We've been through the circle of barratry, of political grift--and now it's time to look back over this vast landscape of text in Dante's INFERNO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I read the entire passage: from Inferno, Canto XXI, line 1 all the way through Canto XXIII, line 57.This is my translation. You can find it in bits and pieces on my website, markscarbough.com. But I'd rather you just sit back and listen to the story. You'll hear Dante's narrative craft and feel his art at work in his text.Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:06] My reading the full passage of the fifth evil pouch, the fifth of the malebolge, in the eighth circle of hell, the circle of INFERNO's fraud: Canto XXI, line 1, through Canto XXIII, line 57.[19:26] Can you feel the narrative arc?[20:49] Some thoughts. First, the larger story goes over the canto breaks.[21:19] Second, the arc moves from what's left out of COMEDY to the literary analysis of other texts.[22:16] Third, there are long similes that start and end this sequence--and most of those similes are very downscale, very homey, even folkloric.[24:03] Fourth, at the front of the sequence, Virgil alerts Dante the pilgrim to the danger. At the end, Dante alerts Virgil.[25:03] Fifth, the demons' wings are open at the beginning and ending of the sequence.[25:25] Sixth, everyone is at one point or another made into a fool--or perhaps, a mark.[27:35] Seventh, the characters in the sequence of barratry all have clear motivations--which are actually (or providentially?) fulfilled.[29:51] Dante the pilgrim is changing--and Dante the poet hopes you are, too.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.