Walking With Dante

At last, Beatrice explains how you can make up for broken or unfulfilled vows: Just give back 150% of the original worth of the thing vowed.

But what happens when the thing vowed can't be valued . . . or breaks every scale.

Her answer ropes in both the one who vows and the church who can offer an out to the vow.

In other words, Dante is setting the terms of canon law.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this tough passage about vows, free will, and the out for what you've broken.

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

[01:15] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 34 - 63. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:56] An examination of the small, gritty details in this difficult passage about making up for broken or unfulfilled vows.

[17:32] Food as crucial imagery in PARADISO.

[20:36] Three ways out of unfulfilled vows: the eternal light in all things, God's consent, and Beatrice's 150% accounting scheme.

[23:14] Dante's possible attempt to make up for his broken vow to Beatrice.

[24:53] Vows and the possible threat of the Avignon papacy.

[28:09] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto V, lines 34 - 63.

Beatrice begins the final part of her argument with the premise that the freedom of the will is the greatest gift given to angels and humans.

She then offers one out to her rather strict notion of ethical behavior—some vows may not be valid—and proceeds to claim that the will wills its own loss while making a vow.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the apotheosis of free will in Beatrice's final discourse in the sphere of the moon.

To help support this podcast and cover its many fees, please consider a donation at this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:33] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 17 - 33. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:24] The greatest gift is free will--thus, evil is a moral reality, not a metaphysical or an ontological reality.

[09:17] The will wills its loss in a vow, an act of self-limitation (if God so agrees).

[13:51] You can't climb over the fence of your vow.

[16:16] The will may well be paramount--unless a poet gets involved.

[19:16] Rereading PARADISO, Canto V, lines 17 - 33.

Dante wants to know if someone (who?) can make an unfulfilled vow good with other good works?

Beatrice begins her answer with a tightly woven passage that illustrate a high degree of poetic skill . . . and then seems to acknowledge her own role in starting a canto of the poem.

Dante's question remains curious? To or for whom was the vow made? And how is it broken?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the meta-beginning of the fifth canto of PARADISO.

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

[01:20] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 1 - 16. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:15] Rhetorical strategies: fire, sight, and love tightly interwoven (along with a mixed metaphor!).

[09:05] Fire, sight, and love: the metaphoric crux for the theological idea of the vestige of eternal light in all things.

[13:14] The root of the problem of unfulfilled vows: potential litigation in heaven's court.

[18:04] A meta-canto possibly about the poet's unfulfilled vows . . . to Beatrice, yes, but perhaps also to his readers.

[24:16] Rereading PARADISO, Canto V, lines 1- 16.

Beatrice has answered the pilgrim's two unasked questions . . . but she doesn't yet know the one he really wants to ask.

Having heard her doctrines about free will and unfulfilled vows, the pilgrim Dante winds himself up through flattery and intellectual curiosity to ask perhaps a personal question about his own unfulfilled vows.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the ways Beatrice's discussions of free will have only caused the pilgrim Dante more problems, even as they've satisfied his intellect.

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

[01:35] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:20] The journey of the intellect is the journey of the desire that arises from doubt.

[12:37] The pilgrim Dante flatters Beatrice . . . maybe too much.

[17:43] Who is addressed in this passage? Isn't it too much to attribute to Beatrice?

[20:26] The poet mixes the metaphors to further push truth into poetic space.

[22:51] Dante asks a personal question about his unfulfilled vow . . . maybe.

[26:24] Beatrice, Francesca, Dante, and Nebuchadnezzar.

[30:11] Rereading PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 115 - 142.

Beatrice launches into a subpoint about free will, one derived from her larger discussion of culpability.

In this passage, she refines exactly why Piccarda and Constance are charged with breaking their vows in the sphere of the moon: They may have wanted to keep their vows, but that wanting doesn't negate their actions.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this bit of Scholastic reasoning that shores up an uncomfortable if orthodox notion of the will.

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

[01:33] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 91 - 114. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:07] My translated lines violate the incredible concision of Dante's Florentine poetry.

[06:36] The central problem: Can there be dissension among those in heaven?

[10:58] The notion of a first truth presumes second and third truths--and what are those?

[14:05] Beatrice offers an argument about the absolute will and the conditional will that is almost plagiarized from Aristotle and Aquinas.

[23:02] Beatrice and Dante the poet hold their orthodox fence firm.

[29:07] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 91 - 114.

Beatrice now takes on the pilgrim's second . . . doubt? It had been questions. Now it sounds as if it's more. Doubts.

Here, she launches into a discussion of free will that ultimately implicates Piccarda and Constance in their own failures, even though they were forced against their wills out of the convents.

