Dante, The Poet Between The Classical And Modern Worlds: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 7 - 30
The fifth circle of INFERNO: wrath (and its counterpart to come).We may or may not be over a break in the poem. Boccaccio thought so. Many modern scholars do not. I'll give you some reasons why this p...
7 Feb 202126min
An Interpolated Episode: Nothing In Dante's Hand, Or A Brief History Of COMEDY's Manuscripts
In this interpolated episode, I want to give you a brief history of the manuscript of COMEDY. None exists in Dante's own hand. So how do we trust what we have?I'll talk you through some basic facts, a...
3 Feb 202121min
Hell's Biggest Crack Is In The Poetry, Not The Landscape: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 1 - 6
With the wrathful, COMEDY seems to back up and start over. Although Boccaccio had a story to explain this break, its rationale may be more in terms of the the poet's coming to terms with the expanding...
31 Jan 202122min
On To The Wrathful, Sort Of: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 97 - 130
Here's something new: a descent from one ring to another within a single canto.Our pilgrim and Virgil scramble down to find themselves on the shore of Styx. Stuck in the muck are the wrathful . . . an...
27 Jan 202126min
O, Fortuna: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 67 - 96
Dante wants to know why some people have it good and some, bad. Virgil, seemingly impatient, sets into his sermon on the goddess Fortune who controls this world. It's boiler-plate Boethius . . . but m...
24 Jan 202134min
Fate And The Cracks In Dante's Poetry: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 36 - 66
We finally get a glimpse at the hoarders and the wasters, the avaricious and the prodigal. They're mostly clergy, from run-of-the-mill clerics all the way up to popes.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the...
20 Jan 202132min
Jousting With Greedy Plutus: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 1 - 35
We descend a level of hell and 'come to the "il gran nemico," the great enemy: Plutus.But why is he so great if he makes babbles nonsense and is easily vanquished? And by Virgil? Who also suddenly has...
17 Jan 202131min
Virgil Gets The Apocalypse Wrong: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 94 - 115
Ciacco has fallen back into the muck, never to be seen again--at least not until the last judgment.As the pilgrim and Virgil start to descend to the fourth circle, they talk about that future. They ta...
13 Jan 202123min
