Purgatory, Canto 26

The Sayers Text of Purgatory Canto 26 (Open PDF)

A Prose translation of Canto 26 (by David Bruce)

Summary

AS the three Poets are climbing the Sixth Stair, Dante asks a question about the apparent bodies of the Shades. Statius, in a long Discourse, expounds the nature of the Rational Soul, and its connexion with the material body before, and the aery body after, death. They now alt emerge upon the Seventh Cornice, where the souls of the Lustful are purged by fire.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• What is the purgative practice of the lustful? How is it different from the way the lustful are punished in Inferno? Why would Dante make such a significant shift in his depictions of lust between Inferno and Purgatorio? What might Dante be suggesting about sex and sexuality in relationship to confession and repentance?
• “I climb from here no longer to be blind” (26.58). What does this tell us about how Dante the pilgrim understands his own journey in Purgatory?
• Are there any important callbacks to Dante’s conversation with Ulysses (from Inferno 26) in this canto? What relationship might Dante see between ambition, knowledge, and lust?
• How does Dante’s conversation with Guido Guinizzelli show how Dante portrays the relationship between poetry and prayer?

Purgatory, Canto 26 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Embrace:  As with the fire, so with the exchanged embrace: the image of the sin is also the image and means of the remedy. More clearly here than on any other Cornice, we are shown what Virgil has already told us — that love is the root of virtue and vice alike: the purging fires burn off the dross, and the good that remains is the good that lay always at the heart of the sin. The swift exchange of kisses, reflected in the speed of the verse, contrasts with the exchanged kiss of Paolo and Francesca — the heedless dallying with temptation, and the relaxed abandonment to indulgence: “we read no more that day”. Between these two kisses, damnation and salvation swing balanced.

Mark Vernon's Lecture