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August 29, 2010
Danteblogging Purgatorio Canto V
Purgatory Canto V
Some people have a better excuse for being late-repenters -- and so they're further up the slope: the people who repented at the last moment because they died by violence. They're engaged in the 2nd example of psalm-singing, the Miserere (Psalm 51, Vulgate 50), "Have mercy on me, O God, according to they mercy; according to the multitude of thy kindnesses blot out my iniquity," but the chant changes when they see that Dante casts a shadow.
mutar lor canto in un "oh!" lungo e roco;
they changed their song to one long speechless "Oh!" (V.27)
Listen to all the Os in the Italian! They may have delayed their earlier repentence, but they rush over to the pilgrims with three similes!
. . . No shooting stars
have I seen slash the calm and starlit eve,
nor shafts of sunset split the August clouds,
As quickly as I saw those spirits run
and with the others turn their eyes our way--
like horsemen charging on without the rein. (V.37-42)
Their re-formation is well underway.
One of the three who speak is the son of someone in Hell - Bonconte da Montefeltro, son of Guido da Montefeltro (Inferno XXVII). Where Guido made an outward conversion, even becoming a Franciscan, Bonconte died on the field of battle, and fighting against Florence. Once again, Dante rises above his own loyalties.
Here's an even stronger example of speaking to the 14th Century audience than I wondered about in Canto III -- and took some nerve on Dante's part. Bonconte says that his wife and other relatives aren't bothering to pray for him (V.89). Bonconte is about Dante's age -- Esolen suggests that Dante was present at the battle when Bonconte died -- we might suppose that the widow was still alive when Dante was writing. Did he know something about her life? Had she happily remarried? Had she failed to have masses said - and was this public knowledge? It's really a pretty stiff charge!
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Posted by CrankyProfessor at August 29, 2010 9:19 PM