Walking With Dante

Our pilgrim, Dante, and the beautiful lady across Lethe walk on for a bit before the stream bends and the pilgrim ends up facing the right way to see the first flash of light that will signal the great apocalyptic parade in Eden.

The opening of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, brings us back to the pastoral world of Guido Cavalcanti's poem before launching us into allegory, theology, morality, and even misogyny.

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Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we find ourselves at the front of the great parade in Eden.

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

[01:27] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, Lines 1 - 30. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation by dropping a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:07] An introduction to PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX.

[06:59] The only canto in COMEDY that begins with a derivative of the word "canto."

[08:24] More references to Guido Calvalcanti's pastoral poem.

[11:44] A psalm retrofitted to become a beatitude, moving us from the classical world to divine revelation.

[14:31] The symbolism (and allegory?) of their paces and the stream's bend.

[18:00] Sight and hearing as the basis but not nearly enough, as with Guido Cavalcanti's poem.

[19:02] The lady's reaction ("brother") and the pilgrim's reaction (a lack of fear).

[21:45] The misogyny from the initial flash of light.

[28:59] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, lines 1 - 30.

The beautiful lady winds up her discourse with a corollary that combines both revelation and reason to offer a fulcrum to COMEDY as a whole: The classical world dreamed of Eden.

Redemption is a cul-de-sac, returning us to our primal state while also offering us a way to remain readers of the classical world's poetry.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the end of the lady's discourse, the longest speech by a woman yet in COMEDY.

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

[01:15] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 134 - 148. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode to continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[02:55] Revelation and reason as coequals in scholastic theology.

[06:52] The Golden Age and the Garden of Eden as overlapping spaces and the cul-de-sac of revelation.

[09:14] The pilgrim (and indeed, the poem) in the cul-de-sac with the classical poets on one side and the beautiful lady on the other.

[12:27] The longest speech by a woman yet in COMEDY.

[16:57] Rereading this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 134 - 148.

The lady across the stream continues her answer to the pilgrim Dante's question about the breeze and the water. In this case, she explains the ecology of Eden, offers an understanding of global botany, and finally layers the meaning thick over the rivers of Eden, one of which is the poet's utter invention.

The landscape itself is becoming allegorical, moral, theological, even anagogical, all while remaining true to its pastoral form (and roots).

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we delve deeper into the lady's capacious answers and the poet's ever-widening imagination.

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

[01:31] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 109 - 133. 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.

[04:09] The botany of both Eden and our own world.

[07:28] The ecology of Eden: abundance.

[11:05] The hydrology of Eden.

[14:03] The strange placement of Lethe in Dante's afterlife.

[17:15] The poet's reimagination of Eden, including an unprecedented river.

[20:23] The vertical layering of meaning onto the pastoral form.

[23:09] The inevitable logical faults of an imagined landscape.

[25:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 109 - 133.

The lady in Eden says she's come to answer the pilgrim's questions. And he's got one. It just might not be the first question on our minds.

But it's one that reveals the hall of mirrors that the poet has created in COMEDY, in which the poem itself justifies its own fictional if scientific answers to questions that lead the fictional pilgrim (and the very real reader) to a position of faith, based on the imagined landscape.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the first of the lady's speech with our pilgrim (as well as Virgil and Statius) in the Garden of Eden at the top of Mount Purgatory.

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

[01:27] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 85 - 108. 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.

[04:06] The lady's six-line theological explanation for the Garden of Eden and the fall of mankind.

[07:31] The lady's six-line scientific explanation for the breeze on the top of Mount Purgatory.

[11:04] The lady's six-line glimpse of Paradise above.

[12:54] The pilgrim's question of faith is built off the fictional landscape and its "scientific" answers found in the poem itself.

[21:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 85 - 108.

The lady in the forest has come to face the pilgrim and his poets across the stream in the forest.

The pilgrim clearly feels a sexual attraction toward her, one that might even make us think of his reactions to Beatrice.

She, however, has other ideas, like answering their many questions. Except in so doing, she raises even more questions than she has time to answer.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through this passage in PURGATORIO in which we first learn we're wandering around in the Garden of Eden.

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

[01:37] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 67 - 84. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment on this episode, please find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:38] Upright and flirty: the many contradictions of the lady in the forest.

[07:04] A rare misstep in COMEDY.

[08:06] A tough tangle of references from Ovid and the Bible: from pride to sexual attraction to (thwarted) redemption.

