Walking With Dante

Our pilgrim, Dante and his guide, Virgil, have made it across Styx, leaving behind Filippo Argenti and the wrathful/sullen. Our main characters have now come to the iron walls of Dis, the city of hell.These walls are more than that a geopolitical barrier. They're also a literary barrier. Aeneas got no farther than this in the afterlife. In other words, here's the farthest Virgil's imagination could go.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch the poet come up to an important wall: the one Virgil couldn't (or didn't) pass. The poet must decide to go on. His folly is bearing in on him.To support this work, please consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend by using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode:[01:23] My English translation of INFERNO: Canto VIII, lines 64 - 96. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, or even to find a deeper study guide for this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:00] One way to think about hell: a two-part structure of the moments outside of Dis and the moments inside this city. The minarets of Dis are the poet's one last brushstroke on a Virgilian landscape painting. From here on, we're leaving the AENEID behind.[13:21] Our first Christian demons! It can't be a mistake that we encounter them here, on the walls of Dis, the farthest point Aeneas (and maybe the poet Virgil) reached.[14:55] Here's Dante's folly: He's beyond his mentor (or poetic father), Virgil. This may be a writer's insecurity writ large.[19:23] The first direct address to the reader. There will be seven in each of the three parts (or canticles) of the work. That the first occurs here can't be a mistake. This is the moment in which the poet's folly is beginning to bear in on him.

We've been through some dramatic passages: dark woods, wild beasts, Francesca, and Cerberus. But nothing rivals the crossing of (river? swamp?) Styx in the fifth circle of INFERNO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take a slow walk through this passage about our pilgrim Dante's time among the wrathful. We'll ferry across and almost get capsized along with him and Virgil.This passage is loaded: Bible verses, strange references, thematics picked up from previous passages, thematics setting up future passages. These lines deserve a slow walk.To support this podcast, please consider a very small monthly stipend or a one-time gift. You can do so at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:24] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 31 - 63. If you want to see this passage or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:19] An overview of the passage, including some notes on how famous this passage has become because of its references in other works.[05:26] A figure rises out of Styx! He and our pilgrim start into a game of insults. But insults are never simple in a world controlled by vendetta.[12:00] Our pilgrim Dante gets angry--and Virgil approves.[13:11] A long section on unpacking Virgil's response to the pilgrim's anger: Bible verses, Messianic gestures, lots of questions about justice, divine or human.[24:59] Filippo Argenti, the sinner from the muck, is a Black Guelph, the arch enemies of Dante and the White Guelphs . . . which means this passage is about vendetta.

In almost every episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we take a passage from (so far) INFERNO and analyze it, talk through it, and look at some of the interpretive knots. But in this episode, I'd like for you to hear the storytelling.To that end, I read all of the fifth circle of wrath in INFERNO, from Canto VII: Line 97 all the way to Canto IX: Line 106. I'd like you to hear it as a story, a narrative, with its rising and falling action, as well as those things that we associate with good storytelling.We'll come back to all of it passage by passage in the next episode.Sit back and take in the story. It might be some of the most important "work" you can do in COMEDY.[02:38] Reading my translation of INFERNO, Canto VII, line 97 to Canto IX, Line 106.

The fifth circle of INFERNO: wrath (and its counterpart to come).We may or may not be over a break in the poem. Boccaccio thought so. Many modern scholars do not. I'll give you some reasons why this passage may not be a break in COMEDY.Plus, we'll talk about the uneasy balance between the classical and Christian worlds, starting with Phlegyas, the boatman over this swampy muck.And we'll discover how Dante attempts to solve the problem of the pilgrim's corporeality. He is indeed in his body. Which means this poem is not a dream vision. Which means that he's starting to claim that this journey "really" happened. And that the journey gains some sort of weight . . . and slows down.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk slowly with the pilgrim Dante across the known universe--or here, set out in a boat to cross the muck of the wrathful.If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast with a small monthly stipend or a one-time donation, please consider using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:05] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 7 - 30. (Actually, I'll back up and take it from the first line of the canto for a running start into these lines.) If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website: markscarbrough.com.[02:53] Does the poem really restart? Most thought so in the Renaissance. Many don't think so now. Here are some of the reasons my interpretation--that it restarts at Canto VIII--may be wrong. It begins with the growth of Virgil's character.[07:46] Why do the towers signal each other? In other words, the scene opens with a interpretative question, which sets up the interpretive quagmire of the cantos ahead.[10:58] The little boat arrives! It's "little," as opposed to Charon's big boat.[12:21] Who is Phlegyas?[14:04] Perhaps it's not good to think about the poet Dante in terms of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Perhaps it's better to think of him in terms of the classical and the modern world.[17:44] The problem of corporeality is solved! The boat sinks down under the weight of the pilgrim. But that solution brings with it more problems! And maybe it also exhibits a greater confidence on the part of this poet.

In this interpolated episode, I want to give you a brief history of the manuscript of COMEDY. None exists in Dante's own hand. So how do we trust what we have?I'll talk you through some basic facts, as well as the strange notion that we already have commentaries written on COMEDY between the poet's death and the first certifiably dated manuscript.I'll explain how the manuscript for COMEDY is a continually evolving thing.If you're like to help underwrite this podcast, whether with a very small monthly stipend or a one-time gift, please consider donating at this Paypal link.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:49] Three facts you need to know to start thinking about the textual history of COMEDY--and the commentaries that are written between Dante's death and the first dated manuscript we have.[11:23] There are two types of manuscript corruption: horizontal and vertical.[14:15] There are now two main "veins" of COMEDY manuscripts--and a bit about the strange nationalist divides of who follows which vein back to the source.

With the wrathful, COMEDY seems to back up and start over. Although Boccaccio had a story to explain this break, its rationale may be more in terms of the the poet's coming to terms with the expanding nature of his work.He needs to give himself time to slow down. And he needs to figure out his relationship with Virgil, his poetic master. Mostly, he needs to break with Virgil ("I got the beautiful style from you") to find a more powerful and deliberate poetry in the vernacular.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I talk about some of the theories of this break in INFERNO, right in the middle of the fifth circle of hell, right among the wrathful. It's here that the poet seems to slow down, to settle in, to find a stronger voice, and not to find himself hurried across the universe. Yes, Virgil will goad him on in future passages. But that's Virgil. Dante-the-poet will take the time he needs.Here are the segments of this episode:[00:31] My English translation of INFERNO: Canto VIII, lines 1 - 6 and a quick overview of where we've been. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website: markscarbrough.com.[02:40] Boccaccio's (suspect?) answer to why the poem seems to shift gears: Dante left his manuscript behind.[03:33] Some proposed answers for what I see as a shift in narrative strategy in the poem. For one thing, our poet must come to terms with his own poetic father, Virgil. THE AENEID has been taking over the poem. This emphasis needs to shift for COMEDY to find its voice.[13:33] The poet must also become more committed to the vernacular for the poem to find its voice.[15:41] From here on out, the notion of "sin" will change.

