Il natale di Napoleone

Cinque Maggio’s text clearly reveals the intertext of Purgatory XI, which is dedicated to expiation of the sin of pride; adding these relations to the similaties between the figures of Napoleon, of the Unnamed in his night of repentance and of Adelchi in his last monologue (act II, scene II), it becomes clear that Cinque Maggio describes, sinthetically and by hints, as requested by the genre of the sublime, a story of penance and conversion carefully designed in all its stages. Moreover, the intertextual links with some of Inni Sacri, and in particular with Il Natale, along with the choice to title the ode after the day of Napoleon’s death, a day which, in a catholic persective, is actually the day of birth, clearly show that the ode is not an epicedium, but a genethliac: Cinque Maggio is Napoleon’s day of birth.