Walking With Dante – Details, episodes & analysis

Virgil has finished his second, clarifying discourse on love, but it hasn't done the trick. The pilgrim Dante is even more full of doubts . . . pregnant with them, in fact.

Let's look at the pilgrim's second question to Virgil's discourse on love and talk about the complex ways Beatrice and even physical desire operate in the poem.

I'm Mark Scarbrough. Thanks for coming on the journey with me.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:47] To understand Dante's concept of love, void the Renaissance and Romanticism out of your thinking.

[09:48] An impregnated pilgrim brings up the sexual basis of desire (or love).

[12:50] The pilgrim asks a crucial question for any religion: How am I responsible?

[15:22] The allegory of Virgil and Beatrice comes close, even while Beatrice remains a physical draw for desire.

[19:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 48.

In answer to the pilgrim's request that Virgil show his work on the nature of love, Virgil (and the poet Dante behind him) condense and recast the very bases of the thinking in Western culture: Aristotle's notion that the objective world creates a mental picture that forms the basis of any action.

This passage is one of the most complex in PURGATORIO. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take apart its claims and some of the translation problems both from the poetry's concision and the seismic change in thought after the Enlightenment.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE;

[01:56] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 19 - 39. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:30] A few things to admit before we start.

[08:00] The three steps or stages of love.

[14:01] The problem of translating "anima."

[17:26] Basic claims in Virgil's second discourse.

[23:17] Problems with these claims--and how Dante the poet solves them.

[29:14] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 19 - 39.

As Dante the pilgrim gets ready to leave the third terrace of Purgatory, the terrace of the angry, he has three ecstatic visions that warn about the dangers of excessive wrath.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at these visions and try to come to terms with the problem that Dante's rage may sit at the very center of COMEDY.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:11] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 19 - 39. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:13] Connecting this passage with the previous hymn to the imagination.

[07:37] A review of the first three ecstatic visions in Canto XV at the entrance to the terrace of anger.

[09:46] The first vision (from Ovid's METAMORPHOSES): a (garbled?) reduction of the Philomela, Procne, and Tereus story.

[16:31] The second vision (from the Bible): Ahasuerus, Esther, Mordecai, and Haman.

[20:37] The third vision (from THE AENEID: Queen Amata and her daughter, Lavinia.

[25:00] Dante's rage as the center of COMEDY.

[29:24] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 19 - 39.

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.