FRECCERO - Casella's Song (Purg. II, 112)

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Casella's Song (Purg. II, 112)

Author(s): John FrecceroReviewed work(s):Source: Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, No. 91 (1973), pp. 73-80Published by: Dante Society of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40166155.Accessed: 03/05/2012 22:21

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C a s e l la s o n g{Purg. ii, 112)JOHN FRECCERO

Dante quotes his earlierpoetry in the Commedia,we aremeant to perceive adistance, perhapseven an ironic distance,between a former poetic self and the poem that we read.The same can probably be said of any writer who refers to his formerwork within a confessional structure, but it is especially true of Dante,whose whole poetic career was a continual askesis in preparation for hislast work. In such a linear evolution, a glance backward to a previouspoetic achievement is more likely to be a sign of transcendence ratherthan of return, of self-critique rather than self-satisfaction.1Like the spiritual evolution of his protagonist, Dante's poetic historyderives its significance retrospectively from its ending. The Commediaprovides a new framework within which the total poetic experienceof its creator is ordered toward an ending that could not have beenforeseen at any single moment of the evolution, while appearing tobe its inevitable outcome. An allusion to a former work within such acontext is inevitably palinodic, for it invests the poetry itself with thedramatic double-focus that is part of the story: the conversion of theDante who was into the poet whose work we read.The clearest example of such a palinodic moment is also the earliestinstance in the poem of a recall to Dante's previous poetry. There isscarcely any need to point out that Francesca's description of love,

Amor, ch'al cor gentil ratto s'apprende (Inf. v, 100), no longer reflectsthe author's view of the matter, in spite of the fact that her words echothose of Dante's youth and of Guido Guinizelli before him. The rejec-tion of Francesca's theory of love is implicit in her damnation; if herwords echo Dante's own, she is their refutation. Like Flaubert'sheroine,73


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Dante Studies, xci, 1973

Emma Bovary, she stands as a surrogate for her creator, both the signand the vehicle of his transcendence.An analogous moment occurs in the second canto of the Purgatoriowhen Casella sings the second canzone of the Convivio, Amor che ne lamente mi ragiona, to the delight of the new company of souls. Oncemore the subject is love and the vehicle is Dante's former work. Heretoo, the dramatic situation implies a critique: Cato's scolding is severe

enough to embarrass Virgil as well as the pilgrim. Finally, the cantocloses with a simile comparing the souls to doves, as in Infernov:Come quando,cogliendo biado o loglio,li colombi adunatia la pasturaqueti, sanza mostrar usato orgoglio,se cosa appareond'elli abbianpaura,subitamente ascianostar l'esca

perch'assaliti on da maggior cura...(Purg.n, 124-129)

In spite of these resemblances, however, there seems to be no consensusamong the critics as to whether the episode of the Purgatorio arries thesame palinodic force that seems to be borne by Francesca's words.The purpose of this paper is to suggest that this is indeed the case andthat the episode constitutes a partial correction of an important thesis ofthe Convivio.

The principal difficulty is that Casella is made to choose a relativelyabstruse, doctrinal and therefore inappropriate canzone for his song.The anonimojiorentino defines the difficulty succinctly: per le canzonimorali, come fu questa, non suole essere usanza d'intonarle. 2 Thecritical assumption has always been that Casella's song is a recreationalinterlude, which would seem to call for a less weighty theme: eitherthis song is not the very famous canzone of the same name (as the anonimogoes on to argue), or Casella's canzone is somehow not intended tohave the philosophical meaning that the original indisputably bears.I should like to argue that, on the contrary, this is the very same poemand we are meant to understand its full philosophical force. TheAmore celebrated here marks an advance over the Amore ofFrancesca's verses in the same measure that the Convivio marked anadvance over the Vita Nuova. Casella's song is not simply light relief,but is rather a signal for the poem's entrance into a new area of concern.First of all, there is no way that the canzone of the Convivio can beinterpreted as a simple love song of the type that we would supposeCasella to have sung, even if he were the innovative composer thatsome historians have imagined him to have been.3 The lady of Amor

