Dante Essay

Virtue’s Course: A close reading of Canto XXVI of Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno The implications of every word and line in a literary work such as The Inferno can, at times, be troubling to a new reader, and even to those who possess the skill of inference. However, when approached as closely and minutely as possible, it becomes somewhat simple to draw each word and line separately into something greater, giving new life and meaning to the voice of Dante. Canto XXVI begins with false praise to the city of Florence, moving to the journey of a pilgrim and his guide, during which the pilgrim encounters one who made such a journey as epic as the pilgrim’s, yet further beyond the reaches of God and His world. These two journeys detail the navigation of a somewhat unknown world. One, however, is guided by divinity, the other by way of humanity. This is a reading of the story containing divine guidance. Canto XXVI follows Dante’s and Virgil’s encounter with the thieves in the eighth circle. In the section of the eighth circle beyond the thieves are the evil counselors. The beginning of the canto may be described as a “heroic apostrophe, the hugely expanded image of the city as a great bird flying high”(Hood 1). So, to begin this journey toward those counselors, Dante opens with “Joy to you, Florence, that your banners swell, beating their proud wings over land and sea, and that your name expands through all of Hell”(Alighieri 1-3). That “joy” may bring the reader back to the Mount of Joy from the very beginning of Dante’s journey. That began as his goal, but was unreachable as he stood alone. However, that “joy” to Florence is ironic in the sense that Dante speaks both in praise and in reproach. “Joy” because Florence’s “banners swell…over land and sea”(1-2). The praise brings joy that Florence’s influence spreads across the known world. However, this joy is ironic in the influence of Florence in that it pollutes even Hell with its existence. The spirits Dante has

Cited: Alighieri, Dante. "Canto XXVI." The Inferno. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: Signet Classics, 2009. 211-12. Hood, Edward M. "The Condition of Ulysses: Expansions and Contractions in Canto XXVI of the "Inferno"" Annual Report of the Dante Society, with Accompanying Papers 81 (1963): 1-17. Sturm, Sara. "Structure and Meaning in Inferno XXVI." Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society 92 (1974): 93-106.