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Courtly Love In Dante's Inferno

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Started from Purgatory canto XXX, Virgil, the sweet father has left Dante in purgatory. Then a lady came to Dante, crowded with olive-leaves, over a white veil, dressed in colours of living flame. And Dante found out who she is right away, through her hidden charm, felt the power from former love. The lady is Beatrice, she appears as one of his guides in Purgatory and Paradise.
The theme of courtly love shows at this part of book. Dante not only loves Beatrice when she was alive, but also after she died and even stronger than when she was alive. In canto XXX when he first time saw Beatrice, he wanted to say to Virgil :“Not one drop of blood is left inside my veins that does not throb: I recognize signs of the ancient flame.”(Dante, trans. Musa, Purgatory 322) In the beginning of canto XXXI Beatrice asks Dante what makes Dante had to despoil his hope of passing upward. Dante was weeping:“Present things with false delights turned my step away, as soon as your face had vanished."(Poetry in Translation, Dante: Purgatory)
When Dante was nine years old and Beatrice was eight years old, they first meeting when Dante 's father took him to the Portinari house for a May Day Party. Dante moved by her since the first moment he saw her, he describes that moment“ I say truly that the vital spirit, that …show more content…

Idealized lady is also happens in the bible. In Song of Songs, Solomon praises his wife is better than any other women in the world, she is perfect in his eyes. But different between Dante's love and Solomon's love is that Solomon praises his wife while Dante praises other's wife. In Song of Songs 4“How Beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful. Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from hills of Gilded......Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.”(Song of Songs 4

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