Authors: Dante
94.
The redness of Mars is insisted on once again, this time increasing in its glow in response to Dante’s offering of his gratitude.
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96.
For the meaning of
Elïòs
, Torraca (comm. to vv. 94–96) may have been the first to cite Toynbee (Toyn.1902.1), p. 112, for Dante’s dependence on Uguccione da Pisa: “Ab
ely
, quod est deus, dictus est sol
elyos
, quod pro deo olim reputabatur” (From
ely
, which means “God,” the sun, which once was considered God, is called
elyos
). The protagonist may here be presented as speaking in tongues, or at least a mixture of two biblical languages. His first word in particular, the name of God, reflects Hebrew (
Eli
[see
Purg.
XXIII.74]) and Greek (
Helios
).
The verb
addobbare
(a hapax in the poem, probably meaning “to adorn”) is generally understood to refer to the wearing of ornamental clothing, since it usually refers to a person as being adorned, with the range of the verb’s meaning here being extended to light. However, a persistent temptation in the commentaries is to see the verb as reflecting the French verb
adober
(English “dub”), as in striking a knight on the shoulder with a sword as part of the ceremony that reflects his worthiness. See Giacalone (comm. to verse 96).
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97–102.
The first simile in the heaven of Mars compares the small, nearly invisible stars that make up the Milky Way (
la Galassia
) to the souls who make up the cross of Mars (for Dante’s learned discussion of the conflicting theories accounting for the existence of this celestial phenomenon, see
Convivio
II.xiv.5–8). Again, those who want to argue for a correspondence between
Convivio
’s alignment of the human arts and sciences with the heavens of
Paradiso
face a large (insurmountable?) problem. In
Convivio
(II.xiv.5), Dante associates
la Galassia
with metaphysics. Here it is associated neither with the Sun (which may have created it) nor with the Fixed Stars (where Dante locates it in
Convivio
) but with Mars, associated with music in
Convivio
(see the end of the note to vv. 88–96).
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101.
Mars seems previously to have had both negative and positive associations for Dante (see
Conv
. II.xiii.20–24), if not the same positive ones
that we find in the
Commedia
; in the earlier work Mars is associated with musical harmony as well as the destructiveness of war. In the
Commedia
, as the pagan god of war (e.g.,
Inf.
XXIV.145;
Inf.
XXXI.51;
Purg.
XII.31), he is hardly praised. In his second aspect, he is sanitized (as he intrinsically is here) as the representative of the Christian warrior. C. S. Lewis (Lewi. 1964.1), p. 106, pegs Dante’s positive sense of the pagan god to the term
martire
(martyr), as derivative of “Mars.”
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103–108.
These tercets contain the second set (of four) triple identical rhymes on
Cristo
found in the poem (for the first, see
Par.
XII.71–75; also see the note to that passage).
Beginning with the notice of the fact that the
Cristo
-rhymes in Cantos XIV and XIX of the
Paradiso
appear in exactly the same lines (104, 106, and 108), Thomas Hart performs a series of calculations to demonstrate that Dante had employed ratios used to calculate the circumference of a circle to predetermine the precise locations in the poem of all four of these rhymes; these ratios in turn suggest the quadrants of a circumscribed Greek cross (formed by two diameters at right angles to one another). For more on the question of Dante’s numerical composition, see Hart’s various studies, as referred to in what may serve as a sort of compendium of them (Hart.1995.1).
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103.
The ineffability of what the narrator has seen will become increasingly a theme of the poem as it nears its (ineffable) vision of God. His poetic ability (and here
ingegno
clearly refers to Dante’s art, not God’s [see the note to
Inf.
II.7–9]) is simply not able to represent adequately the amazing things that he is indeed capable of holding in mind. By the end of the poem he will not be able to do that, either.
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106.
Dante’s phrasing follows closely the words of Christ in Matthew 16:24: “Let him who wishes to follow me deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (see Jacopo della Lana [comm. to vv. 106–108] and many others).
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108.
See Bosco/Reggio (comm. to this verse) for a summary of the debate over this line. We have followed them in thinking the gerund
vedendo
describes Dante, and not the Christian soldier he is addressing indirectly. One of the main justifications for their argument is the fact that no soul on its way to God should come by this route (we are allowed to assume that all go directly to the Empyrean). Further, and perhaps more tellingly, this cross of Christian soldiers will no longer be here, since all who appear
in all the spheres are there only temporarily, for the sake of Dante’s education. On the other hand, the passage does read more readily the “wrong” way. And it was only fairly recently that anyone objected to that understanding (e.g., Torraca [comm. to vv. 106–108]), if that objection is both well founded and fairly common, especially after Porena’s final note to this canto (found in the DDP at his comm. to vv. 106–108), entitled “una distrazione di Dante.” Is this another instance of the unfinished quality of Dante’s last
cantica
? See the notes to
Paradiso
III.29–30 and IX.119–123.
For the verb
balenare
(to flash [said of lightning]), Carroll (comm. to vv. 103–108) points to Matthew 24:27: “As the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west, so shall also be the coming of the Son of Man.” Carroll goes on to say that this is the first of three visions of Christ in
Paradiso
, the second occurring in Canto XXIII.28–39, amidst the Church Triumphant. The final vision occurs, of course, in the concluding tercets of the poem.
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109–117.
The first of two consecutive similes, this one has armies of admirers for its small detail drawn from ordinary daily life, an experience that all have known but never expected to find in an “important” poem, the motes suspended in air irradiated in the streaks of sunlight making their way through shutters. We can almost observe Dante observing them (see the note to
Inf.
