In A Rush For Peace: PURGATORIO, Canto V, Lines 37 - 63

The pilgrim Dante and his guide, Virgil, have passed beyond the lazy souls and on to a group that's in a frenzy: running, calling out, speaking in one voice. The change is marked and important to understand how PURGATORIO works.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this passage from the fifth canto of PURGATORIO. These souls have died violent deaths. And they want something from the pilgrim Dante. He wants something, too. And his wants are somehow tied with Virgil.

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

[02:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 37 - 63. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment about this episode, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:33] A concise but double simile, so compact it's a little garbled in the medieval Florentine--and perhaps comes from Virgil's GEORGICS (Book I, lines 365 - 367).

[08:27] Virgil doesn't seem to fully know what these frenzied souls want from the pilgrim Dante. If Virgil doesn't understand Christian theology, what then is his purpose in PURGATORIO?

[13:17] The souls speak in one voice (to Dante the pilgrim, NOT to Virgil!). The narrative movement of PURGATORIO is monophony (or unison) to polyphony.

[16:27] The souls want a transactional relationship with Dante the pilgrim. And maybe with Dante the poet, too.

[18:32] Dante seems to clarify the initial metaphor's implications.

[20:38] Two fundamental keys to PURGATORIO's thematics in this passage.

[25:30] Five interpretive problems in this passage.