Dante and Virgil have to get out of the sixth evil pouch, the pocket of the hypocrites. And the only way out is up!
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we set out on this epic climb from the sixth of the malebolge in the giant landscape of fraud, the eighth circle of INFERNO. Virgil is a sure guide. But it's all Dante's effort. And that might say more about COMEDY than we first imagine.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:48] My English translation of this passage: Inferno, Canto XXIV, lines 22 - 45. If you'd like to read along, you can find my translation on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:39] A couple of translation issues: an aphorism and an image.
[07:33] The climb out of the sixth evil pouch is because of a "felix culpa," a fortunate fall: the ruins of hell are the way of the sixth of the malebolge.
[09:58] Virgil may exhibit the four cardinal virtues in this passage. What can we make of that?
[12:48] More corporeal problems with Virgil.
[17:28] Compare this climb out of the sixth of the malebolge with the climb out of the third evil pouch in Canto XIX.
[22:36] The passage is full of enjambment, a moment of poetic freedom.