Podcast
Walking With Dante
Hosted by Mark Scarbrough · EN
Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.
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Washed Clean In Lethe: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 91 - 111
Feb 800:32:08Tap to summarizeDante wakes up in the arms of the young woman who first welcomed him to the Garden of Eden. She's dragging him through Lethe before she forcefully pushes him underwater.This scene is deeply symbolic and allegorical . . . although it raises many more questions than it answers. In fact, it seems to want to leave many things open-ended, a cue that Dante wants us in the poem, working on solutions to the many puzzles he has set.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we see the pilgrim Dante cleansed and ready to dance with the seven virtues around Beatrice's chariot.To support this work, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend. You can make either contribution at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:29] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 91 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:43] Two notes on the first nine lines: the heart and the shuttle.[06:33] Is this a baptism?[09:46] Three questions that surround the Latin line from the Psalms.[13:43] Why is the dunking so forceful?[15:45] What sign do the four women make over Dante?[17:41] The seven women fill in the details from PURGATORIO, Cantos I and VIII.[19:56] The four women are linked to the classical world; the three women, to the contemplative life.[22:43] Does everything happen to Statius, too? And to other penitent souls?[26:23] How do you express the inexpressible?[28:28] Must our poet forget the CONVIVIO in Lethe?[29:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 91 - 111.
Transcribe →Dante Faints For The Third Time In COMEDY: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 64 - 90
Feb 400:35:26Tap to summarizeBeatrice has finished her case against the pilgim Dante. All that's left is for him to find his way beyond confession and into confession . . . which he does with a major crack-up that leads him to faint for the third time in COMEDY.Before he collapses, the poem begins a series of inversions or reversals that both increase the ironic valences of the passage and give its reader an almost vertigo-inducing sense of Dante's emotional landscape.A difficult passage in the Garden of Eden, here Beatrice accomplishes what she came for. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the slow build-up to the final moment of contrition . . . which mimics the moment when Dante gives way in front of Francesca, back in INFERNO's circle of lust.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:20] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 64 - 90. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:15] Dante, from boy to man.[07:26] Recognition, the key to the passage, to contrition, and a possible node of irony.[10:38] The "unbearded" oak and the final crack-up.[13:49] Iarbas and Dido v. Dante and the new Dido.[16:28] Beatrice's venom.[17:27] Dante's beard.[20:00] The angels' departure?[21:16] The meaning of the beast's two natures.[23:53] Glossing the end of the passage: lines 82 - 90.[27:57] Francesca and her physical seduction v. Beatrice and her physical-theological seduction.[33:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 64 - 90.
Transcribe →Welcome To The Foundations Of The Universe: Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 130 - 145
Oct 2, 2022Tap to summarizeWe've walked with Dante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, to the very foundations of the universe, the ninth circle of hell, the bottom of all that is.All that blather about Antaeus? He's not so bad. He's just a traitor to Satan's kingdom.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we get picked up and set down into the ninth circle of hell by a giant who almost bested Hercules, who seemed immune to Lucan's flattery, and who finally betrays his master and lets the invaders in.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:57] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:36] One more time back to Lucan's PHARSALIA--here, Hercules' defeat of Antaeus. Intriguingly, after all that flattery, here's a reference to the giant's failure (well, to Antaeus' momentary victory over Hercules before his final defeat).[09:08] The tower of Garisenda: bristling but ultimately hollow pride.[13:09] Who wishes he could have traveled by another road? Dante the pilgrim or Dante the poet?[15:06] A rare instance of the cliché of hell as an open mouth.[16:07] Antaeus turns from a tower into a ship's mast.[17:18] What's with the sheer number of similes and metaphors in INFERNO, Canto XXXI?[21:53] The terrible irony in that reference to Roland and Charlemagne.[25:00] A rereading of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 130 - 145.
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