Authors: Dante
130–132.
The reference is to Frederick II, son of Pedro of Aragon (see
Purg.
VII.119), and first regent (1291) and then king of Sicily (1296–1337). Sicily is referred to as “the isle of fire” because of the volcanic activity of Mt. Etna. For the death of Anchises on its western shore, see Virgil (
Aen
. III.707–710). This Frederick II is not to be confused with the emperor Frederick II (see
Inf.
X.119 and note), who died in 1250.
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133–138.
See Russo (Russ.1983.1), p. 105, for discussion of the rhymes based in the sound of -zz as typical of the low style, citing
De vulgari eloquentia
II.vii.5–6 on “hirsute” words that are not fitting for the tragic style.
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133–135.
Frederick is the only one of the pestilential dozen to receive more than a single tercet for his dispraises. With a wry sense of humor, Dante claims that Frederick is unworthy of attention, yet he gives Frederick’s unworthiness more space than any of his competitors in malfeasance.
Tozer paraphrases the tercet as follows and then comments: “ ‘In order to let men know how paltry he is, that which is written against him will take the form of abbreviations, which will enumerate many vices within a small space.’ Abbreviations were commonly used in MSS. to save space; so they would be used in God’s record of Frederic, because he was too insignificant for a large space to be allotted to him.”
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137–138.
The uncle,
barba
, of Frederick II of Sicily was James, king of Majorca (and of Minorca). He lost his crown for ten years as a result of joining Philip the Bold of France in a disastrous invasion of Catalonia. His brother, James of Aragon (see
Purg.
VII.119), in 1291 succeeded to the throne of Aragon, surrendering his kingship of Sicily, which his father had acquired, and appointed his younger brother, Frederick, to it in 1296. By these acts the James boys dishonored both family and their kingship.
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137.
Seven times in the first two canticles the word
barba
meant, what it still means, “beard.” Here it means “uncle,” as Francesco da Buti (comm. to vv. 136–148) informs us it does in Lombard.
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139–141.
The concluding royal triad share a single tercet: Dionysius, king of Portugal; Haakon V, king of Norway; and Stephen Ouros, king of Rascia, the modern Illyria and Dalmatia. Tozer (comm. to this tercet): “[Stephen] struck coins of debased metal in imitation of the Venetian ducat; the resemblance of the two is seen in the figures given by Philalethes, p. 259.”
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142–148.
The acrostic comes to a close, but Dante is not yet finished cataloguing the ills of Europe’s suffering kingdoms. This ungainly departure from the acrostic mode suggested to Bosco/Reggio that the acrostic itself may have occurred without design (see the note to vv. 115–139). The reader notes that these three examples offer mixed messages: the first of a good monarch leading to continued good governance, the second of a good monarch whose work will be undone at her death, and the third of a disastrous monarch.
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142–144.
Tozer (comm. to this tercet): “Hungary had been governed by corrupt princes until the time of Andrea III (1290–1301), who was a good sovereign. ‘Happy Navarre, if she should defend herself with the mountain that girds her,’ the Pyrenees. Joan of Navarre had married Philip the Fair in 1284, but governed her kingdom independently. On her death in
1305 it passed to her son Louis Hutin, and when he succeeded to the throne of France as Louis X in 1314, it was annexed to the French crown.”
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145–147.
Tozer (comm. to this tercet): “Cyprus, of which Nicosia and Famagosta were the chief cities, was badly governed in 1300 by Henry II of Lusignan, who was a man of corrupt life.”
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148.
As a coda to the whole parade of princes, we are told that Henry (as opposed to Andrea III and Joanna of Navarre?), a bad ruler, keeps the (metaphoric) company of the dirty dozen referred to in the acrostic.
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1–12.
Any aesthetic performance is likely, at moments, to leave its observer wondering as to the motives of the performer. For example, here one might inquire why Dante did not decide to make this already highly wrought passage a perfectly turned simile. It has all the requisite elements, lacking only the initial
Come
(Just as) and the pivotal
così
(so) at the beginning of the seventh verse. With regard to the classical simile, it almost seems as though he had decided to ring the changes on an established form as frequently as he could. See the notes to
Purgatorio
XXVII.76–87;
Paradiso
XIV.19–24 and XIV.118–123.
The Eagle has stopped speaking as a corporate entity. That allows the individual voices of this particular collective of the saved to speak as themselves. Had their actual words been recorded here, it probably would have been clear, as it is when they speak as themselves at the end of the canto, that their descriptor for themselves is “we” (verse 134) and not “I” (verse 31). In simile, they are like the shining of the stars after the sun has left the sky (in Dante’s further comparison, once the Eagle’s beak has gone silent).
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6.
According to Dante’s astronomy, stars did not glow with their own energy, but derived their light from the Sun (see
Conv
. III.xii.7): “… il sole. Lo quale di sensibile luce sé prima e poi tutte le corpora celestiali e [le] elementali allumina” (the Sun, which illuminates with perceptible light first itself and then all the celestial and elemental bodies [tr. R. Lansing]). And see the discussion in the introduction to
Paradiso
, section 2.
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8.
The “emblem of the world” is the Eagle, symbol of universal empire, the ideal that Dante embraced so warmly in his
Monarchia
.
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13–15.
The poet apostrophizes the love emanating from these spirits, wreathed in “smiles”: How ardent did this love appear in those “pipes” (or in those “flames” [there is much debate in the commentaries over this choice]) that were so full of holy thoughts! As Bosco/Reggio (comm. to verse 14) point out, the word
flaillo
is an absolute hapax, meaning that this is its unique appearance, not only in the
Commedia
, not only in all the works of Dante, but in the history of the Italian language. In their opinion, there is no way to decide between the two possible meanings, “flute” (see French
flavel
) or “flame” (from O Fr.
flael
), since both find resonance in the surrounding context. However, Benvenuto states unambiguously
that the reference is to sound. And his opinion is given further weight by the musical reference of the simile in vv. 22–27.
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16–18.
The silence of the souls, having left off their singing (which Dante could not hold in mind [verse 12]), begun when the Eagle had ceased its speech, gives way to what seems to be the rumbling sound of a river, giving evidence of the profusion of its lofty source (it will be the voice of the Eagle, rumbling like an organ pipe filling with new air). This tercet marks the beginning of the first of the two central elements of the canto, a presentation of the souls that make up the eye of the Eagle (vv. 16–78); the second, the Eagle’s explanation of the presence in Paradise of those who certainly appear to be pagans, runs through vv. 79–129.
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18.
The phrase
li angelici squilli
is probably not to be understood as the “song of the angels” (Bosco/Reggio [comm. to this verse]), but as the “angelic songs” of the blessed.
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19–21.
If Tommaseo (comm. to this tercet) is correct, these lines reflect both a passage in the
Georgics
(I.108–110) and one in the
Aeneid
(XI.296–299). The passage in Virgil’s epic describes the rumor of the many voices of the native Italians being quieted by King Latinus’s voiced decision to make peace with the invading future Romans. Chiarenza (Chia.1995.3), p. 302, makes the point that this decision is thus in accord “with the unchangeable will of Providence.”
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22–29.
This double simile, reflecting the fingering of two kinds of musical instruments in order to produce varying sounds (along the neck of a lute or at the vents of a bagpipe), describes the sound produced from within the Eagle’s neck, eventually issuing from his beak as a series of notes (or words).
Landino (comm. to vv. 25–29) expresses his admiration for Dante’s ability, plainly visible here, to “make the impossible seem believable” and compares him to Ovid in this respect.
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30.
The Eagle uttered words that Dante, once more reverting to the image of his scribal role, wrote down upon his heart. See the notes to
Purgatorio
XXIV.55–63;
Paradiso
V.85, X.27, and X.109–114.
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31–33.
The Eagle’s invitation to Dante to gaze upon its eye revisits a bit of lore already placed in evidence. We learned that mortal eagles are able to
look into the sun without harm from
Paradiso
I.46–48; see the accompanying note, referring to possible sources in Aristotle and in Brunetto Latini.
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31.
Returning to speech from song, the Eagle now again speaks as a single voice. We will hear it switch back again to the first-person plural in its final words (see verse 134).
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34–36.
The Eagle now reports that the souls that form its eye (we only see one of the two, if it in fact happens to possess more in the way of orbs of sight than its profiled appearance as the emblem of empire requires—a dubious eventuality) are the greatest among the many that give its form an aquiline shape.
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37–72.
The Eagle’s thirty-six verses in six segments, each of six lines, and each involving use of anaphora (the phrase
ora conosce
), identify the six “chiefs” of justice: David, Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William the Good, and Ripheus (their fame is at first insisted on when the first four of them are named only by circumlocution; the last two understandably require more assistance). It seems possible that the poet wanted us to reflect that the thirty-six lines in praise of these half dozen dead rulers mirror, if adversely, the twenty-seven verses, also marked by anaphora, describing the dozen defective living rulers in the preceding canto,
Paradiso
XIX.115–141.
The number of these just rulers (six) may also be meant to put us in mind of the six “world-historical” emperors presented in
Paradiso
VI: Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Titus, Justinian, and Charlemagne. Those seemed to have been significant primarily for the events over which they presided; these, for their personal justness. That distinction may or may not explain their appearing here (only temporarily, we at times may struggle to remember) in a higher heaven. Dante never gives us the grounds on which to establish the relative advancement of the blessed in the Empyrean, except for the eighteen souls whom we are allowed to see in
Paradiso
XXXII; and none of these saved rulers is seen among them.
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37–39.
The first of these most just among just rulers is David, in the
Commedia
most honored as the singer of the Holy Spirit (as are also all his companions in the Eagle: see
Par.
XIX.101). (David is prominently mentioned in
Purg.
X.65 [and see the appended note];
Par.
XXV.71–72 and XXXII.11–12). He is, in fact, the figure from the Old Testament most present in Dante’s work, referred to perhaps fifty times in all.
For his service to the Lord in transporting the Ark of the Covenant, see
Purgatorio
X.55–69.
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40–42.
Some think the words
suo consiglio
(his own thought) refer to the “thought” of the Holy Spirit; most, to that of David (as is reflected in our translation).
The question of the “merit” of David’s song disturbs some readers. See, for instance, Tozer (comm. to vv. 40–42), pointing out that David could benefit only insofar as his song proceeded from his own free will (and thus was not the effect of inspiration, in which case it would not, as the text suggests, in itself make him worthy of salvation). However, is David’s worthiness not similar to the unexpressed claim for his own “merit” that Dante might have considered most convincing? He presents himself as the “new David” from the outset (see
Inf.
I.65), that is, as a man directly inspired by God to lift his eyes from worldly distraction. In Dante’s mind, there does not seem to be any limitation on the freedom of his will imposed thereby.
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