We've climbed to the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory. We are way up the mountain. We can barely see the shore where the angels boat arrived. We certainly can't make out the gate to Purgatory proper far below us.

The pilgrim gets a chance to sleep, so we should take our cue and take a breather to get used to the altitude.

WALKING WITH DANTE is going on hiatus for a few weeks, just until mid-January, so we can be rested and ready for the climb ahead.

We've climbed up to the fifth terrace of Purgatory proper and come among the avaricious. These three cantos become increasingly complex and daring: in their theology, in their poetics, and in their myth-making.

They're extraordinarily rich. Gilded, even. Which somehow fits, since these are the cantos in which the greedy purge their sin.

And we've got three incredible monologues: from a late-to-repent pope, one of the founders of the French monarchy, and Statius, the great Roman poet whose THEBIAD has been with us all along in COMEDY.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a read-through of Cantos XIX, XX, and XXI of PURGATORIO before we begin our slow walk along this most dangerous terrace.

The zealous slothful have run on, although there are still two coming in the rear, "biting" the penitents from behind with warnings about sloth.

After that, the pilgrim Dante has a new thought--curiously undefined--which leads him into his second dream in PURGATORIO.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish off Canto XVIII and leave our pilgrim to his slumbers.

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

[01:30] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:16] Virgil, but only in periphrasis.

[07:27] Two warnings: one Biblical and one classical (from The Aeneid!).

[11:27] The connection between fear and sloth.

[13:41] The pilgrim's new thought: possibly Beatrice?

[18:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1130 - 145.

At last, the slothful penitents arrive. They're a roiling horde in a crazy rush, whipped around the terrace to make up for the ways they were negligent in life.

As these frantic souls pass by, one of them speaks a brave truth about Dante the poet's primary patron, a fierce warlord who has sheltered the poet on the run but whose family may not be all they're cracked up to be.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through this amazing passage of PURGATORIO, a plea to not hesitate when it comes to speaking truth to power.

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

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

[01:32] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines n97 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode in the list of episodes for this podcast on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:09] There are two admonitions for purposeful haste: Mary and Julius Caesar.

[09:46] An address to the penitents . . . from Virgil.

[11:00] Virgil clouds our definition of sloth . . . and perhaps our understanding of his place in PURGATORIO.

[15:47] The Abbott of San Zeno tells of the fall of his monastery into chaos (as well as Milan's fall into chaos).

[21:00] Hurry up and speak truth to power.

[24:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 97 - 129.

Our pilgrim has found himself in the dark of night, a time where he loses all effort on Mount Purgatory.

But don't get too sleepy, Dante. You can get run over by the slothful, all at a full gallop in a Bacchic frenzy.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we return to the plot after Virgil's discourses on love, here on the fourth terrace of Mount Purgatory.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please consider donating a small monthly stipend or a one-time gift at this PayPal link right here.

These are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 76 - 96. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:39] The complicated opening passage about the moon and the time of night.

[13:38] Virgil and the values of chivalry.

[16:41] Directionality and the penitents of Purgatory.

[20:32] The Bacchic penance of the slothful.

[23:12] The pilgrim's sleepy, poetic imagination.

[24:41] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 76 - 96.

Virgil offers his third discourse on love at the middle of PURGATORIO to 1) show his work about ethics derived from Aristotle's notions of substance and cause and 2) to make sure the pilgrim understands that his actions are his own fault.

This is a complicated passage with lots of historical resonances, particularly from Aristotle and Plato (as understood through Aquinas). It'll take us some work to unpack it, but we'll get very close to our modern understanding of ethics.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the last of Virgil's major discourses.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, you can do so at this PayPal link right here.

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

[02:13] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 49 - 75. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:12] The various notions of Aristotelean causality in the passage: material and necessary causes, as well as the nature of "substance."

[11:59] Material causes and substantial forms.

[14:59] A misinterpretation of the substance and material in the passage that has infected the commentary on COMEDY for centuries.

[17:44] The desire for primary things and Virgil's misunderstanding.

[23:24] Virgil's (and Dante's) definition of reason and our understanding of ethics from it.

[28:35] Reason's results: ethics.

[29:41] A logic flaw in Virgil's argument.

[33:13] Marco of Lombardy vs. Virgil.

[36:19] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 49 - 75.

Virgil has finished his second, clarifying discourse on love, but it hasn't done the trick. The pilgrim Dante is even more full of doubts . . . pregnant with them, in fact.

Let's look at the pilgrim's second question to Virgil's discourse on love and talk about the complex ways Beatrice and even physical desire operate in the poem.

I'm Mark Scarbrough. Thanks for coming on the journey with me.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, you can do so at this PayPal link right here.

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

[02:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:47] To understand Dante's concept of love, void the Renaissance and Romanticism out of your thinking.

[09:48] An impregnated pilgrim brings up the sexual basis of desire (or love).

[12:50] The pilgrim asks a crucial question for any religion: How am I responsible?

[15:22] The allegory of Virgil and Beatrice comes close, even while Beatrice remains a physical draw for desire.

[19:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 48.

In answer to the pilgrim's request that Virgil show his work on the nature of love, Virgil (and the poet Dante behind him) condense and recast the very bases of the thinking in Western culture: Aristotle's notion that the objective world creates a mental picture that forms the basis of any action.

This passage is one of the most complex in PURGATORIO. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take apart its claims and some of the translation problems both from the poetry's concision and the seismic change in thought after the Enlightenment.

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

[01:56] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 19 - 39. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:30] A few things to admit before we start.

[08:00] The three steps or stages of love.

[14:01] The problem of translating "anima."

[17:26] Basic claims in Virgil's second discourse.

[23:17] Problems with these claims--and how Dante the poet solves them.

[29:14] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 19 - 39.

Virgil seemed to have come to a resting place in his monumental discourse on love: "Here's all I know . . . and all I don't know."

But the pilgrim is less than satisfied. He wants Virgil to continue on, to show his work for these complex syllogisms.

And Dante the poet is not done with Virgil either, given the mirrored structure of cantos XVII and XVIII.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we move beyond the mid-point of COMEDY and our pilgrim asks for more about how love is the seed of all human actions.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many costs and fees associated with this podcast, please consider donating what you can at this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1 - 18. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:19] Human love, like PURGATORIO itself, is a liminal space.

[06:03] Dante the poet leans heavily into Virgil's truth-telling, scholastic credentials.

[09:24] Canto XVIII is wrapped by the word "new."

[11:28] Dante's interiority gives way to the poem's interiority!

[13:33] The damned Virgil is a source of light, like the angels.

[15:03] The pilgrim asks Virgil to show his work and perhaps overstates Virgil's argument about love.

[19:10] Virgil lambasts the blind guides . . . who may be religious figures or also poets who refuse to write in the vernacular.

[21:27] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1 - 18.

We've come to the middle of PURGATORIO . . . and indeed the middle of COMEDY as a whole. Let's take a breather and review where we've been in Purgatory since our very slow approach sometimes (or often?) causes us to privilege the trees over the forest.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk you through the first half of PURGATORIO one more time, mostly to remind you where we've been, but also to make sure we all understand the majestic, imaginative sweep of this canticle so far (and this poem so far).

If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, with a one-time donation or even a small monthly contribution, you can do so at this PayPal link right here. Thank you so much for your support . . . in donations, in questions, in connections on social media, and on my website, markscarbrough.com.