Eliot citing Dante - mythology & theology

This may seem a little hat-ke seen by itself.

But a few immediate links:
a) Some recent mail exchanges that mentioned Thyag-aarwaal and his other poet friend. It is a similar scene here, and I found it striking.
b) Just as Eliot describes Dante's work, ALV's short stories too have philosophy as an 'ingredient'. Not to be confused with the allegory (as they sometimes are), which is only the 'scaffold' on which his short stories are built.

I had recently read this to Naresh in another context, and mentioned to ALV, who both thought this was blog-worthy.

Eliot dedicates a set of his poems, 'Prufrock and Other Observations' (1917) to the memory of his friend Jean Verdenal, citing Dante Alighieri from his famous 'The Divine Comedy'

Or puoi la quantitate
comprender dell'amor ch'a te mi scalda
quando dismento nostra vanitate
trattando l'ombre come cosa salda.

Purgatorio, XXI, 133-6

[translation in yellow highlight below]

Dante (as himself, in his own work) is being conducted through the Inferno and Purgatory by the spirit of the great Roman poet Virgil (Dante is 13th century AD, and in his work he selects the character of Virgil, 1st century BC for this journey). In the fifth circle of Purgatory, they encounter the spirit of another Roman poet, Statius, who had drawn his poetic inspiration from Virgil.

Statius, not recognizing Virgil standing beside Dante, pays a glowing tribute to him. After a while (when Virgil had withheld Dante from doing so), when Dante reveals Virgil's identity, Statius stoops to embrace his master's feet in homage. Virgil stops him with the reminder that they are both but empty shades.

Eliot's quote is Statius's answer to Virgil:

'Now canst thou comprehend the measure of my love which warms me toward thee, when I forget our nothingness, and treat shades as a solid thing.'


Apart from any particular context (the links I mention above), read in itself as I had done before any links in life, the thought itself is fantastic. For me always, there is GREAT joy in realizing how equally layered and deep all other cultures run ...

Eliot in the 20th century, commemorates his friend, using a 13th century text, where one poet of the 1st century BC, praises another.

That is just the fact of things. What I admire is:

1. Expresses his depth of feeling (once solid (they were room-mates), now shadow) while maintaining an impersonality by invoking the universality of the sentiment, through voices of the past.

2. By such a choice, Eliot clearly is suggesting to us (his own readers) that he and Verdenal, too are empty shadows. The self is perhaps insubstantial and illusory - which is the theme of Eliot's poems that follow!

Anand