[15:28] The tenuous connections between the lady's laugh and their doubts, as well as her words and Virgil's presence.

[21:17] Her purpose: to offer answers (but not to remove sexual tension).

[23:39] The Garden of Eden, utterly reimagined by Dante.

[28:23] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 67 - 84.

Our pilgrim, Dante, calls the solitary lady over to him. She can't cross the stream that divides them, but she can dance in place before coming closer to him.

All the while, the poet keeps darkening the poetry around her with threatening references in the pilgrim's mouth--that is, classical examples of profane love that end up in tragic circumstances.

And all this, despite our poet quoting repeatedly from his rival poet's poem.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch meaning get thicker and thicker at the top of Mount Purgatory.

If you'd like to help support this podcast by underwriting its many fees, please 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:

[01:30] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 43 - 66. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode to continue the conversation, please find its spot on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:53] What if wandering is the start of some of the most significant journeys?

[08:22] My interpretive thesis: The solitary lady is the only fully fictional character in COMEDY.

[12:30] The poet Dante is cribbing a pastoral poem by his literary rival, Guido Cavalcanti.

[18:14] Two reasons Dante may have cribbed Cavalcanti's pastoral poem: 1) to assuage Dante's own guilt in Cavalcanti's death or 2) to show the limits of Cavalcanti's (and others') poetry.

[22:59] Two classical exemplars from Ovid--Proserpina and Venus--darken the passage considerably.

[27:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 43 - 66.

Our pilgrim continues walking through the old-growth forest, so dark that very little light can get into its cooling shade.

He is eventually blocked by two seemingly small things: a little brook flowing to the left and a solitary lady across the way, singing and picking flowers.

But the poet Dante gives us hints that all is already not what it seems.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue our journey across the top of Mount Purgatory . . . and notice that meaning is becoming layered over the naturalist details our pilgrim innocently notices.

If you'd like to help cover the fees for this podcast with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend, you can do so at this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:07] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 22 - 42. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment about this episode, please do so on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:03] A glance back to the start of the canto . . . and a glance back to the start of INFERNO.

[05:59] More repeated words in the poetry.

[07:31] Naturalistic details and the initial layering of metaphysical, moral, or allegorical meaning.

[16:30] No geographical understanding of this place (yet) . . . but a literary understanding of it: pastoral poetry.

[22:48] The unnamed, solitary lady as an interpretive trap.

[24:57] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 22 - 42.

Our pilgrim has been set free--crowned and mitered, in fact--and can wander at will through the dense, thick wood that tops Mount Purgatory.

The opening lines of Canto XXVIII are fully from the pilgrim's point of view. They offer us a wealth of naturalistic detail that looks simple on first blush but that will get layered with sedimentary meaning over the next five and a half cantos.

This place is unprecedented in all of COMEDY. Let's see it for what it is, without delving into the exact answers to the questions of where we are. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the opening lines of the third "chapter" of PURGATORIO.

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

[01:17] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 1 - 21. 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.

[04:11] First detail: eagerness as the prime motivation.

[06:08] Second detail: first hints about the prominent poetics in the passage.

[08:42] Third detail: naturalistic imagery that isn't.

[11:04] Fourth detail: the beginnings of polyphony (and dissonance).

[13:09] Fifth detail: the pine forest at Classe.

[14:47] First nuanced point: wandering away and perhaps a resonance with Geryon.

[17:50] Second nuanced point: a Saharan wind in this verdant place (and perhaps an echo of Juno's storm that drives Aeneas into Dido's arms).

[20:31] First major interpretive node: constancy as the changed strategy for the poem.

[23:08] Second major interpretive node: the four verdant or forested landscapes of COMEDY before this one.

[31:57] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 1 - 21.

We've come to the top of Mount Purgatory, on the other side of the globe from Jerusalem and the closest earth ever comes to the heavens above.

Our pilgrim, Dante, begins to wander around in this new place, almost unprecedented in the poem (except for perhaps that hill and those three beasts back in INFERNO, Canto I).

This episode of WALKING WITH DANTE is a read-through of the first two cantos (of six) that take place at the top of the mountain. Sit back and listen for the plot before we begin to dive into these complicated passages one by one.

If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider a small monthly stipend or a one-time gift, using this PayPal link right here.

I'm in full recovery and ready to start our walk again at the wild and truly unprecedented PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, a canto so woolly that it has created its own large subset of scholars!

So gird up your loins. New episodes start on 12 November 2025. I can't wait!