Hugh Capet continues the story of his family, bringing the saga of the French (or Frankish) crown into Dante's day with three of Hugh's most infamous descendants . . . at least as far as the poet is concerned.Our pilgrim gets treated to a grim recital of French misdeeds. And we catch our first whiff of antisemitism in COMEDY, just at the moment the actual French monarchy is expelling the Jews from French territory.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this tough middle passage in Hugh Capet's rendition of the avaricious wrongs of the Frankish kingdom.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this otherwise unsupported podcast, you can make a one-time donation or a small on-going contribution <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">by using this PayPal link right here</a>.Here are the segments for this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:43] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 61 - 81. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation about this difficult passage with me and others, find the entry for this podcast episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:07] The poetics in the passage: structure and rhyme.[07:51] The troubled disconnection and reconnection of Provence and France.[12:48] Hugh Capet's first malicious descendant: Charles I of Anjou (1226 - 1281).[19:10] The second miscreant among his issue: Charles of Valois (1270 - 1325).[22:56] The first instance of antisemitism in COMEDY.[29:37] Hugh Capet's third bad seed: Charles II of Anjou (1254 - 1309).[32:50] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 61 - 81.
The pilgrim has been attracted by one soul, calling out his examples of Mary, Fabricius, and Nicholas to counter his own sins of avarice.Dante steps closer and inquires who this soul is. He finds himself in front of Hugh Capet, the legendary (and historical) founder of the Capetian dynasty of French kings. Or at least a version of said Hugh Capet, since Dante the poet flubs the historicity of his penitent.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this fascinating look at the second major figure on the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory.If you'd like to help underwrite the fees associated with this unsupported podcast, whether with a one-time donation or a small on-going contribution, please <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">visit this link at Paypal</a>.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:50] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 40 - 60. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the comment section for this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[04:38] Hugh Capet in history.[10:46] Hugh Capet out of history and into COMEDY.[14:19] The highlights in the passage, plus a note about Hugh's prophetic voice.[25:04] The passage without its historical apparatus.[28:49] Dante's anti-French propaganda and his misunderstanding of power as a human motivation.[32:16] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 40 - 60.
Dante has gone beyond Pope Adrian V but hasn't left the fifth terrace of Purgatory. He and Virgil pick their way among the many shades until the pilgrim hears one shade call out three examples that entice the pilgrim to find this penitent.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through this passage on the terrace of the avaricious that will eventually lead us to our surprising second greedy soul ahead.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:15] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 16 - 39. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me about this passage, please find the entry for this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:15] Dante, the poor homeless man, stares at the greedy.[05:25] The exemplars for the avaricious are told in very few words.[07:04] The first exemplar for the avaricious: Mary and her poverty.[10:03] The second exemplar for the avaricious: Fabricius and his poverty.[12:26] The third exemplar for the avaricious: Saint Nicholas and his generosity.[16:18] Does Dante have a death wish?[22:10] Rereading the passge: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 16 - 39.
Pope Adrian V has pushed the pilgrim Dante to move on . . . even though the pilgrim doesn't want to.He and Virgil pick their way through the crowded fifth terrace of Purgatory. The avaricious are so many that the poet has to step out and offer a prophetic denunciation among the wreckage.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we edge our way toward the second penitent on this crowded terrace of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:32] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 1 - 15. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me in the comments to this episode, please find it on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[03:16] The advantange or problem with structure in PURGATORIO, Canto XX.[07:30] The pilgrim's weak will redirected.[09:57] The pilgrim's and Virgil's movement v. the immobile smelting of the penitents.[13:17] The poet-prophet's curse.[16:32] The poet-prophet's hope.[22:14] Rereading this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 1 - 15.
Pope Adrian V concludes his discourse on the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory on a strangely lonely, alienated note. Perhaps this is what avarice does to a person. Or perhaps this is what exile has done to Dante.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the end of PURGATORIO XIX and Pope Adrian's speech on the terrace of the avaricious. We end at a melacholy spot for one of the redeemed.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:39] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 127 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, see the entry for this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:32] Informal "you" v. formal "you."[06:22] Two New Testament references: Apocalypse 19:9 - 10 and the Gospel of Matthew 22:23 - 30.[10:53] The mystery of what is purified as a new plotting strategy in COMEDY.[13:14] The sad loneliness at the end of Canto XIX.[15:31] INFERNO XIX v. PURGATORIO XIX.[18:09] Misreading PURGATORIO XIX as a plea for democracy.[19:29] Reading all of Pope Adrian V's discourse: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 91 - 145.
