WEBVTT 00:01.480 --> 00:08.510 Prof: You may recall that last time we went over the 00:08.507 --> 00:12.867 shape of Dante's cosmos, remember. 00:12.870 --> 00:18.440 And the point there, one of the points was to show 00:18.437 --> 00:23.207 that the context of Dante's experience, 00:23.210 --> 00:26.350 the way he moves, the tale he's telling about 00:26.352 --> 00:29.212 this extraordinary experience he has, 00:29.210 --> 00:31.030 is really the whole cosmos. 00:31.030 --> 00:36.000 It's not just one's own town, one's own place and so on, 00:36.003 --> 00:41.343 it really takes place within the cosmos and we saw how Dante 00:41.338 --> 00:43.688 describes that cosmos. 00:43.690 --> 00:49.280 He describes it in terms of a physical and a metaphysical 00:49.281 --> 00:50.481 principle. 00:50.480 --> 00:54.160 That is to say, all the materiality and the 00:54.161 --> 00:58.721 spirituality of two hemispheres all placed in one. 00:58.720 --> 01:04.800 The Empyrean is the threshold and the limit of the physical 01:04.802 --> 01:10.992 cosmos and the way of entering into the spiritual cosmos. 01:10.989 --> 01:16.759 The challenge he has as a poet is that to show the relationship 01:16.760 --> 01:20.390 between the finite and the infinite, 01:20.390 --> 01:23.750 the way that they are really disjointed and at the same time 01:23.745 --> 01:24.595 they are not. 01:24.599 --> 01:28.649 The finite universe can only be part of the infinite universe 01:28.646 --> 01:32.486 and so he describes how the infinite enters the finite and 01:32.489 --> 01:34.849 the finite enters the infinite. 01:34.849 --> 01:38.689 This is heart of the cantos of metaphysics which we all 01:38.694 --> 01:42.114 call--which we can call the cantos of physics and 01:42.110 --> 01:44.460 metaphysics at the same time. 01:44.459 --> 01:47.679 Now, Dante moves straight into the Empyrean, 01:47.680 --> 01:52.640 he was in the--you remember into the primo mobile or 01:52.644 --> 01:56.474 the crystalline heaven, before that he was in the 01:56.468 --> 02:00.308 Heaven of the Fixed Stars XXV, XXVI, XXVII then he moved into 02:00.305 --> 02:06.085 the crystalline; now he is into the Empyrean. 02:06.090 --> 02:11.120 This is the end of the race for him; 02:11.120 --> 02:12.130 it's the end of the journey. 02:12.128 --> 02:18.178 The question will be how he is going to say farewell to 02:18.176 --> 02:19.406 Beatrice. 02:19.408 --> 02:21.358 There will be a change of the guard. 02:21.360 --> 02:24.770 Beatrice--the role of Beatrice as a guide will stop, 02:24.772 --> 02:27.582 will end with Canto XXX of Paradise, 02:27.583 --> 02:30.453 quite appropriately; it's suitable; 02:30.449 --> 02:34.249 she is the woman tied with the number 30. 02:34.250 --> 02:37.540 She appeared in Canto XXX of Purgatorio, 02:37.538 --> 02:41.898 stays on the stage of the poem for thirty three cantos and now 02:41.901 --> 02:44.621 she's going to actually disappear. 02:44.620 --> 02:47.560 He'll realize that she has disappeared in Canto XXXI. 02:47.560 --> 02:52.170 But there's a change of the guard because Dante moves from 02:52.170 --> 02:56.930 Beatrice to a contemplative, a historical figure all the 02:56.930 --> 03:00.180 time, almost all the time with Dante, 03:00.180 --> 03:05.860 Bernard of Clairvaux, who was a famous monk of-- 03:05.860 --> 03:11.910 French monk who stands for--he has written treatises on 03:11.912 --> 03:16.062 contemplation and mystical visions. 03:16.060 --> 03:19.310 So appropriately, he's the one who will usher and 03:19.311 --> 03:23.241 pray the Virgin Mary that she may in turn pray her son, 03:23.240 --> 03:28.560 it's a chain of mediations so that the beatific vision may be 03:28.563 --> 03:30.253 granted to Dante. 03:30.250 --> 03:33.280 That's going to happen with Canto XXX and we are going to 03:33.277 --> 03:36.467 find out the difficulties that Dante has in both seeing, 03:36.470 --> 03:39.950 but above all, in recalling and recollecting. 03:39.949 --> 03:44.419 The poem will end up with being a sort of registering the 03:44.417 --> 03:48.957 defeat, the unavoidable defeat of memory and importance of 03:48.964 --> 03:50.404 forgetfulness. 03:50.400 --> 03:55.790 We are going to find in Canto XXXIII a sort of further twist 03:55.789 --> 03:59.149 to the metaphor of-- you remember in Canto XXXIII of 03:59.152 --> 04:01.292 Purgatorio that I mentioned to you what has 04:01.292 --> 04:01.862 happening. 04:01.860 --> 04:07.030 Dante will go on being immersed ritually into the River Lethe 04:07.033 --> 04:09.453 and then into River Eunoe. 04:09.449 --> 04:12.459 There are two rivers, one the river of forgetfulness, 04:12.460 --> 04:16.140 the one the river of memory, of good memory and Dante goes 04:16.139 --> 04:18.399 on saying that they really came-- 04:18.399 --> 04:22.709 he was at the point where the two streams were really 04:22.709 --> 04:25.609 originating from the same source. 04:25.610 --> 04:29.480 It as if memory and forgetfulness--first of all, 04:29.480 --> 04:32.630 I equate it with water there in Canto XXXIII of 04:32.627 --> 04:35.567 Purgatorio implying the lability, 04:35.569 --> 04:39.749 the water has that quality of flowing, 04:39.750 --> 04:42.840 the fluidity, the ability of both memory and 04:42.839 --> 04:43.989 forgetfulness. 04:43.990 --> 04:46.790 The most important thing is that they originated from the 04:46.790 --> 04:47.440 same place. 04:47.440 --> 04:51.440 It is as if Dante were already preparing what will move now 04:51.440 --> 04:54.270 front stage in Paradiso XXXIII, 04:54.269 --> 04:57.789 namely the notion of a forgetful memory, 04:57.790 --> 05:00.230 and the importance of forgetful memory, 05:00.230 --> 05:05.060 you have to forget and you have to remember and somehow the two 05:05.055 --> 05:07.775 are going to be brought together. 05:07.778 --> 05:10.958 It's not a mystical proposition that he advances; 05:10.959 --> 05:15.739 it's actually the way of justifying his poem and we'll 05:15.738 --> 05:20.428 come to that in some detail in--when we come to Canto 05:20.427 --> 05:21.417 XXXIII. 05:21.420 --> 05:25.190 What I would emphasize, though, to move now to Canto 05:25.194 --> 05:29.564 XXX, Dante's entering into the Heavenly Jerusalem which is a 05:29.560 --> 05:31.560 garden and it's a city. 05:31.560 --> 05:37.400 It will be described as such, you will see in-- 05:37.399 --> 05:43.079 well, let's turn right now to these images-- 05:43.079 --> 05:49.849 this is really Canto XXX line--a sequence of images lines 05:49.848 --> 05:55.408 32-- I'm sorry 110 and following, page 437, 05:55.410 --> 06:01.170 "I saw," line 112, "I saw, 06:01.172 --> 06:05.802 rising above the light all around in more than a thousand 06:05.802 --> 06:08.612 tiers, as many of us as have returned 06:08.613 --> 06:09.873 there above." 06:09.870 --> 06:14.380 The Heavenly Jerusalem is first of all described as a theatre 06:14.379 --> 06:18.139 and we ought to really think about it for a moment, 06:18.137 --> 06:19.187 a theatre. 06:19.189 --> 06:22.569 "And if the lowest rank," that's the image of 06:22.571 --> 06:25.641 theatre where you have in an auditorium today, 06:25.639 --> 06:29.369 tiers, "encloses within it so great a light, 06:29.370 --> 06:34.490 what is the expense of this rose in its farthest 06:34.485 --> 06:36.115 petals?" 06:36.120 --> 06:40.970 The second image is that it's described--to describe this--the 06:40.970 --> 06:44.470 Heavenly Jerusalem is the rose, a white rose, 06:44.468 --> 06:46.058 a mystical rose. 06:46.060 --> 06:49.660 I can tell you immediately that Dante is using the image that 06:49.660 --> 06:53.190 this is-- it derives straight out of 06:53.190 --> 06:57.610 thirteenth-century French poem called, 06:57.610 --> 07:01.930 The Romance of the Rose, which Dante had translated as a 07:01.925 --> 07:04.705 young man into a sequence of sonnets, 07:04.709 --> 07:07.939 part of his experimenting with poetic forms. 07:07.939 --> 07:11.099 But it's also--it's deeply altered because The Romance 07:11.098 --> 07:13.178 of the Rose, which is an extraordinary 07:13.180 --> 07:16.210 satirical poem, it's a compendium of all 07:16.209 --> 07:19.379 knowledge, it really has--it deals 07:19.375 --> 07:25.455 with--it's a story of-- about nature and about reason. 07:25.459 --> 07:31.359 The connections between reason and nature but it's also a story 07:31.363 --> 07:33.463 with a sexual theme. 07:33.459 --> 07:37.639 Dante is clearly taking that language of The Romance of 07:37.637 --> 07:40.637 the Rose and literally spiritualizing, 07:40.642 --> 07:41.892 reversing it. 07:41.889 --> 07:46.839 The resonances of the original poem are still there so that you 07:46.841 --> 07:51.001 are forced to think of the Heavenly Jerusalem as also 07:50.995 --> 07:54.745 having some kind of materiality within it, 07:54.750 --> 07:57.310 so you cannot just say, well I'm taking that image, 07:57.310 --> 08:00.730 placing it in a different context, and hope that the 08:00.733 --> 08:02.353 original, the residues, 08:02.346 --> 08:06.006 the traces of that original image are going to be completely 08:06.011 --> 08:06.571 faced. 08:06.569 --> 08:10.599 It's part of the strategy of, once again hinting, 08:10.595 --> 08:15.375 intimating that spirituality and materiality now are still 08:15.375 --> 08:18.055 going to be converging here. 08:18.060 --> 08:22.260 That's the archaeology, let's say, of this image of the 08:22.264 --> 08:22.814 rose. 08:22.810 --> 08:25.090 This continues, next paragraph, 08:25.086 --> 08:28.496 "Into the yellow of the eternal rose, 08:28.500 --> 08:32.970 which expends and rises in ranks, and exhales odours of 08:32.966 --> 08:37.016 praise to the Sun that makes perpetual spring, 08:37.019 --> 08:40.959 Beatrice drew me, as one who is silent and fain 08:40.956 --> 08:43.296 would speak, and she said: 08:43.303 --> 08:46.993 'Behold how great is the assembly of the white 08:46.986 --> 08:50.176 robes!'" This is a procession, 08:50.178 --> 08:53.828 a theatrical performance of sorts, the whole of paradise is 08:53.827 --> 08:57.607 a theatrical performance, and whenever we think of 08:57.614 --> 09:00.084 theatre--now, let me just reflect a little 09:00.076 --> 09:00.886 bit on this image. 