Walking With Dante
Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.
Free Will Turns Personal: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142
Beatrice has answered the pilgrim's two unasked questions . . . but she doesn't yet know the one he really wants to ask.
Having heard her doctrines about free will and unfulfilled vows, the pilgrim Dante winds himself up through flattery and intellectual curiosity to ask perhaps a personal question about his own unfulfilled vows.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the ways Beatrice's discussions of free will have only caused the pilgrim Dante more problems, even as they've satisfied his intellect.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
<...Guilty As Charged By Aristotle and Aquinas: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 91 - 114
Beatrice launches into a subpoint about free will, one derived from her larger discussion of culpability.
In this passage, she refines exactly why Piccarda and Constance are charged with breaking their vows in the sphere of the moon: They may have wanted to keep their vows, but that wanting doesn't negate their actions.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this bit of Scholastic reasoning that shores up an uncomfortable if orthodox notion of the will.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:33] My English translation...
Justice Permits No Excuses: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 64 - 90
Beatrice now takes on the pilgrim's second . . . doubt? It had been questions. Now it sounds as if it's more. Doubts.
Here, she launches into a discussion of free will that ultimately implicates Piccarda and Constance in their own failures, even though they were forced against their wills out of the convents.
Beatrice offers a hard, troubling rationale for their lower status in the pursuit of what she sees as the higher good: the sanctity of free will.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this provocative passage, one of the few moments in...
Plato and Beatrice, Together At Last: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 49 - 63
Beatrice continues her rectification of Dante's doubts by using a passage from Plato's TIMAEUS to turn her argument from accommodation to free will.
This passage contains perhaps the heart of Beatrice's second grand discourse in PARADISO. But even so, it's a tad garbled as it attempts to answer Plato while giving his works full authority.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue our way toward the grand climax of free will in the next passage from PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:25] My English translation...
Seeing Is (Almost) Believing: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 28 - 48
Beatrice begins to take apart the two questions (or doubts) that she has intuited the pilgrim Dante is holding in silence.
She first takes on the one with more "poison" in this passage, in which she reveals that the souls in the moon aren't really in the moon but appear here as an accommodation to the pilgrim's limited understanding, based on sensory data.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our journey through the Beatrice's second major discourse in PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:33...
Paralyzed by Free Will: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 1 - 27
Piccarda may have vanished but questions remain. The pilgrim Dante is caught between them, unable to voice them.
Beatrice to the rescue! She voices what he cannot say . . . or perhaps what he is afraid to say.
She articulates his two questions, makes one of them very personal, and attempts to mitigate the anger of King Nebuchadnezzar . . . or maybe the pilgrim's anger.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the fascinating opening to the fourth canto of PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:01] My...
The Expanding Community of Women in the Moon: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 130
Piccarda Donati doesn’t stop her monologue with the cryptic line about her life after the convent. She turns to another figure in the lunar landscape: Constance I of Sicily, the Holy Roman Empress and mother of Frederick II, the stupor mundi.
Piccarda offers Constance a parallel life to her own. The problem is, Piccarda’s account doesn’t match the historical record.
But maybe Dante has other fish to fry. Maybe he’s more interested in Constance’s son, the Holy Roman Emperor that many are insistent on calling “the anti-Christ.”
Join me, Mark Scarb...
The Violent yet Elliptical End to Piccarda Donati's Story: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 88 - 108
Piccarda Donati finally answers the question about who she is. She's given her name but not much else about her. In twelve lines (or four tercets) she brings her personal story to its violent yet elliptical conclusion.
Before that the poet has to explain what he's learned, the pilgrim has to express what his time with her has felt like, and then she gets to take center stage . . . and not fully answer the question.
Piccarda Donati is one of the strongest feminist characters in COMEDY. Her voice is an essential part of the puzzle that...
Piccarda Donati's Apotheosis of the Will: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 58 - 87
Piccarda has confessed to her more humble place in the heavens. Our pilgrim Dante then wants to know if she wants more.
Her answer leads her to an apotheosis of the will. Everything in the universe is in harmony; all dissonances are put aside.
It also leads her to a similar spot that Francesca comes to in INFERNO V: a riff off a quotation from St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as Piccarda offers her answer to a central question in COMEDY: How does the universe reconcile its differences?
Here...
The First Soul in Paradise, Piccarda Donati: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 34 - 57
At long last, the first soul--or "shade"--steps forward in Paradise. She's Piccarda Donati, a figure we've already encountered once (maybe even twice) in COMEDY.
