Walking With Dante

I said we'd move on to the second half of Oderisi da Gubbio's speech . . . but there's no way we can. There are still so many unanswered questions about the way Dante cryptically inserts himself into the text, the way the art of miniaturization reflects the new style in poetry that Dante practices, and the very fact that Dante meets someone whose life is spent with manuscripts.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work our way through more questions about the first half of Oderisi's speech in PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:57] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation (yes, please!), go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:46] Oderisi and Franco are indeed mentioned by others but mostly centuries after Dante. And for what it's worth, is Dante even writing a history-based poem?[06:48] Oderisi calls Dante the pilgrim "brother"--as in monastic brotherhood or as in the talk of artistic guilds?[08:32] Dante puts the prophetic denunciation in the mouth of a character, rather than in the poet's interpolation.[12:38] Dante meets a miniaturist, an illuminator . . . and the new style of poetry was mostly practiced in small poems like sonnets and canzone.[17:34] In my interpretation, Dante the poet remains unnamed in the tercet about the Guidos. Should we see a psychological or artistic development here?[22:13] Dante meets an illuminator, the sort who our poet might hope would someday work on COMEDY.

If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, WALKING WITH DANTE, you can use <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.On Purgatory's terrace of pride, we turn from noble Omberto to an artist, a manuscript illuminator, Oderisi da Gubbio, who delivers some of the most memorable lines in all of PURGATORIO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the first half of Oderisi's speech, all about the vagaries of artistic fame, the passing of Cimabue in favor of Giotto, and the coming of a poet who can kick two well-known Guido's out of the Italian nest.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:49] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation about this passage, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[05:18] Dante the pilgrim and the illuminator Oderisi appear to know each other--which may well be a first comment on the vagaries of artistic fame.[06:48] Who were Oderisi da Gubbio and the Bolognese Franco?[11:55] Laughter may be near the root of Dante's art.[14:25] And desire may lie near the root of Dante's understanding of human behavior.[18:29] Oderisi mixes his metaphors--he is no poet![20:21] Giotto surpasses Cimabue in the development of craft and its tie to fame.[23:35] And someone (Dante?) may well pass the two Guidos in literature . . . although he may be more humbled than first appears to be the case.[27:28] The prideful in PURGATORIO's first terrace reference the heretics in INFERNO.[29:44] The end of the passage makes Brunetto Latini's grand, heroic speech into a lie.[34:52] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108.

We've come to the first penitent who speaks after the gate of Purgatory: Omberto Aldobrandesco. He's from a storied, titled family, a nobleman brought low. Or is he?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear Omberto's side of the story, try to discern his character through his words, and ponder why Dante makes the first penitent of Purgatory proper so very boring.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:27] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 46 - 72. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:55] More decentering in the passage: Is Dante trying to decenter (or humble) the reader?[09:35] Is Omberto Aldobrandesco humbled?[14:12] Or is he still prideful?[15:54] Or is he both?[17:49] Who was Omberto Aldobrandesco?[22:55] Omberto articulates the basic understanding of purgation in PURGATORIO.[25:53] But why does Dante make the first penitent beyond Purgatory's gate so, well, boring?[29:16] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 46 - 72.

If you'd like to help out with editing, licensing, streaming, hosting, and website fees for this podcast, please consider <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">donating at this PayPal link right here</a>.Dante the pilgrim has heard the prayer of the prideful penitents under their boulders and now he sees them more clearly, weighed down "as if during dreams." What?It gets more confusing. Dante the poet interrupts the narrative to remind his readers of their duties (to his imagined penitents? what?). And then Virgil speaks without ever being given a dialogue clue, further disorienting COMEDY's readers.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this strange passage from PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:05] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 25 - 45. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:55] Three curiosities in the passage from the medieval Florentine, plus one thematic tie back to Canto X.[10:41] For whom are the prideful penitents praying? And what exactly are they praying for them?[16:18] The poet's lesson, inserted into the ongoing story, is disconcertingly awkward.[21:36] Virgil offers nine lines of dialogue without a cue to us know it's Virgil who's speaking until almost the end--more disorientation.[27:19] The passage ultimately connects to a medieval notion of art by its reference to the weight of dreams.[29:35] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 25 - 45.

