Hugh Capet's Antiphon: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 97 - 123

Walking With Dante

Hugh Capet has spent a long time answering the pilgrim Dante's first question: who were you? He now turns to the pilgrim's second question: why did I only hear your voice on this terrace?

In doing so, Hugh begins to sing antiphonally . . . or at least, he begins to list off those who have been done in by avarice, the quickest and tightest list of figures in PURGATORIO.

Why is this list so full of figures yet so curt in its style? And why does Hugh seem to come to the end of his speech so abruptly?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we try to answer these and other questions at the conclusions of Hugh Capet's monumental monologue.

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

[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 97 - 123. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode among those for WALKING WITH DANTE on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:01] Hugh's abrupt transition from one answer to his second.

[08:46] Our questions about glossing and polyphony.

[12:29] Hugh Capet's brief list of the tragic figures of avarice.

[22:18] Spurred to what? Your own choice?

[26:26] Two rationales for the shortness of these lines about the greedy figures.

[30:11] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 97 - 123.