Walking With Dante

If you'd like to help out with editing, licensing, streaming, hosting, and website fees for this podcast, please consider donating at this PayPal link right here.Dante the pilgrim has heard the prayer of the prideful penitents under their boulders and now he sees them more clearly, weighed down "as if during dreams." What?It gets more confusing. Dante the poet interrupts the narrative to remind his readers of their duties (to his imagined penitents? what?). And then Virgil speaks without ever being given a dialogue clue, further disorienting COMEDY's readers.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this strange passage from PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:05] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 25 - 45. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:55] Three curiosities in the passage from the medieval Florentine, plus one thematic tie back to Canto X.[10:41] For whom are the prideful penitents praying? And what exactly are they praying for them?[16:18] The poet's lesson, inserted into the ongoing story, is disconcertingly awkward.[21:36] Virgil offers nine lines of dialogue without a cue to us know it's Virgil who's speaking until almost the end--more disorientation.[27:19] The passage ultimately connects to a medieval notion of art by its reference to the weight of dreams.[29:35] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 25 - 45.

Please support this podcast! Help me with streaming, hosting, licensing, and editing fees by donating whatever you can at this PayPal link right here.Dante now hears the first of the penitents of Purgatory proper. They're under their boulders, reciting the foundational of Christianity.Except they're not. They're reciting Dante's rewrite of that prayer.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this curious passage that opens PURGATORIO, Canto XI, in which our poet has the sheer bravado to rewrite the most important prayer in the Christian tradition.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:06] Initial comments about the prayer from the prideful penitents on the first terrace of Purgatory proper.[09:25] The original statement of the prayer from Matthew 6: 9 - 13 versus Dante's rewrite of it.[12:55] Dante's additions to this foundational prayer.[21:39] The controversies Dante writes into this foundational prayer.[32:29] Two interpretive questions. One, why does Dante feel free to rewrite a ritualized prayer, part of the liturgy itself?[35:45] Two, what is Dante's ultimate poetic theory? That sacred space creates metaphoric/poetic space which then creates actual/physical reality.

Please consider supporting this podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, as well as royalties for the sound effects, by visiting this PayPal link right here.Virgil has prompted the pilgrim Dante to look at the penitents coming around the bend on the first terrace of Purgatory proper. But Dante can't make them out . . . until the poet intervenes with an invective and the envisions these penitents as works of art.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the hall of mirrors that Dante's theory of art is becoming even on the first terrace of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 112 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:00] The prophetic denunciation in the center of the passage hopes for a collective redemption out of individual sin.[10:08] Dante's and Virgil's eyesights are first compromised so that they can't comprehend what they see.[12:30] Art's power to interpret the realities of what is seen leads to Dante's hall of mirrors in which art is interpreting the real while being based on the real.[18:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 112 - 139.

Help support this podcast by donating at this PayPal link right here.Having seen the intaglios, Dante is still in wonder as the first penitents round the bend. Virgil spots them first . . . and murmurs to Dante.Murmurs? It’s a loaded verb in a passage about Dante’s theory of art.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take on this short passage in PURGATORIO, Canto X, a passage that seams the canto together . . . or perhaps reveals its stitching.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:07] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:18] This passage is a seam in the narrative, an important break in its structure.[06:50] In Dante's theory of art, only God can create something out of nothing.[08:21] Only in retrospect do we know what the intaglios were about. Or do we?[10:00] Dante is writing ekphrastic poetry (poetry about a piece of visual art) about art that doesn't exist except in his own imaginative landscape.[12:28] Several possible answers to the complicated question of Virgil's murmuring in this scene.[18:08] Dante's third address to the reader in PURGATORIO may exhibit a hesitation or even an insecurity in the narrative.[23:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111.

Please consider helping to support WALKING WITH DANTE. You can help me cover streaming, licensing, royalty, hosting, and editing fees by donating whatever you can at this PayPal link right here.Dante goes on to find the last intaglio or relief carving in the austere, too-steep, marble wall of the first terrace of Purgatory. Here, he finds a scene between the Roman emperor Trajan and a sorrowing mother who demands justice.Demands it so much, in fact, that she and Trajan have a dramatized conversation, although they're carved into marble. Eagles soar. Knights tramp the ground. What's Dante up to?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante the poet push the claims of realism to the breaking point to end at the moral crux of all of PURGATORIO: How do you balance justice and compassion?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:14] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:07] The first major players in the passage: the Roman emperor Trajan and the widow at his horse's bridle.[05:19] The third major player in the passage: Pope Gregory the Great.[07:21] Trajan is named outright, although other reliefs use periphrastic phrasing to identify the characters in the marble. Is that difference important?[10:30] The passage picks up and alters the vendetta thematics from INFERNO.[13:01] The woman at Trajan's horse's bridle seems a middle ground between the submissive Virgin Mary and the haughty Michal: an actionable humility.[15:56] An interpretive question about the difference between history and story (or "istoria" and "storiata," to use Dante's words).[18:53] Mimetic (realistic) art relies on imagined details to bolster and enhance the realism claims.[23:45] The moral crux of Purgatory is the balance between justice and compassion.[25:36] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93.

After the intaglio about the annunciation, Dante moves beyond Virgil (or is prodded to move beyond his guide) to discover a second sequence, this time from the story of King David and his journey with the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem.The scene is so realistic that it causes a sensory confusion in our pilgrim. Problem is, his amazement at the realism in the art is based on the poet's fabrication of details in the scene. The imagined enhances the real? A complex game indeed!Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look with the pilgrim at the second carving on the terrace of the prideful in PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:13] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 46 - 69. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:00] Comparing the first image in the marble with this second one: spare vs. elaborate.[04:54] Dante, on the side of Virgil's heart, eventually passes his guide. Is this symbolic? Allegorical? Or ironic?[09:51] The relief in the marble is a story lifted from II Samuel 6: 1 - 23.[12:19] The last six lines of the passage seem to show a dichotomy between low comedy and high tragedy.[14:26] Complex ironies in the passage: Dante makes up details that are the basis of its hyper-realism.[17:23] More complex ironies in the passage: Dante the poet may appear in disguise twice in the pilgrim's story.[21:01] The call for greater realism leads to, yes, Renaissance art but also to modern abstraction.[23:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 46 - 69.