Pope Adrian V, bound hands and feet to the ground, sets out to answer the pilgrim Dante's second question: What's going on here?In doing so, the pope unwittingly gives one of the most misunderstood lines in PURGATORIO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore more of this conversation with the first (and only) pope we meet on Mount Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:52] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 115 - 124. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[03:43] Punishment v. purification . . . and their contrapasso.[06:33] The bitterness of the pain.[09:42] Bitterness and falconry.[12:53] The transformation of the soul . . . momentarily stopped.[14:06] The avaricious v. the envious.[16:17] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 115 - 126.
Dante the pilgrim has asked Virgil--at least with a look in the eyes--if he could speak to one of the avaricious penitents, lying face down on the ground.On Virgil's okay, the pilgrim walks up to Pope Adrian IV . . . or at least so Dante the poet thinks. Sources vary. And interpretations, too.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the interpretive and historical knots we face on meeting our first pope since INFERNO.If you'd like to help cover the costs of this podcast, consider donating a lump sum or even a little bit each month <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">using this PayPal link right here</a>.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 91 - 114. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me in the comments to this episode, please find it on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:47] Two interpretive knots: what exactly you must ripen to return to God and why anyone would want to stop that ripening process.[08:13] Dante, an architectural poet, who gives his reader three structuring questions for this conversation.[09:31] Four possible interpretive answers to the line of Latin from the penitent.[14:28] The identity of the speaker's family: the Fieschi from east of Genoa.[17:00] The identity of the speaker himself: Ottobono de' Fieschi, aka Pope Adrian V (c.1215 - 1276 CE).[20:12] Dante's possible historical mistake: Pope Adrian IV or Pope Adrian V?[23:00] Punishment v. purification: a difficult balance in PURGATORIO.[26:43] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 91 - 114.
Dante and Virgil now walk along the fifth terrace of Purgatory, looking at the souls who are face down, stuck to the ground, unable to move or turn over.One of them answers Virgil about the way up . . . and the pilgrim Dante wants to stop for a conversation.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a look at this transitional passage in PURGATORIO as we step up to meet the first of three souls on the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 70 - 90. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:30] Falconry as a "transmutative art"--and the possible transmutations from classical poetry.[09:24] The problem of being stuck to the ground.[12:18] Our disorientation among the speakers' words.[14:37] Virgil's (new?) concepts of justice and hope.[17:18] A new understanding of how Purgatory works.[19:00] PURGATORIO XIX v. INFERNO XIX.[22:27] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 70 - 90.
Dante the pilgrim has had a "P" wiped off his forehead by the angel at the stairs. He's started his climb to the next terrace. All seems well, but he's still sad, bent over with worry, troubled about his dream.Virgil again comes to the rescue. He reinterprets the dream for the pilgrim (leaving us with quite a few questions!) and commands the pilgrim to direct his eyes up to the heavens, the ultimate lure to God.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this passage that brings us to the cusp of the fifth circle of Mount Purgatory.If you'd like to consider making a contribution to keep this podcast afloat, even a small monthly donation, <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">please visit this PayPal link right here</a>.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:35] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 52 - 69. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this episode's listing on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:23] Possible structural changes in the canto breaks in PURGATORIO.[05:51] Dante the pilgrim as the mourner.[07:02] The dream as a "new vision."[09:39] The question of what exactly is "above us."[12:22] The open interpretative space in Virgil's interpretation of Dante's dream.[17:00] Virgil's impatience, the workings of desire, and the rocky landscape of Purgatory.[20:02] The second major instance of falconry imagery in COMEDY.[22:31] The heavens as the ultimate lure.[25:10] Rereading this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 52 - 69.
Awakened from his dream by a foul odor, Dante the pilgrim finds himself fully out of tune with his surroundings: a bright new day on the mountain of Purgatory, beautiful sunshine at his back, and an angel whose feathers fan him on to the next terrace.He's even promised the curious "ladies of consolation" as a salve for his mourning.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at a difficult passage in PURGATORIO, the journey from the fourth terrace of sloth to the fifth terrace up the mountain ahead of us.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:45] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 34 - 51. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this particular episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[02:59] The Bodleian manuscript's illustration of Dante's second dream in PURGATORIO.[04:23] Dante's disorientation and his possible guilt.[07:14] Virgil and Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.[09:29] Disorientation in the passage: hope and despair.[11:28] More disorientation: an angel and the poet Dante in the tercet.[13:06] A return to the familiarity of the plot.[14:14] Four answers to the question of "who mourns?"[21:42] Those curious ladies of consolation.[26:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 34 - 51.
