We've finished Marco of Lombardy's central discourse about free will, the soul's maturation, and the systemic problems with the world. Now let's look back at the whole speech and talk through some of the larger issues it raises. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at Marco's speech in PURGATORIO in its entirety. If you'd like to donate to underwrite the many costs of this podcast, whether by a small monthly stipend or a one-time gift, please use this PayPal link right here . Here are the segmen...
Sep 04, 2024•27 min•Season 2Ep. 130
Marco of Lombardy's time in COMEDY comes to an end with a chatty back-and-forth between him and the pilgrim Dante. Dante wants to compliment Marco on creating such a great argument (the one, that is, that Dante the poet created!) but Marco's only answer seems to be irritation and an abrupt dismissal. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a fascinating deep dive into the end of PURGATORIO, Canto XVI. If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please consider donating a o...
Sep 01, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 129
Marco of Lombardy, the angry penitent, continues his diagnosis of the world's problems. It's got only one sun, not two, as Rome had. And that one sun, the papacy, is not kosher. In fact, perhaps cannot be kosher under any circumstances. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore a big chunk of Marco's reasoning about the world's ills. He said it was in us. But he seems to claim it's more systemic than personal. Consider donating a one-time gift or perhaps a small monthly stipend to cover the costs ...
Aug 28, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 128
Marco of Lombardy continues his discourse on free will, deep in the pitch-black smoke of the third terrace of Purgatory where the angry penitents confront their sin. His discussion takes a wild turn: a developmental hypothesis of the soul as a little girl, a scheme that may or may not nix original sin from Christian theology. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this complicated passage at almost the very heart of COMEDY. If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees for this podcast, either...
Aug 25, 2024•28 min•Season 2Ep. 127
Dante the pilgrim has asked the angry Marco of Lombardy the cause of the world's ills. Marco responds with both exasperation and affection before turning to the root of the matter: The cause is in all of you. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this central passage in COMEDY, a grand statement of the Christian paradox of free will. If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast through a one-time donation or via a small monthly stipend, please consider doing so at this PayPal link right here ...
Aug 21, 2024•34 min•Season 2Ep. 126
Dante's on the verge of exploding with doubt. Marco of Lombardy's snark about the loss of valor in the bows of this world has done little more than leave the pilgrim in a theological puzzle: How did the world get so bad? Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore Dante's question to Marco before we turn to Marco's central discourse, the very middle of the great masterwork COMEDY. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:48] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO,...
Aug 18, 2024•19 min•Season 2Ep. 125
Wrapped in the dark, acrid smoke, Dante encounters one of the angry penitents and one of the most seminal figures in COMEDY, here at almost the exact center of the entire poem. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the pilgrim's flatteries, the penitent's abrupt nature, and the questions of beauty that begin to dominate COMEDY itself. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [02:10] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVI, lines 25 - 51. If you'd ...
Aug 14, 2024•34 min•Season 2Ep. 124
Dante finds himself in such dark, acrid smoke that he is reminded of the very inky desolations of Inferno. In fact, he has come to the darkest spot in all of COMEDY, the fiftieth canto of Dante's masterpiece. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin to explore the third terrace of Purgatory proper along with Dante and his guide, Virgil. If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees of this podcast, please consider donating either a one-time gift or a small monthly subscription through this PayPal ...
Aug 11, 2024•23 min•Season 2Ep. 123
In this interpolated episode among those on our slow-walk through Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY, let's discuss the specific sin of anger (or wrath), particularly as it relates to both PURGATORIO (the canticle we're in) and INFERNO (where we've come from). Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the definitions and inside-the-poem problems of anger. If you'd like to help underwrite the fees associated with this podcast, please consider donating a one-time gift or a small monthly stipend through thi...
Aug 07, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 122
We've now come to the third terrace of Purgatory proper, the ledge of wrath (or anger). Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we read through the passages that make up this terrace, starting back at PURGATORIO, Canto XV, line 85 (through parts of Canto XV we've already covered) and on to PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, line 72. If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast to cover its many fees, please consider donating at this PayPal link right here . Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANT...
