Commentary Par XVIII 28-36

Apparently having finished his performance, Cacciaguida, like Solomon ([Par XIV 37-60]), returns for an encore.  And, like Solomon's, his has ramifications for our understanding of the genre of his poem.  Solomon's was a hymn to the Resurrection; his is a piece from a Christian martial epic.  For this last as a Dantean genre, see Hollander (Holl.1989.1), arguing that, after an initial series of rebuffs to martial epic in Inferno, eventually in Paradiso the poet begins to associate himself, through Cacciaguida, with a Christian poetry of crusade, surely a martial subject.