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Dante and Francesca da Rimini: Realpolitik, Romance, Gender Author(s): Teodolinda Barolini Source: Speculum, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Jan., 2000), pp. 1-28 Published by: Medieval Academy of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2887423 . Accessed: 05/04/2013 12:40

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This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini: Realpolitik,Romance, Gender

By Teodolinda Barolini

Whilewe are accustomed toDante's appropriations and revisions ofhistory, the caseof Francesca da Rimini(Inf. 5.73-142) is ratherdifferent from the norm, sincein her case no trace remains of the historical record that the poet could have appropriated.There is no completelyindependent documentation ofFrancesca's story;we areindebted for what we know to Danteand to hiscommentators. A fourteenth-centurychronicler ofRimini, Marco Battagli, alludes in passing to the event,but his history was writtenin 1352,thus postdating by three decades Dante'sdeath in 1321.1Two factors come into play when we assessBattagli's chronicleas an independentverification ofFrancesca's story: on the one hand, he is anindisputable authority regarding Rimini and the Malatesta;2 on the other, he knewDante's poem.3 Therefore, Battagli's passing and indirect reference (towhich weshall return in due course) serves at best as plausiblyindependent confirmation ofan occurrenceabout which the contemporary historical record is silent.That silenceis brokenby Dante.4 By reintegrating history-including thesilence of history-into our readingof canto 5, we restorea contextin whichto remember thatin the case of Francescada RiminiDante is the historianof record:in effect he saved Francescafrom oblivion, giving her a voice and a name. Technically,we know that Dante is the transmitterof the littlethat we know

1 Marco Battagliwas born in Riminiin the firstdecade of the fourteenthcentury and died before 1376; his chronicle,Marcha (thetitle derives from the author's Christian name), compiles events from creationto 1354 and was writtenbetween 1350 and 1354. The last book containsthe chapter"On theOrigins of the Malatesta" ("De originedominorum de Malatestis"),written, according to itseditor, in 1352; see Marcha, ed. Aldo FrancescoMassera, RerumItalicorum Scriptores 16/3 (Citta di Castello, 1913), p. xxiii. Battagli'ssentence on Paolo's death elicitsfrom Massera the followingcomment: "E' questa la notiziapiut antica della tragediache ci rimanga,eccezion fatta dei commentatoridell'Inferno, in fontistoriche" (p. 31). I would like to take this opportunityto thankBenjamin Kohl forsteering me towardBattagli and forproviding valuable feedbackas I workedon thisessay. 2 Accordingto Massera, Battagli'schapter on the Malatesta "costituiscela piuiantica ed autorevole fontedi storia malatestianae municipale" (p. xlvii). For more on Battagli,see Massera's lengthy preface. 3Regarding Battagli's"assai vasta e varia cultura,"0. Banti notes that "in essa hanno larga parte (come appare spesso dalle espressionie dai concetti)la Bibbia e le operedell'Alighieri"; see Dizionario biograficodegli Italiani,7 (Rome, 1965), p. 208. 4 Indeed, we mightwell wonder how we can feel sure that the storyas a whole is not Dante's invention.While he obviouslyinvented the materialfor which only one of the murderedprotagonists could have vouched,the bare factsof Francesca'sadultery and murdermust have occurred,given that the commentatorswho followDante fillin key details-like the protagonists'names-that he omits fromInferno 5 and thatFrancesca's family, well acquaintedwith Dante and his poetry(Guido Novello da Polenta,Francesca's nephew and Dante's host in Ravenna, even triedhis hand at Dante-inspired love lyrics),never denied his account. On Dante and the Polenta family,and forGuido da Polenta's poetry,see Corrado Ricci, L'ultimorifugio di Dante (1891; repr.Ravenna, 1965).

Speculum 75 (2000) 1

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2 Dante and Francescada Rimini about Francesca da Rimini.Francesco Torraca, whose 1902 essay on Inferno5 has not been surpassedin historicalrichness, clearly states as much ("Del fatto, nessuna cronaca contemporanea,nessun documentoci ha conservatomemoria; primo,e solo narratorecontemporaneo, Dante" ),5 and thepoint is repeatedin the Enciclopedia dantesca'sarticle on Francesca ("II raccontodantesco resta l'unica testimonianzaantica intornoal drammadi adulterioe di morteconsumato alla cortemalatestiana, ignorato dalle cronachee dai documentilocali coevi o poste- riorin")6Similarly, when we begin to wonder about the historicityof Francesca, we discoverthe existence of a specializedbibliography on thehistorical Francesca of greaterudition. But it rarelyintersects with the much largerliterary bibliog- raphyon Inferno5, and its findings-includingthe fundamentalfact that there is no historicalrecord of theevents narrated in thecanto-are rarelyfactored into literaryreadings. Torraca's clarityabout the silence of the historicalrecord has not informedsubsequent readings of the canto. This essay attemptsto recuperatethe significanceof the factthat Dante is the historianof recordwith respect to Francescada Riminiarid to integratethe im- plicationsof thisunderstanding, as well as theimplications of a historicizedFran- cesca, into our criticalresponse to Inferno5. My subtitleoutlines the parameters of my reading:realpolitik, because Dante viewed Francesca's life as politically determined,her death the resultof the pragmaticmatrimonial politics that gov- erneddynastic alliances;7 romance, because Dante injectedromance into France- sca's essentiallypolitical story, as a way of highlightingthe tensiornbetween her

5"Il canto V dell'Inferno,"originally published in Nuova antologia,1902, repr.in Studidanteschi (Naples, 1912), pp. 383-442, citationp. 409. 6 AntonioEnzo Quaglio, "Francescada Rimini,"in Enciclopediadantesca (henceforth ED), 6 vols. (Rome, 1970-78), 3:1. A dramaticaccount of thelacuna in two major chroniclesof the late duecento, by PietroCantinelli and Salimbeneda Parma, is offeredby Nevio Matteiniin Francescada Rimnini: Storia,mito, arte (Bologna, 1965): Il Chronicondi Pietro Cantinelli?Tace. Il Cantinelli,nato probabilmentea Faenza intornoal 1243 e morto,forse, nel 1306, ci porgel'illustrazione storica piu autenticadella Divina Commedia. "I personaggidanteschi" -scrive il Torracanella prefazione- "sono qui una fol]a.... Perl'ultimo trentenniodel secolo XIII Bologna e la Romagna non hanno un'altracronaca propriaaltrettanto ampia, abbondante,ordinata ed esatta." Fra i Polentanivi compaiono: Guido Minore,Bernardino, Lamberto,Ostasio, Guido Riccio, Albericoe Geremia.Fra i Malatesti:il "Mastin vecchio,"Gian- ciotto, Malatestino,Ramberto e il figlioGiovanni. Di Francesca e Paolo neppure i nomi sono ricordati. E Salimbeneda Parma? Tace anch'egli.Fra' Salimbene,che visse dal 1221 al 1289, assistettea diversifatti notevolissimi ed avvicin6personalita della Chiesa e della politica,uomini di toga t-di armi. Soggiorn6in Romagna, soprattuttoa Ravenna, per cinque anni. La prima data che ricorre nella sua Cronicae il 21 luglio 1283; l'ultima1'8 settembre1287.... Parla di Guido da Montefeltro e di Tebaldello Zambrasi,di Malatesta da Verucchioe dei Manfredi,dei Traversarie degliAccarisi, di Guido Minore e di Guido Riccio. Di Paolo e Francescanulla. (Pp. 57-58) 7This point is clearlymade by the distinguishedRomagnol historianAugusto Vasina in his entry "Malatesta" in the Enciclopediadantesca: "Persiio dietroil drammadi Paolo M[alatesta] e di Fran- cesca da Polenta (If V 82-138) e ben presenteuna rigidalogica dinastica,tesa, mediantel'unione fra Giovanni(Gianciotto) M[alatesta] e Francesca,a finidi tirannide.In realtatale politicamatrimoniale, senza dubbio all'origine di quella tragedia, era destinata a rassodare un'alleanza familiarefra M[alatesta] e Polentaniproprio nel momentopiu criticodella loro ascesa al dominiosignorile, rispet- tivamentesu Riminie su Ravenna" (ED 3:782).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 3 roleas pawnof thestate and herdesire for personal fulfillment (romance is the genre,in fact,that makes possible the focus on personaldesire); gender, because thechoice of romanceas themodality for this particular narrative, a narrative foundedon dynasticmarriage, is a choicethat necessarily brings us to gender. Ultimately,I hope to throwlight on the ways in whichFrancesca's story, as told by Dante, is a genderedstory, one in which unusual value is placed on the per- sonhood of the dynasticwife.8

The keyfact of Francesca da Rimini'slife is a dynastic-political-fact: Francesca was born into a familythat aspired to dominionover Ravenna (and achievedit, 'in 1275); she marriedinto a familythat aspired to dominionover Rimini(they, too, succeeded,twenty years later, in 1295). She thusserved a dynasticfunction, as a link betweenthe two most powerfulrising dynasties of Romagna. She was the daughterof Guido Minore da Polenta (so called to distinguishhim fromhis cousin Guido Riccio, he is also referredto as Guido il Vecchio da Polenta),lord of Ravenna. Circa 1275 she married Giovanni (called Gianciotto, "crippled John") Malatesta, the second son of Malatesta da Verucchio,first lord of Rimini (Gianciottohimself was neverlord of Rimini).9She died because of thismarriage, between1283 and 1286. Earlycommentators of the Commediashow theirawareness of thesignificance of thesefacts by givingFrancesca's story a politicalframe; they stress the impor- tance of her marriageas a political alliance, as an attemptto bringpeace and stabilityto Romagna byallying the region's two mostpowerful families. Beginning witha succinctstatement about dynasticpower- "In Romagna sono due grandi case, in Rimino i Malatesti,in Ravenna quelli da Polenta" ("In Romnagnathere are two great families,in Rimini the Malatesta, in Ravenna those fromPo- lenta")-the Florentinewriter of the Ottimocommento (ca. 1333) explainsthat these warringdynasties made peace and that Gianciottomarried Francesca in orderto guarantee,to bring"fermezza" to, theiraccord: ... le quali case perla lorograndezza ebbero guerra insieme, della quale feceropace; alla cui fermezzaJanni Sciancato di MesserMalatesta, uomo de l'abitorustico, e del cuorefranco, e armigero,e crudele, tolse per moglie Francesca figliuola di Messer Guido il vechioda Polenta,donna bellissima del corpo, e gaia ne' sembianti. (... thesefamilies on account of theirgreatness were at war with each otherand then made peace; to guaranteethe peace Gianni Sciancato of Messer Malatesta, a man of

8 Of course,we should expectfrom Dante the culturallyunexpected; see, withrespect to the unor- thodox role he assignsBeatrice, Joan M. Ferrante,"Dante's Beatrice:Priest of an AndrogynousGod," in CEMERS Occasional Papers,2 (Binghamton,N.Y., 1992). 9 Most scholarsconcur in puttingthe marriageat thistime, although Torraca opts fora laterdate; see "Il canto V dell'Inferno,"esp. p. 420. Afterthe death of Malatesta da Verucchio,power went first to Giarciotto'solder brother,Malatestino, second lord of Rimini,and thento his halfbrother, Pan- dolfo,Malatesta da Verucchio'sson by his second wife.The Enciclopediadantesca entries by Vasina on the variousmembers of the Malatesta clan are morehelpful in reconstructingFrancesca's life than Quaglio's entryon Francesca,whose firstparagraph erroneously calls Gianciotto"signore di Rimini" (ED 3:1). It is worthnoting, however, that this mistake is frequentlymade, and is perhapsdue to the contaminationof Boccaccio's account; see, forinstance, the commentaryof Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi,Commedia, 1: Inferno(Milan, 1991), p. 155.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 4 Dante and Francescada Rimini rusticdress, brave heart, a warrior,and cruel,took as wifeFrancesca, the daughter of MesserGuido the elder of Polenta,a ladyvery beautiful of bodyand lightheartedin demeanor.)10 The Ottimo'scomment, while incorrectin its details (therewas no war between theMalatesta and thePolentani at thattime),1" is correctin itsfundamental anal- ysis,which views dynastic "case" of a certain"grandezza" as operatingin a frame- workthat is entirelypolitical and thatprecludes neutrality: they are eitherenemies or-as was alreadythe case withthese two-allies.12 Boccaccio (ca. 1373) follows the Ottimoin recountingthat upon the cessationof hostilitiesbetween Guido da Polenta and Malatesta of Rimini,the marriageof theiroffspring was engineered as a way of cementing("fermeza" again) the new peace: E' adunqueda sapereche costei fu figliuola di messerGuido vecchio da Polenta,signor di Ravennae di Cervia;ed essendostata lunga guerra e dannosatra lui e i signori Malatestida Rimino,adivenne che per certi mezzani fu trattata e compostala pacetra loro.La quale acci6 che piuifermeza avesse, piacque a ciascunadelle parti di volerla fortificareper parentado; e '1 parentadotrattato fu che '1 dettomesser Guido dovesse dareper moglie una sua giovanee bellafigliuola, chiamata madonna Francesca, a Gian Ciotto,figliuolo di messerMalatesta. (You mustknow that she was thedaughter of Guidoda Polentathe elder, lord of Ra- vennaand Cervia.A long,harsh war had ragedbetween him and theMalatesta, lords of Rimini,when through certain intermediaries, peace was treatedand concluded.To makeit all themore firm, both sides were pleased to cementit with a marriage.Where- uponit was arrangedthat Messer Guido was to givehis beautiful young daughter, called MadonnaFrancesca, in marriageto Gianciotto,son ofMesser Malatesta.)13 Benvenutoda Imola, despite being fromRomagna, seems to possess no more informationthan the Ottimo, whose descriptionsof the protagonists he translates; he does specifythat Gianciottois the son of Malatesta senior,who was the first to seize power over Rimini: "filiusDomini Malatestae senioris,qui primusac- quivisitdominium Arimini" (DDP). The commentaryof theAnonimo Fiorentino (ca. 1400) followsBoccaccio in everyway, includingthe dynasticframe.14 Over