Aug 04, 2024•21 min•Season 2Ep. 121
Dante comes out of his ecstatic vision only to have Virgil question whether the pilgrim has drunk too much. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this rare moment of levity after such intense visions. The pacing slows down and Virgil offers kind advice about getting on their way, maybe two more answers to the problem of anger. If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, please consider giving a one-time donation or a monthly stipend of just a little through this PayPal link right here . Here are the ...
Jul 31, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 120
Dante the pilgrim has already had one ecstatic vision as he stepped onto the third terrace of Purgatory proper. Now he has two more in quick succession. We're able then to identify the sin or human failing for this terrace: anger (or wrath). And we're able to glean some very human answers Dante proposes to this very human failing. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the second and third ecstatic vision at the start of the terrace of wrath. If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees ...
Jul 28, 2024•25 min•Season 2Ep. 119
Dante and Virgil have stepped onto the third terrace of Purgatory proper and our pilgrim is hit with an ecstatic vision. In fact, the first one in a poem that may itself seem like an ecstatic vision. And one of the few anywhere in COMEDY. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the first vision on the third terrace of Purgatory, the opening salvo to the true middle of the great poem COMEDY. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:49] My English translation of the passag...
Jul 24, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 118
Dante the pilgrim has gotten one answer out of Virgil about the nature of abundance and scarcity in terms of heavenly good . . . but that answer was not apparently enough. So he goes back for more. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this continuation of Virgil's lesson between the second and third terraces of Purgatory proper. As we leave the envious behind, Virgil offers us a lesson in the unending and multiplying faculty of love. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:41]...
Jul 17, 2024•27 min•Season 2Ep. 117
Dante and Virgil encounter the awaited angel as they begin their ascent to the third terrace of Purgatory proper. They hear two snippets of song. They find the climb easier. And Dante asks Virgil to gloss two lines Guido del Duca said back in Canto XIV. All these things indicate the shifting the nature of COMEDY itself as we enter its middle cantos. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this passage about the climb to the third terrace and see the shifting nature of COMEDY's audience and purpo...
Jul 14, 2024•33 min•Season 2Ep. 116
Dante the poet is playing a very crafty game. He's been pulling out all the stops with two metaphors to help us understand the weight, meaning, and timing of the light . . . and then he redefines that source of light right underneath all those metaphors. And just as the poet pulls off that trick, Virgil also redefines the very terms on which PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, ended, as he undertakes a reassessment of "pleasure" or "delight." Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this key passage in the on...
Jul 10, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 115
Dante and Virgil pass on beyond the envious along the second terrace of Purgatory proper. As we enter the first of the middle three canti of all of COMEDY, Dante is blinded by the sun, about as we're blinded by his increasingly complex poetics. These passages begin the brilliant fun of the second half of the poem. Dante begins to play with meaning, poetics, and metaphor as never before, challenging us and pushing us into a spot of disorientation, all the while bringing us to a spot of revelation...
Jul 07, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 114
Having been accosted by two voices decrying the fate of the envious on the second terrace of Purgatory proper, Dante and Virgil begin to walk toward a stairway to the third terrace. As they do, Virgil, silent for quite a while, refocuses and reinterprets most of what we've read in PURGATORIO, Cantos XIII and XIV. He offers circularity in place of the linear descent so described by Sapía and Guido del Duca. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we see Virgil come into his own in Purgatory. If you'd like t...
Jul 03, 2024•29 min•Season 2Ep. 113
With Guido del Duca enmeshed in his tears, Dante the pilgrim and Virgil begin to talk on along the terrace of envy, searching for a way up to the third terrace of Purgatory. Lo and behold, they're struck by two voices, just as they were when they got up to this terrace. This time, it's Cain and Aglauros, speaking on the wind. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin to conclude our time with the envious and encounter a Biblical and a classical voice to warn us of the final dangers of envy. If you'd...
Jun 30, 2024•27 min•Season 2Ep. 112
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 E...
Jun 26, 2024•28 min•Season 2Ep. 111
At long last, the speaker in PURGATORIO Canto XIV comes clean and reveals who he is . . . and who his compatriot is. They're Guido del Duca and Rinier (or Rinieri) da Calboli. Now that we now who they are, we have to go back and reassess Canto XIV as a whole. Dante is nothing but cagey in the rhetorical games he's playing. He's demanding more and more out of his reader. And rightly so, given the complexity of COMEDY up to this point. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look through this passage in w...