Here's something new: a descent from one ring to another within a single canto.Our pilgrim and Virgil scramble down to find themselves on the shore of Styx. Stuck in the muck are the wrathful . . . and of two sorts. Let's talk about Thomistic notions of wrath (or Aristotelean notions of wrath) and the strange inversions of medieval iconography.But more importantly, what's up with Virgil, who seems to know things nobody could know?Consider supporting this work by using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:26] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VII, lines 97 - 130. If you want to see this translation, find a deeper study guide, or continue the conversation with me through a comment on this episode, find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:57] The descent to the fifth circle and Virgil's strange ability to tell time.[05:37] The naturalistic details proliferate in this passage. Are these allegories of wrath or the beginnings of the larger project about the hydraulics of hell?[09:58] The fifth circle: wrath. Two sorts here, à la Aquinas (but really à la Aristotle).[17:24] Virgil voices the damned who are sunk in the swamp. How?[18:31] Walking the circle--we're starting to see more of hell as a landscape.[19:13] The wrathful are an infernal perversion of standard medieval iconography: of Leah and Rachel. (This iconography will become increasingly important as we move through COMEDY.)

Dante wants to know why some people have it good and some, bad. Virgil, seemingly impatient, sets into his sermon on the goddess Fortune who controls this world. It's boiler-plate Boethius . . . but may be a lot more, too.We've come to the back part of Canto VII of INFERNO. We've seen those who hoard their wealth and those who spend too much. And Virgil's got some sort of answer. Trouble is, it's not a satisfying answer. Nor (I think) are standard interpretations of this passage in INFERNO.Consider supporting this podcast by using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:03] I read all of INFERNO, Canto VII through this passage: lines 67 - 96. To find my English translation, discover a deeper study guide, or even continue the conversation with me about this passage by dropping a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[06:39] A series of glosses on this passage to explain some of the more opaque lines.[13:00] Stepping back, let's look at Virgil's sermon. First off, it's from Boethius' work ON THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. This (pseudo-)orthodox work causes some cracks in Dante's poem.[20:25] Four interpretive stances on Virgil's sermon about Fortune: 1) Virgil is wrong, 2) Virgil is right (because his character in COMEDY is changing), 3) Virgil is right but within limits, and 4) this passage isn't about Virgil but is the start of the progress of revelation in COMEDY.

We finally get a glimpse at the hoarders and the wasters, the avaricious and the prodigal. They're mostly clergy, from run-of-the-mill clerics all the way up to popes.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first truly anti-clerical passage of COMEDY.INFERNO, Canto VII shows the stress the poem is under. It also shows that the poetic structure and voice need to change for the poet to find the right mix to write what will become the greatest work of Western literature.Consider supporting this work with a small monthly stipend or a one-time donation, using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:15] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VII, lines 36 - 66. To read along, find a deeper study guide, or continue a conversation with me about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:15] The pilgrim feels pity, but perfunctory pity perhaps, as the clergy roll their rocks.[09:30] Three points on the anti-clerical passages in COMEDY and in this canto in particular.[12:30] Why does the pilgrim not recognize those pushing the rocks? I've got several answers you can pick among.[18:23] The golden mean, Aristotle's vision for ethics: It's taking over. Should it?[22:47] An extra-Biblical character: the goddess Fortune. Although we had an orthodox character in the last passage (Michael, the archangel), why this turn away from orthodoxy?[26:28] My confession: I'm a structuralist. I think a look at structure here can help us see some of the problems the poet has to solve to get COMEDY written.

We descend a level of hell and 'come to the "il gran nemico," the great enemy: Plutus.But why is he so great if he makes babbles nonsense and is easily vanquished? And by Virgil? Who also suddenly has a better grip on Christian theology.INFERNO, Canto VI, begins with lots of fractures! Is our poet in over his head?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide encounter this blustery figure and get an overview of a bunch of guys who are pushing rocks.Consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend to keep this work afloat, using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:29] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VII, lines 1 - 35. If you'd like to read along, find a deeper study guide, or drop a comment to continue the conversation with me about this passage, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:27] The guardian of the next (fourth) level: Plutus. Or maybe it's Pluto. Or both. Whichever, he speaks nonsense. And he clucks like a chicken. Or maybe is a wolf. Or both. In any event, Virgil mentions vendetta, setting in motion a major thematic of COMEDY.[14:10] The first simile of this canto--masts and sails falling apart--and some thoughts on the patterning of references as a basic notion of narrative structure.[19:58] Thoughts about neologisms (words the poet makes up). Also, thoughts on how every edition of THE COMEDY does it disservice by starting out with a map before the text. And finally, thoughts about the redefinition of sin into two poles: hoarding and wasting.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

Ciacco has fallen back into the muck, never to be seen again--at least not until the last judgment.As the pilgrim and Virgil start to descend to the fourth circle, they talk about that future. They talk about the BODILY resurrection--because what else would you discuss among the gluttons?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we listen to Virgil get the future wrong yet correctly assess the end of time itself.To support this podcast, use this PayPal link.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:25] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 94 - 115. If you want to see this translation, find a more intense study guide, or drop a comment to continue the conversation about this episode, find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:03] Virgil's view of the apocalypse, after Ciacco tells the future. Whereas Ciacco offers a correct vision of Florence, Virgil gets the second coming of Christ wrong.[07:10] Aristotle! And as part of the apocalypse. Aristotle has been running under this canto since the start.[09:19] Virgil and our pilgrim, Dante, walk on into a mixed bag of souls and muck, a mash-up at odds with the Last Judgment but not at odds with his current political moment.[20:03] The last lines of Canto VI and the road's bend, the first time we see that our pilgrim has to walk around a circle before he and Virgil can descend.

