Quaderni d`italianistica : revue officielle de la Société canadienne

Madison U. Sowell
Dante's Nose and Publius Ovidîus
Naso: A Gloss on Inferno 25.45
For Kevin Brownlee and Roy Rosenstein*
Io scrittore [l'Ottimo
trasse a dire altro
commentatore]
molte e spesse volte facea
ch'erano appo
udii dire a Dante, che
che quello ch'avea
mai rima noi
suo proponimento;
in
ma
ch'elli
vocaboli dire nelle sue rime altro che quello,
li
sprimere. (L'ottimo
gli dicitori usati di
commento 183)
Ovid appears as an ostensibly minor character in one brief but highly
charged episode of Dante's Commedia, that of the Pilgrim's and Virencounter with the famous poets
gil's
in
who
constitute "la bella scola"
Limbo. After Homer and Horace, "Ovidio è
'1
terzo, e l'ultimo
Lucano" {fnf. 4.90).' Although the author of Dante's primary sourcebook for mythology (the Metamorphoses) receives a scant hemistich
of attention and will be mentioned by the
Commedia
other time in the
(Inf.
name
of "Ovidio" only one
25.97), an authorial interjection near
the end of the fourth canto bears on the question of
Ovid
as an auctor really
may
be for Dante. In
how
significant
Inferno 4.145-47 the
Poet states that his lengthy task keeps him from discoursing as
much
as he should about the souls he sees:
non posso
Io
però che
ritrar di tutti a
sì
mi caccia
che molte volte
The comment
many
"that
al fatto
Limbo may have
pieno,
lungo tema,
il
dire vien
meno.
times the telling comes short of the fact"
challenges the reader to consider,
in
il
if
nothing else, which of the souls
far-reaching significance not only in history but
also in Dante's divine
poem. What follows
is
burgeoning
evidence that, for the
Commedia, Ovid
add
to the
important an authority as Virgil
—
a
modest attempt
not only in the Paradiso,
is
where
to
as
the
Metamorphoses strikes some as a nearly ubiquitous palimpsest far
eclipsing the Aeneid as a subtext, but also at other crucial junctures of
the poem, such as Inferno 25 where the issue of "poetando" (Dante's
word
in vs.
99)
QUADERNI ditalianisiica
is
dramatically addressed."
Volume X. No.
1-2.
1989
Madison
158
U. Sowell
Inferno 25 marks the passage of Dante the Character and his prod-
ding guide Virgil to the seventh bolgia of the eighth
circle, the
pouch
of the transmuting thieves. The canto ends with Vanni Fucci's meteorogically dense and woefully dark prophecy of the expulsion of the
White Guelphs from Florence,
The
Poet's exile.
the event
which
spiteful thief climaxes his
terzina of canto 25 with a
results in
speech
Dante the
opening
in the
blasphemous ejaculation directed towards
God: a screamed vulgarity and obscene gesture with upraised hands.
A serpent immediately silences Vanni by coiling itself tightly around
his neck,
"come
dicesse 'No vo' che
diche' " (6), the
pili
first in
a
A sec-
series of "silencings" in a canto resonating with poetic voices.
ond snake simultaneously wraps around and immobilizes the thief's
arms. There follow, in vss. 10-33 and in quick succession, a bitter
invective against Pistoia, the thief's
hometown;
a parting
about Vanni's rebelliousness and swift departure from
comment
sight;
and a
description of the arrival and actions of the dragon-bedecked centaur
Cacus,
The
who
both guards and
late
Charles Singleton
is
punished
in his
in this bolgia.
commentary
states that
Dante's
Cacus distinguishes itself from that of the Virgilian and Ovidian traby being a centaur (rather than a "half-human," as in Aeneid
8.194) and by having a fire-belching dragon on its back (rather than
dition
emitting flames from
its
own mouth,
asserts, in addition, that the
as in
Aeneid 8.198-99).
He
underlying text for Virgil the Guide's
remarks about Cacus (25-33) comes from the eighth book of the
Aeneid, 190ff., and he deemphasizes (unfortunately,
Ovid's role
in
in
my
view)
the Dantean narrative.^ Ettore Paratore, on the other
hand, stresses that
when
Virgil the
Guide
details are decidedly Ovidian; for instance,
tells
Cacus's story, some
Cacus
is
clubbed
to death
(as in Ovid's Fasti 1.575-78) rather than strangled (as per Virgil's
Aeneid). Paratore finds such a correction highly notable "in quanto
il
ricordo dell'episodio è posto proprio in bocca a Virgilio" (93-94).