Dante flatters her to speak and she begins, not with herself, but with some theology and thoughts on her placement in the heavens.
Along the way, her speech takes on some dark spots of ambiguity, about like the moon with its rare and dense material.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our time with the first soul in Paradise.
Here are the segments for this...
Catching Feelings in the Sensual Sphere of the Moon: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 33
Dante is about to meet the first souls in Paradise, emerging from the liquid light of the moon.
The poetry is lush and sensuous. The metaphors are complex and compounded. And Beatrice is a bit chilly, full of Latinisms and a condescending smile.
It's a marvelous banquet for the senses, here in this first sphere, where the souls seems to emerge as reflections in the diaphanous lunar realm.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we see our first redeemed souls in heaven--and discover that Paradise is not as bright or as clear as we...
The Souls of the Universe: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 127 - 148
Beatrice concludes her explanation for moon spots by veering away from them specifically to talk about the nature of the universe.
Blessed movers turn the spheres. Or perhaps inhabit them. Or are bound to them. Or maybe even give them life.
Her argument may veer into heresy as Dante brings his universe alive . . . maybe literally.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this dense and abstruse conclusion to Beatrice's first major discourse in PARADISO.
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The Diversity of Being in a Universe of Light: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 106 - 126
Beatrice now launches into the true explanation for moon spots, found not in folklore, not in natural philosophy, but in metaphysics.
Her explanation pushes her to disclose the parts of the universe we could never see, then lets her discuss diversity as a function of the light falling from the stars through the planets to us.
A gorgeously poetic passage, it also raises many more questions than it answers . . . . questions that will trouble PARADISO for cantos to come.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin the discovery of Dante's ultimate explanation for moon...
Testing Theology With Optics: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 85 - 105
Beatrice continues in her scientific and Scholastic explanation for moon spots by taking apart a secondary argument . . . and proposing an optical experiment.
She voices an objection Dante might have: perhaps there are dense bits behind the rare bits that reflect light as darker spots because those denser bits are farther off.
To prove him wrong (although he hasn't said a thing), she asks him to set up an experiment with three mirrors.
Problem is, he doesn't need three mirrors for this experiment. But he does need three if he wants to show that...
Mixed Metaphors and the Limits of Human Senses: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 64 - 84
Beatrice begins her destruction of Dante's explanation for moon spots by taking apart his notion of dense and rare spots on the lunar surface . . . with a dizzying display of mixed metaphors.
Her argument lofts to the highest visible heaven, the eighth sphere; then falls back into scholastic reasoning; and offering both experimental and poetic rationales for why he's wrong.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first part of Beatrice's explanation for moon spots, predicated on the bass line of the incarnation.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH...
Of Moon Spots and Virgil: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 46 - 63
Now that our pilgrim Dante is standing in the moon, he has a fundamental question: Why are there spots on the moon?
And he thinks he knows the answer, right out of natural philosophy. They're caused by rare and dense material in the moon.
He's asking a question for which he knows the answer, trying to play teacher's pet. But Beatrice is having none of it. She's ready to show him how he's not as smart as he thinks he is.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our descent into some of...
Incarnated in the Moon: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 19 - 45
After Dante's warning to his readers (or perhaps some of his readers), we return to the plot, ascending through the heavens to arrive at the moon . . . or really, in the moon.
Dante and Beatrice find themselves inside this translucent pearl in the heavens.
And in so doing, Dante proves the incarnation really happened . . . at least, if you accept that his journey really happened.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first of several complex passages in the second canto of PARADISO.
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Go Home: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 18
Our poet steps out of the shadows with an important message: "Go home."
Because PARADISO is hard. Because we might get lost. Because we're not prepared.
The stark address to all readers--or perhaps to a much more limited set of specialty readers--that opens Canto II is one of the most unusual moments in COMEDY. When does an author ever warn his readers to stay away?
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we attempt to find a way survive with the other Argonauts as our Jason begins to plow his own field.
Consider...
Of Natural Instincts and Their Natural Ends: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 115 - 142
Beatrice continues in her discourse about our natural instincts, making the bold claim that they can lead us to our natural ends . . . which are the good, not the catastrophic bad.
Her Scholastic theology is tinted with poetic metaphors in a bold move to explain how the arrow, once shot, can deviate from its preordained track.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the conclusion of Beatrice's first major discourse in PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:39] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 115 - 142. To read...
Sailing Across the Great Sea of "To Be": PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114
Beatrice has answered Dante's first doubt, but he has another. He can't quite understand how he, maybe in his body, can make his way across the universe.