In the last passage, Ciacco the glutton seemed to have come to a halt in his conversation. But our pilgrim has not had enough. He prompts this damned shade for more. And more. Until he finds out the future of Florence. The very near future.Ciacco is not only a glutton; he’s also a future-teller, a strange prophet perhaps, sunk in the muck of the third circle of hell.Consider supporting this work with a small donation or a very small monthly stipend, using this PayPal link here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:45] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 58 - 93. If you'd like to read along, find a deeper study guide, or leave a comment about this episode, find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:12] Dante's second set of questions for Ciacco. (He already asked his first question in the last passage.) Plus, the question of why the pilgrim needs to ask these questions in the first place. [09:32] Ciacco's second set of answers: a Florentine prophecy about the city's coming troubles.[22:59] The pilgrim's third set of questions: He wants more and more, including a list of people the pilgrim knew.[30:58] Ciacco's third set of answers--and a plea: remember me![35:36] Rereading of INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 58 - 93.

In the third circle of hell, our pilgrim finds an emblematic glutton, Ciacco. This strange soul offers us a few problems. He mixes gluttony with another sin, thereby complicating the structure of the rings of hell in Dante's poem (and maybe of theology itself).Ciacco is the first damned soul to recognize our pilgrim by the dialect he speaks.We've stepped down into the muck of gluttony--and mystery, too. Ciacco remains a mysterious figure, obscured in the mists of time.Let's talk about the social unrest that gluttony causes. And let's talk for a minute about the strange nature of Dante's art that sets the tone for Western literature for the next seven hundred years.Support this podcast by offering a contribution through this PayPal link.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:48] My English translation of INFERNO: Canto VI, lines 34 - 57. If you'd like to see this translation, find a deeper study guide, or continue the conversation with me by a comment on this episode, find its entry on my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:26] Questions about the material nature of soul . . . and why those questions may not be important for now.[08:56] Some gorgeous poetry and its importance to the canto's larger purpose.[11:11] Two problems: 1) the first Tuscan in hell and 2) the fusion of two sins in a canto that's supposed to punish just one.[15:28] Some thoughts about gluttony as a sin and how gluttony can get linked to politics in a world of scarcity.[18:47] Who is Ciacco? Lots of answers. Is our inability to know him the point?[23:08] The hallmark of the poet's art: to craft a story that rides the line between allegory and realism.[29:43] Rereading the passage: INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 34 - 57.

Our pilgrim wakes up in the weather of the third circle of hell: hail, rain, and snow, making the ground a rancid swamp.But wait, wakes up? How'd he get there?In any event, he and Virgil soon come to the guard dog Cerberus. Virgil doesn't try his word spell this time. Instead, he does something wilder: he rewrites his own work, THE AENEID.Let's take a first look at the third circle of hell, a place where we'll come to understand that gluttony is actually a recipe for social disaster.Consider supporting this work with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:30] My English translation INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 1 - 33. If you'd like to read along, find a more intense study guide, or even continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment on this episode, go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:27] A question about the mind/body split--which will play out in surprising ways in this canto, including questions about the body politic. And a last look at Francesca and Paolo.[06:18] How exactly does our pilgrim, Dante, descend a level?[10:08] The third circle of hell. And the first references to Aristotle, who will come to dominate this canto.[12:37] Cerberus, the three-headed dog from THE AENEID. Sort of.[21:48] The canto's only simile--which is rather workaday. Is this a function of the increasing pressure of poem's pace?[25:10] Or are we running into the limits of writing by topos?[28:35] Rereading the passage: INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 1 - 33.

Francesca has long been a subject of fierce debate. By the mid-nineteenth century, she had been turned into an almost Byronic hero.Maybe the truth of the matter is that she's bigger than her sin. Not in a "Romantic heroine" sort of way. Maybe she escapes the poet who gives her a voice.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore Francesca's speech in Canto V of Dante's INFERNO. Maybe Francesca does the ultimate that a literary character can do: She pulls the curtain back to reveal her creator, standing there in all his ambivalence and unfulfilled desire.To support this work with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend, please use this PayPal link.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE :[02:15] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto V, lines 88 - 142. If you want to see this translation, find a deeper study guide, or leave a comment about this episode to continue the conversation with me, find the entry for this episode on my website: markscarbrough.com.[05:09] An admission: the case for Francesca is really the case against Dante-the-poet.[06:32] Is she really a flatterer? She seems to know her fate.[08:20] Is she a poet?[10:40] Her hymn to love. Yes, it slips the definitions between lust and love. But she's only doing what Virgil and Dante have already done.[12:05] Her sin is hardly the gravest sin. In fact, it's the closest sin to love itself.[15:16] Francesca calls the poet on his game. She reveals that he still turns to classical literature, not theological literature, for the answers to the questions of human motivation.[19:03] Francesca is a reader! She's the very person any poet wants.[20:17] Paolo kissed her "trembling all over." It's an echo from Dante's reaction to Beatrice in the VITA NUOVA.[21:31] Paolo does with Francesca what Dante never does with Beatrice. Does Dante wish he had?[24:23] The passage ends with desire fulfilled. And the pilgrim faints--and maybe the poet, too.[25:46] The scope of Canto V: from the sure judge Minos to Francesca's long passage of (perhaps) ambiguity and (perhaps) deep irony.

Dante, our pilgrim, calls the two who are light on the winds of lust to float down to him. When they arrive, he gets more than he bargained for. Francesca (with her Paolo) proves the greatest danger yet to the pilgrim.Francesca's self-narrated "novelle" of her damnation is a master class in manipulation. Or at least so I'll see it in this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, in which I present the case against her.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the story of this most provocative figure: a seducer, flatterer, and an oily talker. Francesca escapes the pilgrim's grasp and pulls him to see the world her way--that is, a damned way.Consider supporting this podcast by offering a donation or a very small stipend at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:19] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto V, lines 88 - 142. If you'd like to read along, find a study guide for a more intense interpretation of this passage, or leave a comment for me so we can continue talking about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com. [06:55] Historical facts about the speaker, Francesca da Rimini, including Boccaccio's (unreliable?) story about her.[09:46] Two strange words in Francesca's speech: "Caïna" and "galeotto."[12:32] The case against Francesca: five points that justify her damnation.[20:42] A little bit about courtly love.[23:26] More in the case against Francesca: her literary downfall.[30:43] And finally, a little about the two men on the scene: her lover Paolo and our pilgrim, as well as their analogous and telling reactions to her speech.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

