Walking With Dante

Dante and Virgil have to get out of the sixth evil pouch, the pocket of the hypocrites. And the only way out is up!Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we set out on this epic climb from the sixth of the malebolge in the giant landscape of fraud, the eighth circle of INFERNO. Virgil is a sure guide. But it's all Dante's effort. And that might say more about COMEDY than we first imagine.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:48] My English translation of this passage: Inferno, Canto XXIV, lines 22 - 45. If you'd like to read along, you can find my translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:39] A couple of translation issues: an aphorism and an image.[07:33] The climb out of the sixth evil pouch is because of a "felix culpa," a fortunate fall: the ruins of hell are the way of the sixth of the malebolge.[09:58] Virgil may exhibit the four cardinal virtues in this passage. What can we make of that?[12:48] More corporeal problems with Virgil.[17:28] Compare this climb out of the sixth of the malebolge with the climb out of the third evil pouch in Canto XIX.[22:36] The passage is full of enjambment, a moment of poetic freedom.

Poor Virgil, put in his place over and over again, ever since the fourth of the malebolge, the evil pouch of the fortune tellers, when he had to rewrite his own epic, THE AENEID. Four cantos of humiliation!He's now had his final humiliation (for now) as he's learned that he shouldn't have ever trusted those demons. But the journey must go on! How? In those dear footprints we saw at the end of Canto XXIII, of course.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin to figure out way out of the sixth of the evil pouches, the pouch of hypocrisy in the big eighth circle of fraud; and as we make our way to the astonishing landscape of the seventh pouch. We start out in the strangest way: with a gorgeous bit of lyric poetry.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:20] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXIV, lines 1 - 21. If you'd like to read along, you can find my translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:34] The sheer beauty of this passage: its structure, rhythm, and classical allusions.[13:20] The peasant-shepherd who comes out of his hovel? Who exactly is he?[14:44] The first answer is easy. The shepherd is Dante. Or is he?[19:32] Who else is this shepherd? Jesus? God? Virgil?[21:48] Although the peasant doesn't have much to steal, others have a lot--namely, Virgil and Ovid.[23:03] Three possible interpretations--two common in commentary and the last my own--of this opening passage from Inferno, Canto XXIV.

Hi, I'm Mark Scarbrough and this is the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. In most episodes of this podcast, we slow-walk passage by passage through Dante's masterwork, COMEDY. But this is an interpolated episode, brought about because of several conversations I've had online with people recently.The question is this: How can I, an atheist, read Dante's COMEDY? I thought I'd answer that problem as well as I can.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast:[01:24] My backstory with Christianity.[03:20] Inferno is the easy part![05:01] All art exists in a frame--and you cannot get rid of the frame without ruining the art.[10:31] I don't have to save Dante from Christianity.[14:11] The Comedy is not a mirror to see myself better.

We come to the end of Canto XXIII and the sixth of the evil pouches, the malebolge, that make up the subsets of fraud in the eighth circle of INFERNO. Virgil has already seen something that has left him gawking, maybe even a representation of his own fate.But Virgil's humiliations aren't over. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the final moments among the hypocrites in hell. There's more to come as the old poet realizes that he's been tricked, that he's been lied to, and that his overconfidence almost got the pilgrim Dante into real trouble.How can Dante (the poet AND the pilgrim) redeem his relationship with Virgil?Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:46] My English translation of this passage: Inferno, Canto XXIII, lines 127 - 148. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:55] How exactly is Caiaphas a hypocrite?[08:08] At last, the revelation that Evil Tail (Malecoda) lied to Virgil, who'd trusted the demon. There are no bridges that span the sixth of the malebolge (the evil pouches) of fraud in the eighth circle of hell.[16:14] The nasty reply of the hypocrite, who uses a sacred text to needle Virgil.[20:31] Structural concerns in Canto XXIII--that is, the canto works both linearly and geometrically.[24:23] The problem of Virgil's footprints--in other words, is Virgil corporeal? (That old question!)[26:03] How are Virgil's feet "dear" to our pilgrim and poet Dante?

We finally arrive at a moment that even our guide Virgil cannot believe.Why is he caught slack-jawed?The answer is more complicated than you might think.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we find that the sixth pit of the subsets of fraud is not just about friars walking around in gilded, leaden cloaks. Rather, it's also about the punishment of figures from the New Testament. In other words, we've come to the Jews.This one is a crazy passage with lots of knots. Let's undo them. Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:11] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXIII, lines 109 - 126. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:38] Hypocrisy is a deadly sin, not a minor one.[05:45] Dante's interrupted invective--that is, the misdirection of this passage (and maybe this whole canto).[08:40] Who is crucified on the ground? Caiaphas, the high priest who spoke the truth in the Gospel of St. John without knowing he did.[14:03] Structural concerns in the passage--that is, doubling, here and throughout Canto XXIII.[16:41] A few words about antisemitism in COMEDY.[19:58] Virgil gawks--but why? Three reasons without a definitive conclusion.

Dante, our pilgrim, has slowed down to talk to two of the hypocrites, who are walking along in their gilded lead capes. But he gets more than he bargained for. He meets some guys who caused much of the chaos in Florence that ruined our poet's life.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk with our pilgrim through the rings of hell. We've come to a new place, the "collegio" of the hypocrites, but with the on-going theme: the insane tribalism that destroyed Florence.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:30] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXIII, lines 82 - 108. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com. [03:52] The characterization of the two hypocrites--that is, their double-sided nature on a straitened (or narrowed) path.[11:39] Dante-the-pilgrim's cagey reply to their questions.[13:55] The out-of-balance scales that represent hypocrisy.[16:22] Catalano and Loderingo, two guys right out of Dante's own past and Florence's nightmarish violence.

Dante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, have come down to the bottom of the sixth evil pouch to escape the demons from the fifth. Here, they find a group of guys in cowls or capes that look sort of like the ones from the abbey at Cluny but that are in fact made out of gilded lead.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we settle into the bottom of the sixth of the malebolge of fraud in the eighth circle of hell. Dante and Virgil are about to find out that fraud is about more than just tricking people. It's about killing them, too.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:18] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXIII, lines 58 -81. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:56] The first descriptions of the hypocrites: the quiet, the procession, the cloaks, Cluny, and Frederick II, all bound up in a few lines. It's quintessential Dante![13:18] COMEDY is as much a work of assembly as it is of coherence. It's important to keep that fact in mind.[15:48] How does the punishment of hypocrisy fit the crime?[20:14] The end of this passage: a possible slam at Virgil, then one of the hypocrites finally speaks.[24:15] The on-going question of the thematics of circularity in the sins of fraud.

We've been through the circle of barratry, of political grift--and now it's time to look back over this vast landscape of text in Dante's INFERNO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I read the entire passage: from Inferno, Canto XXI, line 1 all the way through Canto XXIII, line 57.This is my translation. You can find it in bits and pieces on my website, markscarbough.com. But I'd rather you just sit back and listen to the story. You'll hear Dante's narrative craft and feel his art at work in his text.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:06] My reading the full passage of the fifth evil pouch, the fifth of the malebolge, in the eighth circle of hell, the circle of INFERNO's fraud: Canto XXI, line 1, through Canto XXIII, line 57.[19:26] Can you feel the narrative arc?[20:49] Some thoughts. First, the larger story goes over the canto breaks.[21:19] Second, the arc moves from what's left out of COMEDY to the literary analysis of other texts.[22:16] Third, there are long similes that start and end this sequence--and most of those similes are very downscale, very homey, even folkloric.[24:03] Fourth, at the front of the sequence, Virgil alerts Dante the pilgrim to the danger. At the end, Dante alerts Virgil.[25:03] Fifth, the demons' wings are open at the beginning and ending of the sequence.[25:25] Sixth, everyone is at one point or another made into a fool--or perhaps, a mark.[27:35] Seventh, the characters in the sequence of barratry all have clear motivations--which are actually (or providentially?) fulfilled.[29:51] Dante the pilgrim is changing--and Dante the poet hopes you are, too.

