Purgatory, Canto 32

The Sayers Text of Purgatory Canto 32 (Open PDF)

A Prose translation of Canto 32 (by David Bruce)

Summary

THE Beatrician Pageant turns northward and comes, with Dante and Statius following, to the Tree of Knowledge. The Gryphon binds the Chariot-pole to the Tree, whose bare branches break into blossom. The sweetness of the heavenly anthem lulls Dante to sleep. When he awakes, he finds Beatrice alone except for the Seven Nymphs, sitting beneath the Tree; and is shown the Pageant of the Church.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• What makes Dante go temporarily blind? How is his blindness thematically significant for this moment in his journey?
• What does Dante witness about the relationship between Adam and Christ in lines 31-51?
• Why does Dante narrate an apocalyptic vision of church history in the back half of this canto? What happens to the Church in this vision? Is there any hope for the Church?
• Why do you think Dante describes the Church as a “little bark” (“navicella”) (32.129)? Is he indicating the vulnerability or weakness of the Church?

Purgatory, Canto 31-33 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Interlude and the Second Masque: The Pageant which follows the dramatic human scene between Dante and Beatrice is divided, as it were, into two acts. The first, which I have called for want of a better name, “The Interlude”, is theologically the more important of the two, and provides the clue to the interpretation of the whole series.

The Interlude: The Chariot and the Tree: According to tradition, the Cross of Christ was made from the wood of the Forbidden Tree. This legend supplies the richly allusive allegory of ll. 37-60.

As soon as we see the Tree, we recognize it, from its peculiar shape (l. 40) as the “stock” from which the “scions” on Cornice vi were taken: i.e. as the Tree of Knowledge (xxiv. 114-16). The key to the whole passage is thus seen to be l. 51: “And what came from it he left bound to it”, which gives us to understand that the pole of the Church’s chariot is the Cross itself. The murmur of the heavenly company (l. 37) has further identified the Tree, in its bare and ruined state, as an image of Adam in his fallen nature. We shall thus have no difficulty in identifying the Chariot-pole (Cross, or “Tree of Glory”) as an image of Christ, the Second Adam, in His unfallen Humanity — each Adam being figured, that is, by his particular Tree.

These identifications made, the interpretation is quite straightforward. When, by means of the Incarnation (the Gryphon), the Second Adam (the Chariot-pole) is united (bound) to the First Adam (the Tree) of whose race He came (l. 51) but whose fall He did not share (ll. 43-5), Man’s ruined nature is redeemed and receives new life from the perfect Nature of Christ (the dry Tree breaks into blossom).

The Second Masque: The Pageant of Church and Empire: As the first Masque showed the history of the Church up to and including the Incarnation, so the second Masque shows her history from Apostolic times to Dante’s own day. The Tree now represents Man in his redeemed nature: in other words, it has become the image of Christendom, and, in an especial sense, of Rome, the spiritual and temporal centre of Christendom. Its condition is thus tragically affected by the relations between Church and Empire. The various episodes of the Masque will be best considered in the Notes, as they occur.

Statius: Throughout these last three cantos, Dante has an air of forgetting Statius, only throwing in a casual reference now and again, to show that he is still there. We infer from l. 28 that he has crossed Lethe, and we are told (xxxiii. 133-4) that he drinks of Eunoë; but he is excluded altogether from the interview with Beatrice, who appears to pay no attention to him. Obviously, he could have no part in that intimate scene; yet, if the poet had found his presence embarrassing, he could easily have got rid of him earlier (by supposing, for example, that he needed to stay behind and do penance on the Ninth Cornice, or in some other way). He is doubtless here to show that the drinking of the two waters is part of the regular purgation of all spirits. But we may reasonably ask what the appearance of Beatrice means to him, and whether he undergoes any experience corresponding to Dante’s. My own conjecture (for it can be no more than that) is that what Statius beholds upon the Car is not Beatrice, but whatever is, for him, the personal God-bearing image; and that his experience is here as private from Dante as Dante’s is from him. In which case, the reason why Dante (the Poet) tells us nothing, is that Dante (the Pilgrim) knew nothing about it.

Mark Vernon's Lecture