XXXII.70–72) and wondering how to use them in his poem. The range of this poet, his ability to move back and forth between the lofty and the simple, is perhaps unparalleled. One is content to be counted among his admirers.
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109.
Singleton (comm. to this verse) reminds us that in Italian (and, one might add, in Latin) the word
corno
can refer to the flank of an army. The observation is well taken, given, as Singleton says, the “military context” of the setting here (of which there will be more in the notes to the next canto).
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110–111.
The rapid movements of the souls along the two bands of the cross have certain logistical implications, as we learn from these verses, that is, there seems to be more than one file of saints along each band, since these souls catch up to and pass one another. We remember that in the preceding heaven, also, the souls, in their circles, were both dancing and singing as, we are about to learn, those in this new group are also.
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114.
Whether these
minuzie
(tiny motes) are, as we think, motes of dust or, as some of the early commentators believe, “atoms” is not a matter easily resolved.
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117.
This is the fourth (and final) appearance of the conjoined pair,
ingegno
and
arte
. See the note to
Inferno
II.7–9.
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118–126.
See the note to
Purg.
XXXII.61–62. This melody, like the “hymn” in that earlier passage, leaves Dante (at first) unable to make out its words. Here, however, he almost immediately does make out two of them, “Resurgi” and “Vinci” (Arise and Conquer). Landino (comm. to vv. 124–126) points out that these two “Scriptural” words are sung to Christ: “Arise and conquer,” that is, “Arise from death and conquer the devil.” Grandgent (comm. to verse 125) finds a source in the missal for Thursday of Easter Week (a most appropriate day, since it coincides with the beginning of the poem), the sequence “Resumpta carne
resurgit victor
die in tertia” (He rose again, having taken on once more His flesh, victorious on the third day).
For the program of song in the last
cantica
, see the note to
Paradiso
XXI.58–60.
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118–123.
The second simile in this set (eighth and last in the canto) captures the sonorous condition of the souls in Mars accompanying their rapid movement along the arms of the cross. This is a canto that is more characterized by simile than perhaps any other. (See Picone [Pico.2002.4], p. 205, who counts nine [including one that may not be considered formally a simile, if it does involve comparison, at vv. 34–36], differing from Blasucci [Blas.1991.1], enumerating ten, because he includes the simple comparison [see the note to
Inf.
I.22–27] at verse 126.) For bibliography on the Dantean simile, see Sowell (Sowe.1983.1) and, for more recent Italian work, see Picone, op. cit., p. 205n., including reference to Pagliaro, “similitudine,”
ED
V (1976), esp. pp. 254a–257b, and Baldelli, “lingua e stile,”
ED
VI (1978), esp. pp. 94a–97b.
Dante habitually uses similes in profusion at moments of heightened emotional or conceptual challenge, typically when the protagonist experiences stress (e.g., when he meets Beatrice and is castigated by her in
Purg.
XXX), or when the poet requires expanded intellectual powers (e.g., arriving in the Empyrean from the lower heavens in
Par.
XXX).
In
Paradiso
X.143 we have seen an earlier occurrence of the phrase
dolce tintinno
in the poem. There it refers to the sound issuing from a distant clock tower, here of two differing stringed instruments playing in harmony. The pleasure that a listener may take from music without recognizing the tune was like the pleasure Dante took from hearing the song these souls were singing without being able to make out most of its words.
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127–129.
The tercet concludes with a playful but meaningful identical rhyme:
vinci
(verb form derived from the Latin noun
vinculum
[shackles, bond]). Christ conquered death, we conquer by being bound to Him. This is the highest recognition that Dante has yet achieved, based on the experience of his selfless love of God.
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130–139.
Dante realizes that his reader may object to his apparent slight of Beatrice. These final ten verses of this extraordinary canto function as a commentary on the previous tercet (vv. 127–129), detailing Dante’s increased love of God. Here is Tozer’s explanation (comm. to vv. 133–139) of this convoluted, witty passage: “Dante here justifies himself for having said that the melody which he had just heard delighted him more than anything he had hitherto met with in Paradise, by doing which he had assigned the second place to the joy of seeing Beatrice’s eyes. In order to justify himself (
Per escusarmi
), he accuses himself of not having looked at Beatrice’s eyes since his arrival in the Heaven of Mars (l. 135); and his excuse for this (
Escusar puommi
) is that he was attracted by the delights of that Heaven, which surpassed those of the previous Heavens, according to the system of Paradise, in which the beauty and joy increase in ascending from sphere to sphere (ll. 133, 134). Consequently, what he had said about the delight of the melody of this Heaven surpassing all previous delights was true, inasmuch as it is reconcilable with the superior attractions of Beatrice’s eyes, for their beauty had increased since the Heaven of Mars had been reached, but Dante was not aware of this because he had not seen them (ll. 138, 139).” Tozer and most other commentators take the verb
dischiudere
, which usually (in the
Commedia
as well as in Italian generally) means something like its English cognate, “to disclose,” to signify, as they argue it also does once earlier (
Par.
VII.102), “to exclude.” (But for disagreement with this generally accepted variant meaning in both cases, see Cardellino [Card.2006.1]). Our understanding of most of the literal sense of these verses coincides with that of Benvenuto da Imola (comm. to vv. 133–139). That the word “here” (
qui
) refers to the poem is nearly guaranteed by its distinction from the “there” (
lì
) of line 135. (See the similar situation addressed in the note to
Inf.
XXIX.54–57.)
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