After going on half a canto-long political rant in canto 6, Dante slows it down and brings us back to the narrative present in canto 7.
Sordello is back at the centre of the stage and eager to hear more about his fellow Mantuan, Virgil. The following verses are dedicated to Virgil’s description of himself, perhaps the longest and most detailed we have seen in the entire poem.
He tells Sordello that he dwells in hell, “for no crime but for lack of faith” and this way of describing his sin returns in verse 25. He says that he has lost all hope of ever reaching “that great Sun” (Dante’s running metaphor for God) “through nothing I had done but what I’d not”. This is an incredibly appropriate way to describe the nature of his sin because the other spirits we meet in this part of the ante-Purgatory have also sinned through lack of action.
But let me not get ahead of myself.
Sordello immediately recognises Virgil’s name and plunges his body into a reverent bow before him. He calls Virgil “glory of the Latin race” and commends him for his contribution to the formation of the Italian vernacular. He says that through his poetry, Virgil showed Italians what their language could do and for this reason, he will be held in high regard eternally.
It’s not a coincidence - as very little is in this poem - that Dante chooses Sordello as the character who will make these remarks about language and poetry.
Sordello was a famous troubadour of the 13th century, who left Italy and moved to Provence, where he continued to write in the local Occitan language. This little parenthesis about poetry is useful to Dante because it allows him to introduce some of his views on the genealogy of language - he had a theory about how all languages evolved from one original one, which he writes about at length in his treatise on vernacular language De vulgari eloquentia.
But placing Sordello in this part of purgatory also allows him to make an indirect comment on great men who have left their country (and in Sordello’s case their language, too).
In a sort of contrapasso (remember contrapasso?) to Sordello’s decision to escape Mantua, he is now confined to this ante-purgatorial space.
In fact, when Virgil asks him to show them the way to the first level of purgatory proper, Sordello says that they can’t move on because the sun is almost down. He points to a line on the ground and explains that although no one is there to physically stop them from crossing it, it is the rule of purgatory that no one should travel at night. The logic behind this is unclear. Sordello limits himself to saying that darkness somehow saps people of their will and they can’t climb during the night. Read into that what you will.
Since they can’t move on, Sordello invites the pilgrims to rest for the night and proceeds to take them to a place he knows. Suddenly, Dante describes that the landscape changes and a kind of cave opens into the side of the mountain revealing the most beautiful glade.
There, among the soft green grass and fresh spring blossoms sits a crowd of men, which we will find out are the negligent princes that Dante has been hinting at here and there throughout this first part of Purgatorio.
Just like Virgil, whose sin was contained not by his actions but by his inaction, these men are here because they failed to provide the leadership that Italy needed and - in Dante’s view - deserved.
The canto ends with a list of all these men’s names and deeds, which I will spare you.
I would, however, like to draw your attention to verses 73-81 and the Edenic image they evoke. In the sunset, Dante says, the flowers of the vale shimmer deeper and brighter than the purest gold and silver and the most precious gems. Not only this, but the air is pregnant with their sweet aroma, making for a multisensory experience that is actually pleasant for the first time in the poem.
And while the kings and princes here are criticised for their negligence, this canto also introduces the reader to the idea of rest for the first time in the poem. In Inferno, Dante has fallen and fainted, but never actually slept with the purpose of resting. Which I guess makes sense: if there’s no rest for the wicked, there certainly won’t be any rest in hell.
On that note, I hope you all had a restful weekend. See you next time x
PS: next week is my birthday, so there will be no Dante book club.
Happy early Birthday!!
🙏🏼