The pilgrim, Dante, has just asked his guide who is tossed in lust's whirlwind.Virgil answers with a list of the "greats" out on the wind: figures from antiquity, the Trojan War, and even medieval romance.In so doing, Virgil redefines lust into something socially disruptive.Then both he and the pilgrim (plus maybe our poet in the background) make a crucial mistake: They confuse love and lust.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we stop to gawk at the great figures of lust in hell.To support this work, consider a donation at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:43] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto V, lines 52 - 87. If you'd like to see my translation, find a deeper study guide, or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment about this episode, go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[06:24] The structure of Virgil's catalogue of historical figures on the wind.[07:10] Picking out those on the wind and the "novelle" about them: four women, three men; three involved with incest, four with civic unrest. Plus, the shocking movement from an orthodox definition of lust to the invocation of love, the greatest Christian virtue.[27:41] The pilgrim's request: Can I talk to the two who are so light on the wind?[29:48] Irony invades the passage. It tints its rhetorical structure and invades the simile: doves, a traditional symbol for the third person of the Trinity.

Our pilgrim, Dante, turns from Minos to discover the hellish hurricane that's the punishment of lustful.It's hard to miss the lush language in this passage: verdant, almost overgrown, especially in a beautiful, double simile . . . which sets up the problems ahead.Who are the lustful? What is the root of their sin? And what is our poet up to with these grand similes?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I try to answer some of these questions and begin to explore this second circle of hell with the pilgrim.Please consider supporting this work with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend, using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:35] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 25 -52. If you'd like to read along, find a study guide for much more, or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment on this passage, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:28] My mixed bag of commentary on the passage. First, a question about weather in hell. Second, a note to the reader from the poet. Third, a bit about synesthesia. Fourth, the problem of how our pilgrim immediately knows these are the lustful up on the wind. And fifth, our first definition of lust (which won't prove true in the canto!). [12:20] An initial exploration of the gorgeous double simile in the passage: starlings and cranes.[16:33] A more nuanced exploration of the double simile.[19:06] What is our poet doing with these similes? Four answers: 1) tapping the brakes on plot, 2) opening a digressive space to explore the emotions, 3) inviting the reader into a space of multiplicity, and 4) teaching the reader how to turn from the poem back to the natural world and read our own world anagogically.

Seven deadly sins: They almost seem like a cliché these days. But here they are: lust, gluttony, sloth, avarice, anger, pride, and envy.It wasn't always so in Christian doctrine.Nor in fact is it so for Dante.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, in this interpolated episode as I explore some of the history of the question of which sins got labeled deadly--and why there are seven of them.Support this podcast with this PayPal donation link right here. Here are the segments of this episode:[01:01] What are the seven deadly (or mortal) sins? Or more specifically, what is a "sin"?[06:17] Evagrius, one of the church's great ascetics, and his list of eight evil thoughts, developed in the late 300s CE.[09:09] Pope Gregory I and the notion of the seven deadly sins in 590 CE--including two new ones: sloth and envy.[15:06] Dante plays loose and fast with the seven deadly sins in INFERNO.

We've walked to the second circle of hell, where the winds of lust howl. But not yet. First, we must meet a connoisseur of sin: Minos. He determines your circle of hell. Not Jesus. Not Satan. But a figure from classical mythology.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we push farther into hell but also further into irony, opacity, and puzzlement. Or to put it another way, is Virgil a sure guide for our pilgrim, Dante?Consider supporting this work with a donation at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:24] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along, find a study guide for a deeper understanding of the passage, or even start a conversation with me by dropping a comment to this episode, look for this passage on my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:17] The descent from the first circle to the second--and thoughts on the increasingly clear geography of hell.[04:18] Minos, a figure out mythology and into Virgil's AENEID.[08:02] Minos is a sure judge but he's not a traditional demon from Christian tradition. He's our second mythic figure in INFERNO.[11:56] Questions about determinism--but more importantly, answers about grace (or at least confession).[16:49] The judgment itself, as Minos wraps his tail around himself--except this brings up further questions of Limbo and we're reminded again of its strangeness.[21:18] Hell has a traveler's hostel in its geography! And lots about Virgil: Minos' warning, Virgil's spell that works again, and the strangeness of Virgil himself, the embodiment of the ambivalence of Limbo, leading the pilgrim across the universe.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I look back over the first four cantos of INFERNO with an overview of where we've been and a discussion of the structure of the poem, COMEDY.I'll talk about some of the architectural details of the work, the ways that the reading of COMEDY may be more complex than you might imagine, and the reasons Limbo is so strange in Dante's masterwork.To support this podcast, use this PayPal link.Here are the segments for this episode:[01:05] A plot summary of the first four cantos of INFERNO.[05:17] The architecture of those first four cantos, mostly about antinomies (or oppositions).[09:17] A look back the at the (uneasy?) relationship between allegory and realism (for lack of better words) in the first four cantos.[15:19] Four reasons why COMEDY supports so many disparate, even contradictory interpretations.[21:01] Our poet, Dante, constantly moves the fence of his understanding. Why? Because of Beatrice. Because of love. Love always moves the fence.

Our pilgrim, Dante, gets to a vantage point where he can look across the "enameled" green to see the crowd gathered in and around Limbo's castle. He then lists off the greats: Trojans, Romans, Caesar, Aristotle, even pre-Socratic thinkers.Problem is, our poet didn't know many of these thinkers and writers except by name. He only knew of Plato by an incomplete translation of one minor work.What's more, he includes a few names in his list of the greats that are almost mind-blowing, figures I didn't see even after reading COMEDY for almost thirty years.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I continue on the slow journey across COMEDY.Please consider supporting the work of this podcast with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend, using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode:[01:37] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 151. If you want to see it, find a deeper study guide, or drop a comment, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:20] A bit about my history with COMEDY--and my apparent blindness to some of its details, despite reading it for so many years.[05:26] The first pieces of this passage: questions about who the "we" is, questions about the description of the green grass in the castle ("enameled"?), and questions about the poet who never seems far behind the veil of these passages.[07:40] The first list of who the pilgrim sees: Trojans, Romans, and (here it comes) an Islamic ruler. Also, a bit about the notion of "fiction v. history" in medieval writing.[14:25] A second list of the ones the pilgrim sees as he lifts his eyes higher: philosophers, thinkers, writers, mathematicians, astronomers, physicians--and two Islamic scholars, more names in the list I missed.[18:03] A further listing, including poets among mathematicians and astronomers, along with two great Islamic philosophers.[22:43] A bit about the rationalizations for this list. Maybe there's an emotional component to listing off those you honor when you're on the run.[26:58] The last lines of the passage--and the intrusion of the poet, Dante, for one final time in a confession of his failure. The poet's never been far away in Canto IV, in Limbo.

