PURGATORIO, Episode 54. Virgil Redefines Limbo And The Journey Across The Known Universe: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 16 - 36

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Sordello stands amazed in the presence of the great poet Virgil. The pilgrim Dante? Seemingly forgotten.

Sordello wants to know how this classical poet got into Purgatory. So Virgil offers an explanation that reiterates what we know about Limbo but also redefines Limbo and perhaps causes Dante the poet to trip across the wires of his own thinking.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante renegotiate the presence of Virgil in COMEDY once again, ever trying to come to terms with a pagan poet in a Christian poem.

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

[01:43] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, lines 16 - 36. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[03:49] How is Virgil the "glory of the Latins" as Sordello claims? What does that mean to Sordello (and to Dante)?

[06:02] There are at least two ways to handle Sordello's claim: 1) Latin was Virgil's vernacular or 2) Virgil showed the capabilities of language itself.

[10:28] Apparently, Sordello isn't bothered by Virgil's eternal status.

[11:14] Virgil offers an overview of his journey. His. Is it his? What of Dante the pilgrim?

[15:22] Virgil seems both to reiterate and to redefine our understanding of Limbo.

[19:07] Dante wants the human will to be the mechanism of salvation but that notion runs contrary to the Christian doctrine of original sin.

[21:40] Dante is renovating Virgil because Virgil is the prime way Dante can renovate classical learning.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto VII, Lines 16 – 36

“Oh, glory of the Latins,” he said, “through whom

Our language showed its full potential!

O timeless source of prestige for the spot I’m from!

“What merit or what grace presents you to me?

If I’m worthy enough to hear your words,

Tell me if you came from hell—and even from which cloister.”

“Through all the circles of the kingdom of sorrow,

He [Virgil] replied to him, “I have come to this spot.

A power from the heavens set me in motion—and I come along with it.

“Not because of what I did, but because of what I did not do, I lost

A way to see the high Sun that you so desire

And that I came to understand too late.

“There’s a place down there that’s not sad because of torments,

But only because of darkness, where the lamentations

Don’t sound like wailings but only like sighs.

“That’s where I hang out, along with the innocent babies

Who got bit by the teeth of death long before

They could be cleansed of human guilt.

“That’s where I hang out, along with the ones who were not clothed

In the three holy virtues, but who knew the other four

Without any other fault and followed them.”