A Pilgrim Walking Across Hell? Not Really. More Like A Writer: Inferno, Canto XV, Lines 79 - 99

Brunetto Latini has offered a history lesson on Florence and a prophecy for the pilgrim Dante's future. It's Dante's turn to respond in their back-and-forth conversation.

But the pilgrim doesn't just respond! He recasts their conversation, not in terms of the teacherly voice, but rather one that's more central to the task of COMEDY: he responds as a writer to the emotional demands of the situation.

This response from Dante strikes to the heart of Canto XV. For all of Brunetto's bravado, he has shown Dante the writerly hopes of fame, of a text that's remembered (and glossed). The poet knows the truth because of Brunetto: it's all about being able to put experiences into language and hold them there for others to read.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I slow-walk through Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY, with this podcast episode that's an exploration of Inferno, Canto XV, lines 79 - 99. These are the pilgrim's words. They come after his teacher's rhetorical excess. These, too, are excessive. And gorgeous. And in the end, emotionally true, a state of being that might escape Brunetto.

Here are the segments of this podcast episode:

[01:12] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XV, lines 79 - 99. If you want to follow along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the header "Walking With Dante."

[02:49] The pilgrim recasts Brunetto as an exile. What Brunetto has prophesied for the pilgrim is actually Brunetto's own state: exile (that is, from the land of the living). Intriguingly, by redefining Brunetto as an exile, the pilgrim (and the poet behind him) have been linked with the damned. Everyone's an exile.

[04:40] The pilgrim Dante responds to Brunetto's rather boorish racism with a paternalistic connection. Dad?

[07:36] Fame: how to make yourself eternal in this world.

[11:05] Dante's not a pilgrim. He's a writer, taking notes. Notes that will ultimately get glossed "by a lady."

[13:34] Yet there are strange doubts in this passage, as in this entire canto.

[15:56] As well as the pilgrim's bravado: Fortune, bring it on! Is bravado a good response to doubt?

[17:48] As Brunetto, Dante ends with a rhetorical flourish, an almost impenetrable aphorism.

[21:18] Virgil! He's been there all along. Now he actually speaks. (It's his only line in Canto XV.)