Dante the pilgrim and his guide Virgil appear to have escaped the nasty demons in the fifth pouch of fraud, down in the eighth circle of Inferno.But they'd better get a move on! The demons are coming fast! How do they know? Because Dante's read a lot.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as the sequences about barratry all come down to meta-literary fantasia on texts, reading, writing, and knowing the world around you. You knew fraud was about the writing of COMEDY. Here's proof!Here are the segments of the episode of this podcast of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:45] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXIII, lines 4 - 57. If you'd like to see this translation, check it out on my website, markscarbrough.com.[05:22] Aesop starts the passage--and turn this whole episode into a meta-literary fantasia based on the players in the fable.[14:21] Experiential truth is found in what you've read. And you read predicts what will happen to you![16:42] The pilgrim's interiority has been crafted by what he's read--which exhibits itself right in front of him in the physical world.[21:14] Virgil's reply indicates that your literary ancestors mold your thoughts into action.[25:25] Virgil as a (naked!) mother.[30:09] Apparently, literary texts don't create everything![32:20] Virgil and Dante the pilgrim escape without any need for deus ex machina.[35:07] The fifth evil pouch of barratry ends up being a meta-literary structure about the writing of COMEDY.

Our nameless grifter has proposed a game for the demons: Let's see how many more of my damned ilk I can call out of the boiling pitch for you to torment. The demons back off, he gets ready, and he leaps away to his safety. The demons then go nuts, while Dante, our pilgrim, and Virgil, his guide, sneak away.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this dramatic passage at the end of Inferno Canto XXII and as we move on into Canto XXIII.We are still among the barrators, the political grifters, those on the take with their hands out for bribes. But nothing's as it seems in Dante's COMEDY. This passage of INFERNO is full of inversions, including perhaps the greatest inversion of them all: a meta-literary inversion as Canto XXII flips all of COMEDY on its head.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:40] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXII, Line 118 through Canto XXIII, Line 3. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:46] The many inversions inside this passage.[15:54] The dominant imagery in this passage--and the way imagery degrades and then is regenerated over the course of COMEDY.[22:29] The passage starts out with an address to the reader: You're going to hear a new game. But what game?[27:41] Dante and Virgil escape--under a full tonal shift in the passage.

Our nameless barrator has a plan for escape. He's been maimed by the demons but he's not finished yet!Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we settle into high-stakes gamesmanship in the fifth of the malebolge (or "evil pouches) in the huge landscape of the eighth circle of INFERNO, the hell of fraud. Things are getting tricky. For this political grifter. For Dante and Virgil. For the demons. And even for the reader.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:44] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XXII, lines 94 - 117. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:44] The vulgarity of demons.[05:33] Clearly, Dante speaks a Tuscan dialect--and Virgil, a Lombardy dialect![08:54] Our nameless grifter tells the truth so he can tell a lie (or play a trick).[11:22] "Vendetta"--a big word in the passage because a big word throughout INFERNO.[12:32] The doubts and overconfidence of the demons--which are like the doubts and overconfidence of Dante-the-pilgrim and Virgil in Canto XXI. Inversions and parallels galore![17:48] Dante-the-poet uses dramatic irony--to good effect or poor effect?

Our nameless barrator has been ripped open--but he's still able to do what grifters do best: sell out his fellow grifters.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at a passage from the fifth of the malebolge, the evil pouches, that make up the eighth circle of fraud in INFERNO. We're among the political grifters--and this one, forked up by the demons, is a particularly oily fellow.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:33] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXII, lines 76 - 93. If you'd like to see this passage, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:14] More about how to be a good grifter (stay anonymous!) and possibly the most horrifying line of INFERNO so far.[06:00] Friar Gomita and the possible history of this figure our barrator names.[09:21] Two things of interest in our grifter's speech: 1) he names a member of the clergy among what we might consider a secular sin and 2) behind this story lies Nino Visconti, a figure we'll meet in Purgatorio.[14:41] This passage is full of inversions--and in fact, the whole of the fifth evil pouch is full of inversions.[19:03] The second named barrator: Don Michael Zanke, a shadowy figure without a lot of real history behind him.[21:51] This entire passage looks ahead to Canto XXXIII of INFERNO--which might offer us a clue about Dante's writerly technique.[25:27] The wily fear of our nameless barrator.

Mange-Dog has pulled a political grifter up onto the shore of the boiling pitch and the demons are about to let him have it. But not before Virgil, prompted by our pilgrim Dante, asks him a few questions.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this incredibly violent passage from the fifth of the malebolge, the evil pouches, that make up the eighth circle of fraud in INFERNO. Things are about to get dire and horrific. But what do you expect when you take up with a pack of demons?Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:45] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXII, lines 40 - 75. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:45] Dante-the-pilgrim's place in this passage of escalating violence. Curiosity should be greater than fear. That's the writerly stance.[09:22] Virgil's place in this passage: a largely ineffectual guide.[12:02] The sinner pulled out of the boiling pitch--aka, the nameless barrator in this passage. Maybe it's important that he remain nameless.[20:31] The demons in this passage. Their names are an act of translation even for medieval Florentine readers.[23:41] Virgil's use of the word "Latino"--that is, "Italian." He's talking about a geographical marker, not a political one. Or is he?[26:25] How can we explain the escalating violence in this passage? I offer four answers without coming to any conclusions.

Dante, our pilgrim, and Virgil, his guide, have fallen in with a pack of nasty demons who are on the prowl for any barrators who stick up from the boiling pitch in the fifth evil pouch in the circle of fraud.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we get super literary with this rather simple passage and begin to try to answer the most pressing question for Dante: how do you make your fraudulent story seem real?Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:08] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXI, lines 13 - 39. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:42] How do you "read" (in the literary sense--that is, "interpret") these cantos with the barrators, the political grifters? I have three suggestions: 1) as a comic interlude in INFERNO, 2) as one of many genres the poet plays with during the course of INFERNO, or 3) as a pressing moment in which Dante's fraudulent poetics come into contact with his real life journey in exile.[14:16] How does Dante the poet establish verisimilitude (that is, the appearance of being real or true) in this fifth pouch of the malebolge? 1) With natural imagery. 2) With folksy colloquialisms. 3) With personal details of his real life. And 4) through the self-conscious admission of the act of writing the artifice of poetry.

Evil Tail has mustered his regiment of insane demons. They're ready to start out, leading our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide, Virgil, along the cliff to the next available bridge.Yet our pilgrim has some quibbles. As well he should have. And Virgil is confident. As well he should be. And the whole thing collapses into irony along with the most adolescent humor in COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as COMEDY goes as low as it can in this episode from the fifth of the malebolge, the pit of the political grifters in the eighth circle of hell, the rings of fraud.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:13] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XXI, line 127 through Canto XXII, line 12. If you'd like to read long, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:37] Who knows more about demons, a pagan poet or a Christian pilgrim? The answer is not as easy as you might think.[10:36] The low point of comedy (and of COMEDY): complete vulgarity.[12:04] The mock simile about knights and raiding parties and ships setting sail that begins Canto XXII.[17:07] The mock simile that opens Canto XXII v. the very serious simile that opens this whole episode in Canto XXI.