Please donate to help support this walk with Dante. You can help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, editing, and royalty fees by visiting this PayPal link right here.Dante the pilgrim and (shockingly!) Virgil have made it to the first terrace of Purgatory proper, although they (and we?) are still not sure exactly what's going on. All we know is that the terrace has gorgeous carvings in the white marble.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the first of these carvings that will help us understand the penance ahead--and more importantly, help us understand Dante's theory of art, developed over the central cantos of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:18] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 28 - 45. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:18] Who was Polykleitos? What does Dante know of him? And how does this artist relate to "nature," the "child" of God.[06:13] The first image in the marble is revealed through periphrasis, despite its inherent realism.[11:24] "Ave" is an inversion of "Eva"--or Eve, from the garden of Eden. The fall in Genesis and the consequence of death lie at the bottom of this passage.[14:42] Dante appears to favor very realistic art.[15:50] The art here is rather spare--or at least sparely described.[17:03] Dante appears to favor didactic (or moral) art.[17:46] Dante's theory of art is that creativity builds off what's come before.[22:30] To put "historical" matter in an imaginative space is to compromise the historicity of the matter.[25:57] The unknowable is embellished by art, a most human gesture.[28:38] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 28 - 45.

If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider donating to cover hosting, licensing, and streaming fees by using this PayPal link right here.Dante and Virgil have come through the dramatic gate of Purgatory proper and entered a wildly open space, edging out to the void. This stark emptiness provides an existential contrast to all of the sound and fury that came just before.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the hard climb up to and the initial step onto the first of the seven terraces of Purgatory itself. Let's talk about this passage's emotional space, as well as the beautiful poetics in the medieval Florentine.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or print it off for notes, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:57] PURGATORIO, Canto X opens in a barren, quiet, and unsettling spot.[10:46] Two interpretive problems: 1) How can love be bad? And 2) what sound does the gate make when it closes?[15:10] The climb up to the first terrace references two New Testament passages: Matthew 7: 13 - 14 and Matthew 19: 24.[17:26] The medieval Florentine poetry shows the challenges of the climb.[22:23] Dante and Virgil eventually stand on a narrow terrace at the edge of the void.

If you'd like help support this podcast by underwriting its hosting, streaming, royalty, website, and editing fees, please consider donating at this PAYPAL link right here.I hope you're ready for the climb. We've come through the gate of PURGATORY to find ourselves on the first terrace of those actually getting rid of their sins.In this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we'll read through my rough--very rough--English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII, to give us all a chance to see the landscape, understand the arc of the story, and see some of the difficulties that lie ahead.Sit back and enjoy the plot of the first terrace of Purgatory proper.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:07] A plot summary of PURGATORIO so far, just so we're all up to speed.[06:31] A read-through of my rough English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII.

Help support the work of the podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, royalty, hosting, streaming, and editing fees associated with our walk. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link here.Dante and Virgil finally walk through the gate into Purgatory . . . in one of the most complex endings of any canto in all of COMEDY. There's tragedy and comedy, classical leaning and Christian resolution, emotional distress and safety, screeching and singing, tyranny and polyphony, all tied up together in a passage that has tripped scholars for seven hundred years.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the ins and outs of this most complex ending to Canto IX of PURGATORIO. This canto is worth the admission into the poem . . . and into the realms of the redeemed souls, too.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:35] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, you can do so on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:40] The angel's warning: Lot's wife vs. Orpheus and Eurydice.[08:44] Virgil's increasingly tenuous spot in PURGATORIO.[10:53] The tough parts of this passage: an amalgam of Roman history, Lucan's PHARSALIA, and Virgil's AENEID.[14:50] An interpretation of the negative tonalities in the imagery and Dante's role as Julius, the looter.[18:59] The hymn sung and the entrance into a monastic space.[21:54] Polyphony, a new poetic language, and the difficulties ahead.[26:56] Rereading all of PURGATORIO, Canto IX.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. To help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, please consider donating through this PayPal link here.Does Dante walk up the steps to the gate of Purgatory? Not without Virgil's help. And then we get a close view of the angel's ashy robes. And then we hear about letters on the forehead. And then we see the two keys. And it all comes down to a tangled knot, both in the passage and in the thematics.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we listen to the angel at the very gate of Purgatory and witness his strange interchange with our pilgrim Dante.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:39] The colorful beauty of the scene vs. the angel's ashy robes.[05:52] Virgil's effort to get the pilgrim Dante into Purgatory.[09:44] The two keys: gold and silver.[13:28] God's forgiveness vs. humanity's capacity to forgive.[17:20] The seven Ps on Dante's forehead: an essential strangeness.[19:34] Writing on the forehead in Biblical traditions and in COMEDY.[22:46] Erring on the side of opening, rather than closing--with an important caveat.[26:19] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129.

Please consider donating to WALKING WITH DANTE to help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, royalties, hosting, and web domains for this podcast. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link right here.We've made it to the steps into Purgatory. In other words, we've made it to an interpretive quagmire. Seven hundred years of scholarship sit on these steps. But maybe there's a way we can clear off the dons and see the steps in a new way.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these important twelve lines that lead us right up to the angel sitting at the gate of Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:01] Dante's classical dream and Virgil's Christian explanation, continued.[09:03] The aesthetic beauty of the steps into Purgatory.[11:20] Two small bits to notice: "we came on from there" and the angel's position above the steps themselves.[15:51] The traditional, theological interpretation of the allegory of the three steps.[20:55] But the larger question: Why is the entrance to Purgatory an interpretive riddle?[23:11] The entrance to hell was a writerly act of words over the gate; the entrance to Purgatory is a speech act from the angel (which is still a writerly act because we read it on the page).[26:22] Confession is also a speech act.[27:21] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105.

Please help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, hosting, and producing this podcast by visiting this PayPal link right here.Dante seemed so full of confidence when he learned that his dream was indeed only a dream and that Lucy had in fact carried him to the gate of Purgatory.But that was before he faced the angel guardian at the gate, whose forbidding presence seems to silence the pilgrim.Fortunately, Virgil is ever ready to answer.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue to watch the interplay among our pilgrim Dante, his classical guide, and the Christian afterlife ahead of him.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:28] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, do so in the comment section for this episode at my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:12] The angel at Purgatory's gate is so threatening that he silences the pilgrim Dante.[06:37] The angel is a blocking figure, reminiscent of the Cherubim placed at the Garden of Eden, yet also of medieval iconography for St. Paul.[08:51] This is the first angel to speak in COMEDY! We begin to understand Dante's notion of divine transcendence.[13:13] The angel's questions have answers but still seem forbidding, like the questions of other gatekeepers in COMEDY.[16:22] The damned Virgil is ever ready to give a reply to the gatekeepers of COMEDY. Apparently, even to an angel.[19:03] The angel calls the stairs "ours." Whose?[20:35] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93.