09:00.889 --> 09:04.879 Whenever we think of a theatre, we understand that it implies 09:04.881 --> 09:09.071 the reduction of the world to a spectacle, that's what a theatre 09:09.073 --> 09:09.543 is. 09:09.538 --> 09:13.228 The world is something to be seen, it's also an optical 09:13.231 --> 09:15.721 phenomenon, or a case, to put it in another 09:15.722 --> 09:17.582 way, which really does not do any 09:17.583 --> 09:20.143 violence on the text, a question of the 09:20.136 --> 09:21.326 representation. 09:21.330 --> 09:24.750 The world is a representation implying that I become the 09:24.753 --> 09:25.503 spectator. 09:25.500 --> 09:28.930 I am--it's their representation for me, 09:28.928 --> 09:32.108 I can really watch this world, and see it in its whole 09:32.114 --> 09:35.844 totality just as Dante is seeing the whole of the universe, 09:35.840 --> 09:38.640 now he can see the whole totality of the blessed. 09:38.639 --> 09:42.719 This is the whole of the Heavenly Jerusalem where all the 09:42.715 --> 09:45.695 blessed will be sitting, enjoying, acting, 09:45.698 --> 09:48.318 and spectating at the same time. 09:48.320 --> 09:50.690 Two or three things that I want to say here; 09:50.690 --> 09:54.130 on the one hand, the theatre is an image of 09:54.131 --> 09:58.641 multiple perspectives, that's what a theatre implies. 09:58.639 --> 10:01.449 You are sitting there, I'm standing here, 10:01.450 --> 10:06.280 multiple perspectives but Dante wants to say that he's enjoying 10:06.283 --> 10:10.433 an overall perspective, what we call a perspective of 10:10.433 --> 10:11.243 the whole. 10:11.240 --> 10:13.910 He can see the whole of reality. 10:13.908 --> 10:17.048 He sees the whole expanse of the horizon of the world. 10:17.048 --> 10:20.318 In other words, whatever he's saying about 10:20.317 --> 10:25.097 himself, it partakes of and it belongs to the totality of the 10:25.101 --> 10:25.901 world. 10:25.899 --> 10:29.579 He's not seeing something isolated or disconnected with 10:29.576 --> 10:31.206 the rest of the world. 10:31.210 --> 10:36.390 This is, to him, what legitimizes a claim to be 10:36.389 --> 10:38.529 a visionary poet. 10:38.529 --> 10:43.379 To be truly a visionary poet, you have to be able to see the 10:43.380 --> 10:47.630 whole of a reality, not just like Narcissus your 10:47.625 --> 10:50.355 own image, not like someone who is bound 10:50.363 --> 10:53.723 to one's own perspective, one's own self. 10:53.720 --> 10:58.020 He sees the whole of the world and that's really what I think 10:58.022 --> 11:02.542 is the claim or the implications of the image of the theatre. 11:02.538 --> 11:06.408 The text, I think need some glossing, "Behold how great 11:06.414 --> 11:09.244 is the assembly of the white robes." 11:09.240 --> 11:14.430 A sense of the magnitude of the spectacle; 11:14.428 --> 11:18.088 then, "See our city, how great it is, 11:18.086 --> 11:19.866 its circuit." 11:19.870 --> 11:24.290 It has been described a littler earlier as--in terms of a rose 11:24.285 --> 11:26.665 and a garden, and now it's a city, 11:26.674 --> 11:30.154 that's an interesting shift in Dante's poem. 11:30.149 --> 11:34.029 It's an interesting shift for a number of reasons because the 11:34.029 --> 11:37.459 whole poem now appears as literally a journey from the 11:37.455 --> 11:39.885 wilderness, not to the garden, 11:39.886 --> 11:43.456 but to a city or to a garden which is a city. 11:43.460 --> 11:47.880 It is a way of encompassing the whole movement of the poem 11:47.884 --> 11:49.984 within these two figures. 11:49.980 --> 11:54.770 This is--it is as if the whole impulse behind this experience 11:54.774 --> 11:59.334 of Dante is a reintegration into what is it he implies. 11:59.330 --> 12:02.040 The place where many other people are as if-- 12:02.038 --> 12:04.348 I not only seeing the world as a whole, 12:04.350 --> 12:08.170 I want to be part of this whole, and the way of being part 12:08.173 --> 12:10.793 of this whole is this political poem. 12:10.788 --> 12:13.008 This city, heavenly city to be sure, 12:13.009 --> 12:18.479 but it has--the idea of city always implies some human 12:18.475 --> 12:23.095 contact, some human idea of what we call 12:23.101 --> 12:28.621 usually the polis, the political reality. 12:28.620 --> 12:31.320 Let me just add something else which is interesting in terms of 12:31.321 --> 12:32.281 Dante's imagination. 12:32.278 --> 12:37.938 We have a compression of images from the pastoral tradition. 12:37.940 --> 12:42.550 The garden and the idea of city, and we do know that when 12:42.548 --> 12:46.498 you read pastoral literature you really have, 12:46.500 --> 12:48.460 usually have this juxtaposition, 12:48.461 --> 12:51.701 it's called, between the urbs which you know 12:51.700 --> 12:56.080 is-- the term's for the urban now 12:56.077 --> 13:01.087 for the city from the rus, 13:01.090 --> 13:05.230 the rustic, a division between gardens and cities. 13:05.230 --> 13:09.690 This is the economy on which pastoral literature, 13:09.690 --> 13:13.860 eclogues, bucolic, ideals, idyllic literature is 13:13.863 --> 13:18.373 usually based on, on this divergence between the 13:18.365 --> 13:21.085 two modes of the imagination. 13:21.090 --> 13:25.610 I live in the city and then I want to go down into the villa. 13:25.610 --> 13:28.500 I want to go down to the country; 13:28.500 --> 13:32.930 it's as if there were two--a kind of--almost a hint of a 13:32.934 --> 13:37.534 schizophrenic existence that you have with Roman and Greek 13:37.532 --> 13:38.422 poetry. 13:38.418 --> 13:42.838 What Dante's doing is literally shattering that distance between 13:42.836 --> 13:43.956 the two modes. 13:43.960 --> 13:47.500 In an eschatological perspective, in a perspective 13:47.495 --> 13:51.315 which is at the end, city and garden come together. 13:51.320 --> 13:54.750 It is literally a change, both in the idea of the city 13:54.749 --> 13:56.819 and in the idea of the garden. 13:56.820 --> 14:00.620 They are not two divergent modes of the imaginatio; 14:00.620 --> 14:03.500 they really cohere within one. 14:03.500 --> 14:04.820 You see what the point is. 14:04.820 --> 14:08.620 The point is that no matter what Dante is touching with his 14:08.616 --> 14:11.526 imagination, all the oppositions, 14:11.528 --> 14:16.208 all systems of contrarieties, of contrary forms, 14:16.211 --> 14:20.911 he tries to always bring them together in a kind of 14:20.914 --> 14:24.144 concordance, discordant made concordant 14:24.136 --> 14:26.446 again, which is the idea of music. 14:26.450 --> 14:29.720 A kind of a harmonization of all these oppositions and 14:29.720 --> 14:32.990 everything that he has--we so far have been seeing. 14:32.990 --> 14:36.140 But now there is a further image which sort of complicates 14:36.136 --> 14:36.906 the problem. 14:36.908 --> 14:42.368 "'See our seats so filled that few souls are now wanting 14:42.365 --> 14:46.365 there.'" This is a kind of line which is 14:46.365 --> 14:51.725 really strange because it's implying that for all of us late 14:51.730 --> 14:55.860 comers there is no room, there is not even standing room 14:55.864 --> 14:58.834 there for us-- the places have all been taken, 14:58.830 --> 15:00.560 almost all been taken. 15:00.558 --> 15:04.368 Very few, the implication is, are going to be saved. 15:04.370 --> 15:09.820 Then one can make this claim, it follows, because he really 15:09.822 --> 15:15.282 believes that this is a kind of--that he has what we can an 15:15.277 --> 15:17.437 apocalyptic vision. 15:17.440 --> 15:20.360 That the end of the world is near, therefore, 15:20.360 --> 15:24.000 he can say only a few seats are available, 15:24.000 --> 15:26.350 or which is really the way I think, 15:26.350 --> 15:29.110 because I don't think that Dante really has an apocalyptic 15:29.105 --> 15:29.535 vision. 15:29.538 --> 15:31.368 That is to say, what I mean by an apocalyptic 15:31.365 --> 15:33.385 vision, apocalypse means visionary, 15:33.394 --> 15:36.254 he is a visionary, apocalyptic means, 15:36.245 --> 15:40.655 implies the imminence of the ending of history. 15:40.658 --> 15:43.378 I don't think that he has that idea at all. 15:43.379 --> 15:47.039 A man who keeps thinking as he does about the renewal or the 15:47.038 --> 15:50.978 corruption of institutions, the hope that some intervention 15:50.979 --> 15:53.929 will come from other human beings or from-- 15:53.928 --> 15:57.698 of history, a king for instance, or an intervention 15:57.696 --> 16:01.956 from the world of grace, cannot really have a sense of 16:01.962 --> 16:04.892 the imminent consummation of history. 16:04.889 --> 16:05.709 You see what I mean? 16:05.710 --> 16:09.750 You wouldn't be worried so much about renewing the institutions. 16:09.750 --> 16:13.630 This line is to--can be taken to mean, 16:13.629 --> 16:14.879 and I think has to be taken to mean, 16:14.879 --> 16:18.649 is that scene from the perspective of eternity as he is 16:18.647 --> 16:20.807 really there are a few seats. 16:20.809 --> 16:21.799 You see what I'm saying? 16:21.798 --> 16:27.148 If you see it in terms of the totality of time then they are 16:27.152 --> 16:31.962 not--a lot of time has been--has already passed by. 16:31.960 --> 16:36.000 Then he will continue--a haunting image I think that sort 16:35.998 --> 16:39.978 of gives all this talk of this-- my reflections on city, 16:39.981 --> 16:43.311 whether Dante has an apocalyptic imagination or not 16:43.313 --> 16:47.313 an apocalyptic imagination, look at how this absence, 16:47.308 --> 16:51.788 "And in that great chair on which thy eyes are held by 16:51.785 --> 16:55.105 the crown that is already set over it," 16:55.105 --> 16:58.655 an empty seat, it's taken, a crown is on it, 16:58.655 --> 17:02.825 a king is going to be sitting, that's what I call a haunting 17:02.832 --> 17:07.172 image of royal absence and royal presence because you'll see in a 17:07.166 --> 17:08.586 moment what it is. 17:08.588 --> 17:13.798 "Before thou shalt sup at these nuptials shall rest the 17:13.799 --> 17:19.099 soul, which shall be imperial below, of lofty Henry." 