Dante, our pilgrim, and his guide, Virgil, have been stopped in their tracks by a pack of demons above the fifth evil pouch in the eighth circle of hell. We're in the rings of fraud, the largest landscape in Inferno. And we're standing over the political grifters who are sunk in boiling pitch. The damned sure have it bad. Maybe Virgil and Dante, too.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as one of the demons, Evil Tail, steps out and musters his troops to lead our duo along a cliff until they can find a bridge to cross over the sixth of the malebolge.Would you follow a pack of demons? Especially with names like these?Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:35] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXI, lines 103 - 126. You can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:40] Some notes about translation problems in this passage and even throughout COMEDY. And my confession: translation is (always?) an act of interpretation.[07:08] The opening nine lines in this passage from INFERNO. Warning bells should be sounding in your brain![10:44] The problems of translating "Tussle-Head" (or "Scarmiglione").[12:25] The very accurate dating of this moment in the passage lends veracity to Evil Tail's lie. (It also lends veracity to Dante's lie . . . you know, the poem as a whole).[21:09] The squadron of ten demons--and much about how their names do (or don't) translate from the medieval Florentine. Maybe these translation problems are intentional.

Hi there. I'm Mark Scarbrough and this episode is one of the interpolated ones for the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. I'd like to pause in Inferno, Canto XXI, before we move on to its end and into Canto XXII to talk about demons in Dante's INFERNO: who they are, why they are, and how they function.No passage from COMEDY in this episode. Just a little to give you some background about Dante's demons because they're becoming more and more prominent in the plot.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:50] The medieval debates about demons. Tormentors or tempters? And corporeal or not?[03:45] Two sorts of demons in Dante's day: theological and folkloric.[06:29] More about folkloric demons.[08:54] The origins of Satan. And while we're at it, where is he?[10:54] The two Florentine words Dante uses: demonio and diavolo. Are they interchangeable? Maybe not.[13:20] Were the pagan gods demons? Maybe not for Dante.

We've seen seen one demon running along the bank. Now here comes a pack of them! They boil out at Virgil who is ready for them with lofty rhetoric and misplaced trust. And even a little contempt for the pilgrim Dante.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk through this incredibly dramatic passage from the fifth of the evil pouches (or malebolge) in the eighth circle of INFERNO with its many rings of fraud, this most human sin. There's a lot of low comedy, high rhetoric, and even some of Dante's own autobiography here. In other words, it's classic INFERNO.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:48] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XXI, lines 64 - 102. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:50] Notes on the crazy, strong, focused drama in this scene.[08:38] The demon Evil Tail's rather low speech v. Virgil's high, learned, rhetorically-compacted speech.[12:05] Is this a moment of the demon's cunning strategy (to make Virgil think the bad guy has let down his guard) or is it a moment of very low comedy from the poet Dante?[14:04] Virgil calls out the pilgrim--and is quite hard on him![17:25] A bit of Dante-the-poet's autobiography slipped into the passage--but with an ironic twist. In the middle of a very dramatic scene, the personal invades COMEDY. As it almost always does in INFERNO.[22:49] A possible vulgar joke to finish off the passage.

The demon has thrown this sinner into the pitch, headed off to collect more in Lucca, and caused the whole horde of demons under the bridge to start their low-comedy, high-violence act.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore more of Canto XXI, more from the fifth evil pouch in the eighth circle of fraud, the longest and more complex part of INFERNO. We're among the the sinners on the political take. We've got a proletarian idyll for a contrast and maybe even some Augustinian allegory in tow. It's a lot for a crazy passage. But this is Dante, after all.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:25] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXI, lines 46 - 63. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:01] There's a lingering question left over from the last passage: Whatever happened to Minos and his tail?[04:39] How do you make blasphemy funny? A look at the first nine lines of this passage.[12:50] Chef's and their kitchen help: Dante's explanation for what the demons do to the damned in the pitch. It's 1) more food metaphor and 2) more proletarian idyll.[14:52] A detour to Saint Augustine and a question of the allegory of boiling pitch.[17:06] Virgil's confidence. Because he's passed by here before on his mission for Erichtho? Or because he and the pilgrim have faced this sort of thing already in front of the walls of Dis?[21:36] A moment when we can step away from Virgil as symbol, Virgil as allegory, Virgil as literary device, and simply see Virgil as the human character Dante the poet is crafting.

Dante the poet has gotten caught up in his own simile, which is long, complicated, and unwieldy, enough so that it brings the plot to a standstill.But Virgil to the rescue! The classical poet gets us back to the plot. And what a plot it is! Here comes the first old-school demon we've fully seen, the old medieval morality play demon, the one that's probably lurking under your bed. He's got a grifter by the hoof and he's going up to Lucca back for more.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the fifth evil pouch (among the "malebolge") in the eighth circle of fraud, here in Canto XXI of INFERNO. It's fun, maybe funny, and stuffed with Dante's brilliant craft and personal history.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:43] My English translation of this passage. If you'd like to read along, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:44] Virgil calls out "watch out!" Is it an actual warning? Or a literary one? Maybe both, because Virgil gets the plot moving again.[06:07] A little about Dante-the-pilgrim's fear in these episodes from the fifth evil pouch. This podcast segment is just an introduction to a much larger problem. Why is our pilgrim so afraid when he knows his journey is willed by Beatrice and those above her in heaven?[08:17] The black demon appears! There may be autobiographical details here because Dante-the-poet was exiled for, yep, barratry.[13:58] A who's who in the demon's speech: the Malebrance, Saint Zita, the unnamed sinner held by the tendon, and this Luccan boss Bonturo.

WALKING WITH DANTE has been on a holiday hiatus. Now we're back at it, descending to Canto XXI of INFERNO, to the next malebolge, the fifth evil pouch among the sins of fraud.The opening of Canto XXI is as self-conscious as most of these in the sub-circles of fraud. This time, however, the poet names his work (for the second and last time), turns super coy, and offers a lot of metaphoric blather that seems to bring the (comedic?) plot of a standstill.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this wild and woolly opening bit about the first glimpses of the fifth pouch of fraud, complete with one of the ganglier similes in INFERNO.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:08] The passage itself in my English translation: Inferno, Canto XXI, lines 1 - 21. If you'd like to see this passage, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:04] From bridge to bridge, not ridge to ridge. The circles of fraud are moving from metaphor to realism, from geology to architecture.[06:15] Naming the poem again: COMEDY. That is, in contrast to Virgil's last statement about his own poem, a "high tragedy." You know, the one he corrected when he called himself untrustworthy in Canto XX.[08:15] The early commentators were very uncomfortable with the title of Dante's poem. Here’s why? And hey, it's a discomfort we share![13:58] The opening lines of the canto imply a silence or a gap, something we readers can’t know. What’s going on?[16:32] The fifth evil pouch is dark, unlike the fourth (apparently).[18:04] Part one on the simile about Venetian ship-building. Is it unhinged? Maybe. Tautological? Definitely. A = A. Is that even a simile?[22:16] Part two on the simile about Venetian ship-builing. The sin punished in this pouch is barratry (aka graft), but this simile is a proletarian idyll about a properly organized city.[26:15] The simile finishes up at the place where the plot was when it started twelve lines ago. What’s more, it brings the plot to a dead halt. So much for the fireworks of poetics!

