Episode Details

We come to the end of the second canticle, of PURGATORIO . . . and it includes all the ambiguity and humanness we've come to expect, plus hopeful notes for the journey ahead into Paradise.

Dante complicates his ending of PURGATORIO with notes about his own dark mind and the incomplete work of this second part of his masterpiece COMEDY.

At the same time, we're ready for the stars.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the final passage of PURGATORIO.

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

[01:22] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 124 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:26] Dante, ever the medieval poet, no matter how modern we try to make him.

[05:28] The final address to the reader in PURGATORIO and the tricky question of the "woven bridle."

[10:58] Matelda, apparently doing what she's always done . . . which only makes her character more complex.

[12:49] The threat to memory, the threat to COMEDY as a whole.

[15:23] Four hopeful notes that conclude PURGATORIO.

[17:55] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, lines 124 - 145.