Walking With Dante5 Huhti 2023

Just Tell Your Story And Stay Pliant: PURGATORIO, Canto I, Lines 85 - 111

Virgil has replied to Cato--and now it's Cato's turn to answer back. This time, Cato doesn't seem so threatening. He seems more willing to help Virgil and Dante. Why could that be?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore Cato's second speech at the opening of PURGATORIO. We'll talk through its implications and see how it opens up the possibilities of redemption this early on in the second third of Dante's masterwork, COMEDY.

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

[01:13] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto I, lines 85 - 111. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:40] Did Virgil make a mistake in mentioning Marcia? Or is Virgil even more human in this canticle?

[06:01] Cato most likely was redeemed during Jesus's harrowing of hell.

[09:03] There's a strange Latinate construction at line 87. It feels very much like legalese.

[11:08] Cato addresses his reply to Virgil, thereby accepting Virgil as Dante's guide.

[12:23] Cato's reference to a "smooth rush" may call us back to the wood of the suicides in INFERNO Canto XIII. And his reference to "reclothing" the pilgrim may have a reference to St. Paul's theology in it.

[15:43] Cato indicates that rhetoric won't save them--but their story will.

[18:19] Cato is not the first minister of Purgatory--which leads some to say that Cato is not ultimately redeemed.

[20:16] Pliancy is a prime virtue of PURGATORIO, both for the pilgrim and the reader.

[22:58] Cato warns them off, as the Magi may have been warned off after Jesus's birth.

[25:19] The sun is rising on Easter Sunday morning.

[26:37] Our first glimpse of the mountain ahead of us.

[27:25] The pilgrim stands up--a huge change from his behavior in INFERNO, Canto I.

[28:55] Rereading PURGATORIO Canto I Lines 28 - 111.

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Of Moon Spots and Virgil: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 46 - 63

Now that our pilgrim Dante is standing in the moon, he has a fundamental question: Why are there spots on the moon?And he thinks he knows the answer, right out of natural philosophy. They're caused by...

23 Elo 21min

Incarnated in the Moon: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 19 - 45

After Dante's warning to his readers (or perhaps some of his readers), we return to the plot, ascending through the heavens to arrive at the moon . . . or really, in the moon.Dante and Beatrice find t...

19 Elo 28min

Go Home: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 18

Our poet steps out of the shadows with an important message: "Go home."Because PARADISO is hard. Because we might get lost. Because we're not prepared.The stark address to all readers--or perhaps to a...

16 Elo 25min

Of Natural Instincts and Their Natural Ends: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 115 - 142

Beatrice continues in her discourse about our natural instincts, making the bold claim that they can lead us to our natural ends . . . which are the good, not the catastrophic bad.Her Scholastic theol...

12 Elo 23min

Sailing Across the Great Sea of "To Be": PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114

Beatrice has answered Dante's first doubt, but he has another. He can't quite understand how he, maybe in his body, can make his way across the universe.She doesn't have a quick answer. Instead, she h...

9 Elo 25min

Returning Home Through the Music of the Spheres: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93

Our pilgrim finds everything doubled in brightness . . . because he's begun to fly up to the heavens, although he doesn't know it at first.He's too busy figuring out all that light . . . and listening...

5 Elo 37min

Staring at the Sun: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60

The plot gets underway in PARADISO.Our pilgrim Dante turns to Beatrice . . . who is paying him no attention. She's staring at the sun.So he does the same! He hasn't even left earth, yet the miraculous...

2 Elo 36min

A Polyvocal Passage With All Its Dissonances: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 13 - 36

Our poet moves from his scholastic and even (medieval) scientific opening of PARADISO into his invocation . . . to Apollo?This passage has often embarrassed Dante scholars who feel the need to excuse ...

29 Heinä 41min