Purgatory, Canto 27

The Sayers Text of Purgatory Canto 27 (Open PDF)

A Prose translation of Canto 27 (by David Bruce)

Summary

 SHORTLY before sunset the Poets reach the Westernmost point of the Mountain. Beyond the fire they see the Angel of Chastity standing at the entrance to the Pass of Pardon and hear him singing the Benediction of the Cornice. In order to gain the Pass they must needs go through the fire. Dante is terrified; but Virgil encourages him with the name of Beatrice, and at length he is persuaded to pass through the flames between his two guides. The sun sinks as they are beginning the ascent, so that they have to pass the night on the steps, and here for the last time Dante dreams — of Leah and Rachel. At dawn they swiftly climb the Seventh Stair, at the top of which Virgil resigns his of ice of mentor, pronouncing Dante to be now lord over himself. Before them stretch the flowery meadows which surround the Earthly Paradise.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• The lustful penitent sing “blessed are the pure in heart…” How does that beatitude conclude, and why is its emphasis on sight so important for this terrace?
• Why is there a wall of fire separating the terraces of Purgatory from the garden of Eden? Why would Dante make this callback to Genesis 3 and 4?
• What happens in Dante’s dream? Who are Leah and Rachel and what do they symbolize? What biblical story do they feature in and what do you think this says about how we should understand Dante himself?
• This canto gives us Virgil’s final words to Dante. He proclaims that Dante’s will “free, upright, and sound” (27.140). Now, if Dante does not follow his will’s pleasure, he will do wrong. How is that possible?
• What does it mean for Virgil to crown and miter Dante “lord of himself” (142)? Is this a surprising final benediction from Virgil or is it fitting?

Purgatory, Canto 27 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Wall of Fire: It is the peculiarity of the Seventh Cornice that all souls, whether or not they are detained there to purge the sin of Lust, are compelled to pass through and suffer its torment of fire before ascending the Pass. From the point of view of the story, Dante has here very skilfully and economically combined several themes in one. The fire in fact exercises a triple function: (a) it forms the Penance of the Cornice; (b) it represents the flaming sword of the Cherubim who guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden (Gen. iii. 24); (c) it provides that “Pass of Peril” which, in so many folk-tales of otherworld journeys, the hero has to leap through in order to attain the Lady, or other object of his search. Allegorically, since every sin is a sin of love, the purgation of love itself is a part of every man’s penitence.

Dante’s Dream of Leah and Rachel: Jacob served Laban seven years for the hand of Rachel his younger daughter. At the end of that time, Laban gave him Leah, saying that it was not fitting for the younger sister to be married before the elder. When Jacob had accepted Leah and promised to serve for another seven years, Laban gave him Rachel also. And Leah was dim of sight but fruitful; Rachel, beautiful but barren (Gen. xxix. 10-31).

In mystical writings, particularly those of Richard of St Victor (d. 1173), whom Dante places in the Heaven of the Sun (Para. x. 131), the two wives of Jacob are frequently interpreted as allegories respectively of the Active and the Contemplative Life; and this is the function they fulfil in Dante’s third dream.

The Active Life is the Christian life lived in the world; it is abundantly fruitful in good works, but those who pursue it cannot see very far into the things of the spirit because, like Martha (another type of the Active Life) they are “cumbered with much serving”. The Contemplative Life is that which is wholly devoted to prayer and the practice of the Presence of God; it is less prolific in good works than the Active Life, but the fruit it bears is the most precious of all (Leah bore Jacob ten sons; but the two sons eventually born of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin, the best beloved). The Active Life is in no way to be condemned; it is indeed necessary to the existence of the Contemplative Life (Leah must be wedded before Rachel), for if there were no Marthas to do the work of the world, Mary could not be nourished, nor find leisure for contemplation. Nevertheless, Mary’s is the “better part”, and the Active Life exists, in a manner, for the sake of the Contemplative. The complete Christian life is a blend of action and contemplation, the former leading to the latter, and being subdued to it as the means to the end.

N.B. The perfection of the Active and Contemplative lives must not be severally equated with the perfection of the Natural and Spiritual lives; although in The Banquet (Il Convivio) Dante sometimes uses expressions which suggest that he himself was, in his early “philosophic” days, a little confused about this. By the time he comes to writing the Comedy he is, however, quite clear that the Active and Contemplative lives are the two component parts of the Christian life, whose differing but complementary perfections are both displayed in the Paradiso. (Both Actives and Contemplatives may, of course, also be found within the framework of a natural religion, though not in their full Christian perfection.)

Mark Vernon's Lecture