Dissent and Philosophy in the Middle Ages by Ernest L. Fortin

Author:Ernest L. Fortin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780739154298
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2013-07-10T16:00:00+00:00

Why all this detail? We can see once it occurs to us to join two words that belong together but that Dante cautiously separated with an interpolated clause, faccia and benigna, or, to put it more clearly, benigna faccia—“Boniface,” the “serpent” who according to the author had only the name and the appearance of goodness but all the rest of whom was only fraud, avarice, and disguised cruelty.102 Once this is understood, there is no mistaking the description of the animal’s body, which recalls very nicely the papal vestments of the time, the sleeves of which were covered with ermine and the sides decorated with knotted strips and medallions. As though by chance, the author had just before this spoken of his poem for the first time as a “comedy.”103 The scene that follows, one has to admit, is consummately comic.

Many other data would confirm this conclusion if need be. The end of the preceding canto aimed at putting the reader on the alert by reminding him how one must be prudent in the presence of those who not only see what we are doing but who also read our thoughts.104 Faced with a truth which seems a lie, to avoid giving rise to unmerited reproaches Dante will “close his lips as long as he can.”105 But then the Geryon surfaces from the abyss, like a diver coming up to the surface of the sea after plunging into the depths to loosen an anchor caught on a rock:

si come torna colui che va giuso

talora a solver l‘ancora ch’aggrappa

o scoglio o altro che nel mare e chiuso,

che’n su si sende e da pie si rattrappa.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.