Please support this podcast! Help me with streaming, hosting, licensing, and editing fees by donating whatever you can at <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.Dante now hears the first of the penitents of Purgatory proper. They're under their boulders, reciting the foundational of Christianity.Except they're not. They're reciting Dante's rewrite of that prayer.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this curious passage that opens PURGATORIO, Canto XI, in which our poet has the sheer bravado to rewrite the most important prayer in the Christian tradition.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:06] Initial comments about the prayer from the prideful penitents on the first terrace of Purgatory proper.[09:25] The original statement of the prayer from Matthew 6: 9 - 13 versus Dante's rewrite of it.[12:55] Dante's additions to this foundational prayer.[21:39] The controversies Dante writes into this foundational prayer.[32:29] Two interpretive questions. One, why does Dante feel free to rewrite a ritualized prayer, part of the liturgy itself?[35:45] Two, what is Dante's ultimate poetic theory? That sacred space creates metaphoric/poetic space which then creates actual/physical reality.

Please consider supporting this podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, as well as royalties for the sound effects, by visiting <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.Virgil has prompted the pilgrim Dante to look at the penitents coming around the bend on the first terrace of Purgatory proper. But Dante can't make them out . . . until the poet intervenes with an invective and the envisions these penitents as works of art.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the hall of mirrors that Dante's theory of art is becoming even on the first terrace of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 112 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:00] The prophetic denunciation in the center of the passage hopes for a collective redemption out of individual sin.[10:08] Dante's and Virgil's eyesights are first compromised so that they can't comprehend what they see.[12:30] Art's power to interpret the realities of what is seen leads to Dante's hall of mirrors in which art is interpreting the real while being based on the real.[18:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 112 - 139.

Help support this podcast by donating at <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.Having seen the intaglios, Dante is still in wonder as the first penitents round the bend. Virgil spots them first . . . and murmurs to Dante.Murmurs? It’s a loaded verb in a passage about Dante’s theory of art.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take on this short passage in PURGATORIO, Canto X, a passage that seams the canto together . . . or perhaps reveals its stitching.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:07] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:18] This passage is a seam in the narrative, an important break in its structure.[06:50] In Dante's theory of art, only God can create something out of nothing.[08:21] Only in retrospect do we know what the intaglios were about. Or do we?[10:00] Dante is writing ekphrastic poetry (poetry about a piece of visual art) about art that doesn't exist except in his own imaginative landscape.[12:28] Several possible answers to the complicated question of Virgil's murmuring in this scene.[18:08] Dante's third address to the reader in PURGATORIO may exhibit a hesitation or even an insecurity in the narrative.[23:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111.

Please consider helping to support WALKING WITH DANTE. You can help me cover streaming, licensing, royalty, hosting, and editing fees by donating whatever you can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link right here</a>.Dante goes on to find the last intaglio or relief carving in the austere, too-steep, marble wall of the first terrace of Purgatory. Here, he finds a scene between the Roman emperor Trajan and a sorrowing mother who demands justice.Demands it so much, in fact, that she and Trajan have a dramatized conversation, although they're carved into marble. Eagles soar. Knights tramp the ground. What's Dante up to?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante the poet push the claims of realism to the breaking point to end at the moral crux of all of PURGATORIO: How do you balance justice and compassion?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:14] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:07] The first major players in the passage: the Roman emperor Trajan and the widow at his horse's bridle.[05:19] The third major player in the passage: Pope Gregory the Great.[07:21] Trajan is named outright, although other reliefs use periphrastic phrasing to identify the characters in the marble. Is that difference important?[10:30] The passage picks up and alters the vendetta thematics from INFERNO.[13:01] The woman at Trajan's horse's bridle seems a middle ground between the submissive Virgin Mary and the haughty Michal: an actionable humility.[15:56] An interpretive question about the difference between history and story (or "istoria" and "storiata," to use Dante's words).[18:53] Mimetic (realistic) art relies on imagined details to bolster and enhance the realism claims.[23:45] The moral crux of Purgatory is the balance between justice and compassion.[25:36] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93.

