Walking With Dante

Beatrice concludes her giant discourse on free will with a Biblical and a classical example of a foolish vow. Then she turns to Christians to exhort them to move with greater deliberation . . . before descending to a nasty bit of antisemitism.

Hers is a curious ending to her reasoning in the sphere of the moon, not just because of the pernicious talk of "the Jew," but also because her final tercets offer interpretive knots not easily unwound.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish our time in the moon and prepare to take flight to the second sphere of the heavens.

To help support this podcast, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend, using this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:12] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 64 - 84. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscabrough.com.

[03:09] A Biblical and a classical reference: Jephthah and Iphigenia.

[07:27] Beatrice, unanchored from the pilgrim Dante, addressing the church (or the poem's readers).

[10:10] Unabashed antisemitism and its tie to the rites of sacrifice.

[12:49] The nature of proper movement in PARADISO: deliberate and orderly.

[15:15] Beatrice's almost uninterpretable ending to the discourse on free will.

[22:08] Rereading PARADISO, Canto V, lines 64 - 84.

At last, Beatrice explains how you can make up for broken or unfulfilled vows: Just give back 150% of the original worth of the thing vowed.

But what happens when the thing vowed can't be valued . . . or breaks every scale.

Her answer ropes in both the one who vows and the church who can offer an out to the vow.

In other words, Dante is setting the terms of canon law.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this tough passage about vows, free will, and the out for what you've broken.

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

[01:15] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 34 - 63. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:56] An examination of the small, gritty details in this difficult passage about making up for broken or unfulfilled vows.

[17:32] Food as crucial imagery in PARADISO.

[20:36] Three ways out of unfulfilled vows: the eternal light in all things, God's consent, and Beatrice's 150% accounting scheme.

[23:14] Dante's possible attempt to make up for his broken vow to Beatrice.

[24:53] Vows and the possible threat of the Avignon papacy.

[28:09] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto V, lines 34 - 63.

Beatrice begins the final part of her argument with the premise that the freedom of the will is the greatest gift given to angels and humans.

She then offers one out to her rather strict notion of ethical behavior—some vows may not be valid—and proceeds to claim that the will wills its own loss while making a vow.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the apotheosis of free will in Beatrice's final discourse in the sphere of the moon.

To help support this podcast and cover its many fees, please consider a donation at this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:33] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 17 - 33. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:24] The greatest gift is free will--thus, evil is a moral reality, not a metaphysical or an ontological reality.

[09:17] The will wills its loss in a vow, an act of self-limitation (if God so agrees).

[13:51] You can't climb over the fence of your vow.

[16:16] The will may well be paramount--unless a poet gets involved.

[19:16] Rereading PARADISO, Canto V, lines 17 - 33.

Dante wants to know if someone (who?) can make an unfulfilled vow good with other good works?

Beatrice begins her answer with a tightly woven passage that illustrate a high degree of poetic skill . . . and then seems to acknowledge her own role in starting a canto of the poem.

Dante's question remains curious? To or for whom was the vow made? And how is it broken?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the meta-beginning of the fifth canto of PARADISO.

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

[01:20] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 1 - 16. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:15] Rhetorical strategies: fire, sight, and love tightly interwoven (along with a mixed metaphor!).

[09:05] Fire, sight, and love: the metaphoric crux for the theological idea of the vestige of eternal light in all things.

[13:14] The root of the problem of unfulfilled vows: potential litigation in heaven's court.

[18:04] A meta-canto possibly about the poet's unfulfilled vows . . . to Beatrice, yes, but perhaps also to his readers.

[24:16] Rereading PARADISO, Canto V, lines 1- 16.

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:

[01:35] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:20] The journey of the intellect is the journey of the desire that arises from doubt.

[12:37] The pilgrim Dante flatters Beatrice . . . maybe too much.

[17:43] Who is addressed in this passage? Isn't it too much to attribute to Beatrice?

[20:26] The poet mixes the metaphors to further push truth into poetic space.

[22:51] Dante asks a personal question about his unfulfilled vow . . . maybe.

[26:24] Beatrice, Francesca, Dante, and Nebuchadnezzar.

[30:11] Rereading PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 115 - 142.

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 of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 91 - 114. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:07] My translated lines violate the incredible concision of Dante's Florentine poetry.

[06:36] The central problem: Can there be dissension among those in heaven?

[10:58] The notion of a first truth presumes second and third truths--and what are those?

[14:05] Beatrice offers an argument about the absolute will and the conditional will that is almost plagiarized from Aristotle and Aquinas.

[23:02] Beatrice and Dante the poet hold their orthodox fence firm.

[29:07] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 91 - 114.

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 which Dante refuses to move his fences.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please consider a donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:01] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 64 - 90. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:31] The less venomous doubt, perhaps because it takes place fully inside Christian theology.

[08:59] Laying the blame on Piccarda and Constance.

[13:04] Aristotle's concept of the involuntary will and the voluntary will; Aquinas' concept of the absolute will and the conditional will.

[19:53] Examples of a firm will: the Christian St. Lawrence and the pagan Mucius.

[24:47] Three implications: the punishment/reward matrix from INFERNO and PURGATORIO continuing into PARADISO, the possible self-editing of PARADISO, and the failure to move the established fence.

[30:33] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 64 - 90.

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 of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 49 - 63. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:14] Summarizing the sense and intricacies of the passage: Plato's understanding of the origins and fate of human souls.

[10:05] Dante's reluctance to charge Plato's work with error, since ancient texts are forming an important matrix of authority.

[15:35] The garbled conclusion about naming the stars (or planets) Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars.

[22:34] Full-throated medieval feminism: Beatrice reads Plato!

[25:00] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 49 - 63.

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] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 28 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:51] Dante's frustration of even anger may be connected to the accommodating nature of revelation.

[07:09] Beatrice reveals the status of souls in the highest heaven . . . and in the moon at the same time.

[20:18] Possible irony: Beatrice argues from her observation while telling the pilgrim Dante that he shouldn't trust his powers of observation.

[23:04] Does the poet intend any irony in this passage?

[26:36] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 28 - 48.

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 English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:24] PURGATORIO Canto XVIII as the background for PARADISO Cantos IV and V.

[06:27] The multivalent, triplicate, opening simile--a man, a lamb, and a dog; hunger, fear, hunger--which embellishes a simile from PARADISO Canto III.

[12:51] Beatrice : Daniel :: Nebuchadnezzar : Dante?

[15:09] Beatrice's two intuited doubts from the pilgrim: the souls' origins and destinations, as well as the problem of coercion and the will.

[20:01] The Latin in the text, the veil of the will.

[22:22] The canto's opening simile again: paralysis, perhaps between women, certainly because of desire, hardly a hymn to rational free will.

[26:14] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 1 - 27.