Help me cover the costs for this podcast: its hosting, licensing, streaming, and royalty fees. (Those sound effects require royalties!) You can donate using this PayPal link right here.Dante undergoes a total transformation: from the scared guy who burned up in his dream to the fully confident pilgrim who walks right up to the gate of Purgatory.In the meantime, he asks his reader to change, too: to read the poem as fearlessly as he journeys across the known universe.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first approach to the gate of Purgatory itself.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:55] The passage opens with a curious simile that doesn't need to be a simile.[06:48] The change in the pilgrim is found in a reflexive verb.[10:53] The apparently open gate is actually shut, in contrast to the gate of hell.[12:53] The second address to the reader in PURGATORIO: Dante asks his reader to commit fearlessly to the more difficult material ahead.[18:40] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Please support this work by donating to cover hosting, streaming, editing, licensing, and other fees associated with this podcast. To do so, please visit this Paypal link right here.Dante awakens in stark terror. But he's beside his constant companion, Virgil. And he's a long way up the mountain, looking far down at the sea.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear Virgil tell about the arrival of Lucy and discover that the Christian truth of comedy is always textured by the classical poetics of tragedy.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:30] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 43 - 63. If you'd like to read along or to continue the conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:23] Virgil sprays Dante the pilgrim with aphorisms, perhaps the best the classical world can do.[05:06] PURGATORIO, Canto IX, has many parallels with INFERNO, Canto IX.[07:46] Lucy shows up--but first, a problem with my translation.[09:50] More importantly, which Lucy shows up?[14:03] Apparently even a saint has to obey the laws of Mount Purgatory.[15:07] Shock! Virgil follows Lucy to the gate of Purgatory![15:48] Why is the story given to Virgil? Why doesn't Dante the pilgrim just experience the ascent in Lucy's arms "in real time"?[18:00] The classical imagery is not overwhelmed by the Christian truth of comedy. Rather, the classical imagery is the constant texture of Dante's truth.[21:00] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 43 - 63.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free! Please donate to help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, royalty, and research fees. You can do so at this PayPal link here.Dante dreams his way to the gate of Purgatory using three classical images that explain his sexual rapture in the presence of divine love but also give his journey a texture of sadness.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first dream of PURGATORIO. Let's explore the imagery from Ovid, Virgil, and Statius, as well as Dante's rather unusual medieval attitude toward homosexuality.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[03:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 13 - 42. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to the Dante pages on my website: markscarbrough.com.[05:24] Dante's morning dream is truthful AND puts to rest the notion that COMEDY itself is somehow a dream.[07:55] The first classical image: Tereus, Procne, and Philomel.[11:36] The second classical image: Ganymede, Zeus, and the eagle.[14:22] The third classical image: Achilles on Skyros.[17:22] Love, fire, and the divine mission of COMEDY.[19:11] The classical imagery adds a sorrowful texture to the passage because real conversion always involves loss.[22:31] The opening of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, is about unrefined, unpurged, or "unnatural" love.[25:14] Dante sees homosexuality as nonetheless a form of love, a dramatic step for a medieval thinker.[28:44] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 13 - 42.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE! To help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, research, and royalty fees (that music costs money!), consider donating to the podcast at this PayPal link.We begin PURGATORIO, Canto IX, with a mess of classical imagery that's befuddled scholars for centuries. We won't come to any conclusions about it, other than to say that such misdirection may be the heart of the matter.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this difficult opening to a central canto for PURGATORIO: the gate into the main matter of the canticle, the cornices where souls are purged (or purge themselves--but more on that to come!).Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12. If you'd like to read along or continue this difficult discussion, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:42] Sleeping, being human, and journeying in COMEDY.[06:53] The first mess in the passage: Tithonus, his wife, and his concubine.[10:48] The second mess in the passage: the signs of the zodiac.[13:03] The third mess in the passage: the three steps of the night.[15:56] The first common solution to the mess: European time v. Purgatorial time.[18:08] The second common solution to the mess: the concubine and the moon.[19:28] My solution: poetic play and classical imagery, not classical control of that imagery.[26:42] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Donate to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can donate at this PayPal link here.We're finally at the gate of Purgatory! And it's a corker of a canto, to say the least.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this quick read-through of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, before we take it apart line by line to study it in the depth Dante intends.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[03:16] Reading through my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto IX.[10:56] Initial interpretive questions for PURGATORIO, Canto IX.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE. Please donate to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and research fees, as well as royalties for the music. You can donate at this PayPal link here.We've reached the end of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, which means we've reached the end of Ante-Purgatory, those cantos and those parts of the mountain before the main gate of Purgatory proper.Here, Dante changes the tone completely, ending our stay outside of Purgatory proper in praise of generosity--or specifically, the generosity of the Malaspina family.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we head for the main gate of Purgatory on a high note. Some people do indeed do well and live right in this world.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:50] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 109 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue our conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:05] This shade doesn't seem at all interested in the angels or the serpent. Why?[05:18] Currado's opening speech is incredibly florid. But what is the lantern leading Dante up the mountain?[08:33] The powerful Malaspina family ruled tracts of Lunigiana.[11:29] Dante the pilgrim doesn't know what Dante the poet knows all too well.[13:45] Dante was a peace negotiator for the Malaspina family in 1306.[18:21] Currado's reply to Dante's praise is a prophecy of Dante's exile--and the care he will need in exile.[20:54] The beautiful structure of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII.[23:25] Ante-Purgatory ends on an ethic of care.[26:31] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 109 - 139.