17:19.098 --> 17:22.708 This is the emperor who actually died in 1313 whom Dante 17:22.711 --> 17:26.261 was hoping would come down to Italy from the Holy Roman 17:26.257 --> 17:30.337 Empire; come down to Italy to set Italy 17:30.336 --> 17:31.416 straight. 17:31.420 --> 17:34.690 That is to say, to placate the violence between 17:34.692 --> 17:38.102 the cities, the whole history of Italian 17:38.095 --> 17:41.095 communes, but he had died prematurely and 17:41.104 --> 17:42.774 he's expected in heaven. 17:42.769 --> 17:44.709 You see there is a way in which the king, 17:44.710 --> 17:49.120 the emperor is beatified, his seat in heaven is going to 17:49.116 --> 17:52.456 be assured, and yet implying that somehow 17:52.455 --> 17:55.585 the violence in history is going to be, 17:55.588 --> 17:58.918 for the time being, continued and prolonged, 17:58.920 --> 18:02.900 so a political interest, a political-- 18:02.900 --> 18:07.000 the keeping, the holding on to Dante's own 18:06.996 --> 18:12.986 fantasies of political renewals that gives therefore the sort 18:12.990 --> 18:15.440 of-- that tempers all views that 18:15.435 --> 18:18.115 Dante may have, an apocalyptic imagination. 18:18.118 --> 18:21.888 "The blind greed that bewitches you has made you like 18:21.892 --> 18:24.942 the infant," etc., and then Dante goes on, 18:24.935 --> 18:26.785 the other great problem. 18:26.788 --> 18:31.178 The canto ends with a final denunciation about Simon Magus 18:31.176 --> 18:34.406 and the reference to Inferno XIX. 18:34.410 --> 18:37.120 Dante's at the height of the universe, 18:37.118 --> 18:40.728 he can't forget Simon Magus, Inferno XIX, 18:40.730 --> 18:43.790 and Boniface XVIII, "gets his dues, 18:43.788 --> 18:47.868 and shall make him of Anagni go," Boniface XVIII, 18:47.871 --> 18:49.951 "deeper still." 18:49.950 --> 18:53.720 Remember how they were punished being upside down in the 18:53.723 --> 18:56.463 ditches, and the flames of fire, 18:56.457 --> 19:00.527 Pentecostal flames of fire, on the soles of their feet, 19:00.527 --> 19:03.387 this is the way they have been twisting around, 19:03.390 --> 19:06.390 turning around the gift of prophecy. 19:06.390 --> 19:11.740 Let me just go onto Canto XXXI; it's really a farewell to 19:11.743 --> 19:15.943 Beatrice, and I thought that we expected so much her arrival in 19:15.944 --> 19:22.694 Canto XXX of Purgatorio; we should see how the farewell 19:22.686 --> 19:24.606 takes place. 19:24.609 --> 19:30.039 19:30.038 --> 19:35.168 Canto XXXI, lines 40 and following, 19:35.170 --> 19:39.630 page 449, "I who had come to the divine from the 19:39.626 --> 19:43.996 human," this is Dante speaking for himself, 19:44.000 --> 19:48.830 "to the eternal from time, and from Florence to a people 19:48.827 --> 19:52.457 just and sane, with what amazement must I have 19:52.459 --> 19:53.389 been filled! 19:53.390 --> 19:57.320 Truly between that and the joy I was content to hear nothing 19:57.317 --> 19:58.847 and to remain silent. 19:58.848 --> 20:02.088 And like a pilgrim who is refreshed in the temple of his 20:02.085 --> 20:05.905 vow as he looks around and hopes sometime to tell of it again, 20:05.910 --> 20:10.480 so, taking my way up through the living light, 20:10.480 --> 20:12.550 I carried my eyes through the ranks, 20:12.548 --> 20:17.178 now up, now down," he looks around to see whom he 20:17.180 --> 20:22.860 sees and he actually will go on listing the number of blessed, 20:22.859 --> 20:24.879 the women and men that he sees. 20:24.880 --> 20:27.620 "I carried my eyes through the ranks, now up, 20:27.618 --> 20:29.798 now down and now looking round again. 20:29.798 --> 20:34.828 I saw faces, persuasive to charity," 20:34.829 --> 20:39.179 used to charity, "adorned with Another's 20:39.180 --> 20:41.990 light, and with their own smiles." 20:41.990 --> 20:48.590 These blessed are blessed because they are--there's some 20:48.588 --> 20:50.508 other in them. 20:50.509 --> 20:54.209 They are themselves and there is another in them too, 20:54.211 --> 20:57.771 "and with their own smiles, and every movement 20:57.770 --> 20:59.480 graced with dignity. 20:59.480 --> 21:06.180 Already my glance had taken in the whole general form of 21:06.176 --> 21:11.166 Paradise," what I called earlier, 21:11.170 --> 21:15.130 the vision of the whole, the totality that he manages 21:15.131 --> 21:16.351 to-- gazes at. 21:16.348 --> 21:18.288 "But had not yet dwelt on any part of it, 21:18.288 --> 21:22.448 and I turned with new-kindled eagerness to question my Lady of 21:22.452 --> 21:25.732 things in which my mind was in suspense." 21:25.730 --> 21:28.990 We have now a revision, a rehashing, 21:28.986 --> 21:32.336 if you wish, of the scene of Virgil's 21:32.335 --> 21:37.355 disappearance when Beatrice is just about to come. 21:37.358 --> 21:41.818 Dante saw all stricken by and seized by tremor at the 21:41.821 --> 21:47.061 approaching of Beatrice that he turns around to try to see and 21:47.057 --> 21:51.517 get comfort from Virgil and Virgil had vanished. 21:51.519 --> 21:56.429 We have now a kind of variant of that same vanishing act. 21:56.430 --> 22:00.190 "One thing I intended, and another encountered me: 22:00.188 --> 22:05.068 I thought to see Beatrice, and I saw an old man," 22:05.068 --> 22:10.218 Bernard of Clairvaux, the great enemy of the 22:10.219 --> 22:15.329 so-called of the philosophers, but I don't want to get into 22:15.326 --> 22:15.636 that. 22:15.640 --> 22:18.780 "clothed like that glorious company. 22:18.778 --> 22:22.108 His eyes and his cheeks were suffused with a gracious 22:22.109 --> 22:26.139 gladness, and his aspect was of such kindness as befits a tender 22:26.144 --> 22:26.854 father. 22:26.849 --> 22:29.019 And 'Where is she?' 22:29.019 --> 22:32.009 I said in haste; and he replied: 22:32.009 --> 22:37.729 'To end thy longing Beatrice sent me from my place; 22:37.730 --> 22:42.020 and if thou look up to the third circle from the highest 22:42.019 --> 22:46.619 tier thou shall see her again, in the throne her merits have 22:46.622 --> 22:48.262 assigned to her.' 22:48.259 --> 22:52.069 Without answering, I lifted up my eyes and saw her 22:52.066 --> 22:56.566 where she made for herself a crown, reflecting from her the 22:56.570 --> 22:57.970 eternal beams. 22:57.970 --> 23:01.320 From the highest region where it thunders no mortal eye is so 23:01.321 --> 23:04.671 far, were it lost in the depth of the sea, was my sight there 23:04.673 --> 23:07.453 from Beatrice; but to me it made no 23:07.448 --> 23:12.578 difference, for her image came down to me undimmed by aught 23:12.576 --> 23:13.546 between. 23:13.548 --> 23:15.928 'O Lady," here he goes on now, 23:15.930 --> 23:19.200 "in whom my hope has its strength and who didst bear for 23:19.202 --> 23:21.822 my salvation to leave thy footprints in Hell, 23:21.818 --> 23:24.858 of all the things that I have seen I acknowledge the grace and 23:24.864 --> 23:27.714 the virtue to be from that power and from thy goodness. 23:27.710 --> 23:31.910 It is thou who hast drawn me from bondage into liberty." 23:31.910 --> 23:36.490 The great theme of liberty that we have been discussing, 23:36.489 --> 23:41.569 especially in Purgatory found also--it's sealed here in 23:41.567 --> 23:44.397 the presence of Beatrice, etc. 23:44.400 --> 23:49.870 This is now--he turns to the faithful Bernard. 23:49.868 --> 23:56.738 You may remember that Canto XXIX ended with Beatrice very 23:56.740 --> 24:01.770 worried that Dante has been expounding. 24:01.769 --> 24:04.629 Remember Canto XXVIII, XXIX there had been the 24:04.625 --> 24:08.665 exposition about angels, the exposition about creation, 24:08.670 --> 24:11.390 creation as an act of God's love, 24:11.390 --> 24:19.800 the ordering and the new ranks of angelic-- the angelic choir. 24:19.798 --> 24:25.228 Then Beatrice gets very upset because the whole issue seemed 24:25.230 --> 24:30.570 to be to her a way of thinking more about the appearance of 24:30.570 --> 24:34.530 things rather than the truth of things. 24:34.529 --> 24:37.729 You remember that she attacks the human beings on Earth; 24:37.730 --> 24:42.050 they do nothing else than go after false appearances. 24:42.048 --> 24:45.568 We are swayed by false appearances so that the question 24:45.565 --> 24:48.425 was, what does she mean that the truth is? 24:48.430 --> 24:50.740 She was saying let's get back to some-- 24:50.740 --> 24:54.730 let's bring some kind of sense of the real back into play in 24:54.733 --> 24:57.783 all of this, some sense of the truth value 24:57.779 --> 25:01.279 what we are saying back into this representation. 25:01.278 --> 25:06.048 That was the way Canto XXIX stopped, with Beatrice 25:06.051 --> 25:08.781 suspicious of appearances. 25:08.778 --> 25:14.158 Dante now gets into Canto XXX and XXXI and goes back to the 25:14.155 --> 25:19.005 question of appearances, and says to Beatrice that the 25:19.009 --> 25:24.189 appearance is exactly what-- the image is exactly what he 25:24.191 --> 25:27.441 has preserved, that he is going to preserve of 25:27.436 --> 25:27.696 her. 25:27.700 --> 25:30.660 Two things, therefore, have to be followed from this. 25:30.660 --> 25:33.420 Are you with me in all of these issues? 25:33.420 --> 25:36.070 Dante's saying here, in the encounter with Beatrice, 25:36.068 --> 25:39.548 "Without answering, I lifted my eyes and saw her 25:39.546 --> 25:44.236 where she made herself a crown, reflecting from her the eternal 25:44.236 --> 25:45.246 beams." 