Clavis Libri
Plans Sign in

Purgatory · Cantos V to VIII

Those who repented late

ForgivenessPoliticsRedemption

Summary of the cantos

These four cantos show who waits outside the gate because they came late to repentance or to duty: the souls of violent death, who only in the last instant turned to God and forgave (V), the Mantuan poet Sordello, whose embrace with Virgil sets off in Dante the invective against Italy (VI), the princes seated in the flowery valley, judged one by one by Sordello (VII), and the night in which two angels with swords without points drive out the serpent (VIII). Dante is the only one who casts a shadow, and so all of them ask him the same thing: that he remember them among the living, so that prayers may shorten the wait. The question that runs through the part is what late repentance is worth, and the text answers with examples: a small tear disputed between an angel and a demon, an emperor who could have healed Italy and did not, a judge who doubts the love of the widow.

Canto V: The men who died by force, Bonconte and Pia

ForgivenessRedemption

Summary of the canto

Dante has already left behind the shades of Belacqua when a shade shouts behind him that the ray of sunlight does not pass through the one below him, and that he conducts himself as one alive. Dante turns, sees the souls looking on in astonishment, at him and at the broken light, and Virgil rebukes him:

Analysis

Vien dietro a me, e lascia dir le genti: / sta come torre ferma, che non crolla / già mai la cima per soffiar di venti, come behind me, and let people talk: stand firm like a tower that never lets its top fall with the blowing of the winds.

Virgil asks Dante why his mind holds so tightly that it slackens his step, and gives the rule: stand firm like a tower. The diagnosis comes next, in the thought that springs up on thought, which draws the goal away because the force of one weakens the other. Dante answers only "Io vegno," flushed with the color that sometimes makes a man worthy of pardon: the guide's reproach is for the dispersion, not for curiosity.

Unlock with a subscription

Subscription

The complete analysis of every section of Purgatory comes with a subscription, along with the explanation of each quote, the quiz, the PDF guide, and the study workbook.

See the plansAlready subscribed? Sign in

Canto VI: Sordello and the invective

ForgivenessPolitics

Summary of the canto

As the loser at a game of dice grows sad, repeating the throws and learning, while the whole crowd follows the winner, and each pulls at him from behind, from the front or from the side, and he does not stop, and to whoever offers a hand he no longer presses, so Dante defends himself from the crowd, turning his face one way and the other and promising. There is the Aretine who died at the savage hands of Ghino di Tacco, the other who drowned running in the hunt, Federigo Novello, the Pisan who made good Marzucco seem strong, Count Orso, and a soul who, as he said, was separated from the body by envy and hatred, not by any guilt committed: Pier da la Broccia; and Dante warns that the lady of Brabant should provide, while she is still on this side, so as not to end up in a worse flock.

Analysis

Unlock with a subscription

Canto VII: Sordello and the valley of the princes

PoliticsFate and Free Will

Summary of the canto

After the greetings are repeated three and four times, Sordello steps back and asks who they are. Virgil answers that, before this mountain turned toward the souls worthy to rise to God, his bones were buried by Octavian, and he gives the name: "Io son Virgilio," and says that he lost heaven for no other evil than that of not having faith. Sordello stands like someone who suddenly sees something before him and says "is... is not...", lowers his brows, returns humbly and embraces him where the lesser one clings, and says:

Analysis

Unlock with a subscription

Canto VIII: The serpent and the angels of the valley

ForgivenessPolitics

Summary of the canto

Evening falls, at the hour that stirs longing in sailors and softens the heart on the day they bade farewell to their friends, and it wounds the new pilgrim with love if he hears a distant bell that seems to mourn the dying day. Dante stops listening and looks at one of the souls, who has risen and asked with his hand that they listen. She joins and raises her palms, eyes toward the east, as if saying to God that she cares for nothing else, and sings the Te lucis ante so devoutly and with notes so sweet that Dante goes out of himself; the others follow her through the whole hymn, their eyes on the higher wheels. Then the poet turns to the reader:

Analysis

Unlock with a subscription

Reading of the block of cantos

Analysis

Unlock with a subscription