Please help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can give as you like here at this PayPal link.After Judge Nino's misogynistic diatribe, Dante the pilgrim stares at the stars. The four from the opening of PURGATORIO have passed beyond his sight; three new stars are rising, when the long-awaited snake makes its appearance in the dale of the negligent rulers.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work to untangle the meaning in this curious and symbolic passage that cues us to much that's ahead in our walk across the known universe--and specifically, up Mount Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 85 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:38] Many Dante scholars want Dante to stare at the heavens, his attention not on Judge Nino, if only to save our pilgrim-poet from the misogyny in the previous passage. But why?[06:11] PURGATORIO VI - VIII involves the wheel of fortune for earthly figures that eventually morphs into the wheeling stars of the heavens.[09:30] The passing of morning and night is crucial to understanding the human nature of PURGATORIO.[13:06] The four cardinal virtues are setting and the three Christian virtues are riding.[16:21] The serpent in PURGATORIO brings Eve (and Eden) into the passage that had mentioned the Virgin Mary--although Dante is clearly a tad hesitant about this serpent (and its allegory?).[19:24] The allegory of the snake in PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, may be connected to the setting of the infernal landscape and thus the setting of the classical "landscape" of Comedy.[25:45] The beginnings of grace are not seen but its action (or motion) is.

After Dante shocks Judge Nino and the poet Sordello with the revelation of the pilgrim's own corporeality, Judge Nino launches into a disgusting diatribe about his "unfaithful wife," a pernicious bit of misogyny that threatens to derail COMEDY . . . or at least our appreciation of it.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this difficult passage in PURGATORIO, one that must be addressed but leaves us with no good answers about works of art from the past.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:53] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 64 - 84. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this passage to continue this difficult conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:52] Dante's increasingly original language in COMEDY.[07:06] Giovanna and Beatrice, Judge Nino's earthly family: the center of his rage and a node of disgusting misogyny in COMEDY.[14:09] Judge Nino and the imagined death of his allegedly "unfaithful" wife.[15:37] Judge Nino's moderating anger and the emotional landscape of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII.[17:49] The problem with misogyny in a great poem.[24:03] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 64 - 84.

Sordello leads Dante down three steps into the valley of the kings. There, our pilgrim Dante meets Judge Nino, perhaps a figure from the poet Dante's own past, certainly a figure tied to a major character in INFERNO, and a figure who helps our poet "prove" that his journey was indeed real, not imagined.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this descent into the valley of the negligent rulers in the final bits of our time before the gate of Purgatory proper.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:53] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 46 - 63. If you'd like to read long or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:39] The further irony of sight in the dimness.[06:46] Noble Judge Nino of Pisa, a throwback to INFERNO.[10:48] Self-reflexivity and bolstered reality claims in COMEDY.[12:58] Fellowship after warfare: the nature of Purgatory.[14:39] Gaining the higher life by this journey--but how?[17:53] Being lost in Purgatory.[20:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 46 -63.

Help underwrite the costs associated with this free podcast! Licensing fees, hosting fees, streaming fees, music and sound royalties: it all adds up. You can donate to WALKING WITH DANTE at this PayPal link here.Still standing on the cusp of the valley of the negligent rulers, not yet among them, Dante witnesses two angels descend from heaven, the first we've seen come from the blessed realms. (The first angel of PURGATORIO is apparently a boatman between a spot in Italy and Mount Purgatory.)Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for an exploration of this curious passage about angels--as guardians, yes; but also as performers in a bit of nightly street theater.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 19 - 45. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:38] The first of seven direct addresses to the reader in PURGATORIO.[07:26] A courteous (or noble) army: a key interpretive crux for Canto VIII.[09:10] Two angels from above, reminiscent of the Cherubim put on guard at the Garden of Eden after the expulsion of Adam and Eve.[13:28] Green angels and liturgical colors.[16:47] The irony of sight in the face of angelic brightness.[19:27] A reference to Mary that plays into the meaning of Canto VIII.[21:16] Freezing in Purgatory.[24:06] Deflating the drama in this passage.[26:35] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 19 - 45.

Help me keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. You can donate to support the podcast at this PayPal link here.We move closer to the negligent rulers on the slope of Mount Purgatory, seated or standing about in a dale on the slope before the main gate.Among them, we encounter longing, yearning, dreaming, sadness, all at the moment of the end of the day, its death, even as someone is already anticipating sunrise (and resurrection?).Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore one of the most beautiful passages in Dante's COMEDY: human, intimate, and cosmic, all the crisscrossing we expect of this great poet.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 1 - 18. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:47] The opening pseudo-simile about sailors and pilgrims.[08:27] Out of canonical time and into common time, with a yearning for what was.[11:32] The irony of sight in a darkening landscape.[12:43] An unknown soul and the importance of the east.[15:58] The hymn "Te Lucis Ante" . . .[19:02] Which is the third hymn of PURGATORIO.[20:58] The divided self and the ecstatic experience.[24:53] A glimpse of the journey ahead.[26:29] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 1 - 18.

In the last episode of this podcast, we glossed (or explained) the long list of rulers who are in the darkening dale ahead of us, as well as Dante, Virgil, and Sordello.In this episode, let's ask interpretive questions of this long, difficult passage at the end of PURGATORIO, Canto VII. Some of these questions have answers; some, tentative answers; and some, mere speculation. But that's the intellectual fun of the walk with Dante!Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I ask ten questions of this tough passage in PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:06] My English translation of the passage: Purgatorio, Canto VII, lines 82 - 136. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[06:28] The ten questions: First, How do we know these are all "negligent rulers"?[09:45] How is the antiphon "Salve Regina" significant for this passage (and maybe for PURGATORIO as a whole)?[13:21] Is there an allegorical (or symbolic) significance to the "not steep" approach to this dale?[14:33] Does the passage verge toward nihilism?[16:15] Is Dante a proto-democratic thinker?[18:13] How is political power bestowed in Dante's day?[19:40] Is there humor in this passage?[22:16] How does Dante believe political power should be bestowed?[25:02] How are PURGATORIO Cantos VI and VII connected?[27:21] Who is the intended audience of this passage?

