Commentary Purg VIII 109-111

Heilbronn (Heil.1972.1), p. 55, argues that it is to Nino's companion's credit (we will shortly discover that this is Currado Malaspina) that he never takes his eyes from Dante, whose presence marks the really important event taking place here, against the backdrop of this now familiar play, in which nothing is really happening, for all its symbolic significance.  The play reflects the past, Dante's physical presence in purgatory in the present, and the future -- Dante's among Currado's family in Lunigiana and Currado's hopes for prayer from them, never expressed, but clear from all the similar requests we have already heard from others.