Virgil, The Failure . . . Maybe: PURGATORIO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 9

Cato has given his stern reprimand and everyone has scattered for Mount Purgatory. Even Virgil. He's on the run, ashamed.

But why should Virgil be ashamed? What's he done? And what would it matter if he did do something wrong?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through these complicated questions that COMEDY never fully answers. Dante the poet, instead, offers us emotional compensations for the logical flaws in his plot. Are those compensations enough?

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

[01:37] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto III, lines 1 - 9. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:02] The fiction and strategy of COMEDY is to pretend the poem has neither.

[07:11] The divisions between the cantos in PURGATORIO become more permeable--and in some interesting ways both mute and foreground the pilgrim, Dante.

[10:12] The pilgrim Dante's place in COMEDY is changing.

[11:42] Why is Virgil so upset? How did he fail? What does it matter if he failed?

[14:43] Dante the poet "fixes" the problem of Virgil's shame with a plea for compassion. Is that a true "fix"?