I
agree and believe that such a modification
to
come. Dante the Poet,
in
other words,
is
only a shadow of things
makes
Virgil the Character
replace a detail found in his Latin epic with one traceable to the
Ovidian Fasti;
ter's
this act anticipates,
on one hand, Dante the Charac-
remarkable silencing of his Guide and, on the other, Dante the
Poet's replacement of the Aeneid as a subtext in the remainder of
this virtuoso
canto of metamorphoses.
Dante's Nose and Publias Ovidius Naso
In narrative
sequence Inferno 25 next records
159
that, as Virgil
con-
tinues to speak, three spirits (Agnello, Buoso, and Puccio) arrive
who
and ask
and Guide are and where one of
the Pilgrim
number, Cianfa, was
behind (34-43). Virgil,
left
who was
their
own
previously
discoursing, does not have time to respond before Dante silences him
with a finger to his lips
from (Dante's) chin
or, as vs.
to nose:
(emphasis added here and
This gesture,
as a
symbol of
sive gloss, and
details the action, with a finger
"mi puosi
dito su dal
'1
mento
al
naso"
later).
found
illustrated in
Renaissance emblem books
silentiiim (see illustration), never receives an exten-
commentators almost always follow
they emphasize a
In brief,
offer
later
45
no suggestion
that
literal
the
same
lines.
interpretation of the gesture and
Dante may be engaging
in subtle but signifi-
cant wordplay."* Fourteenth-century commentators find the Pilgrim's
silencing action as basically that and
little
more.
L'Ottimo
states,
quite succinctly, that Dante "fa certo segno a Virgilio, perchè stea
Da
attento" (1: 429).
to
nose
"uno
is
et attento,
atto
Buti simply remarks that the finger from chin
che l'uomo
fa,
quando vuole
ch'altrui stia cheto
quasi ponendo stanga e chiusura alla bocca" (1: 646). Ser-
ravalle, near the
beginning of the fifteenth century, writes that the
placing of a finger "a mento usque ad nasum"
is
a
"signum optimum
ad reddendum aliquem attentum" and that Dante has made a recognizable "actum meditationis" (311). That the act
or referent
In our
is
an important sign
readily agree.
I
own
century Natalino Sapegno, in his magisterial com-
mentary, says that "Dante
fa
segno a Virgilio
di tacere,
perchè ha
udito nominare Cianfa e ha compreso che quel gruppo di dannati
dev'essere formato da suoi concittadini" (278).
"Dante places
urging silence"
mentary,
we
(2:
More
436).
read that
a Virgilio, perché
comprende
Singleton remarks,
his forefinger over his lips in the familiar gesture
"il
recently, in the
Bosco-Reggio com-
gesto, naturalissimo, è per imporre silenzio
avendo
sentito
il
nome
trattarsi di Fiorentini" (368).
di
Cianfa Donati, Dante
Last of
all,
the Pasquini-
Quaglio gloss simply paraphrases the verse as "feci un cenno (mimico) di silenzio" (294).*^
As
early as the fifteenth century, however, at least one classical
parallel
had been adduced for Inferno 25.45. Christophoro Landino
describes the Pilgrim's action as a "cenno pel quale dimostriamo vol-
160
Madison
U. Sowell
In Silcntium.
Cm tdcet hdud quicquam
Sultitié: cji
trgo promt
differt fapicntibm
mei,
index lingua^ uoxq;fu£.
labU$^digitoq; jìUnùafìgnct,
Bt fefe phdiwrtHcrtat in Hurpoçratcm.
Illustration from Livret des Emblèmes de maistre Andre Alciat
mis en
rime francoyse e presente a monseigneur Ladmiral de France (sic)
Chrestien Wechel, 1536). Courtesy of Special Collections,
Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
(Paris:
Dante
ere che
's
Nose and Puhlius Ovidius Naso
faccia silcntio" and cilcb, as an analogue, Juvenal's "dig-
si
compesce labellum"
ito
[put your finger to your lip] (Satire 1.160).
