Paradiso, Canto 30SummaryThe angelic circles fade one by one from sight, and Dante, turning once more to look on Beatrice, finds her beauty so transfigured as to defeat all his power to describe it. She tells him they have entered the Empyrean and that he will behold the angels and, in the guise of the flesh, the souls of the blessed. A flash of light enwraps him, first blinding him, and then leaving his sight so strengthened that nothing now can vanquish it. He sees first a river of light, in which he bathes his eyes, and straightway beholds the saints in heaven seated on thrones rising in tiers which form the petals of a snow-white rose. Beatrice points to the vacant throne awaiting the Emperor Henry VII and foretells the fate of the soul of Clement V.
The Prepatory LectureQuestions for Reflection
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Paradiso, Canto 30 © Jan Hearn
The ImagesThe Primum Mobile: See Canto xxvii, under Images.
The transcendant and inexpressible beauty of Beatrice: When the light of God and of the angels has vanished from his view, Dante turns to look once more at Beatrice. He finds her so transfigured that all he has ever said till now in praise of her would be inadequate to express her beauty at this moment. In this solemn and deeply moving image, Dante conveys, in the allegory, that only God can fully know and fully comprehend the beauty and truth of the most sublime doctrines of theology. In the story, Beatrice is about to return to her throne in the Empyrean and no mortal can express the glory of a blessed spirit, for it is derived from the vision of God. The Empyrean: Beyond the nine spheres which circle the earth, contained within no space, and beyond time, is the Empyrean, the abode of God, the angels, and the saints. To this place, or state of being, Dante has now come. But first his eyes are dazzled by the light which swathes him. Once again he is blinded and this second temporary death of the eyesight, giving birth to the final vision of Paradise, is taken by some commentators to be an allegory of death itself. No living being can see God; therefore, if the vision is to be made credible, something analagous to the separating of the soul from the body must take place. It seems more probable that the kindling of his new sight is a further symbol of the Thomist doctrine that the state of blessedness is reached by means of vision, whence comes the love of the soul for God, and, from such love, joy that transcends all delight. The River of Light: By a succession of images, Dante seeks to convey the gradualness of his approach to the ultimate vision. His first sight of the Empyrean is symbolical, a foreshadowing of the truth which he will behold. The river, flowing from an infinite height, symbolizes divine grace poured forth upon creation. The flowers on the banks are the souls of the redeemed, the living sparks represent the angels who minister grace to the souls. Dante has first to drink, with his eyes, of the river of grace. As he does so, its contours change and he sees it as a circular sea of light. This is said by most commentators to symbolize the light of glory which proceeds from the Divine Essence. In the story, Dante learns that it is reflected from the convex surface of the Primum Mobile, to which it gives that life and potency which is distributed by the angels to the stellar heaven and the planetary spheres and so, ultimately, to the earth and to mankind. The White Rose: The circle of light, which is the light of God’s glory, forms the yellow of the vast white rose which Dante next beholds. Its petals rising in more than a thousand tiers are the thrones of the blessed, whom Dante can perceive despite the distance, for he is now beyond the limitations of time and space. The rose in mediaeval literature was the symbol of earthly love; Dante’s white rose is the symbol of divine love. Tom LA Books |
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