At the summit of Mount Purgatory is the Earthly Paradise or Garden of Eden.[95] Allegorically, it represents the state of innocence that existed before Adam and Eve fell from grace – the state which Dante's journey up Mount Purgatory has recaptured.[95]
The Heavenly Pageant
Here Dante meets Matilda, a woman whose literal and allegorical identity "is perhaps the most tantalizing problem in the Comedy".[95] Critics up to the early twentieth century tended to connect her with the historical Matilda of Tuscany,[96] but more recently some have suggested a connection with the dream of Leah in Canto XXVII.[97] Be that as it may, Matilda clearly prepares Dante for his meeting with Beatrice,[95] the woman to whom (historically) Dante dedicated his previous poetry, the woman at whose request (in the story) Virgil was commissioned to bring Dante on his journey,[98] and the woman who (allegorically) symbolizes the path to God[99] (Canto XXVIII).
With Matilda, Dante witnesses a procession which forms an allegory within the allegory, somewhat like Shakespeare's play within a play. It has a very different style from the Purgatorio as a whole, having the form of a masque, where the characters are walking symbols rather than real people. The procession consists of (Canto XXIX):
- "Twenty-four elders"[100] (a reference to Revelation 4:4[101]), representing the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, as classified by Jerome[102]
- "Four animals" with "six wings as plumage"[103] (a reference to Revelation 4:6–8[104]), a traditional representation of the four Evangelists[102]
- "A chariot triumphal on two wheels,"[105] bearing Beatrice, which is drawn by…
- A griffin,[106] representing the conjoined divinity and humanity of Christ[102]
- "Three circling women" coloured red, green, and white,[107] representing the three theological virtues: Love, Hope, and Faith, respectively[102]
- "Four other women"[108] dressed in purple,[109] representing the four cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude[102]
- "Two elders, different in their dress,"[110] representing the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles[102]
- "Four of humble aspect,"[111] representing the general epistles[102]
- "When all the rest had passed, a lone old man,"[112] representing the Book of Revelation[102]
Beatrice's arrival
Canto XXX portrays the transition between Virgil's departure and Beatrice's arrival. Now that the pilgrim has completed his training in desire and reached the limits of human reason, Virgil can no longer serve as his guide: he has nothing more to teach Dante, because human reason cannot explain or understand divine grace.[113] Beatrice, by contrast, is capable of teaching Dante the meaning of that grace, because she is Christian, and endowed with understanding by God.[114]
Even as Virgil departs, however, his influence on the poem remains strong. Dante's farewell to Virgil, with the threefold repetition of Virgil's name, echoes a passage from Virgil's Georgics, wherein Orpheus calls out to Eurydice after he has turned around and condemned her to eternity in the land of the dead.[115]
After Virgil's departure, Beatrice begins to admonish Dante, accusing him of straying from the path of virtue she had laid before him after her departure from life on earth. She demands a confession from the pilgrim—his first personal confession in the whole Comedy:
"O you who are beyond the sacred river,"turning toward me the point of her speech, whosemere edge had seemed sharp to me,she began again, continuing without delay: "say,say if this is true: to so great an accusation yourconfession must be joined."[116]
It is not until after more admonitions from Beatrice and a heartfelt confession from Dante that Dante is washed in the River Lethe, which erases the memory of past sin (Canto XXXI),[117] and sees an allegory of Biblical and Church history. This allegory includes a denunciation of the corrupt papacy of the time: a harlot (the papacy) is dragged away with the chariot (the Church) by a giant (the French monarchy, which under King Philip IV engineered the move of the Papal Seat to Avignon in 1309)[118] (Canto XXXII):
Just like a fortress set on a steep slope,securely seated there, ungirt, a whore,whose eyes were quick to rove, appeared to me;and I saw at her side, erect, a giant,who seemed to serve as her custodian;and they again, again embraced each other.[119]
It is noon as the events observed in the Earthly Paradise come to a close.[120] Finally, Dante drinks from the River Eunoë, which restores good memories, and prepares him for his ascent to Heaven (described in the Paradiso, the final cantica). As with the other two parts of the Divine Comedy, the Purgatorio ends on the word "stars" (Canto XXXIII):
From that most holy wave I now returnedto Beatrice; remade, as new trees arerenewed when they bring forth new boughs, I waspure and prepared to climb unto the stars.[121]
