hBjcDQfnMguRXVnjTNgM Mark Scarbrough's WALKING WITH DANTE: An Review And Overview Of Fraud's Tenth Evil Pouch - Walking With Dante

Episode 188

A Review And Overview Of Fraud's Tenth Evil Pouch: Inferno, Canto XXIX, Line 1, through Canto XXXI, Line 6

Published on: 4th September, 2022

Eleven episodes! That's how long it took us to get through the tenth and last of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") of fraud, Hell's vast eighth circle.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look back over this last pouch. I'll reread the entire pouch from my English translation. Then I'll pose six issues for more discussion: five discussion questions we would bat around if we were in a literary seminar together, and a sixth point that may help bring the last pouch into better focus.

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

[01:47] A reading of my English translation for INFERNO, Canto XXIX, Line 1, through and including Canto XXXI, Line 6. If you'd like to see this translation or read along, you can find it broken up into the various episodes on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[18:13] An overview of the discussion points ahead.

[18:49] Discussion point #1: Why is the tenth of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") bracketed with Virgil's rebukes?

[22:55] Discussion point #2: How does the material from Ovid work inside the last of the pouches of fraud?

[27:32] Discussion point #3: Why does Master Adam alone lack a double?

[29:52] Discussion point #4: How exactly does Master Adam's dropsy illustrate his contrapasso? And what does that say of the punishments of other counterfeiters?

[32:48] Discussion point #5: Why is Dante writing beyond the ending of Bible stories?

[38:53] Discussion point #6: At the end of fraud, why does Dante the poet focus so intently on the humanity of the damned?

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About the Podcast

Walking With Dante
A passage-by-passage stroll through Dante’s DIVINE COMEDY with Mark Scarbrough
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.
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Mark Scarbrough

Former lit professor, current cookbook writer, creator of two podcasts, writer of thirty-five (and counting) cookbooks, author of one memoir (coming soon!), married to a chef (my cookbook co-writer, Bruce Weinstein), and with him, the owner of two collies, all in a very rural spot in New England. My life's full and I'm up for more challenges!