She doesn't have a quick answer. Instead, she has a theory of how the whole universe works.
Her answers are always bigger than his questions.
And in this case, she brings him out onto the great sea of "to be" as he begins to sail into port.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first part of her great schematic for the universe...
Returning Home Through the Music of the Spheres: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93
Our pilgrim finds everything doubled in brightness . . . because he's begun to fly up to the heavens, although he doesn't know it at first.
He's too busy figuring out all that light . . . and listening to the music of the spheres.
But Beatrice is there to set him straight and tell him that his ascent is faster than he could ever understand.
She also redefines "home"--not the Italian peninsula, nor the Garden of Eden, but the highest heaven, where they're headed in this journey to the final vision.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough...
Staring at the Sun: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60
The plot gets underway in PARADISO.
Our pilgrim Dante turns to Beatrice . . . who is paying him no attention. She's staring at the sun.
So he does the same! He hasn't even left earth, yet the miraculous nature of his story is already in high gear.
As is his understanding of the universe ahead of him. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we experience Beatrice's return to the poem and the pilgrim's new mode of reflecting her glory.
If you'd like to help underwrite this work, please consider a one-time donation or a...
A Polyvocal Passage With All Its Dissonances: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 13 - 36
Our poet moves from his scholastic and even (medieval) scientific opening of PARADISO into his invocation . . . to Apollo?
This passage has often embarrassed Dante scholars who feel the need to excuse various pieces of it.
But we can let those pieces stand as part of the polyvocality of the text.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we move back and forth from the Christian to the pagan as we walk through this second part of Dante's opening lines of PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
<...Welcome to a Renegotiated Poem: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 1 - 12
From its opening lines, it's clear that PARADISO is not like what has come before in COMEDY. Dante seems to be renegotiating the terms of his poem, establishing a new voice, a new model, and a new methodology for who he will proceed.
These opening lines are already packed with the sort of theological and philosophical stumbling blocks that make PARADISO a challenge, not just for a modern reader, but even for a medieval one.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slowly walk throug the first twelve lines of what is assuredly the most imaginative...
WALKING WITH DANTE is coming back to start PARADISO on 26 July!
We're about to start our flight among (and even through!) the stars on WALKING WITH DANTE. We've been on hiatus for several weeks, but we'll be back with Dante and stepping off into the insurmountable wilds of PARADISO on 26 July 2026. I hope you're ready for the most mind-blowing part of the incredible poem, COMEDY. See you soon!
An Update About Starting PARADISO soon
Here's just a brief episode about where I am and how the podcast will start again in about six weeks. Hang tight and we'll be walking . . . no, actually flying through the spheres of PARADISO in a few weeks.
Until then, gird up your loins. PARADISO is not for those weak in spirit . . . or leggings.
Walking With Dante is going on a short hiatus
Hey there. We're going to pause our slow-walk for a couple of months as I get out from under chemotherapy. We've come to the end of PURGATORIO and it also seems natural that we rest a little before the big ascent ahead in PARADISO. Look for more announcements here, but let's plan on being back on our walk (or what will become our flight) in mid-summer. See you then!
Final Thoughts On PURGATORIO
We've reached the end of our time on the great mountain of Purgatory . . . and in the great second canticle of COMEDY.
Here are some final thoughts, an attempt to bring our time with this part of the poem to a close.
Dante has worked hard to make PURGATORIO the hinge of his entire poem. Let's explore some ways it reflects back on INFERNO and looks ahead to PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:01] PURGATORIO is an inversion of INFERNO.
[02:54] PURGATORIO is most human...
The Seven Addresses To The Reader In PURGATORIO
Dante, the poet, steps out of the story seven times in PURGATORIO to address his reader directly--sometimes to spur the reader on to action, sometimes to put a bridle on the reader's intentions or thoughts.
If we trace these seven addresses, can we find a developmental pattern? Or uncover Dante's changing attitude toward his work? Or toward his reader? Can we see a growing frustration or even fear about what lies ahead in COMEDY?
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work our way through these seven call-outs to find ways to summarize the greater work...
Dante's Theories Of Writing Across INFERNO and PURGATORIO
As one of three sum-up episode to conclude our time on Mount Purgatory, this one’s about Dante’s conception of what he’s doing when he’s writing, outlined in nine selected passages from INFERNO and PURGATORIO.
We’ve moved far enough into the poem that we can see the ways the poet has changed, hedged, and developed his theories of how and why he’s writing COMEDY. Given that one of my theses is that COMEDY is a poem in process, we can then trace some sort of developmental curve in Dante’s thinking about what he’s doin...
