Dante, our pilgrim, has slowed down to talk to two of the hypocrites, who are walking along in their gilded lead capes. But he gets more than he bargained for. He meets some guys who caused much of the chaos in Florence that ruined our poet's life.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk with our pilgrim through the rings of hell. We've come to the "collegio" of the hypocrites. And the insane tribalism that has destroyed Florence.

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

[01:30] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXIII, lines 82 - 108. If you'd like to read along, just scroll down this page.

[03:52]           The characterization of the two hypocrites--that is, their double-sided nature on a straitened (or narrowed) path.

[11:39] Dante-the-pilgrim's cagey reply to their questions.

[13:55] The out-of-balance scales that represent hypocrisy.

[16:22] Catalano and Loderingo, two guys right out of Dante's own past and Florence's nightmarish violence.

And here is my translation of Inferno, Canto XXIII, Lines 82 – 108

 I stopped and saw two make a big, spirited

Effort to get up to me

But were slowed by their burden and the straitened path.

 

When they finally got to me, they gave me

The side-eye without saying a word,

Then turned to each other and said together,

 

“That one might be alive because his throat moves.

If they were both dead, what permits them

To skip wearing the heavy coat?”

 

Then they said to me, “O Tuscan, who has

Come to the synod of the hypocrites,

Don’t diss us by not telling us who you are.”

 

And I to them, “I was born and reared

In the grand town beside the beautiful Arno River,

And I’m in the body I’ve always had.

 

“But who are you? What great sorrow distills

The tears running down your cheeks?

And what grief is on you that still glitters so much?”

 

One of them replied to me, “Our orange cloaks

Are made of so much lead that their weight

Makes us creak along like out-of-balance scales.

 

“We were Jolly Friars, Bolognese in fact.

My name is Catalano and this is Loderingo,

We were put into service by your city

 

“Just as a single man is usually chosen

To maintain the peace. And we were the type that

You can still see the results around the Gardingo.”