Structure, Fortune, And The Cracks In Dante's Poetry: Inferno, Canto VII, Lines 36 - 66

In this second passage from Canto VII of Dante's INFERNO, we get a full glimpse at the hoarders and the wasters, the avaricious and the prodigal: they're clergy, from run-of-the-mill clerics all the way up to cardinals and popes.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, on this slow stroll through Dante-the-poet's masterwork COMEDY and the first truly anti-clerical passage of the work (the first of many!).

For me, this canto shows the stress the poem is under. Mostly, it shows that the poetic structure and voice need to change for Dante-the-poet to find the right mix to write what will finally become the greatest work (so far!) of Western literature.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[00:45] My English translation of the passage from INFERNO: Canto VII, lines 36 - 66. If you'd like to look at this translation, it lives on my website, markscarbrough.com, under the "Walking With Dante" subhead.

[02:44] Strange line breaks! A pilgrim full of pity, but perfunctory pity perhaps! And the clergy rolling rocks! Such a strange bit in INFERNO.

[09:00] Three points on the anti-clerical passages in COMEDY and in this canto in particular.

[12:00] Why does Dante-the-pilgrim not recognize those pushing the rocks? I've got several answers you can pick among.

[17:53] The golden mean, Aristotle's vision for ethics: it's taking over. Should it?

[22:17] The introduction of an extra-Biblical character, the goddess Fortune. When we had such orthodoxy (Michael and his vendetta in the last passage), why this sudden turn away from an orthodox answer to the scarcity of goods. (Humans cannot create, can only hold what God creates.) Yes, Boethius. More on him next time. But in a canto full of clerics, it's interesting that the text is stepping outside of Christian texts and figures to Aristotle and a goddess.

[25:58] My confession. I'm a structuralist. Not everyone is. To say the least! But I think a look at structure here can help us see some of the problems the poet has to solve to get COMEDY written.