25:45.250 --> 25:47.680 This is the language of image and the language of reflections. 25:47.680 --> 25:53.040 What Dante's saying to Beatrice is that we are always in a world 25:53.035 --> 25:56.295 of images, and that somehow the image is 25:56.297 --> 26:00.527 the locus of the sacredness, but the image is also has its 26:00.525 --> 26:02.035 own fleeting quality. 26:02.038 --> 26:06.338 The journey of Dante is to go between the images and the 26:06.338 --> 26:07.198 essences. 26:07.200 --> 26:10.660 Now he's preparing for the final leap. 26:10.660 --> 26:14.130 This is to say that Dante's journey was not a journey to 26:14.125 --> 26:17.065 Beatrice; it's going to be a journey to 26:17.070 --> 26:17.460 God. 26:17.460 --> 26:23.320 Beatrice is the stepping stone for the pilgrim's entering the 26:23.316 --> 26:26.826 experience of the beatific vision. 26:26.828 --> 26:30.788 This is what I want to emphasize, and in fact, 26:30.788 --> 26:35.748 Canto XXXI, ends with, "Like one that 26:35.747 --> 26:39.677 comes," line 113, "Like one that comes, 26:39.680 --> 26:43.970 perhaps, from Croatia, to see our Veronica," 26:43.971 --> 26:48.711 Veronica is an allusion to one of the pious women, 26:48.710 --> 26:52.500 who during the Calvary ascent of Jesus, 26:52.500 --> 26:57.360 is said to have wiped his face and the face of Jesus remained 26:57.357 --> 27:01.647 imprinted on her veil and so that Veronica became-- 27:01.650 --> 27:04.900 it's the name of the woman Veronica, 27:04.900 --> 27:09.450 but it was also understood in the whole of Middle Ages as 27:09.451 --> 27:13.001 vera icona, this was the kind of phony, 27:12.996 --> 27:15.986 to be sure etymology given to the Veronica. 27:15.990 --> 27:21.220 It was--Dante's evoking now the pilgrims who come to--who go to 27:21.223 --> 27:26.293 Rome from Croatia to see the true image left imprinted on the 27:26.288 --> 27:28.398 veil of the Veronica. 27:28.400 --> 27:31.330 This is where Dante himself is. 27:31.328 --> 27:34.798 He is like one of those pilgrims who is still seeing the 27:34.803 --> 27:38.723 image but wants to move beyond images, wants to go and see what 27:38.719 --> 27:39.919 lies behind it. 27:39.920 --> 27:44.600 The journey of the Divine Comedy is the journey within 27:44.597 --> 27:48.187 that in tercets, between images and essences so 27:48.185 --> 27:49.195 to speak. 27:49.200 --> 27:51.580 This is Veronica, "and whose old hunger is 27:51.577 --> 27:53.707 never satisfied, but he says within himself, 27:53.708 --> 27:55.748 as long as it is shown: 'My Lord Jesus Christ, 27:55.750 --> 27:58.640 very God, was this then your true semblance?', 27:58.640 --> 28:02.820 such was I, gazing on the living charity of him who in 28:02.816 --> 28:05.966 this world tasted by contemplation of the 28:05.969 --> 28:07.229 peace." 28:07.230 --> 28:12.970 That's how we can--we are ready to get into Canto XXXIII which 28:12.973 --> 28:16.933 is the final canto and the final vision. 28:16.930 --> 28:23.600 Let's see how Dante carries that off and let me begin with 28:23.595 --> 28:26.865 saying a couple of things. 28:26.868 --> 28:32.478 There are a number of dramas that will go--are going to be 28:32.481 --> 28:35.241 unfolding in Canto XXXIII. 28:35.240 --> 28:38.240 28:38.240 --> 28:45.220 The first drama is that of the pilgrim who wants to see the 28:45.222 --> 28:50.192 face of God, wants to see the face of God, 28:50.193 --> 28:56.743 wants to preserve the wit so that he can be able to come back 28:56.740 --> 29:00.680 and retell the story, tell the story, 29:00.680 --> 29:05.280 write the poem as a witnessing to the vision he has had. 29:05.278 --> 29:08.498 So it's a way of thinking about the relationship between vision 29:08.496 --> 29:10.776 and language, if you want to say it in a very 29:10.778 --> 29:11.608 general way. 29:11.608 --> 29:15.118 How are the two related to each other? 29:15.118 --> 29:19.168 The real--the other drama is how is he going to remember? 29:19.170 --> 29:20.440 Can he remember? 29:20.440 --> 29:22.970 Number four, what does he really see? 29:22.970 --> 29:27.520 These are the number of problems that he faces. 29:27.519 --> 29:32.839 The poem begins with--Canto XXXIII begins with a prayer, 29:32.838 --> 29:37.648 a prayer to the Virgin Mary, or the Virgin Mother, 29:37.650 --> 29:42.990 and it's going to be constructed through a series of 29:42.994 --> 29:46.974 paradoxes as you can see, Virgin Mother, 29:46.973 --> 29:51.123 daughter of your son, paradox is about time, 29:51.115 --> 29:58.055 paradox is about all sorts of reversals of the natural order, 29:58.058 --> 30:02.698 "lowly and exalted more than any creature," 30:02.704 --> 30:07.264 a way of using paradoxes that challenge the rational 30:07.259 --> 30:10.029 understanding of the world. 30:10.028 --> 30:13.878 This is not going to be a rational representation of what 30:13.881 --> 30:16.681 Dante will see, "fixed goal of the eternal 30:16.684 --> 30:19.334 council, thou art she who didst so 30:19.325 --> 30:23.975 ennoble human nature, that its Maker did not disdain 30:23.983 --> 30:26.053 to be made its making. 30:26.048 --> 30:30.808 In thy womb," Dante goes on now to that motif 30:30.813 --> 30:36.453 of birth with which we began talking from Inferno I, 30:36.451 --> 30:39.271 when we discussed Virgil. 30:39.269 --> 30:44.069 This idea of the beginning, the idea of a beginning of 30:44.073 --> 30:49.693 birth as an image of beginning, and an image of nature becoming 30:49.691 --> 30:52.711 an event; the idea of nature becoming a 30:52.712 --> 30:55.642 historical event, a possibility of a historical 30:55.636 --> 30:56.206 event. 30:56.210 --> 31:00.340 "In thy womb was rekindled the love by whose warmth this 31:00.339 --> 31:03.159 flower," this flower really means the 31:03.162 --> 31:06.882 whole of the mystical rose that he has just seen, 31:06.880 --> 31:11.640 so the mystical rose begins in--it's contained in the womb 31:11.641 --> 31:15.001 of Mary, "has bloomed thus in the 31:14.996 --> 31:16.756 eternal peace." 31:16.759 --> 31:24.779 It's another way of making this idea of-- 31:24.778 --> 31:27.318 I could gloss this image of the womb as-- 31:27.318 --> 31:31.948 in terms of this is the immense sphere of the mystic, 31:31.950 --> 31:37.630 within which--the immense sphere within which the finite 31:37.625 --> 31:41.955 and the infinite come together and meet. 31:41.960 --> 31:44.270 The immense sphere, it's a circle; 31:44.269 --> 31:48.779 the immense sphere whose center is nowhere, or whose center is 31:48.775 --> 31:52.095 everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere. 31:52.098 --> 31:55.108 That's the way that he is understanding, 31:55.106 --> 31:58.806 he's explaining this motif of the incarnation. 31:58.808 --> 32:02.068 What is crucial about this image, I believe, 32:02.074 --> 32:05.874 is first of all, the humanization of the divine. 32:05.868 --> 32:11.048 This is clearly the divine that becomes divine because it enters 32:11.048 --> 32:16.228 history and experiences all that the human beings experience. 32:16.230 --> 32:20.940 The other element that, I think, that Dante is pushing 32:20.936 --> 32:26.356 forth is the feminization of the divine in the sense that here 32:26.355 --> 32:30.615 the divine has become the child of a woman, 32:30.618 --> 32:34.628 and the woman is therefore part, they subsume this part of 32:34.634 --> 32:35.624 this divine. 32:35.618 --> 32:38.888 A kind of feminine--I don't call it feminist because I don't 32:38.893 --> 32:41.393 really know what that is but the feminine-- 32:41.390 --> 32:46.450 and I don't mean it as in--it's a true statement I don't know, 32:46.450 --> 32:50.310 but it's a feminine, a theology of a feminine 32:50.308 --> 32:51.798 element in God. 32:51.798 --> 32:54.878 "Here thou art for us the noonday torch of charity, 32:54.875 --> 32:58.395 and below among mortals thou art living spring of hope." 32:58.400 --> 33:03.880 And then the second stylistic theme here is the repetition, 33:03.880 --> 33:07.180 the iterative mode, "Thou, Lady," 33:07.184 --> 33:10.724 skip a few lines, and "Thy loving-kindness 33:10.717 --> 33:12.977 in thee is mercy, in thee pity, 33:12.984 --> 33:16.334 in thee great bounty, in thee is joined all goodness 33:16.326 --> 33:17.866 there in any creature." 33:17.868 --> 33:22.798 What is the point of this iterativeness of--the style of 33:22.800 --> 33:25.760 repetitions of anaphoric style? 33:25.759 --> 33:28.349 I think one of the reasons, you may think of others, 33:28.348 --> 33:32.318 but one of the reasons is a language that is falling upon 33:32.321 --> 33:35.871 itself as a way of giving consistency to itself. 33:35.868 --> 33:41.238 The poem at this point is really dealing with vanishing 33:41.236 --> 33:44.396 traces, things that cannot quite be 33:44.400 --> 33:48.500 pinpointed or placed within logical propositions, 33:48.500 --> 33:50.980 and therefore, the language becomes 33:50.978 --> 33:55.278 incantatory as if it were an effort to create a kind of-- 33:55.279 --> 33:59.809 a mood, a sort of--creating a reality through this mood 33:59.811 --> 34:02.751 induced through these iterations. 34:02.750 --> 34:05.410 Then the prayer of Bernard continues, 34:05.410 --> 34:09.530 "This man," and in the pilgrim line 30, 34:09.530 --> 34:12.590 20, "This man, who from the nethermost pit of 34:12.594 --> 34:16.104 the universe to here has seen one by one the lives of the 34:16.096 --> 34:18.826 spirits, now begs of thee by thy grace 34:18.829 --> 34:22.599 for such power that with his eyes he may rise still higher 34:22.603 --> 34:25.873 towards the last salvation; and I," 34:25.867 --> 34:28.317 this is extraordinary. 