Beware Of Classical Figures, Modern Politicians, And Maybe Poets: Inferno, Canto XXVII, Lines 1 - 30

Ulysses leaves and a second flame shows up in the eighth of the malebolge, the evil pouches of fraud in Dante's INFERNO. Ulysses may be the great tragic figure, but this one is muttering, sputtering. He's a whining politician (and a local Romagna warlord).

In other words, we're leaving epic and moving to comedy--as always with Dante.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk through Dante's incomparable COMEDY. We're down in lower hell, toward the bottom of the eighth (or next-to-the-last) circle of hell. And we're about to meet someone right out of Dante's own world.

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

[02:32] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXVII, lines 1 - 30. If you'd like to follow along, you can find my translation and even drop a comment on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:40] Two clues about how to judge Ulysses: his upright flame and the "sweet poet" who is Virgil.

[08:00] The introduction of a comic figure: Guido da Montefeltro.

[12:09] The historical background of the simile about the Sicilian bull.

[14:58] Possible interpretations for the simile of the Sicilian bull: infernal speech or meta-poetics?

[19:05] The fabulous explanation for how a flame can speak.

[21:24] The open acknowledgment that Virgil is speaking in the Lombard dialect.

[25:38] Language cues in Guido's first speech.

[28:55] Back to the local after the global--as always with Dante.