The Third Circle of the Inferno, the place of the Gluttons, suffering under a constant, freezing rain and stinking mud, with the three-headed Cerberus snapping at them and raking them with its claws. We also attend to the Greek myth of Erysichthon, an example of gluttony and addiction, and the consequences of these things. You are invited to attend, and to allow these images to help you explore the state of your own soul.
Dante’s Inferno, Canto 5, wherein we find the lustful, and discuss modern and the mediaeval notions of lust – is it a passion, or is it a specific kind of action? We meet the horrible judge of Hell, Minos, and many personages from legend and history famous for their lustful behaviour. And we encounter Paolo and Francesca, perhaps the most famous episode in all of Dante. Music by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, the Band, Bob Dylan, the Clovers, and Purcell. You are invited to attend.
[The sound begins at 1:59. We apologise for this unnecessary blank space. Perhaps we can use it as a time of silence, to prepare for what’s coming. Perhaps it will be corrected as soon as possible.]
We are in the Second Circle of Dante’s Inferno, the circle of Limbo, where we find the rational, honourable soul that feels no pain, but also no delight because it never stretched itself to share the joys of surprise, blind leaps in the dark, and holy chutzpah. Music from Chubby Checker, Jimmy Cliff, and a touch of Rumi. You are invited to attend.
Canto 3 of the Inferno, wherein Dante is challenged by the Gates of Hell, passes through the area of the non-descript souls, who have done nothing with their lives and spend eternity being stung to follow furiously behind meaningless banners, and then is ferried over the first river of Hell – but faints as soon as he gets across. Music by Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Amiri Baraka, Robert Johnson, Randy Newman. You are invited to attend.
Series Four of Evening under Lamplight is taking us through Dante’s Inferno, bringing to life this great story, this great poem. We start in the middle, and e start lost. You are invited to attend, to jump into the middle of things, and to find yourself lost
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"Damn Braces. Praise Relaxes" (Blake)
This evening, under lamplight, we look at Community, and then at Devils in literature, including Milton’s Satan, Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit, RLS’s fable “The Devil and the Innkeeper”, Blake’s Proverbs of Hell, Dante’s Lucifer, the frozen mechanical monster at the centre of the Earth. But we turn more expansive as we continue with Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”. You are invited to attend.
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We celebrate the two energies of Springtime: Anger and Kindness, with the help of Dante and Shakespeare, and our usual panel of Dylan, the Kinks and RLS. Anger leading to self-knowledge and even to kindness – there’s an idea you don’t hear every day. Aha, but it’s a new way of looking at things, just what you expect from Evening under Lamplight!
Including RLA’s Spring meditation from Journey through the Seasons: Meditations on the Five Chinese Healing Energies.
Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)
The Tempest (Penguin Popular Classics)
Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan “Like a Rolling Stone”)
Phobia (Kinks, “Hatred”)
In Concert – the Complete 1967 Anaheim Show (Donovan, “Lullaby for Spring)
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Dante and the Hypocrites
We are looking at Actors and Hypocrites – the same game, different rules: people playing parts, sometimes asking us to play along, sometimes desperately keeping us from perceiving that this is not their true self. We hear from the usual guests: Kinks, Dylan, RLS, and also old friends like Leonard Cohen and Randy Newman. And a lot of attention on what Dante’s myth can tell us about these false faces people put on. Thoreau comes into it too.
Everybody’s in Show-Biz (Kinks, “Celluloid Heroes”)
Land of Dreams (Randy Newman, “Masterman and Baby J”)
Abbey Road (Beatles, “Carry That Weight”)
Biograph (Dylan, “Positively 4th Street”)
The Future (Leonard Cohen, “Be for Real”)
Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (trans. Robin Kirkpatrick)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror (Penguin Classics)
Walden and Civil Disobedience: (American Library) (Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”)