34:28.320 --> 34:32.580 We are in Paradise, so far, 34:32.579 --> 34:36.819 Dante strays so far from the temptations of mystical writing, 34:36.820 --> 34:41.760 which ends up always evoking identities, 34:41.760 --> 34:46.180 representable identities; Dante distinguishes very 34:46.182 --> 34:49.412 carefully until the end between I and he. 34:49.409 --> 34:53.919 There are individualities in this Paradise of Dante's 34:53.922 --> 34:56.012 imagination, "And I," 34:56.010 --> 34:58.590 this is Bernard, "who never burned from my 34:58.585 --> 35:00.815 own vision more than I do for his." 35:00.820 --> 35:04.130 See the differences, I and him, "offer to thee 35:04.128 --> 35:06.918 all my prayers, and pray that they come not 35:06.920 --> 35:10.300 short, that by thy prayers thy wilt disperse for him every 35:10.297 --> 35:13.967 cloud of his mortality so that the supreme joy may be disclosed 35:13.972 --> 35:15.042 to him." 35:15.039 --> 35:17.229 That's the first prayer to the Virgin. 35:17.230 --> 35:20.350 "This too I pray to thee, Queen, who canst what thou 35:20.351 --> 35:23.471 wilt, that thou keep his affections pure after so great a 35:23.472 --> 35:24.422 vision." 35:24.420 --> 35:27.880 The first danger to the pilgrim is that he may be losing 35:27.878 --> 35:29.198 literally his mind. 35:29.199 --> 35:33.849 The vision of God may--a face may obliterate his powers 35:33.851 --> 35:39.281 of--this vision may obliterate the powers and the affections. 35:39.280 --> 35:42.430 "Let thy guardianship control his human impulses. 35:42.429 --> 35:45.379 See Beatrice and so many of the blessed who clasp their hands 35:45.378 --> 35:46.508 for my prayers." 35:46.510 --> 35:47.800 This is an extraordinary vision. 35:47.800 --> 35:52.680 The whole of the cosmos is praying for Dante--the pilgrim's 35:52.681 --> 35:54.281 beatific visions. 35:54.280 --> 35:57.290 "The eyes by God beloved and reverenced… 35:57.289 --> 36:00.949 and I, who was drawing near to the end of all desires." 36:00.949 --> 36:04.549 I want to emphasize this, even this language of desire, 36:04.550 --> 36:08.430 up to know the poem has been--can be called literally-- 36:08.429 --> 36:09.929 we've been calling it so many things, 36:09.929 --> 36:11.819 a poem of hope, a poem of peace, 36:11.818 --> 36:16.388 it's a poem of exile, and poem of desire and the poem 36:16.387 --> 36:17.587 of longing. 36:17.590 --> 36:21.050 The prayer is the mode of this longing. 36:21.050 --> 36:25.980 Prayer, you address someone you don't see hoping that you can be 36:25.978 --> 36:30.588 heard and that your prayer can be answered is a desire for a 36:30.592 --> 36:31.612 response. 36:31.610 --> 36:34.960 This is really the mode of Dante's theology. 36:34.960 --> 36:39.220 At the heart of his theological universe, there is a sense of 36:39.224 --> 36:43.564 constant longing and a sense of being not quite where he wants 36:43.559 --> 36:44.269 to be. 36:44.268 --> 36:47.218 "I who was drawing near to the end of all desires," 36:47.217 --> 36:50.207 I emphasize and I prepare you in case I would not make a point 36:50.213 --> 36:50.953 about that. 36:50.949 --> 36:55.579 Very soon the language of Dante will change from desire to 36:55.576 --> 36:56.546 enjoyment. 36:56.550 --> 37:02.870 He starts getting the sense of this sweetness and this idea of 37:02.865 --> 37:06.175 the fullness of his pleasures. 37:06.179 --> 37:10.669 A desire will shift into joy very soon, "ended perforce 37:10.666 --> 37:12.716 the ardour of my craving. 37:12.719 --> 37:15.889 Bernard signed to me with a smile to look upward, 37:15.885 --> 37:19.245 but already of myself I was doing what he wished; 37:19.250 --> 37:21.380 for my sight, becoming pure, 37:21.382 --> 37:25.732 was entering more and more through the beam of the lofty 37:25.728 --> 37:28.888 light which in itself is true." 37:28.889 --> 37:34.479 Now the first defeat; Dante starts recording the 37:34.483 --> 37:38.283 forgetfulness of this experience. 37:38.280 --> 37:41.020 "From that moment," first of all, 37:41.018 --> 37:43.438 "my vision was greater than our speech, 37:43.440 --> 37:46.670 which fails at such a sight." 37:46.670 --> 37:51.440 How are you going to make a failure become a success? 37:51.440 --> 37:56.410 How--from the fact that he is not going to be able to see will 37:56.414 --> 37:59.354 become somehow a mode of his own, 37:59.349 --> 38:02.479 not just a humility because it would be a success in terms of 38:02.476 --> 38:06.086 the pilgrim's own humility, but in terms of the writing of 38:06.094 --> 38:06.784 the poem. 38:06.780 --> 38:10.830 Now the poem will be a different way of understanding 38:10.833 --> 38:12.943 the poem, not just going to be a 38:12.936 --> 38:15.106 representation of plentitude of vision, 38:15.110 --> 38:20.650 but until the end the statement of a longing for a vision that 38:20.650 --> 38:21.650 may come. 38:21.650 --> 38:23.840 The memory too fails to such excess. 38:23.840 --> 38:27.420 Excess in Italian is really the language--I don't know, 38:27.416 --> 38:30.926 probably English is best, etymologically it's the same 38:30.925 --> 38:33.505 thing, but in Italian it's outrage. 38:33.510 --> 38:40.070 Outrage in the sense in which with resonance that there is 38:40.070 --> 38:44.850 something too bold and over-- a kind of hyperbolic, 38:44.851 --> 38:47.741 an overreaching because that's really what it is. 38:47.739 --> 38:51.349 An excess is an overreaching, "Like him that sees in a 38:51.351 --> 38:54.961 dream and after the dream the passion wrought by it remains 38:54.961 --> 38:58.201 and the rest returns not to his mind, such am I; 38:58.199 --> 39:03.849 for my vision almost wholly fades, and still there drops 39:03.853 --> 39:10.023 within my heart the sweetness that was born from it." 39:10.018 --> 39:13.008 That's all he's going to be left with. 39:13.010 --> 39:17.170 This sweetness that gathers in the chamber of the heart. 39:17.170 --> 39:20.420 This has been a journey of the heart, 39:20.420 --> 39:25.020 because as I have been saying to you in a number of ways in 39:25.023 --> 39:29.513 the past few weeks, is that the journey to God is a 39:29.512 --> 39:33.182 journey of the mind, but it's a journey of the heart. 39:33.179 --> 39:37.039 You have to--you will come to know God through this idea of 39:37.041 --> 39:37.841 the heart. 39:37.840 --> 39:41.590 But also, you know, that Dante's clearly punning on 39:41.590 --> 39:45.570 the notion of what memory is, because to him memory is 39:45.565 --> 39:48.335 connecting to those with a heart. 39:48.340 --> 39:51.280 What can I remember? 39:51.280 --> 39:53.380 What can I recall within me? 39:53.380 --> 40:00.010 What is this--the only thing that memory can retrieve is this 40:00.007 --> 40:02.767 sweetness of the heart. 40:02.768 --> 40:07.738 Such a--then he continues, "Thus the snow loses its 40:07.739 --> 40:10.179 imprint in the sun." 40:10.179 --> 40:15.279 The image of the liquefaction of shapes, 40:15.280 --> 40:18.910 the loss of shapes, water that had been 40:18.914 --> 40:24.594 crystallized just dissolves, and then an image which brings 40:24.588 --> 40:28.348 us back to the Aeneid, the third book of the 40:28.349 --> 40:31.159 Aeneid, "thus in the wind on the 40:31.159 --> 40:34.949 light leaves the Sybil's oracle was lost." 40:34.949 --> 40:39.369 This is the idea when Aeneas goes to the Sybil's cave to find 40:39.371 --> 40:43.761 out about the future, his future, and as the Sybil 40:43.760 --> 40:49.280 opens the gates the wind comes and will go on scattering all 40:49.284 --> 40:52.004 the leaves kept within it. 40:52.000 --> 40:54.640 It's the impossibility of reading, 40:54.639 --> 40:58.319 the impossibility of deciphering the actual leaves, 40:58.320 --> 41:00.670 like sort of messiness and confusion, 41:00.670 --> 41:04.230 that's exactly the state of mind in which he seems to find 41:04.226 --> 41:04.846 himself. 41:04.849 --> 41:08.179 "O Light Supreme," Dante now shifts to another 41:08.175 --> 41:10.585 mode on his own, and now in a sequence of 41:10.594 --> 41:11.324 prayers. 41:11.320 --> 41:17.580 "O Light Supreme that art so far exalted above mortal 41:17.581 --> 41:21.321 conceiving, grant to my mind again a little 41:21.322 --> 41:24.432 of what thou appearedst, and give my tongue," 41:24.434 --> 41:28.604 this is the kind of-- the prayer of--this is the 41:28.599 --> 41:35.079 prayer of that language may, I am missing a page here--this 41:35.083 --> 41:40.763 is the prayer that somehow, language now may triumph over 41:40.760 --> 41:44.640 him, over the threats of forgetfulness. 41:44.639 --> 41:46.579 Forgetfulness threatens him. 41:46.579 --> 41:49.689 Why am I insisting so much? 41:49.690 --> 41:53.290 "That it may leave but a gleam of thy glory to the people 41:53.289 --> 41:54.469 yet to come." 41:54.469 --> 41:59.479 What Dante is saying is that his poem is meant for the 41:59.481 --> 42:04.401 future, that in effect, he's envisioning a future. 42:04.400 --> 42:08.640 This is not a poem written for him, it's not a poem written for 42:08.644 --> 42:12.074 his contemporaries, it's a positing of a future. 42:12.070 --> 42:14.450 That is to say, the opening up to, 42:14.449 --> 42:18.889 and that's what work will do, a work of art invents and 42:18.885 --> 42:22.495 prepares a future, so more than an act of 42:22.498 --> 42:25.178 remembrance, and the commemoration, 42:25.177 --> 42:27.527 the poem will be what we call it, 42:27.530 --> 42:30.050 a prolepsis, a proleptic move, 42:30.047 --> 42:33.257 a movement forward into the future. 42:33.260 --> 42:35.550 Why do I talk so much about memory? 42:35.550 --> 42:38.840 Dante seems to be becoming now utopian, 42:38.840 --> 42:43.180 lend me some of your glory, let me see your glory so that a 42:43.182 --> 42:46.032 spark of it may be left in my text, 42:46.030 --> 42:49.230 so that the future will understand it and will see, 42:49.230 --> 42:52.190 and some fire can come from that spark. 42:52.190 --> 42:55.230 Now why does then language--his insistence on memory? 