WEBVTT

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Prof: Last time I
finished--

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we finished on a little note,
as you'll recall,

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that the detail of the garden
where the pilgrim finds himself

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and meets the other poets.

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And he declares,
in a way that seems to be

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really prideful,
on his place in this

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trajectory, this literary poetic
tradition.

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I was emphasizing last time
that this is a detail that opens

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for us--
opens our eyes to the ambiguity

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of gardens,
the ambiguity--as Dante will go

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on dramatizing this idea of this
ambiguity of gardens throughout

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Purgatory especially,
and in other areas,

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in an oblique way.

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It's not necessarily
monotonously bucolic language,

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this idea of the ambiguity of
gardens.

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What are some of these
ambiguities in Canto IV?

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We are drawn naturally to
gardens and we are drawn to

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gardens because they reflect for
us some image of order,

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especially if you're traveling
through Hell,

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then you do want this sort
of--you explore,

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you enter willfully this place
that bears the fingerprints of

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the human hand,
has this--it's something which

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had elaborated by human beings.

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This is a divine place,
nonetheless gardens mean that

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for us.

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But at the same time they give
us a sense of security and in

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its enclosure,
also a sense of a lordship over

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them.

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It's something we can control,
it's something that we see and

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where we feel we belong.

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This is exactly the temptation
that the pilgrim experiences in

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Canto IV.

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He relaxes, and this happens to
all the heroes in the epic

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tradition, when they enter
gardens they even set aside

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their arms.

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They get disarmed in more ways
than one.

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That is to say,
they come to understand that

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they are--
this is a place of shelter,

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a place which is so peaceful
and idyllic that one is no

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longer--
or need not fear that one is in

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danger.

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In effect, that's where the
danger is most powerful.

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Dante experiences a danger,
the danger he experience is

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that of a poetic hubris.

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He is descending into humility,
that's the trajectory of his

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journey,
and there he rests with Homer,

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Virgil,
Lucan, etc.,

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and he just says he feels that
he belongs--

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that his high genius allows him
to be right there with them.

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I remind you of this little
detail exactly because it allows

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me to say more precisely what
the problems are that a

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presentation of gardens,
but especially to emphasize

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that Canto V and the drama that
is unfolded in Canto V,

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a drama ostensibly of desire.

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It's a story of the great
passion of a woman,

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one of the most famous women in
literature, Francesca,

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has with her brother-in-law
Paolo.

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But, the point is that that
drama stems directly from the

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crisis in the pilgrim's mind in
Canto IV of Inferno.

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In what way?

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It is as if the experience of
hubris, about the celebrating

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one's own power and prowess as a
poet, now has to confront the

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consequences of that claim.

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Now Dante comes literally face
to face with a reader of his

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poetry,
and the reader of his poetry

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who understands his poetry in a
way that was not necessarily the

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one intended by its author.

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You have now in Canto V the
confrontation of reader and

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poet,
and we shall see Francesca is,

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of course,
as you remember from your

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reading, having read Canto V,
is a great reader of text.

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She goes on quoting Lancelot,
not in the version of

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It's the same romance,
she goes on quoting from The

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Art Of Courtly Love,
this text about the art of love

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by Andreas Capellanus,
and you may remember I alluded

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to at least one of the earlier
talks,

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and goes on actually quoting to
Dante,

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Dante's own poem in the Vita
nuova,

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which we shall go and look at
in a while.

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Let's start with Canto V.

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Where are we in the poem?

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Where are we located?

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We are in the second circle.

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This--your notes will tell you.

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We're in the larger area of
so-called incontinence and I

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really should emphasize to you
something about--

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we shall look at it in more
detail further on,

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but something about the
topography,

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the moral topography of Hell.

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What is the disposition?

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What is the distribution of
sins and sinfulness?

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What is actually sin?

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What are we to understand for
sin?

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For the time being I'll tell
you that for Dante,

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it's the will which is the
locus of sin.

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You cannot really sin
intellectually;

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you cannot have--commit sins
with your mind.

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You can have your mind which
partakes and becomes an

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accomplice of the will,
but it's primarily in the will,

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in the voluntary action that
you find sinfulness.

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That's the first thing.

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Where are we now?

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In the area of incontinence.

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What does that mean?

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Well one thing,
a way of making it very simple,

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you probably should know that
the shape,

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the diagram of the soul for
Dante is very classical,

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very ancient,
it's really Aristotelian,

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it's the idea of its more or
less figured as a triangle

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which--
on the left side you have,

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because it's always the left--
the will--the area of the will

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and then on the right side you
have the area of reason.

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Where the two faculties of the
soul,

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there are two faculties,
like two feet of the body--

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there are two faculties of the
soul that where they meet it's--

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well in the Middle Ages,
using a classical term they

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call, synteresis.

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This is the area where free
will--in other words,

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in free will you have a
conjunction of both will and

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reason and that's the beginning
of the moral life.

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It's not the end of it at all,
it's really when--

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only when you are really free,
your will is free,

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that you can start making
decisions and getting engaged in

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the world around you.

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Now the soul is divided into
three parts.

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It's a tripartite structure and
begins at the bottom,

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it's so called--I should put it
on this side because it's a

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will.

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The concupiscent appetites,
which is really what Francesca

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experiences,
the incontinence lost in this

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form later will be gluttony,
etc., avarice,

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prodigality.

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In the middle area here,
you would have the sensitive

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appetite,
which is really the middle

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ground of Dante's Hell,
violence, the kind of

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bestiality that takes over the
human mind,

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and then the third is the
rational.

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The order, the geometry of
Hell, in a way,

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is patterned on the order of
the soul, the idea of the soul,

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in of course--in an inverted
form.

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We begin in the area of
concupiscence,

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the area of lust.

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Someone was asking me what was
lust last time;

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I think that we're going to
have some kind of understanding

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about this.

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This is where we are in the
area of incontinence,

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the first one is lust,
or what Dante will call with a

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formula: it's the area of the
sinners who have inverted the

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order,
the hierarchical order of the

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reason and the will.

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They have made pleasure--they
have invested pleasure with

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supreme lordship over the order
of rationality.

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So, reason, though somehow
dimmed, is always going to be

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used as a rational to explain--
as a kind of way of creating

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alibis for the passion of
Francesca.

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This is the way the canto
begins.

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The second thing that I have to
mention as we read here,

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is the particular landscape
that Dante evokes.

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It's a landscape of souls that
go around, swirling around in a

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kind and sort of circular
structure.

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Let me tell you a little detail
here, that you have to be

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careful as you read the poem
even about the directions of the

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pilgrim.

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For instance,
if I were to ask you which way

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is Dante descending into this
spiraled Hell?

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When you move into a spiral,
it's very difficult to see if

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you're really going left or
right of course,

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but he's going out of the way
that he's always going leftward.

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Because he's descending--and as
soon as we get to Purgatory,

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he goes out of the way to tell
us that he's now going

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rightward,
which is to say,

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that Hell is the inverted
cosmos of Purgatorio.

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So it's really--he's always
going the same way,

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only that as he goes into Hell
it's--he's going down and he's

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inverted.

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When he has to go from Hell to
Purgatorio,

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the operation is going to be
that of turning upside down in

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order to go finally in the
straight way,

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the right way.

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The other detail is that the
symbolism of the circle,

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which as you know,
is very ancient,

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very old.

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There are a number of ways of
understanding direction in the

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Middle Ages.

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For instance,
the linear direction implies

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that of human beings were caught
in time and they are going to

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some kind of purpose or precise
destination.

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The angels are those who circle
around the throne of God so that

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the circle implies the
plentitude and perfection of

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movement.

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Clearly, Francesca is involved,
who is caught in a world of

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love,
in the passion of love,

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she's giving a kind of parodic
version,

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a caricature of the circular
perfect movement of the mind,

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and of the angels around the
divinity.

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The spiral, which is the
movement of the pilgrim,

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combines line and circle;
implies that Dante is

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really--the mind is going in a
circular way around the

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divinity, but he also has a
purpose, has an aim to reach.

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Here the two are--Francesca and
Paolo are going around in

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circles, circles that will
have--and they will experience

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no rest.

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I think that the principle
behind this representation of

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desire is displacement;
desire is always a part of

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displacement.

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Something that Dante valorizes
greatly, that's the ambiguity of

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Dante's thinking.

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Desire is displacement because
in this case,

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Paolo and Francesca--they get
nowhere and yet it's exactly

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this displacement that makes us
aware that we are never where we

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should be,
that our hearts are always out

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of place.

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It's what Augustine says in
the Confessions that

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the--
he begins the

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Confessions with the
awareness of his heart,

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he says, is unquiet,
that the idea of the

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unquietness of the heart out of
place,

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so that's where he's enacting.

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Dante's moving within the
larger pattern of Augustine's

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thinking about desire and there
will be a lot of talk about

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that.

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You know what the word
"desire"

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by the way,
which is in English as the same

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as it is in Italian or Latin,
you know what it means?

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It's linked to the stars,
to have desire is to know that

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you are not quite sidera,
at the end de sidera,

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we are sort of a removal,
removed from the world of stars.

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It's a word that is linked,
usually its

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"consideration,"
another word that implies that

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the mind moves alongside,
now you consider-- when I

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consider how I like suspense,
when you consider is a way of

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moving with--
along the mind manages to move

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with the circularity and
perfection of the sun.

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All of this irrelevant to the
point that's at hand here.

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Dante meets--so we are in the
world of--begins this canto with

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a number of metaphors of birds.

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You realize that,
first of all,

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he starts around lines 30,
about the "hellish

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storm."

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It's the externalizing of the
storm inside,

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the inner storm,
"never resting,

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seizes and drives the spirits
before it;

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smiting and whirling them
about," etc.

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It continues,
"As in the cold season,

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their wings bear the starlings
along the broad,

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dense flock,
so does that blast the wicked

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spirits.

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Hither, thither,
downward, upward,

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it drives them;
no hope ever comforts them,

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not to say of rest but of less
pain."

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And then the cranes.

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And Dante asks Virgil,
"Master,

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who are these people whom the
black air so scourges?"

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And now we have an enumeration,
another application of the

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epic--an epic device,
enumerating.

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The epic that has--it's always
driven by the desire for

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totality to include all things
within the compass of its

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representation.

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It always has the enumerative
style and now here we have a

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number of figures that Dante
points out--that Virgil points

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out.

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And they're all queens at the
beginning.

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They are founders of cities.

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Keep this in mind because I
think that part of the issues

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that Dante is raising,
and you can think about it,

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we can talk about it if you
wish,

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is the relationship between
eros and politics.

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Pleasure and the city.

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Where does pleasure--what is
the place of pleasure in the

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economy of the city?

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Let's see who they are,
one is the "Empress of

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peoples of many tongues,
who's so corrupted by

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licentious vice that she made
lust lawful in her law to take

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away the scandal into which she
was brought."

