Commentary Par XII 55

The vocabulary of feudal times (drudo, 'vassal') combines with that of erotic poetry (amoroso, 'loving') to interrupt the military associations of Dominic, and eventually presents him, like Francis, as a 'husband' (see [Par XII 61], sponsalizie, 'nuptials'). The word drudo, a triple hapax, i.e., a word appearing once in each cantica (see Hollander [Holl.1988.3] for a listing of all examples of this phenomenon in the poem), occurs previously in [Inf XVIII 134] and [Purg XXXII 155], in both cases referring to a male partner in an illicit sexual liaison, in the first case, the man sleeping with the whore, Thaïs; in the second, the giant beating his harlot, the Church in its Avignonian captivity. Thus its context in the poem works against those who would read Dante's treatment of Dominic as sugar-coated (see C.Par.XII.57).

The new interpretation of the second scene offered by Bognini (Bogn.2007.1) does not change the valence of the preceding remark, but does alter the identities of the 'actors' in the pageant in Purgatorio XXXII. In a new (and entirely convincing) reading of the major characters in that scene, Bognini demonstrates that the whore is Ezechiel’s Jerusalem and thus Dante’s Florence, while the giant reflects Goliath as Robert of Anjou, the king of Naples and the Guelph leader in Italy, prime enemy of Henry VII. See as well his further study (Bogn.2008.1) of the problem of the 'DXV' (or '515').