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
Three Ecstatic Visions And Dante's Warning (To Himself?) About Anger: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 19 - 39
As Dante the pilgrim gets ready to leave the third terrace of Purgatory, the terrace of the angry, he has three ecstatic visions that warn about the dangers of excessive wrath.Join me, Mark Scarbrough...
22 Sep 202431min
The Light Of The Imagination: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 1 - 18
Dante the pilgrim leaves Marco of Lombardy behind, but Dante the poet is not yet done with fundamental questions for his poem--particularly, how does he know what he knows? The answer lies in the imag...
8 Sep 202422min
Marco Of Lombardy Redux: Questions From PURGATORIO, Canto XVI, Lines 46 - 145
We've finished Marco of Lombardy's central discourse about free will, the soul's maturation, and the systemic problems with the world. Now let's look back at the whole speech and talk through some of ...
4 Sep 202426min
The Chatty Conclusion Of The Angry Marco's Discourse: PURGATORIO, Canto XVI, Lines 130 - 145
Marco of Lombardy's time in COMEDY comes to an end with a chatty back-and-forth between him and the pilgrim Dante. Dante wants to compliment Marco on creating such a great argument (the one, that is, ...
1 Sep 202418min