Jun 23, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 110
Dante has been cagey about where he's from, using periphrastic phrasing to describe the Arno valley without naming it. It was apparently the wrong thing to do . . . because one of the envious penitents is going to pick up the pilgrim's (and the poet's?) rhetorical games and push them much further into fully metaphoric space that is also somehow prophetic space, a diatribe against Tuscan corruption that borders on the incomprehensible at this moment before the speakers are named in Purgatorio XIV...
Jun 19, 2024•34 min•Season 2Ep. 109
Dante has started a conversation with two envious penitents . . . a conversation he might not be ready for. They prove more than his rhetorical match. They also muddy the theology of Purgatory itself. Is that intentional? Or are we expected to understand their still-fallen state? Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore more about the two envious souls who interrupt Dante's journey around the second terrace of Purgatory proper. Please consider helping this podcast stay sponsor-free. You can help ...
Jun 16, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 108
Sapía has finished her amazingly complex speech with the pilgrim Dante . . . or has she? At the opening of Canto XIV, we're not sure who is speaking? Still Sapía? No, two envious souls, leaning against each other, almost gossiping about our pilgrim. And nothing satisfies envy quite like gossip. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this new thing: the opening of a canto in COMEDY in which unnamed (and unknowable!) souls just starting talking out of the blue. Be on guard. They may not be all th...
Jun 12, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 107
We've spent three episodes with this penitent envious soul, Sapía. Now let's look at the entire interchange between her and our pilgrim, Dante . . . as well as the ways PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, reflects INFERNO, Canto XIII. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we talk about the increasingly complex ironies found in one of the most compelling souls in all of Dante's COMEDY. If you'd like to help support this podcast by underwriting some of its streaming, licensing, hosting, domain, and royalty fees, pleas...
Jun 09, 2024•21 min•Season 2Ep. 106
In the concluding moments of Sapía's speech, we find her in dialogue with Dante the pilgrim . . . who is both forthcoming in his confessional stance and also cagey with his hiding his guide, Virgil. She, too, is caught in her own rhetoric: getting what she wants but ultimately revealing herself as a soul who still has a lot more purgation ahead. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the final words of one of the most intriguing characters in PURGATORIO, if not in all of COMEDY. Please consider...
Jun 05, 2024•27 min•Season 2Ep. 105
Sapía now tells her story to Dante the pilgrim . . . and it includes one of the most blasphemous lines in all of COMEDY. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look closely at one of the most honest and blasphemous monologues in the poem . . . and as we grapple with Sapía's incredible skills in rhetoric. If you'd like to make a contribution to support this podcast and help me cover its many fees, you can do so at this PayPal link right here . Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:...
Jun 02, 2024•28 min•Season 2Ep. 104
Dante the pilgrim worked up the courage (or the flattery) to get one of the envious to speak up on the second terrace of Purgatory proper. She does . . . and gives him both more and exactly what (or perhaps a bit less) than he asked for. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I work our first sight of one of the most intricate souls in COMEDY: Sapía. She's a lot more than Dante bargained for. Donate what you can or a small monthly contribution to help me cover the many fees associated with this podcast. Y...
May 29, 2024•27 min•Season 2Ep. 103
Dante has finally come among the envious on the bare, bleak, blue-gray second terrace of Mount Purgatory. We've seen their condition: eyes stitched shut. Now for Dante's reaction. And Virgil's reaction to Dante's reaction. And Dante's ham-handed attempt to flatter someone to speak up. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we approach on of the most significant and curious figures in all of COMEDY. Dante the pilgrim will call for her in this passage . . . and she'll make her appearance in the next passage...
May 26, 2024•28 min•Season 2Ep. 102
The second terrace of PURGATORIO proves a wild ride into interiority, into the complicated sin of envy, and back into INFERNO. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first moments in which Dante sees the penitents ahead . . . and delays until the last moment revealing their fate: eyelids stitched shut with wires. Thank you for supporting this podcast through your donations. If you'd like to help our (or continue to help out) with all the fees associated with websites, hosting, streaming, ed...
May 19, 2024•28 min•Season 2Ep. 101