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And the emphasis of the line is
this lust becoming lawful,

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lust becoming public and
accepted.

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And "she is
Semiramis,"

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of Assyria, "of whom we
read she succeeded Ninus."

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Then the next one is Dido,
who is both Virgil's invention

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in many ways,
where Virgil in the

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Aeneid;
this is a reflection on the

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Aeneid as a poem of love
too.

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Dante can not but think about
the place of how Rome,

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Rome's conquest would appear to
be libido of power,

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libido dominandi and
yet--and he's really playing

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with the idea that the--
Rome or Roma as you know

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is the--
what we call the--I'm going to

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have to use this term because I
can't think of an English term,

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boustrophedon.

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You know what it means,
the boustrophedon,

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right?

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A boustrophedon,
it's very easy,

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it's a Greek term meaning a
reversal.

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Roma,
as in a mirror,

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becomes Amor,
but it's--Venus is the mother

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of Aeneas.

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So there is this idea again,
of a link and inner link

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between love,
or love and politics and the

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city.

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And Virgil writes the
Aeneid, literally,

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as a love poem.

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That is to say,
that the ideology of Rome is an

17:07.818 --> 17:12.368
ideology of--based on--of Rome,
is an ideology based on desire.

17:12.368 --> 17:17.108
The idea, which Augustine will
counter by saying,

17:17.108 --> 17:21.678
yeah this is not really love,
this is lust for power and the

17:21.682 --> 17:25.172
distinction that someone was
raising here,

17:25.170 --> 17:29.020
the gentleman was raising last
time about how lust is related

17:29.018 --> 17:29.658
to love.

17:29.660 --> 17:33.300
You already start seeing the
antagonism between the two of

17:33.301 --> 17:33.751
them.

17:33.750 --> 17:37.110
Augustine, a Roman,
an African, but a Roman

17:37.108 --> 17:41.668
thinker--was really writing
about and belongs and reflects

17:41.670 --> 17:45.590
on the great myths,
on the mythology of Rome.

17:45.588 --> 17:49.488
And for him this is true in
the Confessions,

17:49.490 --> 17:53.150
but it's especially true in
The City of God, where he

17:53.146 --> 17:56.796
juxtaposes the earthly city,
Rome to the heavenly city,

17:56.800 --> 17:58.400
the heavenly Jerusalem.

17:58.400 --> 18:00.480
The two cities are opposed to
each other.

18:00.480 --> 18:05.220
There he reflects on Rome as a
city based on lust for power,

18:05.217 --> 18:09.787
and from that point of view,
really not different from any

18:09.794 --> 18:11.244
other empires.

18:11.240 --> 18:15.140
They're all Rome,
like say the Persian Empire,

18:15.140 --> 18:17.990
the Greek claims for empire,
and what not,

18:17.990 --> 18:26.120
are all part of a long sequel
of violence and imperial

18:26.118 --> 18:27.958
fantasies.

18:27.960 --> 18:32.270
Dante is thinking along these
lines and we shall see where

18:32.271 --> 18:34.771
that will take him in a moment.

18:34.769 --> 18:40.139
Then there is Cleopatra of
Egypt, Helen and the story of

18:40.143 --> 18:42.003
the fall of Troy.

18:42.000 --> 18:44.460
Then finally,
the story of Tristan,

18:44.463 --> 18:48.453
who as you know belongs--is
really a medieval invention:

18:48.452 --> 18:50.122
Tristan and Isolde.

18:50.118 --> 18:53.688
We are going to see now
Lancelot and Guinevere in a

18:53.686 --> 18:54.326
moment.

18:54.328 --> 18:59.628
The presence of Tristan shows
one thing, that all the heroes

18:59.626 --> 19:04.736
and heroines of antiquity are
viewed through the lenses of

19:04.743 --> 19:06.723
medieval romances.

19:06.720 --> 19:10.950
They may belong to the grand
epics of the classical world.

19:10.950 --> 19:14.490
Dante will see them through
that optic of romances,

19:14.488 --> 19:16.398
the literature of desire.

19:16.400 --> 19:18.280
"And he showed me more
than a thousand shades,

19:18.275 --> 19:20.185
naming them as he pointed,
whom love parted from our

19:20.186 --> 19:20.746
life."

19:20.750 --> 19:27.000
This is the catalog of--the
epic catalog.

19:27.000 --> 19:32.970
"When I heard my Teacher
name the knights and ladies of

19:32.965 --> 19:37.515
old times, pity came upon me,
and I was as one

19:37.516 --> 19:39.636
bewildered."

19:39.640 --> 19:44.950
Now this is really the first
time that Dante introduces the

19:44.945 --> 19:47.595
notion of pity in the poem.

19:47.598 --> 19:51.228
And we shall see by the end of
the canto, that he is going to

19:51.231 --> 19:54.921
be overwhelmed by pity and he is
going to faint after he hears

19:54.924 --> 19:56.564
the story of Francesca.

19:56.558 --> 19:59.158
He was so overwhelmed that he
fell, he says,

19:59.161 --> 20:01.401
"like a dead body"
falls.

20:01.400 --> 20:05.850
It's a fainting. It's sympathy;
maybe it's a little bit of a

20:05.849 --> 20:08.749
self-recognition,
maybe it's--we shall see that

20:08.750 --> 20:12.690
it's a way of coming to grips
with his own responsibilities,

20:12.690 --> 20:15.410
maybe some of his
responsibilities.

20:15.410 --> 20:18.970
The point I want to make there
with this pity is that you do

20:18.967 --> 20:20.777
know,
but Dante does not know the

20:20.777 --> 20:24.547
the Poetics of Aristotle,
but he knows whatever is

20:24.548 --> 20:29.008
available through Horace and he
knows quite a lot.

20:29.009 --> 20:33.359
The point here is that Dante
goes on reflecting--

20:33.358 --> 20:36.738
it could become a paper topic
for some of you enterprising

20:36.738 --> 20:39.278
spirits,
for some of you maybe--on the

20:39.280 --> 20:41.760
relationship within pity and
justice.

20:41.759 --> 20:46.669
Throughout the poem he goes on
thinking about these two terms.

20:46.670 --> 20:52.130
Does justice necessarily need
pity or is there some kind of

20:52.125 --> 20:57.765
justice that must learn how to
be pitiless, that has no place

20:57.769 --> 21:00.779
for this kind of compassion.

21:00.778 --> 21:06.018
Are they two necessarily
antagonistic or is there some

21:06.022 --> 21:10.972
way of thinking of a meeting
point between them?

21:10.970 --> 21:14.780
This is the first time he
introduces this idea of pity,

21:14.777 --> 21:19.607
a kind of recognition;
a sense that it could be he who

21:19.605 --> 21:21.725
is in that position.

21:21.730 --> 21:24.420
And he begins,
"Poet I would fain speak

21:24.422 --> 21:27.992
with these two that go together
and seem so light upon the

21:27.990 --> 21:28.930
wind."

21:28.930 --> 21:33.100
He doesn't talk to any of the
major classical figures.

21:33.098 --> 21:35.778
He chooses two people from his
own time,

21:35.779 --> 21:40.249
two people from the ordinary
life around him,

21:40.250 --> 21:44.800
two people in the--by this time
Dante may very well be living in

21:44.795 --> 21:47.605
that area of Italy which is
Ravenna,

21:47.608 --> 21:50.348
not quite Ravenna,
but in that area of Ravenna.

21:50.348 --> 21:52.408
"'Thou shalt see when they
are nearer us,

21:52.410 --> 21:55.020
and do thou entreat them then
by the love that leads them,

21:55.019 --> 21:56.119
and they will come.'

21:56.119 --> 21:56.799
As soon as the wind bent...

21:56.798 --> 22:00.298
'Oh wearied souls,
come and speak to us--

22:00.298 --> 22:03.588
and speak with us,
if One forbids it not.'"

22:03.588 --> 22:07.648
You realize that the name of
God is never mentioned here in

22:07.650 --> 22:10.780
Hell,
if not as a discourse that

22:10.776 --> 22:15.856
takes place here on Earth,
but the souls in Hell will

22:15.858 --> 22:19.658
always use periphrastic
constructions,

22:19.660 --> 22:23.060
terms or phrases;
as if it would be highly

22:23.059 --> 22:25.729
improper for Dante to allow
them,

22:25.730 --> 22:28.200
or even for them,
to acknowledge that which they

22:28.202 --> 22:30.992
never really acknowledged:
"now if One forbids it

22:30.992 --> 22:31.732
not."

22:31.730 --> 22:34.120
Then, "as doves summoned
by desire,

22:34.118 --> 22:37.228
come with wings,
poised and motionless to the

22:37.230 --> 22:40.030
sweet nest,
borne by their will through the

22:40.029 --> 22:42.059
air,
so these left the troop where

22:42.059 --> 22:42.929
Dido is."

22:42.930 --> 22:48.790
Again, the presence of Dido
that--the Virgilian myth of Dido

22:48.787 --> 22:54.937
and also the other possibility
of Rome: Virgil is writing about

22:54.942 --> 23:00.502
the great battle between
Carthage and Rome as two ways of

23:00.501 --> 23:05.671
choosing a civilization,
two ways of deciding how one

23:05.667 --> 23:10.097
should organize one,
how should one experiment with

23:10.096 --> 23:10.836
cities.

23:10.838 --> 23:14.448
"Coming to us through a
malignant air;

23:14.450 --> 23:17.850
such force had my loving
call."

23:17.848 --> 23:21.318
Now listen to how Francesca
speaks,

23:21.318 --> 23:24.048
"Oh living creature,
gracious and friendly,

23:24.048 --> 23:27.168
who goes through the murky air,
visiting us who stained the

23:27.173 --> 23:28.523
world with blood."

23:28.519 --> 23:30.049
She's killed,
she was killed,

23:30.046 --> 23:32.186
by the way,
by her husband,

23:32.186 --> 23:37.326
who caught Francesca and his
brother Paolo in a tryst,

23:37.328 --> 23:41.508
so it's--that's what the
allusion to the blood is.

23:41.509 --> 23:44.459
"If the King of the
universe were our friend,

23:44.457 --> 23:47.947
we would pray to Him for thy
peace, since thou hast pity of

23:47.945 --> 23:49.145
our evil plight.

23:49.150 --> 23:51.550
Of that which thou pleased to
hear and speak,

23:51.548 --> 23:54.928
we will hear and speak with you
while the wind is quiet as here

23:54.926 --> 23:55.796
it is."

23:55.798 --> 23:59.988
Now she begins the description
of her life, where she was born.

23:59.990 --> 24:04.420
Most of the narratives in
Inferno begin with this

24:04.420 --> 24:05.710
idea of birth.

24:05.710 --> 24:10.850
You saw that in the case of
Virgil and you see it once here

24:10.847 --> 24:13.237
in the case of Francesca.