After the intaglio about the annunciation, Dante moves beyond Virgil (or is prodded to move beyond his guide) to discover a second sequence, this time from the story of King David and his journey with the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem.The scene is so realistic that it causes a sensory confusion in our pilgrim. Problem is, his amazement at the realism in the art is based on the poet's fabrication of details in the scene. The imagined enhances the real? A complex game indeed!Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look with the pilgrim at the second carving on the terrace of the prideful in PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:13] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 46 - 69. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:00] Comparing the first image in the marble with this second one: spare vs. elaborate.[04:54] Dante, on the side of Virgil's heart, eventually passes his guide. Is this symbolic? Allegorical? Or ironic?[09:51] The relief in the marble is a story lifted from II Samuel 6: 1 - 23.[12:19] The last six lines of the passage seem to show a dichotomy between low comedy and high tragedy.[14:26] Complex ironies in the passage: Dante makes up details that are the basis of its hyper-realism.[17:23] More complex ironies in the passage: Dante the poet may appear in disguise twice in the pilgrim's story.[21:01] The call for greater realism leads to, yes, Renaissance art but also to modern abstraction.[23:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 46 - 69.

Please donate to help support this walk with Dante. You can help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, editing, and royalty fees by visiting <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.Dante the pilgrim and (shockingly!) Virgil have made it to the first terrace of Purgatory proper, although they (and we?) are still not sure exactly what's going on. All we know is that the terrace has gorgeous carvings in the white marble.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the first of these carvings that will help us understand the penance ahead--and more importantly, help us understand Dante's theory of art, developed over the central cantos of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:18] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 28 - 45. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:18] Who was Polykleitos? What does Dante know of him? And how does this artist relate to "nature," the "child" of God.[06:13] The first image in the marble is revealed through periphrasis, despite its inherent realism.[11:24] "Ave" is an inversion of "Eva"--or Eve, from the garden of Eden. The fall in Genesis and the consequence of death lie at the bottom of this passage.[14:42] Dante appears to favor very realistic art.[15:50] The art here is rather spare--or at least sparely described.[17:03] Dante appears to favor didactic (or moral) art.[17:46] Dante's theory of art is that creativity builds off what's come before.[22:30] To put "historical" matter in an imaginative space is to compromise the historicity of the matter.[25:57] The unknowable is embellished by art, a most human gesture.[28:38] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 28 - 45.

If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider donating to cover hosting, licensing, and streaming fees by using <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.Dante and Virgil have come through the dramatic gate of Purgatory proper and entered a wildly open space, edging out to the void. This stark emptiness provides an existential contrast to all of the sound and fury that came just before.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the hard climb up to and the initial step onto the first of the seven terraces of Purgatory itself. Let's talk about this passage's emotional space, as well as the beautiful poetics in the medieval Florentine.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or print it off for notes, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:57] PURGATORIO, Canto X opens in a barren, quiet, and unsettling spot.[10:46] Two interpretive problems: 1) How can love be bad? And 2) what sound does the gate make when it closes?[15:10] The climb up to the first terrace references two New Testament passages: Matthew 7: 13 - 14 and Matthew 19: 24.[17:26] The medieval Florentine poetry shows the challenges of the climb.[22:23] Dante and Virgil eventually stand on a narrow terrace at the edge of the void.

If you'd like help support this podcast by underwriting its hosting, streaming, royalty, website, and editing fees, please consider donating at <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PAYPAL link right here</a>.I hope you're ready for the climb. We've come through the gate of PURGATORY to find ourselves on the first terrace of those actually getting rid of their sins.In this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we'll read through my rough--very rough--English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII, to give us all a chance to see the landscape, understand the arc of the story, and see some of the difficulties that lie ahead.Sit back and enjoy the plot of the first terrace of Purgatory proper.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:07] A plot summary of PURGATORIO so far, just so we're all up to speed.[06:31] A read-through of my rough English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII.

