Dante — The Journey Up

The progress of Dante’s Pilgrim from Inferno to Paradiso, may be read, among other things, but perhaps above all, as a process of anagnorisis. The Commedia narrates an anagoge, a movement upwards, detailing Dante’s journey from the hubris of material knowledge and merely profound poetry to the greater, almost ineffable, humbling spiritual understanding. This motif of anagnorisis, bearing resonant Aristotelian undertones, is general in the Commedia as Dante, through the narrative engine, meets and realises the identities of various historical and mythological characters—or as he is recognised by them. Following Piero Boitani’s essay on the subject as it manifests in Dante, contained in his Auerbachian Anagnorisis: Scenes and Themes of Recognition and Revelation in Western Literature (2021),I will examine two major recognition scenes: the encounter with Virgilio in Inferno I and with Beatrice in Purgatorio XXX.

These scenes link explicitly the characters of Virgilio and Beatrice and place them in a trinity with Dante. While Virgilio symbolises the earthly perfection of reason and the search for knowledge, Beatrice symbolises pure, divine understanding, the preparation for which comes through thepurgatorial process of witnessing and experiencing that Dante undergoes under Virgilio. This divine understanding, really a kind of knowledge beyond human understanding, is realised in the closing passages of the Commedia as Dante witnesses the Mystic Rose—the culmination of his pilgrimage and the poem’s final instance of anagnorisis.

Recognition, anagnorisis—the shock of recognition—is simply put by Aristotle in his Poetics as ‘a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for a good or bad future. The best form of recognition is coincident with a Reversal of the Situation, as in the Oedipus’ (Aristotle,1965, p.46). It is difficult to put this in plainer terms than the alleged ‘maestro di color che sanno’ (Inf. 4:131), but to apply it to the Commedia, it is evident that such a concept would adhere to Dante’s polysemous allegorical method. The Commedia is a change within the Pilgrim from ignorance of the divine to knowledge and understanding of it. This is of course driven by an Aristotelian thirst for knowledge: in the preface to the Convivio, Dante recounts Aristotle’s Metaphysics:

1. Sì come dice lo Filosofo nel principio della Prima Filosofia, tutti li uomini naturalmente desiderano di sapere. La ragione di che puote essere [ed] è che ciascuna cosa, da providenza di prima natura impinta, è inclinabile alla sua propia perfezione; onde, acciò che la scienza è ultima perfezione della nostra anima, nella quale sta la nostra ultima felicitade, tutti naturalmente al suo desiderio semo subietti.

2. Veramente da questa nobilissima perfezione molti sono privati per diverse cagioni, che dentro all'uomo e di fuori da esso lui rimovono dall'abito di scienza. (Convivio I:1-2)

That is, man naturally strives for knowledge, to new recognitions. Moreover there is much to admirein this striving, in this perfection of spirit. Before the perfection can be achieved, however, there are flaws which must be purged.

It is more or less by these Aristotelian terms that Piero Boitani builds his theory of recognition in Dante in the comprehensive essay “I Know The Signs Of The Ancient Flame”(2021, pp. 318-359). He summarises the various functions of recognition in the Commedia; I will briefly summarise him.

Essentially, Dante’s encounters with various characters uniquely allow him, by mirroring himself with these characters, to define himself through and against others, whether they be poets or fellow citizens, religious and mythological figures or dead relatives and friends. With this he is able to understand and signpost his spiritual growth and sense of purpose, with the heightened senses of the afterlife journey. Boitani says: “the anagnorisis scenes of the Comedy are not only narrative devices. They are the technical means by which Dante stresses the central process of the poem, the acquisition of knowledge in the flesh [and, I would add, the supersession of this], and its dramatic quality” (ibid, p.325). Boitani is extensive in cataloguing of the various recognition scenes in the Commedia. Within the scope of this essay, however, I would like now to emphasise one aspect of his insights, and what I believe is his ultimate thesis: “...Dante overcomes the initial ‘faintness’ of Virgil,transcends the recognition of Beatrice on the top of Purgatory, and at the same time points to the final cognitive stage of the poem: the recognition of God” (ibid, p.359).