This citation, although not
did find
161
its
way
popular
at all
peo Venturi and Baldassare Lombardi,
original observation (Venturi 313;
nineteenth century,
Tommaseo
commentaries of
who
Lombardi
n.
(212).
P.
Pom-
Landino with the
credits
more
Somewhat
mid-
In the
pag.).
refers readers to a
Metamorphoses 9.692
cal source:
today's commentaries,
in
into the eighteenth-century
likely classi-
later in the
Otto-
cento, G. A. Scartazzini, after noting that the verse under discussion
is
same Ovidian
a "gesto naturale di chi chiede silenzio," cites the
passage (244). The line
in
Ovid occurs
in the story
of Ligdus and
his pregnant wife Telethusa. Just before giving birth at midnight, the
wife has a dream-vision
who
including one
vocem
in
which she sees various Egyptian gods,
enjoins silence with his finger ("quique premit
digitoque silentia suadet").^ This Egyptian god of silence
is
whose name appears in other classical poets, such as
Catullus (74.4 and 102.7).^ The detail perhaps implied in Ovid but
Harpocrates,
nevertheless missing
Loeb
the
lips."
exactly where Harpocrates places his finger;
is
Metamorphoses suggests
translation of the
Surely this
where Dante
is
well, but Dante the Poet insists
the finger's position
a gesture suggestive
word naso
at
it
we
to
make of
this
(when
in the lofty
nose ("dal mento
in
by having
first
rhyme
bolgia
But what are
eight times in the
is it?
Commedia, although
Paradiso. The appearances occur
naso
'1
is
lecchi"), 18.108
such "che con
li
(when
in
Inferno 17.75
mento
al
occhi e col naso facea zuffa"), 25.45
".
.
has
".
.
'1
.
and 28.65
(in the description
naso tronco
(when Carlo d'Angiò
maschio
dito su
'1
.
naso") and 128 (when the serpent-thief Guercio de'
Cavalcanti transforms his superfluous snakeskin into a
la faccia"),
come
the stench of the flatterers'
(when, as noted, Dante silences Virgil by placing
dal
a finger pointed
the usurer Reginaldo Scrovegni sticks out "la lingua,
bue che
that
naso"). In
al
position.
emphasis and how unusual
The word naso appears
never
"on his
of an Ovidian passage, Dante's nose and the
are both emphasized, the
and the second by occurring
to
is
it
on wording the description so
from chin
is
that
the Character places his finger as
naso''), 10.62
is
.
naso a
who
Purgatorio 7.113
referred to periphrastically as
first
.
of Pier da Medicina
infin sotto le ciglia"); in
(when, on the
".
".
.
.
colui dal
cornice. Dante refers to his
Madison
162
U. Sowell
senses of sight and smell metonymically as
".
.
.
li
occhi e
and 15.7 (when, on the second cornice, the rays of sun
'1
naso"),
strike
Dante
mezzo '1 naso"). Although in all
three occurrences in the Purgatorio the word is in rhyme position, in
the inferno only at 25.45 does the word appear in rhyme, and in the
Commedia as a whole only in Inferno 25 does naso appear twice in
the same canto, thus ultimately calling more attention to its presence
and Virgil
there.
in full face or ".
.
per
While Luciano Graziano
that the
word
Enciclopedia dantesca claims
in the
always used "in senso proprio,"^
is
appearance
its
.
in
I
shall argue that
25.45 also constitutes a play on Ovid's
Publius Ovidius Naso.
My
last
name:
reasons for such a gloss are summarized
which follow.
in the six sections
(1) After Dante the Character silences Virgil the Guide, Dante
the Poet completely replaces the
Aeneid with subtexts by Ovid and
Lucan, though especially by Ovid, for the remainder of
this particular
canto. (Cf. Inf. 25.58-60 [image of ivy clinging to a tree] and
4.365 [the same image];
the
man] and Metam.
Inf.
Metam.
25.69-72 [Cianfa the snake and Agnello
A. 313-19
[Salmacis and Hermaphroditus];
Inf.