Please help support this podcast. I have a great many hosting, streaming, licensing, journal, and royalty fees associated with this work. Anything you can give helps! Use this PayPal link here to make a contribution.We finally get to see who is down in that beautiful dale in front of us on the lower slopes of Mount Purgatory--and it turns out to be a roster of rulers from the mid- to late-1200s.These kings have mucked up the European landscape and left it in the mess that Dante finds it. They appear to be repenting their actions. But they were also excessively action-oriented figures, going to war with each other for dynastic and territorial control.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first of two parts on the end of PURGATORIO, Canto VII. This passage is tough--so this first time through it, we'll just fill in the historical details before we turn to questions of interpretation in the next episode of WALKING WITH DANTE.Here are the segments for this episode:[01:46] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, lines 82 - 136. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[06:00] The passage again, this time glossed with all of its historical detail, a crash course in central and southern European politics of the mid- to late-1200s.[23:44] The initial interpretive questions we should explore as we try to think through the problems this passage causes COMEDY as a whole and the ways it refocuses the poem Dante's growing political stance.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free by donating to help me cover its licensing, hosting, streaming, and royalty fees. You can use this PayPal link here to make a contribution.Sordello leads Virgil (and Dante the pilgrim, whom Sordello has hardly noticed) on to the beautiful dale on the lower slopes of Mount Purgatory.This passage is one of the first where the poet has to write about beauty. And in doing so, he has to renegotiate his position toward Virgil's great poem, THE AENEID.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the steps up to the ridge that overlooks what will become the beautiful valley of the kings.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:13] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, lines 64 - 81. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:37] With minimal effort, Sordello, Virgil, and Dante the pilgrim come to what seems to be the Elysian Fields of THE AENEID's afterlife.[07:23] Dante's poetry may not yet be astute enough to handle beauty, rather than terror.[13:05] If this spot in PURGATORIO is indeed an allusion to the Elysian Fields, then what of Limbo back in INFERNO?[18:42] Rereading all of PURGATORIO, Canto VII, through this moment: lines 1 - 81.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Your donation at this PayPal link helps cover streaming, hosting, website, and licensing fees for this podcast. Donate here.Virgil has turned the journey into his own--but now confronts not only his limits but perhaps everyone's as Sordello warns him (and Dante the pilgrim) that night is falling on Mount Purgatory.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this very strange passage from PURGATORIO in which we find out for the first time that the Elysian Fields lies in front of us but that we'd better get there while we still can.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:09] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, lines 37 - 63. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:33] The passage seems to call back to Belacqua in PURGATORIO, Canto IV, and to show us that PURGATORIO is starting to wrap into itself.[08:07] Sordello "uses" a passage from THE AENEID to explain their movement on Mount Purgatory.[12:53] Sordello is only talking to Virgil, despite Dante standing right there.[15:35] Virgil asks questions about ability and the will--and the allegory gets very intense.[18:41] Sordello makes a gesture similar to the one Jesus makes in John 8 when the woman is caught in adultery.[21:12] When there's no light, stay where you are--or else you might have to move down.[23:16] Delight is the central motivation of PURGATORIO and even COMEDY as a whole. Too bad knowing that does Virgil no good.[24:48] Delight directs the will.[26:40] Love may move the fence but that movement is always costly.

If you'd like to donate to WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it afloat without sponsors, you can give some a little in any currency using this PayPal link.Sordello stands amazed in the presence of the great poet Virgil. The pilgrim Dante? Seemingly forgotten.Sordello wants to know how this classical poet got into Purgatory. So Virgil offers an explanation that reiterates what we know about Limbo but also redefines Limbo and perhaps causes Dante the poet to trip across the wires of his own thinking.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante renegotiate the presence of Virgil in COMEDY once again, ever trying to come to terms with a pagan poet in a Christian poem.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:43] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, lines 16 - 36. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:49] How is Virgil the "glory of the Latins" as Sordello claims? What does that mean to Sordello (and to Dante)?[06:02] There are at least two ways to handle Sordello's claim: 1) Latin was Virgil's vernacular or 2) Virgil showed the capabilities of language itself.[10:28] Apparently, Sordello isn't bothered by Virgil's eternal status.[11:14] Virgil offers an overview of his journey. His. Is it his? What of Dante the pilgrim?[15:22] Virgil seems both to reiterate and to redefine our understanding of Limbo.[19:07] Dante wants the human will to be the mechanism of salvation but that notion runs contrary to the Christian doctrine of original sin.[21:40] Dante is renovating Virgil because Virgil is the prime way Dante can renovate classical learning.

Please help support WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it sponsor-free. You can make a donation in any currency using this PayPal link.We've come out of the invective against Italian strife and returned to the plot of COMEDY--and Dante the poet clearly wants to return Virgil to the center of the narrative's stage.But can he? How is Virgil's position negotiated and renegotiated as the damned Virgil walks on into the redeemed landscape.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore our return to storytelling in a passage in which Dante the pilgrim seems to fall through the cracks of Dante the poet's larger strategies.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:51] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, lines 1 - 15. You can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:24] The emotional space that opens PURGATORIO, Canto VII, and may re-establish Virgil's position in COMEDY.[09:04] Virgil names himself for the first time in COMEDY and offers a rationale (maybe!) for his damnation. But isn't Cato always in the offing?[15:59] Sordello suddenly becomes uncertain (no longer a crouching lion?) in the face of the great poet.[18:27] The redeemed Sordello abases himself in front of the damned Virgil.

Donate to help keep WALKING WITH DANTE on its path by using this PayPal link here.Dante's invective against political strife reaches its height by turning its rhetoric toward Dante's own experience--and maybe even his experience in writing COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante's poetic craft fall apart a bit and then turn back to the poet's own experience, all to find his stance as the prophet-poet he wants to be.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:40] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 127 - 151. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[05:05] The rage-filled sarcasm seems to go off the rails in a loss of good poetic craft.[09:26] The invective turns to the poet's personal experience and a call-back to a previous moment in PURGATORIO, Canto VI.[13:12] The invective ends with a terrific image of a feather bed and a sick woman as the summation of the political problems in Florence.[15:48] PURGATORIO, Canto VI, is directly related to INFERNO, Canto VI.[20:10] In PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Dante the poet may be learning how to become the prophet-poet he wants to be.

Rage knows no bounds--even in a poem as controlled as Dante's COMEDY. The poet has been offering up an invective about Italian strife and the war-torn landscape that has ruined his home. But in the middle passage of his invective, he may have finally lost all control and committed outright blasphemy.Or maybe really complex irony. It's hard to tell.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the middle of the invective in PURGATORIO, Canto VI. Here are the segments for this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the medieval Florentine for PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 106 - 126. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:23] Who are the various families in this passage: the Montecchi, the Cappelletti, the Monaldi, and the Filippeschi?[07:47] Who is the Marcellus who ends this middle section of the invective?[09:46] To whom is this middle passage of the invective addressed?[12:28] The poet turn to the (Justinian?) legality of questioning God's purposes.[13:50] Dante seems to taunt God.[15:58] Here are two possible answers to the tangled knot of blasphemy in this passage.

