Dante |The Poetics of Conversion JOHN FRECCERO Baie, and with an Iniroduction by Rachel Jacaff Cambridge, Mavszcbuets, and London, England »ssi + mytnopucrion: representation suggests the outlines of «reading of the whole work as well asthe diverse poetics of each ofthe cantcb. John Freccero's essays have had a profound effect on Dante studies in America; they continue to inspite new work and references to them show up in an uausual number of other people's footnotes, ‘This is not only because oftheir insightfulness, but also because of 2 certain modesty or courtesy with which they leave many of theie conclusions oF analogues to be worked out by the reader. They ate suggestive rather than exhaustive. In their power to engage the resder, 4s wel asin theie meticulous conceptual elegance and their sense of the inherent fascination ofthe issues they ris, they are continuous ‘with Freccero's teaching. These essays teach us how to find the ques- tions, or how to make limited questions into much larger ones: they hhave ‘the rate ability both co lead the way and to open it Baisor's Acknowledgments | would like to chank the staff of Special Collections at the Joba M. Olin Library of Cornell University, and in parcular James Tyler, for assistance. Lam grateful to Princeton University Press for allowing us to use Charles 8. Singleon’s edition and translation ofthe Divine ‘Comedy chroughoue the book. I deeply appreciate the generous par- ticipation of several fiends at various stazes ofthis project, Jeffrey Schnapp andl David Quine were especially helpful. Andrea Wilson supplied translations forall the Latin quotations chat had not been previously ranslated; she did so with excraordinary alarity and good will. Been Reeves compiled the indexes, Lindsay Waters of Harvard University Press wacmly facilitated and encouraged this project at every stage; his suppore turned it into reality rr tinonencteai ainsi + 1. The Prologue Scene ‘The Region of Unlibeness Ts rue siapowy worn or mz prologue scene, things both are and are not what they seem, For all ks familiarity, the scenery seems 10 have n0 real poetic existence independent of the allegorical statement it was meant t0 convey. “Moreover, the statement itself, juin from ehe var bibliography dedicated to iis by 20 means obvious te contemporary reader ‘The ambiguous ntace ofthe moral landscape lends sett realy to atbitrary allegorizaion, bur scarcely to formal analyst To this respec, the prologue is radically ualike any other pare of the Com. ria and matches the aborsive journey of the pilgrim with an ap- patent failure that isthe poet's own ‘Any fresh interpretation ofthe prologue, if cis vo contribute measurably f0 our understanding, mss not only attempe an explo ‘ation ofthis wellarveled crcl erain, bu also account for he presence, in this most substantial of poetic visions, ofa region whose outlines are decidedly blued. Ie is such an accounting that I hope to offer. My thesis i shat the landscape in which ¢ himself beara striking, faded ac imes resemblance inlkeness” in which the young Augustine finds him © seventh book of the. Canfeom.. Moreover, the reser Diznceis not simply an isolated fact of purely historical interest but isalso of some significance for an interpretation ofthe poem I the poinc of departure, aswell asthe goal, of Dante's spiritual iierary ‘eliberately recalls the experience of Augustine in the Canfetions,ond eden, spr fom the prologue scene, for considering Dante’ poem asprin testament inthe manncr of ‘agin. Toward the end ofthe Paratrnat momen ht of reat deaatic importance, Beatice cal the psi by are jin su Ia spond det carro sinistra, uando mi voli sl mon del some mio, che di necessic qui si regisra, vidi ladonna... GOXX, 61-64) s00n the left side ofthe chariot—when I urned at the sound of my name, which of necessity is registered here—I saw the lady Thus in dfante of mee conveaton she autores h- _solf wih fis prog ag that he loess "al neces” The {Boley Wie posted tad the Word “bec strong th the sag ee for sme inereemion Ie appear Erni Dante ha dics thecrcunanes under wich mit ‘toner ncenry speak of onerll One of is samen, peecisely the Confessions, is described in teems that seem almost to Keall Dane's owe wesament" ee aecesatecaionlo para di8& concede: cine ate sxe aio dom mane FU sumo e jonare ise grandeinfamin 0. peiolo ton vi pub ces fare. L Akea@ quando, personae dis, gansta wi Se segs por vit dossn.eseraaene nse gostiao ae le sue confession a para ds, ct pr lo Prat ‘Ela sna vita oquale fd non} buon non, ben sign edi mihi sting, ne did esemploedtrne,lqule pers ne ttimont ere non i oa” Speaking of oneself is allowed, when itis necessary, and among other nacesary occasions ewe are most obvioUS: One is when itis impossible wo sileace wrea infamy and danger without doing 50... The other is when, by speaking of hrsel, the eresest advantage follows for others By way of instruction; and this reason moved Augutine so speak of himself in his coafessons 40 that i the progress of his life, which was from bad to good, {THE PROLOGUE SCENE * 5 and from good to better, and from better to best, he furnished ‘xample and teaching which could not have been obtained from fny other equully truthful testimony. Civics have usually hen content with eather genetic explanations for Dante's mention of his own name in the Pargstris, gone of ‘Ghichscem ao relevant ar docs this pasage ia the Conia! ei Tins fom the besinning ofthe poem that Dante, ike Augustine, Sates bis work wo have exemplity force for "mrt vit” Elsewhere Tnakes dis explicit, when he sas thar he writes “in pro del Tporilo che mal vive” (Parg, XXXIl, 103) By naming hiself she Iomene of hiscoafession, however, he gives ie abstract expla Heal weight of vr dotinoni,exacly as had St, August before “Furthermore, the three stages of Augustine's progres are de- clin the Convivio in terms that are partials echoed ia the Paradis B Béatrice quella che 8 scorge «4 bone in meg, si subitarenre che Patco #30 per tempo non si sporge. (X, 37-39) {e's Beatrice who thus conducts from good t0 better, so swiftly that her at does not extend through time “The plhrase “di bene in meglio," fo all of its apparent banality, has technical force, describing the second stage ofthe pilarim’s progress. Bertrve is virtually defined here as the guide for the second stage of spiritual progress in terms that che Contivio had used for the Second stage of Augustine's conversion from sinner co saint: “di sbuono in migliore” Ie seems likely chat in the Convivio Dance per- Ceived in Augustine's life the same pateern of conversion chat he was Jiter to read retrospectively in his own experience. Dante speaks of Auguscine’s life as giving an “essemplo,” im- plying the teansformation of personal experience into ineligible, perhaps even symbolic, form. We may observe in passing thar ic is fhe exemplary quality of the Confessions that distinguishes from its modem descendants, Augustine's purpose is not co establish his own niqueness (nor, therefore, innocence, in terms ofthe standards by ‘which ordinary men are judged), bu rather co demonstrate how the “pparently unique experience was, from the perspective of ererity,