INFERNO, Episode 181. Gossip About The Fools Of This World Is About As Human As It Gets: INFERNO, Canto XXIX, Lines 124 - 139

A second figure speaks up--this time, a leper named Capocchio who wants to gossip about the fools of Siena and find a personal connection with our pilgrim, Dante.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this final passage in Inferno, Canto XXIX. We're in the tenth of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") of fraud, among the invalids in a medieval hospital of the damned. And we're hanging onto our humanity in the only ways we can.

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

[01:49] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXIX, lines 124 - 139. If you'd like to read along or even drop a comment about this episode, just scroll down this page.

[03:43] Capocchio the leper names two Sienese squanderers of great wealth . . . maybe.

[05:01] Capocchio mentions the historic Sienese spendthrift brigafe, as well as a historical figure and then a more difficult figure to identify.

[12:59] Who is this Capocchio? And why is his name a nickname?

[14:45] There's a distinct tie between the tenth pit of the eighth circle of fraud (and the end of Canto XXIX) and the end of the seventh circle of violence (in Canto XVII).

[17:28] Dante the poet is also a great "ape of nature."

[21:11] More about holding onto your humanity, even in hell.

[25:09] Gossip about the fools of this world may be a way to hold onto your humanity in hell.

[26:20] Rereading the passage all the way back to INFERNO, Canto XXIX, line 109, through the end of the canto at line 139.

And here is my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXIX, Lines 124 – 139

Then the other leper, who heard me,

Replied to my words, “Except, certainly, for Stricca—

He knew how to moderate his expenditures!

“And for Niccolo, who was the first to create

That lavish recipe using cloves,

There in the garden where such seeds can germinate.

“And also for the brigade for which Caccia d’Asciano

Squandered his vineyards and great wealth,

And to whom Abbagliato showed off his wit.

“But so that you will know who seconds your claims

Against the Sienese, let your eyes rest on me for a while

And see if my face will give you the right answer.

“Then you’ll see I am the shade of Capocchio,

Who falsified metals by alchemy.

You’ve got to remember, if you’re the guy I think you are,

How good an ape of nature I was.”