25.97 [Cadmus and Arethusa] as well as 25.103-08 [the series of
infernal
metamorphoses] and Metam. 4.576-80, 586-89 [Cadmus]
and 5.572-641 [Arethusa].) The pointing
to the naso, therefore, is
not only a sign to Virgil the Guide to be silent but also a signal to
the reader that (Publius Ovidius)
Naso
is
about to replace Virgil the
Poet as auctor for the canto's remaining verses. That naso
to capture the reader's attention is attested
which follows immediately
Se
in the
che
is
next tercet (46-48):
io
che
'1
non sarà maraviglia,
vidi, a
pena
the reader addressed in vs.
Dante the Poet
meant
tu se' or, lettore, a creder lento
ciò ch'io dirò,
Not only
by
is
the remarkable address
is
then the Pilgrim
heard
is
Perhaps because of
il
46
mi consento.
(as "tu"
in the future tense in vs.
and "lettore") but
47
("io dirò")
and
represented in the past tense in vs. 48 ("vidi").
this close juxtaposition
most fused Pilgrim-Poet,
at least
of the reader to an
al-
one major commentator has even
interpreted the Pilgrim's gesture to Virgil in vs. 45 as an early warn-
ing signal to the reader to pay closer attention to narrative action
about to transpire.^
No commentator
has suggested that the gesture
invites deeper interpretation than that.
But Dante assuredly silences
Dame
Virgil, narratively
clearly the
ian verses.
Nose and Publias Ovidius Naso
and tcxtually, so
somewhat
that the reader
in the canto, a
may
63
more
discern
Ovid echoing through
altered voice of
I
the Ital-
be silent
to
later
shall treat next.
The subsequent appearance,
in
vs.
97, of Ovid's
Cadmo
di
name
in
d'Aretusa Ovidio")
e
Latin poet's importance to this canto of dra-
the
explicit
Ovid
the paradoxical ordering of
is
problem
unique rhyme position ("Taccia
makes
1
Perhaps what has previously hindered readers from sur-
mising as much
(2)
's
matic transformations, as does the canto's subject matter. Dante was
acutely aware of the nature of Ovid's chief
the
title
De Rerum
of the Metamorphoses as
monarchia 2.7.10. Certainly
in a
itself
ing Ovid, too, to be silent ("Taccia
contrast to that of Virgil,
my
is
done
in
.
.
would be appropriate
else.
.
That Dante
is
that
command-
Ovidio") should not surprise
argument. The silencing of Ovid,
it
must be recalled
that
that, in
in
Ovid's silencing
a rhetorical fashion (the Latin convention of taceat
documented by Curtius [162-65]) calculated
name and
De
in
not a silencing on the level of narrative
is
Rather
action or imagery.
is, it
and something
the reader nor undermine
Transmutatione
canto dealing with the "transmuta-
tions of things," such as Inferno 25
naso signify both
work and even recorded
is
to call attention to his
point of fact, the rest of the canto resounds with
reworked Ovidian passages.
Does Dante,
then, only pretend to silence Ovid, or
poet truly silenced
is
in
some
other sense?
that Dante, while incorporating
outdoes Ovid (and Lucan)
in the
The
is
the classical
traditional response
Ovidian (and Lucan) passages,
number and complexity of
trans-
formations and can, therefore, claim to silence the boasts of his predecessors. While such
may
well be the case,
silencing serves two other functions. First,
close poetic connection between
that the craft of
making verse
is
it
I
believe the purported
actually dramatizes the
Ovid and Dante: both recognized
very similar to the acts of metamor-
phosis their poetry describes. Second, the racda-sequence points to
the ultimate difference
between
classical poetry of transmutation
and
Christian poetry of conversion and transfiguration. For the reader to
recognize these two
facts,
however, Ovid's name and poetry must
be very much
in the forefront
on Ovid's
name
last
of the reader's mind
(in truth, a
placement of "Ovidio"
in
— hence
the play
metamorphosis) and the even bolder
rhyme with
"io non lo 'nvidio" (99). (Note,
Madison
164
U. Sowell
too, that "lo 'nvidio" contains the
Ovid's name
is
name "Ovidio" within
dismembered and remembered
"Ovidii," Latin genitive for "of Ovid"
—
in
and
it
that
every "io vidi"
142
as in vss. 48, 112, and
The
of Inferno 25 but also throughout the Commedia.)
—
Christian
poet performed a similar (admittedly inverted but nevertheless effective) act of
comparison
had the Pilgrim claim
tentionally
numerous
make
parallels to
drowning
shipwreck
of his
St. Paul.
to them); later
it
when he
2.32)
(Inf.
