INFERNO, Episode 202. Snitching To The Devil: Inferno, Canto XXXII, Lines 103 - 123

Dante the pilgrim has come across an infamous traitor on the ice sheet of Cocytus in the ninth ring of hell. Here in Antenora, the second sub-ring of the bottom of the everything, Dante finds the guy he and many others blame for the troubles of central Italy.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the second half of this conversation with one of the most despicable sinners in Dante's universe. The last episode began this moment in INFERNO. This episode finishes it off.

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

[01:36] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXII, lines 103 - 123. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, just scroll down this page.

[03:36] Bocca degli Abati, the great Guelph traitor who caused the slaughter of so many Guelphs at the battle of Montaperti in 1260.

[09:44] Bocca's characterization in the passage: 1) sneering, 2) snitching, and 3) still trying to be in control.

[13:15] The list of others traitors in Antenora: Buoso da Duera, Tesauro de' Beccheria, Gianni de' Soldanieri, Ganelon, and Tebaldello Zambrasi.

[20:13] Dante the pilgrim as a devil in hell.

[21:57] The incredibly tight parallelism of INFERNO, Canto XXXII.

[23:35] Is INFERNO, Canto XXXII successful or clumsy?

[28:53] Rereading Antenora: INFERNO, Canto XXXII, lines 70 - 123.

My English translation of Inferno, Canto XXXII, Lines 103 – 123

I’d already twisted his hair in my hand

And pulled out more than one hank,

Even as he howled and willfully kept his eyes down,

When some guy cried out, “What’s up, Bocca?

Don’t you make enough music by chattering your teeth

Without howling, too? What devil’s tickling you?”

“That’s it!” I said, “I don’t care if you speak another word,

You damned traitor. To your utter shame,

I will carry back the true news about you.”

“Go away,” he replied, “And tell whatever you want.

But don’t keep quiet, if you do break out of here,

About the one who’s got the ready tongue over there.

“He’s blubbering about the French silver.

‘I saw,’ you can say, ‘the guy from Duera

Down where the sinners stay fresh on the ice.’

“And if you’re asked, ‘Who else was down here?’

Right near you is the one from Beccheria

Who had his armored throat piece sliced in two by the Florentines.

“I think Gianni de’ Soldanieri is

A little farther on, with Ganelon and Tebaldello,

Who opened Faenza while it slumbered.”