The Theme in the Work
Paradise is the canticle in which love stops being the subject of a passage and becomes the law of the place. Each thing moves to its port, says Beatrice already in the first canto, and what moves it is love, which governs the heaven. The same idea runs through the canticle on three scales. The first is that of the will that is quieted: in Piccarda and Constance, charity makes one want only what one has, and the peace of one who occupies the lowest rung is that of one who desires no other place.
«Frate, la nostra volontà quïeta / virtù di carità, che fa volerne / sol quel ch’avemo, e d’altro non ci asseta, Brother, our will is quieted by the virtue of charity, which makes us want only what we have, and does not make us thirst for anything else.
The second scale is that of the souls who loved on earth and do not repent in heaven. In Venus, the love that burned Cunizza and Folquet was not extinguished, it was set in its place: what returns to the mind is the power that foresaw it.
Non però qui si pente, ma si ride, / non de la colpa, ch’a mente non torna, / ma del valor ch’ordinò e provide. / Qui si rimira ne l’arte ch’addorna / cotanto affetto, e discernesi ’l bene / per che ’l mondo di sù quel di giù torna, not, however, does one repent here, but one laughs, not at the fault, which does not return to the mind, but at the worth that ordained and provided. Here one contemplates the art that adorns such affection, and one discerns the good through which the world above turns the world below.
The third is the scale of the cosmos. In the Primum Mobile, Beatrice explains that heaven and all nature depend on the point of light, and that the nearest circle runs so swiftly because it is the most pricked by love.
Da quel punto / depende il cielo e tutta la natura. / Mira quel cerchio che più li è congiunto; / e sappi che ’l suo muovere è sì tosto / per l’affocato amore ond’ elli è punto», from that point depends the heaven and all nature. Look at that circle which is closest to it; and know that its motion is so swift because of the fiery love by which it is pricked.
There is also the cause of love: God does not create to gain an increase of good, he creates so that his splendor may say I subsist, and the eternal love opens into new loves.
Non per aver a sé di bene acquisto, / ch’esser non può, ma perché suo splendore / potesse, risplendendo, dir “Subsisto”, / in sua etternità di tempo fore, / fuor d’ogne altro comprender, come i piacque, / s’aperse in nuovi amor l’etterno amore, not to have for himself an increase of good, which cannot be, but so that his splendor, shining, could say "I subsist," in his eternity, outside of time, beyond all other comprehension, as it pleased him, the eternal love opened into new loves.
Paradise treats love as a measure of order, not as loose emotion. In Mercury the difference of rung is harmony, in Venus those who loved too much no longer carry the fault, and in Saturn love is measured by the capacity of the one who receives it, so much so that Beatrice does not smile, lest she reduce Dante to ash. None of this makes love an abstract thing: each soul is remembered for what it loved, Piccarda for the cloister, Cunizza for the star, Francis for the lady Poverty, Cacciaguida for the city at peace. The poem does not leave love alone: in canto XXVIII Beatrice says that beatitude is founded in the act of seeing, and not in the act of loving, which follows afterward. The order is to see first and love afterward, and in the Empyrean she links light, love and joy. The canticle closes with the verse that sums it up, the love that moves the sun and the other stars, and what moves is the desire and will of Dante himself.
The same tercet in the original, which closes the whole poem.A l’alta fantasia qui mancò possa; / ma già volgeva il mio disio e ’l velle, / sì come rota ch’igualmente è mossa, / l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.Here the high fantasy lacked power; but already my desire and will were turning, like a wheel moved equally throughout, by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
Who Embodies It
Piccarda Donati is the love that wants only what it has. Cunizza da Romano and Folquet of Marseille are the love that heaven sets back in place. Charles Martel is the love that would have borne fruit beyond the leaves. Beatrice is the love that comes down through another and teaches. Saint Bernard is the love that burns to see the other's good more than its own, and the Virgin Mary, the one who anticipates the request.
Where It Appears
- Canto I: Beatrice explains to Dante that intelligent and loving creatures also move to their port, by the same bow that shoots all things.
- Canto III: Piccarda says that charity quiets her will and makes her want only what she has.
- Canto V: Beatrice says that her fire comes from perfect sight, which moves the foot toward the good it apprehends.
- Canto VIII: Charles Martel reminds Dante that he loved him much, and that the love would have borne fruit beyond the leaves.
- Canto IX: Folquet explains that in Venus no one repents of past love, because the art that orders it is contemplated.
- Canto XI: Thomas tells of Francis as spouse of Poverty, the lady whom no one opens the door of pleasure to.
- Canto XIV: The voice of the most divine light, which tradition reads as Solomon, promises that the love of souls will radiate around the robe of light while the feast of paradise lasts.
- Canto XXVI: John asks Dante how many teeth love has to bite him, and Dante answers with the garden and the sea of crooked love.
- Canto XXVIII: Beatrice teaches that the fastest circle is the most pricked by love, and that beatitude is born of seeing, and loving comes after.
- Canto XXIX: Beatrice says that the eternal love opened into new loves without any increase for itself.
- Canto XXX: Beatrice defines the Empyrean as intellectual light full of love, love of the true good, and joy that transcends all sweetness.
- Canto XXXIII: Bernard tells Mary that whoever wants grace and does not turn to her wants desire to fly without wings, and the poem closes on the love that moves all things.
Where the Readings Diverge
Carpeaux singles out the final verse as the point at which Dante's poetry justifies itself:
Amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle