Virgil And Dante

11 Pages 2787 Words

DANTE'S VIRGIL: A LIGHT THAT FAILED
In memory of J. Arthur Hanson
No linked pair of poets has, over the centuries, been considered as so significantly related a pair of poet-prophets as Dante and Virgil. Not only does each of them present himself in the role of the vates or prophet, but their works contain solemn moments of explicitly prophetic utterance, promising us that we shall behold a novam progeniem of one sort or another. It further seems clear that Dante's presentation of himself as prophetic poet is at least importantly joined with his sense of Virgil's own assumption of that role.
Among the past generation of Dante's readers it has become increasingly germane to place his role as poet into relation with his self-presentation as Judeo-Christian prophet. The «Italian school», in which the most significant name in our century is probably that of Bruno Nardi, and the «scuola arnericana», led by Charles Singleton, have in common, for all their many desperate differences, an awareness of Dante's appropriations of the vestments of such as David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, St. Paul, and of John's vision on Patmos. Surely no one who reads even cursorily in the dantology is innocent of the notion of «Dante theologus-poeta». Whether or not this putative reader admires or rejects a theological formulation of the Comedy's essential stance, all can see that the second half of our century has seen the direction of Dante studies move away from aestheticism and toward theology.
The questions which such a perception of Dante's theological purposes in his poem necessarily enjoin most dramatically concern Virgil. Just as we should never forget to be amazed at Dante's choice of Virgil as guide and master in this vigorously Christian poem, neither should we cease to be pestered by associated doubts: How can the prophetic enterprise of Virgil be assimilated to the specifically Christian purposes of the Comedy?...