We come to the end of the fourth evil pouch, the fourth of the malebolge, in the eighth circle of Inferno, the circle of fraud. And we go out with a bang!Dante disses Virgil (who has already dissed Dante). Virgil rewrites yet one more classical story. We get a load of contemporary, sad-sack fortunetellers. And then Dante quotes himself to let us know that every text can be broken, even his own.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, in the literary fun and games that mark the end of Canto XX of Inferno.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage. If you'd like to read along, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the header tab for Walking With Dante.[03:26] The pilgrim's final bit of snark toward Virgil (in this canto).[06:07] More sinners in the pouch: Eurypylus (along with one more rewriting of a classical figure) and Michael Scot (who only helped cause the Renaissance).[07:42] Virgil defines his own work (the one that could be considered fraudulent in the logic of Canto XX) as "high tragedy."[10:39] Other more sad-sack sinners in the pouch: the run-of-the-mill charlatans.[15:32] Virgil's last bit of astrological knowledge--because how else would you end a canto about soothsaying?[18:45] And the last word, which is the very one Dante has already proscribed.

Virgil--and/or Dante, our poet--has already rewritten Ovid, Statius, and Lucan's poems. Now in a bit of insane daring, Virgil takes on this own poem, THE AENEID. He retells the story of the founding of Mantua, rewriting the version he tells in his own poem inside of Dante's poem, and then daring us then to call his own poem fraudulent.This passage may be one of the most striking smacks against Virgil in COMEDY. But maybe it has to be so. Maybe writers have to decide that the texts of other writers are up for grabs. Maybe it's the only way you can write into the predictive space of storytelling and find your own voice to diagnose the human condition.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, in an exploration of the end of Virgil's longest speech in COMEDY and a bit of fresh air and open fields in a canticle about doom and suffering.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:13] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XX, lines 52 - 99. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[05:03] An overall impression of the passage: We've left hell and entered open, airy, beautiful, green space in the real world.[07:23] Virgil tells the story of the founding of his hometown, Mantua. Except it's not the same story he tells in THE AENEID. Here are some of the differences.[11:58] What's going on here? One interpretive possibility is that Dante the poet is trying to save Virgil, who was often seen a magician or a practitioner of the dark arts in medieval folklore.[13:30] Another interpretive possibility is that Dante the poet is smacking his master, Virgil, by forcing him to call THE AENEID fraudulent.[15:11] Maybe there's a third understanding of this passage: every writer has to figure out how to use the texts of the past and of his contemporaries to write what she or he wants to say about the human condition.[18:43] The emotional center of the passage: "beautiful Italy." Maybe there's a hope here expressed for a peaceful and even united Italy.[22:11] Which way are these sinners walking? Don't answer too quickly. It's more difficult a question than you might think.[25:51] There's a contemporary moment in the passage, a reference to the Guelph and Ghibelline struggles in Mantua. If "beautiful Italy" is the hope, the peninsula is still a bloodbath.

Our pilgrim Dante is crying at the distorted forms coming along in the fourth evil pouch (one of the malebolge) of the eighth circle of INFERNO. Or maybe he's crying because he knows the future: Classical texts are about to get wrecked.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this difficult passage in which Virgil is super hard on Dante, the pilgrim, and then Virgil himself misquotes his classical sources to turn everything on its head. It's poet against poet, poetry against poetry, in a shattering irony that leaps up to the question of who is the ultimate fraudster among so many poets.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:32] My English translation of this passage: Inferno, Canto XX, lines 25 - 51. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:48] Virgil is unbelievably hard on our pilgrim, Dante. Why? And why is Dante crying?[08:09] We're at the start of the longest uninterrupted speech Virgil gives in COMEDY--all about Amphiaraus, Tiresias, and Aruns--or more likely, about Statius, Ovid, and Lucan, the poets who wrote about these figures.[14:49] Virgil may have cited these figures, but he's warped his classical sources. Here's how.[19:16] In my interpretation, it's important to remember that it is Virgil who is changing the classical references, as well as the poet Dante behind him. None of these three characters were fraudsters in the original sources. So who is the real fraudster here?

Canto XX of INFERNO is one that many skip. it's just too hard or too discursive or too long-winded. But others spend careers on. After Canto I, Canto XX stirs some of the most in-depth commentary of any in INFERNO.What gives? We should probably take our cue from our poet: we're about to enter the meta space of a canto about poetry, all among the fraudsters, with Dante and even Virgil out in front, leading the way.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our exploration of Inferno's Canto XX, this deep pit of metapoetics and savage irony.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:49] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XX, lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along, you can find these on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:16] The damned arrive at line 7 of the canto. They're the fortune tellers, the soothsayers. We don't know that except we have to know it to understand the emotional landscape of the lines. Which means we, too, have to be prognosticators.[08:16] A discussion of contrapasso--that is, the punishment fits the crime. And my thesis that the notion of contrapasso develops over the course of writing INFERNO.[13:39] You know what soothsayers are: They're poets. Like Dante, whose poem is one big future-telling event.[15:02] The poet may tip his hat to us in the final lines of the passage: don't believe what I say; just focus on how I felt.[18:55] The opening lines of Canto XX. So self-conscious, so awkward that some have wanted to strike them from the text.[22:42] My overall thesis for this canto: It's about the problems with and craft of poetry, and the savage irony that metapoetics entail.

Inferno, Canto XIX, is one crazy canto, so gorgeously constructed, as thick as fine tapestry, woven with Biblical allusions, historical references, structural idiosyncrasies, and even one glaring fault.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I look back over Inferno, Canto XIX, one of the finest Dante wrote for this part of Comedy. I'll offer some general assessments, goad you on to think more deeply about the canto, and even raise one ethical question about its overall thinking.These are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:51] A reading of all of Inferno, Canto XIX. No text here. Just sit back and listen to it.[09:51] The first question: Is the third evil pouch of the 8th circle of hell only filled with popes? The answer is a little harder than you might expect.[12:20] How many popes are or will be in hell? Four by my count. But more perhaps. And the real question is this: How many clerics are in hell? Countless hordes.[15:26] The savage irony of Canto XIX--which then reveals to us its structural complexities, its engineering feat.[19:35] The linguistic range of Canto XIX: from the common, simple speech to the heights of allegorical language and back down to the depths of vulgarity.[20:35] The direct address to Constantine the Great that ends the rant to end all rants. What does that direct address do for the passage?[23:31] Questions about the "horizontal" (that is, linear) and "vertical" (that is, revisionary) strategies of Inferno.[27:13] A larger ethical question that arises as you stand back from Canto XIX: Just how much does apocalyptic thinking distort clear thinking?

Our pilgrim, Dante, has finished his righteous rant. And after rage comes Virgil. More importantly, Virgil's embrace.The pilgrim ends the canto in the arms of his poetic master. A curious ending to a curious canto.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish off Inferno, Canto XIX, ready to move on with the next steps of our pilgrim.Here are the segments of this podcast episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 118 - 133. If you'd like to read along, check out this passage on my website: markscarbrough.com.[02:39] The rant is surrounded by words about music--and thus, about poetry. What does that tell us about Dante-the-poet's attitude toward this passage?[06:24] Why is Virgil so pleased with Dante? Because Comedy completes the work of The Aeneid.[11:42] One last passing slap at the popes in hell: "goats."

