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 purpose.

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

[01:18] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 34 - 57. If you'd like to read along or continue the converation with me, please find this specific episode on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:31] An increasing emphasis on transitional figures and a more overt allegory in COMEDY as a whole.

[08:15] Two bits of song: a fragment of a beatitude in Latin (from Matthew 5:7) and an exhortation in medieval Florentine.

[12:07] The question who sings these two phrases.

[15:13] The shifting dynamic in COMEDY to the correction, not of behavior, but of the mind.

[18:44] Virgil's gloss on scarcity and abundance, as well as the civic threat of envy.

[26:42] The problem of the audience for Guido's (and Virgil's!) speech.

[30:45] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 34 - 57.

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-going struggle to translate what seems into what is.

If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, please consider a one-time or even monthly donation using this PayPal link right here. Every bit helps with streaming, licensing, hosting, editing, royalty, and domain fees.

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

[01:27] My English translation of this short passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 25 - 33. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[02:29] Virgil redefines "pleasure" or "delight," a word from the end of Canto XIV.

[04:28] The passage also redefines the source (or refraction?) of the light.

[07:22] Virgil remains the central redefinition in all of PURGATORIO.

[08:24] A three-step structural notion of spiritual progress in PURGATORIO: "outside us," "inside us," and "above us."

[14:00] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 25 - 33.

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.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we see the sun as never before in the opening lines of PURGATORIO, Canto XV. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:19] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along or to continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:37] PURGATORIO Canto XV is a liminal canto, existing between disorientation and revelation.

[13:58] Two unique words in COMEDY in this opening passage (that is, two hapax legomena).

[17:19] Telling time by the sun and playing around with it, as it plays around in the sky.

[22:18] The sun and blindness at the opening and closing of our time on the terrace of the envious.

[24:56] Medieval science that can reformulate the plot into poetic language.

[28:30] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 1 - 24.