Commentary Par XXX 130-148

For a global discussion of this final passage, see Hainsworth (Hain.1997.1), arguing that it not only fails to destroy the harmony or unity of this canto (a position shared by many -- see p. 154n. for a concise bibliography of the question), but that it is part of its integrity.  See the similar opinion of Salsano (Sals.1974.1), pp. 232-34, and of Hollander (Holl.1993.5), pp. 31-33.

For an attempt to 'save' this passage despite itself, see Bosco/Reggio (DDP Bosco.Par.XXX.130-148) who concede that Dante probably should not have turned aside from contemplating things eternal and divine for such a feverish concern with mere contingency, compounding that 'fault' by putting this earth-centered speech in the mouth of holy Beatrice, and as her last utterance at that.  One can hear awareness of centuries of complaint behind their words.  To be just, one must admit that this concern with earthly things seems inconsistent with the usual sort of piety.  No one ever said (or should have) that Dante is 'usual' in any respect at all.

Those twentieth-century Dantists who thought that Mussolini (or Hitler) was the veltro ([Inf I 101]) offer unwitting testimony in this debate.  Their political naïveté reveals exactly how much the poem does offer itself as prophetic of great events to come in this world.  Beatrice's two related utterances, at the conclusions of Canto XXVII and here, both speak of events to come in the near future of Dante's Italy, and both are intensely political in nature.  Perhaps we will one day learn that Dante's political vision is part and parcel of his religious sense.  For an appreciation of this dimension of his thought, see Pertile (Pert.1997.1 and Pert.1998.2, passim).