24:13.240 --> 24:17.340
They begin with birth for a
number of reasons,

24:17.338 --> 24:21.808
but because birth is for Dante
the event that somehow could

24:21.807 --> 24:25.887
potentially have changed and
have imparted a different

24:25.892 --> 24:29.962
direction to the world,
or could end in nothing,

24:29.964 --> 24:32.284
as in the case of Francesca.

24:32.278 --> 24:36.918
Hence a great piece of
literature, but she herself did

24:36.922 --> 24:39.202
not really achieve much.

24:39.200 --> 24:43.030
Now she talks about her city,
in terms that clearly contrast

24:43.031 --> 24:46.541
with this movement of the souls
caught in the storm.

24:46.538 --> 24:51.528
There they go endlessly in the
air and now she evokes the place

24:51.525 --> 24:54.415
of what she really wants is
rest,

24:54.420 --> 24:56.250
"The city where I was born
lies."

24:56.250 --> 24:59.290
That's the image of the
stability of a city she has

24:59.285 --> 24:59.705
lost.

24:59.710 --> 25:02.150
"Where the Po,
with the streams adjoin it,

25:02.145 --> 25:03.465
descends to rest."

25:03.470 --> 25:08.090
Now three tercets in Italian
all beginning with the word

25:08.090 --> 25:08.680
love.

25:08.680 --> 25:13.630
Love made into kind of
transcendent divinity.

25:13.630 --> 25:20.320
It is the great subject of her
experience, look at this.

25:20.318 --> 25:26.398
"Love which is quickly
kindled in the gentle heart,

25:26.400 --> 25:30.420
seized this man for the fair
form that was taken from me,

25:30.420 --> 25:32.830
and the manner afflicts me
still.

25:32.828 --> 25:35.598
Love, which absolves no one
beloved from loving,

25:35.603 --> 25:38.913
seized me so strongly with his
charm that, as thou seest,

25:38.907 --> 25:40.617
it does not leave me yet.

25:40.618 --> 25:43.518
Love brought us to one
death."

25:43.519 --> 25:45.209
What is she saying?

25:45.210 --> 25:47.930
Well, a number of things,
and I really have to give this

25:47.933 --> 25:48.383
to you.

25:48.380 --> 25:51.140
First of all,
she's really quoting important

25:51.135 --> 25:51.965
literature.

25:51.970 --> 25:58.610
The first line "Love
which," the translation is,

25:58.609 --> 26:02.369
"Love which absolves no--
love which is quickly kindled

26:02.366 --> 26:05.466
in the gentle heart,"
and you know that this is

26:05.474 --> 26:09.134
really a quotation from one of
Dante's sonnets in the Vita

26:09.131 --> 26:11.631
nuova that you read,
Chapter XX.

26:11.630 --> 26:13.910
"Love,"
that's how Dante starts,

26:13.910 --> 26:17.230
"Love and the gracious
heart are a single thing,"

26:17.230 --> 26:20.210
and Dante quotes the poetics of
a sweet new sound.

26:20.210 --> 26:23.160
It's when it's early he says,
tells us in his poem,

26:23.160 --> 26:26.380
one can more be without the
other, one can no more be

26:26.384 --> 26:29.984
without the other than one that
then can the reasoning mind

26:29.980 --> 26:32.150
without it's reason,"
etc.

26:32.150 --> 26:38.290
It's clearly meant for
Francesca to flatter the

26:38.286 --> 26:43.886
sensible authorship of the poet
himself.

26:43.890 --> 26:47.990
It's part of a seductive
strategy also that she can use.

26:47.990 --> 26:51.830
The second image,
but love that does not allow

26:51.826 --> 26:56.256
anyone who loves from returning,
reciprocating the love,

26:56.256 --> 26:59.456
it really comes from the
so-called ruse of love that

26:59.464 --> 27:02.924
Marie de Champagne dictates in
Book III of The Art of

27:02.924 --> 27:06.264
Courtly Love and I
want to read this.

27:06.259 --> 27:10.909
It's--the translation is not
quite--all that accurate but I

27:10.914 --> 27:15.334
think--I'm sorry I got the wrong
one, the wrong book.

27:15.328 --> 27:18.478
The Art of Courtly Love,
Book III, and these are the

27:18.480 --> 27:20.710
famous--it ends with the rules
of love.

27:20.710 --> 27:24.080
I will--I'll explain what they
are and Rule 9 says--I can

27:24.080 --> 27:27.810
really read some of them to you
so you have an understanding of

27:27.814 --> 27:29.324
what courtly love is.

27:29.318 --> 27:34.098
This is the mind of--which
applies very well to Francesca.

27:34.098 --> 27:39.408
Francesca imagines herself as
really a courtly love heroine.

27:39.410 --> 27:43.160
She lives in the world of
kings, the God is the king of

27:43.161 --> 27:46.151
the universe,
she's in the court of the king

27:46.148 --> 27:47.398
of love maybe.

27:47.400 --> 27:51.190
These are some of the concerns
of the rules of love and The

27:51.192 --> 27:52.812
Art of Courtly Love.

27:52.808 --> 27:56.718
"Marriage is no real
excuse for not loving."

27:56.720 --> 28:01.220
It's a way of saying adultery
is the law of courtly love.

28:01.220 --> 28:02.890
"He who is not
jealous,"

28:02.888 --> 28:04.708
number 2, "cannot
love."

28:04.710 --> 28:08.990
No one can be bound by a double
love than the boys do not love

28:08.990 --> 28:12.010
until they arrive at the age of
maturity.

28:12.009 --> 28:15.549
It leaves that very unclear
what the age of maturity can be;

28:15.548 --> 28:18.888
7, "when one lover dies,
a widowhood of two years is

28:18.891 --> 28:20.861
required of the survivor."

28:20.858 --> 28:23.918
Number 8, "no one should
be deprived of love by the very

28:23.923 --> 28:25.153
best of reasons."

28:25.150 --> 28:29.310
Number 9, "no one can love
unless one is impelled by

28:29.307 --> 28:33.537
somebody else's love,"
which is exactly the line that

28:33.538 --> 28:35.988
Francesca mentions,
number 9.

28:35.990 --> 28:37.820
Why these rules of love?

28:37.818 --> 28:38.838
What are they?

28:38.840 --> 28:40.300
What is she saying?

28:40.298 --> 28:42.348
What Andreas,
first of all,

28:42.349 --> 28:46.529
is doing by having these rules
of love and having--

28:46.529 --> 28:50.669
and reducing love to an art,
is a way of acknowledging that

28:50.671 --> 28:56.021
love is the most transgressive,
disruptive of all experiences

28:56.016 --> 29:00.136
and therefore it needs to be
formalized.

29:00.140 --> 29:02.390
It needs to be contained.

29:02.390 --> 29:06.790
It may be part of a game,
as is perhaps the thrust of

29:06.788 --> 29:11.398
Andreas Cappellanus' thinking,
or made to be part of an

29:11.400 --> 29:14.570
acceptable ceremony,
which is the possible reading

29:14.565 --> 29:15.695
of what is happening.

29:15.700 --> 29:19.630
Francesca falls completely,
squarely within this tradition

29:19.628 --> 29:23.968
of believing that she lives in a
world of love where there is no

29:23.971 --> 29:26.041
other possible resistance.

29:26.038 --> 29:30.108
In effect, these tercets with
which I read to you above love,

29:30.108 --> 29:33.908
love, and love:
they are really meant to cast

29:33.910 --> 29:38.660
love as a transcendent force
that no one can really--

29:38.660 --> 29:41.400
that she at least,
cannot withstand.

29:41.400 --> 29:46.750
What she is doing is abdicating
the power of her will to the

29:46.747 --> 29:50.457
irresistible,
omnipotent, presence of this

29:50.463 --> 29:51.283
love.

29:51.279 --> 29:54.539
It's part of a strategy,
of not acknowledging any

29:54.536 --> 29:55.686
responsibility.

29:55.690 --> 30:00.710
It's part of a strategy to
instead find for herself an

30:00.705 --> 30:03.635
alibi: I was made to do that.

30:03.640 --> 30:06.950
The literature of yours and the
literature of Andreas

30:06.953 --> 30:09.253
Cappellanus' were filters of
love.

30:09.250 --> 30:12.430
You understand what I mean--how
in romances you always have

30:12.432 --> 30:13.422
filters of love.

30:13.420 --> 30:17.430
No one is going to take the
responsibility saying well

30:17.426 --> 30:21.586
the--I had too much to drink or
I read the great poem or

30:21.586 --> 30:24.456
whatever, and so I was doing
that.

30:24.460 --> 30:30.030
It's a way for Dante to show
the blindness of Francesca to

30:30.030 --> 30:34.930
the reality of her situation,
and this--where she is,

30:34.933 --> 30:39.413
a kind of unwillingness to give
up that which is really the

30:39.410 --> 30:42.960
quality of sin and the trait of
sin: habit.

30:42.960 --> 30:47.490
Is sin in the measure in which
it has become a habit,

30:47.490 --> 30:52.240
a way of clinging to it and not
acknowledging that there may be

30:52.239 --> 30:56.529
some kind of alternative or
something different to it.

30:56.529 --> 31:00.479
So Dante goes on now,
entertaining the arguments.

31:00.480 --> 31:03.450
"When I answered I began:
'Alas, how many sweet thoughts,

31:03.445 --> 31:05.535
how great desire,
brought them to the woeful

31:05.537 --> 31:06.167
pass!'...

31:06.170 --> 31:10.170
Then 'Francesca,
thy torments make me weep for

31:10.170 --> 31:12.520
grief and pity,
but tell me,

31:12.519 --> 31:16.079
in the time of your sweet
sighing how and by what occasion

31:16.083 --> 31:19.463
did love grant you to know your
uncertain desires?'

31:19.460 --> 31:22.560
And she answered:
'There is no greater pain than

31:22.555 --> 31:26.105
to recall the happy time in
misery and this thy teacher

31:26.111 --> 31:28.991
knows;
but if thou has so great desire

31:28.988 --> 31:32.778
to know our love's first
root," which is a way of

31:32.781 --> 31:36.011
almost--
even that metaphor of the root

31:36.007 --> 31:38.207
of love,
the origin of love,

31:38.212 --> 31:41.882
she calls it the root of love
as if the passion,

31:41.880 --> 31:46.450
her passion were the flower of
love,

31:46.450 --> 31:51.380
"I shall tell as one may
that weeps in telling.

31:51.380 --> 31:55.390
We read one day for pastime of
Lancelot, how love constrained

31:55.388 --> 31:55.788
him.

31:55.788 --> 31:57.618
We were alone and had no
misgiving.