Virgilio’s initial appearance comes in a moment of crisis. The narrator, yet unnamed, finds himself, as we know, in a dark wood and in his attempt to escape the wilderness finds himself hounded severally by a leopard, a lion and a she-wolf. (One must not lose the opportunity to note the allegory of these beasts, especially in so much as they prevent the pilgrim from gaining the summit of the hill he is trying to climb.) With much suspense, the Pilgrim is stalked by the she-wolf ‘a poco a poco’(Inf.I: 59), so that he takes to his heels, ‘rovinava in basso loco’. Suddenly, he spies a lone figure. The dramatic shift, the appearance of a figure out of nowhere in this crisis heightens the stakes of the narrative. Anagnorisis leads to friendship or enmity, Aristotle says. We are unsure whether this spooky figure is friend or foe. Desperate, the Pilgrim cries out: "Miserere di me’’ gridai a lui,/qual che tu sii, od ombra od omo certo!” (Inf. I: 65-66).

Incidentally, the figure is something like shade made flesh. But it is all the more interesting to note that Virgilio, is especially the shade of a great man, by virtue of his poetry; it is fitting that he is resurrected in poetry. In his response to Dante’s cry, he sketches his biography briefly, the effect of which is something like a spotlight illuminating a character out of the darkness of a stage (a characteristically Dantescan legerdemain):

“ Rispuosemi: «Non omo, omo già fui,

e li parenti miei furon lombardi,

mantoani per patria ambedui.

Nacqui sub Iulio, ancor che fosse tardi,

e vissi a Roma sotto ’l buono Augusto

nel tempo de li dèi falsi e bugiardi.

Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto

figliuol d’Anchise che venne di Troia,

poi che ’l superbo Ilión fu combusto. (Inf. I:67-75)

Auerbach spoke of the so-called ‘retarding element’, quoting Goethe and Schiller, in his “Odysseus’ Scar”. His claim is that in Homer the moment of revelation and the consolidation of revelation are often interrupted by narratively extraneous flashbacks and descriptions which serve to slacken tension, as opposed to the modern assumption that such digressions heighten suspense. It is not so easy here to codify possible readings in this way. True, the confirmation of identity that is symbolised in the naming, “or se tu quel Virgilio’’ (Inf.1:79) comes several lines after the figure appears. For a reader ignorant of the allusions in Virgilio’s introduction, this is a kind of suspense. However, presumably, the cultured reader, (and especially in Dante’s time, the cultured reader who could stand the ‘vulgarity’ of Dante’s Italian), would potentially be able to recognise the clues as to the identity of this dramatic figure, who is self-presented, in (naturally) fine verse with a calm assuredness that comes as an antidote to the torpid anxiety of the preceding passages. Anyway, Dante instantly recognises him, and the identification is entirely dramatic, dramatised by dialogue.

As such, any reader can recognise, with the sense of place in Virgilio’s autobiography, the sense of time, of vocation and of moral responsibility, that this is an important character. His importance as a mentor-poet (emphasised as a function of his humanity, with “poeta fui” echoing “non omo, omo gia fui”), is made apparent with the Pilgrim’s gushing reverence:

O de li altri poeti onore e lume

vagliami ’l lungo studio e ’l grande amore

che m’ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.

Tu se’ lo mio maestro e ’l mio autore;

tu se’ solo colui da cu’ io tolsi

lo bello stilo che m’ha fatto onore. (Inf. I:82-89)

Evidently, Dante, being a poet, takes Virgilio as a guide; this is made evident in that Virgilio immediately after his introduction provides Dante with consolation and advice. Virgilio, who until the closing passages of Purgatorio, is a physical guide and a symbol of knowledge and reason, saves Dante from the physical, mortal danger of the beasts and the dark wood, as well as from the allegorical spiritual peril which comes as an obstruction to Dante’s spiritual perfection. Or perhaps it is better to say he steers him away, for Virgilio is not sufficient to constitute Dante’s salvation.

In this meeting, there is a sense of self-recognition, even as Dante places the Latin poet on a higher level than himself, to begin with. This is comparable to the self-recognition and incidental comparison with a character like Arnaut Daniel, for example, whose reputation also precedes him.

Otherwise, figures like Statius and Guinizelli. But in each of these cases, and in others, the characters are ranked on a much lower position than the pedestal on which Dante places Virgilio, even as helauds their poetry.. It is clear that there is much more to be desired, more to be refined in their morality. Virgilio, however, is one that Dante aspires to; in this self-recognition there is a level of projection or aspiration. Virgilio is a rare example of one who perfected life and art, to borrow from Yeats. All that damned him was the mere but immutable fact of his paganism. In this aspect, Dante supercedes him, as he embraces his path towards becoming a fully Christian poet-prophet. All the same, Virgilio provides the base model for Dante’s eventual fulfilment of his divine anagnorisis, which I would argue is perfected not in his apprehension of the Divine Rose, but in his subsequentdivinely mandated testimony, his so-called “Summa in Verse”, the Commedia. Thus, I would suggest that this is the reason Virgilio is the exemplary candidate, above St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas or Aristotle for Dante’s rational, aesthetic and moral guide through hell and purgatory.