Our pilgrim, Dante, has been talking to Pope Nicholas III, stuck upside-down in a hole in the third evil pocket of the eighth circle of Inferno, the vast landscape of the fraudulent. He's learned that Nicholas III was a master of nepotism and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of other popes, even ones from Avignon.And our pilgrim can take it no more! Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the longest speech from our pilgrim yet, a diatribe about church corruption that sees the end of the world in the offing. The popes go whoring and the world just might go smash.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:45] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XIX, lines 88 - 117. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:44] Some introductory remarks about this podcast episode.[05:15] The Biblical references in the pilgrim Dante's rant: the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16: 13 - 20), the apostles' choosing Matthias after Judas Iscariot dies (The Acts Of The Apostles 1: 21 - 26), and the whore of Babylon (The Apocalypse of St. John [aka "Revelations"] 17: 1 - 5).[16:38] The historical references in the rant: Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily and Naples; and Emperor Constantine The Great with his infamous "donation."[24:23] The thematic echoes in the rant: back to the fourth circle of avarice in INFERNO, Canto VII; and even further back to the question of "folly" from INFERNO, Canto II.[30:37] The folly of the rant: There are all sorts of garbled bits in this passage, including corrupted passages from the Bible's New Testament. Is this the folly of the pilgrim or of the poet?[34:17] Reading the passage one more time, now that you know the details.

In this passage, we get a clearer picture of the guy stuck upside-down in this hole in the third evil pouch, the third of the malebolge, in the eighth circle of Inferno, stuffed with the fraudsters. It's Pope Nicholas III.But I also want to explore my unspoken assumptions about the poem that COMEDY breaks in this passage.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we talk through a particularly fraught bit of INFERNO, one that seems to argue for a different dating of Dante's writing of COMEDY and helps us better understand the poem's construction, all while damning popes to hell. In other words, there's a lot to unpack!Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:22] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XIX, lines 64 - 87. If you'd like to see this passage, you can find it under the "Walking With Dante" header on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:09] The revelation of Pope Nicholas III in the hole--and a curious little problem without a good answer: How does Nicholas know our pilgrim (and his guide) have come down the slope to learn his name?[06:17] Who was Pope Nicholas III? And why is Dante is harshest critic?[10:16] The sin of this pouch is finally named: simony.[12:50] The problem of the math in the passage. How many years does a pope's feet get cooked?[14:25] A third pope is on the way: Clement V, the guy who took the papacy to Avignon.[16:46] Unpacking a difficult passage based on the story in II Maccabees 4: 7 - 26.[18:46] How my unspoken and even unconsidered assumptions about COMEDY got broken.

Now we come to it: the daring part, the audacious part, and (dare we say it?) the funny part.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we stand with our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide, Virgil, on the floor of the third evil pouch, the third of the malebolge, in the eighth circle of Inferno with its many rings of fraud.We know we're in for a condemnation of the church. But nothing could prepare the reader--or the pilgrim!--for the notion that a Holy Father can end up in hell.What a passage this is, full of interiority and bravado, all woven in a fine tapestry with ever so many threads!Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:14] My English translation of this passage: Inferno, Canto XIX, lines 46 - 63. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation under the "Walking With Dante" header on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:09] The first address to the damned soul upside down in the hole. He's still an unknown figure--and it's important that we keep him that way.[05:52] But he does mention Pope Boniface VIII. In fact, he's expecting his arrival. Who was Boniface VIII. A historical summary.[12:59] Dante the pilgrim acts as the confessor--which indicates lay authority, the very thing Boniface VIII was so intent on stamping out.[15:33] Don't miss the humor in this passage! And don't miss its audacity.[21:22] Here's how tightly constructed this passage is: more Ovid, more metamorphoses, a reference to the opening allusion in Canto XIX, and a reference back to the sexual sins of Canto XVIII, all woven together in a few lines.[23:21] A moment of the pilgrim's interiority.[27:28] Virgil to the rescue! (Along with some savage irony tucked into the lines.) Why does Virgil need to rescue our pilgrim at this moment?

Dante the pilgrim and Virgil, his guide, have been walking along the ridge line of the eighth circle of Inferno. But Dante wants a closer look at the figures kicking their thighs and feet out of the holes in the ground in the third evil pouch. So down they go! Except Virgil the shade carries our corporeal pilgrim. And perhaps even more is afoot in the poetics.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore some problems in this rather "simple" narrative passage from COMEDY. But you know Dante. Nothing's as simple as it seems. Even this passage brings up larger questions about Dante's poetics and the problems of biting the hand that (at least indirectly) feeds you: the church.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:31] My English translation of this passage: Inferno, Canto XIX, lines 31 - 45. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:00] A packed segment: the colors of hell, the metaphoric space's fusion with the narrative space in the best of Dante's poetics, and questions about the geography of the eighth circle of hell, the circle of fraud.[10:46] The pilgrim and his guide are so simpatico! What's up?[12:08] The first descent into one of the evil pouches.[14:01] Virgil carries Dante the pilgrim down. Yes, the corporeal v. incorporeal problem we've been over before. But maybe there's more to this passage. Maybe Virgil carries Dante the poet down.[19:18] A speculative question for Canto XIX: Why does Dante need to descend into this pouch, since he doesn't go down into the first two pouches we've encountered? What calls Dante to this pouch?

We've come to one of the most difficult cruxes in all of INFERNO: a passage that's loaded with Christian symbolism but that also includes a bit of biographical detail on Dante, the historical figure.That biographical detail remains the subject of much curiosity! Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this difficult but ultimately rewarding passage: a condemnation of churchly corruption and a revelation of Dante's personal life, all bound up in the eighth circle of hell with the sins of fraud until the whole thing becomes a tour de force of meta-reality.Here are the segments for this episode:[01:00] My English translation of this passage. If you'd like to read along, you can find it under the header for this podcast on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:38] What's up with the "livid stones"? For one thing, Jesus. He founded his church on the rock of Peter's faith: "Upon this rock will I build my church." But these rocks aren't as firm, to say the least.[05:47] A curious bit of Dante's biography, inserted into this passage. What's going on here? Let's look back at the commentary's answer and also explore a relatively new interpretation of this strange passage.[11:38] Is the guy Dante saves drowning or suffocating? It all comes down to translation problems in this passage which only muddy it further.[15:30] Why is this biographical detail here?[17:21] What exactly is the poet's "seal"?[21:07] The emotional center of this curious passage: "my beautiful San Giovanni."[22:58] The feet and thighs of these sinners are visible, but not their buttocks. That may be an important detail.[25:38] A fusion of Christian images: Pentecost and the anointing with oil that happens at ordination.[28:08] Inversion is a crucial motif for Inferno, Canto XIX as a whole.

It's almost mind-boggling to see the difference between INFERNO, Canto XVIII, and INFERNO, Canto XIX.Canto XIX opens with a proem: a prefatory poem, to set up the action ahead. It's dense with Biblical, folkloric, and classical allusions. It also includes not one but two direct addresses: first to Simon Magus, a figure from both the New Testament and folklore; and second to "highest wisdom," a nearer approach to addressing God.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I begin to wrestle with one of the most complicated cantos in INFERNO: the denunciation of the church by its supreme follower, Dante.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:39] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XIX, lines 1 - 12 (as well as a little bit from the end of Canto XVIII). If you'd like to read along with this translation, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:38] The opening apostrophe (or direct address) to Simon Magus. No other canto in INFERNO opens as XIX does.[04:53] Who is Simon Magus? Let's explore both his place in the New Testament and in an apocryphal book about Saint Peter that had become a part of medieval folklore in Dante's day.[08:37] Metamorphosis! Turning the things of God into gold and silver. We're continuing the "Ovid" themes of the eighth circle of fraud. And we can see that the pimps, seducers, flatterers, and prostitutes of Canto XVIII are still with us.[11:52] A bit about the trumpet that sounds in the passage. It heralds the apocalypse--just as it has done before, back in Canto VI.[14:31] A narrative insertion of one tercet (three-line stanza) in the middle of all these direct addresses. Why is the "story" inserted briefly here?[16:12] The last tercet (three lines) of this passage is a second apostrophe (or direct address): but this time, not a denunciation, but a prayer.[18:19] Some historical background for this canto, including the problems that papal reform brought straight into the church.[22:49] Who says these lines? Is it the poet or the pilgrim? Or both, for perhaps the first time?