31:57.618 --> 32:00.808
Many times that reading drew
our eyes together and changed

32:00.810 --> 32:03.830
the color in our faces,
but one point alone it was that

32:03.834 --> 32:06.134
mastered us;
when we read for that the

32:06.134 --> 32:08.784
longed-for smile was kissed by
so great a lover,

32:08.775 --> 32:11.635
he who never shall be parted
from me, all trembling,

32:11.640 --> 32:12.820
kissed my mouth.

32:12.818 --> 32:15.908
A Galeotto was the book and he
that wrote it.

32:15.910 --> 32:19.170
That day we read in it no
farther.'

32:19.170 --> 32:23.370
While the one spirit said this,
the other,"

32:23.365 --> 32:25.025
Paolo--
whose name means

32:25.028 --> 32:26.638
"little"
in Latin,

32:26.640 --> 32:30.210
as you know paulus,
small, "wept so that for

32:30.213 --> 32:33.603
pity I swooned as if in death
and dropped like a dead

32:33.595 --> 32:34.565
body."

32:34.569 --> 32:36.619
And that's the end of the canto.

32:36.618 --> 32:41.728
Well, we could say it's an
amazing story and we will talk

32:41.727 --> 32:44.187
about a number of things.

32:44.190 --> 32:50.150
The first thing is that this is
a scene represented through

32:50.147 --> 32:53.227
reading, a story of reading.

32:53.230 --> 32:55.370
You are aware of that, right?

32:55.368 --> 32:58.858
This is clearly,
she reads, they read--he says

32:58.856 --> 33:02.496
that when one day they were
reading for delight,

33:02.500 --> 33:06.840
that's probably part of the
concerns that Dante has.

33:06.838 --> 33:09.708
How should we read if we read
for delight?

33:09.710 --> 33:10.690
They read for delight.

33:10.690 --> 33:13.310
Is there some other way of
reading?

33:13.308 --> 33:17.418
Is delight--clearly it's the
constitutive elements of reading

33:17.422 --> 33:20.302
literally text,
but is there something else

33:20.300 --> 33:22.700
that we could do along the way?

33:22.700 --> 33:24.170
What is our problem really?

33:24.170 --> 33:25.660
Let's continue with this idea
of reading.

33:25.660 --> 33:27.290
She's reading the story of
Lancelot,

33:27.288 --> 33:30.778
Lancelot and Guinevere,
you do know the story,

33:35.380 --> 33:38.640
but you could easily go on,
if you want to write about

33:41.461 --> 33:42.201
you can.

33:45.669 --> 33:47.609
often in his theoretical works.

33:47.608 --> 33:52.138
The story of Lancelot is the
story of adultery at court.

33:52.140 --> 33:56.360
Lancelot is the secret lover of
the queen;

33:56.358 --> 34:01.118
clearly out of the desire and
that says something about the

34:01.122 --> 34:04.822
nature of desire,
to really supplant the king,

34:04.816 --> 34:05.716
Arthur.

34:05.720 --> 34:10.560
There's a triangle here at
stake, a triangle of desire,

34:10.563 --> 34:15.853
and Francesca imitates this
triangle and we'll talk about it

34:15.853 --> 34:17.293
in a moment.

34:17.289 --> 34:23.349
The story of Lancelot is a
story of--let me go a little bit

34:23.346 --> 34:24.596
into that.

34:28.300 --> 34:32.000
Troyes, they begin on the great
feasts of Christianity.

34:32.000 --> 34:35.070
It's, I think,
usually the Ascension,

34:35.065 --> 34:39.235
Easter, the Pentecost,
one of the great feasts.

34:39.239 --> 34:43.389
And the heroes are sitting
around boasting about

34:43.391 --> 34:44.541
themselves.

34:44.539 --> 34:47.559
Not one of them is doing
anything heroic,

34:47.563 --> 34:51.043
but they all talk about how
great they were.

34:51.039 --> 34:55.689
It's a little bit like the
parodic version that you have of

34:55.686 --> 35:00.246
the battle of the argument
between Ulysses and Ajax in the

35:00.253 --> 35:04.023
last book of the
Metamorphosis where they

35:04.018 --> 35:08.668
talk about who is the hero
worthy of inheriting the arms of

35:08.666 --> 35:10.826
the great Achilles.

35:10.829 --> 35:14.549
And they talk about not the
present prowess now but what

35:14.547 --> 35:15.357
they were.

35:19.797 --> 35:22.427
heroic age is over and done
with.

35:22.429 --> 35:26.109
And the whole romance goes on
exploring, and pondering about

35:26.114 --> 35:29.864
that which the reasons why the
heroic age may have come to an

35:29.860 --> 35:30.360
end.

35:30.360 --> 35:36.430
What it is, is that the secret
love affair between Lancelot and

35:36.434 --> 35:37.614
Guinevere.

35:37.610 --> 35:40.160
The story starts,
it goes on where they're

35:40.164 --> 35:42.664
sitting around drinking ale,
and talking,

35:42.659 --> 35:46.209
a mysterious figure comes from
the outside and kidnaps the

35:46.210 --> 35:46.960
queen.

35:46.960 --> 35:50.660
The knights who were sitting
around don't move and

35:50.657 --> 35:55.257
everybody's expecting Lancelot
to get up and go and rescue the

35:55.260 --> 35:58.180
queen,
but he won't out of fear that

35:58.177 --> 36:02.057
if he were to impetuous,
it would be the secret affair

36:02.056 --> 36:05.996
that he has with the queen would
probably be discovered.

36:06.000 --> 36:09.480
That hesitation,
that moral hesitation of

36:09.478 --> 36:14.178
Lancelot is really the cause
of--it's the emblem of the

36:14.175 --> 36:17.475
falling from aristocratic
virtues.

36:17.480 --> 36:20.190
There is now the intrusion of a
time,

36:20.190 --> 36:23.710
a temporal wedge between the
thought and the action,

36:23.710 --> 36:26.400
and then of course Lancelot
would have to go on that famous

36:26.400 --> 36:29.140
cart of shame,
exposed to the ridicule of the

36:29.135 --> 36:32.915
whole town,
before he can go on really

36:32.920 --> 36:36.090
trying to rescue the queen.

36:40.442 --> 36:44.872
already reflecting on the crisis
of the city in terms of the

36:44.869 --> 36:46.369
private passion.

36:46.369 --> 36:49.699
Something is really gnawing at
the heart of the city and it's

36:49.702 --> 36:51.482
really the question of desire.

36:51.480 --> 36:54.550
The inability to distinguish
between the public and the

36:54.552 --> 36:56.922
private,
the inability to separate

36:56.923 --> 37:00.053
somehow the two,
or find some sort of a

37:00.047 --> 37:04.627
heart--threading the line
between those two concerns.

37:04.630 --> 37:07.470
In Canto V this is really what
Francesca does.

37:07.469 --> 37:12.289
Dante's exploring reading,
so she is reading the text of

37:12.289 --> 37:17.549
Lancelot and lapses into an
imitative strategy of reading.

37:17.550 --> 37:20.940
She wants to be like the
heroine that she reads about.

37:20.940 --> 37:24.040
She refuses to take an
interpretative distance from

37:24.036 --> 37:27.626
whatever specular image:
she wants to feel like a queen.

37:27.630 --> 37:31.030
And she thinks of Paolo can be
like Lancelot,

37:31.034 --> 37:35.294
and this is exactly what we
call the mimetic quality.

37:37.992 --> 37:41.722
Girard who has written about
this question of the imitative

37:41.724 --> 37:43.274
structure of desire.

37:43.268 --> 37:47.418
Between us and the object of
desire there is always the

37:47.420 --> 37:52.410
presence of a mediator,
and in this case the mediator

37:52.413 --> 37:56.843
is Lancelot for Paolo,
and it is Guinevere for

37:56.844 --> 37:57.784
Francesca.

37:57.780 --> 37:59.830
But there's more to this story.

37:59.829 --> 38:02.889
For instance,
you cannot read the story

38:02.887 --> 38:07.387
without thinking about how Dante
frames the experience of

38:07.391 --> 38:10.611
Francesca with the language of
time.

38:10.610 --> 38:14.170
Do you see how many references
there are to time?

38:14.170 --> 38:19.900
There's no greater grief than
remembering happiness,

38:19.896 --> 38:24.276
a past happiness,
and this, your doctor,

38:24.277 --> 38:28.317
meaning Virgil,
knows very well.

38:28.320 --> 38:31.010
Then she starts talking about
her adventure,

38:31.010 --> 38:33.290
"we were reading one
day," remember,

38:33.289 --> 38:35.329
"that day we read no
further."

38:35.329 --> 38:38.549
It's all about time,
about the question of time as

38:38.550 --> 38:42.890
if an experience--so what is the
problem with this idea of time?

38:42.889 --> 38:44.719
Why is Francesca understood?

38:44.719 --> 38:47.619
Why is her story represented in
terms of time?

38:47.619 --> 38:52.869
In effect, I think Francesca
want--there's one great passion

38:52.873 --> 38:57.773
that she has and her passion is
to do away with time.

38:57.768 --> 39:02.178
She's expressing the desire
that her happiness that last

39:02.177 --> 39:03.797
year,
very briefly,

39:03.804 --> 39:07.374
a brief instance may really
last an eternity,

39:07.369 --> 39:12.299
or maybe, just maybe,
she may be expressing the wish

39:12.297 --> 39:14.017
that--
or the idea,

39:14.021 --> 39:18.641
the insight more than the wish,
that one moment of happiness is

39:18.641 --> 39:20.711
well worth an eternity of pain.

39:20.710 --> 39:26.960
Or maybe she's just saying that
it's not too bad that the love

39:26.958 --> 39:32.388
story I had only lasted the
briefest possible time.

39:32.389 --> 39:35.229
At any rate,
all this shows is that

39:35.230 --> 39:39.990
primarily Francesca not only
abdicated choice and not only

39:39.990 --> 39:43.750
thought that her own will was
powerless,

39:46.204 --> 39:49.004
transcendent idea of love,
but above all,

39:49.003 --> 39:53.593
she has betrayed the order of
necessity and time.

39:53.590 --> 39:59.610
Her passion violates the order
of time.

39:59.610 --> 40:02.830
Above all, from this point of
view,

40:02.829 --> 40:07.369
Dante goes on reflecting about
his responsibilities of an

40:07.369 --> 40:09.789
author--
as an author when he's

40:09.793 --> 40:11.853
confronted with the reader.

40:11.849 --> 40:13.259
What have I done?

40:13.260 --> 40:15.080
What have I written?

40:15.079 --> 40:19.209
That what I write has been
understood in a way that is not

40:19.208 --> 40:21.888
necessarily the one that he
meant,

40:21.889 --> 40:26.299
the meaning that he meant to
assign to the Vita nuova.

40:26.300 --> 40:29.630
These are some of the concerns
and we can find some others.

40:29.630 --> 40:34.030
Let me just pass onto Canto VI,
which is really not completely

40:34.029 --> 40:37.129
unlike what we have been
describing here.