Unfortunately, however, Virgilio is not qualified to accompany Dante to Paradise. The next stage of Dante’s awakening to the Divine requires a change of the guard. I wish to prefigure Virgilio’s disappearance by briefly considering the meeting with Sordello in Purgatorio VII. Therein, upon being asked to confirm his identity by Sordello, Virgilio answers, naming himself, and stating with a hint of self pity: “Io son Virgilio, e per null’altro rio lo ciel perdei che per non aver fe.” (7-8). This fact however, does not keep Sordello from offering a show of reverence to Virgilio, and the glory of his poetry, a comforting re-confirmation of the moral authority which has been threatened somewhat by Virgilio’s lack of sovereignty in Paradise (symbolised most of all by the figure of Cato). Virgilio goes on to describe their journey : “per tutti’ i cerchi del dolente regno’, rispose lui, son io di qua venuto”.

Here is more emphasis on the moral authority that direct experience lends, even if it is not sufficient to save Virgilio. We skip now to Purgatorio XXX. After all said and done, Dante is about to gain Paradise proper. With

‘la parte oriental tutta rosata e l’altro ciel di bel sereno addorno’, we are provided with an echo of the opening scene of Purgatorio, and Dante performs a similar panoramic sweep, emphasising the socalled ineluctable modality of the visible, with a sense of visual movement, of colour, with the ‘nuvola di fiori’ (Pur. XXX:28), and the sudden apparition of a mysterious lady clad in green and the colour of flame. This is Beatrice, whom Dante recognises immediately, although she renames unnamed for now. Dante’s reaction to this sight is visceral, and he feels something greater than what his mere eyes can perceive:

“Sanza de li occhi aver piu conoscenza,

Per occulta virtu che da lei mosse

D’antico amor senti la gran potenza” (Pur. XXX:37-39)

This triggers in Dante something anachronistically Proustian, he is transported psychologically to the boyhood love he felt for Beatrice, his first inkling of the power of divine love; it renders him childlike; the significance of this will soon be made evident. Dante turns ‘a la sinistra’, again calling attention to the physical, to express his astonishment to Virgilio, with the lines that Boitani takes his essay title from: “conosco i segni de l’antica fiamma” (Pur. XXX:48) Virgilio is gone, however, vanished as dramatically as his apparition in Inferno I. In this disappearance, the replacement of him by Beatrice is brought into high relief, underscoring the difference in the two characters, and the difference in Dante’s own spiritual maturity. Virgilio has already prophesied the necessity of this replacement:‘Quanto ragion qui vede,/dirti poss’io; da indi in là t’aspetta/pur a Beatrice, ch’è opradi fede’ (Pur. XVIII: 46-48). The drama of this scene, among the most touching in the Commedia, and the weight of Virgilio’s absence is impressed with the repetition of his name.

The gender play and the idea of maturity are interesting here, even in terms of modern psychological understanding. Dante says that he turns to Virgilio “col respitto col quale il fantolin corre a la amma quando ha paura o quando elli e afflito” (Pur. XXX:44-45). He identifies Virgilio, hitherto known to us as a father-figure, really a ‘dolcissimo padre’, with motherhood, and implicitly with the Virgin Mary: “perdeo l’antica matre”(Pur. XXX: 50-52). At the same time, Beatrice, who some have argued can be read as a Christ figura (Rodheffer, 2019), declines to offer much parental consolation, beyond the ironic “non pianger anco, non piangere ancora, che’ pianger ti conven per altra spada’, a stark contrast to Virgilio’s consoling response in Inferno 1. Rather she chastises and goads Dante, questioning his right to ascend the mountain, such that angels sing on his behalf: “Donna, perche si lo stempere?”. After a measured silence, she presses on, detailing the difficult task at hand and her role in it: Dante’s salvation, which is impossible until his spirit is totally purified, immature as it obviously still is. Imperiously, she emphasises her no-nonsense pragmatism, and leaves no false impressions as to the difficulty of the Purgatorial task at hand. That is to say, the difficulty of anagnorisis.