We've come to the back of INFERNO, Canto XVIII, to the two flatterers who live down in the pouch filled with the muck from human privies.Just as a warning: This passage is crude and crass. The language is vulgar, maybe even NSFW. Be careful.Dante, our pilgrim, and his guide, Virgil, have come to the top of the second bridge over the second of the "malebolge" (the "evil pouches") that make up the eighth circle of fraud. We've already seen that the place is disgusting. Now we're about to see that the sinners are even more so.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk through Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY. (And not "The Divine Comedy," particularly in this passage, which isn't very divine). Here are the segments of this episode of Walking With Dante:[01:24] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 115 - 134. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the header about the blog for WALKING WITH DANTE.[03:21] Dante and Alessio in the pouch of the flatterers: thoughts on the pilgrim's becoming a better observer just as we are becoming better readers, and on the question of whether Alessio Interminei's historical obscurity is intentional in the passage.[10:51] Virgil and Thais: thoughts on the curious lack of women in INFERNO.[18:00] Dante the poet garbles the poetic reference to Thais in this passage. Is doing so intentional? Or is this a matter that our "divine" poet is actually fallible like the rest of us?[22:48] Canto XVIII is architectural, in the same way that all of the eighth circle of hell is architectural. I'll admit: this I find intentional. Here's a bit on why.

Inferno is getting grosser. Coarser. And maybe more human?We're getting ready to cross over the second of the evil pouches of fraud in the eighth circle of hell.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a short episode of WALKING WITH DANTE as we explore the brief opening description about this second pouch of fraud and ask a couple of speculative questions that lie around and even under this passage.Here are the segments of this podcast on INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 100 - 114:[01:08] My English translation of this passage. If you'd like to read along with INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 100 - 114, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:44] Dante and Virgil have become ridge runners. They're also in a more precarious place on these spiny ridges. Which may tell us something about the poetics as well. (You know how I love meta points!)[05:37] The language in the poem is coarsening dramatically. Why? I have several possible answers.[11:37] The first of two speculative bits for this podcast episode. Sometimes, it's necessary to say "no" to Dante, even to a poet of his stature.[14:23] Why are there two pouches in one canto (Canto XVIII)? I have several answers and I'll let you make your own decisions among the speculations.

We're about to climb up on a bridge and look down at the other sinners in the first of the evil pouches. These guys are going the other way--and they're not engaged in any metamorphosis.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we let Virgil show us Jason of the Argonauts. Jason is the prime example of seduction. Poor Hypsipyle. Poor Medea. Yet Virgil is still quite taken with this figure from mythology. Why?Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:55] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 67 - 99. If you'd like to see this translation, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:37] The spiny, rocky nature of the landscape of the eighth circle may show us something about the poetry: its bones are getting exposed, too.[10:06] Virgil's profound admiration of Jason.[14:05] More about Jason's rather foul character and his deceptions.[17:27] What are polished words worth? Maybe less than they used to be.[20:01] Jason's seductions and Medea's vendetta: the cycle of violence goes on.[21:54] "Deception" is a key word in the passage. And we end with the imagery of eating. It's all a neat package. Quite structural. Like bones.[22:57] A bit about the increasing notion of hell's circularity.

The first evil pouch. And a long podcast episode on WALKING WITH DANTE.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk along the rim of the first of the evil pouches in INFERNO's circle of fraud. Here, we'll see our first fraudster: a pimp.How's a pimp guilty of fraud and not lust or even avarice. Because of metamorphosis. Because he turns women into money.And a warning: the language is foul in this passage. Please be careful of kids or others who might be offended by it. Maybe you'll want to listen on your own later.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:34] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 66. If you'd like to read along, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the header for this podcast.[03:48] A little bit more about the size, scope, and even directionality of these evil pouches in the eighth circle of hell.[06:05] Why does our pilgrim halt--and even back up? (No full answers here--just a curious detail.)[08:05] This damned soul tries to his face from the pilgrim Dante, unlike all the souls we've encountered in the rings above. [09:13] Who is Venedico Caccianemico? And how can he be in hell is he's still alive up on earth?[12:39] Venedico is steeped in a "rank braise"? A little bit about the translation of what may be a few tough words in the Florentine.[15:33] The pilgrim's "plain speech" forces Venedico to speak. Intriguing, since Venedico uses such poetically gorgeous language to describe his own state of affairs.[20:46] WIth Venedico, we begin our tour of the towns of central Italy that will help structure the various pouches in the eighth circle.[22:34] Fraud is never far from money for Dante--and thus, turning women into money is the first metamorphosis in the eighth circle, a circle of hell full of changlings.[25:57] A speculative question: why in the end is this scene in COMEDY rather unsatisfactory?[30:16] A second speculative question: why if it doesn't really matter which sinners are first and which are second in this pit because the sins of the eighth circle are not ranked according to severity but by other means?

We're starting to walk along the first of the evil pouches with our pilgrim and his guide, Virgil. Down below, naked people are being whipped by horned demons. This is the hell we expected!Except maybe not. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explain some of the historical and cultural references in a passage that may have a garbled bit at its very core. Is that garbling intentional? We'll have to wait for later in the canto to decide.Here are the segments of this episode on Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 22 - 39 of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:51] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 22 - 39. If you want to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:18] A fine example of Dantean technique: seeding the passage with hints of things to bloom later on. Plus, historical resonances in this jammed pouch of the eighth circle of hell, as well as a possible garbling of the passage in terms of which direction who's walking at any given moment.[07:46] The demons appear! And they don't disappoint! They're also a complex parody of Paradise itself.[12:34] The historical analogy in the middle of the passage. It's about the Jubilee Year of plenary indulgences that Pope Boniface VIII called in 1300. But what's it doing here, in our first blush with fraud?

We've passed the midway point in INFERNO. Halfway done! Yet we only have two circles left. We're about to enter the biggest circle of them all, the one that takes up thirty-eight percent of the INFERNO: the circle of fraud.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk through Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY. We've come to the most modern of all the sins: fraud. A nasty bit of inhuman humanity. And perhaps Dante's greatest achievement in INFERNO. It's an imaginative expanse that puts to bed his forefather poets and establishes our poet as the writer in full control of this work.Oh, and there are some nasty, gross bits of hellish punishment, too.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:56] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 1 - 21. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the "Walking With Dante" header.[02:34] A bit about the name of the 8th circle: "malebolge" or "evil pouches." We haven't had a named circle until now, other than to call a circle by its sin. We didn't enter "weird worlds" when we came among the violent. But here, Dante coins a word to explain the 8th circle. "Pouches"--a word that connects us back to the money bags that the usurers wear around their necks.[04:09] Let's look back at Virgil's map of lower hell in Canto XI, particularly the bits about fraud starting at line 52. Virgil both predicts and fails to predict what we're about to encounter. But he does clue us in that it's a vast landscape with lots and lots of the damned.[08:12] The opening of Canto XVIII is clean, almost spare. It seems as if it's an "objective" viewpoint. Yet the poetry is also full of Latinate expressions and even some Latin itself. Dante is setting us up for what's to come: a strange mix of classical formalism and vulgar Florentine.[14:03] The 8th circle is actually an inverted (or perverted) castle. And it's a spiderweb when you look down on it, a notion Dante has set us up for by mentioning Arachne in the last canto.[18:00] Many critics are at some pains to describe this as a natural landscape. I think it's more worthwhile to see it as a constructed one.[21:07] The final tercet (or three lines): we're back in the plot! Which brings us to an interesting problem. Nine of the thirteen cantos of the 8th circle will begin with proems, prefatory poetry. Does that mean the poem as a whole is becoming more self-conscious? Or more fraudulent?