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che ne la mente mi ragiona is clearly Lady Philosophy and not a mortalwoman, not even at the literal level, as even a cursory reading of thecanzone will demonstrate. Some of its philosophical detail might con-ceivably be read as erotic hyperbole, but it would be difficult on thosegrounds to explain away verses such as Ogni Intelletto di la su la mira(v. 23), or Costei penso Chi mosse l'universo (v. 72), alluding to thebiblical Wisdom (Proverbs 8: 27). Because of the poet's uncertaintyabout his lady in the first canzoneof the Convivio, there may be someslight grounds for arguing that that poem be read as a secular love poemwhich was interpreted allegorically as an afterthought; in Amor chene la mente mi ragiona, however, the poet seems completely caughtup in his new found love for philosophy. We scarcely need his com-mentary to recognize in his beloved the same Lady that appeared toBoethius in The Consolationof Philosophy.

Dante was explicit about the importance of the Consolation for anunderstanding of the Convivio. So linked are the two works that Dante'scitation of his own brings with it several allusions to that of Boethiuseven here in the Purgatorio,thus making it clear that the verse of thecanzoneis to be read in its original context:. .. Se nuova legge non ti togliememoria o uso a Tamorosocantoche mi solea quetartutte mie voglie,di cio ti piacciaconsolarelquantoVanimamia...

(Purg.n, 106-10)Given the subject-matter and the provenance of the song, the use of theword consolare seems particularly meaningful, for it recalls thefunction of the Donna Gentile in the Convivio and of Lady Philosophyin Boethius' Consolation. It seems reasonable to assume that Casellaoffers the same kind of consolation by celebrating the Love of Wisdom,Philosophia, rather than passionate love. If we have trouble thinkingof this as an amoroso canto, it is because the meaning of the wordword amore has narrowed since Dante's time.4 We shall see that thedefinition of this love, transcending the erotic and falling short of thedivine, is part of the significance of this episode.It may be objected that the comfort offered by Casella is in his musicrather than in his words. Apart from the problem of explaining whyDante would have chosen these words to be ignored, this objectionwould make of the episode a distraction rather than a consolation.Instead, it must be interpreted in its context, a context in which the

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Casellas Song, Purg. n, 112, john freccero

If Dante is in fact alluding to it, then it is not without a certain irony,for Boethius' point is that Philosophy is the means that man must use tosatisfy his natural desire for happiness, a thesis not unlike that of theopening lines of the Convivio. In the Purgatorio,however, the goal issupernatural appiness, for which Philosophy is definitely not sufficient.Just as Boethius' Philosophiahad cast out the Muses of secular poetry,8she in turn is cast out in Dante's text by Cato's rebuke. With diesimile of the birds feeding, Boethius' figure is used against his ownthesis.

These birds are doves, symbols of human desire, as they were in thecanto of Paolo and Francesca:Quali colombe, dal disio chiamate,con Tali alzatee fermeal dolce nido

vegnon per l'aeredal voler portate...(Inf.v, 82-84)

Among the many texts that might be cited as background for thissimile, one seems to deserve special attention. I refer to the verse ofPsalm 54, with its poignant cry for the wings of the dove and for rest:Quis dabitmihi pennassicut colombaeet volabo et requiescam? (Psalm54: 6)

Because wings are specifically mentioned in this text, as well as theyearning for peace reminiscent of Francesca, it would seem to be atleast as apt as the Virgilian passages usually adduced by commentatorsin their glosses to Infernov.9 It would also seem fitting as backgroundfor the simile of Purgatorion, where the doves seem, momentarily atleast, to have found a certainpeace: colombi . . . queti. For all of theiranecdotal charm, the two similes representcoherent statements regardingDante's theory of human desire.For Francesca,peace means the end of a desire that is in human termsinsatiable. Even the virtuous pagans, Virgil tells us, can never hope forthat final quies: sanzaspeme vivemo in disio (Inf iv, 42). The buferainfernale to which Paolo and Francesca are condemned represents therestlessnessof what St. Augustine called the unquiet heart, 10at oncethe sin and its punishment. The simile of the doves in Canto v representsthe insatiability of human desire quite accurately, by placing the willand the apparent object of its desire at opposite poles. The pilgrim callsthe souls in the name of the amore which impels them (v. 78) and theyrespond: dal disio chiamate ... dal voler portate. The flight of thedoves, then, is literally amore, the attempt to bridge the gap between