10 L'Ottimnocopmnento della "Divina Commedia," citedfrom the Dartmouth Dante ProjectDatabase, http://www.dartmouth.edu/-iibrary/(henceforth DDP). Translationsare mineunless otherwise noted. 11Torraca corrects the Ottimnoon thisscore: "Di una guerracombattuta in quel periodotra Riminesi e Ravennatinon restanessuna menzione" ("II canto V dell'Inferno,"p. 412). 12 In fact,the decreerelating to the dowryof Margheritade' Paltenieri,Malatesta da Verucchio's secondwife, was drawnup in Guido da Polenta'shouse, on 25 July1266; see Aldo FrancescoMassia,- "Note malatestiane,"Archivio storico italiano, 5th ser.,47 (1911), 3-48, at p. 17. 13 Esposizionisopra la "Comnedia"di Dante, ed. GiorgioPadoan, vol. 6 of Tuttele operedi Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. VittoreBranca (Milan, 1965), p. 315. The translationby Mario Domandi is in the commentaryvolume of The Divine Comedy: Inferno,trans. Charles S. Singleton(Princeton, N.J., 1970), p. 87. 14 "Egli e da sapere che gran tempo fu guerratra messerGuido da Polenta et messerMalatesta vecchioda Rimino.Ora, percheera rincresciutaall'una parteet all'altra,di comuneconcordia feciono pace, et accio che meglios'osservasse, feciono parentado insieme" ("It should be known that fora long timethere was war betweenMesser Guido da Polenta and Messer Malatesta of Rimini.Now, since both sides were unhappyabout the war, theydecided togetherto make peace, and so thatthe peace would be bettermaintained, they arranged a marriagebetween them" [DDP]).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 5 thecenturies, however, by the time we reachthe commentaries ofDaniello (1568) and Castelvetro(ca. 1570),the dynastic and political element of Francesca's story beginsto fade,as thereception foregrounds the romance elements of Dante's story and abandonsthe political framework. Ifwe wereto tryto reconstructthe basic biographical data of Francesca'slife fromthe Commedia, we wouldfind the task impossible. The textoffers only the followingfacts: Francesca's birthplace ("Siede la terradove nata fui / su la marina dove'1 Po discende/ per aver pace co' seguacisui" [Inf.5.97-99]), herChristian name("Francesca, i tuoimart'iri" [Inf. 5.116]), thefact that she and herlover werekilled by a kinsman("Caina attendechi a vitaci spense"[Inf. 5.107]), the -factthat the lovers are related by marriage("i due cognati" [Inf. 6.2]).15 This presentationis remarkablyoblique, on a numberof counts. First,it omitsalto- getherthe names of Francesca's lover and husband. Second, while Francesca's Christianname is registered,her family name mustbe inferredfrom her natal city, Ravenna,which in turnis nevernamed but alluded to in a geographicalperiphrasis thatplaces her land of birth"on the shorewhere the Po descendsto be at peace withits followers,"that is, whereit reachesthe Adriatic.Third, the factthat she and her loverwere killed by a brotheris presentedin one compactand elliptical verse that in itselfrequires glossing: "Caina awaits him who put out our life" impliesthat the lovers'murderer is a brother,destined for that part of hell'slow- est circlethat houses traitorsof kin and is named afterCain, the firstfratricide. (Whilereaders of the Infernoeventually learn that this zone houses all traitorsof kin, the word Caina causes one to think,in this case correctly,of fratricide.) Fourth,the factthat the murdereris relatedto both lovers,in otherwords, the fact that the lovers were themselveslinked by "parentado," to use Boccaccio's word, is given to us only afterthe encounterwith Francesca has ended, at the beginningof canto 6 when the narratorrefers to themas "i due cognati." Accordingto the accountsthat accreted around the spare nucleusin Inferno5, Francescaentered into an adulterouslove affairwith Paolo Malatesta, thirdson of Malatesta da Verucchio,known as Paolo il Bello; she and Paolo werekilled by Gianciotto,most likelybetween 1283 and 1286. The date of death must be in- ferredcircumstantially, like every other event of Francesca's unrecorded life. Paolo, who in 1269 marriedOrabile Beatrice,countess of Ghiaggiolo(by whom he had two children),was in Florenceas capitano del popolo in 1282; he tenderedhis resignationon thefirst of February1283 and returnedto Rimini.16By 1286 Gian- ciottohad remarried.17So thedeaths of Paolo and Francescahad to occurbetween 1283 and 1286.

15The textis fromLa "Commedia" secondo l'antica vulgata,ed. GiorgioPetrocchi, 4 vols. (Milan, 1966-67). 16 See Torraca, "II canto V dell'Inferno,"p. 434. Torraca speculatesthat the seventeen-year-old Dante metPaolo Malatesta when he servedas capitano del popolo in Florencein 1282 (p. 433). 17 Torraca reconstructsas follows: "Mori [Francesca]tra il 1283 e il 1286. Dopo il febbraiodel 1283, non accade piuidi trovarnessuna traccia di Paolo; nel febbraiodel 1287, a un atto di grande importanzapolitica, intervengono i suoi fratelli,non lui. Nel 1288, il vecchioMalatesta s'impegnaalle futurenozze di Malatestino,non suo figlio,quello, 'che vedeva pur con l'uno'; ma un bambino,che Giovanniaveva avuto da Zambrasina,la seconda moglie:se anche il bambinonon avesse superatoun anno di eta, il matrimoniodi Zambrasina con Giovannidoveva essereavvenuto due anni innanzi,nel 1286" ("Il canto V dell'Inferno,"p. 419). The gist of this informationwas originallyput forthby Luigi Toniniin Della storiacivile e sacra riminese,3 (Rimini,1862), pp. 257-58.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 6 Dante and Francescada Rimini Steppinginto the information vacuum left by Dante, the earliest commentators beginby offeringthe crucial data thatthe Commediaomits. Jacopo Alighieri (ca. 1322) givesthe names of all theprotagonists and a schematicrendering of events: Essendosidegli antichi infino a qui ragionato,di due modernamentesi segue, de' quali l'unfu una donna nominata monna Francesca figliuola di messerGuido da Polenta,cioe Guido vecchioda Polentadi Romagna,e della cittadi Ravenna,e l'altroPaolo d'i Malatestida Rimini,la quale essendodel fratellodel dettoPaulo moglie, il qualeebbe nomeGianni Isciancato, carnalmente con lei usando, cioe cot detto suo cognato,alcuna voltainsieme, dal maritofur morti. (Jacopo Alighieri, DDP) (Havingdiscoursed of theancients up to now,what follows regards two moderns, of whomone was a ladynamed Madonna Francesca, daughter of Messer Guido da Polenta, thatis, Guidothe elder of Polenta from Romagna, and fromthe city of Ravenna, and theother Paolo of the Malatesta of Rimini; she was thewife of the brother of said Paolo, whosename was GianniSciancato, and havingcarnal relations with him, that is, with heraforementioned brother-in-law, on a fewoccasions together, they were killed by the husband.) Shortlyafterwards, Jacopo della Lana (1324-28) adds some color;including the firstdescription of thedeath scene: "infinetrovolli in sul peccato,prese una spada, e conficolliinsieme in tal modo che abbracciatiad uno morirono" ("finallyhe found themwhile sinning,took a sword and piercedthem at the same time in such a way thatlocked togetherin one embracethey died" [DDP]). The Ottimo commentogoes further,adding the dynasticframe, character sketches of thepro- tagonists,and a servantwho conveysthe news of the adulterousliaison to Gian- ciotto. It is Boccaccio, the greatraconteur, who elaboratesFrancesca's story to novella-likeproportions and whose imprinton it is most indelible. We have seen thatDante himselftells us verylittle. This factin itselfrequires criticalacknowledgment, as well as recognitionof how differentour readerlysit- uationis fromthat of the poem's early readers, for whom the historical importance ofDante's interventionwould have beenexplicit. We on theother hand have heard or encounteredso manytellings of Francesca'stale-our culturalimaginary has been for so long overstockedwith commentaries,paintings, dramas, tragedies, poems,and musicalresponses to Francesca-that we onlywith difficulty clear the culturalunderbrush enough to re-createthe relativeemptiness in which Dante wrote Inferno5.18 The case of Francesca is only one example-albeit a major one-of a problemthat we encounterin any centuries-longcritical enterprise: the problemof a receptionthat to some degreewe must unlearn.In the particular case of Francesca da Rimini,unlearning the receptionentails keeping clear the- boundariesbetween what Dante tellsus and what is added to the storylater on and, most importantly,staying focused on the significanceof the existenceof

18 For a resumeof Francesca'sfortunes in drama,figurative art, and music,see Matteini,Franicesca da Rimnini:Storia, mito, arte, pp. 96-143.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 7 Dante'stelling-without which we wouldnot have heard of Francesca at all,let aloneelaborated her into the heroine of all thosemelodramas.19 In stagingthe infernal meeting between himself and Francesca, Dante represents himselfas ableto identifyher on thebasis of very little information. She tells him thatshe is fromRavenna (in an anmbiguousfashion, since Ravenna is notthe only citythat fits her description),20 that love bound her partner to herand her to him, thatlove led her and her lover to onedeath, and that Caina awaits their murderer. Afterhe has learnedthis much, the pilgrim is able to addressFrancesca by her Christianname: "Francesca, i tuoi martirn/ a lagrimarmi fanno tristoe pio" ("Francesca, your sufferingsmake me weep for sadness and pity" [Inf. 5.116- 4 7]). Dante's stagingthus offers us two possibilities:that he consideredFrancesca's storynotorious, despite its absence fromthe chroniclesavailable duringhis life- time; that he wanted to renderthe storynotorious, which he does principally throughthe immortalverses he dedicatesto its protagonist,but also by treating her as alreadyfamous. The realityis most likelya combinationof bothpossibil- ities,namely, that he took a storythat was notoriousenough for him to have heard it, but that eventuallywould have been lost, and made it a storythat has neverbeen forgotten. Giventhat we can inferfrom Dante's stagingboth the conferred and thegenuine notorietyof Francesca'sstory, we can furtherinfer that culturalcelebrity is part of thepoint here: Dante is investigatinga certain kind of fameand whatit signifies about'the public imaginary,and he is inventinga certainkind of fame,one that resonatesstill in our own day. Inferno5 testifiesthat Francesca's story had made her,by the firstdecade of the fourteenthcentury in centralItaly, a culturalicon whose recognizabilityis analogous to thatof the late Princessof Wales today.It furthertestifies that Dante, in takingthe notoriousbut forgettableevents of the nascent Malatesta dynastyand fashioningthem into Francesca's unforgettable story-which happensalso to be the storyof its dynasticallyleast valuable mem- ber-invented a new kindof celebrity. This new-and, I would argue,gendered- celebrityarises from the dynamic collision of two opposed stresses:the realpolitik of dynasticmarriage and the wish-fulfillmentfantasy of romance.The paradigm thatresults revolves around the necessarypassivity and indeedvictimhood of the story'sprotagonist in one domain and her agencyas she refashionsher life to her

