NP: On Dante (Hmmm, andante?)

[Glenn Scheper]

I sent this to a couple religious lists. Thought you'd enjoy.

> Glenn why do you think Dante got real visions about Hell,
> Purgatory,
> and Paradise?
> The Bible tells us that God gives visions/prophecies to
> HOLY men.


Dante was of course trained in the church, which was the
only school in the middle ages. 'Comedy' in Divine Comedy
means, a story which has a good outcome, as contrasted to
tragedy, wherein incidents and choices propel characters
towards bad outcomes.

Before reading Dante, I read a book, "Dante, the poetics
of conversion", wherein, as I recall, Beatrice was said
to stand for Christ, or perhaps it had said, Shekinah.


Penguin's "The Portable Dante" also contained his small
piece, "Vita Nuova" which title means "New Life" wherein
I recognize his confession of the great metanoia, which
greek means across-mind, or, new mode of thinking, but
which in the bible is translated merely as 'repentance'.


Beatrice as described in Vita Nuova, section 5:

"It happened one day that this most gracious of ladies was
sitting in a place where words about the Queen of Glory
were being spoken, and I was where I could behold my bliss.
Halfway between her and me, in a direct line of vision, sat
a gentlewoman of a very pleasing appearance, who glanced at
me frequently as if bewildered by my gaze, which seemed to be
directed at her. And many began to notice her glances in my
direction, and paid close attention to them and, as I left
this place, I heard someone near me say: "See what a devastating
effect that lady has had on that man." And, when her name was
mentioned, I realized that the lady referred to was the one
whose place had been half-way along the direct line which
extended from the most gracious Beatrice, ending in my eyes.
Then I was greatly relieved, feeling sure that my glances had
not revealed my secret to others that day. At once I thought
of making this lovely lady a screen to hide the truth, and so
well did I play my part that in a short time the many people
who talked about me were sure they knew my secret."


Grepping 'beatrice' from my cached web texts, including an
on-line translation of Divine Comedy, I notice that nearly
the first, and the last mention of Beatrice, are reverent:


        early:

A gentle Lady is in Heaven, who grieves
At this impediment, to which I send thee,
So that stern judgment there above is broken.

In her entreaty she besought Lucia, And said,
"Thy faithful one now stands in need Of thee,
and unto thee I recommend him."

Lucia, foe of all that cruel is,
Hastened away, and came unto the place
Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel.

"Beatrice" said she, "the true praise of God,
Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so,
For thee he issued from the vulgar herd?


        and last:

Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst
Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve
After so great a vision his affections.

Let thy protection conquer human movements;
See Beatrice and all the blessed ones
My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!"

The eyes beloved and revered of God,
Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us
How grateful unto her are prayers devout;

Then unto the Eternal Light they turned,
On which it is not credible could be
By any creature bent an eye so clear.



Another brilliant author, the Russian Nabokov, who learned
English so well as to teach it at some (Oxford/Cambridge?),
wrote another technical work, mentioning Dante's Beatrice,
and is replete with religious reference, but known worldly
as simply lewd, called "Lolita", whose top level theme is
of a despicable pedophile writing his self-justification.

Look at the part of Lolita mentioning Beatrice:

 In Massachusetts,
 U.S., on the other hand, a "wayward child" is, technically,
 one "between seven and seventeen years of age" (who,
 moreover, habitually associates with vicious or immoral
 persons). Hugh Broughton, a writer of controversy in the
 reign of James the First, has proved that Rahab was a harlot
 at ten years of age. This is all very interesting, and I
 daresay you see me already frothing at the mouth in a fit;
 but no, I am not; I am just winking happy thoughts into a
 little tiddle cup. Here are some more pictures. Here is
 Virgil who could the nymphet sing in a single tone, but
 probably preferred a lad's perineum. Here are two of King
 Akhnaten's and Queen Nefertiti's pre-nubile Nile daughters
 (that royal couple had a litter of six), wearing nothing but
 many necklaces of bright beads, relaxed on cushions, intact
 after three thousand years, with their soft brown
 puppybodies, cropped hair and long ebony eyes. Here are some
 brides of ten compelled to seat themselves on the fascinum,
 the virile ivory in the temples of classical scholarship.
 Marriage and cohabitation before the age of puberty are
 still not uncommon in certain East Indian provinces. Lepcha
 old men of eighty copulate with girls of eight, and nobody
 minds. After all, Dante fell madly in love with Beatrice
 when she was nine, a sparkling girleen, painted and lovely,
 and bejeweled, in a crimson frock, and this was in 1274, in
 Florence, at a private feast in the merry month of May. And
 when Petrarch fell madly in love with his Laureen, she was a
 fair-haired nymphet of twelve running in the wind, in the
 pollen and dust, a flower in flight, in the beautiful plain
 as descried from the hills of Vaucluse. But let us be prim
 and civilized. Humbert Humbert tried hard to be good. Really
 and truly, he did. He had the utmost respect for ordinary
 children, with their purity and vulnerability, and under no
 circumstances would he have interfered with the innocence of
 a child, if there was the least risk of a row. But how his
 heart beat when, among the innocent throng, he espied a
 demon child, "enfant charmante et fourbe," dim eyes, bright
 lips, ten years in jail if you only show her you are looking
 at her. So life went. Humbert was perfectly capable of
 intercourse with Eve, but it was Lilith he longed for.


Good luck with Divine Comedy. The day I got it, I read nearly
the whole work in one day, sitting in a car outside McDonalds.

Yours truly,
Glenn Scheper
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
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