Commentary Purg I 94-99

Turning from his admonition (which would have seemed gratuitous had the author not wanted to call Virgil's sense of the situation into question), Cato now orders the Roman poet to gird Dante's loins with a symbol of humility.  Pietro di Dante (DDP Pietro1.Purg.I.134-136) refers to the sixth chapter of Matthew (he means Micah [6:14]): 'humiliatio tua in medio tui,' what Singleton (DDP Singleton.Purg.I.95) calls the cingulum humilitatis.  Dante's confirmation in humility must be joined with his purification (the cleansing of his face) so that he be pure in sight when he stands before the 'admitting angel' at the gate of purgatory in Canto IX. For the reflection of the baptismal liturgy in vv. 98-99, see Marti (Mart.1990.1).

      The giunco schietto (verse 95), the rush with which Virgil is ordered to bind his pupil, is, as Tommaseo was perhaps the first to suggest (DDP Tommaseo.Purg.I.94-96), meant to echo positively the horrible vegetation of the forest of the suicides ([Inf XIII 5]), described as having branches that are not straight ('non rami schietti'), but contorted.