INFERNO, Episode 136. The Lead Weight Of Hypocrisy: Inferno, Canto XXIII, Lines 58 - 81

Dante the pilgrim and his guide Virgil have come down to the bottom of the sixth evil pouch to escape the demons from the fifth. And here, they find a group of guys in cowls or capes that look like the ones from the abbey at Cluny but that are made out of gilded lead.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we settle into the bottom of the sixth of the malebolge of fraud in the eighth circle of hell. Dante and Virgil are about to find out that fraud is about more than just tricking people. It's about killing them, too.

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

[01:18] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXIII, lines 58 -81. If you'd like to read along, just scroll down this page.

[03:56] The first descriptions of the hypocrites: the quiet, the cloaks, Cluny, and Frederick II, all bound up in just a few lines. It's quintessential Dante!

[13:18] COMEDY is as much a work of assembly as it is of coherence. It's important to keep that fact in mind.

[15:48] How does the punishment of hypocrisy fit the crime?

[20:14] The end of this passage: a possible slam at Virgil and one of the hypocrites finally speaks.

[24:15] The question of the thematics of circularity in the sins of fraud.

And here is my English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXIII, lines 58 - 81:

Down at the bottom we found tinted folks,

Who went around the circle with really slow steps,

All while wailing, with the look of defeat, and exhausted.

They had on cloaks with cowls so low

They fell over their eyes, made in the fashion

Of the ones tailored for the monks at Cluny.

The cloak’s outside dazzled with gilt work

But the inside was all lead and so very heavy

That they made the ones Frederick used on people seem like woven straw.

A very tiring tunic to last all of eternity!

We turned in the usual direction to go along with these guys.

We were intent on their sad laments.

But because of the weight, these worn-out guys

Came along so slowly that we got new companions

Every time we put one foot in front of the other.

Then I to my master: “Maybe you could find

Someone who’s known for his deeds or his name.

Glance around as we walk along.”

Then one of them behind us caught my Tuscan speech

And called out, “Slow down,

You guys who speed along through the dismal air.

“Maybe you can get what you want from me.”

At which my leader turned and said, “Hang back a bit,

Then continue on at his pace.”