42:55.230 --> 42:59.860 Because that's the answer, he talks about retrieving the 42:59.860 --> 43:04.660 memory of what he has seen because the actual constitution 43:04.657 --> 43:09.057 of his poem, he can only his write his poem, 43:09.063 --> 43:14.823 he can only have some authority for his voice if he remembers 43:14.820 --> 43:16.740 what he has seen. 43:16.739 --> 43:22.219 In order to ground the poem in the notion into the vision of 43:22.219 --> 43:23.589 God, that therefore, 43:23.590 --> 43:26.520 will authorize him to say all of the things he has been saying 43:26.518 --> 43:30.718 about the living and the dead, the powerful and the not so 43:30.715 --> 43:33.085 powerful, the historical figures and the 43:33.092 --> 43:36.532 cultural figures of the past, it's crucial for him to 43:36.534 --> 43:41.834 remember so that memory becomes the actual foundation of his 43:41.833 --> 43:43.453 representation. 43:43.449 --> 43:48.049 He has to bring it back, give it a presence to what has 43:48.045 --> 43:50.425 gone on in his experience. 43:50.429 --> 43:51.009 Do you see what I mean? 43:51.010 --> 43:54.640 He's forced to go on remembering and yet he cannot. 43:54.639 --> 43:58.389 How is he going to--where does his authority come from then? 43:58.389 --> 44:00.829 If he can't remember, and he says that he can 44:00.831 --> 44:03.501 remember very little, only the sweetness that has 44:03.496 --> 44:06.656 been gathering in his heart, where does it come from? 44:06.659 --> 44:10.639 This is the third--fourth challenge of the poem. 44:10.639 --> 44:13.019 "I think," he continues, 44:13.021 --> 44:16.991 "from the keenness I endured of the living ray, 44:16.989 --> 44:19.759 that I should have been dazzled if my eyes had been turned from 44:19.755 --> 44:21.515 it; and I remember that for this 44:21.521 --> 44:24.601 cause I was the bolder to sustain it until I reached with 44:24.603 --> 44:26.753 my gaze the Infinite Goodness." 44:26.750 --> 44:31.770 Once again, breaking the narrative and turning into the 44:31.769 --> 44:36.609 meditative, a prayer, sort of begging that the divine 44:36.605 --> 44:40.505 may reveal itself and remain with him. 44:40.510 --> 44:43.810 "O abounding grace, by which I dared to fix my look 44:43.809 --> 44:47.289 on the Eternal Light so long that I spent all my sight upon 44:47.289 --> 44:47.709 it. 44:47.710 --> 44:48.930 In its depth." 44:48.929 --> 44:51.109 That's what he sees. 44:51.110 --> 44:54.320 "I saw that it contained," 44:54.320 --> 44:56.430 the cosmos as a book. 44:56.429 --> 45:00.409 That's it, the whole world I called it last time, 45:00.409 --> 45:03.559 a cosmos book, the cosmos as a book. 45:03.559 --> 45:06.609 That is to say, as a parchment maybe, 45:06.612 --> 45:11.792 but he uses also the image of a book which is different from a 45:11.786 --> 45:14.836 volume, the volume is rolled up. 45:14.840 --> 45:20.050 The book is the one which we have a kind of square structure. 45:20.050 --> 45:23.920 The two together, as a kind of allegory wrapped 45:23.918 --> 45:24.338 up. 45:24.340 --> 45:28.320 "I think I saw… in its depth I saw that it 45:28.315 --> 45:30.765 contained, bound by love in one 45:30.771 --> 45:34.031 volume," now that was the word Dante had 45:34.032 --> 45:37.592 used for Virgil at the beginning of the poem. 45:37.590 --> 45:43.060 A way to give continuity to his quest and his questions begins 45:43.061 --> 45:48.801 with the volume of Virgil's book and that Virgil's book becomes a 45:48.802 --> 45:54.002 pre-figuration of the book of the cosmos that he sees bound 45:54.003 --> 45:55.353 together. 45:55.349 --> 45:59.409 "That which is scattered in leaves through the universe, 45:59.409 --> 46:02.979 substances and accidents and their relations as it were fused 46:02.981 --> 46:06.911 together in such a way that what I tell of it is a simple light. 46:06.909 --> 46:11.379 I think I saw the universal form of this complex," 46:11.375 --> 46:15.105 of this compound, "because in telling of it 46:15.114 --> 46:17.064 I feel my joy expand." 46:17.059 --> 46:21.959 Now is the retrieval of--or rather the recovery of this 46:21.961 --> 46:25.051 state of mind, which is one of joy, 46:25.047 --> 46:27.497 which excludes absence. 46:27.500 --> 46:32.030 Desire has to be replaced by joy because desire always 46:32.032 --> 46:33.832 entails an absence. 46:33.829 --> 46:38.399 We long for what we do not have, at least at that moment. 46:38.400 --> 46:43.100 Desire is always tied to an experience of lacking. 46:43.099 --> 46:47.469 Joy is tied to an experience of plentitude of a procession 46:47.471 --> 46:51.301 somehow at this point, and now another mythological 46:51.304 --> 46:53.994 figure that I want to focus on. 46:53.989 --> 47:00.119 "A single moment makes for me deeper oblivion," 47:00.121 --> 47:06.141 you see now the dialectics between memory that fails and 47:06.143 --> 47:11.053 oblivion does its memory, and efforts at remembering and 47:11.045 --> 47:12.655 the reality of forgetfulness. 47:12.659 --> 47:18.839 This was the dialectic between the two metaphors together, 47:18.840 --> 47:25.800 "A single moment makes for me deeper oblivion than five and 47:25.800 --> 47:31.660 twenty centuries upon the enterprise that made Neptune 47:31.657 --> 47:36.407 wonder at the shadow of the Argo." 47:36.409 --> 47:38.669 What an extraordinary image. 47:38.670 --> 47:42.360 Single moment, it's clearly an image to say 47:42.364 --> 47:47.124 that I forgot more in one second, so time doesn't exist 47:47.117 --> 47:47.907 here. 47:47.909 --> 47:52.179 It exists in Dante, Dante is still being human, 47:52.179 --> 47:55.659 he stills has time, time is--at least he can only-- 47:55.659 --> 47:57.949 his life can only be measured by time, 47:57.949 --> 48:00.569 but he's in the presence of the eternal instant, 48:00.570 --> 48:02.750 but a single instant he says literally, 48:02.750 --> 48:05.930 I'm just glossing this, a single instance made me 48:05.927 --> 48:09.437 forget more than what we have forgotten in twenty-five 48:09.436 --> 48:12.546 centuries from the experience of the Argo, 48:12.550 --> 48:16.750 allusion to the Argonauts, another mythological counter to 48:16.748 --> 48:18.368 Dante's own journey. 48:18.369 --> 48:22.479 They went for the--Jason went for the golden fleece, 48:22.480 --> 48:25.720 Dante's going for the beatific vision, 48:25.719 --> 48:29.409 another little connection to Canto I of Paradiso 48:29.407 --> 48:33.297 starts with a reference to the story of the Argonauts, 48:33.300 --> 48:37.630 the daring of the Argonauts, and now Dante is closing the 48:37.626 --> 48:39.556 circle here once again. 48:39.559 --> 48:42.759 There's a further--something else that in the story of the 48:42.755 --> 48:47.925 Argonauts as Dante retrieves it, is that the guard is now below, 48:47.934 --> 48:53.204 Neptune is in the depth, and Dante is now thinking of 48:53.202 --> 48:58.442 the divine as being also caught in its own unreachable, 48:58.440 --> 49:00.510 unfathomable depth, which is a height, 49:00.510 --> 49:02.670 but you see there are two different perspectives. 49:02.670 --> 49:06.080 More importantly, here Dante sees Neptune 49:06.077 --> 49:11.357 wondering at the daring of man, just as Neptune is wondering at 49:11.362 --> 49:16.462 the daring of the Argonauts; the implication is that he too 49:16.456 --> 49:21.106 has had this kind of daring that the divine, that God may be 49:21.110 --> 49:23.950 wondering at his own achievement. 49:23.949 --> 49:29.879 What is crucial is the change of perspective from the depth of 49:29.884 --> 49:34.264 underneath the sea to the depth up in the sky, 49:34.262 --> 49:37.962 up in the heavens for Dante's God. 49:37.960 --> 49:41.090 Then he continues, "Thus my mind," 49:41.094 --> 49:45.764 Dante's so careful--I wish we had time about this to show you. 49:45.760 --> 49:49.640 I mean I know that there are some graduate students who may 49:49.643 --> 49:53.533 want to think about this whole issue of how Dante's lexicon 49:53.527 --> 49:56.107 about mind, intellect, reason, 49:56.112 --> 50:00.232 he's so carefully calibrated and differentiated; 50:00.230 --> 50:04.120 mind is the faculty of visionariness. 50:04.119 --> 50:11.129 It's also the root word of measure, as you know; 50:11.130 --> 50:15.350 Latin etymology is--the medieval minds are always taken 50:15.351 --> 50:18.401 with the discovery of the root words. 50:18.400 --> 50:24.650 The word measure comes from the immense, for instance, 50:24.646 --> 50:28.296 comes from the word for mind. 50:28.300 --> 50:32.590 It is as if he's still keeping a sense of the measure for 50:32.592 --> 50:33.362 himself. 50:33.360 --> 50:37.550 He's still aware of his own particular city. 50:37.550 --> 50:40.850 He's not lost in the immensity of what's around him, 50:40.849 --> 50:44.619 "Thus my mind, all rapt, was gazing, fixed still and 50:44.617 --> 50:47.097 intent, and ever enkindled with gazing. 50:47.099 --> 50:50.469 At that light one becomes such that it is impossible for him 50:50.465 --> 50:54.055 ever to consent that he should turn from it to another sight; 50:54.059 --> 50:57.279 for the good which is the object of the will is all 50:57.280 --> 50:59.860 gathered in it, and apart from it that is 50:59.858 --> 51:02.628 defective which there is perfect." 51:02.630 --> 51:05.090 Now language fails, memory fails; 51:05.090 --> 51:08.020 the second failure is that of speech. 51:08.018 --> 51:12.188 "Now my speech will come more short even or what I 51:12.192 --> 51:14.822 remember than an infant's." 51:14.820 --> 51:19.270 You know that the word infant, which usually we take that to 51:19.266 --> 51:23.786 be a child, it literally means the child who cannot speak. 51:23.789 --> 51:26.659 You refer; you use the word infant for 51:26.657 --> 51:29.697 someone who is pre-, as it were babbling even, 51:29.704 --> 51:31.604 that's the infant really. 