Help support the work of the podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, royalty, hosting, streaming, and editing fees associated with our walk. You can do so by visiting <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link here</a>.Dante and Virgil finally walk through the gate into Purgatory . . . in one of the most complex endings of any canto in all of COMEDY. There's tragedy and comedy, classical leaning and Christian resolution, emotional distress and safety, screeching and singing, tyranny and polyphony, all tied up together in a passage that has tripped scholars for seven hundred years.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the ins and outs of this most complex ending to Canto IX of PURGATORIO. This canto is worth the admission into the poem . . . and into the realms of the redeemed souls, too.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:35] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, you can do so on my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:40] The angel's warning: Lot's wife vs. Orpheus and Eurydice.[08:44] Virgil's increasingly tenuous spot in PURGATORIO.[10:53] The tough parts of this passage: an amalgam of Roman history, Lucan's PHARSALIA, and Virgil's AENEID.[14:50] An interpretation of the negative tonalities in the imagery and Dante's role as Julius, the looter.[18:59] The hymn sung and the entrance into a monastic space.[21:54] Polyphony, a new poetic language, and the difficulties ahead.[26:56] Rereading all of PURGATORIO, Canto IX.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. To help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, please consider donating <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">through this PayPal link here</a>.Does Dante walk up the steps to the gate of Purgatory? Not without Virgil's help. And then we get a close view of the angel's ashy robes. And then we hear about letters on the forehead. And then we see the two keys. And it all comes down to a tangled knot, both in the passage and in the thematics.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we listen to the angel at the very gate of Purgatory and witness his strange interchange with our pilgrim Dante.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please go to my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:39] The colorful beauty of the scene vs. the angel's ashy robes.[05:52] Virgil's effort to get the pilgrim Dante into Purgatory.[09:44] The two keys: gold and silver.[13:28] God's forgiveness vs. humanity's capacity to forgive.[17:20] The seven Ps on Dante's forehead: an essential strangeness.[19:34] Writing on the forehead in Biblical traditions and in COMEDY.[22:46] Erring on the side of opening, rather than closing--with an important caveat.[26:19] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129.

Please consider donating to WALKING WITH DANTE to help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, royalties, hosting, and web domains for this podcast. You can do so by visiting <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.We've made it to the steps into Purgatory. In other words, we've made it to an interpretive quagmire. Seven hundred years of scholarship sit on these steps. But maybe there's a way we can clear off the dons and see the steps in a new way.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these important twelve lines that lead us right up to the angel sitting at the gate of Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:01] Dante's classical dream and Virgil's Christian explanation, continued.[09:03] The aesthetic beauty of the steps into Purgatory.[11:20] Two small bits to notice: "we came on from there" and the angel's position above the steps themselves.[15:51] The traditional, theological interpretation of the allegory of the three steps.[20:55] But the larger question: Why is the entrance to Purgatory an interpretive riddle?[23:11] The entrance to hell was a writerly act of words over the gate; the entrance to Purgatory is a speech act from the angel (which is still a writerly act because we read it on the page).[26:22] Confession is also a speech act.[27:21] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105.

Please help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, hosting, and producing this podcast by visiting <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here.</a>Dante seemed so full of confidence when he learned that his dream was indeed only a dream and that Lucy had in fact carried him to the gate of Purgatory.But that was before he faced the angel guardian at the gate, whose forbidding presence seems to silence the pilgrim.Fortunately, Virgil is ever ready to answer.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue to watch the interplay among our pilgrim Dante, his classical guide, and the Christian afterlife ahead of him.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:28] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, do so in the comment section for this episode at my website, <a href="https://markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[04:12] The angel at Purgatory's gate is so threatening that he silences the pilgrim Dante.[06:37] The angel is a blocking figure, reminiscent of the Cherubim placed at the Garden of Eden, yet also of medieval iconography for St. Paul.[08:51] This is the first angel to speak in COMEDY! We begin to understand Dante's notion of divine transcendence.[13:13] The angel's questions have answers but still seem forbidding, like the questions of other gatekeepers in COMEDY.[16:22] The damned Virgil is ever ready to give a reply to the gatekeepers of COMEDY. Apparently, even to an angel.[19:03] The angel calls the stairs "ours." Whose?[20:35] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93.

