Commentary Purg XV 118-123

Virgil's first response to Dante's 'awakening' back in the world of lesser truth is a bit brutal in its colloquial insistence on a less than noble cause for his condition.  For Dante's apparent drunkenness see Glending Olson (Olso.1999.1), pp. 25-26.  Olson addresses the relationship between these and the seemingly 'drunken' words of Boniface VIII, as described by Guido da Montefeltro in [Inf XXVII 99].  The context of Acts 2:13 is clearly present here as well: witnessing the apostles speaking in tongues after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, the cynical pronounce them to be 'drunk with new wine.'  It is interesting to see that Virgil is associated, in his response to Dante, similarly filled with the Spirit, with those who denied the action of the Holy Spirit in the apostles (see Seem [Seem.1991.1], p. 74).  Constance Breinin (Princeton '82) has also suggested the resonance here of Isaiah (Isaiah 28:7), where 'the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink...; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.'  Seem (Seem.1991.1), p. 74, points out that Dante's 'drunken' condition, shortly after he has heard Beatrice's name ([Purg XV 77]), mirrors his being 'come inebriato' (as though drunk) when he first saw Beatrice, as recorded in V.N.III.2.