The Struggle For A Son's Soul: PURGATORIO, Canto V, Lines 85 - 129

We come to the second monologue in PURGATORIO, Canto V. This time, we're on the other side of the battle of Campeldino with one of Dante's enemies. And we're on the other side of INFERNO, with a son whose father we saw damned with Ulysses and Diomedes.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this most surprising speech and continue to discuss the ways PURGATORIO is changing the game for Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY.

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

[01:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 85 - 129. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment on this episode, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.

[04:38] Who was Buonconte da Montefeltro?

[08:36] A positive and a negative node in the passage: a sense of humility and a growing misogyny in PURGATORIO.

[13:11] Dante the poet offers a ham-handed narrative tercet while also forgiving his enemy, Buonconte--in other words, bad form but good ethics.

[14:25] Buonconte's speech is the first true node of the veneration of the Virgin Mary in COMEDY. But there's also a problem here. What or whom is Buonconte actually forgiving?

[18:05] Buonconte brings up the problem of veracity in COMEDY by foregrounding the credulity (or incredulity) of his story.

[22:01] There are demonic voices in PURGATORIO!

[23:26] There are more bits of Virgil's GEORGICS in this passage. Even more important, Buonconte's speech shows that COMEDY is becoming more and more encyclopedic.

[27:35] Two shocking bits. Apparently, one needn't be buried in sacred ground. And Dante the poet gives the more learned speech to his former enemy.

[29:49] Four ways Buonconte's speech ties back to Jacopo del Cassero's: 1) Campeldino, 2) bloody deaths, 3) a tour of Italian geography, and 4) distinct references back to INFERNO.