Summary of the cantos
These four cantos are made of long speeches, and almost none is by Dante. Beatrice closes in V what began in IV, the value of a vow and what can be put in its place, and the ascent to Mercury brings a soul that hides itself when it answers. VI is entirely the voice of Justinian, the emperor who tells the history of the Roman eagle from Aeneas to Charlemagne and judges Guelphs and Ghibellines by the way each one treats the sign. In VII Beatrice speaks again, to explain why the cross was just and why God willed redemption in that way. In VIII, on Venus, a spirit whom tradition identifies with Charles Martel answers a doubt about how a good father can give birth to a bad son. The question that runs through the part is how God's justice weighs what men do: a vow (V), an empire (VI), a cross (VII) and a lineage (VIII).
Canto V: The vow and freedom
Summary of the canto
Beatrice opens the canto warning that, if she shines more for Dante than the love seen on earth, to the point of overcoming the power of his eyes, this is no cause for wonder, because the fire comes from perfect sight, which, just as it grasps the good, moves the foot toward it. She sees the eternal light already shining in Dante's intellect, the only one which, once seen, always kindles love, and what most seduces the love of men is only a vestige of it, poorly known. She also reads the question he did not ask: whether with another service one can render enough for the failed vow, so that the soul is safe from dispute. And she speaks without pause.
Analysis
Lo maggior don che Dio per sua larghezza / fesse creando, e a la sua bontate / più conformato, e quel ch’e’ più apprezza, / fu de la volontà la libertate; / di che le creature intelligenti, / e tutte e sole, fuoro e son dotate
, the greatest gift that God, in his largess, made in creating, the one most conformed to his goodness and the one he prizes most, was the freedom of the will; with which intelligent creatures, all and only they, were and are endowed.
Beatrice answers a question about vows by beginning with freedom, and the order of the argument already says what is at stake: the vow is worth so much because what is offered in it is the greatest gift, not any good. The phrase also delimits to whom freedom belongs: to intelligent creatures, all and only them.
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Canto VI: Justinian and the eagle
Summary of the canto
The whole canto is the speech of Justinian, the soul that had hidden itself in its own ray at the end of Canto V. He begins with the sign, not with himself (The eagle of justice): after Constantine turned the eagle against the course of heaven, which it had followed behind the ancient one who took Lavinia, the bird of God stayed more than two hundred years at the far end of Europe, near the mountains from which it had come, and in the shade of its sacred feathers the world was governed from hand to hand until it reached his.
Analysis
Canto VII: Redemption and justice
Summary of the canto
Once the speech about Romeo and God's justice is finished, Justinian sings a hymn and withdraws dancing with the other lights, which vanish from Dante's sight like swift sparks in a sudden distance:
Analysis
Canto VIII: Venus and Charles Martel
Summary of the canto
The canto opens with an ancient error: the world used to believe that the fair Cyprian, turning in the third epicycle, radiated mad love, and for that reason the ancient peoples offered her sacrifice and honored also Dione, as her mother, and Cupid, as her son, whom they said had sat in Dido's lap. From her name they took that of the star: the planet inherits the name of the goddess Venus, and the poet recounts it as an inheritance of the ancient error. Dante did not notice the ascent; it is Beatrice, whom he sees more beautiful, who assures him that he is within it. As in a flame one sees a spark, and in a voice one distinguishes another voice when one stays firm and the other goes and returns, he sees in that light other lamps moving in a circle, more and less swiftly, according to their inner vision. So swiftly they come, leaving the circle begun among the high seraphim, that no wind of cold cloud would seem less hindered, and within those who come in front "Hosanna" sounds in a way that Dante never ceased to long to hear again.
Analysis
Reading of the block of cantos
Analysis