Paul (thereby in-
St.
of course he introduces
clear that the Pilgrim
a figure of
is
(Inferno 2.32 also encourages us to reread
sailor simile of Inferno
at the
poem
be neither Aeneas nor
drawing attention
both Aeneas and
the
at the outset
to
1.22-27
in light
beginning of the Aeneid and also of
of Aeneas's
St.
Paul's as
detailed in Acts 27.)
(3)
as
Dante knew the cognomen of Ovid and even referred
Naso
in Epistola 3.4 in a significant
phrase referring to the au-
thority of the Latin poet: "Auctoritatem vero
even had Dante not indicated
aware of Ovid's
known
Naso
it
last
name,
it
Nasonis" (2:534). But
in his writings that
is
him
to
he was keenly
impossible that he could not have
given the extraordinary medieval debate over exactly what
In Ghisalberti's exhaustive study of medieval bio-
signified.
graphies of Ovid, the classicist quotes from numerous manuscripts
which discuss possible
possibility that
that
it
rationales for
Naso
as a
cognomen, from
the
referred only to the size of his nose to the likelihood
referred symbolically to his
ity that
to
it
wisdom
(10-59).'°
The probabil-
Dante would have been familiar with and seriously attracted
such discussions
is
very high.
In addition to the large
number
and widespread locations of the medieval manuscript biographies of
Ovid,
I
need only
cite
Dante's
own
Vita
Nuova dictum
that
"names
are the consequences of things" ("nomina sunt consequentia rerum")
and
his
own
preoccupation with the meanings of names
vanna and Beatrice) from the very beginning of
(e.g.,
Gio-
his poetic career.
Consider also the care with which he introduces souls whose names
are remarkably appropriate, given their punishment or state,
Pier della Vigna
(who
Costanza (who appears
as a suicide has
in the lunar
become
from
precisely a tree) to
sphere ironically because of her
lack of constancy).
(4)
is
That Dante
widely known.
is
capable of such wordplays as
In addition to his obvious play
I
am
on
arguing for
VOM
(man)
Dante's Nose and Publias Ovidius Naso
famous Purgalurio 12.26-63
in the
where
subtle case of Inferno 8.62,
acrostic,
'"1
I
165
would
more
cite the
fiorentino spirito bizzarro"
refers not only to Filippo Argenti but also to the irascible spirit of
But perhaps the most germane example, for
the Florentine people.
my
in
purposes, occurs with the probable double meaning of "omero"
Paradiso 23.65:
Ma
e
chi pensasse
ponderoso tema
il
V omero mortai che se ne carca,
noi biasmerebbe se sott' esso trema.
As
R. A. Shoaf insightfully points out in his discussion of this
passage, the mortal shoulder
'Omero'
—
////.
"Dante, with
he
this
pun,
Homer; humble
is
Homer
"also the mortal
is
is
to
once bold and humble:
at
assume
('omero'
Shoaf argues
mortal because blind."
4.88),
the mortality implied
bold to say
by Homer's
blindness" (70)." Certainly the attitude of both Pilgrim and Poet
Inferno 25 also underscores the boldness of both Dantes
grim when he points
own
to his
to
is
about
show how metamorphoses may
A
truly
to
illustrate
be silent
to
God's purposes.
puns on the names of Homer and Ovid, then
role in the
Commedia'] Thanks
Jacoff of Wellesley College,
I
in
the Pil-
outperform both of them and
question to entertain but parenthetically at this point:
perform something similar for
tial
—
nose and silences his guide Virgil
and the Poet when he commands both Lucan and Ovid
about their prowess as he
/
that
Virgil,
to a
Dante
if
why does
he not
given that poet's fundamental
reminder from Professor Rachel
can refer the interested reader
to poten-
play in the case of Virgil (read Vergil) in Inferno 9.89's reference
to the
Angelic Messenger's "verghetta" and
sion to Tiresias's "verga."
in
As Robert Hollander
Inferno 20.44's allustates in his
informed
discussion of verga, virga, and Virgil in "The Tragedy of Divination
in
Inferno 20": "[i]n both Inferno 9 and 20 Dante
shade of Virgil's involvement with divination
the far-flung medieval speculations on the
Vergil's)
it
name
.