We've danced around the notion of Dante as the pilgrim and Dante as the poet and their competing voices in COMEDY for so many episodes--quite literally, years now. But does this split in Dante hold up? Why do we allow something to occur in interpretation which never occurs in the poem?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this interpolated episode of WALKING WITH DANTE. I want to engage in some rather high-level narrative theory to talk about why we need to make the split between pilgrim and poet, a split that COMEDY itself never makes.Here are the segments of this podcast episode:[01:15] My thesis: the pilgrim/poet split is a convenient fiction to allow us to come to terms with a polyvalent or multivocal work.[04:10] Nowhere in COMEDY is there a distinct moment when we see Dante the pilgrim and Dante the poet differentiated.[07:38] Sordello's lack of categorization (which sort of penitent is he?) gives Dante the narrative space to break the sequence of events (the "walk") and offer his invective.[11:39] There are wildly contradictory moments in COMEDY that break our neat pilgrim/poet split.[13:50] What are other examples of polyvalent or multivocal works? And why do we so value them?

Please consider supporting this work in WALKING WITH DANTE by donating to help me cover hosting, streaming, website, and licensing fees for this podcast by visiting this Paypal link here.The story (or narrative) of PURGATORIO comes to a halt in Canto VI and the poem turns into a political invective. There are interesting problems here: with metaphors, with history, with poetics, and with (perhaps) our own expectations. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I have to face my own expectations about COMEDY in this difficult canto of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 76 - 105. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[05:48] Who was Justinian and why was he important to Dante?[09:58] Who was "German Albert," as well as his successors? And why were they important to Dante?[15:12] The opening third of the invective moves from a messy jumble of metaphors to a single, controlling metaphor. Is this movement enacting Dante's own political hopes?[19:47] Dante's politics are deeply troubling, as are our own: chaos calls for an iron fist.[21:52] Sordello is a crouching lion, a threat, because he represents the sort of poet Dante could have become.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE by donating to cover hosting, licensing, streaming, and podcast fees at the PayPal link here.Virgil has come in for a bit of a whipping. But no worries! All is forgiven. Dante still sees Virgil as his liege in a feudal context, his ultimate guide.And together, they find a solitary soul on the slopes of Mount Purgatory: Sordello, a troubadour poet and Dante's second guide across the known universe.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this intriguing figure who sits by himself, isolated and uncategorized in COMEDY's schematics.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:52] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 49 - 75. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:27] How does Virgil know what he knows?[09:47] The poet Dante strangely interrupts the narrative sequence in this passage.[12:38] A busking break![13:36] The soul ahead is not only solitary physically, but also emotionally.[16:50] Who is Sordello? Dante's second guide across the known universe, a figure deeply connected to others across COMEDY, and a distinguished, late troubadour poet from Italy.[25:07] A read-through of the narrative section of PURGATORIO, Canto VI: lines 1 - 75.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE by covering the hosting, editing, and licensing fees. You can donate through PayPal here.The pilgrim Dante and Virgil pass on from the crowd. And now Virgil really becomes the loser.Dante inquires about a passage in THE AENEID. And Virgil answers like a prof who is caught with a question he can't answer.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the second time in COMEDY that Virgil is forced to correct his masterpiece in front of Dante.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:19] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 25 - 48. If you'd like to read along or print it off to make notes, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:36] Dante quizzes Virgil about the theology of the master's tragedy. What text is Dante the pilgrim referencing? THE AENEID, Book VI, around lines 373 - 376.[05:44] Virgil replies with garbled logic, if not utter sophistry.[11:21] The three most common medieval responses to classical texts like Virgil's.[15:55] My personal theory: the poet Dante may still be in a bit of an infernal state of mind, seeing souls as "placed" rather than "in transit."

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it sponsor-free. Click here for a PayPal link to donate and help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and research fees.Having heard three stories of those who died violent deaths unshriven, Dante the pilgrim is besieged by requests from others. A crowd forms around him, all begging for prayer, including six individuals singled out from the crowd.But something's amiss. Someone has won at a game of dice--and someone has lost. Who's the winner and who's the loser?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this final episode to those who died violent deaths yet are among the souls slowly (!) ascending to heaven.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:26] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along or print it off to make notes, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:09] PURGATORIO, Canto VI as a whole: an introduction to its structure.[06:19] The six souls who accost the pilgrim Dante: three named and three unnamed (or, better, named periphrastically).[15:49] Why does Dante the poet feel the need to obscure three of these pressing souls?[19:08] An Arabic game of dice opens Canto VI--and may be a meta-statement about COMEDY as a whole.[24:18] Who is the winner of this game? Dante the pilgrim, of course. But who is the loser? Probably Virgil!

In this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we'll read the three cantos that lead us up to the gate of Purgatory itself.These are tough cantos! It's important to hear them before we break them apart to study them. Many a reader has been daunted by what's happening here before we finally get into Purgatory proper. Don't despair. We'll get down the flow (or lack thereof!) in these cantos before we start to study them more in depth.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[03:24] Reading Purgatorio Cantos VI - VIII. This is my English translation which you'll be able to find on my website, markscarbrough.com, in smaller chunks when we start to break it down and study it in more depth.[26:53] Initial questions that arise from Purgatorio, Cantos VI - VIII.

Dante the pilgrim has heard two dramatic speeches from characters whose deaths were full of Sturm und Drang. Now, a quiet, lone voice comes forward to tell an elliptical, enigmatic tale of her violent death in only seven lines (one of which is a dialogue marker).Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we listen to "la Pia" and attempt to come to terms with her devastating speech which has befuddled commentators for over 700 years.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:32] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 130 - 136. If you'd like to read along, print it off to make notes, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[06:28] Who is "la Pia"? An enduring mystery.[12:16] Distinct interpretive knots in Pia's short speech.[20:23] Pia's speech happens after the first moment of the veneration of the Virgin Mary in COMEDY. That placement can't be my mistake.[22:17] Two ways to interpret Pia's speech.[26:00] What can we make of the poetics of Pia's speech?

