The Initial Climb: PURGATORIO, Cantos 3 - 4

Walking With Dante - A podcast by Mark Scarbrough

We've encountered Cato (twice!), seen souls arrive in an angel's boat, and heard Casella sing, all before everyone scatters toward Mount Purgatory.What's next? The climb! Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we read through my English translation of cantos 3 and 4 of PURGATORIO. We'll get the story straight before we break the cantos down into smaller chunks to think through what they entail, what they mean, and what they fail to mean.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:26] Reading my English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos 3 and 4.[18:31] Four interpretive questions immediately raised by these cantos. First, what can we make of how parallel these cantos are?[20:26] Second, how does Virgil's character change in these cantos?[22:04] Third, where are we on Mount Purgatory?[23:47] Fourth, what's the parallel (or disconnect?) between Manfred and Belacqua?