Beatrice offers a hard, troubling rationale for their lower status in the pursuit of what she sees as the higher good: the sanctity of free will.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this provocative passage, one of the few moments in which Dante refuses to move his fences.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, please consider a donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:01] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 64 - 90. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:31] The less venomous doubt, perhaps because it takes place fully inside Christian theology.

[08:59] Laying the blame on Piccarda and Constance.

[13:04] Aristotle's concept of the involuntary will and the voluntary will; Aquinas' concept of the absolute will and the conditional will.

[19:53] Examples of a firm will: the Christian St. Lawrence and the pagan Mucius.

[24:47] Three implications: the punishment/reward matrix from INFERNO and PURGATORIO continuing into PARADISO, the possible self-editing of PARADISO, and the failure to move the established fence.

[30:33] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 64 - 90.

Beatrice continues her rectification of Dante's doubts by using a passage from Plato's TIMAEUS to turn her argument from accommodation to free will.

This passage contains perhaps the heart of Beatrice's second grand discourse in PARADISO. But even so, it's a tad garbled as it attempts to answer Plato while giving his works full authority.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue our way toward the grand climax of free will in the next passage from PARADISO.

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

[01:25] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 49 - 63. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:14] Summarizing the sense and intricacies of the passage: Plato's understanding of the origins and fate of human souls.

[10:05] Dante's reluctance to charge Plato's work with error, since ancient texts are forming an important matrix of authority.

[15:35] The garbled conclusion about naming the stars (or planets) Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars.

[22:34] Full-throated medieval feminism: Beatrice reads Plato!

[25:00] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 49 - 63.

Beatrice begins to take apart the two questions (or doubts) that she has intuited the pilgrim Dante is holding in silence.

She first takes on the one with more "poison" in this passage, in which she reveals that the souls in the moon aren't really in the moon but appear here as an accommodation to the pilgrim's limited understanding, based on sensory data.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our journey through the Beatrice's second major discourse in PARADISO.

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

[01:33] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 28 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:51] Dante's frustration of even anger may be connected to the accommodating nature of revelation.

[07:09] Beatrice reveals the status of souls in the highest heaven . . . and in the moon at the same time.

[20:18] Possible irony: Beatrice argues from her observation while telling the pilgrim Dante that he shouldn't trust his powers of observation.

[23:04] Does the poet intend any irony in this passage?

[26:36] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 28 - 48.

Piccarda may have vanished but questions remain. The pilgrim Dante is caught between them, unable to voice them.

Beatrice to the rescue! She voices what he cannot say . . . or perhaps what he is afraid to say.

She articulates his two questions, makes one of them very personal, and attempts to mitigate the anger of King Nebuchadnezzar . . . or maybe the pilgrim's anger.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the fascinating opening to the fourth canto of PARADISO.

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

[01:01] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:24] PURGATORIO Canto XVIII as the background for PARADISO Cantos IV and V.

[06:27] The multivalent, triplicate, opening simile--a man, a lamb, and a dog; hunger, fear, hunger--which embellishes a simile from PARADISO Canto III.

[12:51] Beatrice : Daniel :: Nebuchadnezzar : Dante?

[15:09] Beatrice's two intuited doubts from the pilgrim: the souls' origins and destinations, as well as the problem of coercion and the will.

[20:01] The Latin in the text, the veil of the will.

[22:22] The canto's opening simile again: paralysis, perhaps between women, certainly because of desire, hardly a hymn to rational free will.

[26:14] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 1 - 27.

Piccarda Donati doesn’t stop her monologue with the cryptic line about her life after the convent. She turns to another figure in the lunar landscape: Constance I of Sicily, the Holy Roman Empress and mother of Frederick II, the stupor mundi.

Piccarda offers Constance a parallel life to her own. The problem is, Piccarda’s account doesn’t match the historical record.

But maybe Dante has other fish to fry. Maybe he’s more interested in Constance’s son, the Holy Roman Emperor that many are insistent on calling “the anti-Christ.”

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the final lines of Canto III, the shortest canto of PARADISO.

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

[01:22] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 130. If you’d like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:02] Linguistic and poetic details at the end of Canto III: shades, dark spots in redemption, Narcissus, line rhythms, and a seal in the wax.

[10:24] Constance I of Sicily, the mother of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the grandmother of Manfred (PURGATORIO, Canto III).

[14:17] Parallels with the Donati family in COMEDY and a possible rehabilitation for Frederick II.

[17:17] The sphere of the moon, a community of women (only women?)

[20:10] When they vanish, where do they go?

[21:36] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto III, lines 109 - 130.

Piccarda Donati finally answers the question about who she is. She's given her name but not much else about her. In twelve lines (or four tercets) she brings her personal story to its violent yet elliptical conclusion.

Before that the poet has to explain what he's learned, the pilgrim has to express what his time with her has felt like, and then she gets to take center stage . . . and not fully answer the question.

Piccarda Donati is one of the strongest feminist characters in COMEDY. Her voice is an essential part of the puzzle that includes Francesca from INFERNO and Pia from PURGATORIO.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the conclusion to Piccarda's story.

If you'd like to help underwrite the many fees associated with this podcast, you can make a donation or even offer a small monthly stipend through this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:12] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 88 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:13] Unity is expressed in diversity (at least as far as grace goes).

[06:15] A Latin word in the pasage--for one-upmanship or to elevate the sweet new style?

[08:32] The mixed metaphoric space of the pilgrim Dante and Piccarda Donati.

[12:38] The monastic prelude to Piccarda's personal story.

[18:56] The violent yet elliptical end of her story.

[25:45] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto III, lines 88 - 108.

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.

At long last, the first soul--or "shade"--steps forward in Paradise. She's Piccarda Donati, a figure we've already encountered once (maybe even twice) in COMEDY.

Dante flatters her to speak and she begins, not with herself, but with some theology and thoughts on her placement in the heavens.

Along the way, her speech takes on some dark spots of ambiguity, about like the moon with its rare and dense material.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our time with the first soul in Paradise.

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

[01:04] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 34 - 57. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:12] Introducing Piccarda Donati, a nun forced to violate her vows.

[09:11] Finding Piccarda Donati elsewhere in COMEDY, particularly at PURGATORIO XXIII and XXIV, in the speech of her brother, Forese, among the gluttons.

[12:19] Also finding Piccarda Donati in Francesca from INFERNO V.

[18:00] Finding darkness (or ambiguity) in Piccarda--moon spots, as it were.

[22:51] Playing games with vows, voids, and volition (or the will).

[26:37] Rereading PARADISO, Canto III, lines 34 - 87.

Dante is about to meet the first souls in Paradise, emerging from the liquid light of the moon.

The poetry is lush and sensuous. The metaphors are complex and compounded. And Beatrice is a bit chilly, full of Latinisms and a condescending smile.

It's a marvelous banquet for the senses, here in this first sphere, where the souls seems to emerge as reflections in the diaphanous lunar realm.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we see our first redeemed souls in heaven--and discover that Paradise is not as bright or as clear as we might expect.

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

[01:13] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 33. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode to continue the conversation, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:53] The lush, even sensual poetics of the moon.

[09:14] Deeper, even dark complexities within the lush poetry.

[11:53] Beatrice, not an allegory, but a real woman, and an honored spokesperson for truth.

[15:30] Dante as Narcissus . . . or not.

[20:20] Getting stuck on the marginalia, so much so that you can't make out the text.

[23:48] Truth as an approximation, not a delineation.

[25:56] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 33.

Beatrice concludes her explanation for moon spots by veering away from them specifically to talk about the nature of the universe.

Blessed movers turn the spheres. Or perhaps inhabit them. Or are bound to them. Or maybe even give them life.

Her argument may veer into heresy as Dante brings his universe alive . . . maybe literally.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this dense and abstruse conclusion to Beatrice's first major discourse in PARADISO.

To support this podcast, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:20] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 127 - 148. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation by dropping a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[04:26] A paraphrase of this difficult passage.

[06:14] Beatrice's central questions: How do the spheres of the heavens move and how do they disperse their influence?

[13:03] Light as the vehicle for stellar or heavenly influence.

[14:26] Heresy, angels, spheres, souls, and bodies: Is the universe at least partly alive?

[20:36] Beatrice's incomplete discourse: How do some spheres have more than one nature and how are any dark spots dark?

[23:08] The bigger implication: Dark and light parts of people . . . and maybe of the blessed.

[24:47] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto II, lines 127 - 148.

Beatrice now launches into the true explanation for moon spots, found not in folklore, not in natural philosophy, but in metaphysics.

Her explanation pushes her to disclose the parts of the universe we could never see, then lets her discuss diversity as a function of the light falling from the stars through the planets to us.

A gorgeously poetic passage, it also raises many more questions than it answers . . . . questions that will trouble PARADISO for cantos to come.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin the discovery of Dante's ultimate explanation for moon spots. They're not physical. They're metaphysical.

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

[01:45] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 106 - 126. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode to continue the conversation, find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:10] An overview of the three explanations for moon spots and of the structure of this passage.

[06:27] Beatrice's metaphysical explanation for moon spots.

[16:32] Dante's fully aligned (and thus broken) cosmos.

[19:05] Two astrological implications from Beatrice's metaphysics.

[22:41] Beatrice's metaphors in the passage.

[26:37] Rereading PARADISO, Canto II, lines 106 - 126.

Beatrice continues in her scientific and Scholastic explanation for moon spots by taking apart a secondary argument . . . and proposing an optical experiment.

She voices an objection Dante might have: perhaps there are dense bits behind the rare bits that reflect light as darker spots because those denser bits are farther off.

To prove him wrong (although he hasn't said a thing), she asks him to set up an experiment with three mirrors.

Problem is, he doesn't need three mirrors for this experiment. But he does need three if he wants to show that the universe is based on a trinitarian concept of God.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at one of the more surprising moments in PARADISO: the call for scientific experimentation (perhaps to prove a theological point).

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

[01:13] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 85 - 105. To read along or to continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:25] The basic structure of the passage: Beatrice's secondary explanation (or objection), then her experimental refutation of that explanation.

[05:29] Medieval optical theory and its limits.

[08:36] The limits of Beatrice's proposed experiment--and why they may not matter since the point may be theology, not optical theory or cosmology.

[17:23] Four possiblereasons this long discussion of moon spots lands here in COMEDY.

[23:41] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto II, lines 85 - 105.

Beatrice begins her destruction of Dante's explanation for moon spots by taking apart his notion of dense and rare spots on the lunar surface . . . with a dizzying display of mixed metaphors.

Her argument lofts to the highest visible heaven, the eighth sphere; then falls back into scholastic reasoning; and offering both experimental and poetic rationales for why he's wrong.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first part of Beatrice's explanation for moon spots, predicated on the bass line of the incarnation.

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

[01:20] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 64 - 84. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation about this passage, find its entry at my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:27] Paraphrasing this difficult passage in Beatrice's argument about moon spots.

[04:46] Lofting the argument to the eighth heaven, the highest part of visible creation (from Dante's perspective).

[08:15] Offering diversity as complexity beyond a simple continuum for an answer.

[12:31] Moving into experimental (or experiential) proofs for her argument (and implicitly for an understanding of the incarnation of Jesus).

[15:13] Inspiring a dizzying vertigo through mixed metaphors to state the negative of her argument.

[18:41] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto II, lines 64 - 84.

Now that our pilgrim Dante is standing in the moon, he has a fundamental question: Why are there spots on the moon?

And he thinks he knows the answer, right out of natural philosophy. They're caused by rare and dense material in the moon.

He's asking a question for which he knows the answer, trying to play teacher's pet. But Beatrice is having none of it. She's ready to show him how he's not as smart as he thinks he is.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our descent into some of the most complicated material in all of COMEDY.

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

[01:14] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 46 - 63. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[02:57] Two small thematic details: the uses of the word "body" and Beatrice's watery metaphor of "submerged."

[06:02] Two of three explanations for moon spots in this canto: 1) the folkloric myth and 2) the natural philosophy deduction.

[07:57] Folklore: Cain and his thorns in the moon.

[09:21] Natural philosophy: rare and dense materials (and how they reflect light).

[12:54] The distance Beatrice puts between her arguments (to come) and 1) sensory input and 2) reason . . . and thereby Virgil.

[17:07] Diversity and a pluralistic world.

[19:07] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto II, lines 46 - 63.

After Dante's warning to his readers (or perhaps some of his readers), we return to the plot, ascending through the heavens to arrive at the moon . . . or really, in the moon.

Dante and Beatrice find themselves inside this translucent pearl in the heavens.

And in so doing, Dante proves the incarnation really happened . . . at least, if you accept that his journey really happened.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first of several complex passages in the second canto of PARADISO.

If you'd like to support this work, please consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:11] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, lines 19 - 45. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:12] Backgrounds: A brief history of "natural philosophy" in Dante's day.

[07:29] Backgrounds: The incarnation, of the prime methods of redemption for Dante.

[10:10] A thought experiment: the universe as a diaphanous, aesthetic object.

[12:20] The journey into the universe . . . or mystery (without spoilers).

[14:16] Hysteron proteron: the rhetorical flourish of PARADISO and the ultimate structure of COMEDY.

[17:16] Lots of joinings here and in Canto I, all anticipating the incarnation.

[18:37] The complex symbolism of the moon as a pearl.

[21:27] The incarnation in the foreground of the narrative.

[24:17] Dante's journey as proof of the incarnation.

[26:37] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto II, lines 19 - 45.