Inferno Xiii: The Wood Of The Things That Aren't

Of all the cantos, this may endure the saddest. Nowhere else does the worldview of the poet – which reflected the near enlightened thinking of his time, at to the lowest degree amid Christians – seem to a greater extent than warped in addition to distant. Hanging over it are all the innumerable personal stories lost to history of people whose mental affliction was viewed past times lodge every bit a sin.

George Grosz, Trees at Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Massachusetts (1946)

Having crossed the river of boiling blood that delimits the initiatory of all degree of the 5th circle, Dante in addition to Virgil direct maintain come upwards to the border of a wood che da neun sentiero era segnato – that paths, it had none. This is the start of a description through negatives. You know the forests that environs Cecina in addition to Tarquinia – asks the poet – where solely the wild boars roam? Well, this 1 was zip similar that. And then:

Non fronda verde, ma di coloring fabric fosco;
non rami schietti, ma nodosi e ’nvolti;
non pomi v’eran, ma stecchi con tòsco.

Per Longfellow: non leaf green, but of a dusky colour; non branches smooth, but gnarled in addition to intertangled; non apple-trees were there, but thorns amongst poison.

This is the wood of the things that aren’t. And so fifty-fifty its sole apparent living inhabitants – the harpies that nest amid the trees – are non described in addition to maybe non fifty-fifty seen past times Dante, but recalled from the relevant passage inward Virgil’s Aeneid, prophylactic for remarking that fanno lamenti inward su li alberi strani: literally ‘they brand laments upwards inward the trees strange’, where strange could cite either to the trees or the laments.

However, what Dante hears every bit the span ventures into the pathless wood are definitely human voices.

Io sentia d’ogne parte trarre guai
e non vedea persona che ’l facesse;

‘I heard on all sides lamentations uttered in addition to somebody none beheld I who powerfulness brand them.’ The absence forthwith is the absence of human forms, from which the reader would speedily deduce that we’re inward the presence of a rattling ancient trope, that of people turned into trees. But Dante – the peachy scholar of classical literature who thinks or pretends to intend that his journeying is non occurring inward a majority – appears blind to this near obvious of foreshadowings. Or does he? The adjacent delineate of piece of job is delicious.

Cred’ïo ch’ei credette ch’io credesse…
I idea he idea I thought…

So, to elbow grease to explain: Dante was standing inward the forest, listening to voices of uncertain provenance, in addition to (at the fourth dimension of writing) he recalls thinking that Virgil powerfulness direct maintain been thinking that he (Dante) powerfulness direct maintain been thinking that people powerfulness endure hiding amid the trees. The implication of the delineate of piece of job is that he didn’t inward fact intend that, but had figured that the voices were coming straight from the trees. So, when Virgil instructs him to pause a twig off 1 of the trees, believing that he would non endure believed if he only told him the truth, Dante plays along, but knowing that he would probable endure causing hurting to what is left of a person.

Therefore, he puts his manus forward, in addition to gently plucks the thinnest of branches. To which a vocalism replies: Perché mi schiante (why produce you lot pause me?) in addition to speedily 1 time to a greater extent than Perché mi scerpi (why produce you lot tear me?). Maybe these tree-people are highly sensitive to pain. Or maybe this tree-person – 1 Piero della Vigna – is reacting so violently because he knows that the injury, notwithstanding slight, was quite needless; that it was all a narrative pretext to larn the activity going.

For the trees cannot speak unless they are beingness attacked inward that way. It is the Harpies which, past times feeding on the leaves, fanno dolore, e al dolor fenestra – ‘create pain, in addition to a window to pain’.

It is a recurring query inward the Inferno, whether for the spirits to utter to Dante is a shape of torment or temporary reprieve. What he has to offering to them, inward near cases – every bit he does to Piero – is the hope to speak of them to the living. And inward fact, petty would endure known of this disgraced counsellor to emperor Frederick II, were it non for the Commedia. But holler upwards the words of Francesca inward the 5th canto: Nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice ne la miseria. There is no greater hurting that to intend dorsum on one’s happiness inward a fourth dimension of misery. And time, for the damned, stretches similar a Mobius Strip: circular, eternal, ever folding upon itself, ever taking them dorsum to the fourth dimension of their personal Fall. To speak thence is to experience hurting in addition to inward this wood it is solely through hurting that the spirits tin dismiss speak.

The 2nd degree of the 5th circle is reserved to suicides (and gamblers, which I won’t larn into except to nation their fate is to endure hunted past times dogs through the thick woods). It is lower than the initiatory of all level, because for medieval theological ethics to elbow grease terms upon oneself was worse than to elbow grease terms to others. To accept someone’s life is a criminal offence against that person, in addition to to the laws of God. But to accept one’s ain is a criminal offence against nature, thence straight against its creator. And God, who is omnipotent in addition to cannot endure harmed, nevertheless takes all offences against His divine somebody rattling seriously. Therefore, the mere murderers are upstairs, whereas those that squandered their ain life or their ain fortune are downwardly here, in addition to discipline to an fifty-fifty to a greater extent than exquisite torment than beingness turned forever into ragout.

Remember: to endure from what nosotros would telephone telephone depression, the Romantics called melancholy in addition to medieval Christians called sloth, was too a deadly sin, in addition to for similar reasons: to negate the beauty of life in addition to creation was regarded every bit an affront to God. We already constitute the souls of the slothful who stopped brusque of suicide along amongst the souls of the tearing who stopped brusque of murder, submerged inward the murky waters of the Styx. Murderers in addition to suicides similarly larn together.

We can, I hope, turn down outright these archaic notions. But every bit good every bit reaffirming this ethical organization every bit it applies to the dead, the canto hints at its probable social consequences for the living. For land Piero’s spoken language is dignified in addition to moves Dante to pity, the poet’s imagery – for which at that spot is no known theological source – is merciless. In the terminate of ends, Piero explains, when all the spirits of Hell are reunited to their bodies later the Judgment, the suicides volition endure condemned instead to hang theirs from these branches: every bit a lifeless simulacrum in addition to eternal reminder of the life that they rejected.

It’s difficult to read these lines today without thinking of Billie Holiday and Strange Fruit, but those are historical contexts that resist comparison. What reading a medieval poetry form tin dismiss too endure proficient for, however, is to remind us that the stigma of mental affliction has roots that make rattling deep into our culture.

Previously: Inferno I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.