: now although he was wise and prudent yet was he a coarse man [rustico uomo; this does not mean that he was coarse in his manners, but in his person, being deformed, and hence came his name, Gianciotto, which is Giovanni ciotto, ciotto being equivalent to zoppo, lame]. Now Madonna Francesca was surpassingly fair, so much so that it was said to Messer Guido You have badly matched this your daughter; she is beautiful, and of a lofty spirit; she will never remain contented with Gianciotto.' Messer Guido, who esteemed wisdom far more highly than beauty, resolved all the same that the wedding should take place; and in order that it might be so managed, that the noble lady should not refuse to accept the husband selected for her, he made Paolo come to espouse her [as proxy] for his brother Gianciotto ; and thus she, thinking to have married Paolo, married Gianciotto. And true is it that before she was espoused, and Paolo being one day at the Court, handmaiden of Madonna Francesca pointed him out to her and said: 'That is your intended husband.' She (Francesca) seeing how handsome he was, fell in love with him and was happy in it. But when the marriage had taken place, and she found herself that night by the side of Gianciotto and not of Paolo, as * Boccaccio declares that Francesca only discovered the fraud that had been practised upon her on the morning after the nuptials. Scartazzini thinks this to be a pure fiction, and that it is much more probable that Paolo was already married; and besides, Dante would have been certain, if this story had been true, not to have omitted to mention a circumstance that would so greatly have palliated Francesca's fault. she had expected, she was ill-pleased. She perceived that she had been taken in; and she would not lay aside the love she had given to Paolo; whereupon Paolo, seeing himself loved by her, although at first it was repugnant to him to do so, let himself go easily to return her love. It so happened that about this time, they were so in love with one another that Gianciotto went away on public business, which departure of his greatly raised their hopes; and thus their love increased so much that, being in complete privacy in a room, and reading from a book of Lancelot . . . . they ended by yielding to their desires. And continuing so to do on various occasions, a retainer of Gianciotto remarked it; and wrote and told Gianciotto about it, on account of which Gianciotto having returned home, and having one day lain in wait for them, he surprised them in a room which had another communicating with it underneath; and Paolo would certainly have escaped, had not a link in the hauberk he was wearing caught on the point of a nail in the trap-door, and he in this way remained hanging. Gianciotto rushed at him with a halberd, the lady ran in between them, so that Gianciotto, as he brought down his weapon, thinking to strike him, struck his wife and killed her; and then in like manner he killed Paolo at the spot where he was hanging." Scartazzini here remarks, that Boccaccio asserts that he had several intimate conversations on this subject with a worthy person named Ser Piero di Messer Giardino da Ravenna, who was one of the most intimate friends and servants whom Dante had at Ravenna, and he adds that, when Gianciotto had killed his wife and his brother, he returned to his business, and that the two unhappy lovers were the next day interred in one tomb. (b) At the time when my father was preparing his great folio edition (Inferno di Dante Alighieri, da G. G. Warren Lord Vernon, Londra, 1858-1865), the celebrated composer Giovacchino Rossini, who was a personal friend of his, sent him as a contribution to his work, the following composition, in which he has set to music the words of Francesca da Rimini in l. 127-138 of Canto v. The beautiful and plaintive melody is worthy indeed of the subject. In completing Lord Vernon's work for the press after his death, Sir James Lacaita wrote opposite this music in the Album Volume (vol. iii, p. 83): "Il celebre Maestro si degnò di aggiunger pregio all' Album, con questo bellissimo componimento, che esprime con malinconiche note il luogo della Divina Commedia, che spira maggiore affetto. Di questa degnazione Lord Vernon sentì tutto il pregio, e ne fu riconoscentissimo all' insigne Creatore de' capolavori, che continueranno a commuovere gli uomini, finchè scintilla di civiltà rimanga nel mondo." |