19 A perusal of twentieth-centurycommentaries on Inferno5 will show that neitherof the above guidelinesis routinecritical practice; commentators do not, firstof all, explicitlyindicate Dante's historicalrole in relatingFrancesca's story, nor, secondly, do theykeep clear the boundariesbetween Dante's account and its elaborations.A separatestudy could be done of issues relatingto the com- mentarytradition, which includethe questionsraised by Dante's own reticence.For instance,what did Dante thinka readerwould makeof theverse "Caina attendechi a vitaci spense"?While suggestive of fratricidein its allusionto Cain, its precisesignificance can onlybe ascertainedthrough a commen- taryor priorknowledge of the Inferno.By the same token,did Dante take forgranted that commen- tatorswould furnish,in the case of Francescafor instance, at least the necessarynames and a skeletal versionof events?As it happens, commentatorsimmediately began to fillin the gaps, so that the questionof what readingof Inferno5 emergesfrom an encounterunmediated by notescan be enter- tainedonly as a thoughtexperiment. 20 Antonio Enzo Quaglio points out that "altre citta,oltre a Ravenna, potrebberoteoricamente ambire,per la loro posizione geografica,compresa nell'allora estuariopadano, a tale onore"; see "Francescada Riminitra Dante e Boccaccio," in Al di la di Francescae Laura (Padua, 1973), p. 10.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 8 Dante and Francescada Rimini likingin theother. Moreover, through the pilgrim's behavior, Dante chartsthe culture'svoyeuristic response to sucha femaleprotagonist-a response that we havewitnessed exponentially multiplied (in thecase of Diana, forinstance), al- thoughnot fundamentally altered, in ourown time.But the canto's austere bio- graphicalminimalism also suggeststhat Dante, while wanting to engagein a cul- turaldebate whose coordinatesare dynasticmarriages on the one hand and romanceon theother, wanted to setthe terms of thedebate at a relativelyhigh level.While our compulsion to cultural voyeurism is necessarily part of what needs to be examinedin thiscontext, it is nota compulsionto whichDante panders. Or is it? Here, too, the issue is a complex one, forwhile Dante does not stoop to the tabloid level of the commentators,one could reasonablyclaim that he solicitstheir reactions by settingromance as part of his agenda. He does indeed set romanceas part of a broad agenda, one thatalso includespolitics and power and the interplaybetween those forces.Over centuriesof interpretationwe have impoverishedthe canto by readingit primarilyin thekey of romance,at themost expandingthe discoursealong themoral axis where(in a readingthat has always coexistedwith the romanticone and thathas dominatedfor some time)romance is counteredby reason. Moreover,it is the natureof the Commedia's "living" textualityto be dialectical,to catch the readerin the vice, forexample, of loving Vergiland losing him, or, in this instance,in the act of voyeurismthat the text both solicitsand rebukes.21What happened afterFrancesca and Paolo ceased to read that day? Where the commentary/tabloidis driven to create fullnessat all costs, the Commedia gives us the generativeopenness of life itself:a world of possibilities,not of answers. Dante places Francesca among the carnal sinners,driven by a relentlesswind in hell as theywere drivenby theirpassions in life:"a cosi fattotormento / enno dannatii peccatorcarnali, / che la ragion sommettonoal talento" ("to sudhtor- ment are damned the carnal sinners,who subjectreason to desire" [Inf. 5.37- 39]). Vergilidentifies Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra-the presenceof threeruling queens here seems relevantto the dynasticconsiderations that underwrotethe unionof Francescawith Gianciotto-and thenHelen, Achilles, Paris, and Tristan. (He points to and names over a thousandshades, but these are the ones whose names Dante shares with us.) In the course of listingthese souls, the narrative registershifts (beginning with Achilles, the first man) fromcritical and moralistic to pityingand romantic.In semanticterms, we move from"lust" to "love": from lussuria and lussuriosa, referringto Semiramis's"vice of lust" and Cleopatra "the lustful,"we move to the amorewith which Achilles struggles at the end and the amor thathas caused more than one thousandsouls to departthis life. Tercet70-72, which functionsas a pivot betweenthe two halves of canto 5, betweenthe half of the canto that builds up to Francesca and the half that she dominates,is taskedwith romanticizing the discourse. Here thenarrator refers to the previouslynamed "peccatorcarnali" as "le donne antichee ' cavalieri" (line

21 On lovingVergil and losinghim, see Teodolinda Barolini,Dante's Poets: Textualityand Truthin the "Comedy" (Princeton,N.J., 1984) chap. 3; on thedialectical and "living"nature of the Commedia's textuality,see Barolini,The Undivine"Comedy": DetheologizingDante (Princeton,N.J., 1992), pas- sim.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 9 71)-carnal sinnersbecome ladies of old andknights. The earlierfigures are here indiscriminatelyrecast in a romanticglow; they are now ladiesand knights,ro- manceheroes and heroines.With a romanticregister arrives a romanticagenda, signaledby the issues of complicity and involvement that suddenly surface. When thepilgrim has heardVergil name the ladies and knightsof old,pity overcomes himand he is "almost lost": "pieta mi giunse,e fuiquasi smarrito"(line 72). The narrator'smoral clarity("to such tormentare damned the carnal sinners,who subjectreason to desire") has givenway to the pilgrim'smoral confusion. Under the aegis of this moral confusionthe encounterwith Francesca takes place, initiatedby an expressedattraction on Dante's part; summonedby the pilgrim,the two approach and Francescabegins to speak. The trecentocommen- tatorscommonly mark this juncture as a transitionfrom ancients to moderns(see the passage fromJacopo Alighiericited above: "Essendosi degli antichiinfino a qui ragionato,di due modernamentesi segue"). This is certainlyan important consideration,although it should be noted that the boundarybetween ancients and modernsis in factsomewhat fuzzier; Tristan, named last in theprevious list, is already a modern,and a quintessentiallyromantic modern at that. As is fre- quentlythe case in thedynamic between the Commediaand itscritics, a transition viewedby criticsas absoluteis engineeredby thepoet as a graduatedprocess. So, too, in this particularcase, the transitiondoes not occur all at once: stringent preceptsslacken gradually,until we reach the pivotal tercetthat proclaimsthe "peccatorcarnali" to be "donne antichee ' cavalieri,"by which point we have entereda new frameof reference.Once accomplished,the transition from ancients to modernsis a subsetin the largertransition from the frameof moral responsi- bilityto the frameof romance. In theologizedterms, to enterthe frameof romancesignifies entering a context in which moral responsibilityand personalagency are suspendedby an all-con- sumingsentiment, where passion rules untrammeledby reason. In this context Francesca'spassivity is a function-as also etymologically-ofher passion; her passivityreflects her sinfulrefusal of moral agency,her refusal to fashionherself as a Christianagent. She consistentlyproduces herself as an object,and thecritical traditionhas respondedby readingher story,and even hersyntax, as a symptom ofthe lust for which she is damned.To givea recentexample from my own writing, I offerthe syntaxof the lover in Dante's eroticcanzone "Jo son venuto" as a source forFrancesca's syntax, noting that "Francesca,too, uses constructionsin whichLove is subjectand she is thepassive object."22Specific to myargument is the connectionto Dante's lyricpast; thereading of Francesca'ssyntactic passivity as inherentlysinful is by now a criticaltopos. Like the lover persona of Dante's canzone,Francesca experiences love as a compulsiveforce, as a desirethat cannot be withstood,even if it leads to death;unlike the lover in thecanzone, she is situated in a moralcontext in whichdesire unchecked by freewill and reasonis sinful. Such a reading,absolutely not gendered,is not onlynot wrong;it is canonical

22 See "Dante and Cavalcanti (On Making Distinctionsin Mattersof Love): Inferno5 in Its Lyric Context," Dante Studies 116 (1998), 31-63, where I note that Francesca's "Amor ... non m'abbandona" (Inf. 5.103, 105) echoes the "Amor ... non m'abbandona" of the lover of "Jo son venuto,"verses 23-25.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 10 Dante and Francescada Rimini and hermeneuticallyfundamental, as thecanto's reception demonstrates. None- theless,I believethat a genderedreading can supplementour understandingof whatis at stakefor Dante in Inferno 5, andthat the paradigm of realpolitik versus romanceprovides the framework for a genderedreading. Against this framework an alternativereading suggests itself, whereby Francesca's syntactic passivity re- flects,first, her authentichistorical passivity as dynasticpawn in a world where matrimonialalliances were power politicsand, second,her abilityto createplea- surablepassivity for herself as the object of a man's attention.To the degreethat Francescasucceeds in obtainingpleasure for herself that would otherwisebe de- nied her,to thedegree (I shouldprobably specify) that Dante's Francescadefinitely succeeds in obtainingpleasure that may or may not have been obtained by the historicalFrancesca, it is possibleto findagency in herpassivity. Thus, byfiguring herselfas objectin a romanticfantasy, as literalsyntactic object in a verselike "la bocca mi bascio tuttotremante" ("all tremblinghe kissedme on themouth" [Inf. 5.136; italicsmine]), Francesca may be seen as assertingher agencyand herper- sonhood againsta dynasticpatriarchy that assigned no value to herpleasure.23 I am arguing,in otherwords, that agencyis doubly constitutedin thiscanto, both along the moral axis to whichwe are accustomedand along a gendered- historicized-axis. Althoughwe are not explicitlyaccustomed to the latter,its latentpresence is nonethelessmost likelyresponsible for the sympathythe canto has always elicitedfor its femaleprotagonist from the mostlymale readerswho have traditionallywritten about the experienceof readingInferno 5. Sensingthe presenceof genderedissues in thecanto, these readers have expressedtheir aware- ness in sympathyfor Francesca: thus there have been romanticcelebrations of her refined"femininity" that have in turn drawn the scorn of less impressionistic commentators,who have insisted,legitimately enough, on therubric "carnal sin- ners."24Sympathy for Francesca has takenthe form of male gallantry,wanting to excuse her simplybecause of her sex, but withouttaking into account what her sex actuallysignifies. Dante, however,I propose, does take into account France- sca's sex and itssignificance: the issue ofagency is complicatedprecisely by Dante's

23 In thinkingof how Francesca could activelyconstruct her passivity,I found usefulJanice A. Radway,Reading the Romance: Women,Patriarchy, and Popular Literature(Chapel Hill, N.C., and London, 1984). Accordingto Radway, "To qualifyas a romance,the storymust chronicle not merely the eventsof a courtshipbut what it feelslike to be the object of one" (p. 64). Furtheron, Radway writes,"Passivity is at the heart of the romanceexperience in the sense that the finalgoal of each narrativeis the creationof thatperfect union wherethe ideal male, who is masculineand strongyet nurturanttoo, finallyrecognizes the intrinsicworth of the heroine.Thereafter, she is requiredto-do nothingmore than exist as the centerof this paragon's attention.Romantic escape is, therefore,a temporarybut literaldenial of the demands women recognizeas an integralpart of theirroles as nurturingwives and mothers.It is also a figurativejourney to a utopian state of total receptiveness wherethe reader,as a resultof heridentification with the heroine,feels herself the objectof someone else's attentionand solicitude.Ultimately, the romance permitsits reader the experienceof feeling cared forand thesense of havingbeen reconstituted affectively, even if both are livedonly vicariously" (p. 97). 24 While FrancescoDe Sanctisis voluble on Francesca'sfeminine "delicatezza," his romanticsensi- bilitydoes not lead him to make the ultimateerror-for which he castigatesPierre Ginguen6-of holdingthat she is not damned;see "Francescada Rimini,"orig. 1869, repr.in Lezioni sulla "Divina Commedia," ed. Michele Manfredi(Bari, 1955), pp. 137-47.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 11 desireto engage,along withthe nongendered moral issues, also thegendered and historicalissues that are implicitin his choice of a femaleprotagonist whom he situateswithin the coordinatesof dynasticmarriage and romance. Whileit is a criticalcommonplace to notethat Francesca takes no responsibility forher lifestory, it is not a criticalcommonplace to historicizeher life;as I indi- cated at the outset,the historicizingframework provided by the earlycommen- tatorswas lost to the traditionby the Renaissance.Only the act of historicizing Francesca,however, allows us to rememberthat, in real life,responsibility was available to herexclusively in the formsof acceptanceand resignation.I will turn laterto reconstructingin greaterdetail the contextof the historicalFrancesca as U3antemay have viewed it; forthe moment,in returningto the textI would ask thereader to bear in mindthat lack of agencyin Francesca'slanguage is a complex signifierthat cuts across multipledomains and resonatesdifferently in each. In herfamous tercets, each beginningwith "Love" as subject,Francesca draws on the fundamentaltenets of the establishedamatory code to tell her storyin, precisely,coded form.The chosencode dictatesbiographical and historicalopac- ity;in place of recognizablehumans engagingin recognizablehuman behavior, the code rendersthe loversas particlesadrift in a forcefield governed by powers beyondtheir control: love, beauty,nobility. When otherpeople are involved,they are renderedas demonizedabstractions. Deftly and denselythese verses weave a plotthat contains no humanagency. The firsttercet goes to theheart of Francesca's storyby placingher and herlover on a matrixof love and violentdeath, while at the same time evading all responsibilityfor eitherthat love or that death. Pro- foundlyahistorical, the tercetyet sketches the lineamentsof a historythat is ini- tiatedwith the passions of the man. In thischronology Paolo is the firstto love: "Amor,ch'al cor gentilratto s'apprende, / prese costui de la bella persona / che mi fu tolta; e '1 modo ancor m'offende"(lines 100-102). The syntacticdensity of thislanguage creates a sense of tightlycompacted ineluctability, of a destinythat cannotbe escaped. Francescatells us thatlove, which is quicklykindled in a noble heart,seized Paolo, thatthe love that seized him was forher beautifulbody, the same body thatwas taken fromher, and that the mode (of what? of loving?of beingmurdered?) still offends her.25 The agentsof causalityhere are love, which the noble-souledare not able to withstand(this preceptrecapitulates the poet Guido Guinizzelli,implicitly an authority,and thusanother agent of causality);26 Francesca'sphysical beauty, which seizes Paolo; theunnamed agents that take her body fromher; and the mysteriousmodo-the way,the modality-that stillof- fendsher. The next tercetis only somewhatless dense. She explains that,since reciprocityin love is obligatory(here she draws on The Art of CourtlyLove by AndreasCapellanus, anotherimplicit authority, hence agent),love caused by his beauty bound her reciprocally-and eternally:"Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona, / mi prese del costui piacer si forte,/ che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona" ("Love, that absolves no beloved from loving, seized me so

