, only a careful comparison of this portion of Virgil's epic with the whole "Inferno" to perceive how thoroughly Dante had saturated his spirit in the work of him whom he expressly cites as his master.
In the personified woes and ills of mortality, which Virgil places in the vestibule, and the elm-tree on which dreams are clinging like bats under the leaves, I have been able to trace no counterpart in Dante, but after the entrance we come at once to the Biver Acheron and its ferryman Charon, whom Dante has introduced almost without variation : — " Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento Canities inculta jacet, stant lumina flammd, Sordidus ex humeris nodo dependet amictus.
Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat, Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba. Jam senior, sed cruda Deo viridisque senectus.'' Lines 298-304. On first coming Charon is described by Dante : — " When lo, upon a bark there towards us came A very old man, with age- whitened hair. " Hell," III., lines 82, 88. And when his opposition is controlled :^ " The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew Of that dread pilot of the livid lake.
Around whose eyes the whirling lightning flew. Lines 97—99. And again : — " The demon Charon, with his eyes ablaze. Line 109. Around the bank, and eager to be ferried over, press the countless shades.
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