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"La Battaglia de' Debili Cigli": Mending the Eyes in Dante's Commedia and George Herbert's The Temple

thesis
posted on 2016-07-11, 00:00 authored by Mary Prorok

This thesis shows how the use of visual perception adumbrates spiritual realities in Dante’s Commedia and George Herbert’s The Temple. It explores both poets’ presentation of “la battaglia de’ debili cigli”— the battle of the weak eyelashes, in which human vision is strengthened in order to perceive divine revelation and love (Paradiso 23, 78). It suggests, first, that Dante’s sensory responses to the Church Triumphant and the Christic Sun imitate the Church Militant’s participation in the Eucharistic feast. It then addresses Herbert’s emphasis on how God “mends” human eyes (“The H. Scriptures” (I), 9). It suggests that “The Windows” upends Aristotelian hierarchies of color and light to help us see preaching in a new way. It then traces vision-centered metaphors in “The Glimpse” and “The Glance” and counters a critical perception that the abstraction of sensory images in The Temple constitutes a mock physicality.

History

Date Modified

2017-06-02

Research Director(s)

Susannah Monta

Degree

  • Master of Arts

Degree Level

  • Master's Thesis

Program Name

  • English

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