High Virgil, Low Demons, And The Poor Pilgrim Dante: Inferno, Canto XXI, Lines 64 - 102

We've seen seen one demon running along the bank. Now here comes a pack of them! They boil out at Virgil who is ready for them with lofty rhetoric and misplaced trust. And even a little contempt for the pilgrim Dante.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk through this incredibly dramatic passage from the fifth of the evil pouches (or malebolge) in the eighth circle of INFERNO with its many rings of fraud, this most human sin. There's a lot of low comedy, high rhetoric, and even some of Dante's own autobiography here. In other words, it's classic INFERNO.

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

[00:48] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XXI, lines 64 - 102. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:50] Notes on the crazy, strong, focused drama in this scene.

[08:38] The demon Evil Tail's rather low speech v. Virgil's high, learned, rhetorically-compacted speech.

[12:05] Is this a moment of the demon's cunning strategy (to make Virgil think the bad guy has let down his guard) or is it a moment of very low comedy from the poet Dante?

[14:04] Virgil calls out the pilgrim--and is quite hard on him!

[17:25] A bit of Dante-the-poet's autobiography slipped into the passage--but with an ironic twist. In the middle of a very dramatic scene, the personal invades COMEDY. As it almost always does in INFERNO.

[22:49] A possible vulgar joke to finish off the passage.