25 For a resume of interpretationsof "e 'I modo ancor m'offende,"see the Chiavacci Leonardi commentaryto the Inferno,pp. 168-69. 26 For the allusion to Guido Guinizzelliin this tercetand to Aiidreas Capellanus in the next,see Barolini,Dante's Poets, pp. 5-7.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 12 Dante and Francescada Rimini stronglyfor his beauty, that, as yousee, it has notyet let me go" [lines103-5]). Francesca'stwo-verse conclusion is less syntacticallycomplex, more stark, still opaque,however, and equallydevoted to maintainingthe role of object:"Amor condussenoi ad una morte./ Caina attendechi a vitaci spense"("Love led us to one death.Caina awaitshim who put out our life" [lines 106-7]). Again,let us takenote of thecelebrity these verses imply; these abstract and codifieddeclarations manage to revealthe speaker's identity to herinterlocutor. Once he knowsher identity, the pilgrim formulates a query that is undeniably voyeuristic:how did love firstpermit the lovers to recognizetheir desires? Her responseis classicallyDantesque, in termsof "poeticyield," that is, theratio of goalsachieved (very great) to linguisticexpenditure (very sparing). It introduces a new subtext,the romance Lancelot du Lac, to whoseprotagonists Francesca comparesherself and Paolo. It bringsthe complicity of writing and literature ever moreto theattention of thereader as a maintheme of thecanto, a themethat culminatesin Francesca'sindictment of theLancelot and its authoras the "go- betweens"who broughther and Paolo to the point of surrenderingto passion. And, most interestingfor the presentinquiry, Francesca responds to the implicit voyeurismof thepilgrim's request by providing a morecircumstantial and detailed window onto her affair.We could say that,in responseto and in exchangefor greatersympathy, she relaxesthe tightlyscripted nature of the interviewshe has granted,perhaps even thatshe poses candidlyfor the cameras. The window thatFrancesca opens onto her lifeis a window onto Francescaas subject,as agentin thepursuit of pleasure.Reading together one day forpleasure, "per diletto,"the couple read of how love seizedLancelot: the reading constrained theireyes to meet and theirfaces to pale, and finally-but only when theyread of how Lancelotkissed Guenevere-Paolo kissedher. This accountis broughtup shortby two denselysuggestive consecutive statements. The first,"Galeotto fu '1 libro e chi lo scrisse" ("A Gallehautwas the book and he who wroteit"), states thatthe Old Frenchromance and its authoroccupied the same role-the role of go-between-in the lives of Francesca and Paolo that the knightGallehaut oc- cupied in the lives of Guenevereand Lancelot. Thus, the Lancelot romanceand its author-"'l libroe chi lo scrisse"-are responsiblefor bringing together Fran- cesca and Paolo, a formulathat seems to leave littleroom forthe agencyof the text'sreaders. And yetFrancesca's next declaration,"quel giornopiiu non vi leg- gemmoavante" ("that day we read no furtherin it"), powerfullyconcludes with theiragency-Francesca's and Paolo's agency-both as readers,expressed with the active(not passive) "leggemmo,"and as readerswho cease to read. The ellip- tical concludingverse is an assertionof controlover the Commedia'sreaderss'as well, who are leftto grapple with a statementthat suggestsvolumes but tells nothing.Ultimately, Francesca here uses languageto imposesilence, for, as though mirroringher recollection of readingno more,she now speaksno more.The artful opacityof her two last declarations-from the impressivelyallusive "Galeotto" to the tantalizingfinal "avante" that suggestsforwardness while denyingit- lapses into genuinesilence. These versesare thegenial seal to an interviewthat dynamically juxtaposes two views of the lifestory: the lifestory as reducedto abstractprinciples versus the lifestory as reflectedin circumstanceand specificity.The task of assuagingour

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 13 collectivedesire for the latter was assumedfirst by the Ottimocommento but especiallyby Boccaccio,who focuseda floodlightof biographicand romantic detailonto Dante's magisterially wrought obscurity. As I notedearlier, the Ottimo addsthe dynastic frame, character sketches of the protagonists, and a servantwho conveysthe news of the adulterous liaison to Gianciotto.The charactersketches areintriguing because they create an implicitmotivation for Francesca's infidelity on whichBoccaccio later builds. The Ottimocommento marks the characters in sucha wayas to suggestthe inherent compatibility ofone couple versus the equally inherentincompatibility of the other. Gianciotto is uncouthin hisappearance, a bravewarrior, and cruel("uomo dell'abitorustico, e del cuore franco,e armigero, e crudele"); Francescais verybeautiful and lightheartedin herdemeanor ("donna bellissimadel corpo,e gaia ne' sembianti");Paolo is verybeautiful, well mannered, and disposed more to leisurethan to work ("uomo molto bello del corpo, e ben costumato,e acconcio piiua riposo, che a travaglio"). Francesca and Paolo are congruent,in balance, while Gianciottois incongruent,out of balance: if Fran- cesca is "bellissimadel corpo," Paolo, too, is "molto bello del corpo"; ifFrancesca is inclinedtoward gaiety,Paolo, too, is givento leisurepursuits. Gianciotto, on the otherhand, is "dell'abito rustico";he sportsnot finemanners but arms;he is, finally,"crudele." Despitethis final adjective, it is notclear that the writer of the Ottimo commento prefersPaolo to Gianciotto;rather, he codes thebrothers as opposites,with Gian- ciotto the man of action and Paolo the lightweightdandy. Boccaccio maintains the previouscommentator's system of coded charactersbut adjuststhe values so thatGianciotto is morerepellent and Paolo less flighty.The result,in Boccaccio's arrangement,is a marriagewhich, because of the perceiveddiscrepancy of the partners,is viewed as potentiallyexplosive even beforeit occurs. This manifest instabilitycauses one of Guido da Polenta'sfriends to alerthim to thescandal that could arise fromsuch a union,and to warn himthat if Francesca sees Gianciotto beforethe marriageknot is tied,no one will be able to compel herto take him:

Guardatecome voi fate,per ci6 che,se voi nonprendete modo ad alcunaparte, che in questoparentado egli ve ne potraseguire scandolo. Voi dovetesapere chi e vostrafi- gliuola,e quantoell'6 d'altiero animo; e se ellavede Gian Ciotto avanti che '1 matrimonio sia perfetto,n6 voi ne altripotra mai fareche ella il vogliaper marito.(Boccaccio, Esposizioni,p. 315) (Becareful how you proceed, for if you do nottake precautions, this wedding may bring scandal.You knowyour daughter, and how high-spiritedshe can be. If shesees Gian- ciottobefore the marriage is concluded,neither you nor anyone else can makeher go throughwith it. [Trans.Domandi, p. 87])

The friendfurther advises that one of Gianciotto'sbrothers be sentto Ravennato marryFrancesca as his proxy,"come suo procuratore"(p. 315). Guido da Polenta prefersGianciotto to his brothersas his futureson-in-law, despite his beingugly and crippled("sozo della personae sciancato"), because he expectsGianciotto to become the nextlord of Rimini:

Era GianCiotto uomo di gransentimento e speravasi dover lui dopo la mortedel padre rimaneresignore; per la qual cosa,quantunque sozo dellapersona e sciancatofosse, il

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 14 Dante and Francescada Rimini disideravamesser Guido per genero piu tostoche alcunode' suoi fratelli.(Boccaccio, Esposizioni,p. 315) (Gianciottowas a verycapable man, and everyone expected that he would become ruler whenhis father died. For this reason, though he was uglyand deformed, Messer Guido wantedhim rather than one ofhis brothers as a son-in-law.[Trans. Domandi, p. 87])

And so Paolo, whom Boccaccio describes,following the Ottimo commento,as "bello e piacevole uomo e costumatomolto" ("a handsome,pleasing, very cour- teous man" [p. 315, trans.p. 87]), comes to Ravenna to marryFrancesca. Paolo's symmetricalbeauty makes Francesca,also beautiful,vulnerable to the trap that has been set forher. When a maid pointsto Paolo througha window,indicating him as Francesca'sfuture husband, Francesca immediately falls in love. Having dealt withthe issues of moral responsibilityraised by the arrangement of the marriageand resolvedthem resoundingly in Francesca'sfavor, Boccaccio turnsto the part of the storythat can onlyrun its preordainedcourse; here,too, he findsample opportunityto furnishthe details lacking in Dante's account.Fran- cesca learnsthat she has been deceivedwhen she awakens the morningafter her weddingand findsGianciotto by herside. She is angry,and continuessteadfast in her love for Paolo: "vedendosi ingannata,isdegnasse, ne percio rimovessedel- l'animo suo l'amore gia postovi verso Polo" ("Whereuponshe realized she had been fooled,and, as can well be believed,she became furious.Nor did the love she had conceivedfor Paolo disappear" [p. 316, trans.p. 88]). Boccaccio's Fran- cesca is thus the initiatorof the romance with her brother-in-law:Boccaccio's desireto legitimizeFrancesca's later behavior by havingher fallin love withthe man whom she fullyexpects to be her husband, beforethe marriagehas taken place, causes himto reverseDante's storyon thisimportant point, in a move that securesfor Francesca both more agencyand less culpability.(The Ottimo com- mentodoes not need to deviatefrom Dante in thisway, since it is less committed to exculpatingFrancesca.) While Boccaccio is clear thatFrancesca is theleader in thispas-de-deux, he leaves undisclosedthe manner in whichthe dance firstbegins, distancinghimself in thisregard, too, fromthe authorof the Ottimotommento, who devotesnearly half of his commentaryto describingthe couple's firsterotic encounter:

