Where's Dante, our pilgrim? Not in this passage! He's fallen out of his own poem as Virgil and Beatrice engage in the salvos of their rhetorical battle.

And where's hell, the promised inferno, the tortured sinners? Well, sort of here. I mean, Virgil's standing right there. Except we're headed to the very heights of heaven with Beatrice.

And what ultimately wins the day? A story. Beatrice's story of her journey to hell to save Dante. To set him on the road to heaven? Maybe. But more importantly, to set him on the road to writing COMEDY.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we fly to the very heights of the Empyrean, of heaven, and then come right back to Virgil and Beatrice standing in hell on this episode from Canto II of Inferno on the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[01:11] The passage from INFERNO for this episode: Canto II, Lines 76 -114. I'll read it twice because it's a bit tough. If you want to see my English translation, check it out under the "walking with Dante" header at markscarbrough.com.

[05:40] A bit about dissonances in the poem--and to remember that we live in a more linear world than Dante the poet.

[07:57] Virgil's response to Beatrice. It involves flattery (maybe flattery that's too high, even blasphemous) and--curious!--it involve his doubting her. BONUS CONTENT: Virgil claims that Beatrice is the way we get to heaven. Which is NOT orthodox Christian theology. Except Virgil's right. Beatrice IS the way Dante-the-pilgrim (and maybe Dante-the-poet) will get to heaven.

[13:41] Beatrice's answers--which include a wide cast of characters: the Virgin Mary, St. Lucy, Rachel from Torah/The Old Testament. Beatrice takes us straight up to heaven. So was Virgil right in his seemingly blasphemous flattery?

[21:20] A few words about the incredibly complex structure of this passage.

[22:45] And some final thoughts about what it means to have left the "common crowd" or the "vulgar horde." How has Dante-the-pilgrim left these people behind? BONUS CONTENT: Is Beatrice talking about Dante-the-poet or about Dante-the-pilgrim? I seem to argue that she's ultimately talking about the poet and his embrace of the low, new style. But perhaps she's talking about the pilgrim, too. In which case waking up in a dark wood was a choice, not an accident? Does that make any sense?