Did any ever leave?
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« uscicci mai alcuno, o per suo merto o per altrui, che poi fosse beato?». E quei che ’ntese il mio parlar coverto,
‘Did anyone ever leave this place, whether by his own merit or another's, and afterward become blessed?’ And he who understood my hidden question,
His veiled question: did anyone ever go out from Limbo, by his own or another's merit, and become blessed?
The question is asked obliquely — Virgil calls it <i>parlar coverto</i>, veiled speech. Dante does not name Christ or the harrowing of Hell; he asks generally whether escape from Limbo has ever happened.
The alternatives — <i>per suo merto o per altrui</i>, by one's own merit or another's — quietly frame the whole theology of grace. Can a soul earn release, or must it be given from outside? Dante is really asking whether hope has ever, even once, entered here. Virgil catches the real meaning at once.
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Inferno 4.49 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/4.49/