40:37.130 --> 40:43.640
Now we go into canto--Dante
goes--that's another part of

40:43.637 --> 40:46.237
this other strategy.

40:46.239 --> 40:49.379
Whatever Dante has found out
about passion,

40:49.380 --> 40:53.610
about desire,
about this in the world of

40:53.614 --> 40:59.914
appetites and whatever he has
decided about himself and the

40:59.911 --> 41:05.341
meaning that this may have for
him as a poet,

41:05.340 --> 41:07.930
and that scene of fainting at
the end,

41:07.929 --> 41:12.359
he will go on--this will become
the premise for other concerns

41:12.360 --> 41:15.070
raised in Canto VI,
which as you know,

41:15.067 --> 41:16.417
is a political canto.

41:16.420 --> 41:18.650
This is the strategy of Dante.

41:18.650 --> 41:21.240
Let me see, I found out certain
things about me,

41:21.239 --> 41:26.099
my responsibility,
I found some things about the

41:30.063 --> 41:34.513
the political order,
now let me find out--let me see

41:34.509 --> 41:37.649
if--
let me find out how authentic

41:37.652 --> 41:39.512
this finding may be.

41:39.510 --> 41:42.820
Let me move into a public
realm, so we go from the world

41:42.817 --> 41:45.727
of the court,
the private world of Francesca,

41:45.733 --> 41:48.323
now to literally the world of
the city,

41:48.320 --> 41:52.070
the world of Florence where we
are still talking about

41:52.067 --> 41:56.097
incontinence in a different
form: the question of gluttony

41:56.097 --> 41:57.297
and politics.

41:57.300 --> 42:01.340
And let's see--so he takes
elements that he has already

42:01.338 --> 42:04.478
anticipated here in Canto V,
the political,

42:04.480 --> 42:08.370
and goes on thinking about
politics in Canto VI.

42:08.369 --> 42:12.469
Here we go then with Canto VI,
the third circle,

42:12.467 --> 42:13.947
the gluttonous.

42:13.949 --> 42:18.739
"With return of my mind,
with the return of my mind that

42:18.740 --> 42:23.030
was shut off when the piteous
state of the two kinsfolk,

42:23.030 --> 42:25.100
which was quite confounded me
with grief,

42:25.099 --> 42:29.129
new torments and new souls in
torment I see about me,

42:29.130 --> 42:32.320
wherever I move and turn and
set my gaze."

42:32.320 --> 42:37.690
I find first of all the
presence of the word mind,

42:37.686 --> 42:44.256
in Italian it is mente,
in line 1, very suggestive.

42:44.260 --> 42:46.850
We are dealing here now with
bodies.

42:46.849 --> 42:51.319
Canto VI is all about bodies:
it's all about gluttonous souls

42:51.315 --> 42:54.735
who were bodies who took care of
the bodies.

42:54.739 --> 42:58.579
Dante uses as a counterpoint
the question of mind,

42:58.579 --> 43:03.219
as if the sin of these bodies,
the sin of these gluttonous has

43:03.219 --> 43:07.249
also been the sin of not
thinking in terms of mind.

43:07.250 --> 43:11.190
The mind is a necessary
counter, a necessary compliment

43:11.193 --> 43:13.243
to the presence of bodies.

43:13.239 --> 43:15.109
The word mind,
of course as you know or in

43:15.108 --> 43:16.618
Italian--
in English we have

43:16.619 --> 43:19.199
mental,
in Italian it's mente,

43:19.199 --> 43:21.539
Latin mens,
really comes from the Latin for

43:21.541 --> 43:22.021
measure.

43:22.018 --> 43:26.478
The mind is that which measures
things, the mind is that which

43:26.483 --> 43:30.513
gives a sense of the measure of
even our own desires.

43:30.510 --> 43:34.690
The metaphor of mind appears
throughout Canto VI.

43:34.690 --> 43:38.740
We are asked to think of that
which is missing in this

43:38.740 --> 43:42.720
biological reflection,
a reflection about the--what I

43:42.717 --> 43:45.237
call the biology of politics.

43:45.239 --> 43:49.459
Politics now reduced to the
question of appetites of bodies.

43:49.460 --> 43:53.340
It's not--normally we have the
pride of minds when we think

43:53.335 --> 43:56.805
about all the people who have
whatever fantasies,

43:56.809 --> 43:58.849
whatever megalomanias,
whatever desires,

43:58.849 --> 44:01.959
but mental above all when we
talk about politics,

44:01.960 --> 44:06.310
but here it's really a question
of politics in terms of the

44:06.309 --> 44:09.009
inexhaustible appetites of
bodies.

44:09.010 --> 44:13.340
We are going to talk about
politics and gluttony,

44:13.335 --> 44:15.315
politics and bodies.

44:15.320 --> 44:19.530
Dante here meets the figure
that is presiding;

44:19.530 --> 44:22.710
the mythological figure that is
presiding over this canto,

44:22.710 --> 44:27.190
this area of gluttony is the
classical figure of the

44:27.192 --> 44:31.782
three-headed Cerberus,
a way of hinting about the

44:31.778 --> 44:35.888
voraciousness,
the many mouths of this

44:35.891 --> 44:37.961
monstrous animal.

44:37.960 --> 44:40.100
"Cerberus,
a beast fierce and

44:40.101 --> 44:41.791
hideous"
and so on.

44:41.789 --> 44:48.079
And we do know that the
landscape is stinking under an

44:48.079 --> 44:52.989
endless rain;
there are hints that this is

44:52.992 --> 44:59.032
really one of--some kind of
repulsive form of waste and

44:59.034 --> 44:59.934
food.

44:59.929 --> 45:04.069
"The rain makes them howl
like dogs, and the profane

45:04.072 --> 45:08.442
wretches often turn themselves,
of one side making a shelter

45:08.438 --> 45:09.768
for the other.

45:09.768 --> 45:13.278
When Cerberus,
the great worm perceived us,

45:13.280 --> 45:16.640
he opened his mouths and showed
us the fangs,

45:16.639 --> 45:19.049
not one of his limbs keeping
still and my Leader."

45:19.050 --> 45:19.860
And so on.

45:19.860 --> 45:23.830
"As the dog that yelps for
greed and becomes quiet when it

45:23.827 --> 45:26.227
bites its food,
being all absorbed and

45:26.231 --> 45:29.331
struggling to devour it,
such became these foul visages

45:29.329 --> 45:30.679
of the demon Cerberus...

45:30.679 --> 45:35.179
We passed over the shades that
were beaten down by the heavy

45:35.179 --> 45:39.599
rain, setting our feet on their
emptiness which seemed real

45:39.603 --> 45:40.903
bodies."

45:40.900 --> 45:46.390
This is actually the great--the
description and figuration of

45:46.391 --> 45:47.401
gluttony.

45:47.400 --> 45:53.790
Bodies that are always empty
and they are empty now.

45:53.789 --> 45:56.549
They are punished to be empty,
as empty forms;

45:56.550 --> 46:00.130
and they seem--they are not
bodies, they seem real bodies.

46:00.130 --> 46:03.010
"They were all lying on
the ground except one who sat up

46:03.012 --> 46:05.032
as soon as he saw us passing
before him.

46:05.030 --> 46:08.990
'O thou who art led through
this hell,' he said to me,

46:08.985 --> 46:13.145
'recall me if thou canst;
thou wast begun before I was

46:13.148 --> 46:16.218
ended.'"
Another little reference to

46:16.219 --> 46:20.589
birth, the birth of Dante and
the death of--it's part of a

46:20.594 --> 46:21.444
cycle.

46:21.440 --> 46:25.140
There's no necessary connection
between the three heads.

46:25.139 --> 46:28.099
The death of--the name is
Ciacco, meaning a pig,

46:28.099 --> 46:31.629
that's the way he was surnamed
in the streets of Florence and

46:31.626 --> 46:34.086
the death--
and the birth of the pilgrim.

46:34.090 --> 46:35.600
"I said to him,
'The anguish--

46:35.599 --> 46:39.249
the anguish thou hast perhaps
taken thee from my memory,"

46:39.253 --> 46:42.703
and the word is mente,
the mind, "so that I do

46:42.697 --> 46:44.497
not seem ever to have seen thee.

46:44.500 --> 46:47.320
Tell me who you are,
put in a place of such misery

46:47.320 --> 46:50.080
and under such a penalty that,
if any is greater,

46:50.083 --> 46:51.583
none is so loathsome.'

46:51.579 --> 46:53.929
And he said to me,
'thy city,"

46:53.931 --> 46:57.881
we are talking about Florence,
this is the politics of the

46:57.876 --> 46:58.496
city.

46:58.500 --> 47:01.700
"Thy city,"
it doesn't say our city,

47:01.699 --> 47:02.869
your city.

47:02.869 --> 47:07.719
He's already--Ciacco views
himself as outside of it,

47:07.719 --> 47:10.299
not really occupying a place
within the city,

47:10.300 --> 47:14.800
"which is so full of envy
that already the sack runs over,

47:14.800 --> 47:17.230
held me within it in the bright
life,

47:17.230 --> 47:21.060
when you citizens,"
once again the distance of

47:21.061 --> 47:23.821
Ciacco from the city of
Florence,

47:23.820 --> 47:25.220
"called me Ciacco.

47:25.219 --> 47:28.469
For the damning fault of
gluttony, as thou seest,

47:28.467 --> 47:32.057
I lie helpless in the rain;
and in my misery I'm not alone,

47:32.063 --> 47:34.803
for all these are under the
same penalty for the same

47:34.802 --> 47:35.332
fault.'

47:35.329 --> 47:37.849
And he said no more."

47:37.849 --> 47:42.919
Okay here I have to stop a
little bit to tell you what--

47:42.920 --> 47:45.130
something that you already
caught of course,

47:45.130 --> 47:49.600
what the basic metaphor,
what the basic conceit is in

47:49.597 --> 47:53.317
this canto,
and it's the conceit of the

47:53.318 --> 47:55.088
city and the body.

47:55.090 --> 47:58.820
You--in the classical world
you're used to the conceit

47:58.824 --> 48:01.454
between--
of the correlation between the

48:01.447 --> 48:04.337
soul and the city,
but for Dante this is a

48:04.338 --> 48:05.418
soulless city.

48:05.420 --> 48:08.510
The only way to talk about is
through this image which is very

48:08.512 --> 48:10.942
ancient,
very Roman actually,

48:10.940 --> 48:14.590
the story of the city as a
corporate,

48:14.590 --> 48:17.260
as a body, as a corporate
structure.

48:17.260 --> 48:21.220
The image, some of you readers
of Shakespeare you may remember

48:21.221 --> 48:25.471
your Coriolanus,
where Coriolanus makes the same

48:25.472 --> 48:28.452
speech about the city and the
body.

