Authors: Dante
13–15.
While James is never named, he is clearly identified (the same will be true of John at the end of this canto and in XXVI).
The
spera
(circle) referred to is surely that most precious one among those making up the Church Triumphant (see
Par.
XXIV.13–18 and note), the one containing at least some of the apostles. For
primizie
(first-fruits),
see James 1:18: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.” James is speaking of all the apostles; here Dante uses his word in the singular to refer to Peter alone.
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18.
“St. James, to whose tomb at Compostella, in Galicia [Spain], pilgrimages were and are still made. The legend says that the body of St. James was put on board a ship and abandoned to the sea; but the ship, being guided by an angel, landed safely in Galicia. There the body was buried; but in the course of time the place of its burial was forgotten, and not discovered again till the year 800, when it was miraculously revealed to a friar” (Longfellow, comm. to verse 17). Compostella, after Rome, was the most popular goal of pilgrims inside Europe’s borders. See Dante’s divisions of pilgrims into three groups in
Vita nuova
XL.7: “palmers” (to the Holy Land), “pilgrims” (to Galicia), “romers” (to Rome).
What was Dante’s knowledge of the distinctions between the two saints named James? Historians distinguish between James the Major (son of Zebedee) and James the Minor (son of Alpheus). For the undeveloped claim (and death has deprived us of such development) that Dante here deliberately conflates the two James, see Karl Uitti (Uitt.2005.1), p. 650n.
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19–24.
See Shoaf (Shoa.1975.1), who argues for the presence of a “dove program” in the poem, moving from the damned sinners Francesca and Paolo in
Inferno
V.82, through the muddled saved souls on the shore, unable to distinguish between wheat and tares in
Purgatorio
II.125, to these brotherly apostles, redeeming earthly affection by turning it toward heavenly nourishment (see
Par.
XXIV.1–2, “the elect invited to / the glorious supper of the blessèd Lamb”), thus tacitly rebuking the careless eating habits of the freshly saved souls on the shore of Purgatory. There are only these three presences of doves in the poem, each in a carefully turned simile, one to a canticle; it is difficult to believe Dante was
not
paying close attention to their distribution and significance.
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26.
The reader has once before encountered the first word of the Latin phrase
coram me
(in front of me): See
Paradiso
XI.63:
coram patre
, when, “in the presence of his father,” Francis “married” Lady Poverty.
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28–33.
Tozer (comm. to vv. 29–30) says that the passages in St. James’s Epistle that are referred to are 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask
God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him”; 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights”; other commentators add 2:5, “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?” Tozer continues, “It is to be remarked that Dante has here and in vv. 76–77, by a strange error, attributed this epistle, which was written by St. James the Less, to St. James the Greater; the same mistake is found in Brunetto Latini (
Tesoro
, Bk. II, Ch. 8).” For the favor of Jesus, Grandgent (comm. to vv. 32–33) offers the following: “Three of the disciples (Peter, James, John) were chosen by Jesus to be present, and to receive the clearest revelation of his character, on three different occasions: at the Transfiguration (Matth. 17:1–8), in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matth. 26:36–38), and at the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Luke 8:50–56). On these three occasions Peter, James, and John stand respectively for Faith, Hope, and Love.”
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30.
The Greek word “basilica” is defined by Jacopo della Lana (comm. to vv. 29–30) as
Domus regia
(royal palace). Benvenuto (comm. to vv. 28–30) says that Beatrice is referring to the Church Triumphant (in the Empyrean, if it is now present here).
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32.
For James as the “figure” of Hope in the technical sense (i.e., he is said to “figure” it), see Hollander (Holl.1969.1), pp. 64–66. For his more general association with hope, see Tartaro (Tart.1989.1), p. 680, referring to the earlier arguments of Conrieri (Conr.1971.1) and Battaglia Ricci (Batt.1972.1).
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38–39.
The plain meaning of this circumlocution is that, at the invitation of James, Dante looked up at both apostles, since he had at first lowered his gaze in respect. See Psalm 120:1: “Levavi oculos meos in montes, unde veniet auxilium mihi” (I have lifted up my eyes to the hills, whence shall come my help).
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40–45.
One might paraphrase the apostle’s words as follows: “Since the Emperor, in his grace, wants you to see his counts in his most secret hall while you still live so that, experiencing the truth of this court, you may make yourself stronger in Hope—and others, too.” For the language of worldly titles, used of the members of the “court” of Heaven, see the note to
Paradiso
XXIV.115.
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46–48.
James asks the protagonist three questions: (1) “What is Hope?” (2) “How does your mind blossom with it?” (3) “From where did it make its way to you?”
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49–51.
In the poet’s barely suppressed reference to Daedalus, Beatrice is portrayed as having done well in guiding Dante’s pens/wings to such lofty flight. She now intervenes for him, answering James’s second question—perhaps because it would have been awkward for Dante to have responded, since his answer might have seemed self-praising.
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52–57.
