Canto XXI/1 This selection of Devils, each freely improvised, stands (in the same way as do the masks in III/1 for the whole work) as a dramatis personae for this section (Cantos XXI"”XXIII) of the Inferno. They range from the sinister to the humorously grotesque, thus reflecting the variety of reactions that these episodes and characters have evinced from readers through the ages: some (like myself) have seen the activities of the Devils as a buffo episode, a little tongue-in-cheek like the modern Gothic horror film; others (like Ruskin) have seen in them an unambiguous representation of evil. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.