51:31.599 --> 51:33.669 "Fari," in Latin means to speak, 51:33.666 --> 51:36.736 "And infant's who yet bathes his tongue at the breast. 51:36.739 --> 51:40.609 Not that the living light at which I gazed had more than a 51:40.614 --> 51:43.284 single aspect-- for it is ever the same as it 51:43.275 --> 51:45.725 was before-- but that my sight gaining 51:45.726 --> 51:49.236 strength as I looked, the one sole appearance, 51:49.239 --> 51:52.559 I myself changing was, for me, transformed. 51:52.559 --> 51:56.389 In the profound and clear ground of the lofty light 51:56.393 --> 52:00.613 appeared to me," that's the vision that he has, 52:00.610 --> 52:06.140 "three circles of three colours and the same extent, 52:06.139 --> 52:10.859 and the one seemed reflected by the other as rainbow by rainbow, 52:10.860 --> 52:14.990 and the third seemed fire breathed forth equally from the 52:14.992 --> 52:16.472 one and the other. 52:16.469 --> 52:22.129 O how scant is speech and how feeble to my conception!" 52:22.130 --> 52:26.540 It ends with an unavoidable statement of failure, 52:26.539 --> 52:30.149 a failure of memory so that the memory can be forgetful memory, 52:30.150 --> 52:34.820 and the failure of speech unable to contain the plentitude 52:34.824 --> 52:36.304 of what he sees. 52:36.300 --> 52:41.130 Vision exceeds language, exceeds speech, 52:41.130 --> 52:45.110 there is more to the text Dante is saying, 52:45.110 --> 52:50.210 there's more to my experience of the world than what I can say 52:50.210 --> 52:51.130 in words. 52:51.130 --> 52:57.420 There is--not everything is reducible or containable within 52:57.418 --> 53:00.888 the syllables of our language. 53:00.889 --> 53:03.889 "This, to what I saw, is such that it is enough to 53:03.893 --> 53:04.843 call it little. 53:04.840 --> 53:06.410 O Light Eternal." 53:06.409 --> 53:11.819 Once again, "that alone abidest us in Thyself," 53:11.817 --> 53:16.837 a divine that is now caught within itself and is self 53:16.838 --> 53:18.188 contained. 53:18.190 --> 53:20.210 Look at this, "In Thyself alone and 53:20.210 --> 53:22.180 knowest Thyself, and, known to Thyself, 53:22.177 --> 53:24.817 and knowing lovest and smiles on Thyself." 53:24.820 --> 53:29.880 This is the kind of inner and closure or circularity of the 53:29.875 --> 53:30.655 divine. 53:30.659 --> 53:37.649 In Italian, I have to read to you in Italian so you see line 53:37.648 --> 53:43.448 123--line 125 maybe, O luce etterna che sola in 53:43.454 --> 53:45.354 te sidi. 53:45.349 --> 53:49.739 "Sola," only you understand yourself, 53:49.742 --> 53:53.392 t'intendi, e da te intelletta e intendente 53:53.389 --> 53:55.379 te ami e arridi! 53:55.380 --> 53:59.620 You see how the words keep repeating and falling on 53:59.623 --> 54:04.803 themselves to convey the idea of the self-enclosed nature, 54:04.800 --> 54:09.160 now there is something that always escapes, 54:09.159 --> 54:13.469 a grasp and escapes Dante's. 54:13.469 --> 54:17.219 There's some--for all of the diffusiveness of God in the 54:17.222 --> 54:21.252 creation there is an element of the divine that literally is 54:21.248 --> 54:25.058 absolutely self-transcendent, just transcends itself 54:25.063 --> 54:25.883 completely. 54:25.880 --> 54:28.160 "That circling which, thus begotten, 54:28.164 --> 54:31.564 appeared in Thee as reflected light when my eyes dwelt on it 54:31.556 --> 54:33.256 for a time, seemed to me, 54:33.255 --> 54:35.435 within it and in its own colour, 54:35.440 --> 54:37.880 painted with our likeness." 54:37.880 --> 54:41.850 He sees our own, as he calls it, 54:41.853 --> 54:46.343 our effigy line 131, "nostra 54:46.342 --> 54:50.832 affige," our likeness. 54:50.829 --> 54:53.589 He doesn't say "my likeness," 54:53.585 --> 54:57.425 it's a poem therefore that at the end seems to want to 54:57.427 --> 55:02.137 retrieve the commonality of the common likeness that we have. 55:02.139 --> 55:06.169 What he sees is the incarnation, the human image 55:06.168 --> 55:09.378 within God, because in God there is also 55:09.376 --> 55:13.456 the human since we are-- if you agree with the principle 55:13.463 --> 55:18.053 that we are creations of God and the way we were created in His 55:18.050 --> 55:21.130 image, so therefore there's something 55:21.130 --> 55:24.760 human also within the divine, and then he continues, 55:24.755 --> 55:27.545 "Like the geometer who sets all his mind to the 55:27.552 --> 55:30.732 squaring of the circle," a famous mathematical surd in 55:30.733 --> 55:34.043 the Middle Ages, meaning one of the impossible 55:34.036 --> 55:37.216 paradoxes of how do you square the circle, 55:37.219 --> 55:40.219 and the geometers will go on reflecting on it and that's what 55:40.219 --> 55:42.009 Dante-- where Dante places himself. 55:42.010 --> 55:48.650 The science of measurement stumbles against this paradox 55:48.654 --> 55:52.404 that the geometer--and fails. 55:52.400 --> 55:54.630 "Like the geometer who sets all his mind to the 55:54.628 --> 55:57.028 squaring of the circle and for all his thinking does not 55:57.032 --> 56:01.302 discover the principle he needs, such was I at a strange sight. 56:01.300 --> 56:05.500 I wished to see how the image was fitted to the circle and how 56:05.498 --> 56:09.618 it has its place there; but my own wings," 56:09.619 --> 56:14.649 the flight of the soul, the wings of the soul, 56:14.646 --> 56:20.246 the platonic idea that we go on developing wings, 56:20.250 --> 56:25.800 of the two Eros allows us to unfold our wings for the sight. 56:25.800 --> 56:31.500 It's also a pun, I think, on Dante's own name. 56:31.500 --> 56:34.660 We have been talking about, "were not sufficient for 56:34.664 --> 56:37.894 that, had not my mind been smitten by a flash wherein came 56:37.885 --> 56:38.615 its wish. 56:38.619 --> 56:42.389 Here power failed the high phantasy." 56:42.389 --> 56:45.159 How many fantasies are there? 56:45.159 --> 56:46.879 There are three, the highest form of the 56:46.878 --> 56:49.008 imagination, that's what he means that 56:49.010 --> 56:51.190 the--a pretty romantic distinction, 56:51.190 --> 56:54.890 I mean, coloriage between imagination and fantasy. 56:54.889 --> 57:00.269 Dante follows--Dante belongs in that same line of thinking, 57:00.268 --> 57:02.998 "But now my desire and will, 57:03.000 --> 57:06.410 like a wheel that spins with even motion, 57:06.409 --> 57:09.789 were revolved by the Love that moves the sun and the other 57:09.789 --> 57:10.619 stars." 57:10.619 --> 57:15.049 That's the end of the poem which ends exactly the way--with 57:15.050 --> 57:16.960 Dante doing two things. 57:16.960 --> 57:20.920 One seeing the Prime Mover and understanding the Prime Mover, 57:20.922 --> 57:24.622 not the way he did at the beginning of Paradiso I, 57:24.621 --> 57:25.481 but love. 57:25.480 --> 57:29.850 The definition of God as the Prime Mover, 57:29.849 --> 57:31.819 you remember, seemed to have a limitation for 57:31.817 --> 57:33.917 Dante as the Prime Mover moves the universe, 57:33.920 --> 57:37.990 and somehow then detaches, disengages himself from it. 57:37.989 --> 57:42.129 Now Dante sees that primal, the motion as a motion of love, 57:42.130 --> 57:44.610 the universe as a universe of love, 57:44.610 --> 57:49.010 but calls the world together and prevents it from falling 57:49.005 --> 57:51.355 apart is exactly this power. 57:51.360 --> 57:54.580 Prevents it from chaos, it's this power called love so 57:54.576 --> 57:56.636 the whole universe is in motion. 57:56.639 --> 58:01.229 Love that moves the sun and the other stars, and the only thing 58:01.231 --> 58:05.601 stable, the only thing that makes it cohere is this love. 58:05.599 --> 58:08.979 By using this same language here of love that moves the sun 58:08.981 --> 58:11.551 and the other stars, it's a universe of love, 58:11.547 --> 58:12.887 we understand that. 58:12.889 --> 58:20.299 Dante uses, symmetrically, the same phrase, 58:20.300 --> 58:23.330 the stars of the sun and the other stars in Inferno-- 58:23.329 --> 58:24.939 at the end of Inferno and at the end of 58:24.936 --> 58:25.646 Purgatorio. 58:25.650 --> 58:29.430 Fair, remember that, and then now I was cleansed 58:29.429 --> 58:33.609 enough to come back and look at the stars, the end of 58:33.610 --> 58:35.380 Purgatorio. 58:35.380 --> 58:39.670 Then now Virgil and I finally managed to come back and see the 58:39.666 --> 58:40.226 stars. 58:40.230 --> 58:43.440 Now Dante says, the love that moves the sun and 58:43.442 --> 58:46.582 the other stars, what he's really doing is 58:46.576 --> 58:51.196 placing himself immediately with this line right back on earth. 58:51.199 --> 58:53.849 He's here with us looking up at the stars. 58:53.849 --> 58:57.229 It's the line that shifts, allows him to shift from the 58:57.233 --> 59:01.063 moment of this vision that he has, a vision that is the vision 59:01.057 --> 59:03.187 of the incarnation at the end. 59:03.190 --> 59:06.780 That is to say his own--our own likeness, that's all he sees, 59:06.784 --> 59:10.144 that's all he remembers, and then comes back to earth. 59:10.139 --> 59:16.569 But it also means that this line places Dante exactly in 59:16.570 --> 59:22.770 Inferno I and this is the story of the poem. 59:22.768 --> 59:26.108 The story of the poem--we have been reading the poem as an 59:26.105 --> 59:29.555 account of an experience of a pilgrim who goes from the dark 59:29.557 --> 59:32.657 wood in Inferno I to the beatific vision, 59:32.659 --> 59:35.689 whatever he remembers of it, and then comes back to tell us 59:35.686 --> 59:36.256 about it. 59:36.260 --> 59:39.790 But in effect we are also discovering in this reading of 59:39.789 --> 59:42.419 the poem, is that by the end of the poem 59:42.422 --> 59:44.772 Dante says, now my journey starts, 59:44.773 --> 59:47.373 the real journey was this poem here. 59:47.369 --> 59:49.949 We are in a sense, by that last line, 59:49.945 --> 59:54.445 caught in the circle of Dante's telling, in the drama of Dante's 59:54.454 --> 59:55.174 story. 