Bested By Beatrice, Bested By Virgil: INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 115 - 141

Beatrice has bested Virgil. Virgil has bested Dante, our pilgrim.

Dante can do nothing else except set off across the universe.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish Canto II of INFERNO and get ready to descend into the mouth of hell.

Here are the segments to this episode:

[02:14] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 115 - 141. If you want to read my translation, find a more in-depth study guide with lots of interpretive questions, or just continue the conversation with me through a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:49] Why did we have to have this rhetorical battle?

[07:19] Beatrice's final salvo: She wins with tears.

[08:32] Virgil confirms that the she-wolf was Dante's primary antagonist.

[09:53] Virgil states his final case--and maybe overstates it, putting himself on a par with the blessed ladies in heaven. This may be a moment of the so-called anxiety of influence (à la Harold Bloom, the U. S. provocateur/literary critic).

[14:53] Desire is the foundation of the universe in Dante's scheme.

[15:24] The pilgrim offers a unified will: He is no longer split in parts.

[16:08] The pilgrim Dante speaks in a plain, straightforward way, indicating that he gets it, that he has what it takes to start the journey (both across the universe and on the page).

[17:54] An backward glance at Canto II and some points about its structure. A canto highly concerned with rhetoric is itself rhetorically structured. And more about rhetoric and the will, as well as the way they must align to get you what you want.