Walking With Dante

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, <a href="markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>. [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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbough.com">markscarbough.com</a>. 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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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?