.
summons up
."
(183).
etymology of
(not to mention the superstitions tying
Virgil's (or
him
to
magic),
seems probable that the infernal appearances of verghetta and verga
are intended to remind us of the
Roman
with divination. Such wordplays,
if
poet's suspected connection
intentional, certainly
would help
prepare the ground for Dante's more pointed pun on Ovid's
in
the
Given
"
Inferno 25.
last
name
Madison
166
(5)
Dante draws clear attention
poem by
"maschio naso"
of France
III
is
discernment
(cf. St.
of Naples)
I
in his
7, in the Valley
is
referred
which associated the nose with the
Gregory'^
two mighty princes by
),
me-
gift
unusual nasal characteristics are
their
activities; they
must pay
in
—may
1,
may
—one
over-
well reflect iconographically their
distorted discernment in spiritual matters. For even
as in the case of Charles
re-
Ante-Purgatory for the skewed
perspective they had while alive. Their abnormal noses
sized and one undersized
in-
whose
preoccupation with worldly affairs kept them from more eternally
warding
of
the implications of Dante's referring
to the Valley of the Princes are rulers
Those confined
of
113) and as "nasuto" (vs. 124), while
(vs.
called "nasetto" (vs. 103). Because of the
dieval exegetical tradition
triguing.
two other personages
d'Angiò (Charles
the Princes episode. Carlo
to
to
reference to their noses. In Purgatorio
to as both
Philip
U. Sowell
be interpreted
if
a large nose,
bono as a sign of
in
wisdom would still make of his "maschio
statement. The whole nasuto-nasetto episode in-
sagacity, his lack of earthly
naso" a most ironic
duces the attentive reader to re-evaluate for symbolic meaning previ-
ous noses
in the
Commedia,
especially the Wayfarer's, and raises the
distinct possibility that noses
in
and characters
may be
closely linked
Dante's poetic imagination.''*
(6)
As
an elaboration on and extension of
my
should like to close by calling attention to Dante's
for identifying or describing so
some memorable or
many
fifth
argument,
artistic
I
propensity
of his characters by reference to
anatomy. Consider,
distinct part of their physical
few scattered examples in the Inferno alone, the emphasis on
Beatrice's eyes (2.55); the hands of Virgil and the Pilgrim as the
latter is initiated into the secret things of Hell (3.19); the mouths
as a
of Francesca (5.136), Ugolino (33.1), and Satan (34.55); the chest
(and brow) of Farinata (10.35) and the petto of
the
eyebrows of the sodomites when we
later the private parts
of one in
Mohammed
(28.29);
meet them (15.20) and
particular (15.114); the feet and legs
first
of the simonists (19.23) and later of Judas (34.63) and even Satan
(34.90); the tongue and teeth of the ten
leader (21.137-39); the severed nose,
demons and
slit
throat,
the arse of their
and missing ear of
Pier da Medicina (28.64-66); and the head and hair of Archbishop
Ruggieri (33.2-3).
Why
does Dante record so many physical characteristics of souls
Dante's Nose and Publius Ovidius Naso
who
temporarily without bodies (except for the Pil-
are, after all,
Almost
grim)?
of the anatomical parts alluded to have been
all
abounds on Dante, and
discussed in the literature that
vious answer
that the
is
167
most ob-
the
medieval Poet/Artist was keenly aware of
the iconographie possibilities inherent in poetry, especially allegorical poetry.
(He exploits those
possibilities quite self-consciously
perhaps even more masterfully
rio.)
He saw
in the
in the "visibile parlare"
various body parts not only a
way
and
of Purgato-
make
to
vivid
his portrayal of dead souls but also an opportunity to introduce, nat-
urally
his
and
poem.
in
most cases unobtrusively, potent icons or symbols
When
cal characteristics,
"Why
this detail
into
the Poet chooses to highlight one of those physiit
especially incumbent
is
why
and
here?"
And
upon
the reader to ask,
so readers have been doing
The problem with the Pilgrim's gesture to his naso in
Inferno 25.45 is that it works so well literally that it has not been
heretofore elevated to the status of crux and begged for close scholfor centuries.
arly attention. Yet purposefully placed in
one of the most
theoretical of cantos,
naso requires not only
but also a gloss that
at least
commences
plastic
to take into
account the
larger context of Dante's poetic iconography as well as his
relationship with
disturbs,
I
all
his auctores.
