Commentary Inf XV 99

This is Virgil's only utterance in the canto. (Walking ahead of Dante, accompanied by Brunetto, who is moving close to the bank, along the sand, Virgil is not 'in the frame' for most of the scene.) How we should read the remark is no longer as clear as it once seemed. Is it congratulatory or monitory? All the early commentators who deal with it think it is the latter, i.e., Dante has just said a true thing (vv. 91-96), but something difficult to live up to. And that seems the most likely reading. However, beginning with Daniello (DDP Daniello.Inf.XV.99), some commentators think it refers to Dante's having remembered Virgil's words with a similar import (Aen. V.710): 'superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est' (all fortune is to be overcome by being borne). Others believe it refers to Dante's having remembered Virgil's utterance at [Inf X 127-132]. Both these readings make Virgil's words congratulatory. Berthier (DDP Berthier.Inf.XV.99) offered a cogent proposal for a return to the reading of the early commentators. In our own day, however, the commentary tradition is various and confused.