PURGATORIO, Episode 79: A Seam In The Narrative Filled With Virgil's Murmurs: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 94 -111

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Having seen the intaglios, Dante is still in wonder as the first penitents round the bend. Virgil spots them first . . . and murmurs to Dante.

Murmurs? It’s a loaded verb in a passage about Dante’s theory of art.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take on this short passage in PURGATORIO, Canto X, a passage that seams the canto together . . . or perhaps reveals its stitching.

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

[02:07] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[04:18] This passage is a seam in the narrative, an important break in its structure.

[06:50] In Dante's theory of art, only God can create something out of nothing.

[08:21] Only in retrospect do we know what the intaglios were about. Or do we?

[10:00] Dante is writing ekphrastic poetry (poetry about a piece of visual art) about art that doesn't exist except in his own imaginative landscape.

[12:28] Several possible answers to the complicated question of Virgil's murmuring in this scene.

[18:08] Dante's third address to the reader in PURGATORIO may exhibit a hesitation or even an insecurity in the narrative.

[23:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto X, Lines 94 – 108

The one whose sight can brook nothing new

Had created this visible speech.

It was new to us because it couldn’t be found anywhere else.

As I took such pleasure in looking at

These images of complete humility—

[Images] even more precious to see because of their craftsman—

The poet murmured, “Behold, here they come:

So many people but with such slow steps.

They’ll cue us to the next ascent.”

My eyes had been quite content to stare at

The marble art but they quickly turned in this direction,

So delighted at the promise of something new.

I don’t want you, reader, to fall off

Your best intentions when you hear

How God decides the debt be paid.

Don’t linger over the nature of the suffering.

Think about what comes next. Think that at the very worst

This can’t go beyond the Last Judgment.