Walking With Dante

Here's just a brief episode about where I am and how the podcast will start again in about six weeks. Hang tight and we'll be walking . . . no, actually flying through the spheres of PARADISO in a few weeks.Until then, gird up your loins. PARADISO is not for those weak in spirit . . . or leggings.

In the last episode, we talked through some of the "superficial" factors in the grand apocalyptic vision in Eden: its structure, some diction cues, even a few rifts or cracks in its flow.In this episode, let's turn to the much thornier issue of what it all means. A consensus has developed over the seven hundred years of commentary. That reading (or interpretation) now dominates the Anglo-American, rationalist outlooks on the vision.But might there be more? And might that reading be prone to mistakes or gaffes it cannot accommodate?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the second of two episodes on the complicated vision of the apocalypse that ends PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII.To support this work, consider underwriting its many fees with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend. You can do so at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:38] Once again, my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, lines 109 - 160. 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.[05:28] The now-standard interpretation of the vision as a sweet of Christian church history up until Dante's day and the so-called "Avignon captivity" of the papacy.[13:10] Questions and problems that arise in the standard interpretation. These may show us that the vision is more layered than a rationalist interpretation would consider.[16:28] Two external sources that may impinge on this vision: the prophecy of Daniel 7:7 and the visionary writings of the Radical Franciscans.[19:27] My reading of the vision as the collapse of good governance following the departure of the proper balance of church and state.[21:47] Two final questions: 1) Does Dante cause the collapse of the vision? And 2) should the vision be interpreted in such a rational, one-for-one way?

Before we continue with Beatrice (and even the young woman who tends the Garden of Eden), let's stop and talk all too briefly about the roles and available places for women in Dante's day, the high middle ages.Although we can't hope to cover this subject in depth, we might be able to see some of its reflections in COMEDY so far, as well as in the complex and even contradictory characterization of Beatrice in COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take an all too quick side quest into the question of women in the high middle ages.To help support this podcast by underwriting its many fees, please consider a small monthly stipend or a one-time donation using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:40] The largest grouping of women in COMEDY does not bode well for Dante . . . except a women who lies ahead of us.[06:01] The various roles and positions women could hold in the middle ages, at least according to a tract/book written in Dante's lifetime.[09:48] The damning problem: Women cannot be citizens.[13:31] The church's role in the growing restrictions on women . . . and the ways they subverted those religious restrictions.[17:50] Beatrice's role v. the Virgin's growing veneration.

The griffin pulls the chariot or cart up to the denuded tree--the "widowed" tree--and the tree regenerates into a color reminiscent of other moments in PURGATORIO. But which one exactly?We're descending into the murk of mystery with new songs that can't be defined, with allegories that are becoming increasingly opaque, and even with classical references that seem somehow out of place in the overall arch of the glorious parade.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin to approach the strange and incomprehensible mysteries that lie at the end of the second canticle of COMEDY.To support this work, 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:[01:24] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, Lines 49 - 69. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me with a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:32] A correction perhaps: "Adam" may have been a murmured reassessment of the misogyny in the text.[04:55] The pole, the chariot, and the tree: complicated translation problems.[07:15] The pole as the cross or perhaps the ties of good human governance.[11:49] The changing seasons as the tree regenerates.[13:26] The ambiguous symbolism of purple.[15:41] The unknown new song, a further mystery in the passage.[18:48] A tense and perhaps off-pitch reference to Ovid.[22:27] A knock against representative art before the apocalyptic vision just ahead.[24:18] Rereading the text: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, lines 49 - 69.

Face to face with Beatrice, the pilgrim Dante is ready for more revelation. Problem is, even after Lethe he's still doing things wrong and must be corrected by the women around the griffin's chariot.But what is he doing wrong? And why does the entire parade of revelation go into retreat? What indeed does that griffin symbolize? And how did we get from the intensely personal experience of Dante's confession and contrition to this much more global view of the allegories on the march?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin to walk slowly through one of the most complex cantos (and certainly the longest canto) in all of COMEDY.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:17] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, Lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me about this canto, please find the entry for this podcast episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:31] A brief introduction to PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII.[05:19] Notes for the first nine lines (or three tercets) of the canto.[10:40] Dante's forgotten failings and Beatrice's on-going attraction.[12:04] Dante's intense gaze . . . but for or at what?[16:23] Beatrice and the problem of the "lesser thing" of revelation.[21:28] The parade of revelation (or of the church militant) in retreat with its "precious cargo."[25:01] The griffin's feathers, which prompt further questions about the griffin's allegorical meaning.[28:08] Bridging the personal and the universal.[31:04] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, lines 1- 27.

We finally come to the face-to-face meeting of Beatrice and Dante. We've waited for this moment since INFERNO, Canto II, when Beatrice first stepped into COMEDY.Neither Dante nor Beatrice speak at their close meeting. Instead, the women around the chariot beg Beatrice to reveal her second, hidden beauty: her mouth.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the complex symbolism in this passage. We'll also take on its textual difficulties: a Biblical allusion that has been muddled in commentary, a lost word that's hard to translate, and a question of quotation marks in a medieval manuscript.To support this work, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend by using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:26] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 127 - 145. 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.[03:11] Textual problems in the first six lines (XXXI: 127 - 132)--a muddled Biblical reference, a moral question of virtues, and a word that's hard to translate.[07:49] Beatrice's turning and the coming revelation of her mouth.[10:57] A difficult conclusion to Canto XXXI: Who says these complicated lines that use the informal "you"?[16:59] Forgetting and remembering your former works to create something new.[23:10] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 127 - 145.

Dante wakes up in the arms of the young woman who first welcomed him to the Garden of Eden. She's dragging him through Lethe before she forcefully pushes him underwater.This scene is deeply symbolic and allegorical . . . although it raises many more questions than it answers. In fact, it seems to want to leave many things open-ended, a cue that Dante wants us in the poem, working on solutions to the many puzzles he has set.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we see the pilgrim Dante cleansed and ready to dance with the seven virtues around Beatrice's chariot.To support this work, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend. You can make either contribution at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:29] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 91 - 111. 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.[03:43] Two notes on the first nine lines: the heart and the shuttle.[06:33] Is this a baptism?[09:46] Three questions that surround the Latin line from the Psalms.[13:43] Why is the dunking so forceful?[15:45] What sign do the four women make over Dante?[17:41] The seven women fill in the details from PURGATORIO, Cantos I and VIII.[19:56] The four women are linked to the classical world; the three women, to the contemplative life.[22:43] Does everything happen to Statius, too? And to other penitent souls?[26:23] How do you express the inexpressible?[28:28] Must our poet forget the CONVIVIO in Lethe?[29:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 91 - 111.