Dante has started a conversation with two envious penitents . . . a conversation he might not be ready for. They prove more than his rhetorical match. They also muddy the theology of Purgatory itself. Is that intentional? Or are we expected to understand their still-fallen state?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore more about the two envious souls who interrupt Dante's journey around the second terrace of Purgatory proper.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:23] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 22 - 42. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode of the podcast on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:23] Dante's cagey periphrasis about the Arno may not have paid off.

[07:00] The first envious penitent is bestialized as he fastens his teeth into the meat of Dante's intentions.

[09:49] These penitent shades have lots of debt, even though one soul launches into a typical Dantean diatribe against Tuscany.

[14:43] How can good things happen in a fallen world? Only by moving the fence.

[16:55] Two inset tercets show the changing nature (or fence?) of COMEDY from a theological poem to an encyclopedic one.

[21:59] This passage contains the third and final use in COMEDY of a word for "snake."

[25:55] The problem with the diatribe is that is seems to remove culpability from humans . . . or at least, Tuscans.

[28:55] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 22 - 42.