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the will (velle) and its object (disio). Francesca'sfate is evidence enoughthat concupiscence cannot bring the fulfillment of desire, while Virgil'sfate is evidence that the higher love of Reason is equally powerless,through no fault of its own, however. Virgil's embarrassed reactionto Cato's reproof is a belated recognition of an order of reality undreamtof in Antiquity. The problem is, quite simply, that although the desirefor God is innate and natural in man, the satisfaction of that desire issupernatural. Only in the Beatific Vision is Christian happinesspossible,when the will and its object are one in eternal fruition: il mio disio eil velle (Par. xxxra, 143).11 The human heart is unquiet, until it restin Thee.

In such a dynamism, which is at once the poem and its story, thesudden flight of doves which were temporarily queti cannot fail tosignify the momentary peace to be found in this life through philoso-phical study ( quetar tutte mie voglie, v. 108) and the subsequentrealization of a further, transcendent goal. In his scolding, Cato definesthat goal in terms of vision:

Correteal monte a spogliarvi o scoglioch'essernon lascia a voi Dio manifesto.(Purg.n, 122-123)

The poignancy of man's fate in the natural order resides in the fact thathe cannot know his own goal.12 When the souls hurry up the mountain-side, they go com'om che va, ne sa dove riesca (v. 132), an unmistake-able indication that they go toward an objective that transcends humanreason and therefore the limits of philosophy. The nuova legge(v. 106) to which Casella'ssong is subject is the New Law, the supernatu-ral order to which nature must ultimately give way. It requires that anew song be sung unto the Lord, the song with which the canto opens:In Exitu Israelde Aegypto.The first lines of the Convivio set forth the Aristotelian doctrine of thenatural desire to know and of knowledge as man's ultimafelidtade:Si come dice lo Filosofo nel principiode la Prima Filosofia,tutti li uomininaturalmentedesideranodi sapere. La ragione di che puote essere ed e checiascunacosa, da providenzadi proprianatura mpinta, e inclinable a la suapropriaperfezione;onde,accio che la scienza e ultimaperfezionede la nostraanima, ne la quale sta la nostra ultima felicitade, tutti naturalmenteal suodesiderio emo subietti.This view, which places man's desire to know in a providential context,is readily assimilable to the doctrine of Book m of the Consolationandespecially to the second meter mentioned above, although Boethius

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Caselh's Song, Purg. n, 112, john freccero

seems to be using a more Platonic vocabulary. Both of these views areassimilable to Christian ideas of beatitude as long as the qualifyingphrase, in this life, be understood to apply to the philosophical defini-tions. Here in the Purgatorio,however, we have gone beyond the limitsof this life, whether the phrase be understood literally or tropologi-cally: Virgil is a pilgrim here, as is everyone else (v. 63), and Ulysses'attempt to reach a philosophical truth without supernaturalguidance is afaint memory (Purg. i, 132). In such a setting, the otium traditionallyrequired for philosophy is negligenza (v. 121) and philosophical pride(cf. usato orgoglio, v. 126) must give way to Christian humility.A last word should be said to conclude this essay about the relevanceof what I have called the dynamism of desire for poetry. In the simileswe have examined, the images of doves have been associated withpoetry, as well as desire. The association of language and desire is atleast as old as the Phaedrusand is documented in Dante's poem by thestory of Francesca. The transferof the virtual image of desire from thewritten text to the human heart and back again is part of the history ofall erotic literature, but especially of Dante's writing, where Love'sprogress is identical with the movement of poetry toward the silenceof the ending. The doves in the story of Francesca contribute to theliterary dimension of the episode's significance, for in their flight theysuggest the imagery with which Guido Guinizelli's canzone began:Al cor gentil reimpara sempre amore / come l'ausello in selva a laverdura. In a sense, then, the imagery of the dolcestil novo is used toundercut its theory of love, just as Boethius' bird simile is used againsthim in the Purgatorio.Throughout the poem, the association of poetrywith desire is signalled by such imagery: in the canto of Guido Guinzellimost notably, where the subject is also poetry and love, and in the cantoof Bonagiunta,13 where Dante gives his definition of the dolce stil novo:

