La Divine Comédie (Dante)

Overview

La Commedia, called "Divina" from the 16th century, is the epic poem by Dante Alighieri (c. 1265–1321) in three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, completed shortly before his death (c. 1320). Marie quotes only the Inferno.

Marie and this work

All three mentions come from the years of her Italian-flavoured education at Nice, and she quotes in Italian without translating.

2 June 1873 (005.0143): in the evening, "J'ai récité un chant de Dante" for the family in the salon; the canto is not named.

19 June 1873 (006.0027): while waiting for the carriage that is to take her paintings away, she says she has been "comme les sospesi de Dante" for a week, i.e. in suspense. The allusion is to Inferno II, 52: "Io era tra color che son sospesi", the souls of Limbo who are neither condemned nor saved, as Virgil describes himself to Dante. (The LAN note in the diary file places the line in Inferno IV, the canto that describes Limbo itself; the verse Marie evokes is II.52, spoken by Virgil, as verified on the Wikisource text.)

8 May 1874 (019.0146): after weeping and grumbling over the family's travel preparations she writes "Ora incomincian le dolenti note a tarmisi sentire", the opening of Dante's hearing the cries of the damned: Inferno V, 25–26, "Or incomincian le dolenti note / a farmisi sentire" ("Now begin the doleful notes to make themselves heard to me"). Her "Ora" and "tarmisi" are slips or transcription variants of "Or" and "farmisi".

Identification note

The inventory title covers three allusions; all are to the Inferno (cantos II and V and an unspecified canto recited in 1873). The older glossary stub DANTE is the author page and is not rewritten here.

References in Diary

Sources