We're in the fifth circle of INFERNO. We may or may not be over a divide in the poem, over a break. Boccaccio thought so. Many modern scholars do. I hesitate, sort of do. A few don't see a break at all.
I'll give you some reasons why this may not be a break in the poem--and offer you some details on the curious knots in this longer passage among the wrathful.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk slowly with the pilgrim Dante across the known universe--or here, set out across Styx in a boat. This is a curious passage, all about questions of interpretation and Dante-the-poet's position toward the material he cites in his own work.
And it's just fun, too. Because it's Dante. And hell. And the wrathful. And Virgil. Plus, it's a story. (That last, by the way, may be the most important point of all.)
Here are the segments of this episode:
[01:05] Here's the passage for this episode from INFERNO: Canto VIII, Lines 7 - 30. Actually, I'll back up and take it from the first line of the canto for a running start into these lines.
[02:35] Does the poem start in a new direction? Most thought so in the Renaissance. (Thank you, Boccaccio.) Most didn't think so later. Most now again think so. But here are some of the reasons my own interpretation--that in fact it does restart at Canto VIII--may be wrong.
[07:46] The scene opens with towers signaling each other. In other words, it opens with a question of interpretation in a scene analogous to a scene of reading.
[10:58] The little boat arrives! It seems important that it's "little," as opposed to Charon's big boat.
[12:21] Who is Phlegyas? Why is he here in the poem?
[14:04] Perhaps it's not a good idea to think about the poet Dante in terms of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Perhaps it's better to think of him in terms of the classical and the modern world.
[17:44] The problem of corporeality is solved! The boat sinks down under the weight of the pilgrim. But that solution brings with it more problems! And maybe it also exhibits a greater confidence on the part of this poet.