Forese identifies for Dante the other souls on the terrace: Pope Martin IV (who loved eels drowned in Vernaccia wine), Ubaldino della Pila, Boniface of Fiesole, Marchese of Forli. The gallery of the gluttonous includes popes and courtiers — appetite does not respect rank. Forese then asks where Dante's sister Piccarda is: in Paradise, already crowned. And Forese prophecies the death of his own brother Corso Donati: a beast will drag him down the valley and shatter his body on the stones — Corso, the powerful and corrupt Florentine politician, will die a brutal death at the hands of his enemies.
Bonagiunta da Lucca, a 13th-century poet, whispers to Dante: are you the one who brought out the new poems that begin "Ladies who have understanding of love"? The question refers to Dante's own canzone from the Vita Nuova — his first manifesto of the dolce stil novo, the sweet new style. Dante's answer is one of the most celebrated statements of poetics in Italian literature: "I am one who, when Love breathes within me, takes note, and to whatever he dictates within, I go setting it down." The definition of the sweet new style is pure responsiveness — the poet is not the master of the poem but its secretary. Love speaks; the poet transcribes. Bonagiunta understands: this is the difference between the new poetry and all that came before it.
Another tree — more examples of gluttony punished: the Centaurs corrupted by wine at Perithous's wedding, the Hebrews who drank carelessly and were dismissed by Gideon from the battle. The angel erases the P for gluttony, and the Beatitude rings: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." The pun is perfect: the gluttons are literally hungry; the beatitude converts physical hunger into its true referent.