INFERNO, Episode 172. The Most Shocking Line In The Canticle Of Pain: Inferno, Canto XXVIII, Lines 46 - 63

We’re down among the scandal makers and the schismatics in the ninth of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") that make up the great circle of fraud in Dante's INFERNO.

We’ve heard Muhammad talk about his mutilation--and now we have the answer to his question as to who the pilgrim is. But Dante doesn't give it Virgil does. And his answer provokes the most shocking line in all of INFERNO.

You might miss it. But join me, Mark Scarbrough, to catch this miraculous utterance in all its truth.

[01:31] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXVIII, lines 46 - 63. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this passage, just scroll down this page.

[03:03] Virgil's reply to Muhammad, much like his replies to other great, up-market figures in hell.

[04:49] Virgil's (new?) explanation for COMEDY: the encyclopedic vision.

[06:49] Fra Dolcino and his heresy among The Apostolic Brethren.

[10:31] The important backdating of COMEDY.

[11:44] The fracturing of the lines of poetry among the schismatics.

[13:42] Muhammad as a stumbling block, rather than a schismatic.

[15:54] The most shocking lines in all of INFERNO.

[19:53] A rereading of all of the Muhammad passages in INFERNO: Canto XXVIII, lines 22 - 63.

Here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXVIII, Lines 46 – 63

“Death hasn’t grabbed him yet,” replied my master,

“nor does guilt lead him into torment.

But so that he can experience the full scope of things,

“I, who am dead, guide him

Through hell down here, circle by circle.

And that’s as true as the fact that I’m speaking with you.”

When they heard him, more than a hundred of the damned

Came to a stop in the ditch to gaze at me

In wonder, forgetting their sufferings.

“Then you who will maybe see the sun again real soon

Should say to Fra Dolcino that he’d better take care,

Unless he wants to follow me down here right away,

“That he’d better stock up

On provisions, lest the wall of snow

Show the Novarese how to get a victory otherwise easily won.”

Muhammad had paused with his foot in mid-air

To say these words to me,

Then he planted his foot back on the ground and departed.