The Theme in the Work
Purgatory is only possible if the will is free, and the poem discusses this twice, at the center of the canticle, with two voices. The first is that of Marco Lombardo, in Canto XVI. Dante brings him a double doubt: the world is deserted of all virtue, and some place the cause in heaven and others down here. Marco answers that the world is blind and that the living carry every cause to heaven, as if everything moved it by necessity, and he concedes what he can:
Lo cielo i vostri movimenti inizia; / non dico tutti, ma, posto ch’i’ ’l dica, / lume v’è dato a bene e a malizia, / e libero voler; che, se fatica / ne le prime battaglie col ciel dura, / poi vince tutto, se ben si notrica., heaven starts your movements; I do not say all of them, but, granting that I say it, light is given to you for good and for evil, and free will; which, if in the first battles with heaven it suffers hardship, afterward conquers everything, if it is well nourished.
Heaven starts the movements, but leaves light for good and for evil, and free will, which suffers in the first battles and conquers afterward, if well nourished. Nourishment depends on law and government: the soul leaves the hand of him who loves it like a little girl who cries and laughs and plays, and gladly returns to whatever amuses it, and that is why law had to be set as a bridle.
Esce di mano a lui che la vagheggia / prima che sia, a guisa di fanciulla / che piangendo e ridendo pargoleggia, / l’anima semplicetta che sa nulla, / salvo che, mossa da lieto fattore, / volontier torna a ciò che la trastulla., it comes forth from the hand of him who cherishes it before it is, like a girl who, crying and laughing, plays like a child, the simple little soul that knows nothing, except that, moved by a joyful maker, it gladly returns to whatever amuses it.
The second voice is that of Virgil, in Canto XVIII, when Dante makes the objection that seems to undo the possibility of penance: if love is offered to us from outside, and the soul goes with no other foot, walking straight or crooked is not its merit.
ché, s’amore è di fuori a noi offerto / e l’anima non va con altro piede, / se dritta o torta va, non è suo merto, for, if love is offered to us from outside, and the soul goes with no other foot, walking straight or crooked is not its merit.
The answer is the power to hold back. Every love may arise by necessity, but holding it or not depends on the one who feels it. The guide gives what reason reaches, that free will is the threshold of assent, and hands the term over to Beatrice, who will call it a noble virtue:
Onde, poniam che di necessitate / surga ogne amor che dentro a voi s’accende, / di ritenerlo è in voi la podestate. / La nobile virtù Beatrice intende / per lo libero arbitrio, e però guarda / che l’abbi a mente, s’a parlar ten prende, hence, suppose that by necessity every love that kindles within you arises; the power to hold it back is in you. Beatrice understands it as the noble virtue, which is free choice, and so take care to keep it in mind, if she speaks to you of it.
The theme is not exhausted by doctrine. It appears in scenes where the will is at stake. On the line that Sordello draws on the ground, night does not forbid the climb; the darkness entangles the will with its lack of power. In Statius's speech, the mountain trembles when a soul feels the will free toward a better threshold, and the will is the proof of cleansing. In Virgil's last lesson, Dante's will is declared free, upright and whole, and the crown and mitre are placed on him by himself:
Non aspettar mio dir più né mio cenno; / libero, dritto e sano è tuo arbitrio, / e fallo fora non fare a suo senno: / per ch’io te sovra te corono e mitrio, do not wait for my word or my sign any longer; free, upright and whole is your choice, and it would be a mistake not to act according to its own judgment; therefore I crown and mitre you over yourself.
And in the final scene, it is the will that Beatrice judges: the forgetting of the Lethe proves the fault, because it shows Dante's will attentive to another part.
E se tu ricordar non te ne puoi», / sorridendo rispuose, «or ti rammenta / come bevesti di Letè ancoi; / e se dal fummo foco s’argomenta, / cotesta oblivïon chiaro conchiude / colpa ne la tua voglia altrove attenta, and if you cannot remember it, she answered smiling, now recall how today you drank of Lethe; and if fire is inferred from smoke, that forgetting clearly concludes fault in your will, which was attentive elsewhere.
Who Embodies It
Marco Lombardo is the doctrine spoken by a man of the court. Virgil is the same doctrine spoken as far as reason reaches. Statius is the will that, after five hundred years, feels itself free. Beatrice is the one who receives the term and applies it to Dante.
Where It Appears
- Canto VII: Sordello draws a line on the ground and explains that the darkness of night entangles the will of whoever wants to climb with the lack of power.
- Canto XIV: Virgil says that heaven calls men and turns around them showing their eternal beauties, and that their eye looks only at the earth.
- Canto XVI: Marco Lombardo states that heaven starts the movements but leaves light for good and for evil and free will, and places the cause of the lost world in bad government.
- Canto XVII: Virgil shows that every act is born of love and that only the love of the mind can err, which makes error a deviation and not a nature.
- Canto XVIII: Dante objects that love comes from outside and the soul has no other foot, and Virgil answers with the power to hold back and hands the noble virtue over to Beatrice.
- Canto XXI: Statius says that the proof of a soul's cleansing is only the will, free to change convent, and that he felt the will free toward a better threshold.
- Canto XXV: Statius teaches that the soul carries with it, beyond death, memory, intelligence and will, sharper than before.
- Canto XXVII: Virgil declares Dante's choice free, upright and whole, and crowns and mitres him over himself.
- Canto XXXIII: Beatrice argues that the forgetting of the Lethe proves fault in Dante's will, attentive to another part.
Where the Readings Diverge
Marco affirms free will and accuses the government. The text sustains both things side by side and does not say how much each weighs. The question remains open: the soul leaves the hand of its maker simple and runs after the first small good; the will wins if well nourished; the nourishment depends on laws and government; so is the responsibility of one who lived under a bad shepherd his own, or the shepherd's?
The text says piacere, which can be read as desire, and the next verse names what Virgil means: the choice, the word that closes the thesis of Canto XVIII. Free choice is not desire; it is the power to hold back or to let go.