Help me cover the costs for this podcast: its hosting, licensing, streaming, and royalty fees. (Those sound effects require royalties!) You can donate using <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link right here</a>.Dante undergoes a total transformation: from the scared guy who burned up in his dream to the fully confident pilgrim who walks right up to the gate of Purgatory.In the meantime, he asks his reader to change, too: to read the poem as fearlessly as he journeys across the known universe.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first approach to the gate of Purgatory itself.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:55] The passage opens with a curious simile that doesn't need to be a simile.[06:48] The change in the pilgrim is found in a reflexive verb.[10:53] The apparently open gate is actually shut, in contrast to the gate of hell.[12:53] The second address to the reader in PURGATORIO: Dante asks his reader to commit fearlessly to the more difficult material ahead.[18:40] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Please support this work by donating to cover hosting, streaming, editing, licensing, and other fees associated with this podcast. To do so, please visit <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this Paypal link right here</a>.Dante awakens in stark terror. But he's beside his constant companion, Virgil. And he's a long way up the mountain, looking far down at the sea.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear Virgil tell about the arrival of Lucy and discover that the Christian truth of comedy is always textured by the classical poetics of tragedy.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:30] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 43 - 63. If you'd like to read along or to continue the conversation, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:23] Virgil sprays Dante the pilgrim with aphorisms, perhaps the best the classical world can do.[05:06] PURGATORIO, Canto IX, has many parallels with INFERNO, Canto IX.[07:46] Lucy shows up--but first, a problem with my translation.[09:50] More importantly, which Lucy shows up?[14:03] Apparently even a saint has to obey the laws of Mount Purgatory.[15:07] Shock! Virgil follows Lucy to the gate of Purgatory![15:48] Why is the story given to Virgil? Why doesn't Dante the pilgrim just experience the ascent in Lucy's arms "in real time"?[18:00] The classical imagery is not overwhelmed by the Christian truth of comedy. Rather, the classical imagery is the constant texture of Dante's truth.[21:00] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 43 - 63.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free! Please donate to help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, royalty, and research fees. You can do so at <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link here</a>.Dante dreams his way to the gate of Purgatory using three classical images that explain his sexual rapture in the presence of divine love but also give his journey a texture of sadness.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first dream of PURGATORIO. Let's explore the imagery from Ovid, Virgil, and Statius, as well as Dante's rather unusual medieval attitude toward homosexuality.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[03:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 13 - 42. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to the Dante pages on my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[05:24] Dante's morning dream is truthful AND puts to rest the notion that COMEDY itself is somehow a dream.[07:55] The first classical image: Tereus, Procne, and Philomel.[11:36] The second classical image: Ganymede, Zeus, and the eagle.[14:22] The third classical image: Achilles on Skyros.[17:22] Love, fire, and the divine mission of COMEDY.[19:11] The classical imagery adds a sorrowful texture to the passage because real conversion always involves loss.[22:31] The opening of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, is about unrefined, unpurged, or "unnatural" love.[25:14] Dante sees homosexuality as nonetheless a form of love, a dramatic step for a medieval thinker.[28:44] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 13 - 42.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE! To help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, research, and royalty fees (that music costs money!), consider donating to the podcast <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">at this PayPal link</a>.We begin PURGATORIO, Canto IX, with a mess of classical imagery that's befuddled scholars for centuries. We won't come to any conclusions about it, other than to say that such misdirection may be the heart of the matter.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this difficult opening to a central canto for PURGATORIO: the gate into the main matter of the canticle, the cornices where souls are purged (or purge themselves--but more on that to come!).Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12. If you'd like to read along or continue this difficult discussion, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:42] Sleeping, being human, and journeying in COMEDY.[06:53] The first mess in the passage: Tithonus, his wife, and his concubine.[10:48] The second mess in the passage: the signs of the zodiac.[13:03] The third mess in the passage: the three steps of the night.[15:56] The first common solution to the mess: European time v. Purgatorial time.[18:08] The second common solution to the mess: the concubine and the moon.[19:28] My solution: poetic play and classical imagery, not classical control of that imagery.[26:42] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Donate to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can donate at <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link here</a>.We're finally at the gate of Purgatory! And it's a corker of a canto, to say the least.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this quick read-through of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, before we take it apart line by line to study it in the depth Dante intends.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[03:16] Reading through my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto IX.[10:56] Initial interpretive questions for PURGATORIO, Canto IX.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE. Please donate to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and research fees, as well as royalties for the music. You can donate at <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">this PayPal link here</a>.We've reached the end of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, which means we've reached the end of Ante-Purgatory, those cantos and those parts of the mountain before the main gate of Purgatory proper.Here, Dante changes the tone completely, ending our stay outside of Purgatory proper in praise of generosity--or specifically, the generosity of the Malaspina family.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we head for the main gate of Purgatory on a high note. Some people do indeed do well and live right in this world.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:50] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 109 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue our conversation, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com.">markscarbrough.com.</a>[04:05] This shade doesn't seem at all interested in the angels or the serpent. Why?[05:18] Currado's opening speech is incredibly florid. But what is the lantern leading Dante up the mountain?[08:33] The powerful Malaspina family ruled tracts of Lunigiana.[11:29] Dante the pilgrim doesn't know what Dante the poet knows all too well.[13:45] Dante was a peace negotiator for the Malaspina family in 1306.[18:21] Currado's reply to Dante's praise is a prophecy of Dante's exile--and the care he will need in exile.[20:54] The beautiful structure of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII.[23:25] Ante-Purgatory ends on an ethic of care.[26:31] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 109 - 139.

