In A Rush For Peace: PURGATORIO, Canto V, Lines 37 - 63
The pilgrim Dante and his guide, Virgil, have passed beyond the lazy souls and on to a group that's in a frenzy: running, calling out, speaking in one voice. The change is marked and important to unde...
30 Jul 202332min
The Prisoners Of Hope: PURGATORIO, Canto V, Lines 22 - 36
We come to a second scene, certainly sequential, almost contemporaneous with the previous scene among Belacqua's cohorts.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we come to one of the great contrasting moments in...
26 Jul 202320min
Distractions And The Demands Of Writing About Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto V, Lines 1 - 21
Dante the pilgrim has had his last words with Belacqua and begins his journey on up the mountain. Or at least, laterally along the mountain of Purgatory.But those negligent souls with Belacqua are not...
23 Jul 202322min
Mobs On The Mountain: A Read-Through Of PURGATORIO, Canto V
We've reached the end of the first narrative arc of PURGATORIO. Dante the poet brings the first five cantos to a close with a very quiet, almost disturbing decrescendo: a small voice, a woman's voice,...
19 Jul 202313min
Belacqua Redux: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, Lines 97 - 139
We've talked about Belcqua as a parodic, ironic, or comedic figure in PURGATORIO. But is there a way to interpret his character as more straightforward? What if Dante the poet intends him to be a warn...
16 Jul 202315min
Belacqua, The King Of Misdirection Through Centuries Of Reading Dante's COMEDY: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 139
Belacqua has been the subject of hundreds of commentaries over centuries as readers have grappled with who this figure is and what purpose he serves in Dante's poem.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I offe...
12 Jul 202329min
When The Going Gets Tough, Some People Just Sit Down: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, Lines 97 -114
After all that scholastic reasoning, all that discussion of medieval astronomy and geography, all that cogitation on the soul's unity and the sun's position, Dante the pilgrim and Virgil come across a...
9 Jul 202317min
Astronomy = Geography = Morality: PURGATORIO, Canto IV, Lines 76 - 96
Dante the pilgrim continues to rest on the first small ledge that runs around Mount Purgatory. Here, he and Virgil first discuss astronomy--or why the sun is in on his left (or "wrong") in this hemisp...
5 Jul 202319min