We follow our pilgrim, Dante, into Limbo. He sees four great shades coming toward him: Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. They welcome Virgil back and do something more shocking: They admit Dante to their company.Then it gets weirder still as they walk on to a beautiful castle, with green grass and fresh water . . . while still in hell!How can this be in hell? Is it the Elysian Fields? Maybe. But if so, the poet's put it in hell and thereby may be sticking his thumb in Virgil's (poetic) eye.Please consider helping out with the many fees for this podcast with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend, using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode:[01:53] My English translation of INFERNO. Canto IV, lines 85 - 114. If you'd like to read along, find a more in-depth study guide, or even leave a comment for me so we can continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:46] Is this hell? It seems kind of nice, especially after the wasps and maggots of the neutrals.[04:39] Here come Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan.[08:43] Interpreting the four poets. Or a little bit about my neo-rationalist, Anglo-American interpretive stance v. a more traditional Italian reading of this passage.[13:26] Is Limbo a shining example of human achievement?[14:03] Virgil's smile and the pilgrim's welcome into the circle of the great poets. He's sixth. That's not a great number in medieval numerology.[21:05] A castle, seven towers, a little brook. It seems allegorical. It seems like the Elysian Fields. It all seems so strange in hell.[22:52] The problem of corporeality in the afterlife (or at least in this part of Dante's notion of the afterlife). And the problem of hell's pleasant aspect.[27:17] Limbo is a civic vision of the afterlife.

Our pilgrim and Virgil begin to walk across Limbo, surely the largest surface in hell since its the uppermost ring. In fact, it's at first like a plain or maybe a large campo in a medieval Italian town.Dante has got questions. And Virgil has got answers. Sometimes, the two match. And sometimes, one of Virgil's answers raises more questions than it solves. Mostly because Virgil has no clue about Christian theology. He is the strangest guide in this most Christian of poems.Maybe we can hear a bit of elegy in Virgil's voice in Limbo. Is he "just" the allegory of reason? Maybe he's truly human, stuck in a place he never thought he'd be.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:34] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto IV, lines 46 - 84.[04:29] Dante-the-pilgrim's insistence: "tell me, tell me, tell me." Dante wants to know if anyone has ever gotten out of Limbo. He says he wants to be certain in his faith. But why does this Christian figure need a classical poet to make him firm in his faith? Or is the question more personal? Is it more along the lines of this: Are you, Virgil, stuck here? And why then are you able to walk with me?[08:34] Virgil's reply--and a recounting of Jesus' descent into hell and its harrowing. An intriguing passage: a bit of Christian doctrine as seen through the eyes (the eye-witness eyes!) of a classical poet. This may well be the most poignant section in Limbo. Virgil may well be putting the nail in the coffin to the idea that he will ever get out of hell, despite showing up in a dark wood and leading our pilgrim across a vast track of the known universe.[13:36] A light that overcomes the darkness of hell? How's that possible? What's going on here? The ambivalence in the passage is becoming pronounced.[17:01] And now the ambivalence goes off the rails: honored people, grace from and in heaven, the highest poet of all--and all this among the damned. Maybe Dante-the-poet is finding himself between a theological rock and an artistic hard place. Your faith tells you to condemn those scholars you value most. What do you do?

Limbo is the first circle of INFERNO . . . although that statement already presents a problem. How can Limbo be in hell? Isn't it a state somewhere between the redeemed and the damned?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I talk through the developing theological notions of Limbo before and up to Dante's day, as well as the ways our poet has chosen to change church doctrine to suit his purposes.Here are the segments of this episode:[00:46] The basic definition of Limbo: from the Latin "limbus," a "hem."[01:30] My interpretive framework: Everybody fences the world.[05:18] In Dante's day, there were thought to be two sorts of Limbo: the one of the fathers and the one of the children (or babies).[08:03] Wait! Who wants to punish babies? Well, Saint Augustine, for one.[10:42] Saint Thomas Aquinas backs away and claims that babies are in Limbo but are "happy." To which Saint Bonaventure says, "Not so fast--not happy, but longing and unrest."[14:16] The five ways Dante-the-poet changes Limbo to fit his poem.

Along with our pilgrim and Virgil, we take the first steps into the first circle of hell, the "real deal" of INFERNO.As you might imagine, we encounter some difficulties--mostly theological, although maybe also related to Virgil and perhaps even our poet in the background behind it all.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we come to the first circle of hell, Dante's "get-out-of-jail" card . . . and to a passage that may express the poet's ambivalence with his own theology and maybe even the art he's creating.To help underwrite this episode, please consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.Here are the sections of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:34] A confession on my part and a summary of the poem's plot so far.[03:19] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto IV, lines 1 - 45. If you want to check out these lines, find a larger study guide with lots of questions, or even continue the conversation with me by a comment, look for its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[06:16] As Dante wakes up, I offer ideas about the very real problem of revising what you write in a world of limited resources.[09:11] Seeing is believing! But where does that put the reader of this poem?[10:35] An interpretive knot about the thunder and the wailing--and a bit about the architecture of hell itself.[12:20] Virgil turns pale. How does a "shade" turns pale? Fair enough, but why? That's an even harder question. Virgil explains it. Should we believe him?[19:27] Limbo is definitely in hell . . . but only for Dante, not for the church.[22:15] Virgil's petulance and his explanation for why he's in Limbo (that is, why he's damned, in terms of the poem).[25:49] The terms of Virgil's damnation seem to have changed: He had been a rebel against God's law but now he's "simply" someone who lacks a baptism.[28:21] Virgil's equivocation, Dante's response, and the strange notion of being "suspended," which came up much earlier in Canto II.[31:25] A strange interpretive theory: Beatrice appeared to Virgil as Virgil would expect to see her. If so, the problem is (and has been) Virgil's point of view.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

We finish canto III of INFERNO, standing on the shores of Acheronte, the river that forms the border of the first rings of inner hell.Charon is busy with this job, Virgil is suddenly gentler, more parental toward the pilgrim than he's been. And Dante? When the earthquake hits, he's beyond help.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk up to the shores of hell's first river and find ourselves adrift in a terrifying landscape.To help support this podcast, use this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:50] A summary of Canto III to this point.[02:06] Reading my translation of INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 136. If you'd like to read along, find a much more in-depth study guide, or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:55] Two problems: the problem of pain in the afterlife and the problem of the demon Charon.[09:18] The big simile in the passage (all about leaves, falcons, falling, casting, and lures): its problems, its dissonances, and its resonances.[17:50] Virgil's explanation: Their fears have morphed into their desires. It's one of the most modern statements in INFERNO.[23:34] Dante collapses. What happens here? Something fails. I'll give you three possible answers: The pilgrim fails, Virgil fails, or the poet fails.