48:28.449 --> 48:32.449
But it really goes back to a
historian of the classical world

48:32.449 --> 48:34.449
that Dante absolutely loves.

48:34.449 --> 48:37.899
He's not the only one,
all the way Augustine is

48:37.904 --> 48:40.634
using--
the name is Livy who wrote this

48:40.632 --> 48:43.972
famous book about from--
about the--from the foundation

48:43.969 --> 48:47.129
of Rome,
a Roman historian who tells the

48:47.132 --> 48:48.562
history of Rome.

48:48.559 --> 48:53.739
One of the stories he tells is
that of the famous civil war in

48:53.735 --> 48:59.075
Rome: the civil war between the
patricians and the plebeians.

48:59.079 --> 49:01.259
The plebeians,
the workers,

49:01.259 --> 49:05.449
were so tired of what was
happening in the city.

49:05.449 --> 49:08.909
They were doing all the work;
that's the way they complained,

49:08.909 --> 49:13.129
but they had few of the
pleasures coming from living in

49:13.126 --> 49:16.246
the city that they decided to
secede.

49:16.250 --> 49:19.410
It is the famous secession
whereby they go--

49:19.409 --> 49:22.299
it's a kind of schism,
they go on the--

49:22.300 --> 49:24.990
they retreat on the Aventine
Hill, one of the seven hills of

49:24.994 --> 49:26.524
Rome,
and the patricians,

49:26.521 --> 49:29.151
the city is paralyzed as you
can imagine,

49:29.150 --> 49:31.550
it's a strike,
the patricians send one of

49:31.550 --> 49:32.920
their--
an emissary,

49:32.922 --> 49:36.882
a man by the name of Menenius
to convince the plebeians to

49:36.882 --> 49:38.412
return to the city.

49:38.409 --> 49:43.889
Menenius manages to do this by
telling the plebeians a famous

49:43.893 --> 49:48.373
fable which called,
is still known as The fable of

49:48.371 --> 49:49.561
Menenius.

49:49.559 --> 49:50.819
What does he tell them?

49:50.820 --> 49:53.580
He said, look,
the city's really like a body.

49:53.579 --> 49:56.439
When you have a body the hands
work.

49:56.440 --> 50:00.260
Yes, it seems that the mouth
enjoys and savors the great

50:00.264 --> 50:02.424
pleasures of foods and so on.

50:02.420 --> 50:04.280
It seems that the stomach can
be full,

50:04.280 --> 50:07.440
but actually whatever they
produce and take in and they

50:07.443 --> 50:09.713
ingest,
they redistribute to the body,

50:09.706 --> 50:13.216
to the rest of the body,
to the hands, the feet, etc.

50:13.219 --> 50:15.779
The city is like a body.

50:15.780 --> 50:16.770
That's the analogy.

50:16.768 --> 50:19.088
Between the corporate structure
of the city,

50:19.090 --> 50:22.940
the idea that the city is a
corporation and--

50:22.940 --> 50:26.200
which by the way we carry on a
reminder of this,

50:26.199 --> 50:28.849
how vital this is,
we carry on a dime.

50:28.849 --> 50:32.849
I don't have a dime with me,
but if you have a dime you can

50:32.849 --> 50:34.919
read e pluribus unum.

50:34.920 --> 50:37.980
And it says one body out of
many limbs, out of many members,

50:37.981 --> 50:39.591
still an image that we carry.

50:39.590 --> 50:42.180
It's still a conceit that we
have, right?

50:42.179 --> 50:48.319
The idea is that the city is
like a body and plebeians are

50:48.315 --> 50:54.445
convinced and they go back to
order and they recompose the

50:54.451 --> 50:56.821
order of the city.

50:56.820 --> 51:00.350
This is the fundamental
structure here.

51:00.349 --> 51:03.719
I said something else which is
really is going to--does Dante

51:03.717 --> 51:06.467
believe in the corporate
structure of the city?

51:06.469 --> 51:12.099
Can it really hold together and
I go on submitting to you that

51:12.097 --> 51:15.047
he no longer believes in this.

51:15.050 --> 51:19.250
If you--when you read the canto
you will see that all the body

51:19.251 --> 51:23.661
parts are literally littering
the city, they're all mentioned.

51:23.659 --> 51:28.849
The nails, the hands,
the heart, the beard,

51:28.849 --> 51:31.989
the hair, etc.,
the mouth are sort of spread

51:31.985 --> 51:35.105
all over,
and as if to imply the

51:35.106 --> 51:41.336
impossibility of constituting
these body parts into an organic

51:41.336 --> 51:43.376
unified totality.

51:43.380 --> 51:46.950
There's another little issue
here that is being raised and

51:46.954 --> 51:50.224
that I want to talk about before
the end of the hour:

51:50.215 --> 51:53.975
the question of civil war and
what Dante understands by civil

51:53.978 --> 51:56.798
war because Dante's political
thought,

51:56.800 --> 52:01.180
the reality of his political
thinking is always the civil

52:01.179 --> 52:01.649
war.

52:01.650 --> 52:04.840
Let me just give you some
textual evidence and then we'll

52:04.835 --> 52:05.285
go on.

52:05.289 --> 52:09.689
"I answered him Ciacco,
thy distress so weighs on me

52:09.692 --> 52:11.502
that it bids me weep.

52:11.500 --> 52:14.900
But tell me if thou canst,
what the citizens of the

52:14.898 --> 52:17.888
divided city,"
this is now Florence,

52:17.889 --> 52:21.579
"shall come to and whether
any there is just,

52:21.579 --> 52:25.499
and tell me the cause of such
discord assailing it."

52:25.500 --> 52:29.940
An amazing image discord
because it's a musical metaphor:

52:29.936 --> 52:32.746
accord,
discord but it really comes

52:32.746 --> 52:36.776
from--it makes the 'heart,'
that's where the word comes

52:36.782 --> 52:39.902
from;
discord makes the heart the

52:39.902 --> 52:45.602
place, the receptacle where all
the envy, all these jealousies

52:45.601 --> 52:50.181
that destroy the city are
placed, are located.

52:50.179 --> 52:53.109
"He said to me,
'After a long strife this shall

52:53.108 --> 52:56.608
come to blood and the party of
the rustics shall drive out the

52:56.612 --> 52:59.872
other with much offense;
then by force of one who is now

52:59.869 --> 53:01.729
maneuvering,"
meaning the Pope,

53:01.731 --> 53:04.181
"that party is destined to
fall."

53:04.179 --> 53:09.009
This is the Guelfs and
Ghibellines that--within which

53:09.007 --> 53:11.047
the city is divided.

53:11.050 --> 53:14.260
"To fall within three
years and the other to prevail,

53:14.260 --> 53:17.750
long holding its head high and
keeping the first under grievous

53:17.750 --> 53:19.820
burdens,
for all their tears and shame.

53:19.820 --> 53:22.580
Two men are just and are not
heeded there.

53:22.579 --> 53:25.639
Pride, envy and avarice,"
these are the cause,

53:25.635 --> 53:28.625
these are "the
sparks" he calls them.

53:28.630 --> 53:31.580
"'These are the causes
that have set these hearts on

53:31.577 --> 53:31.997
fire.'

53:32.000 --> 53:36.180
Here, he made an end of his
grievous words."

53:36.179 --> 53:41.929
And then Dante goes on
literally evoking a street scene

53:41.931 --> 53:48.011
in Florence, goes on asking
about some other characters in

53:48.005 --> 53:49.385
the city.

53:49.389 --> 53:52.959
"I would still learn from
thee and I beg thee to grant me

53:52.963 --> 53:53.963
further speech.

53:53.960 --> 53:57.340
Farinata,"
he mentions about whom we shall

53:57.342 --> 54:01.022
see next Thursday in Canto X of
Inferno,

54:01.018 --> 54:03.518
"Tegghiaio,
men of such worth,

54:03.518 --> 54:06.878
lacopo Rusticucci,
Arrigo, and Mosca and the rest

54:06.880 --> 54:09.540
whose minds were set on
well-doing,

54:09.539 --> 54:12.319
tell me where they are and give
me knowledge of them;

54:12.320 --> 54:15.230
for I'm pressed with a great
desire to know whether they

54:15.228 --> 54:17.768
share in Heaven's sweetness,
or the bitterness of

54:17.766 --> 54:18.556
Hell."

54:18.559 --> 54:23.339
I would like to point out to
you the presence of this--of the

54:23.338 --> 54:27.638
language of gluttony throughout:
sweetness, bitterness,

54:27.639 --> 54:29.949
pleasant, unpleasantness.

54:29.949 --> 54:34.829
This really runs through the
canto and gives its--and links

54:34.827 --> 54:37.937
together gluttony and the
politics.

54:37.940 --> 54:40.570
It's the body:
you can see the body metaphor,

54:40.574 --> 54:42.674
but also these other
experiences.

54:42.670 --> 54:46.410
What is happening here he asks,
as Dante asks about these other

54:46.405 --> 54:48.815
famous Florentines,
the "men of such

54:48.815 --> 54:49.775
worth"?

54:49.780 --> 54:51.220
He says, where are they?

54:51.219 --> 54:54.969
They achieved so much worth,
so set on well-doing in the

54:54.965 --> 54:58.775
city and the English cannot
quite render the ambiguity of

54:58.780 --> 54:59.870
the Italian.

54:59.869 --> 55:02.809
The ambiguity of the Italian is
benfare which is really

55:02.813 --> 55:05.893
very difficult to translate,
which you don't know if it

55:05.885 --> 55:09.155
means "doing well"
or "doing good,"

55:09.155 --> 55:12.235
and that impossibility of
deciding what the sentence

55:12.244 --> 55:15.824
really means is exactly what
Dante's dramatizing here.

55:15.820 --> 55:18.620
What he's dramatizing is the
distance between human

55:18.619 --> 55:21.539
perspective,
the judgments that we make as

55:21.536 --> 55:25.216
human beings,
and the divine judgment on the

55:25.224 --> 55:29.064
dealings and doings of these
famous people;

55:29.059 --> 55:32.309
the discrepancy between them
here on earth when they judge

55:32.311 --> 55:34.781
one way,
then the real--the reality of

55:34.777 --> 55:38.067
the worth and value of these
other people that can be

55:38.074 --> 55:38.904
different.

55:38.900 --> 55:42.300
We are talking about--he's
talking about them,

55:42.300 --> 55:45.440
the black souls,
that is to say they're further

55:45.436 --> 55:49.456
down in the fire and different
faults weigh them down to the

55:49.458 --> 55:50.138
depth.

55:50.139 --> 55:54.799
What an extraordinary metaphor,
the weight, the burden of sin,

55:54.798 --> 55:58.768
but it's really an image that
goes back, the gravity,

55:58.771 --> 56:00.911
the question of gravity.

56:00.909 --> 56:04.149
This is--we speak of civic
gravity, but here it's a

56:04.146 --> 56:05.956
different kind of gravity.

