Beatrice as a Figure for Mary

Abstract

The identification of ‘Christ figures’ in medieval literature has no doubt been overdone. Yet it can hardly be denied that we do find there characters who present meaningful analogues to Christ, for along with a good number of probable analogues, the parallels in some cases are explicit; for example, Galahad in the Queste del Saint Graal and Thomas Malory's Grail story. So too in Dante's Vita Nuova the parallel of Beatrice with Christ is not left to surmise. In Chapter 24 Joan, Guido Cavalcanti's donna, is presented as preceding Beatrice; to Dante she is like her namesake John, the one who comes before the True Light. Beatrice who follows, then, is like Christ to him. And in the preceding chapter (23) Dante reports a vision in which he is told of the death of Beatrice; thereupon he sees a cloud ascending to heaven, accompanied by a host of angels singing ‘Hosanna in excelsis,’ conventionally addressed to Christ. Again the analogue seems unavoidable.