Excuse Me, Virgil, I Didn't Quite Get That: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 1 - 18
Virgil seemed to have come to a resting place in his monumental discourse on love: "Here's all I know . . . and all I don't know."But the pilgrim is less than satisfied. He wants Virgil to continue on...
24 Nov 202424min
A (Sort Of) Short Summary Of PURGATORIO, Cantos I - XVII
We've come to the middle of PURGATORIO . . . and indeed the middle of COMEDY as a whole. Let's take a breather and review where we've been in Purgatory since our very slow approach sometimes (or often...
20 Nov 202433min
Love Escapes Virgil: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 127 - 139
We come to the end of Virgil's (first) discourse on love, as well as the end of the central canto of PURGATORIO.But it's a strange end since Virgil admits to what he doesn't know. Having been so certa...
17 Nov 202421min
Love Maps Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 106 - 126
Virgil continues his discourse about love, the central discourse in all of COMEDY. It's a tour de force of scholastic reasoning . . . that may leave something to be desired after INFERNO.Join me, Mark...
13 Nov 202429min
Love Is The Seed: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 91 - 105
Love is the seed … of all you do. It's news to me, given the state of the world. But not to Virgil. And certainly not to Dante's COMEDY.Virgil's explosive claim about love lies at the center of the po...
10 Nov 202433min
Drowsy Yet Vigilant, Slothful Yet Expectant: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 73 - 90
Welcome to the fourth terrace of Purgatory proper!Dante and Virgil reach the top of the stairs just as night falls and the pilgim loses all possibility of forward momentum. He hesitates--from sloth?--...
6 Nov 202423min
The Fourth Terrace Of Purgatory Proper: A Read-Through Of PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Line 73, to Canto XVIII, Line 145
We're ready to get to the fourth terrace of Purgatory proper--that is, the terrace where sloth is purged.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a read-through of this terrace, starting at Canto XVII, Line 73 (...
3 Nov 202416min
All The Light Ends With The Stars: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 40 - 72
Dante the poet is having great fun with light. He's playing with its various meanings: illumination, revelation, sunrise, sunset, concealment, power--all this as we approach the middle of PURGATORIO a...
25 Sep 202420min
