" (Inf., IV, 55.)
In the second circle, where carnal sinners are punished, Dante sees,
among others, Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris. The
poet's attention is suddenly attracted by two spirits, who prove to be
Francesca da Rimini and her lover, Paolo, murdered by her husband when
Dante was twenty-four years old. The scandal of their illicit love and
the penalty they paid by their lives must have been so generally known
that Dante, though attached to her family by the memory of hospitality
received from her nephew, Guido Novello da Polenta, the lord of Ravenna,
is dominated by the necessity of declaring in Francesca and Paolo the
operation of the unalterable law which rules the terrible consequences
of crime unforgiven by Heaven. Was it gratitude for kindness extended to
him, an exile, by the Lord of Ravenna, or was it the memory of
association with the brother of Francesca, at the battle of Campaldino,
that led our poet to treat the whole episode of the fatal liaison with
such tender sympathy for the unfortunate lady that he hoped to
rehabilitate her memory? In any event, the poet represents himself as
gracious and benign when addressing Francesca, and she, moved by his
friendly attitude, tells the story of her intrigue, in lines justly
regarded as the most beautiful ever written in verse.
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