Commentary Purg IV 121 |
The poet's summarizing phrase puts his technique of presentation of Belacqua into relief: lazy movements and curt speech. In fact, Belacqua's three laconic speeches spread over only five lines ([Purg IV 98-99], [Purg IV 114], [Purg IV 119-120]), and not even the full extent of these. They make him out, as Dante almost certainly knew him, a familiar figure: a person of little physical energy and of incisive, biting wit.