Excuse Me, Virgil, I Didn't Quite Get That: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 1 - 18
Walking With Dante · Mark Scarbrough
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Show Notes
Virgil seemed to have come to a resting place in his monumental discourse on love: "Here's all I know . . . and all I don't know."
But the pilgrim is less than satisfied. He wants Virgil to continue on, to show his work for these complex syllogisms.
And Dante the poet is not done with Virgil either, given the mirrored structure of cantos XVII and XVIII.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we move beyond the mid-point of COMEDY and our pilgrim asks for more about how love is the seed of all human actions.
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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1 - 18. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:19] Human love, like PURGATORIO itself, is a liminal space.
[06:03] Dante the poet leans heavily into Virgil's truth-telling, scholastic credentials.
[09:24] Canto XVIII is wrapped by the word "new."
[11:28] Dante's interiority gives way to the poem's interiority!
[13:33] The damned Virgil is a source of light, like the angels.
[15:03] The pilgrim asks Virgil to show his work and perhaps overstates Virgil's argument about love.
[19:10] Virgil lambasts the blind guides . . . who may be religious figures or also poets who refuse to write in the vernacular.
[21:27] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1 - 18.