Inferno, Canto XIX, is one crazy canto, so gorgeously constructed, as thick as fine tapestry, woven with Biblical allusions, historical references, structural idiosyncrasies, and even one glaring fault.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I look back over Inferno, Canto XIX, one of the finest Dante wrote for this part of Comedy. I'll offer some general assessments, goad you on to think more deeply about the canto, and even raise one ethical question about its overall thinking.
These are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:51] A reading of all of Inferno, Canto XIX. No text here. Just sit back and listen to it.
[09:51] The first question: Is the third evil pouch of the 8th circle of hell only filled with popes? The answer is a little harder than you might expect.
[12:20] How many popes are or will be in hell? Four by my count. But more perhaps. And the real question is this: How many clerics are in hell? Countless hordes.
[15:26] The savage irony of Canto XIX--which then reveals to us its structural complexities, its engineering feat.
[19:35] The linguistic range of Canto XIX: from the common, simple speech to the heights of allegorical language and back down to the depths of vulgarity.
[20:35] The direct address to Constantine the Great that ends the rant to end all rants. What does that direct address do for the passage?
[23:31] Questions about the "horizontal" (that is, linear) and "vertical" (that is, revisionary) strategies of Inferno.
[27:13] A larger ethical question that arises as you stand back from Canto XIX: Just how much does apocalyptic thinking distort clear thinking?