All The Hopeful Ambiguity Of The Second Canticle: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 124 - 145
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...
At Long Last, Matelda: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 103 - 123
The procession continues away from Lethe and farther into the Garden of Eden until they come to a dark, frigid spot that stops them . . . a curious moment in this innocent landscape.
And it gets more curious as we discover rivers named and then renamed before we come to the most difficult naming of them all: Matelda, the fair lady who has been with us since PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII.
We'll talk cosmology, geography, and even poetic rhyme sequences before we turn to the thorny question of exactly who Matelda is.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough...
Images, Schools, Obscurities, And The Promise Of Clarity: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 79 - 102
After her final discourse in PURGATORIO, Beatrice and Dante enter into a brief conversation in which he admits he already has images stamped into his brain but he doesn't know what many of them mean, particularly those from her.
She, on the other hand, launches into her final condemnation: the school he followed was too debased to capture the truths she has in hand.
But she doesn't end there. She also promises greater clarity ahead. Thank goodness!
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the conclusion of her discourse and discover the...
In Which Pilgrimage Becomes Crusade: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 61 - 78
Beatrice concludes her monologue at the end of PURGATORIO with some dazzling metaphoric pyrotechnics, a slam on Dante's intellect, and a redefinition of this journey across the known universe. It's not just any old pilgrimage. It's a crusade.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the final images of her speech and discover its larger, structural details . . . which point us directly ahead to PARADISO.
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Here are the segments...
Take Notes, Dante: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 46 - 60
Beatrice continues her discourse at the end of PURGATORIO by offering Dante classical examples of her own obscurity, Christian resonances for the very hope of writing, and a challenge for him to become her scribe, to take notes on her lectures.
This passage falls in the middle of her long monologue in the last canto of PURGATORIO and it forms the fulcrum that turns us from the apocalyptic vision to something much closer to Dante's own concerns: the craft of writing.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we tease out the difficulties in this notoriously challenging...
Beatrice And Her Cryptic "Five Hundred Ten And Five": PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 25 - 45
As Beatrice and Dante continue to walk through Eden, she begins the final discourse that will end PURGATORIO: a cryptic, apocalyptic vision of the world (or maybe just the church?) set right. But by whom? Or when? And is the church destroyed? Or is it going to be rehabilitated?
Beatrice's vision is the capstone of PURGATORIO and prepares us for the elliptical and stylized poetry to come in PARADISO, just ahead of us. It's a test to see whether we can make it. Don't worry: We will!
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our...
Walking With Beatrice In Eden: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 1 - 24
From tragedy to comedy, the apocalyptic vision in Canto XXXII has come to an end and Beatrice accepts Dante as her walking companion in Eden.
A relatively easy passage begins the final canto of PURGATORIO, perhaps a breather before the much more difficult material that will make up the bulk of the last canto of PURGATORIO.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk with Beatrice, Dante, the seven ladies, the lady who tends Eden, and Statius. They're a final parade to wrap up this second canticle of COMEDY.
Here are the segments for...
Apocalypse Even In Eden, Part Two: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, Lines 109 - 160
In the last episode, we talked through some of the "superficial" factors in the grand apocalyptic vision in Eden: its structure, some diction cues, even a few rifts or cracks in its flow.
In this episode, let's turn to the much thornier issue of what it all means. A consensus has developed over the seven hundred years of commentary. That reading (or interpretation) now dominates the Anglo-American, rationalist outlooks on the vision.
But might there be more? And might that reading be prone to mistakes or gaffes it cannot accommodate?
Join me, Mark...
Apocalypse Even In Eden, Part One: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, Lines 109 - 160
Dante is now ready for the final apocalyptic vision of PURGATORIO . . . and in the last place we might expect it: in that bastion of innocence and purity, the Garden of Eden.
In seven vignettes, Dante witnesses some chaotic and catastrophic collapse of the chariot and even one of the original trees of Eden.
But all is not lost. Beatrice is on the scene. And Dante himself participates in this vision, seemingly instigating a new ending to what had become a disaster.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first of two episodes on the...
A Brief Introduction To Women In The High Middle Ages
Before we continue with Beatrice (and even the young woman who tends the Garden of Eden), let's stop and talk all too briefly about the roles and available places for women in Dante's day, the high middle ages.
Although we can't hope to cover this subject in depth, we might be able to see some of its reflections in COMEDY so far, as well as in the complex and even contradictory characterization of Beatrice in COMEDY.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take an all too quick side quest into the question of women in...
