Virgil. Man or shade: the 'Mancato abbraccio' of <i>Purgatorio</i> XXI.132

Abstract

It is not the physical insubstantiality of Virgil and Statius that prevents an embrace between the two Roman poets in Purg. XXI. The "vere ragion che son nascose" may well be an actual physical aversion on Virgil's part, made more distasteful by his very human qualities of envy and anguish The text suggests that the aversion Virgil feels for Statius is not only for the overbearing effusiveness or verbal prodigality of the personage in the Commedia itself, but also for the writer of the Thebaid and his poetry. This appears the cause of the "mancato abbraccio".