Tor Torhaug wrote:
>
> Dear italian studies list. I have a problem in Purgatorio 5:
>
> 130 Deh, quando tu sarai tornato al mondo,
> 131 e riposato de la lunga via ,
> 132 seguito 'l terzo spirito al secondo,
> 133 ricorditi di me, che son la Pia:
> 134 Siena mi fe, disfecemi Maremma:
> 135 salsi colui che 'nnanellata pria
> 136 disposando m'avea con la sua gemma .
>
> I am desperately trying to see here, in Dante's naked text, rather than in
> the dressed up commentaries, an allusion to Pia's husband as her murderer.
> And I do not succeed.
>
> Pia is one of the group of those who died violently, and who repented only
> at the last moment, and she is the last of the three souls who speak to
> Dante in Purgatorio 5.
>
> Now, my impression is that the main focus of this canto is the value of
> intercession to the souls in the ante-purgatorio. Virgil attracts them by
> alluding to how useful Dante-wanderer may be to them:
>
> 36 faccianli onore, ed essere puo lor caro
>
> and each of the three in turn ask Dante for help in procuring
> intercessionary prayers from the living. Iacopo del Cassero begs him:
>
> 70 che tu mi sie di tuoi prieghi cortese
> 71 in Fano, si che ben per me s'adori
>
> which is both a prayer that Dante himself pray for his soul, and an
> allusion to his family or friends in Fano, that they also pray for him. He
> then goes on to explain, in gory detail, how he died.
>
> Buonconte da Montefeltro also asks for Dante's intercession:
>
> 85 Poi disse un altro: Deh, se quel disio
> 86 si compia che ti tragge a l'alto monte,
> 87 con buona pietate aiuta il mio!
>
> and then goes on to deplore how Giovanna and others who should pray for him
> fail to do so, a fact that makes him sad, and/or shameful:
>
> 89 Giovanna o altri non ha di me cura;
> 90 per ch'io vo tra costor con bassa fronte
>
> Afterwards he too narrates the circumstances of his death, his salvation,
> and the final disappearance of his corpse.
>
> The elements one sees in these two espisodes of Purgatorio 5, then, contain
> a "captatio benevolentiae" to Dante, a reference to how the near and dear
> pray, or fail to pray for them, and they tell the story of their life and
> death.
>
> I would then expect la Pia's speech to folow the same pattern: Captatio
> benevolentae to Dante:
>
> 130 Deh, quando tu sarai tornato al mondo,
> 131 e riposato de la lunga via ,
> 132 seguito 'l terzo spirito al secondo,
> 133 ricorditi di me, che son la Pia:
>
> followed by the story of her life and death - albeit an extremely short one:
>
> 134 Siena mi fe, disfecemi Maremma
>
> and what I would expect to be, and have no problems as seeing, as a
> reference to a near and dear person who would be saying intercessionary
> prayers on her behalf:
>
> 135 salsi colui che 'nnanellata pria
> 136 disposando m'avea con la sua gemma
>
> her dear husband, who knows the story of her life and death. Instead every
> commentary, or at least every commentary in the Dartmouth Dante project,
> makes the "salsi" into an accusation of murder. Can someone please explain
> this to me.
>
> Tor
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tor Torhaug
> Research fellow
> University of Oslo
> Department of Classical and Romance Studies
> Postboks 1007 Blindern
> 0315 Oslo
> Norway
>
> Phone: +47-22 85 71 28
> Fax: +47-22 85 44 52
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
dear Tor,
i think i went through this issue too some time ago and reading several
criticts suggested that pia does not tell ( and in a way cannot tell )
the story of her life, well, in particular of her death because it is
too shameful for her to deal with it. maybe even to shameful for the
poem itself.
best luck
Marco Nannini
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