If
my
la
dynamic
particular reading of
can only plead as did the Poet before
Così vid'io
and
a literal interpretation
me
{Inf.
naso
25.142-44):
settima zavorra
mutare e trasmutare; e qui mi scusi
novità se fior la penna abborra.
la
Brigham Young University
NOTES
*
The author
gratefully
participants in the
first
acknowledges
1985, and funded by the National
ular,
I
should
director,
the assistance of
Dartmouth Dante
like to note the
Institute, held
Endowment
DDI
him as co-author of
participant
10,
that year's
"naso" as a pun
Roy Rosenstein of The American
to
College
listed
August
-
for the Humanities. In partic-
for the gloss of
on Ovid's name belongs
I
faculty and fellow
June 30
encouragement and enthusiasm of
Kevin Brownlee. The original idea
in Paris.
all
this article until referees
pointed
out that the responsibility for writing, arguing, and presenting the gloss must
lie
with the actual writer, arguer, and presenter. While accepting
full liability
Madison
168
for
any shortcomings
manner
in the
my
nevertheless acknowledge
I
U. Sowell
in
which
have glossed Inferno 25.45,
I
indebtedness to and esteem for Professors
Rosenstein and Brownlee by dedicating this commentary to them.
1
All quotations from the
Commedia
are
from the
by Giorgio
text established
Petrocchi as found in the edition and translation of Charles S. Singleton. In
my
any quoted translations of the Commedia are also by Singleton.
article
2 Guido Di Pino, for example, speaks of the "persistenza delle fonti ovidiane
le quali, a partire dai canti del
a quelle virgiliane" (174).
located
A
paradiso terrestre,
sono
si
end of Ettore Paratore's entry on "Ovidio"
at the
sostituite di fatto
convenient bibliography on Dante and Ovid
would add
is
Enciclopedia
in the
work of two Dartmouth Dante
dantesca, to which
I
Institute colleagues:
Kevin Brownlee, "Ovid's Semele and Dante's Metamor-
the recent
Paradiso 21-23," and Peter
phosis:
S.
Hawkins, "Transfiguring the Text:
Ovid, Scripture and the Dynamics of Allusion" and "Dante's Ovid."
3 See Singleton, Inferno 2:
striking respects
from
Commentary 432: "Dante's monster
and Ovid.
that of Virgil
.
.
.
Dante most
differs in
other details of his description from Virgil (see Aen. 8.193-99).
mode
regard to the
but Livy.
.
.
With
."
.
.
who
Palmieri, S. I.,
is
dall'inferiore al superiore, seppure
Domenico
of
literal interpretations is that
says that Dante's action
a "gesto per indicar che si stia
comando che però non
suol farsi
non s'accompagna con qualche
tratto del
solo gesto porta con sé l'impronta di
il
.
of Cacus's death, Dante apparently followed not Virgil
4 Perhaps the most extended of the
zitto:
two
borrowed
likely
viso, che somigli a preghiera" (444).
5 But see note 9 below.
6 Ovid, Metamorphoses with an English Translation by Frank Justus Miller
52.
The verse quoted agrees
thoritative edition, P. Ovidii
7 Dante did not
know
in all its particulars
Nasonis Metamorphoses,
rather than
ed.
W.
Anderson.
S.
Catullus's poems, where references to Harpocrates are
charged with eroticism and where the god's finger
mouth
on the
lips.
is
assumed
to
Certainly Alciati's Harpocrates-like
scholarly reflection (see illustration) also suggests that the finger
least partially in the
from chin
to
2:
with that of the more au-
mouth. Dante the Pilgrim,
nose and, therefore, on his
in contrast,
be in the
emblem of
may be
at
places his finger
lips.
8 In Enciclopedia dantesca 4:12, Graziano states that
"Il
termine [naso] ricorre
solo nelV Inferno e nel Purgatorio (una volta nel Detto). ...
È sempre
in
senso
The absence of the word naso in Paradiso stimulates speculation on
of this word in Dante's poem. I believe naso's disappearance from the
proprio."
the role
last canticle's
vocabulary possibily parallels the non-presentation of
same
at the
end of the poem symbolizes a new
canticle.
no
If there is
the Pauline raptus and described
then perhaps the
what
word naso must
the Paradiso as well.
