Canto XXIII/1 The curtain finally falls on Dante's episodes of Grand Guignol. The last glimpse we have, appropriate enough to the ethos of Laurel and Hardy and the Keystone Cops, is of a classic chase sequence. The presence of a curtain also recalls the existence of a barrier beyond which the Devils cannot go (as each sinner is in life locked in his sin, so is he locked in the confined area of his punishment in Hell; unlike Purgatory there is no promotion in Hell). The visual reference here is the kind of stage featured in Pollock's Toy Theatres and the colours are those I associate with the early chromo-lithographic theatre cut-outs. The curtain in fact comes from a pelmet-design in La Mode Illustree and the rest of the collage from fragments of the Boy's Own Paper. The stones move at Dante's fleeing feet to show that he is a corporeal presence in a world of shades. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.