• This “stammering woman” of Dante’s dream is Sensual Pleasure, which the imagination of the beholder adorns with a thousand charms. The “lady saintly and alert” is Reason, the same that tied Ulysses to the mast, and stopped the ears of his sailors with wax that they might not hear the song of the Sirens. Gower, Confessio Amantis , I :⁠— “Of such nature They ben, that with so swete a steven Like to the melodic of heven In womannishe vois they singe With notes of so great likinge, Of suche mesure, of suche musike, Wherof the shippes they beswike That passen by the costes there. For whan the shipmen lay an ere Unto the vois, in here airs They wene it be a paradis, Which after is to hem an helle.” ↩
• “That is,” says Buti, “they shall have the gift of comforting their souls.” Matthew 5:4:⁠— “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” ↩
• The three remaining sins to be purged away are Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust. ↩
• See Canto XIV 148 . ↩
• Psalms 119:25:⁠— “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” ↩