We come to the second monologue in PURGATORIO, Canto V. This time, we're on the other side of the battle of Campeldino with one of Dante's enemies. And we're on the other side of INFERNO, with a son whose father we saw damned with Ulysses and Diomedes.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this most surprising speech and continue to discuss the ways PURGATORIO is changing the game for Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 85 - 129. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment on this episode, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:38] Who was Buonconte da Montefeltro?[08:36] A positive and a negative node in the passage: a sense of humility and a growing misogyny in PURGATORIO.[13:11] Dante the poet offers a ham-handed narrative tercet while also forgiving his enemy, Buonconte--in other words, bad form but good ethics.[14:25] Buonconte's speech is the first true node of the veneration of the Virgin Mary in COMEDY. But there's also a problem here. What or whom is Buonconte actually forgiving?[18:05] Buonconte brings up the problem of veracity in COMEDY by foregrounding the credulity (or incredulity) of his story.[22:01] There are demonic voices in PURGATORIO![23:26] There are more bits of Virgil's GEORGICS in this passage. Even more important, Buonconte's speech shows that COMEDY is becoming more and more encyclopedic.[27:35] Two shocking bits. Apparently, one needn't be buried in sacred ground. And Dante the poet gives the more learned speech to his former enemy.[29:49] Four ways Buonconte's speech ties back to Jacopo del Cassero's: 1) Campeldino, 2) bloody deaths, 3) a tour of Italian geography, and 4) distinct references back to INFERNO.

The frenzied souls had spoken in unison, in monophony. Now they begin to differentiate, to enter into polyphony with each other.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hang out on the first minor ledge of Purgatory with Dante the pilgrim and Virgil, his guide. They've been confronted by a mad battalion charge of souls who want to know how the pilgrim is in his body and what he can do for them when he returns to the land of the living.One of them steps out and tells the story of his death, the first of three stories that end PURGATORIO, Canto V. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:32] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, Lines 64 - 84. If you'd like to read along, print it off, make notes, or continue the discussion with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:43] This soul is Iacopo or Jacopo del Cassero (c. 1260 CE - 1298 CE). Here are the important facts about his life.[10:14] A line-by-line reading of the first half of Jacopo's story of his death.[18:53] A line-by-line reading of the second half of Jacopo's story of his death.[23:55] Why is this passage so associated with Italian geography? What has so much of PURGATORIO so far been about Italian geography and politics? Is Dante making a comment about his homeland as a sort of Ante-Purgatory?[26:47] Jacopo's speech shows Dante the poet's attempt to "reconcile" the fraudulent nature of language while upholding its poetic possibilities. It's a task destined to fail--and spectacularly.

The pilgrim Dante and his guide, Virgil, have passed beyond the lazy souls and on to a group that's in a frenzy: running, calling out, speaking in one voice. The change is marked and important to understand how PURGATORIO works.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this passage from the fifth canto of PURGATORIO. These souls have died violent deaths. And they want something from the pilgrim Dante. He wants something, too. And his wants are somehow tied with Virgil.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 37 - 63. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment about this episode, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:33] A concise but double simile, so compact it's a little garbled in the medieval Florentine--and perhaps comes from Virgil's GEORGICS (Book I, lines 365 - 367).[08:27] Virgil doesn't seem to fully know what these frenzied souls want from the pilgrim Dante. If Virgil doesn't understand Christian theology, what then is his purpose in PURGATORIO?[13:17] The souls speak in one voice (to Dante the pilgrim, NOT to Virgil!). The narrative movement of PURGATORIO is monophony (or unison) to polyphony.[16:27] The souls want a transactional relationship with Dante the pilgrim. And maybe with Dante the poet, too.[18:32] Dante seems to clarify the initial metaphor's implications.[20:38] Two fundamental keys to PURGATORIO's thematics in this passage.[25:30] Five interpretive problems in this passage.

We come to a second scene, certainly sequential, almost contemporaneous with the previous scene among Belacqua's cohorts.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we come to one of the great contrasting moments in PURGATORIO: the lazy souls with Belacqua vs. these souls, traversing the slope, singing, running, shouting, and making an all-around ruckus.The key here, as always (so far), is Virgil. His response seems the opposite in this scene to his response just a few lines earlier. What gives?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 22 - 36. If you'd like to read along, print it off to make notes, or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:03] We hear the second song in PURGATORIO--and the second "miserere" of COMEDY.[04:51] The pilgrim's body stops not only the sunlight but also the "miserere." Surely there's a moral point afoot here![07:54] Why is Virgil's attitude so different from just a few lines back? Three possible answers.[13:20] Where are we? In Ante-Purgatory, according to the commentators, although Dante's been pretty quiet about the specifics of our geography. What is this place if it's not Purgatory itself? And who are these souls, the prisoners of hope?

Dante the pilgrim has had his last words with Belacqua and begins his journey on up the mountain. Or at least, laterally along the mountain of Purgatory.But those negligent souls with Belacqua are not done with the pilgrim. They point him out and seem suddenly to leap into action . . . or at least, into words.Dante is . . . flattered? Proud? Distracted. Virgil is having none of it. He reprimands the pilgrim and may give us a clue into the changing poetics of PURGATORIO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk through the opening lines of canto V of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:03] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 1 - 21. If you'd like to read along, print it off for notes, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:01] PURGATORIO, Canto IV and the unity of the soul vs. PURGATORIO, Canto V and the apparent stability/ultimate fragility of the body.[05:48] Canto V seems to open with more sardonic irony: a lot of activity from the negligent, lazy souls under the shadow of the rock with Belacqua.[08:20] Virgil's reprimand is one of his most strident in COMEDY. It also recapitulates the argument about the unity of the soul.[10:58] Dante the pilgrim may exhibit some hubris (or overreaching pride) in this passage. Or perhaps not. It's a tad unclear.[13:53] Dante the pilgrim certainly sees Virgil's remarks as a reprimand. But can there be error in the redeemed part of the afterlife?[17:15] Maybe Virgil is onto something about the writing of PURGATORIO. It cannot be "merely" about Dante the pilgrim's reactions.[19:44] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 1 - 21.

We've reached the end of the first narrative arc of PURGATORIO. Dante the poet brings the first five cantos to a close with a very quiet, almost disturbing decrescendo: a small voice, a woman's voice, reduced the barest details.Join me as we read through PURGATORIO, Canto V, before we take it apart and start our slow-walk through it, passage by passage. My English translation is not found on my website. Instead, I just want you to sit back and take the canto in before we pull it into so many pieces.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:20] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto V. Again, it's not found on my website. Instead, please just listen for the narrative flow.[08:38] What initial questions do we have after we've read PURGATORIO, Canto V?

