PURGATORIO, Episode 159. Hugh Capet In Purgatory . . . Or Maybe Not: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 40 - 60

The pilgrim has been attracted by one soul, calling out his examples of Mary, Fabricius, and Nicholas to counter his own sins of avarice.

Dante steps closer and inquires who this soul is. He finds himself in front of Hugh Capet, the legendary (and historical) founder of the Capetian dynasty of French kings. Or at least a version of said Hugh Capet, since Dante the poet flubs the historicity of his penitent.

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

[01:50] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 40 - 60. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[04:38] Hugh Capet in history.

[10:46] Hugh Capet out of history and into COMEDY.

[14:19] The highlights in the passage, plus a note about Hugh's prophetic voice.

[25:04] The passage without its historical apparatus.

[28:49] Dante's anti-French propaganda and his misunderstanding of power as a human motivation.

[32:16] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 40 - 60.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 40 – 60

And he [replied]: “I’ll tell you, not because of any comfort

That I anticipate from back there, but because of all this

Grace that lights you up even before you’re dead.

“I was the root of the malicious plant

That throws its shadow over all the Christian lands.

Rarely does anybody harvest any good fruit from it.

“But if Douay, Lille, Ghent, and Bruges

Are able to, they’ll soon make their vendetta.

And so I call upon him who judges everything.

“I was called Hugh Capet down there.

All the Philips and Louises were born out of me,

The ones who rule over France these days.

“I was the son of a Parisian butcher.

When the ancient kings had passed away

And the last remaining one put on monkish robes,

“I found firmly in my hands the reins

For the government of the kingdom. I acquired

So much power and had so many friends

“That the widowed crown was placed

On my son’s head. From him began

The consecrated bones of all the others. . . .”