Time, Telos and Mysticism in the Divina Commedia

Abstract

This study takes as its point of departure Saint Bernard’s obscure reference to sleep at Par. 32.139, a verse which also contains the last of the Commedia's many allusions to the flight of time. A new interpretation of the reference to sleep is offered, and the significance of the allusion to time is explored; but the scope of the study broadens greatly, to the extent that it brings to light significant new features of the poem’s mystical dimension, its concern with time, and the teleological basis of its world view. It is argued that the reference to sleep is an anticipation of the protagonist’s final vision of the divine essence, the mystic telos or goal of the journey {Par. 33.140-45). It is also proposed that mystic union, the supreme goal of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Christian mysticism, is represented, not, as some scholars believe, by the final vision, but by the protagonist’s slumber in the Earthly Paradise (Purg. 32.64-84). It is further argued that, with the fictional Bernard’s allusion to the flight of time, Dante exploits specific features of the historical saint’s reputation and writings in order to bring teleological closure to the theme of time. It emerges that both time and mysticism are functions of the Christian teleology or eschatology on which the poet’s prophetic vision rests, and that the structure of ultimate ends which the Commedia has in view is more complex than, and reaches out beyond, the “duo ultima” scheme of the Monarchia (3.15.3-11).