Dante, Inferno
Barbariccia Leads the Hooked Escort
Malacoda appoints Barbariccia to lead ten scouts around the boiling pitch. The company has a policing task within the ditch as well as the offered role of escorting the travellers. When a Navarrese captive is hauled out, Barbariccia intervenes among the attacking claws and allows Virgil to ask questions. His temporary restraint does not make the surrounding company gentle or its promises reliable.
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In the sources
The encounter
LiteraryMalacoda appoints Barbariccia to lead ten scouts around the boiling pitch. The company has a policing task within the ditch as well as the offered role of escorting the travellers.
Further detail
LiteraryWhen a Navarrese captive is hauled out, Barbariccia intervenes among the attacking claws and allows Virgil to ask questions. His temporary restraint does not make the surrounding company gentle or its promises reliable.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows the supplied Thompson & Thomas edition of H. F. Cary’s translation. It describes Dante’s literary vision, distinguishing its assignments and reported claims from historical biography, other classical traditions and independently established accounts of an afterlife.
Original passages
Source 1
Dante's Inferno
let Barbariccia lead. With Libicocco, Draghinazzo haste, Fang'd Ciriatto, Graffiacane fierce, And Farfarello, and mad Rubicant. Search ye around the bubbling tar. For these In safetyOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Dante’s Inferno, Cary translation; active reader leaf 146
Passage read in the exact edition’s extracted canto text; whitespace-normalised anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Associated plates separately inspected.
- Edition
- IMJ-0082-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0082-E001-P0146
- Original scan leaf
- 153
- Recorded leaf number
- 153
- Current Reader position
- 146
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Dante's Inferno
Barbariccia cried, Seizing him with both arms : " Stand thou apart, While I do fix him on my prong transpierced." Then added, turning to myOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Dante’s Inferno, Cary translation; active reader leaf 149
Passage read in the exact edition’s extracted canto text; whitespace-normalised anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Associated plates separately inspected.
- Edition
- IMJ-0082-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0082-E001-P0149
- Original scan leaf
- 156
- Recorded leaf number
- 156
- Current Reader position
- 149
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
Continue exploring
Malacoda and the False Route
The negotiating demon whose assurance about a crossing proves unreliable.
Shared source pageThe Navarrese Captive’s Escape
A captive’s promise of more informants becomes a successful leap into the pitch.
Same subject and traditionLucifer and the Freezing Wings
The immense figure whose wings keep the central lake frozen.