Finalmentestando l'uno con l'altrosenza nulla sospecione siccome cognati, e leggendo nellacamera della donna un librodella Tavola Ritonda, nel quale era scritto come Lan- cilottoinnamoro della reina Ginevra, e comeper mezzana persona, cioe GaleottoLo- Bruno,Signore dell'Isole lontane, elli si congiunseinsieme a ragionaredi loroamore, e comeil dettoLancilotto per virtiu di quelloragionamento conosciuto l'amoroso fuoco, fubaciato dalla reina;al qualepunto pervegnendo la dettaFrancesca, vinse la forzadi questotrattato si lordue, che posto giu il librovennero all'atto della lussuria.... (Finallythey were together without suspicion as in-laws,reading in thelady's room a book of theRound Table, in whichwas writtenhow Lancelotfell in lovewith queen Guenevere,and how through an intermediary,that is Gallehaut,lord of the Far Islands, theycame together to talkof theirlove, and how Lancelotby virtueof this discourse knewthe amorous flame and was kissedby thequeen; when Francesca reached this pointthe force of that story so overcamethem that putting down the book they came to theact of lust. .I.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 15 Fromthe crisply transparent "vennero all'atto della lussuria," it is onlya short distanceto theconclusion of the Ottimo's tale: news of the indiscretion leaks, a servantalerts Gianciotto, Gianciotto kills his wifeand brothertogether "nella dettacamnera"-her room, the room in which they met to read.Boccaccio greatly amplifiesthe death scene, describing at lengthhow Gianciotto traps the lovers in Francesca'sroom, which is boltedfrom within. Francesca goes to openthe door, thinkingthat Paolo has successfullyfled through a trapdoorto a roombelow, not realizingthat the fold of his jacket has caughton a pieceof iron. Gianciotto runs at his brotherwith his rapier,but Francesca literally intervenes, placing herself betweenthe two men. Gianciotto unintentionally kills his wife; he then kills Paolo. The complexstory that Boccaccio invented-beginning with its hiigh-spirited heroineand deformedintended, moving through the decisionto deceiveher througha proxymarriage and herundeception on beingwed, and culminating withthe double killing of interposed wife and brother-omits the emotional high- pointof theoriginal episode in Inferno5: themoment when the lovers, while readingfrom the Lancelot romance, come to realizethat they love each other, the momentthat Dante's Francesca evokes with the greatest candor, the only moment thatDante really portrays.27 Boccaccio omits this scene not clandestinely, but with greatfanfare, inserting himself into the story to declarecategorically that he can- notcomment on thispoint since he has never heard anything on thissubject other thanwhat Dante wrote, and thatwhile Dante's account may be true,he thinksit morelikely to be a fictionconstructed on thebasis of what might have happened: Col quale comeella poi si giugnesse,mai non udi' direse non quelloche l'autorene scrive;il chepossibile 6 checosi fosse: ma io credoquello essere piiu tosto fizione formata sopraquello che era possibile ad essereavvenuto, ch6 io noncredo che l'autore sapesse checos'i fosse. (Boccaccio, Esposizioni, p. 316) (I havenever heard tell how they then got together, other than what [Dante] writes; and it is possiblethat it did happenthat way. But I believethat it is probablya fiction constructedupon what might possibly have happened; and that the author did not know whatreally took place. [Trans. Domandi, p. 88]) Whatis at stakefor Boccaccio here? What does his defiantand selectivereti- cence-since on everyother point he adds detailand textureto the Ottimo's simplecanvas-achieve? Boccacciosucceeds in an act of multipledistancing, which works to enhance thecredibility of hisversion of Francesca's story over against those of his rivals, Danteincluded. He thuscreates himself-very successfully, as is attestedby the immediateand continuing acceptance of his story, a story that has utterly contam- inatedthe reception of canto 5-as thecreator of the canonical romance of Fran- cesca.He distanceshimself from Dante by excising the climax of Dante's account, thescene inscribed most vividly into the collective memory; moreover, he castigates Dante forincluding it and openlyimpugns its credibility.He distanceshimself

27 VittorioRusso points out that Boccaccio's suppressionof this point is part of his creationof a Francesca who is not surprisedinto lovingbut chooses to love; see "Nuclei e scheminarrativi nelle Esposizioni," in "Con le Muse in Parnaso": ?T9estudi su Boccaccio (Naples, 1983), pp. 109-65, at p. 160.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 16 Dante and Francescada Rimini fromthe Ottimo and all previouscommentators by implying that he learnedthe storyfirsthand and orallyand notfrom a priorwritten source.28 He goesright to thethreshold of the crucial scene, specifying that Francesca does not remove her lovefrom Paolo whenshe realizes that she is marriedto Gianciotto.But as to how subsequentlyFrancesca was first united with Paolo, Boccaccio refuses to comment. Wherethe Ottimo follows Dante in unitingthe lovers through their reading to- getherof Lancelot and Guenevere(and then makes explicit the "atto di lussuria" thatDante leaves unspoken), Boccaccio puts a marker,a red flag, and thenpicks up withthe moment when Gianciotto leaves town. The scenethat Boccaccio omits is powerfullyspecular, a miseen abymewhere ourpassions are engaged as we readof passionate readers reading about passion. Perhapsdeciding that Dante's version of that scene would always be thestrongest, Boccaccioharnesses its power indirectly, by refusing to add to theonly scene that Dantehad previouslyportrayed. Boccaccio also harnessesthe power of Dante's textby opposing it; bytaking his stand against all thatreading and textuality- all that"fizione formata"-he casts himselfas the scrupuloushistorian who worksfrom oral sources.The others,the ones who invent,are thewriters of romances;he includesnothing in hisaccount that he cannotverify. However, the salutarywords that he appliesto Dante'slove scene-"non credoche l'autore sapesseche cosi fosse"-cannotbe appliedto his own account.The resultof Boccaccio'scanny and aggressive move is to emergeas theshaper of the canonical and definitive-anddefinitively romanticized-Francesca. Boccacciobetrays a particularemotional investment in Francesca'sstory. His useof the word "procuratore" for Paolo pointsto thetalismanic significance that Francesca'sstory possessed for a writerwho cotitledhis greatwork "prencipe Galeotto,"referring to the same "princeGallehaut" who servedas Lancelot's agent(procuratore) to Guinevere,and withwhom Francesca identified the book thatjoined her to Paolo: "Galeottofu '1 libroe chilo scrisse."As theauthor of "il librochiamato Decameron cognominato prencipe Galeotto" ("the book called Decameronalso knownas PrinceGallehaut"), Boccaccio fashions himself into a procuratoreof theword and alludesto theliberating power of language-that ultimatego-between-in the livesof the disenfranchised,synecdochically the womento whomhe addressesthe Decameron, viewed as so manyFrancescas.

28 I agree completelywith Torraca's statementthat "Al racconto del Boccaccio si e fattotroppo onore attribuendoglivalore storico; e una novella" ("II canto V dell'Inferno,"p. 416). He argues compellinglyboth forthe impossibilityof Boccaccio's story(for instance, that it was impossiblefor Francescanot to have known who Paolo was, and to whom he was marriedwhen "Appuntoper la contea di Ghiaggiolo,Paolo aveva avuto una lite con il Capitolo di Ravenna" [p. 414]), and forthe evidentromance precedents for Boccaccio's plot (e.g., Tristan,who marriesIseult as Mark's proxy, whileIseult believes she is genuinelymarrying Tristan). Quaglio nonethelessviews Boccaccio's personal intrusioninto the account as the caution of a scrupuloushistorian ("Francesca da Riminitra Dante e Boccaccio," pp. 18-19), thisdespite the fact that Boccaccio's fictionsare repletewith similar rhetorical techniques.Both Vittorio Russo and JonathanUsher speak to thenovella-like strategies that Boccaccio carriesover fromprevious fictions to his treatmentof Francesca;Russo concentrateson parallelswith the Decameron (see "Nuclei e scheminarrativi nelle Esposizioni," pp. 154-65), whileUsher demon- strateslinks to the Filocolo (see "Paolo and Francescain the Filocolo and the Esposizioni," Lectura Dantis: A Forumfor Dante Researchand Interpretation10 [1992], 22-33).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 17 The implicitstrength of Dante's Francesca,who speaks and does not weep, in marked contrastto her man, who weeps and does not speak, is unpacked by Boccaccio, who bestows on Francesca an "altiero animo" thatmakes her capa- ble-like his own Ghismonda-of liberatingbut fatal choices.29The appeal of such a characterfor Boccaccio, who createdso manywomen capable of standing theirground in a male world,is evident.His additionto the Ottimo'sdescription of Francesca is telling,since it underscoresFrancesca's identity, her selfhood- "Voi dovete sapere chi e vostrafigliuola, e quanto ell'e d'altieroanimo" -and lets us know that the strengthof this self is such as to withstandany formof coercion:"e se ella vede Gian Ciotto avantiche '1 matrimoniosia perfetto,ne voi -nealtri potra mai fareche ella il voglia per marito" (Esposizioni,p. 315; italics mine).Moreover, Francesca's appeal is now universalized,so thatfor the first time in thestory's transmission we learnthat Gianciotto, too, adoredhis wife: "avvenne quello che eglinon arebbevoluto" ("And thushappened what he would not have wanted"), writesBoccaccio of the momentwhen he accidentallykills her, adding that Gianciottois "turbato. . . si come colui che piiuche se medesimoamava la donna" ("distressed,as one who loved the woman more than his veryself" [Es- posizioni,p. 317]). Withthis Francesca's apotheosis as a fullyromanticized icon is complete,leaving her onlyto be accorded the burialin one tomb withPaolo thatawaits theDeca- meron's star-crossedlovers. At the same time,however, that Boccaccio heightens the romanticelement of the story,he does not neglectits quotientof realpolitik. He takes care to remindus that Gianciottoleaves Riminifor political reasons, writingthat he went to a nearbytown "per podesta" ("as mayor"). And, as I noted earlier,Boccaccio raises the politicalstakes of thisstory by specifyingthat Francesca'sfather chose theson-in-law whom he expectedto becomethe next lord ofRimini. In otherwords, the commentators who mostcapitalized on theromance elementsof Inferno5, Boccaccio and the Ottimo,did not do so at the expenseof the historicaland politicalrealities that undergird Francesca's story. As theirver- sions show,they understood her storyas situatedat thejuncture of two opposed stresses:dynastic realpolitik on the one hand and the desirefor romance on the other.A woman who was bartered,deceitfully and withouther consent,into a marriagethat was a political transaction,and that she consideredincapable of givingher personalfulfillment or happiness,desired more; the desirefor more- the desire for love-killed her.The factthat her reasons for believingthat she could not love Gianciotto,like her reasons for fallingin love with Paolo-the uglinessof the former,the beautyof the latter-are superficialby today's stan- dards is not thepoint; these were culturally sanctioned reasons, coded normsthat in themselvesreflect a suspectview of women as externalizedbeings without in- teriority.Suspect as these norms are, however,they allow the commentatorsa code in which to express Francesca's legitimatesense of outrage. By the same token,far from downplaying the politicalaspect of thisnarrative, Boccaccio un- derscoresit in a bid for sympathyfor his heroine,accentuating the brutalityof

29 Russo makes the connectionto Ghismonda,noting similarities of characterthat are reflectedin identicaldescriptions: "[Francesca] e 'd'altiero animo' cosi come Ghismonda e d"animo altiero' " ("Nuclei e scheminarrativi nelle Esposizioni," p. 163).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 18 Dante and Francescada Rimini Guido da Polenta'spolitical scheming and his connivingindifference to his daugh- ter'swelfare. Her romanticinclinations are viewedin a moresympathetic and less self-indulgentlight against the backdropof her father'sunvarnished cruelty. Let us turnnow to the latentpresence of the historicalFrancesca in the Com- media. Inferno5 revealsits suregrip of politicalrealities through its cast of char- acters:the group of souls to whichFrancesca belongs includes three ruling queens. What Semiramis,empress of Assyria,Dido, founderarid queen of Carthage,and Cleopatra,queen of Egypt,have in commonis thateach sooner or laterruled in her own right;each was a wielderof power.They are all, in thissense, masculine women;the name "Dido" was glossedby Serviusas meaning" 'virago,'a woman who has done somethingmasculine."30 Dante calls Semiramis"empress of many tongues"and underlinesthat she was firstNirius's wife and thenbecame his suc- cessor,in which capacity she "held the land that the Sultan now commands": "succedettea Nino e fu sua sposa: / tennela terrache '1 Soldan corregge"(Inf. 5.59-60). Semiramisis thus doublymanlike, first in being successorto her hus- band and second in holding the land now held by the sultan. Semiramisand Francescaare textuallylinked through the word terra,which recurs in thiscanto to describethe land of Francesca'sbirth, the citywhose politicalfortunes deter- minedher destiny, not because she took power overit but simplybecause she was born there:"Siede la terradove nata fui...." These are Francesca'sfirst words, wordsin whichshe identifiesherself not byname, as so manycharacters in Dante's poem do, butby the place thatdefines her. The differentstatus of these two women is fullyexpressed in theirrelation to the word terra:on the one hand "tennela terra"speaks of agency,power, and possession;on the otherFrancesca's sense of selfis mediatedthrough her positionin a familydynasty that rendersher pow- erless,possessed, and controlled. Dante was astutein takingthe measure of the lords of Romagna, who,were known throughoutEurope for their murderous and treacherousquarrels.31 Amongthe lowest traitorsin hell is Alberigode' Manfrediof Faenza, the "frate Alberigo"whom Dante calls the "worstspirit of Romagna" ("[il] peggiorespirto

