I liked this sharp injunction to Dante to hurry up and spit it out. You can imagine an impatient parent or schoolmaster snapping at a nervous, faltering child, a chronological equivalent to the commonly heard exasperation: ‘I’m not made of money, you know’. 

‘Name your sponsor. Speak. 

Or do I look as if I’m made of time?’  (Purgatory, Canto 9)

See also our illustrated quote-rich celebration of Dante’s Divine Comedy in Clive James’ superb translation. 

Source: Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. Clive James (New York: Liveright Publishing, 2013), p. 219

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