Dante, Purgatorio
The Humble Reed at the Shore
Cato directs Virgil to gird Dante with a slender reed. He explains that plants with leaves or hardened stalks do not survive where the water beats because they do not bend with it. On the shore Virgil follows the instruction. The narrator calls attention to a marvel: wherever one of the humble plants is plucked, another like it immediately rises.
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In the sources
The encounter
LiteraryCato directs Virgil to gird Dante with a slender reed. He explains that plants with leaves or hardened stalks do not survive where the water beats because they do not bend with it.
Further detail
LiteraryOn the shore Virgil follows the instruction. The narrator calls attention to a marvel: wherever one of the humble plants is plucked, another like it immediately rises.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows the supplied Thompson & Thomas edition of H. F. Cary’s translation. It describes Dante’s literary vision, distinguishing its assignments and reported claims from historical biography, other classical traditions and independently established accounts of an afterlife.
Original passages
Source 1
Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante
with a slender reed See that thou duly gird him, and his face Lave, till all sordid stain thou wipe from thence. For not with eye,Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Purgatory and Paradise, Cary translation; active reader leaf 11
Passage read in the exact edition’s extracted canto text; whitespace-normalised anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Associated plates separately inspected.
- Edition
- IMJ-0119-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0119-E001-P0011
- Original scan leaf
- 12
- Recorded leaf number
- 12
- Current Reader position
- 8
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante
Wherever one was pluck'd another there Resembling, straightway in its place arose.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Purgatory and Paradise, Cary translation; active reader leaf 14
Passage read in the exact edition’s extracted canto text; whitespace-normalised anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Associated plates separately inspected.
- Edition
- IMJ-0119-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0119-E001-P0014
- Original scan leaf
- 15
- Recorded leaf number
- 15
- Current Reader position
- 11
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed