Piccarda has confessed to her more humble place in the heavens. Our pilgrim Dante then wants to know if she wants more.

Her answer leads her to an apotheosis of the will. Everything in the universe is in harmony; all dissonances are put aside.

It also leads her to a similar spot that Francesca comes to in INFERNO V: a riff off a quotation from St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as Piccarda offers her answer to a central question in COMEDY: How does the universe reconcile its differences?

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

[01:04] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 58 - 87. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me through a dropped comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:35] Dante's position in this passage: (1) the pilgrim's smaller question gets a bigger, cosmological answer; and (2) the poet's desire for a greater position may lie under the pilgrim's question.

[08:39] Movement in the passage: (1) from not knowing to living the best life, (2) from individuality to unity, and (3) from created to creator.

[15:41] Metamorphosis in the passage: (1) their aspects, (2) Piccarda's desire, (3) their wills, and (4) possibly God's.

[20:57] Piccarda's use of Latin: the sweet new style gets elevated.

[23:49] Francesca and Piccarda: Augustine's students!

[28:11] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto III, lines 58 - 87.