56:05.960 --> 56:10.550
It's an idea of--it's an old
idea.

56:10.550 --> 56:16.320
When you want to talk about the
weight that we carry within us,

56:16.322 --> 56:21.352
the gravity we have within us,
that gravity is love.

56:21.349 --> 56:24.459
The way of deciding,
the way of understanding this

56:24.456 --> 56:27.686
line: there's a passage in
the Confessions of

56:27.688 --> 56:30.398
Augustine,
where Augustine says,

56:30.398 --> 56:34.668
that he wants to exemplify why
some people go up,

56:34.670 --> 56:38.650
other people go down,
and he says it's like the

56:38.654 --> 56:41.344
gravity of objects around us.

56:41.340 --> 56:46.960
A stone, you drop a stone and
the stone goes down out of its

56:46.963 --> 56:50.683
own gravity, its own specific
weight.

56:50.679 --> 56:54.919
A fire, he says,
goes up out of its own specific

56:54.918 --> 56:55.728
weight.

56:55.730 --> 57:00.050
We are carried wherever our
love carries us.

57:00.050 --> 57:03.730
We are--our love is our own
gravity, inner gravity,

57:03.731 --> 57:07.851
and whether we go up or down,
it depends according to the

57:07.853 --> 57:09.993
direction of our desires.

57:09.989 --> 57:13.659
Let me just go back to--this is
to give you a sense of all the

57:13.663 --> 57:16.653
resonances of this canto,
but at the heart of it all,

57:16.648 --> 57:18.378
there is the question of civil
war.

57:18.380 --> 57:20.140
Between Guelfs and the
Ghibellines,

57:20.139 --> 57:23.029
between patricians and
plebeians: Dante sees the whole

57:23.027 --> 57:24.777
of history,
Roman history,

57:24.782 --> 57:27.412
whether he is going to read
Virgil,

57:27.409 --> 57:30.879
or will read Lucan,
or he will read Statius,

57:30.880 --> 57:35.500
which actually deals not with
Roman history in this great epic

57:35.501 --> 57:36.791
the Thebaid.

57:36.789 --> 57:39.589
He reads--he's really
reading Greek history,

57:39.590 --> 57:42.630
the story of Oedipus and
Eteocles and Polyneices.

57:42.630 --> 57:47.160
They view history from the
point of view of the civil war.

57:47.159 --> 57:51.249
Let me just formulate the
question of the political

57:51.251 --> 57:53.381
understanding Dante has.

57:53.380 --> 57:55.620
For those of you who may have
read a little bit of

57:55.615 --> 57:57.655
Monarchia,
for instance,

57:57.657 --> 58:02.857
which is the treatise about the
desirable form of a universal

58:02.860 --> 58:06.530
confederation of states,
under the one emperor:

58:06.525 --> 58:09.895
that's the grand vision that
Dante has in Monarchia.

58:09.900 --> 58:13.150
He thinks about the needed
unity of all states,

58:13.150 --> 58:14.910
a kind of sort--we could call
it today,

58:14.909 --> 58:21.129
a confederation of states,
very much patterned on the

58:21.126 --> 58:22.916
Roman Empire.

58:22.920 --> 58:26.550
The idea of the--in fact the
Roman Empire becomes the model

58:26.548 --> 58:28.488
for this kind of unification.

58:28.489 --> 58:32.299
That's really what most of us
think that Dante's political

58:32.297 --> 58:33.097
vision is.

58:33.099 --> 58:37.769
In effect, Dante sees history
especially as--and it's kind of

58:37.769 --> 58:41.039
inevitable--a satanic form of
civil war.

58:41.039 --> 58:45.919
So harsh is he going to be
about the realities of the

58:45.920 --> 58:48.980
cities,
that you really wonder how can

58:48.978 --> 58:51.448
he go on elaborating a theory
of,

58:51.449 --> 58:53.269
a constructive theory,
of politics.

58:53.273 --> 58:54.673
You see what I'm saying?

58:54.670 --> 58:58.120
Once you are so harsh about the
reality of politics,

58:58.123 --> 59:02.123
then you really wonder how can
one go around really thinking

59:02.119 --> 59:04.489
that politics can be necessary.

59:04.489 --> 59:07.549
It's necessary that you can
explain, that it's somehow

59:07.552 --> 59:09.232
useful, that it's feasible.

59:09.230 --> 59:15.330
Where does it say--where does
this understanding of Rome come

59:15.333 --> 59:16.253
to him?

59:16.250 --> 59:19.100
Dante does not really agree
with Virgil.

59:19.099 --> 59:23.179
And Dante does not agree with
Virgil's greatest critic who is

59:23.175 --> 59:26.635
Augustine in The City of
God. For Virgil,

59:26.639 --> 59:31.669
Rome is the providential
empire, an empire that can

59:31.666 --> 59:35.736
really bring about,
unify the whole world.

59:35.739 --> 59:39.849
Augustine writes against Virgil
and says,

59:39.849 --> 59:43.069
no because even Rome,
as I just indicated to you a

59:43.074 --> 59:46.424
little earlier,
even Rome is part of the

59:46.420 --> 59:48.310
history of violence.

59:48.309 --> 59:52.399
Dante comes along and pulls
together within the Divine

59:52.398 --> 59:56.778
Comedy the question of Rome
and the needed empire and the

59:56.779 --> 59:58.969
question of the civil war.

59:58.969 --> 1:00:02.459
What do they have in common?

1:00:02.460 --> 1:00:04.180
What is it that connects them?

1:00:04.179 --> 1:00:07.659
Dante's argument is the
following: you,

1:00:07.659 --> 1:00:15.389
Virgil, are right in believing
in the unity of all mankind,

1:00:15.389 --> 1:00:18.679
a Stoic idea that we all live
in a cosmopolis,

1:00:18.679 --> 1:00:22.159
in a city which is the city of
the world where we all find a

1:00:22.157 --> 1:00:22.627
place.

1:00:22.630 --> 1:00:28.310
And you, Augustine,
are right in claiming that the

1:00:28.306 --> 1:00:34.676
empire is all built and based on
the libido and lust.

1:00:34.679 --> 1:00:36.929
You're right;
you are both right,

1:00:36.927 --> 1:00:39.197
and yet you are both wrong,
precisely because you

1:00:39.197 --> 1:00:40.377
contradict each other.

1:00:40.380 --> 1:00:45.050
What Dante says to Augustine,
if there is no empire,

1:00:45.047 --> 1:00:50.537
then we are living in a world
of disorder and lawlessness.

1:00:50.539 --> 1:00:55.519
The empire becomes the
necessary remedy to the evils of

1:00:55.523 --> 1:00:57.003
the civil war.

1:00:57.000 --> 1:01:00.860
The civil war is the condition
where my own brother,

1:01:00.862 --> 1:01:04.122
my own neighbor,
can become my own enemy.

1:01:04.119 --> 1:01:07.909
Augustine does not acknowledge
the reality of civil war.

1:01:07.909 --> 1:01:11.259
To him, it's just empire and
the empire is evil.

1:01:11.260 --> 1:01:16.000
And we'll finish with the
famous line: what do I care who

1:01:16.001 --> 1:01:20.321
governs me, provided that they
don't make me sin?

1:01:20.320 --> 1:01:24.230
It's the famous Christian
response to the idea of the

1:01:24.233 --> 1:01:27.173
evil, the historical evil of
empires.

1:01:27.170 --> 1:01:33.050
Let me retreat into myself and
find within myself some kind of

1:01:33.052 --> 1:01:36.432
comfort and some kind of
shelter.

1:01:36.429 --> 1:01:39.659
And Dante will respond to him,
says no that's not enough

1:01:39.655 --> 1:01:43.115
because once you think that you
have retreated into yourself

1:01:43.115 --> 1:01:46.745
then there is the reality of the
civil war that will reach into

1:01:46.753 --> 1:01:47.343
you.

1:01:47.340 --> 1:01:50.620
What I have been explaining to
you and I will stop because I

1:01:50.617 --> 1:01:53.167
want to talk about something
else before we go,

1:01:53.172 --> 1:01:53.952
Canto VII.

1:01:53.949 --> 1:01:57.239
What I've been trying to
explain to you is that the

1:01:57.235 --> 1:02:00.845
movement from Canto V to Canto
VI of Inferno,

1:02:00.849 --> 1:02:04.999
it's a movement from the
internal world of desires that

1:02:04.996 --> 1:02:08.066
seem to be so private and so
personal.

1:02:08.070 --> 1:02:10.500
Then, I said,
Dante has to go outside of

1:02:10.501 --> 1:02:12.751
himself to test,
to find out what the

1:02:12.746 --> 1:02:16.236
authenticity is of what he has
found out in Canto V.

1:02:16.239 --> 1:02:19.159
In Canto VI,
the political canto will tell

1:02:19.157 --> 1:02:23.637
them there is no such comfort
zone of one soul in the world,

1:02:23.639 --> 1:02:27.389
that the inner world is
necessarily part of the outside

1:02:27.393 --> 1:02:31.573
world and the outside world will
encroach upon it and it will

1:02:31.565 --> 1:02:33.785
enter one's own inner world.

1:02:33.789 --> 1:02:38.089
The terms for this kind of
movement between the inner and

1:02:38.090 --> 1:02:41.470
the outer are really Virgil and
Augustine.

1:02:41.469 --> 1:02:45.329
Virgil with the idea of the
defense of the empire,

1:02:45.327 --> 1:02:50.047
Augustine with his undermining
of the notion of the necessity

1:02:50.052 --> 1:02:51.472
of the empire.

1:02:51.469 --> 1:02:56.419
Dante will go on harmonizing
the two visions.

1:02:56.420 --> 1:03:00.910
He will endorse the idea of the
empire, aware that that's the

1:03:00.911 --> 1:03:05.331
only possible best response to
the tragedy of civil wars.

1:03:05.329 --> 1:03:10.149
Let me say just a few things
about Canto VII and then I'll

1:03:10.146 --> 1:03:13.776
give you a chance to ask some
questions,

1:03:13.780 --> 1:03:15.690
there should be two or three
minutes for questions.

1:03:15.690 --> 1:03:20.640
Canto VII also is a canto that
can be read symmetrically with

1:03:20.643 --> 1:03:24.533
the other Canto VII of the
Divine Comedy,

1:03:24.525 --> 1:03:28.155
Purgatorio VII,
just as Canto VI.

1:03:28.159 --> 1:03:31.939
I neglected to mention it,
but Canto VI of Inferno

1:03:31.940 --> 1:03:34.630
is about the city and
politics;

1:03:34.630 --> 1:03:36.860
Canto VI of Purgatorio
about the nation;

1:03:36.860 --> 1:03:39.050
Canto VI of Paradise
about the empire,

1:03:39.054 --> 1:03:41.834
so they're really connected;
the same thing with Canto VII.