We've talked about Belcqua as a parodic, ironic, or comedic figure in PURGATORIO. But is there a way to interpret his character as more straightforward? What if Dante the poet intends him to be a warning about negligence, a truth-teller sitting on the first minor ledge of the great mountain of Purgatory?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I read back through Belacqua's speeches in PURGATORIO, Canto IV, interpreting this time without the assumption of irony. What happens to the very words of the text when we change the interpretive lens?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:27] Belacqua's opening "maybe" doesn't include any clues as to its irony based on its rhyme.[03:44] Belacqua's second speech mentions being "valiant," right after the very valiant Manfred. Belacqua's third line is perhaps merely a statement of fact--or perhaps a bit of characterization for Belacqua: a know-it-all who didn't hear Virgil's discussion of the sun's position.[06:48] Belacqua calls Dante "brother," a term of Christian affection.[08:08] The way up is indeed blocked for Belacqua.[09:34] Perhaps Belacqua's use of "martydom" for his purgation indicates his coming link with the church's founding legends. Maybe the punishments of Purgatory do indeed link the penitents to the martyrs.[11:36] Belacqua's final sighs are indeed "good."[12:25] Belacqua's last statement about efficacious prayer is orthodox theology.

Belacqua has been the subject of hundreds of commentaries over centuries as readers have grappled with who this figure is and what purpose he serves in Dante's poem.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I offer you multiple ways to interpret this most intriguing figure in PURGATORIO, a favorite character Samuel Beckett--and for me, too. I see him as a parody of the contemplative life. Which means I see Beatrice--or a parody of her--in this passage.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:25] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, lines 115 - 139. If you'd like to print it off, read along, or continue the discussion with me about this episode, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:49] Several points in the passage to suggest Belacqua is an ironic figure of some sort.[08:02] Who was Belacqua? The answer is surprisingly unclear.[10:15] Belacqua is a favorite character for Samuel Beckett.[11:18] How has Belacqua been interpreted over the centuries of commentary? And how do I read this most intriguing figure?[15:56] Pain has a temporal component in PURGATORIO--indicating that redemptive pain has a time value.[17:38] Beatrice may well be behind Belacqua's final words. Virgil certainly seems to hear an echo of her! And perhaps invokes Ulysses as a final stroke of irony.[20:40] The structure of PURGATORIO, Canto IV.[22:54] A vertical reading of INFERNO, Canto IV, and PURGATORIO, Canto IV.[24:48] A progression in PURGATORIO, Cantos II through IV: Casella, Manfred, Belacqua.[26:28] Rereading the entire Belacqua sequence: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, lines 97 - 139.

After all that scholastic reasoning, all that discussion of medieval astronomy and geography, all that cogitation on the soul's unity and the sun's position, Dante the pilgrim and Virgil come across a guy who's just hanging out in the shade, trying to escape the noontime heat.He may be the most famous character of PURGATORIO. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our exploration of this negligent soul, a character who has captured the imagination of thousands of the COMEDY's readers.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:38] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, lines 97 - 114. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the discussion with me about this passage, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:47] The guy's first response has two curious bits: an emphasis on the "perhaps" and an address only to Dante the pilgrim, not to Virgil.[06:26] How does this passage relate to Virgil's last words: "I can't say anything else but I do know this much is true"?[09:37] The figure embodies negligence, perhaps what some medieval scholars called "inactive melancholy" or the "noontime demon."[11:20] Dante the poet is playing a tricky game since the sin of sloth was not punished in INFERNO (perhaps).[15:32] The negligent soul seems to offer both the pilgrim Dante AND the reader a way out: what's ahead is tough, so be forewarned before you go on.

Dante the pilgrim continues to rest on the first small ledge that runs around Mount Purgatory. Here, he and Virgil first discuss astronomy--or why the sun is in on his left (or "wrong") in this hemisphere. Virgil seems to end the discussion (in the last episode of this podcast) with a sneer: "If you're smart enough to figure this out."Indeed, the pilgrim is! In fact, he does Virgil one better. He summarizes the "science" far better than Virgil can. And Dante the pilgrim shifts the discussion to geography, which then Virgil oddly shifts to morality, one-upping the pilgrim to show who's really in charge.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this episode about a passage from PURGATORIO which is perhaps the crystallization of Dante's technique: misdirection as ultimately the way forward.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:27] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, lines 76 - 96. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:14] Dante the pilgrim restates Virgil's argument about the sun's position. Except the pilgrim changes the argument a bit.[06:41] Is there irony here? Dante the pilgrim is better able to explain the sun's position with a more straightforward restatement of the "science."[08:16] Dante the pilgrim then shifts the discussion from astronomy to geography. Virgil, then, does him one better and shifts the discussion of geography to morality.[11:21] Why does Virgil shift the discussion to moral allegory? Because of his wisdom? Or because of his limits?[13:36] Virgil is forced to admit his ignorance and so takes another drubbing in a string of them in the early cantos of PURGATORIO.[16:23] Rereading the entire sequence on the first small ledge of Mount Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, lines 52 - 96.

Virgil and Dante the pilgrim have completed their first major, breath-taking climb on Mount Purgatory. They hang out for a bit on a ledge for a little rest. In truth, there's no rest with all these mental gymnastics!Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this passage. Dante notices that the sun is shining on the "wrong" side of him and Virgil explains (or imagines or "rationalizes") the sun's position in the southern hemisphere, based on the intricate workings of a geocentric universe.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:50] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, lines 52 - 75. If you'd like to read along, print it off, make notes, or drop a comment to me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:53] How ironic that a passage with so many mental gymnastics is supposed to be restful![06:44] In the geocentric universe as Dante understands it, the sun's position is on an ellipse around the globe.[10:48] Virgil's explanation for the sun's position involves a complicated supposition about the sun's position later in the year, when the sun is in the constellation Gemini.[13:47] Dante's successful trek across the cosmos is in direct contrast to Phaeton's failed journey across the sky.[16:47] Let's begin a larger discussion of the Ptolemaic universe--particularly, the beginning of the cracks in that conception in the European late Middle Ages.