Dante is an entirely intentional poet; he worked every description and narrative turn into an articulation of his theology. For this reason, it is not untoward to suggest that Dante directly intimates a comparison between Virgilio’s manifestation and that of Beatrice’s, with all three protagonists being mentioned by name here (indeed with Dante’s name being hapax legomenon).Indeed this juxtaposition has been a subcurrent throughout the poem up to this point, even as Beatrice speaks through Virgilio in Inferno II. Virgilio is certainly emblematic of a kind of reason; of a kind of empiricism, that of the sensual altruistic, expansive world of poetry and philosophy. It would have been crass to deny this truth. Beatrice, however, symbolises an epistemology which is superior to that of Virgilio’s, and certainly that of Dante’s. This is because hers is divine knowledge. Soon after meeting Beatrice, who in fact is something somewhat transformed--exulted--from the Beatrice that he knew in the world (compare to how much Virgilio’s supernatural reputation is staked on his earthly achievements), Dante must wash himself by Lethe--a physical ritual which underscores his movement towards spiritual maturity.

Chastised by Beatrice, Dante hangs his head, but spying his reflection in the brook: li occhi mi cadder giu nel chiaro fonte”, is ashamed and forced to look away. To play further with this idea of mirrors; perhaps Beatrice is a kind of mirror. Maybe there is an aspect of self-recognition and the same aspirational process as in Canto 1 that must begin anew upon Virgilio’s exit. Furthermore, perhaps Lethe itself can be read as a kind of mirror through which Dante is forced to reconstruct his ego. I shall steer away from teasing out the Lacanian undertones of this imagery within the scope of this essay— it is imperative not to follow theories too rigidly— but it is certainly interesting to consider the instances of idealisation and self-recognition from this perspective.

More important to consider, perhaps, is how Dante’s spiritual maturity is brought into relief in the very closing scenes of the Commedia. Brought through Paradise by the stern, imperious Beatrice, who eventually leaves him to take her place in the Mystic Rose, Dante is at last able to get an inkling of God. It has taken this long and his realisation, this summative anagnorisis is all-encompassing. He recognises the divine

Nel suo profondo vidi che s’interna,

Legato con amore in un volume

Cio’ che per l’universo si quaderna (Par. XXXIII:85-87)

It is interesting to compare this Borgesian understanding of the Divine as an encyclopaedia within the encyclopaedia which is the Commedia and with Virgilio’s ‘volume’ that Dante speaks of in Inferno I:84. Indeed, while he speaks of ‘il grande amore che m’ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume’, presumably the love of knowledge—philosophia—, this pales in comparison to ‘l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle’.

Such that, at the very last, however instigated by his initial thirst for knowledge and inspired by the example of Virgilio, Dante’s attainment of true knowledge and his ability to express his perception of it comes only by Divine grace. At the very last, after a process begun by Virgilio and consolidated by Beatrice, Dante is able to cast the scales off his eyes and complete the overarching process of anagnorisis. All this is achieved with Dante’s conscious narrative pacing and sense of the dramatic, with his mastery of suspense and surprise. By tracing Dante’s journey through his meeting with Virgilio, and then with Beatrice and then finally his apprehension of the Mystic Rose, we are able to track Dante’s edification and refinement, as it occurs through the three cantiche, a journey in which, by virtue of the poet’s sophisticated dramatic and narrative sensibility, the reader is able to empathise and grow in kind.

Works Cited

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Alighieri, Dante. Purgatorio, trans. Robin Kirkpatrick. London: Penguin Classics [Imprint],

2008.

Alighieri, Dante. Paradiso, trans. Allen Mandelbaum. Quality Paperback Book Club, 1984.\

Edizione Nazionale (Florence: Le Lettere, 1995). Edited by Franca Brambilla Ageno.

Alighieri, Dante. Dante's Il Convivio: (the Banquet), trans. Richard H. Lansing. New York:

Garland, 1990.

Aristotle. On the Art of Poetry, in Classical Literary Criticism. trans. T.S. Dorsh. Reading: Penguin

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Auerbach, Erich. “Odysseus’ Scar’. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature,

trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton: 1953, repr. 1974,

Boitani, Piero. Anagnorisis: Scenes And Themes Of Recognition And Revelation In Western

Literature. Brill Rodopi, 2021.

Rodeheffer, Jane Kelley. “‘And Lo, As Luke Sets Down for Us’: Dante’s Re-Imagining of the

Emmaus Story in Purgatorio XXIX–XXXIII.” Religions 10.5 (2019): 320. Available:

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel10050320.