Please help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can give as you like <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=36M8739SMC896">here at this PayPal link</a>.After Judge Nino's misogynistic diatribe, Dante the pilgrim stares at the stars. The four from the opening of PURGATORIO have passed beyond his sight; three new stars are rising, when the long-awaited snake makes its appearance in the dale of the negligent rulers.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work to untangle the meaning in this curious and symbolic passage that cues us to much that's ahead in our walk across the known universe--and specifically, up Mount Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 85 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[04:38] Many Dante scholars want Dante to stare at the heavens, his attention not on Judge Nino, if only to save our pilgrim-poet from the misogyny in the previous passage. But why?[06:11] PURGATORIO VI - VIII involves the wheel of fortune for earthly figures that eventually morphs into the wheeling stars of the heavens.[09:30] The passing of morning and night is crucial to understanding the human nature of PURGATORIO.[13:06] The four cardinal virtues are setting and the three Christian virtues are riding.[16:21] The serpent in PURGATORIO brings Eve (and Eden) into the passage that had mentioned the Virgin Mary--although Dante is clearly a tad hesitant about this serpent (and its allegory?).[19:24] The allegory of the snake in PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, may be connected to the setting of the infernal landscape and thus the setting of the classical "landscape" of Comedy.[25:45] The beginnings of grace are not seen but its action (or motion) is.

After Dante shocks Judge Nino and the poet Sordello with the revelation of the pilgrim's own corporeality, Judge Nino launches into a disgusting diatribe about his "unfaithful wife," a pernicious bit of misogyny that threatens to derail COMEDY . . . or at least our appreciation of it.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this difficult passage in PURGATORIO, one that must be addressed but leaves us with no good answers about works of art from the past.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:53] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 64 - 84. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this passage to continue this difficult conversation with me, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:52] Dante's increasingly original language in COMEDY.[07:06] Giovanna and Beatrice, Judge Nino's earthly family: the center of his rage and a node of disgusting misogyny in COMEDY.[14:09] Judge Nino and the imagined death of his allegedly "unfaithful" wife.[15:37] Judge Nino's moderating anger and the emotional landscape of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII.[17:49] The problem with misogyny in a great poem.[24:03] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 64 - 84.

Sordello leads Dante down three steps into the valley of the kings. There, our pilgrim Dante meets Judge Nino, perhaps a figure from the poet Dante's own past, certainly a figure tied to a major character in INFERNO, and a figure who helps our poet "prove" that his journey was indeed real, not imagined.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this descent into the valley of the negligent rulers in the final bits of our time before the gate of Purgatory proper.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:53] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 46 - 63. If you'd like to read long or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website: <a href="https://markscarbrough.com">markscarbrough.com</a>.[03:39] The further irony of sight in the dimness.[06:46] Noble Judge Nino of Pisa, a throwback to INFERNO.[10:48] Self-reflexivity and bolstered reality claims in COMEDY.[12:58] Fellowship after warfare: the nature of Purgatory.[14:39] Gaining the higher life by this journey--but how?[17:53] Being lost in Purgatory.[20:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 46 -63.