L ' I N F E R N O

10. PRESENT & PAST (occasional): A character, usually Dante, describes a scene in English as it happens,
then Dante versifies it as having happened.
Greyed words interpret/translate for the benefit of the actors but are not spoken. They also show sections of the LA
DIVINA COMMEDIA – English-only for reasons of space – which are omitted from the dramatisation. Future versions
of the dramatisation might omit included passages/characters and restore greyed ones.
There are many passages included which a director might cut, starting with those which are shown this way.
The dramatisation presents Dante’s lines in his order (with very few exceptions.). A handful of them are spoken by
a person other than the one nominated by Dante.
Only about 2,100 lines of Dante’s 14,233 lines are not quoted or used for the scene, music and action.
Approximately 2575 of the spoken lines or part-lines are Italian.
LA DIVINA COMMEDIA is the Giorgio Petrocchi edition. (Permission may need to be obtained.)
The English prose used is mostly from the translation by A.S.Kline. In some places it is abridged, or, for the sake of
natural speech, freed from his adherence to Dante’s phrasing. Underlined words replace Kline’s. Underlining also
marks words based on Notes, and works not by Dante. Longer segments not by Dante are not underlined. There are
approximately 700 lines or part –lines added to Dante’s in the dramatisations.
Most of the Notes are by Kline.
DIALECTS
The characters should be individualised with accents or an occasional word or phrase appropriate to to their region,
time and status; firstly because regionality was very marked in Dante’s time and work; secondly because modern
Italians viewing the dramatisation would feel a closer connection to it.
See L’INFERNO SCHEME: CHARACTERS BY PLACE.
Other characters may contribute Italian words, phrases or lines to the dramatisation, but not completed verses, the
only exceptions being Beatrice (who knows everything), and Guinicelli [PUR C26 73].
Consequently, most of the non-English is spoken by Dante and Beatrice. Some words of the other characters could
be composed in prose – Dantean Italian or dialect – for versification by Dante and interpretation into English.
STAGES & SETS
The motif of each dramatisation is 3 sets of 3 steps: 3 for its beginning, middle & end; 3 for the Trinity; 3 for Faith,
Hope & Love; 3 for the groups of planetary orbits; 3 for the Hierarchies of Angels; 3 for the orders within each
hiera rchy; 3 for musica mundana, humana & instrumentalis; 3 for the Graces; 3 for 1/3 or √ of 9, Beatrice’s
number; 3 for terza rima; 3 for the canticles of the DIVINE COMEDY and their 33 Cantos (+ 1 Canto introduction for
L’INFERNO) etc. IL PARADISO has a triptych as well.
Three steps means the lower level, 1 step and the upper level, as shown in the introduction to each canticle. Each
step is identified by a rectangle above it.
Characters speaking terza rima may sometimes fit it to their passage up or down steps. For example, one line or
one verse per step.
CHARACTERS AND DRESS
The spirits of L’INFERNO and IL PURGATORIO are prisoners, and dressed anonymously. Those in IL PARADISO are
free and have been given back their clothes.
Dante is dressed as in the familiar pictures. He has a very long, tasselled cord wrapped round his waist most of the
time, but he does not get his laurel wreath until the end of the COMMEDIA.
He carries a book, not his DIVINE COMEDY but a workbook for it, probably composed of wax tablets or slates. The
stylus is kept in the spine.
Virgil is also dressed as in the pictures, including the laurel, and his book is the Aeneid and other works.
Beatrice’s book is a Bible. Her small role in L’INFERNO expands in the later canticles. Beatrice’s smile devastates
Dante. He and the audience should not be exposed to it (i.e. .shown it in full face) unecessarily.
All characters with books have a holder on their chests and/or backs to free their hands if necessary.
We are so used to pictures of the grand Dante we forget that he was not quite 35 years old when the action of the
Commedia took place, in 1300.
See L’INFERNO SCHEME: CHARACTERS BY PLACE.
THE MUSES See SCHEME: PROGRAMME mock-ups for Muse table.
Different accounts of the Muses assign them different symbols, domain & dress (including crowns).
The audience does not hear their domains named in the dramatisation so there is no problem with who is who.
Each Muse carries a white book with her symbol on it. The masks may be found by research or designed.
Naturally, they are not the Tragedy / Comedy clichés of so many playbills. The Muses are dressed identically, in
white, to let them serve in both pagan and Christian capacities. Calliope, the eldest sister, may be distinguished by
her height and/or a gold band on her head. Terpsichore is the smallest Muse and Euterpe, perhaps, the 2 nd smallest.
Polyhymnia (nearly?) always wears her pensive look and has a finger at the mouth. When the Muses sing Christian
music on stage they show the back of their books.
All the Muses’ props (bows, arrows, boats etc.) are imaginary – of course. The only exceptions are the books they
carry and and Euterpe’s flute in L’INFERNO.
4