We step out of the foyer and enter the second part of Canto III of INFERNO: the part about the storied Charon, the ferryman on Acheronte (or Acheron), as well as the souls waiting to be ferried into hell itself.But before that, a spat between Virgil and our pilgrim. Something is always amiss when you're walking across the universe with your mentor. When the universe is a hierarchy, those on top have to hold their post. And those below have to try to get heard.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this deeper look into the hellish landscape. Where else are you going to quarrel, if not on the shores of hell?To help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend by using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:28] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 70 - 108. If you'd like to read along, find a deeper study guide, or even continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:31] Where are we? We're in a plot . . . which breaks into distinct scenes.[7:10] The opening of the passage: the spat between the pilgrim and his guide. Why is Virgil irritated at his pupil?[11:13] Why do I insist on calling the river by its name in the medieval Florentine, "Acheronte"?[12:31] Some thoughts on the structure of hell . . . and even COMEDY as a whole.[15:15] Who is Charon? How'd he step out of classical mythology into this most Christian poem?[19:23] The "cinematography" of this passage: its lurid details and engaged plotting. [20:11] And then the theological question. Why don't the damned just run away when Charon presents himself? [23:40] Rereading INFERNO, Canto III, lines 70 - 108.

Our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide, Virgil, walk beyond hell's entrance to encounter, well, the sort of hell we thought we were going to get all along. Maybe not the wasps. But the rest of it? The chaos and pain, the darkness and the suffering? Yep, that hell. We've come to the place of the angels and humans who refused to make a choice in this life. In other words, we've come to the place for those who quite literally didn't do anything!The imagery may be fairly standard, but this passage is the wild west of Christian theology. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we follow the pilgrim into the first dedicated space in the hell.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:17] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 22 - 69[05:12] A little pep talk from me to spur you on in reading the COMEDY.[08:41] "I began to weep"--the pilgrim's first response to hell. It's not equivalent to Virgil's smile.[13:48] A first glance at the damned--and a first glance at the expansive nature of Dante-the-poet's imagination: He can make up celestial beings that exist nowhere else in Christianity, angels who neither fought for God nor chose to side with Lucifer.[18:02] What is the nature of sin? Is it a choice, an act of the will? Or a state of being? Our poet seems to be choosing "choice." Problem is, the church doesn't at this point in history.[20:34] A little bit of existential reality from this medieval poet.[23:00] Who is the shade who made "the great refusal"?[28:22] One final problem: Maybe not giving us adequate clues to solve the matter of who made "the great refusal" shows us our pilgrim's cowardice. Maybe his refusal to name this person shows us that he's still trying to remain neutral.[30:20] We got the hell we wanted. We got it out of the way. Now the poet's imagination can be fully engaged.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

We follow our pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, on their first steps into hell. Let's pause with these two at the gate of hell with its famous inscription ("Abandon hope!").You enter hell through an act of reading. The words on the gate, yes. But also perhaps these words in the text.And if we read the words right, we can get a most unusual thing: a cheerful look from Virgil.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk with Dante the pilgrim passage by passage across the known universe. If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider a one-time donation or a very small monthly stipend at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:11] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto III, lines 1 - 21. If you want to see my translation, find a larger study guide, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:05] The words over hell's gate, perhaps one of the most iconic passage in COMEDY. The gate speaks truth autobiographically.[05:21] We're entering a civic vision of the afterlife.[08:28] A bit about justice and the definitely non-Thomistic (and non-Aristotelian) words written over the gate. Justice moved God? How is that possible?[12:54] Dante-the-pilgrim is a reader! He has to enter hell through an act of reading.[14:43] Virgil is what every reader needs: a great writer who can move the text out of its space and into the reader's space.[19:00] Virgil is cheerful at a very desperate spot.

Beatrice has bested Virgil. Virgil has bested Dante, our pilgrim.Dante can do nothing else except set off across the universe.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish Canto II of INFERNO and get ready to descend into the mouth of hell.Here are the segments to this episode:[02:14] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 115 - 141. If you want to read my translation, find a more in-depth study guide with lots of interpretive questions, or just continue the conversation with me through a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[05:49] Why did we have to have this rhetorical battle?[07:19] Beatrice's final salvo: She wins with tears.[08:32] Virgil confirms that the she-wolf was Dante's primary antagonist.[09:53] Virgil states his final case--and maybe overstates it, putting himself on a par with the blessed ladies in heaven. This may be a moment of the so-called anxiety of influence (à la Harold Bloom, the U. S. provocateur/literary critic).[14:53] Desire is the foundation of the universe in Dante's scheme.[15:24] The pilgrim offers a unified will: He is no longer split in parts.[16:08] The pilgrim Dante speaks in a plain, straightforward way, indicating that he gets it, that he has what it takes to start the journey (both across the universe and on the page).[17:54] An backward glance at Canto II and some points about its structure. A canto highly concerned with rhetoric is itself rhetorically structured. And more about rhetoric and the will, as well as the way they must align to get you what you want.

