INFERNO, Episode 86. Gossip, Ambivalence, and The Strangeness of Virgil's Presence: Inferno, Canto XV, Lines 100 - 124

We come to the end of Inferno, Canto XV. We go out in the strangest ways. First, the pilgrim, Dante, wants a little bedroom gossip. Who are the other homosexuals down here with you, Brunetto?

Brunetto Latini is cagey and forthcoming, all at once, about the way he's been throughout this canto. He offers three names. He turns excessively vulgar. And he reveals his hidden agenda: don't forget the books I wrote! He is undoubtedly one of the most complicated figures in INFERNO.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk through Dante's masterwork, COMEDY. We've come to the end of a strange canto in INFERNO. It's chock full of ambivalence and irony. And maybe more than we first imagined. Because there's Virgil, standing to the side all along. They've been blathering on about how a writer wins fame. And about the old, uncorrupted, Roman blood. Meanwhile, Exhibit A is standing right there with them.

Here are the segments for this podcast episode:

[00:51] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XV, lines 100 - 124. If you'd like to read along, the passage is down below.

[03:05] The pilgrim's prurient question: Who else is with you, Ser Brunetto? (Notice that flouish of politeness, "Ser," just when the pilgrim wants to know the dirty details.)

[08:56] Smoke is rising from the sands. Brunetto can't stick around. Why?

[10:38] Brunetto reveals his hidden agenda: Don't forget my book!

[13:11] Virgil. He's been there all along. They've been talking about fame and pure Roman blood. Shouldn't they have asked Exhibit A, walking along with them?

[17:25] Brunetto wins his race! Or does he?

Here is my English translation of INFERNO, Canto XV, lines 100 - 124:

Nevertheless, I went on talking with

Ser Brunetto, asking him who are

The most notable and eminent of his compatriots.

And he to me: “It’s good to know some of them.

But of the rest, it’s better to keep my mouth shut

Because there’s not enough time to list them all.

“In essence, you should know they were all clerks,

Big shots of letters and great men of fame,

All dirtied up in the world by the same sin.

“Priscian is one of the sad gaggle,

And Francesco d’Accorso as well. And you could see,

If you really yearn for such scaly filth,

“The one who the Servant of Servants transfered

From around the Arno to the Bacchiglione,

Where he left his stretched-for-evil flesh.

“I could say a lot more, but my departure and my speech

Can’t hold out much longer. I can see

A new smoke rising from the sands out there.

“People are coming—I’m not allowed to be around them.

Be so kind as to keep my Treasure close.

I’m still alive in it. I have nothing else to ask.”

He turned around and seemed like one

Who runs across the fields for the green cloth

At Verona. And he was like one

Who takes the victory, not like one who loses.