We've had two dreams in PURGATORIO, one at Canto IX and one at Canto XIX (although it actually started in the last line of Canto XVIII).Let's take a moment to compare and contrast these two dreams. What can they tell us about the changing nature of PURGATORIO, especially given my thesis that this is a poem in process, one in which the poet is learning how to write the poem as he moves forward?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] A reading of the first two dreams in PURGATORIO: Canto IX, lines 13 - 42; and Canto XIX, lines 1 - 13.[05:11] Both dreams occur near dawn, startle the pilgrim awake, and rob the pilgrim of his free will.[08:40] Both dreams are about (different versions) of the future.[12:14] Both dreams have problems about who saves the pilgrim: the terrifying eagle or Virgil?[14:20] Both dreams are full of classical imagery (with important differences in the placement of that imagery).[16:15] Both dreams have songs: the first, outside the dream; the second, inside it.[17:35] There are two characters in the first dream, four character in the second--allowing for a larger interpretive space in the second dream.
Here's the second episode on the pilgrim's second dream in PURGATORIO. Things get wilder after the ugly lady becomes beautiful under the pilgrim Dante's gaze.She begins to sing. She identifies herself as a siren. She mentions Ulysses (incorrectly?). Another lady appears and begs Virgil for help. And Virgil saves Dante (yet again).Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we parse this passage about the workings of poetry and perhaps COMEDY as a whole.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:23] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 16 - 33. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode on my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:18] Questions about free will in the dream state.[05:27] Questions about singing (and therefore, about poetry).[07:03] Ulysses back in Purgatorio again![10:30] The siren's song and possible identification.[14:05] The holy, speedy lady.[15:15] Her possible identifications: Beatrice, Saint Lucy, the second lady in Dante's VITA NUOVA, a whore/virgin cliché, or the holy lady of Philosophy from Boethius's CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY.[22:37] Virgil in and out of Dante's dream.[23:51] Medieval medical remedies for lust.[25:10] A grammatical problem in the passage.[28:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 16 - 33.
Our pilgrim has fallen asleep on the edge of the fourth terrace of Mount Purgatory. He's seen the racing slothful but night has gotten the better of him . . . so he begins to dream.That dream is all about desire and the male gaze. It's also about poetic space and dream space . . . and the porous nature between the two.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we start the first of two episodes on the second dream of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:54] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 1 - 15. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:21] Cooling planets, fortune tellers, and the liminal space before dawn.[06:51] References to INFERNO XX and VII in this passage.[10:20] Canto XIX and the psalms of ascent.[12:46] Delaying tactics at the opening of Canto XIX.[15:07] Disgust and the "redemption" of gaze.[18:29] Disturbing gender politics.[19:50] Who gets to observe vs. who (or what) is observed.[21:59] The poetic space vs. the dream space (which are not really separate)[25:17] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 1 - 15.
We've climbed up to the fifth terrace of Purgatory proper and come among the avaricious. These three cantos become increasingly complex and daring: in their theology, in their poetics, and in their myth-making.They're extraordinarily rich. Gilded, even. Which somehow fits, since these are the cantos in which the greedy purge their sin.And we've got three incredible monologues: from a late-to-repent pope, one of the founders of the French monarchy, and Statius, the great Roman poet whose THEBIAD has been with us all along in COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a read-through of Cantos XIX, XX, and XXI of PURGATORIO before we begin our slow walk along this most dangerous terrace.
The zealous slothful have run on, although there are still two coming in the rear, "biting" the penitents from behind with warnings about sloth.After that, the pilgrim Dante has a new thought--curiously undefined--which leads him into his second dream in PURGATORIO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish off Canto XVIII and leave our pilgrim to his slumbers.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:30] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:16] Virgil, but only in periphrasis.[07:27] Two warnings: one Biblical and one classical (from The Aeneid!).[11:27] The connection between fear and sloth.[13:41] The pilgrim's new thought: possibly Beatrice?[18:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1130 - 145.
At last, the slothful penitents arrive. They're a roiling horde in a crazy rush, whipped around the terrace to make up for the ways they were negligent in life.As these frantic souls pass by, one of them speaks a brave truth about Dante the poet's primary patron, a fierce warlord who has sheltered the poet on the run but whose family may not be all they're cracked up to be.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through this amazing passage of PURGATORIO, a plea to not hesitate when it comes to speaking truth to power.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please consider a small monthly donation or a one-time gift <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">by using this PayPal link right here</a>.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:32] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines n97 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode in the list of episodes for this podcast on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:09] There are two admonitions for purposeful haste: Mary and Julius Caesar.[09:46] An address to the penitents . . . from Virgil.[11:00] Virgil clouds our definition of sloth . . . and perhaps our understanding of his place in PURGATORIO.[15:47] The Abbott of San Zeno tells of the fall of his monastery into chaos (as well as Milan's fall into chaos).[21:00] Hurry up and speak truth to power.[24:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 97 - 129.
