Purgatory, Canto 1SummaryDante and Virgil, emerging from Hell, find themselves on the shore of the Island of Purgatory at the Antipodes. They are met by Cato, the guardian of the Mountain, who instructs Virgil to wash Dante’s face in dew and to gird him with a reed in preparation for the ascent.
The Prepatory LectureQuestions for Reflection
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Purgatory, Canto 1 © Jan Hearn
The ImagesCato of Utica was for the Romans, and also for the men of the Middle Ages, the accepted type of the (natural) moral virtues. For the purposes of the story he is chosen to guard the approach to Mount Purgatory; since the ascent of the Mountain is a moral progress in which the natural virtues are purified and strengthened by Grace. Dante thus emphasizes allegorically the Catholic assertion that Grace does not oust or destroy Nature, but redeems and perfects it. The passage about Marcia (ll. 85-90) makes it, however, clear that when natural morality is taken up into the Christian life, it cannot retain its former attachments, but must spring from a new root and be wholly reorientated. When this has been said, there remain some puzzling factors about Dante’s treatment of this figure. Cato has been taken out of Limbo, detached from his former associations and affections, and set, until the end of time, on what may be called “Christian territory”. Yet there is no suggestion that he will ever himself climb the Mountain which he guards; nor, although we are assured that Cato’s resurrection body will be a glorious one, is it ever specifically stated that he will eventually enter Heaven like the redeemed pagans Trajan and Rhipeus (Para. xx. 103 sqq.). It may be, as J. S. Carroll suggests, that in the Last Day he will return to become the brightest and most authoritative inhabitant of the Elysian Fields in Limbo, “giving laws there to the good in the hidden place”, as Virgil wrote of him (Aen. viii. 670). Certainly, Cato does not bear about with him the atmosphere of Grace: when we compare him with the souls actually redeemed in Purgatory, and still more with the angel-guardians of the Cornices, we see that he lacks the intensity, the exuberance, and the courtesy which are the marks of those in Grace; he is, in a word, ungracious. He is a moral imperative, founded in duty rather than in love: a preparation for penitence, but not penitence itself; as such a very recognisable figure, and acceptable enough if we concentrate on his allegorical function rather than on his personal destiny as a character in the story.
The Four Stars. These typify the Cardinal Virtues (Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude) belonging to natural morality, and so common to good pagan and Christian alike. These virtues are called “cardinal” (from cardo, a hinge) because all natural morality hangs and turns upon them. The Dew. Before ascending the Mountain, Dante’s face must be cleansed from the tears he shed in Hell. The penitent’s first duty is cheerfulness: having recognized his sin he must put it out of his mind and not wallow in self-pity and self-reproach, which are forms of egotism. The Reed. The reader will remember that Dante’s original rope-girdle was thrown over the Great Barrier between Upper and Nether Hell, to call up the monster Fraud. (See Inf. xvi. Images.) He is now given a new one, made of the pliant reed which symbolises Humility, as a safeguard against Pride, which is the head and source of all the Capital Sins Mark Vernon's Lecture |
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