The material removed from the earth to make room for Hell was heaped up to form the Mountain of Purgatory, situated like an island in the ocean which, according to his cosmog raphy, forms the under side of the earth. It is exactly antipodal to Jerusalem. Like the Hell, it consists of nine divisions. The first is the Ante-Purgatory where souls that had repented late were compelled to sojourn 30 times as long as they had been in a state of unrepentance. Here is the Valley of the Princes — rulers that had been negligent of salvation. Then come seven ever narrowing circles or ledges where the seven cardinal sins are purged. At the Fifth Ledge, Statius, the poet of the who happened to have been born and to have died in the first century of the Christian era, meets the two other poets and accompanies them, engaging them in charming conversation. On the top of the mountain is situated the Earthly Paradise. Here Virgil suddenly disappears, de claring that henceforth his pupil's will is free, upright and sane; henceforth he cannot go astray even though he follow his own impulses. In other words, Human Reason must give place to Divine guidance. There follows a scene of exquisite mystical symbolism. Beatrice appears and Dante confesses his dereliction from the Faith and is made to pass through the River Lethe, and to drink of it, whereby he forgets all his evil past ; then he enters the River Eunoe, ((whereby henceforth he will remember only what is good, and is ready to mount with his new guide into Paradise. In the Purgatory,' as in the Dante departs from the teaching of Thomas Aquinas. Here repentant sinners have no desire to escape from the purging fire; they rather throw themselves upon it, without regret, exult in it, realizing its effi cacy in purifying them; they cherish hope and have no fear.
The Paradise is also divided into nine spheres. According to Dante's cosmography the seven great planets revolve around the earth. With Beatrice he ascends in swift flight, first to the Sphere of Fire, pausing for a brief visit on the Moon, which is the abiding-place of those that were, by no fault of theirs, constrained to break their. vows; thence to Mercury, to Venus, to the Sun, to Mars, to Jupiter, to Saturn, to the Starry Empyrean, to the Primum Mobile — the Crystalline Heaven, where around a point of dazzling light, symbolizing God, revolves a rain bow ring in turn composed of nine orders: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Vir tues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels, in the sequence supposed to have been declared by Saint Paul, when he was snatched up into the highest heavens.
Dante and Beatrice are now about 6,000 miles above the earth, according to his calcula tion, and have one more ascent to make — to the Empyrean, which is pure - light. Here Beatrice is taken from him, and in her place appears Saint Bernard who bids him look up ward. There he beholds the Celestial Vision: the Holy Virgin amid thousands of jubilant angels with wings outspread, the hierarchy, in cluding Beatrice, who is seated just below the ancient Rachel, who is her counterpart in the Old Testament regime, making a Sacred Rose, the circle divided into two parts, one consisting of the Saints of the ancient dispensation and of course complete, the other, as yet unfilled, the place of those who believed that Christ had already come. Even in these supernal realms
Dante does not forget his mundane politics: he finds in the Empyrean a place for Emperor Henry VII, who was to bring about perpetual peace on earth, while he consigns to the third pit or den of the Eighth Circle of Hell the treacherous Pope, Clement V.
Throughout the three canticles are found multitudes of striking episodes, vivid descrip tions, now realistic and revolting, now exquisite and beatific, discussions of philosophical, theo logical and political topics, cameoed bits of his tory and biography, innumerable similes, often much elaborated; together, a vast array of recondite learning. Much of it is obscure, re quiring in order to understand its meaning, an acquaintance with the history of Dante's time, with the mythology of antiquity, with the sym bolism of mediaeval theology, with the works of the Church Fathers, particularly of Saint Thomas Aquinas, with the details of Dante's own life, his friends and enemies, with the geography of that Italy through which he wan dered in exile, going ((up and down others' stairs," eating ((the bread that savors of salt" Dante takes great pains to keep exact account of the time spent in his Dream— for it is a Dream, as he intimates in the 32d Canto of the It begins on the evening before Good Friday, 24-25 March 1300. The First Canticle occupies four nights and three days; the Second the same; Friday and Saturday are devoted to the marvels of the Nine Movable Heavens, and the poem ends on the 10th day.
The 'Comedy,' while having the triple aspect of a political tract, a theological study of the Fate of Man and a personal relation, is above all a great work of art. It consists of three canticles each of 33 cantos, though the first has one extra as a general introduction, making the full number 100, that being the square of 10, which, according to Dante, is the perfect num ber. The 'Inferno' has 4,720 lines, the 'Purga torio' 4,755, the 'Paradiso' 4,758, a total of 14,233. The shortest of the hundred cantos have 115 lines each; the longest has 160. Each canto begins and ends with an alternate couplet ; all the rest of the rimes are triple: hence the verse is called terza rima. To the 400 couplets and 4,611 terzine there are allotted 653 different rime-endings : some are used only once, others occur repeatedly, as ando, 39 times; ante, 45 times; ore (amore, love), 37 times; io, 47 times. Yet though there are only between six and seven new ones to a canto, the general effect is rich and musical. The great majority of the rimes are feminine (dissyllabic), but there are 14 in stances of masculine rimes in on, or and oth (Sabaoth) or in vowels, e, i, o and u: there are 52 cases of versi sdniccioli (trisyllabic or dactyllic riffles). Each of the three canticles ends with the' word stelle, stars. Dante some times invented words, and his skill in managing the difficult metre was extraordinary. At the end of the 28th canto of the (Paradiso) are eight lines in Provencal. There are a number of complete lines in Latin.