Walking With Dante18 Okt 2020

Jousting To Tell The Tale: INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 43 - 75

After Dante confesses his unworthiness in the opening of Canto II of INFERNO, Virgil clarifies the matter. "You're not modest. You're a coward."

Then Virgil does what humans do. He tells a story. One that's almost too good to be true: about the first time Virgil met Beatrice.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we ascend into heaven . . . at least in Virgil's telling of it.

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

[02:13] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto II, 43 - 75. If you'd like to read long, find a more detailed study guide, or continue the conversation with me through a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:53] Rhetoric. What is it? Why's it so important?

[07:03] Virgil's initial salvo at Dante: a sneer, followed by a redefinition of the problem.

[11:51] Virgil, who has tweaked the pilgrim's rhetorical prowess, unexpectedly stumbles by saying something that's unintelligible to those who haven't read COMEDY.

[13:46] In this war of words for who's up to telling this tale: Beatrice steps up to (the rhetorical) bat. Her speech is "gentle and soft."

[14:41] There is an important difference between Beatrice's gentle, soft speech and Virgil's learned "polished" speech.

[16:12] Beatrice's first speech (but in Virgil's mouth). She opens with flattery, then lays it on thick. So much so that she ends at a place that seems almost, well, irrational. Or at the very least impossible.

[26:58] Rereading the passage: INFERNO, Canto II, lines 43 - 75.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(498)

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 Aug 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 Aug 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 Aug 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 Aug 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 Aug 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 Jul 41min

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 Jul 37min

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 Apr 19min