For A Guy So Hard On Dante, Virgil Sure Doesn't Know His Classical Sources: Inferno, Canto XX, Lines 25 - 51
Our pilgrim Dante is crying at the distorted forms coming along in the fourth evil pouch (one of the malebolge) of the eighth circle of INFERNO. Or maybe he's crying because he knows the future: Class...
15 Dec 202124min
Poets, The Biggest Fraudsters Of All: Inferno, Canto XX, Lines 1 - 24
Canto XX of INFERNO is one that many skip. it's just too hard or too discursive or too long-winded. But others spend careers on. After Canto I, Canto XX stirs some of the most in-depth commentary of a...
12 Dec 202126min
A Look Back At The Structure, Beauty, And Engineering Of Inferno, Canto XIX
Inferno, Canto XIX, is one crazy canto, so gorgeously constructed, as thick as fine tapestry, woven with Biblical allusions, historical references, structural idiosyncrasies, and even one glaring faul...
8 Dec 202132min
Out Of Rage And Into Virgil's Arms: Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 118 - 133
Our pilgrim, Dante, has finished his righteous rant. And after rage comes Virgil. More importantly, Virgil's embrace.The pilgrim ends the canto in the arms of his poetic master. A curious ending to a ...
5 Dec 202114min
The Rant To End All Rants (Also, The World): Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 88 - 117
Our pilgrim, Dante, has been talking to Pope Nicholas III, stuck upside-down in a hole in the third evil pocket of the eighth circle of Inferno, the vast landscape of the fraudulent. He's learned that...
1 Dec 202136min
Just When You Think You Have Comedy Figured Out, It Breaks You: Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 64 - 87
In this passage, we get a clearer picture of the guy stuck upside-down in this hole in the third evil pouch, the third of the malebolge, in the eighth circle of Inferno, stuffed with the fraudsters. I...
28 Nov 202126min
Popes In Hell: Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 46 - 63
Now we come to it: the daring part, the audacious part, and (dare we say it?) the funny part.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we stand with our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide, Virgil, on the floor of the t...
24 Nov 202129min
Let's Go Down Into The Third Evil Pouch: Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 31 - 45
Dante the pilgrim and Virgil, his guide, have been walking along the ridge line of the eighth circle of Inferno. But Dante wants a closer look at the figures kicking their thighs and feet out of the h...
21 Nov 202124min
