We've seen seen one demon running along the bank. Now here comes a pack of them! They boil out at Virgil who is ready for them with lofty rhetoric and misplaced trust. And even a little contempt for the pilgrim Dante.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk through this incredibly dramatic passage from the fifth of the evil pouches (or malebolge) in the eighth circle of INFERNO with its many rings of fraud, this most human sin. There's a lot of low comedy, high rhetoric, and even some of Dante's own autobiography here. In other words, it's classic INFERNO.

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

[00:48] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XXI, lines 64 - 102. If you'd like to read along, just scroll down this page.

[03:50] Notes on the crazy, strong, focused drama in this scene.

[08:38] The demon Evil Tail's rather low speech v. Virgil's high, learned, rhetorically-compacted speech.

[12:05] Is this a moment of the demon's cunning strategy (to make Virgil think the bad guy has let down his guard) or is it a moment of very low comedy from the poet Dante?

[14:04] Virgil calls out the pilgrim--and is quite hard on him!

[17:25] A bit of Dante-the-poet's autobiography slipped into the passage--but with an ironic twist. In the middle of a very dramatic scene, the personal invades COMEDY. As it almost always does in INFERNO.

[22:49] A possible vulgar joke to finish off the passage.

And here’s my translation of Inferno, Canto XXI, Lines 64 – 102

 After Virgil had gone on beyond the bridge’s abutment

And gotten over to the sixth bank,

He had to put on his game face.

 

With all the fury and chaos

Of a pack of dogs let loose on a poor beggar—

The sort who just up and starts his pleading wherever he stops—

 

They sprang out from under the bridge

And parried all their grappling hooks at him.

But he cried out, “None of you better think you can hurt me!

 

“Before you stick me with your forks,

One of you come over here to hear me out

And then make a decision about ripping me open.”

 

They all cried, “Send out Evil Tail!”

One demon stepped out—the rest stood firm—

And came up to him, saying, “How’s this gonna help him?”

 

“Do you really believe, Evil Tail, that you see me here,

Having come all this way,” my master said to him,

“Yet still safe from all your tricks,

 

“Without divine will and fate on my side?

Let us be on our way, for it is willed in heaven

That I show another this savage path.”

 

At that, the demon’s pride fell so fast

That he let his hook dangle down to his feet.

He said to the others, “Don’t anyone do nothing to him.”

 

At which point my leader called to me: “Hey, you,

All smashed down among the rubble

Of the bridge, now you can come back safely to me.”

 

At that, I forced myself to move and came quickly to his side.

Then the devils aggressively advanced on us

And I trembled lest they break their truce.

 

One other time, I saw some soldiers in great fear

As they filed out of Caprona, even if under a security pact,

Because they realized their enemies had surrounded them.

 

I pressed my whole body as close as I could

Against my leader and didn’t even blink in the face of

The demons’ looks, which for sure weren’t very good.

 

They lowered their forks and one of them said,

“Maybe I should give him a poke in his tushie.”

And the others replied, “Yep, let him have it in the crack.”