CANTO V.

beautiful' (who was a widower, though a very juvenile one, when he first saw Francesca) had a son whom his uncle, Scanatus, was suspected of an intention to murder, in order to prevent his avenging his father's death. But the boy escaped, and, in turn, conspired against his uncle. Plots and counter-plots succeeded between the son and the slayer of 'Paul the beautiful;' nor did the nephew ever cease from roving, until the demise of Scanatus, in 1304, permitted him to return home. The palace in Rimini is still pointed out, where the unfortunate lovers are said to have been sacrificed; and they were certainly buried in the Augustine Church in that town; for their bodies were found there three hundred years afterwards, when the silk mantles in which they were wrapt up appeared still quite fresh and brilliant: but some pretend that their slaughter took place at Pesaro, where Scanatus had a castle, from the tower of which their bodies were flung into the sea; although they were soon piously picked up and conveyed to Rimini for interment (1).

If this account be correct (and, I believe, no ques

(1) Clementini, Bacc. Ist. di Rimini. This difference as to whether they were killed at Pesaro, or Rimini, as well as another with regard to the date (for some postpone it as late as 1296, but evidently erroneously), proves there was much mystery endeavoured to be thrown over the whole catastrophe: and as it was clearly the interest of the Malatesti to blacken Francesca's fame, and scarcely of her own family, who had so sacrificed her, to defend it, it is no wonder she was mal-treated by the chroniclers of both Rimini and Ravenna.

ses,

CANTO Y.

tion but it is) the imputation against all the three is much diminished; and not only the luckless lady and her paramour, but even their slayer is to be held still more unfortunate than guilty: so that he, on whom the heaviest load of culpability presis the miserable father, Polenta. He however was Dante's intimate friend, and his repentance was so severe, that, it is likely, his state of mind rather challenged commiseration, than reproach: besides, it is Francesca herself that is about to speak, and what daughter shall ever be made reproach her parents? On recapitulating all the cir cumstances I dare say it will be thought, that, as a display of poetic judgment (in awaking the fullest sympathy for sufferers, without a single reference to the most hateful truths of the tale) nothing can be more perfect than this episode: but as to its pretensions to the grand qualities of composition, I am completely of the opinion of those, who ridicule the vulgar notion of its meriting any thing like the first rank in the Divine Comedy; and who aver that, if Oltremontani are more profuse than any Italian in extolling its beauties, it is not because they appreciate them better than a well educated Italian, but because they are ignorant of the numerous beauties of a vastly superior order, with which Italians are familiar in the Purgatory and Paradise -two canticles, that contain a quantity of poetry incomparably finer, than any thing to be found in this one of Hell (1).

(1) I have said nothing of Peter, or Jacob Alighieri in this Article;

To those readers of the Histoire Littéraire d'Italie who have also perused the late Parisian edition of the Divine Comedy, it will not be necessary to justify a variation from the French version, since a far better authority than mine has already assured them, that it is impossible for words to express the vast portion of elegance and suavity' of which M. Ginguené has stripped his original (1): but by such of the above readers as do not possess a thorough knowledge of Dante in his native tongue, I may be accused of great inaccuracy, unless I make it appear that the Critic has been guilty of various mis-interpretations; in noticing which I am guided not certainly by a desire to blame him, but to vindicate myself. In the present passage he translates per quell'amor ch'ei mena, au nom de cet amour qui les conduit; as if mena was here simply synonimous with conduce, which it is not. The verb menare is given in the Vocabulary nearly 40 significations, many of which convey sense of infliction; it often means percuotere, for which several authorities are cited, as they struck each other with such fury that they both died'. The context (but parti

6

because neither of them seem to have known much about either Francesca, or Paul the beautiful'. So, in this instance, their comments are meagre and most unsatisfactory.

(1) Il Sig. Ginguené ha tradotto questo luogo per intero; ma di quanta grazia e soavità l'abbia scemato non si può dire. Biagioli. Comento, Vol. 1. p. 108.

CANTO V.

culary what follows) proves sufficiently, that it is in this latter sense that mena is here employed; and its union with the word amor, and the manner of its introduction produce a very complex imagery, which no two or three words in either English or French can render(1). It is indeed the beginning of an exquisite counterpoise of pain and pleasure, which confers the chief charm on the whole of this episode; and makes the agony of severe sufferings, with the despairing reflection that they were produced by one beloved, and that they shall never end, be in continual contest with the consolatory circumstance of suffering in company with that beloved one, of finding him a faithful companion even in such extreme of misery, and the certainty that he will continue to remain so throughout all eternity. If this complexity of feel. ings (which is beyond doubt implied by the text, amor ch' ei mena, and nowise retained by amour qui les conduit) be tolerably well suggested by my 'undying fondness which drew them to their ruin and of which they shall never be rid,' I believe small apology is requisite for the slight paraphrase. It is the author's thought that is the first object; hence it may sometimes occur, that a translator's mere verbal exactitude is of little moment, since the implied meaning may evaporate in spite of rigo

(1) Sì inimichivolmente si menarono che amendue rimasero morti. Vocabolario, §. II. Mr. Cary's " love which carries them along "is as deficient as the French version.

CANTO V.

rous, literal fidelity. Desio, V. LXXXII. means the desire of parent-doves to return to their young, not sexual desire; which last were at least an illassorted idea on this occasion, and one very little in the spirit of Dante. For the pair of doves are to be supposed flying together, as Paul and Francesca are; and there therefore can be no reason why they should burn with desire to return to their nest, if it was only to coo and bill, an indulgence that might be gratified any where. I have thought it necessary in my translation to mark this peculiar signification; fearing that if I had construed desio quite literally desire, my readers might be led into error, since desire in English frequently awakens a less pure notion than desio in Italian: and I was the more engaged to make this remark, by M. Ginguené's French, which (at least in my apprehension) incurs something of the mistake adverted to, by rendering desio, désir, telle que deux colombes excitées par le désir (1). L'affettuoso grido in verse LXXXVII, ('my dear behest') alludes to amor ch'ei mena (their mutual love, by which they had been conjured); for Dante following Virgil's direction is to be understood as having repeated those words of conjuration, although the repetition is not made verbally in the text; and it is only after having repeated them that he adds, O anime affanate! ('Yea! victims!') It is not then

(1) Mr. Cary's" by fond desire invited " is less exceptionable; yet, in as much as it may be referred to sexual desire, it is wrong.