hBjcDQfnMguRXVnjTNgM False Modesty (Or Maybe Not): INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 42 - Walking With Dante

Episode 9

False Modesty (Or Maybe Not): INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 42

Published on: 14th October, 2020

We thought we were underway, but important things must happen first.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we start the Canto II of INFERNO to discover that the our pilgrim, Dante, is almost undone by his doubts. So he tries to play a rhetorical game with his poetic master, Virgil.

To get famous, punch up! And Virgil is definitely up from this rather middling poet.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees for licensing, streaming, editing, hosting, and more for this podcast, please consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend by using this PayPal link right here.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[02:02] My English translation of the passage for this episode: INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 42.

[04:14] A review of the plot so far--and an overview of what's ahead in Canto II of INFERNO.

[06:08] The opening lines of Canto II, with particular attention to the questions of temporality. Or to put it another way, our pilgrim is out of sync with the world.

[09:53] The first invocation of COMEDY. It's a prayer. Not to God. To the classical muses. And particularly to memory. (Bonus material: thereby further asserting the "realism" of COMEDY, affirming that Dante-the-pilgrim REALLY went on this walk.)

[11:37] Our pilgrim's first big speech. Am I good enough as a poet to do this? And it raises religious issues. Who's good enough to see the afterlife?

[18:01] More about periphrasis: the technique of walking around something without exactly naming it. For lots of reasons. Including flattery.

[21:52] Who permits this? The biggest question of COMEDY! Who permits the poet (no less the pilgrim, too) to do this? What if Dante sets out on this walk (or starts writing this poem) and it all turns out to be mad folly.

[25:00] Rereading INFERNO, Canto II, lines 1 - 42.

Mentioned in this episode:

A brief introduction to the walk ahead

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode
Show artwork for Walking With Dante

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.
Support This Show

About your host

Profile picture for Mark Scarbrough

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!