We've spent over forty (!) episodes of this podcast slow-walking through the seventh circle of INFERNO, among the sins of violence. We've been here a long time, to say the least. So I thought it would be crucial to look back at the sweep of the seventh circle--that is, INFERNO, Cantos XII through XVII.There's no specific passage for this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. Rather, I'd like to detail some of the structural and thematic unifying devices in the cantos. And I'd like to ask a two questions for which I have no answer.Here are the segments of this podcast episode on the Seventh Circle of INFERNO:[01:29] A look at a few of the structuring devices in Cantos XII through XVII--that is, some of the poetic ways Dante ties this long stretch into one unit, both astride beasts and the possibility of a Crete program in these cantos.[04:48] More structuring details: court life to start, followed by the ways the middle class can make money in the nascent days of liquid capital. The violent against others and against themselves are largely about courts; the violent against God are partly about how money is made or power is accumulated in this new world. In the middle, almost as a fulcrum, lies Capaneus, the mythic hero, stretched out on the burning sands.[07:03] The poet and the pilgrim are both becoming more assertive throughout these cantos.[08:36] The Seventh Circle starts with the Minotaur and perhaps should be seen as a series of labyrinths. [10:55] The Seventh Circle is controlled by Phlegethon--in other words, by flow.[12:58] One question for which I have no answer: Why does the Seventh Circle of INFERNO start with a slope and end with a cliff?[14:21] There are clearly two modes of writing INFERNO so far: the travelogue, a tour of sin; and the exploration of interiority, of personal space, found in the long sequences with some sinners. The Seventh Circle starts and ends with a travelogue, bits which bracket more intense psychological and sociological explorations.[16:52] A second question for which I have no answer: Does naming the work "COMEDY" in the circle of the violent do violence to the text the poet is writing?

We've come to the middle of INFERNO and the last bits of canto XVII. We've come to a tour de force of the imagination and a minor (foreshadowing?) comedic ending at the center of the hellish canticle.Dante's poetics have never been greater. At least, so far. Just wait until you see what's ahead. But let's stop and marvel at the medieval notion of flight on the back of the beast of fraud in a canto about those who sin against art. Could things get any more complicated?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:05] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVII, lines 100 - 134. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:29] How does Geryon fly? He swims.[06:36] Why is there a giant cliff between the 7th and 8th circles of hell, between the violent and the fraudulent? Is there a thematic, structural, or even psychological rationale for this cliff?[09:13] Phaeton and Icarus: two tragedies from classical literature (from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in fact), set down in the middle of COMEDY, in the middle of a passage in the center of INFERNO that has a comedic ending.[13:53] The imaginative tour de force of flight.[15:21] The falcon image in the passage. The last time we saw a falcon was at INFERNO, Canto III, at another border: where the damned rush into Charon's boat.[17:34] The many ways Geryon is described. Dante the poet seems to be pulling out all the poetic stops. Is he trying to keep from sinning against nature with this unnatural flight? Or is he winking at us from behind the text?[23:12] Don't give up on Virgil just yet! Our poet may believe he's moved beyond Virgil, but the classical poet still controls Geryon's flight.

Our pilgrim walks back from the usurers, sitting out on the edge of the seventh circle of INFERNO, and finds that he must climb aboard the awful beast of fraud. Drama!But there's so much more. This passage reveals our poet as a creator of modern narrative. And it shows us that he's taking full control of his poem. Virgil, be gone! Brunetto, too! This is Dante's work.Here are the segments of this episode:[01:12] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XVII, Lines 79 - 99. You can read along with this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:06] More about "back ends." And a forecast: the way down will involve the beasts of hell from now on.[05:38] Dante is afraid--but he was just so brave. What's up with the changed emotions?[08:27] The pilgrim's internal motivations are always the final stop in the narrative technique--just one of the ways our poet Dante is so modern.[10:03] On touching the beasts of hell![10:47] Why is the pilgrim so silent in Canto XVII of INFERNO?[12:43] More about the corporeality of the afterlife.[14:31] Virgil is both a representative of a class and himself. He's Virgil in his Virgilness. Another way that our poet anticipates the problems of modern narrative.[19:01] Finally, the beast is named! Geryon! Except that only makes things more confusing.

We've come to what Dantista Chivacci Leonardi calls "the most colorful" bits of Dante's INFERNO. We've come to the usurers, sitting on the brink of the seventh circle of violence, looking out over the eighth circle of fraud, the deeper parts of hell.This passage is stuffed with synecdoches. Let's talk about why that is and how the poetic bones of COMEDY itself are exposed.This passage is also often overlooked, a mere footnote, because of the beast of fraud that comes before it and after it and eats up so much attention.It's also over-interpreted. There's so much effort in the commentary to name each of these bankers sitting on the burning sands. But Dante goes to some length NOT to name them. Rather, the poet implicates the families, rather than the individuals. Why spend time and energy nailing down who these guys are when the poem goes to come lengths to tell you that they are stand-ins (or yes, synecdoches!) for their families?Here are the segments of this podcast episode for Inferno, Canto XVII, lines 46 - 78 on WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:19] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XVII, lines 46 - 78. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:22] The usurers sit on the edge of violence and look out over the expanse of the eighth circle, the one for the fraudulent--probably because charging interest on loaned money sits right in the ethical juncture between violence and fraud for Dante. And there's another curious bit that rings underneath this passage: Dante's own family may well have been money-lenders.[12:47] The colorful purses hung around each other their necks. Let's identify the families and talk about why we don't have to name the specific sinners.[19:00] Why is this passage so colorful?[20:45] Where are the Jews? Almost any medieval reference to money-lending would always involve some anti-Semitic snark. But these are "good" Christian families. Dante seems to shy away from anti-Semitism just when we'd expect it.[24:37] These bankers are the fulfillment of Dante's own prophecy back in Canto XVI where he decried the coming of new money into Florence.[25:45] A final bestial image in the passage: the sluggish and stupid ox.[27:26] More thoughts on synecdoche. First off, the rhetorical strategy fragments the world into pieces, just as violence and fraud do. But more than that, synecdoche is the rhetorical strategy for COMEDY as a whole.

The beast of fraud has breached. And Virgil's got some negotiating to do. So he sends Dante the pilgrim alone along the edge of the cliff to see the sinners sitting "over there."Wait! Classical poetry has to convince fraud to do something? How? And why does classical poetry suddenly tell the "modern" pilgrim to walk on by himself? And how come we can't hear those negotiations between Virgil and fraud?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this strange passage in what's often seen as a mere "waiting room" of a canto, a transitional space between the circles of hell, but which might well be more filled with meaning than so many have allowed it in the past.Here are the segments of this podcast episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:12] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XVII, Lines 28 - 45. If you want to read along, you can find this translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:29] Virgil and the pilgrim move on down, but do they turn to the right? I think so, but many big-time Dantistas think not. What would that right turn mean?[06:21] They take ten steps. Ten? Is that symbolic? Or does it tell us something about the growing sense of the poem's technique?[08:32] Lie--run--sit: the three positions of those in the third rung of the circle of violent, those violent against God. Those sitting are on the edge of violence, right at the lip of fraud--because their sin is a piece of both.[10:55] Virgil's conversation with the beast of fraud is dropped from the text. What's up with that?[13:37] Dante the pilgrim goes it alone along the edge. Surely, given all that's happened, there's a thematic value in this moment when our pilgrim sets out by himself to see some sinners.

