ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the “Purgatorio” we experience a sensation of relief at the same time sweet and comforting. It is as though people had come to the top of a steep ascent; they have left the sad places, desolate and gloomy, behind them, the tempest and the night of toil are past. The silence is complete during the first moments and we meet with no one at all; but all of a sudden there appears, one knows not whence nor how, an old man, austere and decorous of aspect. The pleasant sight of the newly discovered land and the beautiful dawn along the seashore, and the fresh grass, brings the life back to the sad and weary countenance of the traveller out of Hell. The smile which illuminates the first cantos of the “Purgatorio” in various ways and with varying intensity almost dissolves in laughter at the beginning of the ascent of the Mount of Purgation.