Mazzotta (Mazz.1988.2), p. 98, sees this passage as confirming the pattern of Exodus as a model for the poem, as has already been made explicit in
Purgatorio
II.46. It also contains two (of only three) uses of the verb
militare
in the poem. We are dealing here with an armed exodus, a Christian militancy. Beatrice presents Dante’s claims to the theological virtue of Hope. Inscribed in Christ, he has been chosen to come from “Egypt” to “Jerusalem” and to this vision before he finishes his militancy (Daniello [comm. to vv. 55–57] was apparently the first commentator to cite Job 7:1 in this connection: “Militia est vita hominis super terram” [Man’s life on this earth is a warfare]; it has since become fairly commonplace to do so).
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58–63.
Beatrice continues: As for the first and third questions, which you put to him not to know the answer but so that he may please you in his responses (cf.
Par.
XXIV, 40–45), and which will not be difficult for him, let him reply.
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67–69.
See Singleton (comm. on this tercet): “The definition of hope given by Dante here is that of Peter Lombard in
Sentences
III.xxvi.1: ‘Est enim spes certa expectatio futurae beatitudinis, veniens ex Dei gratia et meritis praecedentibus’ (Now hope is a certain expectation of future beatitude proceeding from God’s grace and antecedent merits). He adds: ‘Sine meritis aliquid sperare non spes sed praesumptio dici potest’ (Without merits, to hope for something is not hope but presumption).”
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70–78.
See Psalm 9:11 (9:10 in our Bible): “And those who know your name shall put their trust in you [
sperent in te
]).” The protagonist credits David with being the first who had instilled hope in his heart, and then James (James 1:12) instilled it there, too, so that Dante is filled with it and “rerains” both of these “rains” on others.
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73–78.
William Stephany (Step.1995.1), pp. 377–78, invites a closer examination of these two tercets, which reveal, first, hidden in the words describing David’s
tëodia
, Augustine’s association of the name of God and hope; second, in the very words of the Epistle of James (see the note to
Inf.
XXVI.32 for the presence of James 3:4–6 behind that tercet), the imperative to be a maker of words producing a love for God, an imperative fulfilled by Dante’s
tëodia
as well.
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73.
See David (Davi.1993.1), pp. 441–44, on
tëodia
as a “chant provenant de Dieu” (song deriving from God) and as being,
sub rosa
, a generic denominator of the poem. But see Barolini’s earlier (and fuller) exposition of this theme (Baro.1984.1), pp. 276–77.
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79–81.
James responds to Dante’s formulation with an accepting lightning flash.
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82–87.
See Tozer (comm. to vv. 83–84) for a paraphrase and explanation: “St. James is still kindled with love for the virtue of Hope, though the Blessed can no longer feel hope themselves, because they have fruition;
la palma
: the palm of martyrdom,
l’uscir del campo
: his quitting the field of battle was his death. St. James was put to death by Herod Agrippa the Elder, Acts 12:1–2.”
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89–96.
Tozer (comm. to vv. 91–93): “Isaiah 61:7: ‘Therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them.’ Dante interprets ‘the double’ as meaning the blessedness of soul and body; cf.
doppia vesta
here with
due stole
in 1. 127.” And see John (in Apocalypse 3:5; 7:9–17), speaking more directly of the general resurrection.
Stephany (Step.1995.1), p. 381, suggests that, although not cited directly in this canto, Isaiah 61 offers an indirect gloss on it. In Luke 4, Jesus reads from this chapter of Isaiah in the temple; when he sees that his words are offensive he insists that “no prophet is honored in his native land” (Luke 4:24), words that certainly must have seemed to the exiled poet to fit his own condition as well.
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89.
Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1988.2), p. 266n., writes that
segno
here means, not
termine a cui si tende
or
meta
(“goal”), as is supposedly the “general understanding among exegetes” of this verse, but “sign,” citing Torraca (comm. to vv. 88–90) as her precursor. However, consultation of the full and sensible review of the problem by Scartazzini (comm. to vv.
88–90) would have revealed an earlier, better, and more convincing understanding of the line, taken in precisely this sense.
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91–93.
For a meditation upon resurrection, so clearly referred to here, as being the central concern of the entire poem, see Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1988.2).
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93.
For the two previous appearances of the phrase
dolce vita
, see the note to
Paradiso
IV.35.
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94–96.
For the “shining robes,” see Apocalypse 3:5 and 7:9–17. And for the concept of the glorified body, see Gragnolati (Grag.2005.1), p. 198; also pp. 165–66, discussing St. James.
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97–99.
Among the commentators, only Carroll (comm. to these verses) looks up from this Latin “translation” of the vernacular version of a line from Psalm 9, which we have heard in verse 73, to think of Psalm 30, also involving hope in the Lord. This is what he has to say: “It is probably meant to be the reversal of the incident in the Earthly Paradise.… There, when the Angels, pitying Dante’s distress, sang ‘
In te, Domine, speravi
,’ they were promptly silenced by Beatrice—he had then no title to hope. Now everything is changed. Beatrice herself proclaims him a child of hope.”
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