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An Angry Pilgrim Among The Angry Sinners: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 31 - 63
Season 1 Episode 41
We've been through some dramatic passages: dark woods, wild beasts, Francesca, and Cerberus. But nothing rivals the crossing of (river? swamp?) Styx …
5 years, 1 month ago
Consider The Plot: An Overview Of INFERNO's Fifth Circle Of Wrath
Season 1 Episode 40
In almost every episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we take a passage from (so far) INFERNO and analyze it, talk through it, and look at some of the inter…
5 years, 1 month ago
Dante, The Poet Between The Classical And Modern Worlds: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 7 - 30
Season 1 Episode 39
The fifth circle of INFERNO: wrath (and its counterpart to come).
We may or may not be over a break in the poem. Boccaccio thought so. Many modern sch…
5 years, 2 months ago
An Interpolated Episode: Nothing In Dante's Hand, Or A Brief History Of COMEDY's Manuscripts
Season 1 Episode 38
In this interpolated episode, I want to give you a brief history of the manuscript of COMEDY. None exists in Dante's own hand. So how do we trust wha…
5 years, 2 months ago
Hell's Biggest Crack Is In The Poetry, Not The Landscape: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 1 - 6
Season 1 Episode 37
With the wrathful, COMEDY seems to back up and start over. Although Boccaccio had a story to explain this break, its rationale may be more in terms o…
5 years, 2 months ago
On To The Wrathful, Sort Of: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 97 - 130
Season 1 Episode 36
Here's something new: a descent from one ring to another within a single canto.
Our pilgrim and Virgil scramble down to find themselves on the shore o…
5 years, 2 months ago
O, Fortuna: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 67 - 96
Season 1 Episode 35
Dante wants to know why some people have it good and some, bad. Virgil, seemingly impatient, sets into his sermon on the goddess Fortune who controls…
5 years, 2 months ago
Fate And The Cracks In Dante's Poetry: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 36 - 66
Season 1 Episode 34
We finally get a glimpse at the hoarders and the wasters, the avaricious and the prodigal. They're mostly clergy, from run-of-the-mill clerics all th…
5 years, 2 months ago
Jousting With Greedy Plutus: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 1 - 35
Season 1 Episode 33
We descend a level of hell and 'come to the "il gran nemico," the great enemy: Plutus.
But why is he so great if he makes babbles nonsense and is easi…
5 years, 2 months ago
Virgil Gets The Apocalypse Wrong: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 94 - 115
Season 1 Episode 32
Ciacco has fallen back into the muck, never to be seen again--at least not until the last judgment.
As the pilgrim and Virgil start to descend to the …
5 years, 2 months ago