Commentary Par XIX 106-108

Mowbray Allan (Alla.1993.1) restates and widens some of his earlier conclusions (see Alla.1989.1) about the poem's openness to the possibility of Virgil's salvation.  He reads this tercet as promising more than Dante probably intends.  The text states only that, after the Judgment, some of these failed Christians will be still farther from God than certain pagans.  That statement probably should not be interpreted as arguing for the possible eventual salvation of Virgil (or other pagans).  They are already nearer God, in the Limbus (see Baranski [Bara.1995.4], p. 292, making this point), than most of the damned, who are predominantly (at least nominally) Christians.  There is nothing here that requires us to think that Dante thinks that God will change his mind about Virgil – although of course He has the ability to do exactly that should He choose.  The evidence of the text, however, does not in any way suggest that Dante thought that He would.  For example, Virgil is allowed to describe his place in Limbo as eternal ([Purg XXI 18]), not something the poet would have put in his mouth were he to have disagreed, as is (or ought to be) abundantly clear.