David

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In Canto IV of the Inferno, King David is numbered by Dante among the illustrious spirits of Limbo: "Abraàm patrïarca e Davìd re" (Inf. IV 58), alongside the biblical patriarchs, as a figure of sacred history. The authorized note to Canto XXVIII clarifies the role David plays in the simile introduced by Bertran de Born: Ahithophel, counselor of King David, incited David's son Absalom against the father, who tenderly loved him (2 Sam. 15-7). According to the same note, Absalom "tried to kill the father," parallel to the rebellion of the young king against Henry II of England. The Dantean text therefore mentions David as a father wounded by the "malvagi punzelli" (Inf. XXVIII 138), metaphorical instrument of sedition, in a context in which Bertran de Born compares his own reckless action to splitting father and son apart.