epherd and his flock. Cantos 4-8 deal with the second area of Ante-Purgatory, where we find the three groups of the Late Repentant: the Indolent, who put off their repentance through negligence, the Unshriven, who died violently and were therefore unable to confess to a priest, and the Negligent Rulers, who spent so much time attending to affairs of state that they neglected their own salvation. Throughout these cantos, the souls reiterate the request of the excommunicants that the living pray for their more rapid release from Purgatory, this implicit feeling of community contrasting markedly with the earthly political division recalled in cantos 6-7. Among the Late Repentent Dante meets several interesting characters who contrast in telling ways with characters in Inferno. The Ghibbeline leader Bonconte da Montefeltro had died in 1289 at he battle of Campaldino (in which the young Dante had himself fought on the Guelf side). Bonconte's death contrasts sharply with that of his father, Guido, described in Inferno 27. At Guido's death, St. Francis was about to receive the soul into heaven, only to have it claimed by a devil. At Bonconte's death (and nearly simultaneous repentance) a devil was about to claim the soul only to have an angel receive it. One's salvation obviously depends upon one's own choices and not on one's family history. Pia dei Tolomei, who speaks to Dante at the end of canto 5, recalls to one's mind Francesca da Rimini from Inferno 5. Her speech is every bit as gracious as Francesca's was, but without the undercurrent of selfishness. She asks Dante to see that she is remembered on earth, but only after he has had time to rest from his journey. A canto later, Sordello, whose imperiousness is reminiscent of Farinata's (Inf. 10), greets Virgil, his fellow Mantuan. Similarly, Farinata had greeted the bypassing Dante when he heard his fellow Tuscan's accent. While Farinata, however, had stressed his separation from others in...
