Commentary Inf II 37-40

A type of simile Dante enjoys deploying, one in which tenor and vehicle are eventually seen to involve the same agent, or at least an anonymous other human and the protagonist: 'and as a man... so was I.' See C.Inf.XXX.136-141. This first 'negative' simile of the canto is balanced by its concluding 'positive' one: [Inf II 127-130]. For the strategically balanced compositional units of the first two cantos see C.Inf.II.1-6.