30 MarilynnDesmond, Reading Dido: Gender,Textuality, and theMedieval "Aeneid" (Minneapolis, 1994), p. 83. In her treatmentof Dido in Inferno5, Desmond claimsthat Dante allows Dido agency: "But Inferno5 categorizesthe sinnersin the second circlefor the factthat they allowed theirreason to be overcomeby desire,a contextthat assignsDido the positionof subject ratherthan object of desire" (p. 96). The "intenseengagement with Virgil's text and Dido as itsfemale protagonist" (p. 97) that Desmond discernsin canto 5 is a key factorin dictatinga femaleprotagonist for the canto. In manyrespects Francesca, who comes to Dante from"la schieraov'e Dido" (Inf. 5.85), is a modern correlativeof Dido, "che s'ancise amorosa" (Inf.5.61): bothfigure the linkbetween desire and death. The two differmost markedly in theirrelation to power; in thiscontext Dido comes intoplay as what Francescawas not. 31 See John Larner,The Lords of Romagna: Romagnol Societyand the Origins of the Signorie (Ithaca,N.Y., 1965), pp. 71-72, who writes:"A Frenchlegate of the fourteenth century did notscruple to comparethem [the Romagnols] to theEnglish: 'so treacherousand extravagant,are they,'he wrote, 'that in feastingand falsehoodthey are littledifferent from Englishmen. But theyare much more cunning,and with no shadow of doubt more intelligentthan the English,so that in reputationand performance,they hold themonarchy of perfidy among other Italians.' 'An old proverb,'wrote Matteo Villani, 'says that the Romagnol bears his faithin his breast.One should not be surprisedthat the tyrantsof Romagna lack faith,since theyare both tyrantsand Romagnols.' "

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 19 di Romagna"[Inf. 33.154]); he heldthe infamous dinner party at whichthe fruit coursewas thesignal to killhis cousin and otherguests. (As we shallsee, dinner partiesof this sort were a Romagnoltrademark.) Another Romagnolo among the traitorsis Tebaldellode' Zambrasi,also of Faenza,who openedthe gates of his townto Guelfenemy forces "while it slept"("ch'apri Faenza quando si dormia" [Inf.32.123]). In TheLords of RomagnaJohn Larner points out that Tebaldello "had marriedhis daughter Zanbrasina [sic], to Tanodi Ugolinodi Fantolino,one of theGuelf leaders who enteredthe town, and his fellowcitizens should have realisedthat his new familyinterests were hardly likely to be subordinatedto abstractideals of loyalty" (p. 46). Tebaldello'sfamily interests are relevant to our -story,since they eventually coincided with Malatesta interests: Zambrasina, after beingwidowed, married the recent widower Gianciotto Malatesta, and borehim fivechildren, thus achieving the uniquestatus of beingwife of one traitorin Dante'shell and daughterof another.32 TheRomagnol dynasty most consistently linked by Dante to cruelty and treach- eryis theMalatesta clan.33 In Inferno27's catalogueof Romagnol tyrants Mala- testada Verucchioand his eldestson Malatestino,the first and secondlords of Rimini,are mastiffswho "makean augerof their teeth," who use theirteeth, in otherwords, to piercetheir subjects' flesh as a toolwith a screwpoint might bore throughwood. And,while in canto27 theMalatesta are one of a groupof cas- tigatedtiranni, in canto 28 Dante singlesthem out, describing at lengthone of Malatestino'spolitical murders achieved through the typical means: betrayal. Pier da Medicina34tells the pilgrim to warnthe "two best men of Fano" thatthey are to be killed"through the treachery of an eviltyrant" ("per tradimento d'un ti- rannofello" [Inf. 28.81]); thetyrant is furtherdescribed as "thattraitor who sees withbut one eye" ("Quel traditorche vede pur con l'uno" [line85])-a reference to Malatestino,who had onlyone eyeand was thereforeknown as Malatestino dall'Occhio.The menwill be drowned,says Piero, after being summoned to a conferencewitlh Malatestino ("fara venirli a parlamentoseco" [line88]); thepar- leyis a particularlytelling detail since the Malatesta specialized in traitorousin- vitations.Also noteworthy is the rhetoric that Dante employs for this crime. He invokesNeptune, who has seennothing as heinousfrom one endof the Mediter- raneanto theother: "Tra l'isola di Ciprie di Maiolica/ non vide mai si granfallo Nettuno,/non da pirate,non da genteargolica" ("Between the islands of Cyprus

32 Zambrasina'sfirst husband was Tano (Ottaviano) dei Fantolini,son of theUgolino de' Fantolini whom Guido del Duca apostrophizesin Purgatorio14, callinghim securein his good name because of the deathsof his male heirs.He died, along withhis father-in-lawTebaldello, in 1282, in thebattle of Forli to which Dante refersin Inferno27.43-44. Thus Tebaldello was no longerpursuing any interestswhen his daughtermarried Gianciotto circa 1286. See Torraca, "Le rimembranzedi Guido del Duca," in Studi danteschi,pp. 137-71, esp. p. 168. 33 Ignazio Baldellicomments that "Dante, per altro,insiste spietatamente sui Malatesta (e su chi era con loro connesso) come naturalmentetraditori"; see "Dante, i Guidi e i Malatesta," in Annali della Scuola Normale Superioredi Pisa, Classe di Letteree Filosofia,series 3, 18/3 (1988), 1067-70; and Dante e Francesca(Florence, 1999). 34 Pierda Medicina has not been clearlyidentified; it is interestingto note thatBenvenuto indirectly linkshim to Francesca.Depicting Piero as a Romagnoltroublemaker who used negotiationsbetween the powerfulas an opportunityto sow discord,Benvenuto offers an extendednarrative of Piero's warningMalatesta da Verucchioagainst Guido da Polentaand vice versa.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 20 Dante and Francescada Rimini and MajorcaNeptune never saw so greata crime,not by pirates nor by Argolic folk"[Inf. 28.82-84]). Neptune'shorror here is a kindof infernal pendant to his amazementat theend of theParadiso, in a passagewhere the earlier "gente ar- golica" are recalledthrough the ship,the Argo: "la 'mpresa/ che f6Nettuno ammirarl'ombra d'Argo" ("the enterprisethat made Neptunewonder at the shadowof theArgo" [Par. 33.95-96]). The similaritiesbetween these passages confera strikingimportance on thetreachery of Malatestino,which becomes a retrospectiveemblem for hell. The indictmentof Romagnaas thecradle of Italiantyranny is mostcompre- hensiveand historicallyprecise in Inferno27's catalogueof the region's principal towns,offered by the pilgrim as responseto Guidoda Montefeltro'squery "dimmi se Romagnuolihan pace o guerra"("Tell me ifRomagnoles have peace or war" [Inf.27.28]). Romagnais notand has neverbeen free of war in thehearts of its tyrants,Dante says-"Romagna tua non e, e non fu mai, /sanza guerrane' cuor de' suoi tiranni"(lines 37-38)-alluding withthe word "tiranni"to the process Larnerdescribes as "the breakdownof the communesthrough factions, and the firststages in theslow emergenceof thesignorie, or single-persongovernments."35 P. J.Jones, in The Malatestaof Riminiand thePapal State,calls Romagna "the provincemost earlyaddicted to despots" and says that "its chronicwar [Dante] rightlysees as the feudingof tiranni."36 The Inferno'scatalogue of Romagnol towns,or despotisms,begins with Francesca'snatal Ravenna and thenlists the others,not as theyfollow the Via Emilia runningalong the Apenninefoothills, butrather in theorder Forli, Rimini, Faenza, Imola, and Cesena;37the last's fragile communeallows Dante to circle back fromindividual tyrants to tyrannyas a genericcurse with the verse "tra tiranniasi vive e stato franco" ("[Cesena] lives betweentyranny and freedom"[line 54]). He conjuresthe towns through a com- binationof geographical, historical, dynastic, and heraldicreferences; the signorial familiesare figuredby predatoryanimals associated with their coats of arms. The Polenta are representedby an eagle thatbroods over Ravenna and covers nearbyCervia, too, withits wings: "l'aguglia da Polentala si cova, /si che Cervia ricuopreco' suoi vanni" (Inf. 27.41-42). Benvenutoda Imola, who writeswith particularauthority about his home province,considers the eagle a symbolof the Polenta family'sbeneficent rule and a complimentto Guido Novello da Polenta (Dante's host duringhis finalyears), and it is truethat the eagle's wings are less

35 Larner,The Lords of Romagna,pp. 1-2. As Larnerdescribes Romagna: "The collapse ofimperial power,which had neverbeen strong,the failureof Bologna (1248-78), and then of the papacy,to dominatethe province,meant that there was no centralauthority to bringorder in place of anarchy. By the end of the thirteenthcentury, leaders of the factionshad obtainedfull control of theirtowns, and had begun to dominatethem through their communal machinery. These men can be called 'ty- rants"' (p. 77). 36 P. J. Jones,The Malatesta of Riminiand the Papal State: A PoliticalHistory (Cambridge, Eng., 1974), p. 11. 37 Ravenna is the only major town of Romagna not on the Via Emilia, the Roman road thatruns fromRimini on the Adriaticalong the line of the Apenninefoothills toward Bologna. Dante's geo- graphicalprecision leads him to includethree of the fiverivers of whichLarner writes: "To meetthe townsupon theroad, fiverivers flowed from the mountains: the Marecchia, Savio, Montone,Lamone, and Santerno"(p. 2).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 21 ferocious-if no less restrictive-thanthe "greenclaws" of the Ordelaffiof Forli or the "young lion" who representsthe lord of Faenza. It is also true,however, thatthe Polentanibehaved much as the otherdespots in theregion. Thus, Jones's account of theirrise to power: "Politicallythey rose firstas clientsof the Traver- sari,sharing a place by 1215 in the council of the communewith membership of the episcopal curia; and with the 'pars Traversariorum'they continued to long collaborate afterits fall in 1240, in oppositionto the Ghibellinecounts of Ba- gnacavallo. But eventually,in the way of all Italian faction,the partydivided. In 1274 theTraversari were expelled; and thefollowing year the Polenta, armed with outsidehelp (fromthe Malatesta), seized power (dominium)forcibly in Ravenna, at the same time takingComacchio" (p. 18). This bit of historyis particularly relevantto our story,for the year in which the Polenta, with the help of the Malatesta,seized power in Ravenna was 1275, thesame yearin whichthe alliance of the two ambitiousdynasties was furtherreinforced through the marriageof Francescada Polentato GianciottoMalatesta.38 However we read Dante's image of the Polenta eagle, therecan be no doubt thathe reserveshis most sanguinaryand menacingdescription for the Malatesta: "E '1 mastin'vecchio e '1 nuovo da Verrucchio,/ che fecerdi Montagna il mal governo,/ la dove soglion fan d'i denti succhio" (Inf. 27.46-48).39 And, while Ravenna is describedas politicallystable ("Ravenna sta come stata e molt'anni"; "Ravenna is as it has been formany years" [line40]), a characterizationthat lends authorityto Polenta rule, the terceton Riminifixes on the foundationalact of treacherythrough which, in 1295, Malatesta da Verucchioconsolidated his fam- ily'spower over the city.Essentially, the Malatesta seized dominionby becoming Guelfand defeatingthe family aligned with the Ghibellines,40 the Parcitadi, an old and powerfulimperialist clan thatMalatesta da Verucchiodid nothesitate to crush despitehis connectionto it throughhis firstwife.41 The leader of the Parcitadi factionwas the Montagna de' Parcitadiwhom Dante's mastiffstreat so evilly.In

38 "It was probablyat thistime [1275], as a seal to the alliance of the da Polentaand theMalatesti, thatFrancesca, daughter of Guido da Polenta,married Giovanni Scianciotto, 'the Lame,' son ofMala- testa da Verucchio" (Larner,The Lords of Romagna, p. 37). For a more detailedaccount of Guido Minore's rise to power,see AugustoTorre, I Polentanifino al tempodi Dante (Florence,1966), pp. 73-76. 39 "And the old mastiffand the new of Verucchio,who dealt withMontagna so evilly,make their teethinto augerswhere they are wont." The mastiffsalone among the animalsin thecatalogue seem not to be connectedto the family'scoat of arms,making the choice on the part of the poet the more noteworthy. 40 One should bear in mindthat, in the contextof Romagna, "the Tuscan terms'Guelf' and 'Ghib- elline,' with theirideological undertones,[were] later and adventitious"(Jones, The Malatesta of Riminiand the Papal State,pp. 14-15); " 'Ghibelline'and 'Guelf' were names withoutpolitical or social significance"(Jones, p. 19). 41 Malatesta da Verucchio'sfirst wife (and motherof fiveof his children,including Malatestino, Gianciotto,and Paolo) was Concordia di Enrichetto,daughter of theimperial vicecomes of Romagna. On hermother's side she was a Parcitade.See Massera, "Note malatestiane,"esp. pp. 3-20, "Le mogli di Malatesta da Verucchio."Jones writes that, although "[Concordia's] marriagewith Malatesta da Verucchio[was designed]in order to preventthe defectionof Malatesta to the Guelfs,"it was not successfulin that regardand that "Concordia's death about 1265 was soon to removewhat frail restraintupon hostilityshe may have been" (The Malatesta of Riminiand the Papal State,p. 30).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 22 Dante and Francescada Rimini theirquarrel with the Malatesta theParcitadi appealed forhelp to thegreat Ghib- elline warlord and leader in Romagna, Guido da Montefeltro,who "had long- standingdifferences, personal and public,"with the Malatesta.42 According to the anonymousfourteenth-century Cronaca malatestiana,the followersof both fac- tions were barricadedin the streetsof Rimini,while the Parcitadiawaited the arrivalof Guido. Takingadvantage of a disturbancecaused by theattempt of two asses to mate, Malatesta made a false peace with his opponents,so that "miser Parcitadowrote to the Conte Guido thankinghim and explainingthat peace had been made so thatfor the presenthe need not come" ("miserParcitado rescrisse al conteGuido rengraziandoloe dicendocomo aveva factopaxe, si che al presente la sua venutanon era de bisogno").43Malatesta thenhid a portionof his troops in his house and lefttown with the remainder,but he went only threemiles, returnedthat night, and killedhis rivalsas theysought to flee. The hybridnature of what we call historyis beautifullyexemplified by the presenceof Benvenuto'scommentary to Inferno27 in historicalreconstructions of the Malatesta takeoverof Rimini:thus Jones's account of the imprisonment and death of Montagna de' Parcitadirelies on Benvenuto'sgloss to Dante's verse "che fecerdi Montagna il mal governo."44 And, at thesame timethat the contam- inatednature of historycomes into focus,we also see the remarkableand unex- ploitedhistorical density of Dante's poetry;the drama of Guido da Montefeltro's falseconversion in the latterpart of canto 27, forinstance, is ripe fora reexami- nationthat reads his storyagainst the canto's earlier probing of Romagnolhistory. Thereis, to myknowledge, no readingof Dante's Guido da Montefeltrothat takes intoaccount his crucialrole in a historicalprocess that Dante deplored:of Guido's impacton Romagna,Jones writes that the "transformationof local into regional signoriawas mainlythe work of one man."45By the same token, thereis no readingthat really confronts the fact that when the pilgrim, speaking to Guido da Montefeltro,refers to the "lunga prova" enduredby Forli beforeit reducedthe Frenchto a "sanguinosomucchio," he is referringto eventsin which historians assignthat same Guido da Montefeltrothe central-indeed epic-role.46 Butthat

42 Jones,The Malatesta of Riminiand thePapal State,p. 38. 43 A translationof thechronicle's account of 13 December1295 is in Jones,The Malatestaof Rimini and thePapal State,p. 39; theoriginal is in Cronaca malatestiana,ed. Aldo FrancescoMassera, Rerum ItalicorumScriptores, 15/2 (Bologna, 1922), pp. 5-7 (the quoted sentenceis on p. 6). 44 See Jones,The Malatesta of Riminiand the Papal State, p. 40; see also Larner,The Lords of Romagna,p. 53, n. 53. 45 Jones,The Malatesta of Riminiand the Papal State, p. 17. For the "long conflictbetween tk& Malatesta and Guido da Montefeltro,which was to continueintermittently until the end of the cen- tury,"see Jones,pp. 33-34. Even the imageryof canto 27 can be contextualizedwith respectto contemporarypolitics: for instance, Jones mentions a Ghibellinepoem that "sets out to contrastthe two captains,Guido 'leone' and Malatesta da Verucchio'veltro"' (p. 34); in Inferno27 Malatesta is a mastiff,rather than a veltro,while Guido famouslysays that his deeds "non furonleonine, ma di volpe" (p. 75). 46 Forli is "the citythat already stood long trialand made of the Frencha bloody heap" ("La terra che fegia la lunga prova /e di Franceschisanguinoso mucchio" [Inf.27.43-44]). I am not suggesting thatDante views Guido da Montefeltro'sleadership at Forli negatively;rather, the historicalcontext revealsto what degreeGuido is a complexly"epic" figure,more like Ulysses,his companionin the bolgia of fraudulentcounselors, than we realize.The most historicallyastute reading of canto 27 to

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 23 is a differentstory from the one thatI am tracing,albeit connectedto it because of theconnections between all thetyrants of Romagna: theywere either allied, as werethe GuelfPolentani with the GuelfMalatesta, or theywere enemies, as were Malatesta da Verucchioand Guido da Montefeltro. This is the culturalbackdrop against which Francesca da Polentaplayed a his- toricallyinsignificant role. On thisbrutal stage, she was thesmallest of bitplayers. Of the familyfrom which she emergedLarner writes, "[T]he treacheriesamong the da Polenta familyassume at timesthe scale and improbabilityof Victorian melodrama";of the familyinto which she marriedhe continues,"The same mur- derous quarrelswere to splitthe Malatestifamily."47 If we followthe fortunesof the Malatesta in the yearsfollowing Malatesta da Verucchio'sdeath in 1312, we finda clan rivenby rivalriesand addicted to the use of treacheryfor resolving problemsof succession. Malatesta da Verucchio'seldest son, Malatestino dal- l'Occhio, was second lord of Rimini,followed by his halfbrother Pandolfo (a son of Malatesta da Verucchio'ssecond marriage), who was thirdlord of Rimini.After Malatestinoand Pandolfo,sole rule of Riminiwas fiercelycontested among Ma- latestada Verucchio'sgrandsons, the cousinsFerrantino (son of Malatestinodal- l'Occhio), Ramberto(son of Gianciotto),and Malatesta (son of Pandolfo). Fol- lowing the sinisterfamily etiquette of issuing invitationsand then killingthe relativeswho showed up, ascendancywas ultimatelywrested by Pandolfo'sson Malatesta,who was giventhe name "Guastafamiglia"for his labors.48 Historycould not providea moreappropriate gloss to Francesca'sverse "Caina attendechi a vita ci spense" thanthe name of Malatesta Guastafamiglia,fifth lord of Rimini,whose ruthlesswillingness to destroyhis family-guastare la fami- glia-established the supremacyof his line. If Gianciottois destinedfor Caina, named forthe firstfratricide, it is because his was a crimenot of passion but of betrayal,not hot but cold. Francesca'sindictment of her husband has troubled readers,who have oftentaken it as an anomalous expressionof deplorablevin- dictivenesson thepart of an otherwiserefined and "feminine"nature; some have claimedthat Dante was undulyharsh toward Gianciotto, noting that the contem- poraryItalian penal code is sympatheticto wrongedhusbands and punishesux- oricidemuch moremildly than Dante.49However, rather than indicating France- myknowledge is FrancescoTorraca's; see "II canto XXVII dell'Inferno,"in Studidanteschi, pp. 305- 46, and also "II sanguinosomucchio," in Studi danteschi,pp. 109-21. It is not coincidentalthat the two cantos to whichTorraca, a studentof Romagna, devotesin-depth readings are Inferno5 and 27; theseare, withPurgatorio 14 (see n. 32 above), the cantos of Romagna. 47 Larner describesthe quarrelsfor successionamong the Polentaniafter Dante's death,first the oustingof Dante's patron,Guido Novello, byhis cousin Ostasio, and thenthe fighting among Ostasio's sons; see The Lords of Roinagna,pp. 68-69. 48 Aftertelling Malatesta Guastafamiglia'sstory, Massera notes of his moniker:"Cosi era merita- mentesoprannominato 'communiter' Malatesta" (see "Note malatestiane,"p. 48, n. 2). 49 Corrado Ricci, writingin 1891, wonderswhy Gianciottois not pitiedrather than condemned, and notes that he would be absolved by "today's tribunals": "Perche tanta pieta per la coppia d'Ariminoe nemmenouna scusa per la giusta vendettadi Gianciotto?Perche condannare questo disgraziato,che i tribunalid'oggi assolverebbero,con una frasecruda e spietataad esserfitto nel duro gelo della Caina, mentreal fratelloche l'oltraggi6nell'onore si concede anche oltretombadi stare insiemea Francesca?" (L'ultimorifugio di Dante, p. 119). As recentlyas 1965 Nevio Matteiniclaims indulgencefor betrayed husbands and commendsthe contemporary Italian penal code, which,he says,

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 24 Dante and Francescada Rimini sca's vindictiveness,the statement "Caina attendechi a vita ci spense" can be seen as constitutinga lucid and clear-sightedappraisal of entrenchedMalatesta prac- tice: thisis a familyin which familymembers killed each otherwith harrowing regularity.Again, Inferno 5 is tellingus somethingabout history,and the history of Malatesta da Verucchio'sgrandsons provides the most compellinggloss to Dante's words,for not only did Gianciottokill Paolo, but Gianciotto'sson killed Paolo's son. The strugglefor power amongthe cousins was so fierce,and betrayal so customary,that Gianciotto's son Rambertowould eventuallyinvite Paolo's son Uberto to dinnerand there,in concertwith other familymembers, have him killed.50 In thiscultural context the murderof Francesca da Polenta in Malatesta was not a seriousmatter. As we have alreadyseen, it did not preventGianciotto from remarryingand producingheirs. Francesca's one child,her daughterConcordia, was of no politicalimportance.51 In fact,Francesca's death incurred fewer political consequencesfor the Malatesta than Paolo's murder:Paolo's heirs,the countsof Ghiaggiolo,remained politically hostile to the Malatesta of Rimini,52while the Polentanicontinued to ally and intermarrywith the Malatesta.s3In Francesca's

would sentenceGianciotto to fouryears' imprisonment:"La coscienza umana e le stesseleggi scritte riconosconouna certaindulgenza ai maritiquando, nel cospettoe nell'ira,lavano col sanguela gravis- sima ingiuria.I1 codice italiano di oggi irrogherebbea Gianciottola pena della reclusionea quattro anni circa (art. 587 e art. 62 bis)" (Francescada Rimini:Storia, mito, arte, p. 87). Matteinigoes on to explainthat the church,too, was less severetoward uxoricidethan Dante. 50 Larner describesthe event: "Uberto, Count of Giaggiolo, son of Paolo Malatesta, came into conflictwith Malatestino dell' Occhio overthe possession of Cesena. In 1324, he was treatingsecretly with his cousin Ramberto,the son of GiancottoMalatesta, on means by which theymight deprive Pandolfoof his rule in Rimini.But Ubertowas foolishto trustthe son of the man who had murdered his own father.On 21 January,Ramberto invited him to his castle at Ciolaradi, near Roncofreddo, and had himmurdered as he dined,by threebastards of thefamily" (The Lords of Romagna,pp. 69- 70). 51 Toninidisputes the existenceof a son named Francesco(included, however, by Vasina in the ED entryfor Gianciotto), and in factonly Concordia is named in her grandfather'swill;. see Della storia civilee sacra riminese,3:256. Toninialso suggeststhat Concordia's name is in honorof Malatesta da Verucchio'sfirst wife (3:259). 52 In 1269 Paolo marriedOrabile, the daughterand heirof the last countof Ghiaggiolo.As a result Paolo's heirs were the counts of Ghiaggiolo,and, as Joneswrites: "His prematuredeath, and the mannerof it,were to make his principallegacy to theMalatesta of Riminithe resentment and hostility of theneighbouring counts of Ghiaggiolo"(The Malatestaof Rimini and thePapal State,p. 37). During the Malatesta battlesfor succession, Paolo's son Uberto,count of Ghiaggiolo,allied himselfwith the Ghibellines.As we have seen (n. 50 above), he was killed by the Malatesta in the standardfashion; Jonesnotes that "he lefta son, Ramberto,to carryon the feud" (p. 56). 53 Historianspay lip serviceto the idea of a rupturebetween the Polentaniand the Malatesta over Francesca'sdeath but offerno proof;one has the impressionthat they are projectingwhat they believe should have happened. Thus Torre,following the sixteenth-centuryhistorian of Ravenna Girolamo Rossi (who adhered,as was common,to the 1289 date of death forFrancesca that we now know to be impossible),writes: "All'anno 1289 e precisamentealla seconda meta. .. il Rossi assegnal'uccisione di Francescada Riminie quindi la rotturadell'amicizia fra i Polentanie i Malatesti,rottura che non poteva protrarsimolto, data la coincidenzadegli interessi politici" (I Polentanifino al tempodi Dante, p. 106). Larner,too, assumes the ruptureand writes,providing no explanation,"In March 1290 Malatesta made peace with the da Polenta,on the issue of Francesca'smurder" (The Lords of Ro- magna,p. 53).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 25 own generationthere was a double intermarriagebetween the Polentaniand the Malatesta: her brotherBernardino da Polenta was marriedto Maddalena Mala- testa,a daughterof Malatesta da Verucchio,and was a usefulally to theMalatesta, helpingthem to subdue the castle of Sogliano in 1312, long afterFrancesca's death.54Bernardino's son, Ostasio, who took controlof Ravenna fromhis cousin Guido Novello by force(both menwere nephewsof Francesca),was a strongally of Malatesta Guastafamiglia;it was with the help of Ostasio da Polenta that Guastafamigliawas able to completehis work againstthe descendantsof Mala- testinodall'Occhio, imprisoningFerrantino and murderinghis son and grand- son.55 -My pointabout theinsignificance of Francescain thishistory is made indirectly but decisivelyby the chronicles.The "firstand most authoritativechronicler of Rimini"is, as we have seen,the fourteenth-century historian Marco Battagli,who composed "On the Originsof the Malatesta" ("De originedominorum de Mala- testis")in 1352.56Battagli alludes to the eventin which Francesca died without namingher, indeed withoutacknowledging her existence,except as an implicit cause of Paolo's death,which occurred "causa luxurie": "Paulus autemfuit mor- tuus per fratremsuum JohannemZottum causa luxurie" ("Paolo was killed by his brotherGiovanni the Lame, on account of lust"). Paolo's death is registered because it affectsthe succession,and the sentencereferring to it is sandwiched betweenother events of Malatesta dynasticsuccession: Dominusautem Malatesta vixit annis C et plus;cui successeruntMalatestinus et Pan- dolfus.Paulus autem fuit mortuus per fratrem suum lohannem Zottum causa luxurie. Qui Paulushabuit in dotemcomitatum Glazoli. Mortuo Malatestino in dominiopostea successitPandulfus. (LordMalatesta lived one hundredyears and more;to himsucceeded Malatestino and Pandolfo.Paolo was killedby his brother Giovanni the Lame, on accountof lust. The samePaolo receivedin dowrythe county of Ghiaggiolo.On thedeath of Malatestino Pandolfosucceeded as lord.... )57

