PURGATORIO, Episode 111. Oh, For The Glory Days (That Maybe Never Were): PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, Lines 97 - 126

Guido del Duca reaches the climax of his diatribe: a nostalgic retrospective of the courts and families of Romagna. Where have the good guys gone?

Is this Dante the poet's lament? Or Guido del Duca's? Does this passage tell us more about Guido's problems or Dante's hopes?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through a tough passage about historical figures from Romagna, many of whom have been lost to the historical record.

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

[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 97 - 126. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this passage, please scroll down this page.

[04:49] The genre: "ubi sunt?" But whose? Guido del Duca's or Dante the poet's?

[09:26] The structure of this passage: good people, to good families (without children), to bad town, to childless warlords.

[14:47] The nostalgic diatribe becomes infernal.

[16:59] More play with bestial and vegetal metaphors (as throughout Canto XIV).

[19:19] The trap of chivalry.

[22:28] Guido del Duca finally finds delight in his laments: the key problem.

[25:28] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 97 - 126.

Here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XIV, Lines 97 – 126

“Where’s good Lizio? And Harry Manardi?

Where’s Pier Traversaro and Guido di Carpengna?

O people of Romagna, you’ve morphed into bastards!

“When will a Fabbro get rooted in Bologna again?

Or when will a Bernardino di Fosco in Faenza?

He was noble shoot from a lowly weed.

“Don’t be amazed, Tuscan, if I cry

When I remember Ugolino d’Azzo, along with Guido da Prata,

Who lived there among us;

“Or [when I remember] Federigo Tignoso and his buddies,

The houses of the Traversari and the Anastagi

(Both the one and the other are now without heirs);

“Or [when I remember] the ladies and knights, the work and leisure

That made us desire both love and chivalry,

In that very spot where hearts have become so wicked.

“O Bertinoro, why didn’t you just go away so as not to become evil,

Now that your leading family has vanished,

Along with many more?

“Bagnacavallo is right when it doesn’t beget any sons.

Castrocaro does ill; and Conio, worse.

Both insist on whelping the sort of counts who just debase themselves.

“The Pagani will do well once their personal demon

Has left the scene, but not fast enough that

A clean slate will be left after them.

“O Ugolino de’ Fantolini, your name

Is at least secure, now that there’s nobody left

Who could wither it with more decay.

“But get out of here, Tuscan. Enough! For lamenting

Now delights me more than chatting,

Especially since our talk has put my mind in such a tight spot.”