Why?
I
St.
St.
Paul
Paul because Dante the Pilgrim/Poet
in the
the
St.
first
Paul (one
who
has shared
in
Paul would not or could not),
necessarily be absent from the poetics of
can only respond with a conjecture.
The
Dante
Dante whose nose
is
's
Nose and Puhlius Ovidius Naso
pointed to
in
who addresses
Commedia concludes,
Inferno 25.45 and the Dante
the reader immediately thereafter
and
169
become one
as the
Dante's portrayal of trasumanar supplants completely the
that unified
now
Christian poet's need for any direct reference to the original (and
un-
questionably transfigured and surpassed) classical model of metamorphosing
poetrv: Publius Ovidius Naso. Instead the
veiled formula of "io vidi"
in
name
will appear only in the highly
Paradiso, and even then
it
will recall with equal
force the Vulgate "vidi" of the Apocalypse.
9 See, for example, A. Momigliano, on Inferno 25.45:
medesimo tempo impone
della scena e nel
silenzio
"verso che dà
al
l'aria
lettore e fìssa già la
sua stupefatta attenzione su quello che seguirà" (188-89, emphasis added).
more extensive comment on
Cf. Pasquini-Quaglio, in the concluding,
canto: "L'improvviso,
ma non
dei pellegrini, voluto anzi dal vivo (v. 45), cade sotto le
stupito e
ammirato
forme
un appello diretto
di
al lettore
come richiamo
d'allarme, squilla
the entire
gratuito, stacco narrativo, nel silenzio intenso,
suona come un campanello
(vv. 46-48),
d'attenzione ad un incredibile spettacolo"
(301-02).
"As
10 Ghisalberti writes,
ing
be an allusion
to
it
to the poet
cognomen Naso,
not every one agreed in believ-
to a physical characteristic
and one particularly suited
on account of the moral sagacity which enabled him
the difference
between virtue and vice" (27-8).
Hawkins of
ter S.
to the
the Yale Divinity
am
I
School for
to
smell out
indebted to Professor Pe-
drawing
first
how
Ghisalberti 's study and for offering suggestions as to
my
attention to
improve
to
my own
article.
11
For a favorable assessment of Shoaf's somewhat revisionist study, see
"Chaucer and
my
Three Crowns of Florence (Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio):
the
Recent Comparative Scholarship."
12 See Hollander's entire discussion of verga
Ovid, Statius, and Virgil on
in
pp. 176-84, as well as Dante's other uses of verga in Purgatorio 14.102 and
27.80.
I
here should like to express
for his lectures at the
earlier draft of
my
1985
"Thy nose
the nose
as the tower,
is
appreciation to Professor Hollander
for his having read
and critiqued an
bk. 31, sec. 44, on the
Song of Solomon
work.
13 See S. Gregory the Great, vol. 3,
7:4,
my
DDI and
between odours and
pt. 2,
which
is in
foul smells.
And what
but the farseeing discernment of the saints?"
sect. 37,
is
is
distinguish also by
designated by the nose,
See also vol.
2, pt. 3, bk.
on Job 21:5, "And lay your finger upon your mouth": "seeing
our fingers
by the
"We
Libanus":
we
fingers.
distinguish things severally, discretion
.
.
.
And
so the finger
bridled by discretion, that by what
is laid to
it
utters,
the
is
15,
by
not unfitly represented
mouth, when the tongue
may
it
that
not
fall into
the sin of
foolishness."
14
One commentator
has even proferred
a possible
connection between Dante's
gesture to the nose and another Valley of the Princes event.
letto
suggests that "questo luogo
[Inf.
25.45]
fa,
in parte,
Giacomo Po-
rammentar
l'altro
Madison
170
U. Sowell
dell'Anima nella valletta de' Principi {Purg.
mano" (emphasis
in the originai).
8.9),
che l'ascoltar chiedea con
Most commentators, however, would
likely
see a biblical, rather than classical, source in the purgatorial passage cited by
Poletto
—
Acts 13.16, where
to wit.
St.
Paul motions with his hand for silence.
(See, for example, Singleton's gloss. Purgatorio 2:
Commentary
160.)
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