Where's Dante, our pilgrim? Not in this passage! He's fallen out of his own poem as Virgil and Beatrice engage in their rhetorical battle.And where's hell, the promised blaze with its tortured sinners? Instead, we're headed to the heights of heaven with Beatrice . . . who talks about those flames!What ultimately wins the day? Beatrice's story of her quest to save Dante. To set him on the road to heaven? Maybe. But more importantly, to set him on the road to writing COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we fly to the heights of heaven, then come right back to Virgil and Beatrice in of WALKING WITH DANTE.If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend through this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode:[02:11] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 76 -114. If you want to read along or continue the conversation with me, check it out under the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[06:36] A bit about dissonances in the poem and reminder that we live in a more linear world than Dante.[08:57] Virgil's response to Beatrice involves flattery (maybe flattery that's too high, even blasphemous) and--curious!--it involves his doubting her.[12:05] Virgil then recasts his obedience away from theology and into chivalry . . . as well as his own discomfort wherever he is (in hell).[14:42] Beatrice begins to answer Virgil . . . with some strange interpretive issues right up front in her speech.[16:14] Beatrice mentions flames in hell. But Virgil is not in any flames![18:20] Beatrice's story includes two other women: presumably the Virgin Mary and Saint Lucy.[22:20] A few words about the incredibly complex structure of this passage.[23:48] A few thoughts about what it means to have left the "common crowd" or the "vulgar horde."[25:22] What flood? How has Dante left a flood when he seemed to be lost in a dark wood?[26:48] Words have a direct effect . . . even on Beatrice, who then asks Virgil to use his words to have a direct effect on our pilgrim.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

After Dante confesses his unworthiness in the opening of Canto II of INFERNO, Virgil clarifies the matter. "You're not modest. You're a coward."Then Virgil does what humans do. He tells a story. One that's almost too good to be true: about the first time Virgil met Beatrice.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we ascend into heaven . . . at least in Virgil's telling of it.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:13] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto II, 43 - 75. If you'd like to read long, find a more detailed study guide, or continue the conversation with me through a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[05:53] Rhetoric. What is it? Why's it so important?[07:03] Virgil's initial salvo at Dante: a sneer, followed by a redefinition of the problem.[11:51] Virgil, who has tweaked the pilgrim's rhetorical prowess, unexpectedly stumbles by saying something that's unintelligible to those who haven't read COMEDY.[13:46] In this war of words for who's up to telling this tale: Beatrice steps up to (the rhetorical) bat. Her speech is "gentle and soft."[14:41] There is an important difference between Beatrice's gentle, soft speech and Virgil's learned "polished" speech.[16:12] Beatrice's first speech (but in Virgil's mouth). She opens with flattery, then lays it on thick. So much so that she ends at a place that seems almost, well, irrational. Or at the very least impossible.[26:58] Rereading the passage: INFERNO, Canto II, lines 43 - 75.

We thought we were underway, but important things must happen first. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we start the Canto II of INFERNO to discover that the our pilgrim, Dante, is almost undone by his doubts. So he tries to play a rhetorical game with his poetic master, Virgil.To get famous, punch up! And Virgil is definitely up from this rather middling poet.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees for licensing, streaming, editing, hosting, and more for this podcast, please consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend by using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode:[02:02] My English translation of the passage for this episode: INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 42.[04:14] A review of the plot so far--and an overview of what's ahead in Canto II of INFERNO.[06:08] The opening lines of Canto II, with particular attention to the questions of temporality. Or to put it another way, our pilgrim is out of sync with the world.[09:53] The first invocation of COMEDY. It's a prayer. Not to God. To the classical muses. And particularly to memory. (Bonus material: thereby further asserting the "realism" of COMEDY, affirming that Dante-the-pilgrim REALLY went on this walk.)[11:37] Our pilgrim's first big speech. Am I good enough as a poet to do this? And it raises religious issues. Who's good enough to see the afterlife?[18:01] More about periphrasis: the technique of walking around something without exactly naming it. For lots of reasons. Including flattery.[21:52] Who permits this? The biggest question of COMEDY! Who permits the poet (no less the pilgrim, too) to do this? What if Dante sets out on this walk (or starts writing this poem) and it all turns out to be mad folly.[25:00] Rereading INFERNO, Canto II, lines 1 - 42.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

Let's pause to look back over INFERNO, Canto I. I'll read it through for its scope and arc. Then we'll set about exploring this piece of architecture, not just the first canto, but the whole of Dante's COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I give Inferno's first canto a backward glance, then look ahead to the glorious poetry across COMEDY.If you'd like to donate to this podcast, to help underwrite its many hosting, licensing, editing, streaming, and royalty fees, consider a one-time donation or a very small monthly stipend through this PayPal link right here. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:59] The whole of INFERNO, Canto I. For a study guide to this first canto, complete with translation and interpretation questions, please find the various episodes listed under the header "INFERNO, Cantos I - IV" on my website, markscarbrough.com.[07:38] The overall structure of Dante's COMEDY.[11:23] The canto and stanza structure of COMEDY.[23:08] Even deeper in, the structure of the individual lines of COMEDY.[26:54] Everyone fences in the world to make their own pasture. Problem is, we often mistake our pasture for the world. So we must discover both Dante's fence and his pasture. But our poet goes beyond what most of us are willing to do. Again and again in COMEDY, he moves his fences to make his pasture bigger and bigger.

In a previous episode, I talked about how Dante defines Virgil as a poet, not a philosopher, and why that was important in Dante's medieval context.But there's more to Virgil than poetry. There's prophecy. Because as we'll discover, perhaps the most important part of being a poet is being a prophet, too.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we now find out why and how being a prophet is so crucial to a poet's role. We'll hear Virgil predict not only Dante's future but the future of the Italian peninsula itself.This is a tough passage, made tougher because of centuries of commentary. I'll lead you through four interpretations, then offer my own, a fifth possibility.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:56] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto I, Lines 97 - 136. If you'd like to read along or (better yet) find a more intense study guide for this episode, please find this episode under the header for INFERNO, Cantos I - IV on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:23] Virgil's true role: a poet-prophet.[05:37] What is a prophet in the Biblical tradition? What does Virgil predict? What's up with a greyhound?[10:25] I'll offer you five interpretations of Virgil's opaque prophecy, four from the commentary tradition and one under my own steam.[19:02] Virgil simplifies things by telling the pilgrim's future (that is, not the future for the Italian peninsula but just the road ahead). But in telling about the journey ahead, Virgil reveals his misunderstanding (or maybe his limited understanding) about what's ahead.[21:02] My own journey is not Dante's. But the pilgrim is off under his own steam, even without me in tow. But he seems to forget that Paradise is ahead.

