Commentary Inf XXX 131-135

Virgil's harsh rebuke here seems on the mark, certainly to Dante himself. Dante's emphatic acceptance of it stands in clear contrast to his rejection of the similar rebuke in the last canto ([Inf XXIX 4-12]), where Virgil had not understood the cause of his staring into the ninth bolgia. Here Dante has become an interested bystander (rather than a man with a mission), enjoying the back-and-forth argument between the two sinners (just as do we) because it is both violent and amusing.