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 holes in the ground in the third evil pouch. So down they go! Except Virgil the shade carries our corporeal pilgrim. And perhaps even more is afoot in the poetics.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore some problems in this rather "simple" narrative passage from COMEDY. But you know Dante. Nothing's as simple as it seems. Even this passage brings up larger questions about Dante's poetics and the problems of biting the hand that (at least indirectly) feeds you: the church.

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

[01:31] My English translation of this passage: Inferno, Canto XIX, lines 31 - 45. If you'd like to read along, just look below.

[03:00] A packed segment: the colors of hell, the metaphoric space's fusion with the narrative space in the best of Dante's poetics, and questions about the geography of the eighth circle of hell, the circle of fraud.

[10:46] The pilgrim and his guide are so simpatico! What's up?

[12:08] The first descent into one of the evil pouches.

[14:01] Virgil carries Dante the pilgrim down. Yes, the corporeal v. incorporeal problem we've been over before. But maybe there's more to this passage. Maybe Virgil carries Dante the poet down.

[19:18] A speculative question for Canto XIX: Why does Dante need to descend into this pouch, since he doesn't go down into the first two pouches we've encountered? What calls Dante to this pouch?

And here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 31 – 45

“Master, who is that one there,” I asked,

“Who twists himself and writhes around more than the others,

And who is sucked at by an even redder flame?”

And he to me, “If you prefer, I’ll cart you down

That easier slope on the other side,

So that you can learn about his transgressions and his life.”

And I, “For me, it’s just perfect to do whatever pleases you.

You are my lord and you know I won’t depart

From your will. You also know the things I don’t even articulate.”

So we came onto the fourth embankment,

Turned and went down on the left

To the straitened bottom that was perforated with holes.

My good master pulled me to his side

And didn’t put me down until we came to the

Pit where the sinner made his lamentations with his legs.