19. An Emperor Speaks
This lecture addresses one of the most intriguing cantos of the entire poem, Paradiso 6. This is the only canto in the Divine Comedy that has only one speaker from beginning to end. That speaker is the Roman Emperor Justinian, and in his fascinating discourse, the poet continues the discussion of politics that was begun in Inferno 6 and continued in Purgatorio 6. In this speech, we see an important part of the poems take on world politics; a connection between politics on the world stage and Dantes own exile; and an important lesson on the proper response to exile in the figure of Romeo, a character described by Justinian at the end of the canto.
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