Canto XVII of INFERNO is often seen as a transitional canto, the way we get from the seventh circle of the violent to the eighth circle of the fraudulent. But I don't think so. I think this is the canto in which our poet strikes out on his own to craft the work he needs to meet the terms of his own salvation.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we enter a canto full of poetic fireworks with perhaps the strangest beast in all of hell: the monster of fraud, so carefully described, so difficult to parse, so made up out of whole cloth.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XVII, lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the header about this podcast.[03:16] Two prefatory points: 1) We need to go back to Virgil's map of hell in Canto XI and 2) Canto XVII is in no way a transitional canto.[05:05] Canto XVI bleeds into Canto XVII. And something stranger, too: Dante swears on his COMEDY that he saw this monster and then Dante goes silent and Virgil takes over. Complex irony abounds![06:54] Behold the beast! It's a blasphemous perversion of "Behold the man."[08:32] Canto XVII is stuffed the synecdoches, the parts for the whole.[11:30] My quibble with the commentary tradition. Many connect this beast with a passage in the gospel of Matthew, warning against false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing. But there's no interior v. exterior debate here. The beast is fully visible as horrific.[14:41] The beast of fraud is painted--the same way the leopard was apparently painted and thereby connecting the two.[17:05] The sheer bulk of metaphors and similes in this canto: four right here. And all about the fusion of craft and deceit.[22:33] A side note: This is the passage in which Boccaccio dies while writing his commentary.[25:31] So much emphasis on the thing's tail. What's going on here? Maybe a thematic structuring of INFERNO and maybe a set-up for the sewer of the eighth canto that lies ahead.

And by "read," as in the way it's used in literary studies, I mean "interpret."We've come through some tough passages, so I thought it would be useful to lay my cards on the table. Or at least most of the trumps. I'll keep a few back for later.Through Instagram DMs and emails, I've had some amazing conversations about Inferno, Cantos XV and XVI. And I thought, well, I should just lay out these discussions because they lie at the heart of my obsession about poetics in Dante's COMEDY. In a nutshell, here's how I read COMEDY. At least at this moment. No guarantees I won't change my mind.There are no distinct parts of this podcast episode. Rather, it's a general discussion of my own idiosyncratic overview of COMEDY.

Well, we've come to it. The moment of truth. Or fraud. And what if they're the same thing? Or similar things?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a corker of a passage, the last bits of Canto XVI of INFERNO, in which our poet Dante steps out from behind the plot and swears on the fragments of his own text that he really did see a beast that no one has ever imagined in the depths of hell.Get ready for meta-poetry. Get ready for irony. Get ready for a complex stance of a writer taking charge of his own text. This passage has been lurking the wilds of the text for a while. And here it is. And here are the segments of this episode:[01:00] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVI, lines 124 - 136. If you want to find this passage and read along, it's on my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:34] To speak about lies before you name the work you're writing so that you can swear on the truth of your lie. Wow, complicated.[05:00] The poet steps out from behind the text and speaks directly to us: "I can't keep quiet." Were you trying to keep quiet? Has that been a problem?[06:40] What is "comedy" for Dante? A matter of style.[11:18] The figure swims up out of the murky air. "Una figura"--a very artistic word, which brings up the nature of the artistic process--as does the poet's use of the word "reader," indicating to us that he's writing a text to be read, not read aloud. Which means, yes, that the poem has become fully meta.[15:30] The figure becomes a simile before it becomes a beast. A curious turn of rhetorical events in the poem.[18:41] Why name the work here? What is the poet doing? Here are some answers given from the 1500s up to today.

Dante's COMEDY is about to shift gears. It's going to change its relationship to the poetry of the past. It's going to become more complicated in its symbolism (and yes, symbolism, not "just" allegory). And the pilgrim is going to begin to interact with the poet who is standing behind him.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this exploration of some of the next to the last passage in Inferno, Canto XVI. It's a corker in every sense of the word: difficult, challenging, fun, a great mind game all around.Here are the segments of this podcast episode:[01:10] The passage: Inferno, Canto XVI, Lines 106 - 123. As always, if you want to read along, you can find my English translation on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the header tab about this podcast.[02:28] Did you know Dante the pilgrim had a cord around his waist? Apparently! There's been some misinterpretation of this cord over the years. We'll delve into that. And here's a bonus question: since Virgil is going to throw this thing over the cliff, how big is it?[04:38] The leopard back in Canto I gets rewritten here at the end of Canto XVI. What is Dante up to?[08:57] Here, the leopard is said to have a "painted coat." Painted? That sounds like art.[10:12] The changing relationship between Dante the pilgrim and Virgil--that is, the changing notion of who provides the raw material and who straightens it out.[12:31] The pilgrim, the poet, and Virgil each speak a tercet, a three-line stanza. Their triangulation is becoming evident, even self-conscious.[16:01] What's imagined is going to appear in front of your face. Now there's a claim for poetry.

We're going to slow up even more and take one long look at a very complicated fifteen lines that include a twelve-line simile about the waterfall ahead of us.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk passage by passage through Dante's masterwork, COMEDY. We're in the seventh circle of Inferno, in the second rung (or almost the third rung) of that circle and we have come to a passage that downshifts the narrative and allows the poet more freedom to step out from behind the curtain of his creation.But to get that freedom, he first has to marshall his poetic tools with this tour-de-force simile.Here are the segments of this podcast episode:[01:39] The passage itself: Inferno, Canto XVI, lines 91 - 105. If you want to see my translation of this passage, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the blog header about this podcast, Walking With Dante.[03:27] A little bit about the geography mentioned in this simile--and why it's not all it's cracked up to be.[08:01] This is the longest simile we have yet to encounter in COMEDY. Why is that important? Because it's setting us up for the monster similes that dominate the eighth circle of hell. And it shouldn't surprise us that monster similes exist ahead of us--because we're about to enter the land of fraud. And what's more fraudulent that poetry?[12:09] The waterfall and similes about that waterfall are the structuring device of Canto XVI of Inferno.[13:39] The simile itself replicates the very waterfall it's trying to explain. This simile is a tumble of verbals, participles, and clauses, all coming together to create one big rush of language.[17:14] More about the geography here. The seventh circle opens at the top of the Italian peninsula and then comes toward its close with another reference to those Alpine regions. Dante is truly an artistic at work, building the architecture of his poem as he also deepens its thematics.

We've come to the last passage on our three Guelph heroes, circling each other on the burning sands of the seventh circle of hell, the violent--and specifically, those violent against God. That is, the homosexuals.This short passage ends on a strange note. Dante the pilgrim/prophet is able to unify the three Guelph heroes. But he's not able to change them. And maybe that's the best that prophetic speech can do in hell.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk through COMEDY in this episode with these segments:[01:04] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVI, lines 79 - 90. If you'd like to follow along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the header "Walking With Dante."[02:03] Our three Guelph heroes speak in unison. Surely this is thematic in the passage.[06:20] But even unified, these guys haven't changed. They're still in hell. They're still damned. In other words, the truth-filled words of a prophet don't make any difference in inferno.[10:27] What's Virgil's role in all of this?