59:55.170 --> 59:58.370 We read the poem which is a kind of journey for us, 59:58.369 --> 1:00:02.349 then we read because we want to tell our own story, 1:00:02.349 --> 1:00:05.619 and then we want to go on re-reading it once again. 1:00:05.619 --> 1:00:06.589 Do you see what I mean? 1:00:06.590 --> 1:00:09.340 It's a sort of, if you wish, 1:00:09.338 --> 1:00:15.038 witty even, way for Dante to say this poem will hold you, 1:00:15.039 --> 1:00:20.739 and it's meant to hold you, and I wish it holds you. 1:00:20.739 --> 1:00:24.629 You can see the poem as both a journey and the telling of the 1:00:24.628 --> 1:00:28.058 journey endlessly like the movement of the sun and the 1:00:28.063 --> 1:00:29.103 other stars. 1:00:29.099 --> 1:00:30.379 This is the end of the poem. 1:00:30.380 --> 1:00:34.000 Let me see, I'm sure that there are questions. 1:00:34.000 --> 1:00:37.400 I raised some issues and we have a minute--a few minutes and 1:00:37.400 --> 1:00:40.860 I'll tell you then later what we're going to do next time. 1:00:40.860 --> 1:00:44.920 1:00:44.920 --> 1:00:49.390 Please. 1:00:49.389 --> 1:00:51.539 Student: Can you talk about this line where he's-- 1:00:51.539 --> 1:00:59.989 at line 52 [Canto XXXIII], "Bernard signed to me with 1:00:59.987 --> 1:01:06.507 a smile to look upward…the lofty light 1:01:06.509 --> 1:01:10.659 which in itself is true. 1:01:10.659 --> 1:01:15.489 There are few things going on here about light and truth and 1:01:15.487 --> 1:01:19.757 I'm wondering-- the light seems to be pure all 1:01:19.762 --> 1:01:24.952 and what's happening is that Dante's vision becomes-- 1:01:24.949 --> 1:01:28.889 that the faculty improves enough to appreciate this and 1:01:28.887 --> 1:01:33.627 that his sight somehow fails and then he has failure of memory. 1:01:33.630 --> 1:01:36.210 I don't know, light is the truth, 1:01:36.213 --> 1:01:40.983 it no longer illuminates but isn't very obvious to the truth 1:01:40.976 --> 1:01:42.426 at this point. 1:01:42.429 --> 1:01:46.239 I'm not sure it seemed like there was a lot going on and I'm 1:01:46.235 --> 1:01:48.835 not quite-- Prof: Okay, 1:01:48.840 --> 1:01:52.620 the question is in reference to lines-- 1:01:52.619 --> 1:02:00.649 line 52 of Paradiso XXXIII where Dante says, 1:02:00.650 --> 1:02:04.310 "And I who was drawing near to the end of all 1:02:04.313 --> 1:02:07.083 desires," that we understand, 1:02:07.079 --> 1:02:11.139 " ended perforce the ardour of my craving. 1:02:11.139 --> 1:02:14.759 Bernard signed to me with a smile to look upward, 1:02:14.755 --> 1:02:19.045 but already of myself I was doing what he wished;" 1:02:19.050 --> 1:02:21.470 that's fairly, at least literally clear, 1:02:21.469 --> 1:02:25.419 "for my sight, becoming pure," 1:02:25.422 --> 1:02:31.432 that's also clear, Dante's experience in the final 1:02:31.429 --> 1:02:38.059 poems can be reduced to a refinement of the faculty of 1:02:38.063 --> 1:02:44.033 vision, physical but also clearly 1:02:44.030 --> 1:02:46.050 spiritual. 1:02:46.050 --> 1:02:50.030 "Becoming pure was entering more and more through 1:02:50.030 --> 1:02:54.240 the beam of the lofty light which in itself is true" 1:02:54.237 --> 1:02:57.137 meaning that-- I think this means, 1:02:57.135 --> 1:03:00.305 and this is also a footnote of yours, 1:03:00.309 --> 1:03:02.929 it's the footnote is too the famous phrase, 1:03:02.929 --> 1:03:06.109 "In thy light we see the light." 1:03:06.110 --> 1:03:13.310 The idea that--you are quite right that it's not a light that 1:03:13.309 --> 1:03:18.109 reveals an object being a true object; 1:03:18.110 --> 1:03:20.700 that's really what you--the point that you are making. 1:03:20.699 --> 1:03:23.709 That's absolutely true, I would agree with that, 1:03:23.708 --> 1:03:27.418 but it's really a statement about the light which in itself 1:03:27.420 --> 1:03:29.020 is--contains a light. 1:03:29.018 --> 1:03:32.788 It's this kind of--that's the meaning of the biblical phrase, 1:03:32.789 --> 1:03:36.109 "In thy light we see the light," it's not because of 1:03:36.108 --> 1:03:39.268 your light I see the world, I see myself or whatever, 1:03:39.266 --> 1:03:41.096 in thy light I see the light. 1:03:41.099 --> 1:03:45.169 The light is the light of truth, that's what he's saying. 1:03:45.170 --> 1:03:49.310 It's the light of truth in and of itself, the light of truth. 1:03:49.309 --> 1:03:50.789 Yes, it's a light in itself. 1:03:50.789 --> 1:03:56.689 That was your point or not? 1:03:56.690 --> 1:04:01.040 Student: Kind of, I'm just a little confused what 1:04:01.041 --> 1:04:03.141 the function of light is. 1:04:03.139 --> 1:04:04.619 Prof: What the function of light here? 1:04:04.619 --> 1:04:14.089 Well, the--I can give you a little bit of the idea of what 1:04:14.088 --> 1:04:23.058 we call the metaphysics of light in Paradiso. 1:04:23.059 --> 1:04:30.509 Dante begins with the idea that what we know of the divine is 1:04:30.512 --> 1:04:34.492 light, a light that--the power of 1:04:34.485 --> 1:04:40.745 which and the limitation of which is exactly like the dark 1:04:40.748 --> 1:04:47.008 in the sense that the light reveals to us the divine, 1:04:47.010 --> 1:04:50.700 but at the same time hides the origin of the light. 1:04:50.699 --> 1:04:52.209 You cannot see through the light. 1:04:52.210 --> 1:04:58.060 That's really the understanding of Dante in Paradiso I 1:04:58.063 --> 1:05:00.493 saying, "The glory of Him who 1:05:00.492 --> 1:05:03.342 moves all things," the glory is an image really 1:05:03.340 --> 1:05:04.180 means light. 1:05:04.179 --> 1:05:07.209 The light of Him, who moves all things, 1:05:07.206 --> 1:05:09.036 is what I really saw. 1:05:09.039 --> 1:05:12.799 Now Dante's seeing the origin of that light, 1:05:12.802 --> 1:05:18.142 that which has remained forever invisible, exactly the way the 1:05:18.141 --> 1:05:19.281 dark has. 1:05:19.280 --> 1:05:23.960 You may say that some of our imagination is that we are in 1:05:23.956 --> 1:05:24.856 the dark. 1:05:24.860 --> 1:05:28.010 We don't know the origins of anything; 1:05:28.010 --> 1:05:32.860 we don't know the causes that lie beyond our perceptions. 1:05:32.860 --> 1:05:36.750 We don't know the origin of the dark, we may even go like 1:05:36.748 --> 1:05:39.798 mystics believing that the dark is the image, 1:05:39.804 --> 1:05:41.684 is the cover for light. 1:05:41.679 --> 1:05:44.749 If there is a dark there must be a light somewhere else, 1:05:44.750 --> 1:05:47.430 in fact that dark may occasionally be removed. 1:05:47.429 --> 1:05:51.279 The worst thing about the mystical language of the divine 1:05:51.284 --> 1:05:54.454 in terms of light is that the light itself, 1:05:54.449 --> 1:05:57.979 which makes all things visible, remains in and of itself 1:05:57.983 --> 1:06:00.943 impenetrable in its origin to the human eye. 1:06:00.940 --> 1:06:04.070 Now Dante sees it, that's the idea of the true 1:06:04.070 --> 1:06:07.620 light, "In thy light we see the light." 1:06:07.619 --> 1:06:10.629 Is that a little-- Student: The beatific 1:06:10.632 --> 1:06:13.582 vision then is not exactly-- Prof: This is not a 1:06:13.583 --> 1:06:14.813 beatific vision. 1:06:14.809 --> 1:06:18.099 He has seen a moment of light and the origin of the light, 1:06:18.101 --> 1:06:19.431 that's still not God. 1:06:19.429 --> 1:06:23.109 The beatific--the only thing that he remembers of the 1:06:23.114 --> 1:06:26.094 beatific vision is some--he doesn't say. 1:06:26.090 --> 1:06:29.050 Some sweetness that has gathered in his heart, 1:06:29.054 --> 1:06:32.024 and what he then sees beyond the general form, 1:06:32.018 --> 1:06:34.058 he sees a number of things. 1:06:34.059 --> 1:06:37.769 The general form of the cosmos, which is this conjunction of 1:06:37.768 --> 1:06:40.418 circle and square, book and volume, 1:06:40.418 --> 1:06:43.908 if you want to visualize it in terms of-- 1:06:43.909 --> 1:06:48.219 I like that image because it really implies the Word. 1:06:48.219 --> 1:06:52.559 It's the theology of the Word that seems to come out of that. 1:06:52.559 --> 1:06:55.669 Then the other things that he sees is our likeness, 1:06:55.666 --> 1:06:59.016 i.e., he sends us back to Genesis 1, or the creation of 1:06:59.021 --> 1:07:00.701 man as told in Genesis. 1:07:00.699 --> 1:07:06.589 "Let me us make man in our image and likeness," 1:07:06.590 --> 1:07:09.220 so here's our likeness. 1:07:09.219 --> 1:07:12.419 You are talking now about the light and the meaning about this 1:07:12.422 --> 1:07:15.412 light is that the light--what does it mean to say that the 1:07:15.414 --> 1:07:16.364 light is true? 1:07:16.360 --> 1:07:20.120 Not because he reveals and dissipates the shadows that 1:07:20.119 --> 1:07:23.049 would be one way, one function of the light, 1:07:23.054 --> 1:07:25.554 the like the light, the light of the mind, 1:07:25.550 --> 1:07:27.400 the light of the sun, whatever. 1:07:27.400 --> 1:07:29.650 Because of that, the artificial light, 1:07:29.652 --> 1:07:33.252 but there is a way in which Dante is now thinking about what 1:07:33.246 --> 1:07:35.376 is called metaphysics of light. 1:07:35.380 --> 1:07:37.550 What is the light in and of itself? 1:07:37.550 --> 1:07:40.220 The light--Dante by the way, if you really want to know 1:07:40.222 --> 1:07:42.052 this, Dante distinguishes between the 1:07:42.045 --> 1:07:43.835 word for light and the word for lamp, 1:07:43.840 --> 1:07:45.580 lume, luce, 1:07:45.581 --> 1:07:49.351 and so on light, lamp and so on and a number of 1:07:49.349 --> 1:07:51.339 scientific distinctions. 1:07:51.340 --> 1:07:56.820 Here he is talking about the vision of the origin of light, 1:07:56.820 --> 1:08:01.050 "In thy light we see the light," that's the meaning 1:08:01.050 --> 1:08:02.180 of the phrase. 1:08:02.179 --> 1:08:07.999