54Jones, The Malatesta of Rimniniand the Papal State, p. 48. The grandson of Malatestino dall'Occhio was marriedto the daughterof Guido Novello. See Massera, "Note malatestiane,"p. 30; Jones,p. 56 n; and Larner;The Lords of Romagna,p. 70. 55 "At the beginningof June1334 Malatesta Guastafamiglia,in concertwith Ostasio da Polenta, suddenlyseized Ferrantino,his son Malatestinoand his grandsonGuido, and confinedthem to the castle of Gradara. Ferrantinowas later released in January1336, but the otherswere removedto Fossombroneand thereput to death" (Jones,The Malatesta of Rimniniand thePapal State,p. 60). For a fulland movingdescription of theseevents and theongoing struggle of Ferrantino'ssurviving grand- son, FerrantinoNovello, see Massera, "Note malatestiane,"esp. pp. 32-48, "La guerramalatestiana nel contado di Riminidegli anni 1334-1343." 56 Massera calls Battagli's"la prima e piiuautorevole cronaca riminese"in "Note malatestiane," p. 3. 57 Marcha, p. 31. BenjaminKohl's assessment,as expressedto me in a letter,that Battaglihere is "clearlyreporting political anecdotes from the Romagna" seemsfully justified. At thesame time,one wonderswhether Battagli's choice of words,especially the technical reference to luxuria,might not be influencedby Dante's placementof Paolo and Francescain his Inferno.This is thepassage thatelicits Massera's note: "E' questa la notizia piuiantica della tragediache ci rimanga,eccezion fatta dei com- mentatoridell'Inferno, in fontistoriche" (p. 31).

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 26 Dante and Francescada Rimini Like Battagli,the author of the Cronaca malatestianarefers to thekilling of Paolo and Francescain passing;while at least accordingFrancesca a role in the drama, he, too, dispenseswith her name, referring to hermerely as wife,"la donna sua": Fo factoel dittoMalatestino signore d'Arimino, et era tantoamato, che nonse poria contare.Acadde caso cos'ifacto, ch'el ditto Zanne sancado suo fratellotrovo Paulo so fratellocon la donnasua et abelomorto subito, lui e la donnasua. (Theaforementioned Malatestino was madelord of Rimini, and he was moreloved than one couldrecount. It happenedthat his brother,the aforementioned Gianni the lame, foundPaolo hisbrother with his lady and immediatelykilled him, him and hislady. )58 Francesca,then, was preservedby Dante, who recordsher name and saves her fromconsignment to historicaloblivion. She became a culturaltouchstone and referencepoint throughthe interventionof the fifthcanto of the Inferno,a text thatboth conjuresthe historythat we have been tracingand invertsit, givingto Francescaa dignityand a prominence-a celebrity-thatin real lifeshe did not possess. In real lifeher death was less importantthan that of Paolo, who was yet the least importantof Malatesta da Verucchio'ssons, promptingJones to note, "He was less activethan the othermembers of his family,"and to commentthus on the differencebetween Paolo and his brothers:"The mostresourceful and the mostconsistent allies of Malatesta da Verucchiowere his othersons, Malatestino dall'Occhio (the One-eyed)and Gianciotto,both of whom were warriors,ambi- tious,able and ruthless,as portrayedin the pages of Dante, and one or otherof themwas always presentwith him at the criticalmoments in his rise to power" (p. 37). Dante capturesthe lesserpolitical profile of the historicalPaolo in canto 5's muteand ineffectualweeper; moreover, his storyof loversambushed and mur- deredin a privateand presumablysafe place-"soli eravamo e sanza alcun sos- petto" ("alone we were and withoutsuspicion" [Inf.5.129])-is a chillingevo- cation of the Malatesta habit of familialexecution. But the energyand forceof Dante's Francescaare whollyincompatible with the low dynasticstatus and faint politicalresonance of the historicalFrancesca, who is named in familyand con- temporarydocuments only once, withrespect to herdowry. The dynasty'sfound- ing patriarchMalatesta da Verucchio,who died in 1312 at age one hundred, mentionsFrancesca's dowry in his will of 1311, wherehe enjoinsConcordia and her fivehalf siblings (the children of Gianciottoand Zambrasina) to resolveam- icablyany issues relatingto theinheritance of Francesca'sdowry.59 This reference to Francesca,in which she exists only in functionof her dowry-"pro dotibus olim dominaeFrancischae" ("regarding the dowryof the late lady Francesca") is the onlyhistorical document to recordher name.

58 The quotation is frompage 8. It is worthnoting that the author of the Cronaca malatestiana certainlyknew Dante, whose verseson the treatmentof Montagna he approvinglycites on page 7. 59Augusto Vasina citesfrom Malatesta's will in the entry"Concordia Malatesta" (ED 3:783). The sectionthat names Francesca reads: "pro dotibus olim dominae Francischaeab eo receptis,uxoris olim lohannis dictisui filiiet matrisdictae dominae Concordiae" ("regardingthe dowryof the late lady Francesca,wife of the late aforementionedJohn his son and motherof the aforementionedlady Concordia, thatthey have receivedfrom him"). The entirewill may be foundin Tonini,Della storia civilee sacra riminese,4 (Rimini,1880), appendix pp. 21-35; discussionof the will is on pp. 277- 79.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Dante and Francescada Rimini 27 Francesca'sname thus becomes the hallmarkof Dante's achievement,for the name thatis missingfrom the local chroniclesand contemporaryhistories is the only name connectedto thisstory that Inferno 5 sees fitto registerand preserve, inscribedfor all time-all history-into thegreat poem: "Francesca,i tuoimartirn . ."JtI is thisdisparity between real lifeand Dante's poem-between absence in the formerand presencein the latter-that allows a genderedview of canto 5 to come into focus, not the spuriouslygendered reading whereby Francesca's sex takes her offthe moral hook, but a truegendered reading based on her:her his- toricalexistence, her identity, her name. Again,let me make perfectlyclear thatI am not arguingagainst the nongendered reading of the episode. Francesca signifies thienexus of desireand death forany reader,male or female.She raisesissues of moral agencyand responsibilityfor any reader,male or female.The male pilgrim faintsat the canto's end because he is like Francesca,not because he is unlikeher. Textually,this identityis reinforcedby Francesca'suse of language taken from love poetrythat was read by-and even writtenby-Dante. As a representation of the Cavalcantianlove thatleads to death,as a figurewhose "Amor condusse noi ad una morte" echoes Cavalcanti's "Di sua potenza segue spesso morte," Francesca is not gendered.Rather, she is the avatar of a persona that had been Dante's own.60 And yet Francesca is not casually female;her story,as Dante delineatesit, is profoundlygendered. The storyis thatof a woman trappedbetween the patriar- chal cohstraintsof an arrangeddynastic marriage in whichpersonal fulfillment is utterlyirrelevant and her desiresfor romanticlove, that is, for a love that she perceivesas takingaccount of and respondingto her unique personhood.The factsthat Dante chose to tell Francesca'sstory at all and thathe chose to give it those particularcontours are extraordinarilysignificant, since he therebyraises all the genderedand ideological issues connectedto romance. AlthoughJanice Radway,writing about contemporaryromance novels, maintains that "all popular romanticfiction originates in thefailure of patriarchalculture to satisfyits female members,"she is candid about thedifficulty in ascertainingwhether "the romance should be consideredfundamentally conservative on the one hand or incipiently oppositional on the other."61 The Francesca storyoffers a versionof the same dilemma.On theone hand,the medieval romance is moretruly oppositional than contemporarypopular romances because the femaleheroine is engagingin an optionnot sanctionedby society;Francesca's love affairwith Paolo is not scripted by the patriarchy,and so readingabout it cannotbe viewedas a reinforcementof patriarchalideology. On the otherhand, the tragicending ensures that Francesca is punished;in thatshe pays forher bid forfreedom with her life, and in Dante's textwith damnationas well, the storycan also be seen as ideologicallyconser- vative. Dante himselfseems to be conflicted,and to presentus withyet another version of the same dilemma,for on the one hand he givesFrancesca (historical) life, and on the otherhe condemnsher to (eternal)death. But damnationand punishment

60 On the Cavalcantianissues embeddedin Inferno5, see Barolini,"Dante and Cavalcanti." 61 Reading the Romance,citations from pp. 151 and 209.

This content downloaded from 128.59.161.75 on Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:40:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 28 Dante and Francescada Rimini mustalso be historicizedand contextualized,and it is importantto bear in mind thatDante's treatmentof lust is in facthighly unusual: he emphaticallydoes not treatFrancesca to the degradingand sexualizedpunishments that are commonin vision literature.62Rather, Dante's treatmentof lust is exquisitelypsychological, and is centeredon a story,the storyof one woman and her desirefor love. This is the storythat attracts the commentatorsand to whichthey respond with voy- euristicfascination, enhancing both featuresof Dante's Francesca,both her vul- nerabilityand her agency.Her vulnerabilityis inherentin her job description, while her agencytranspires from her appropriationof language: she reads, she speaks. It matterslittle from this perspectiveif she reads poorly,as criticshave held;63what is importantis the agencyof those activeverbs: "Noi leggiavamo," "leggemmo,""leggemmo." She reads,and by readingshe imaginesa lifefor her- self differentfrom the one her familyassigned her.Nor is she confinedto the vicariouspleasure of manyfemale readers of romances,since she acts on what she reads.Whatever his own conflictsmay have been,the cultural force of what Dante createdwas electrifying.For in Francesca,in hercombustible mix of vulnerability and agency,Dante establishesa paradigmwith a tenacious and enduringhold over our collectiveimagination: the femalefigure who is both powerless and strong,and who attractsour attentionwith her attempts-ultimately deadly-to negotiatethat combination.

62 Dante's treatmentof lustis relativelydesexualized in comparison,say, with Tundale's Vision (Irish, 1149), wherethe punishmentof both male and femalefornicators takes theform of an obscenepreg- nancy,or Thurkill'sVision (English, 1206), wherethe adulterersmust fornicate publicly in an infernal amphitheater;see my "Dante and Cavalcanti" fora fullerdiscussion of thisissue. 63 This commonplaceof dantistihas been embracedby feministscholars in otherdisciplines. Thus Mary-KayGamel writes:"Obviously Francesca is not a well-trainedstudent of literature.She doesn't finishthe work, she misremembersan importantdetail (Guineverekisses Lancelot, not viceversa), she is guiltyof theintentional fallacy, and herinterpretation is entirelytoo mimetic"("'This Day We Read No Further':Feminist Interpretation and the Studyof Literature,"Pacific Coast Philology22 [1987], 7-14). Similarly,Helen Soltererargues: "Women are commonlytyped as literalists-unable to pass beyondthe letter of a text.From the scores of inscribed female readers in romanceto Dante's Francesca, theyare presentedas readingpoorly, prone to misunderstanding"(The Masterand Minerva:Disputing Womenin FrenchMedieval Culture[Berkeley and Los Angeles,1995], p. 4).

Teodolinda Barolini is Lorenzo Da Ponte Professorof Italian at Columbia University (e-mail:[email protected]).

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