After Forese Donati has pointed out five of the gluttons on the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory, one of them, the first mentioned and a poet of the previous generation, keeps muttering something almost unintelligible under his breath.

Our pilgrim asks him for more information. He then offers the pilgrim an oblique prophecy that has troubled Dante scholars for hundreds of years. He also asks if this pilgrim is the same guy who wrote a poem found in the VITA NUOVA.

Dante replies that he is indeed that poet . . . and goes on to claim that his poetry is inspired by love itself.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take on the first half of the single most annotated passage in all of Dante's COMEDY. We are getting to the heart of what Dante thinks he's doing with his poetry . . . but what exactly that is remains something of a mystery, or at least a scholarly debate.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:00] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, Lines 34 - 54. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:08] The value of paying attention: the pilgrim to Bonagiunta and Bonagiunta to Dante's poetry.

[08:54] Bonagiunta's shifty murmurs of "gentucca."

[11:51] An opaque prophecy about Lucca from an older poet who should know how to be clear.

[17:13] Bonagiunta's refernce to a canzone (or long poetic song) from Dante's VITA NUOVA.

[20:37] The pilgrim's wild claims for direct inspiration from . . . love (or maybe God).

[27:02] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, lines 34 - 54.

PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, is set as a direct continuation from Canto XXIII. The poet Dante cues us to the continuation but there nevertheless are a couple of subtle disruptions.

For one thing, Virgil has been silence for most of Canto XXIII and will indeed remain silent throughout Canto XXIV, his longest silence yet in COMEDY. We won’t hear anything from him until well into Canto XXV.

And in this on-going conversation with Forese Donati, we get our first glimpse of Paradise, after curiously understanding that the human will is strong enough to slow down its progress even to that place, its ultimate goal.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the opening lines of our on-going time among the gluttons on the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:49] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, lines 1 - 15. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:12] Canto XXIV is a continuation of Canto XXIII--and Virgil remains silent.

[06:33] The "redead" is a reference to Jude 12 in the New Testament.

[10:49] Does Ulysses enter into this passage?

[11:50] The human will can even slow down its ultimate desire, the central motivation of the universe.

[14:15] Mentioning Piccarda Donati gives us a fuller glimpse of Paradise ahead . . . and a classical glimpse.

[16:48] Pain and solace are the core of the prophetic voice.

[21:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, lines 1 - 15.

Forese Donati has finished his diatribe about Florentine women and is now ready to hear Dante the pilgrim's story. Who did the pilgrim get here in the flesh?

The pilgrim retells the journey, renegotiating its opening and reconfiguring its theology, even this high up on the mountain, as we near the apocalyptic climax of PURGATORIO.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk slowly through this last passage in Canto XXIII.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:27] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 112 - 133. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:09] A V-shaped structure reinforced for Canto XXIII.

[06:17] A question of what Forese should remember and how the opening of COMEDY should be understood.

[10:20] Further negotiations about the plot of COMEDY.

[14:22] The first time the pilgrim Dante names Beatrice and the first time he acknowledges the loss of Virgil.

[16:09] A curious moment: Virgil named and Statius unnamed.

[18:29] Two larger questions. One, COMEDY is a poem in process.

[20:03] Two, PURGATORIO replicates the structure of the New Testament.

[23:16] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 112 - 133.

Having praised his wife, Nella, Forese Donati launches into the prophetic voice, the new "high style" that Dante has developed, a screed with a lyrical undertow.

This complicated poetic act can only be accomplished with the vernacular, with medieval Florentine (in Dante's case).

And although it fuses with misogyny and xenophobia, it nonetheless demonstrates the Dante's new style beyond love sonnets: the lyrical, prophetic voice.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore Forese Donati's condemnation of Florentine women and his wild launch into Isaiah's prophetic vision.

If you'd like to help support this podcast, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:40] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 91 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation via a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:50] As Forese launches into his misogynistic condemnation of Florentine women, he reaffirms his love for his wife, Nella, the "little widow."

[08:42] Forese's prophetic discourse takes flight from a misogynistic and xenophobic platform.

[11:29] Rising sumptuary laws indicate an increasingly fluid social structure, particularly for women.

[15:02] Forese ends his screed at a high-style moment infused with Isaiah's prophecy (from Isaiah 7).

[18:03] The prophetic discourse ends at a lyrical moment somehow still in this high style.

[20:03] The vernacular is able to handle a greater emotional range than Latin in Dante's day.

[23:40] Forese's prophecy never comes true--and incorporates a curious shadow of doubt.

[26:23] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 91 - 111.

Dante the pilgrim and his rival/friend/fellow poet Forese Donati continue to talk about their concerns: suffering, placement on the mountain, and the role of the living in the service of the dead.

Along the way, they seem to be coming closer and closer to the Christian idea of redemptive suffering, a complex stance in the face of the nihilism that almost overwhelms the suffering in INFERNO behind us.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these problems, plus talk about Forese's wife, Nella, and the role of the vernacular in exploring and explaining the deepest truths.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:37] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 76 - 90. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for the episode of the podcast on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:17] The changing notion of suffering--yes, in COMEDY, but even in this small passage.

[07:20] Accounting for time, souls, and their ascents on Mount Purgatory.

[13:32] Nella Donati and two interpretive stances toward her place in the poem: 1) correcting the record or 2) hoping for a full record of a poet's works.

[17:36] Vernacular language and its uncomfortable relationship with "higher" truths.

[24:03] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 76 - 90.

Having met his poetic rival, Forese Donati, Dante the pilgrim must make sense of the clear and present pain he sees in friend's face.

This passage is a curious example of felix culpa, the fortunate fall, in which suffering must be reinterpreted for the greater good. Except the pain doesn't stop being the pain. Suffering remains the central metaphysical question of the human condition, the experiential crux underneath our high-minded notions of ontology.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through this conversation between two poetic rivals on the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory among the emaciated gluttons.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 49 - 75. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:08] Best friends, still perhaps vain, still perhaps rivals.

[10:39] A power in the water and the tree--and an intense interpretive knot.

[14:56] The problem of hunger and thirst among disembodied souls.

[18:50] The interpretation of suffering as the crux of being human.

[26:15] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 49 - 75.

Dante now walks with the skeletal gluttons who have God's writing on their faces.

Along the way, there are increasingly complex and almost gaming literary references that litter the text until Dante the pilgrim suddenly is recognized by a fellow, contemporary, vernacular poet who is not known for any high style but is instead a champion of a low, vulgar poetry in this hip, new form of the sonnet.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look into the mirror of an increasingly complex meta reality in COMEDY as Dante the pilgrim meets his friend and rival Forese Donati on the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:22] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 28 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me in the comment section at the bottom of the page, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:23] Internal thoughts--less revelatory than just rehearsed--about the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

[09:27] The potential blasphemy of the pelican in her piety.

[12:50] Three references to other texts in increasing opacity: from Dante's VITA NUOVA, from Ovid's METAMORPHOSES, and from Josephus' history (sort of).

[15:30] Starved enough to see God's writing in the human face: a felix culpa?

[21:31] A misplaced tercet in COMEDY?

[22:52] Forese Donati and Dante v. Statius and Virgil.

[31:18] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 28 - 48.