1:03:41.829 --> 1:03:45.919
This is the only canto that's
not individualized sinners.

1:03:45.920 --> 1:03:48.750
He meets avaricious,
the avaricious and the

1:03:48.753 --> 1:03:51.153
prodigals,
and they are sort of taken in a

1:03:51.148 --> 1:03:53.138
kind of--
they have no--there's no

1:03:53.135 --> 1:03:55.125
individual figuration for them.

1:03:55.130 --> 1:03:59.000
It is as if this became a kind
of an anonymous,

1:03:59.000 --> 1:04:01.740
therefore a more collective
kind of problem,

1:04:01.739 --> 1:04:05.769
avaricious and prodigality,
which he represents in terms of

1:04:05.766 --> 1:04:09.096
the counter movement of Scylla
and Charybdis,

1:04:09.099 --> 1:04:12.399
and here we have the great
figuration of Fortune.

1:04:12.400 --> 1:04:17.140
You remember as I call her the
Vanna White of the time,

1:04:17.139 --> 1:04:21.069
the lady who is at the Wheel of
Fortune,

1:04:21.070 --> 1:04:25.820
turning blindfolded and let me
say something about this

1:04:25.824 --> 1:04:26.974
figuration.

1:04:26.969 --> 1:04:32.759
Dante describes it as--what is
it?

1:04:32.760 --> 1:04:36.950
It's a great--an idea that
I--what is it about the

1:04:36.951 --> 1:04:41.571
avaricious and the prodigals who
could turn around,

1:04:41.570 --> 1:04:48.200
so one against the other,
how can this be possible?

1:04:48.199 --> 1:04:55.219
What is--why are we so attached
to the things of the world?

1:04:55.219 --> 1:04:58.929
And then Dante goes on
explaining on Canto VII,

1:04:58.927 --> 1:05:02.067
lines 80 and following,
he will say,

1:05:02.070 --> 1:05:05.340
"He ordained them,"
He meaning God,

1:05:05.340 --> 1:05:07.280
"for them for worldly
splendours,

1:05:07.280 --> 1:05:10.560
a general minister and guide
who should in due time change

1:05:10.563 --> 1:05:14.003
vain well from race to race,
and from one to another blood

1:05:14.003 --> 1:05:16.173
beyond the prevention of human
wits,

1:05:16.170 --> 1:05:19.550
so that one race rules and
another languishes according to

1:05:19.550 --> 1:05:20.560
her sentence...

1:05:20.559 --> 1:05:22.839
She foresees,
judges, and maintains her

1:05:22.844 --> 1:05:25.794
kingdom as the other heavenly
powers do theirs.

1:05:25.789 --> 1:05:27.889
Her changes have no respite.

1:05:27.889 --> 1:05:31.199
Necessity makes her swift,
so fast men come to take their

1:05:31.195 --> 1:05:31.605
turn.

1:05:31.610 --> 1:05:34.750
This is she who is so
reviled,"

1:05:34.746 --> 1:05:37.526
meaning Fortune,
"by the very men that

1:05:37.530 --> 1:05:40.480
should give her praise,
laying on her wrongful blame

1:05:40.478 --> 1:05:41.568
and ill repute.

1:05:41.570 --> 1:05:43.680
But she is blest and does not
hear it.

1:05:43.679 --> 1:05:47.529
Happy with the other primal
creatures she turns her sphere

1:05:47.532 --> 1:05:49.832
and rejoices in her bliss."

1:05:49.829 --> 1:05:55.059
It's Fortune at the wheel,
but it's a figuration that in

1:05:55.059 --> 1:05:58.579
many ways it needs some
explaining.

1:05:58.579 --> 1:06:04.539
How can Dante believe in God as
Fortuna?

1:06:04.539 --> 1:06:09.269
How can he go on talking about
this pagan deity,

1:06:09.271 --> 1:06:13.801
she is Roman deity,
Lady Luck, how is he doing

1:06:13.802 --> 1:06:14.712
this?

1:06:14.710 --> 1:06:18.090
How can that--do you see how he
lives in a world of

1:06:18.090 --> 1:06:21.880
providentiality where there is
well--and he does say that

1:06:21.878 --> 1:06:24.448
Fortune is an intelligence of
God.

1:06:24.449 --> 1:06:26.109
That is to say,
not the--though she's

1:06:26.112 --> 1:06:28.222
blindfolded;
there is also a kind

1:06:28.224 --> 1:06:31.964
of--there's some criteria,
there is an intelligence,

1:06:31.958 --> 1:06:35.398
there is a will,
and a meditation behind it.

1:06:35.400 --> 1:06:40.770
What it means is that what is
up will inevitably turn down to

1:06:40.766 --> 1:06:44.966
go down, it's an endless
rotation of fortune.

1:06:44.969 --> 1:06:49.029
In a certain way when you are
down you only--the only--it's

1:06:49.025 --> 1:06:52.585
the best time to be at,
because you only get to--you

1:06:52.590 --> 1:06:53.920
can only go up.

1:06:53.920 --> 1:06:58.500
We are always though on
the--precariously poised on

1:06:58.496 --> 1:07:00.416
this--on the curve.

1:07:00.420 --> 1:07:04.610
We are never quite stable in
our own achievements.

1:07:04.610 --> 1:07:09.180
How can Dante relate this
fortune--idea of fortune to the

1:07:09.181 --> 1:07:13.511
providential scheme that
he--that regulates and shapes

1:07:13.507 --> 1:07:15.057
his own vision?

1:07:15.059 --> 1:07:18.879
What I would have to tell you
is that the--two things.

1:07:18.880 --> 1:07:23.260
The first thing is that as you
see, Canto VII begins with an

1:07:23.264 --> 1:07:26.094
illusion to the great war in
Heaven.

1:07:26.090 --> 1:07:31.320
The angels, the primal struggle
that disrupted the order of the

1:07:31.324 --> 1:07:33.354
cosmos,
in other words,

1:07:33.349 --> 1:07:38.069
Fortune is for Him the divinity
that rules over the world,

1:07:38.070 --> 1:07:41.250
this sublunary world of
generation of corruption.

1:07:41.250 --> 1:07:44.740
That is to say,
she is a minister within the

1:07:44.739 --> 1:07:47.419
world of the fall,
first thing.

1:07:47.420 --> 1:07:51.940
There is still a fallen world
and that's how perception of all

1:07:51.938 --> 1:07:54.158
the changes that take place.

1:07:54.159 --> 1:07:58.129
And the other thing is,
that Dante is intimating that

1:07:58.130 --> 1:08:02.330
the only way to conquer Fortune
is to really give up.

1:08:02.329 --> 1:08:04.699
It's a kind of mystical idea.

1:08:04.699 --> 1:08:06.959
Mystical in the sense of a
spiritual idea,

1:08:06.956 --> 1:08:10.366
that is, give up the attachment
to the things of this world.

1:08:10.369 --> 1:08:16.849
Let's stop here with the
briefest summary of Canto VII.

1:08:16.850 --> 1:08:20.370
Let me see if there are
questions about some of the

1:08:20.369 --> 1:08:23.819
weighty issues that I raised in
Canto V and VI.

1:08:23.819 --> 1:08:27.849
And there is much more that we
can say, but let me,

1:08:27.846 --> 1:08:32.516
if you want to ask questions
and maybe I can qualify things

1:08:32.519 --> 1:08:35.499
that were left in the
background.

1:08:35.500 --> 1:08:36.810
Please?

1:08:36.810 --> 1:08:43.520
Student:  In Canto V,
>?

1:08:43.520 --> 1:08:45.390
Prof: The question is a
very good question,

1:08:45.390 --> 1:08:49.910
what is the significance of
Francesca doing all the talking

1:08:49.911 --> 1:08:51.861
and not Paolo,
I guess.

1:08:51.859 --> 1:08:55.639
I take the significance is that
this is--

1:08:55.640 --> 1:09:00.660
to me is that this is a canto
where Dante understands some of

1:09:00.661 --> 1:09:05.851
the elements that he had put
forth in the Vita nuova.

1:09:05.850 --> 1:09:08.630
You remember where we discussed
the Vita nuova?

1:09:08.630 --> 1:09:11.120
There I indicated that the
great poem,

1:09:11.118 --> 1:09:13.508
"Women who have intellect
of love,"

1:09:13.511 --> 1:09:17.111
where the--
he discovers that they are the

1:09:17.112 --> 1:09:19.622
interlocutors about love.

1:09:19.618 --> 1:09:22.118
Not only are they the
interlocutors about love,

1:09:22.122 --> 1:09:24.902
there are also those--the
privilege of interlocutors

1:09:24.896 --> 1:09:26.906
because they know how to
combine;

1:09:26.908 --> 1:09:30.998
because they understand the
necessary independence of

1:09:30.997 --> 1:09:32.647
intellect and love.

1:09:32.649 --> 1:09:35.159
They are not two separate
entities,

1:09:35.158 --> 1:09:38.718
they are not two separate
aspects, and therefore,

1:09:38.720 --> 1:09:44.810
now he has Francesca as a woman
who can become indeed his own

1:09:44.806 --> 1:09:46.326
interlocutor.

1:09:46.328 --> 1:09:49.398
That's one aspect,
the other one is that medieval

1:09:49.402 --> 1:09:52.672
romances had made this
extraordinary discovery and I

1:09:52.666 --> 1:09:56.056
think that it's the most
revolutionary change that has

1:09:56.056 --> 1:09:58.806
taken place in the consciousness
of--

1:09:58.810 --> 1:10:02.620
in the imagination of the--in
the Western world in modern

1:10:02.615 --> 1:10:03.155
times.

1:10:03.158 --> 1:10:06.058
That is to say,
before it became a sociological

1:10:06.061 --> 1:10:07.861
issue,
before it becomes a

1:10:07.862 --> 1:10:12.062
philosophical problem,
the dignity and worth of the

1:10:12.060 --> 1:10:17.340
woman was already retrieved and
vindicated by romances.

1:10:17.340 --> 1:10:22.140
It's there that the woman
becomes either the figure in

1:10:22.141 --> 1:10:26.311
charge or the partner,
or friend of the man.

1:10:26.310 --> 1:10:27.730
Does that answer your question?

1:10:27.729 --> 1:10:30.589
Student:
>

1:10:30.590 --> 1:10:32.110
Prof: By the way the
answer was yes.

1:10:32.109 --> 1:10:36.929
That could not be picked up by
the video.

1:10:36.930 --> 1:10:42.910


1:10:42.909 --> 1:10:44.329
Other questions?

1:10:44.329 --> 1:10:55.729


1:10:55.729 --> 1:11:00.039
Well, okay thank you,
we'll see you next time with

1:11:00.042 --> 1:11:02.772
Canto IX, X, and XI,
I guess.

1:11:02.770 --> 1:11:09.000