Our pilgrim has found himself in the dark of night, a time where he loses all effort on Mount Purgatory.But don't get too sleepy, Dante. You can get run over by the slothful, all at a full gallop in a Bacchic frenzy.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we return to the plot after Virgil's discourses on love, here on the fourth terrace of Mount Purgatory.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please consider donating a small monthly stipend or a one-time gift <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link right here</a>.These are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 76 - 96. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:39] The complicated opening passage about the moon and the time of night.[13:38] Virgil and the values of chivalry.[16:41] Directionality and the penitents of Purgatory.[20:32] The Bacchic penance of the slothful.[23:12] The pilgrim's sleepy, poetic imagination.[24:41] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 76 - 96.
Virgil offers his third discourse on love at the middle of PURGATORIO to 1) show his work about ethics derived from Aristotle's notions of substance and cause and 2) to make sure the pilgrim understands that his actions are his own fault.This is a complicated passage with lots of historical resonances, particularly from Aristotle and Plato (as understood through Aquinas). It'll take us some work to unpack it, but we'll get very close to our modern understanding of ethics.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the last of Virgil's major discourses.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, you can do so <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link right here</a>.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:13] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 49 - 75. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[05:12] The various notions of Aristotelean causality in the passage: material and necessary causes, as well as the nature of "substance."[11:59] Material causes and substantial forms.[14:59] A misinterpretation of the substance and material in the passage that has infected the commentary on COMEDY for centuries.[17:44] The desire for primary things and Virgil's misunderstanding.[23:24] Virgil's (and Dante's) definition of reason and our understanding of ethics from it.[28:35] Reason's results: ethics.[29:41] A logic flaw in Virgil's argument.[33:13] Marco of Lombardy vs. Virgil.[36:19] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 49 - 75.
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.If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, you can do so <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link right here</a>.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, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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.
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.If you'd like to help underwrite the many costs and fees associated with this podcast, please consider donating what you can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link right here.</a>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, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[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.
We've come to the middle of PURGATORIO . . . and indeed the middle of COMEDY as a whole. Let's take a breather and review where we've been in Purgatory since our very slow approach sometimes (or often?) causes us to privilege the trees over the forest.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk you through the first half of PURGATORIO one more time, mostly to remind you where we've been, but also to make sure we all understand the majestic, imaginative sweep of this canticle so far (and this poem so far).If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, with a one-time donation or even a small monthly contribution, you can do so <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link right here</a>. Thank you so much for your support . . . in donations, in questions, in connections on social media, and on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.
We come to the end of Virgil's (first) discourse on love, as well as the end of the central canto of PURGATORIO.But it's a strange end since Virgil admits to what he doesn't know. Having been so certain about how human behavior operates, he concludes by telling Dante the pilgrim he's on his own to find out further answers.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we conclude Virgil's astoundingly certain discourse on love with an ironic, ambiguous moment.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:41] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 127 - 139. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:31] A secondary motivation for human behavior: quiet (or peace).[07:22] A pronoun ambiguity in the passage.[09:23] The temporary nature of the cornices of Purgatory.[11:14] Virgil and the core ambiguity in PURGATORIO.[12:29] The problem of too much love.[13:55] Love and the things Virgil cannot know.[16:29] Rereading all of Virgil's discourse on love: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 91 - 139.
Virgil continues his discourse about love, the central discourse in all of COMEDY. It's a tour de force of scholastic reasoning . . . that may leave something to be desired after INFERNO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore Virgil's scholastic understanding of all human action and his vision of love as the seed of all that we do.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 106 - 126. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[04:08] Virgil's scholastic background in the text.[08:01] Virgil's two premises: no one can hate their own self or the first cause (that is, God).[11:33] Virgil's understanding of the three terraces of Purgatory below us.[16:12] Can Virgil be a scholastic thinker? What do we make of this very oracular Virgil?[20:39] Virgil's argument is less a celebration of Aquinas and more one of Aristotle.[22:48] Love may move the fence, but love doesn't tear down the fence.[26:46] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 106 - 126.
Love is the seed … of all you do. It's news to me, given the state of the world. But not to Virgil. And certainly not to Dante's COMEDY.Virgil's explosive claim about love lies at the center of the poem: We do right and we go wrong because of the seed of love.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the beginning of Virgil's central discourse in COMEDY, an overwhelming statement about human motivation and the nature of God.If you'd like to help underwrite the many costs of this podcast, please consider donating <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link right here</a>.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:43] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 91 - 105. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please find this episode on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:57] Virgil's explosive claim: love is the seed of all human action.[05:27] Virgil's scholastic divisions of love.[08:38] A translation problem: "o naturale o d'anima."[12:40] Virgil's understand of the two types of love.[14:59] Virgil's odd repetition of his own argument.[18:27] The basis of Dante's thought: the Bible, Aristotle, and Aquinas.[27:27] Dante's source: William Perault's SUMMA DE VITIIS ET VIRTURTIBUS. (Ugh, my Latin pronunciation!)[29:16] But what then of the fall in the Garden of Eden?[30:59] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 91 - 105.
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