We meet the pilgrim Dante's first and great guide, the Roman poet Virgil. He is the pilgrim's master, his "author." Except he's also Virgil, a guy who has a limited understanding of the universe.What happens when you meet your hero and he's not what you imagined? What happens when he's as fallible as you are?Easy. You set off across the universe together. How else do humans do it?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we start the pilgrim's journey again, a do-over, all in the first canto, this time with a guide and not under the pilgrim's (or maybe the poet's) own steam.Here are the segments of this episode:[02:20] My English translation for this passage: INFERNO, Canto I, Lines 67 - 96. If you'd like to read along, find a study guide for deeper analysis, or even continue the conversation with me, please find this episode under the header INFERNO, Cantos I _ IV on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:45] Virgil! That apparition from the last episode is the great Roman poet.[06:59] The first shot at a much longer discussion of an important tool in Dante's kit: periphrasis, a rhetorical strategy whereby a writer "walks" around something or someone without naming it.[08:57] Virgil offers the pilgrim Dante his résumé. It's not all it seems. Or perhaps it's less than he tries to make it.[16:11] Virgil makes a big mistake, a theological mistake, which may tell us more about what our poet thinks of Virgil than Virgil intends to give away at this moment.[20:24] Even so, the pilgrim offers Virgil a little hero-worship.[21:45] A final bit about the internal landscape of this poem. There's a lot of talk about how medieval poetry shows no interiority, no inner life of its characters. But there may be a clue in this passage that COMEDY is very interested in the pilgrim's interiority.[23:19] A question about the pilgrim's guides in COMEDY.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

Dante begins his journey across the known universe--except not. The journey stops almost the moment it begins in COMEDY.What happens when you set off in a new direction but have no clue where you're going? Apparently, you get blocked by the beasts of your imagination.Or maybe by more than beasts. By symbols. Even allegories. Personal, political, and/or social.This tough passage has eaten gallons of scholarly ink over the centuries. I'll give you different ideas for what these animals "mean." But the answers may ultimately be your own.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:28] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto 1, Lines 28 - 66. If you'd like to read along, find a study guide for deeper analysis, or just drop a comment to continue the conversation with me, please go to my website and look for tab that directs you to INFERNO, Cantos I - IV: markscarbrough.com.[03:18] Our first glimpse of the poem's complexity--that is, the question of the pilgrim's feet, sieved through St. Augustine and a commentary by Dante's own son, plus more.[09:26] Three beasts! The terrors on the slope! I'll offer lots of interpretations for them. They've generated 700 years worth![20:50] The pilgrim slips back down the mountain, almost lost, until a figure appears out of the mist.[24:29] A clue in the passage that helps us date the poem--that is, when it's taking place. It seems to be Easter weekend in 1300. Seems to be March 25. Problem is, March 25 didn't fall on Easter weekend in the year 1300.[27:44] Rereading the passage: INFERNO, Canto I, lines 28 -66.

Our pilgrim, Dante, comes awake in a dark wood. Now what? He has to walk out. But to where? And how?This fourth episode of WALKING WITH DANTE is actually the second passage we cover from INFERNO. Intriguingly, this is one of the few moments in the poem in which our pilgrim, Dante, is all by himself.The first steps of a journey are rarely in the right direction. Particularly when you don't have a map.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we start the first steps of the journey and discover some of the lush poetry that has made COMEDY endure for over seven hundred years.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please use this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:13] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto 1, Lines 10 - 27. To find my translation, to see a larger study guide for this episode, or to drop a comment for you and me to go on talking, go to my website and look for the episodes of INFERNO, Cantos I - IV: markscarbrough.com.[03:55] The balance between the two central characters of the COMEDY: the poet who is writing the work and the pilgrim who is walking the journey.[07:46] Is this a dream poem?[09:52] The hill just ahead--for the pilgrim and for us.[12:12] The lake of the heart.[14:36] The poem's first simile: shipwreck.[17:13] More about what hill could mean.[20:40] Rereading INFERNO, Canto I, lines 1 - 27.Mentioned in this episode:A brief introduction to the walk ahead

Who was Dante? Actually, that's two questions in one. First, how did this hard-working if not formerly brilliant poet and would-be politician from a rather lackluster family end up writing COMEDY, arguably the greatest work of Western literature?Second, when was Dante? What was his historical moment like?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I tell you a bit about the the poet's upbringing, his troubles, and the times he lived in, reaching back to the early 1200s to bring his story up to and just beyond his death in 1321.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:53] Dante is a nickname![01:56] Dante's birth.[04:10] Some historical context, starting in 1215 CE.[07:44] Medieval clan warfare on the Italian peninsula.[13:39] Dante's childhood and upbringing.[14:45] Beatrice, the love of Dante's life.[17:56] Dante's teacher (maybe): Brunetto Latini.[19:46] Dante's political career.[22:16] Dante on the run.[26:15] The Avignon papacy.[27:32] Dante's patrons and later life.

We take the first steps with our pilgrim, Dante, as he finds himself in a dark wood and starts his walk . . . through hell? No, across the known universe.He's also in a mid-life crisis. Curiously, not his. Instead, ours.It's a bad spot--so bad that he quakes even as he tries to write about it years later.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, to discover the opening lines of Dante's masterwork.If you'd like to read my English translation or dip deeper into this passage, there's a full study guide on my website, markscarbrough.com or walkingwithdante.com. Look for the header link to INFERNO, Cantos I - IV at the top of the site, then scroll or page down to the episode.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:39]  Why would you want to walk with Dante?[04:09]  Who am I? This podcast has been brewing for years.[06:26]   At first glance, why are the opening lines so strange, even off-putting?[14:42]  Does Dante's poem open "in medias res"? That is, "in the middle of things"?[17:03]  Who's journey is this? Who is this "I"? And how can this "I" write this journey into the wilds of the universe?[22:27]  What's the point of Dante's COMEDY? To walk across the known universe.

An introduction to the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. I'm Mark Scarbrough, a former academic and working author.This podcast is my passion project: to take Dante's COMEDY passage by passage. I've taught it many times. But I've always felt rushed. I want to take this masterpiece at my own speed. So here I go. No, here WE go.I'll use my own English translation. You can find mine at markscarbrough.com or walkingwithdante.com. You can also find supplemental material for these upcoming episodes, including deeper interpretive issues, translation issues I don't handle in the episodes, and even journaling prompts to bring Dante's poem into your life.To begin, look for the header on my site labeled "INFERNO, Cantos I - IV." Sorry: the episodes are in reverse order. The hosting provider won't let me change that! But scroll back a page or two and you'll find the first episodes for Canto I. See you there!