XX/4 The study motif makes its third appearance and here serves via the absence of Virgil to underline Dante's resolute denial of Virgil's association with the dark arts, an important part of his characterisation in the Middle Ages. The ease with which that poet passes through this particular Bolgia is another clue to Dante's message (cf. Canto II/1). Only a book remains, now rendered innocent and rural in character. As Dante uses Virgil so I have used W. H. Mallock (we each get the master we deserve), and this debt is suggested by the decoration of the pages shown with a version of the endpapers of Mallock's now much mined and travestied novel. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.