hBjcDQfnMguRXVnjTNgM Mark Scarbrough's WALKING WITH DANTE: The Loneliness Of Pope Adrian V In PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 127 - 145 - Walking With Dante

Episode 156

The Loneliness Of Pope Adrian V: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 127 - 145

Published on: 16th March, 2025

Pope Adrian V concludes his discourse on the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory on a strangely lonely, alienated note. Perhaps this is what avarice does to a person. Or perhaps this is what exile has done to Dante.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the end of PURGATORIO XIX and Pope Adrian's speech on the terrace of the avaricious. We end at a melacholy spot for one of the redeemed.

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

[01:39] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 127 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, see the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:32] Informal "you" v. formal "you."

[06:22] Two New Testament references: Apocalypse 19:9 - 10 and the Gospel of Matthew 22:23 - 30.

[10:53] The mystery of what is purified as a new plotting strategy in COMEDY.

[13:14] The sad loneliness at the end of Canto XIX.

[15:31] INFERNO XIX v. PURGATORIO XIX.

[18:09] Misreading PURGATORIO XIX as a plea for democracy.

[19:29] Reading all of Pope Adrian V's discourse: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 91 - 145.

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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.
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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!