Eleven episodes! That's how long it took us to get through the tenth and last of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") of fraud, Hell's vast eighth circle.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look back over this last pouch. I'll reread the entire pouch from my English translation. Then I'll pose six issues for more discussion: five discussion questions we would bat around if we were in a literary seminar together, and a sixth point that may help bring the last pouch into better focus.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:47] A reading of my English translation for INFERNO, Canto XXIX, Line 1, through and including Canto XXXI, Line 6. If you'd like to see this translation or read along, you can find it broken up into the various episodes on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[18:13] An overview of the discussion points ahead.
[18:49] Discussion point #1: Why is the tenth of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") bracketed with Virgil's rebukes?
[22:55] Discussion point #2: How does the material from Ovid work inside the last of the pouches of fraud?
[27:32] Discussion point #3: Why does Master Adam alone lack a double?
[29:52] Discussion point #4: How exactly does Master Adam's dropsy illustrate his contrapasso? And what does that say of the punishments of other counterfeiters?
[32:48] Discussion point #5: Why is Dante writing beyond the ending of Bible stories?
[38:53] Discussion point #6: At the end of fraud, why does Dante the poet focus so intently on the humanity of the damned?