PURGATORIO, Episode 165. Virgil's Classical Schooling And Insistence: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 22 - 39

The unknown shades wants to know how two escapees from hell have made their way up Mount Purgatory. Virgil has to explain that the pilgrim Dante is still alive . . . and he does so with a knot of classical imagery before pressing on to the question of “why” the mountain just shook and all the souls shouted in one voice.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 164. A Shade Appears: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 1 - 21

Dante the pilgrim is left wondering why Mount Purgatory has shaken so hard . . . and then he’s confronted by an even deeper mystery: a shade appears, seemingly out of nowhere, reminiscent of the appearances of Virgil and Cato earlier in COMEDY. It’s a wild start to one of the finest cantos in COMEDY.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 163. Fear And Trembling On The Mountain: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 124 - 151

Dante the pilgrim and Virgil resume their walk along the fifth terrace of Purgatory, picking their way among the avaricious, when they’re brought to a stop by a mighty earthquake and much singing. Dante is afraid. Virgil tells him not to be . . . although Virgil seems afraid. There are references to divine births. And the walk continues apace.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 162. Hugh Capet's Antiphon: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 97 - 123

Hugh Capet abruptly turns from the pilgrim Dante’s first question about who he was to his second question about why the pilgrim only heard Hugh’s voice on the fifth terrace of avarice. Along the way, Hugh Capet offers a brief but well-stocked list of those who have been done in by greed. Then he offers a curious, curt ending to his monologue: a person does as much as they want.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 161. The Depths Of The French Monarchy's Evil: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 82 - 96

Hugh Capet, the almost legendary founder of the Capetian line of Frankish/French kings, winds up his monologue with a shocking turn of events: The French monarchy has become so bad that it has made the papacy under Boniface VIII, Dante’s arch enemy, look . . . not just good, but divine.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 160. The Madness Of Hugh Capet's Descendants: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 61 - 81

Hugh Capet continues the story of his family with three descendants who make a mess of Italy in Dante the poet’s own day: Charles I of Anjou, Charles of Valois, and Charles II of Anjou. The Capetian dynasty is driven mad by avarice, all starting with the acquisition of the dowry of Provence. (And in this passage, we get our first instance of antisemitism in COMEDY.)

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PURGATORIO, Episode 159. Hugh Capet In Purgatory . . . Or Maybe Not: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 40 - 60

Dante the pilgrim walks up to the soul who has been citing Mary, Fabricius, and Nicholas as his exemplars against avarice. The pilgrim finds himself with Hugh Capet, the legendary (and historical) founder of the Capetian dynasty of French kings. Or maybe not, since Dante the poet gets his historical wires crossed.

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PURGATORIO, Epsiode 158. Poverty As Reward And Compensation: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 16 - 39

Dante and Virgil pick their way slowly among the avaricious shades, face down and immobile on the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory. Dante the pilgrim is attracted by one soul ahead who is speaking out examples of poverty . . . and perhaps generosity. This voice leads the pilgrim right up to the next major figure of PURGATORIO.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 157. What The Pilgrim Can Do And What A Redeemer Must Do: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 1 - 15

Dante the pilgrim has to move on . . . because Pope Adrian V told him to. The pilgrim and Virgil pick their way among the crowds of penitents on the terrace of avarice. There are so many that the poet has to step out with a prophetic curse and a plea for a redeemer.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 156. The Loneliness Of Pope Adrian V: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 127 - 145

Pope Adrian V ends his discourse in a strange way: seemingly piqued at the pilgrim Dante before he sounds a note of loneliness, even alienation. Perhaps this loneliness is what avarice does to a soul. Or perhaps it’s what exile has done to Dante.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 155. The Most Bitter Pain Of Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 115 - 124

Pope Adrian V answers the pilgrim Dante’s second question: What is going on here on the fifth terrace of Purgatory? In so doing, the pope offers one of the most misunderstood lines of PURGATORIO and also ties the punishment here back to the subject of falconry.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 154. A Pope In Purgatory For (Surprise!) Avarice: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 91 - 114

Dante the pilgrim gets Virgil’s okay to address one of the penitents on the fifth circle of Mount Purgatory. The pilgrim then finds himself standing over Pope Adrian V, the first pope we meet in PURGATORIO. Or at least it’s Adrian V as far as the Dante the poet is concerned . . . but maybe not as far as history is concerned.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 153. Stuck To The Ground (Sometimes): PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 70 - 90

Dante and Virgil now walk along the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory, seeing penitent souls who are face down, stuck to the earth, unable to turn over. Virgil wants to get on up to the next terrace but Dante the pilgrim wants to stop and talk to one of these penitents.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 152. Look Up To The Heavens: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 52 - 69

The pilgrim may be on his way to the fifth terrace of Purgatory, but he’s still burdened by his dream of the seductive woman and the holy, speedy lady. Virgil comes to the rescue once again—this time with a reinterpretation of that dream (which leaves us a lot of questions!) and a command to look up at the heavens as the ultimate lure of desire.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 151. Expecting Those Ladies Of Consolation: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 34 - 51

Awakened by the foul smell in his second Purgatorial dream, Dante the pilgrim finds himself out of tune with his surroundings: a bright new day, the sun at his back, and an angel who fans him on to the fifth terrace ahead. Most curious of all, those who mourn are promised “ladies of consolation,” which the pilgrim doesn’t seem to fully recognize.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 149. The Siren, The Speedy Lady, And Virgil: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 16 - 33

Dante’s dream continues with the ugly woman turned beautiful . . . and then into a siren. She sings a song about Ulysses (a song that gets his story wrong but brings him back into COMEDY) before a holy speedy lady descends to request Virgil’s aid in (once again) saving Dante the pilgrim.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 148. Chilly Dreams Before The Fifth Terrace Of Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 1 - 15

Our pilgrim Dante falls asleep on the fourth terrace of Mount Purgatory, just as he’s been passed by the racing slothful. The night air is chilly and his dream is chillier: a deformed woman made beautiful by our pilgrim’s act of observing her.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 147. Greedy Beasts That Refuse The Lure: A Read-Through Of The Fifth Terrace Of PURGATORIO, Cantos XIX - XXI

The fifth terrace of Purgatory: a read-through of PURGATORIO, Cantos XIX, XX, and XXI. The terrace of the avaricious, which includes a late-to-repent pope, one of the founders of the French monarchy, and the Roman poet Statius who is so enamored with Virgil that he almost makes a grave mistake in the middle of Purgatory.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 146. Fear, New Thoughts, And Dreams: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 130 - 145

As the zealous slothful run on, two more come in the rear, biting the penitents with warnings about sloth. After they’re gone, the pilgrim can finally get some rest. He has a new thought—curiously undefined—which leads him into his second dream in PURGATORIO.

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