Commentary Purg XXVIII 80-81

Psalm 91 (92), 'A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day,' begins as follows: 'It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto your name, O most High.'  The verse that Matelda refers to, Psalm 91:5 in the Vulgate, runs as follows in the English Bible: 'For you, Lord, have made me glad (delectasti me) through your work: I will triumph in the work of your hands' (92:4).  For the similar view of the Psalm found in Peter Abelard's expositio in Hexaemeron, see Singleton (DDP Singleton.Purg.XXVIII.80); and in Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis in Deum, see Hawkins (Hawk.1991.1), pp. 198-99.  Matelda is expressing her Leah-like devotion to the active life, her delight in 'dressing and keeping the garden' as Eve was enjoined to do (but did not, eating the forbidden fruit instead).  She is once again joined in our understanding to the unfallen Eve, her constant typological referent in Dante's garden of Eden.  If we ever had any doubt about the nature of the love she feels, we do so no longer.  She is 'in love' with God, not with Dante except as she loves him in God, as we shall see all the saved loving one another (and Dante) in Paradiso.

      In his Monarchia (Mon.III.xv.7), Dante says that the earthly paradise signifies the beatitudo huius vitae (the blessedness of the earthly life). For discussion, see Williamson (Will.1958.1).