Queenly Embeasting: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, Lines 67 - 93
Walking With Dante31 Elo 2025

Queenly Embeasting: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, Lines 67 - 93

We finally come to know who has been our spokesperson for the lustful penitents: Guido Guinizzelli, perhaps the most important Italian poet working before Dante.

Guinizzelli explains who the penitents are by using two classical allusions and even making up words to describe their sin, in the ways that poets always manipulate and even invent language.

This passage is a shocking example of Dante's changing notion of homosexuality. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through its rather high, ornate rhetoric to discover that in fact there's more fusion that just marriage, than two become one. In fact, our poet is fusing his poetry with Guinizzelli's.

Consider underwriting the many fees for this podcast with a one-time donation or a very small monthly stipend by using this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:52] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 67 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the comment section for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:10] Why are the mountaineer penitents gawking? What makes them feel rough and rugged?

[07:28] The pilgrim Dante receives a beatitude from another poet in the borderland that is Purgatory itself.

[09:14] Julius Caesar is slurred as "Queen."

[13:20] Heterosexuality is the fusion of male and female: "And the two shall become one."

[17:04] Guido Guinizzelli identifies himself, although he's been in the words of this passage all along.

[21:26] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 67 - 93.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(498)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to a Renegotiated Poem: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 1 - 12

Welcome to a Renegotiated Poem: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 1 - 12

From its opening lines, it's clear that PARADISO is not like what has come before in COMEDY. Dante seems to be renegotiating the terms of his poem, establishing a new voice, a new model, and a new met...

26 Heinä 37min

Final Thoughts On PURGATORIO

Final Thoughts On PURGATORIO

We've reached the end of our time on the great mountain of Purgatory . . . and in the great second canticle of COMEDY.Here are some final thoughts, an attempt to bring our time with this part of the p...

26 Huhti 19min