Io veggio ben come le vostre pennedi retroal dittatorsen vanno strette,che de le nostrecerto non awenne;

Come li augei che vernanlungo '1Nilo...(Purg.xxiv, 58-64)

The imagery possibly derives from a toposused by Guinizelli14 in his ownpoetry comparing the variety of poets to various birds. In this passage,however, the proximity of the word penne to the simile of birds inflight and the suggestion of motion in pursuit of the dittatore, Love,invite us to reflect on the sense in which Eros and poetry are inseparable

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on a journey that strains both to their limit: ma non eran da cio leproprie penne (Par.xxxm, 139). Casella'ssong was a respite, as was theConvivio;both had to be interrupted for the long journey that lay ahead.Yale UniversityNew Haven, Connecticut

NOTES1. For the question of the poet as pilgrim, see Gianfranco Contini, Dante comepersonaggio-poeta della Commedia,**n Approdo,N. S., iv, No. 1 (1958), 19-46.2. Quoted by Natalino Sapegno (ed.), Dante, La Divina Commediaa cura di N. S.(La Letteratura italiana: Storia e testi, Vol. iv; Milano: Ricciardi Editore, 1957), p. 415.3. For the myth of Casella as inventor of the madrigal, see Leonard Ellenwood, Originsof the Italian Ars Nova Papers Read by Members of the AmericanMusicologicalSociety,Pittsburgh, Dec. 29-30, 1937 (privately printed), p. 30-31. Ellenwood discusses the time-worn reference to the phrase, e Casella dicde il suono, supposedly attached to amadrigal of Lemmo da Pistoia.4. For the phrase, amoroso canto, see Sapegno, p. 414, who correctly observes nonsi tratta di amore per donne, ma dell'elogio in forma allegorica della Filosofia. For the

theme and genre of Consolation, see Dictionnaire de Spiritualityascitiqueet mystique,ed.G. Viller (Paris: Beauschesne, 1953), sub voce.5. Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. V.E. Watts (Hammondsworth,England: Penguin Books, 1969), p. 54.6. For the iconography of Boethius and Music, see Pierre Courcelle, La Consolationdephilosophic*9ans a traditionHttSraire: ntic6dents tpostfrite*e Bohe (Paris:Etudes Augustini-ennes, 1967), p. 92-93 and especially the iconographical appendix.7. Boethius, The Consolationof Philosophy, ed. H. F. Stewart, Loeb Classical Library(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: Heinemann, 1953), p. 234.8. Ibid., p. 132.9. See Sapegno, ad loc.10. Confessions , 1. See C. S. Singleton's remarks in An Essay on the VitaNuova (Cam-bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958, cl949), p. 61.11. The parallelism between disio . . . volere in Inferno v and disio . . . velle inParadisoxxxm was first pointed out to me by Professor Singleton. See my article TheFinal Image, in MLN, lxxx (1964), p. 58 ff.12. William R. O'Connor, The EternalQuest: The Teachingof St. ThomasAquinas onthe Natural Desirefor God (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1947), p. 147 ff.13. For Bonagiunta, see Maria Simonelh. Bonagiunta Orbicciani e la problematicadello stil nuovo (Purg.xxrv), in Dante Studies, lxxxvi (1968), 65-83.14. Omo ch'e saggio non corre leggero, Sonnet XlXb, Poett del Duecento, a cura diG. Contini (Milano: Ricciardi Editore, 1960), Vol. n, p. 482.

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FRECCERO - Casella's Song (Purg. II, 112)