Who He Is
Charles Martel is the spirit who, in the sphere of Venus, comes alone toward Dante and introduces himself by citing him. The joy that radiates from him hides him, as silk hides the worm that spins it, and that is why the pilgrim does not recognize him. The poem does not give his surname: the text calls him by name only at the beginning of the next canto, where Dante speaks to his widow or to his daughter, and tradition reads him as Charles Martel of Anjou, heir to the kingdom of Naples and the crown of Hungary. He says the world had him only briefly, that Dante's love would have borne fruit beyond the leaves had he lived, and that he would have governed the shore of the Rhône, Ausonia, the land watered by the Danube, and Trinacria, which the common reading takes to be Provence, southern Italy, Hungary, and Sicily, the last lost through the bad government that always embitters subject peoples and that moved Palermo to cry out its revolt. He speaks of his brother, whom the common reading identifies with Robert, as of a nature that descended from generous to stingy, and Dante asks him the question that turns the canto: how can bitter come from sweet seed. The answer he gives is Paradise's explanation of lineage and vocation.
Trajectory
In canto VIII of Paradise the spirit is introduced at once, coming with the celestial princes in a single circling and a single thirst. The password is a verse of Dante's:
Noi ci volgiam coi principi celesti / d’un giro e d’un girare e d’una sete, / ai quali tu del mondo già dicesti: / ‘Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete’, we turned with the celestial princes in one circling, one revolving, and one thirst, to whom you in the world once said: "You who, understanding, move the third heaven."
He explains what cannot be seen, why Dante does not recognize him, and what did not come to pass: the love shown in its fruits:
La mia letizia mi ti tien celato / che mi raggia dintorno e mi nasconde / quasi animal di sua seta fasciato. / Assai m’amasti, e avesti ben onde; / che s’io fossi giù stato, io ti mostrava / di mio amor più oltre che le fronde, my joy keeps me hidden from you, for it radiates around me and conceals me, like an animal wrapped in its own silk. You loved me much, and you had good reason; for if I had stayed below, I would have shown you more of my love than the leaves.
The prophecy of the rule that never came brings up his brother, and Dante's doubt arises from it:
Fatto m’hai lieto, e così mi fa chiaro, / poi che, parlando, a dubitar m’hai mosso / com’ esser può, di dolce seme, amaro, you have made me glad, and thus you make it clear to me, since, speaking, you have moved me to doubt how bitter can come from sweet seed.
Charles's answer begins from a condition: if he shows a truth, Dante will have his face where his back is now. Then it descends to providence: the Good that moves and contents the kingdom makes its design a power in the celestial bodies, and everything that this bow shoots falls disposed to a foreseen end. The nature of the heavens acts like a seal that stamps without distinguishing one house from another:
La circular natura, ch’è suggello / a la cera mortal, fa ben sua arte, / ma non distingue l’un da l’altro ostello, circular nature, which is a seal to mortal wax, does its art well, but does not distinguish one dwelling from another.
Hence Esau different from Jacob, and Quirinus, of a father so base that he is attributed to Mars: nature gives the difference, and providence overcomes generation. The corollary returns to civic life, and the bad result belongs to whoever puts each person in the wrong office:
Ma voi torcete a la religïone / tal che fia nato a cignersi la spada, / e fate re di tal ch’è da sermone; / onde la traccia vostra è fuor di strada, but you bend to religion him who was born to gird the sword, and you make a king of him who is made for the sermon; therefore your track is off the road.
In canto IX Dante begins by addressing Clemence, whom the commentators take sometimes for the widow, sometimes for Charles's daughter, and the spirit no longer appears: he asked only that she be silent and let the years run, and the poet can say only that a just lament will come after the harms.
Themes Embodied
Charles Martel embodies Justice and law as providence: what seems like bad luck in a lineage is the order of the heavens, and the error lies with whoever puts the one born for one office into another that is not his. He also embodies the Love of Venus, the love of those who loved the world and keep loving it in God, and loss, the kingdom he would have governed.
The text sustains two readings of the friendship he evokes. In the first, it is a prince's courtesy toward a poet, and the verse he cites serves as a letter of introduction. In the second, it is the desire of someone who knows that Dante's love would have borne fruit beyond the leaves had he lived. The cry of Palermo and the lands from the Rhône to the Danube that he enumerates give the canto a politics that the rest of the lineage explains.
Relationships
- Dante: the poet he cites and to whom he responds.
- Beatrice: the one who makes the pilgrim see that he has risen to Venus and assures him he is there.
- Justinian: the emperor of the previous heaven, whose voice also judges the politics of the time.
- Cunizza da Romano: the soul of Venus who speaks in the next canto.