The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 52

To be thus kissed by such devoted lover,[cs]

He, who from me can be divided ne'er, Kissed my mouth, trembling in the act all over: 40 Accursed was the book and he who wrote![356]

That day no further leaf we did uncover.'

While thus one Spirit told us of their lot, The other wept, so that with Pity's thralls I swooned, as if by Death I had been smote,[357]

And fell down even as a dead body falls."[358]

_March_ 20, 1820.

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI.

DANTE, L'INFERNO.

CANTO QUINTO.

'Siede la terra dove nata fui Sulla marina, dove il Po discende Per aver pace co' seguaci sui.

Amor, che al cor gentil ratto s'apprende, Prese costui della bella persona Che mi fu tolta, e il modo ancor m' offende.

Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona, Mi prese del costui piacer si forte, Che, come vedi, ancor non mi abbandona.

Amor condusse noi ad una morte: 10 Caino attende chi vita ci spense.'

Queste parole da lor ci fur porte.

Da che io intesi quelle anime offense Chinai 'l viso, e tanto il tenni ba.s.so, Finche il Poeta mi disse: 'Che pense?'

Quando risposi, cominciai: 'O la.s.so!

Quanti dolci pensier, quanto disio Men costoro al doloroso pa.s.so!'

Poi mi rivolsi a loro, e parla' io, E cominciai: 'Francesca, i tuoi martiri 20 A lagrimar mi fanno tristo e pio.

Ma dimmi: al tempo de' dolci sospiri A che e come concedette Amore, Che conoscesti i dubbiosi desiri?'

Ed ella a me: 'Nessun maggior dolore Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria; e ci sa il tuo dottore.

Ma se a conoscer la prima radice Del nostro amor tu hai cotanto affetto Far come colui che piange e dice. 30 Noi leggevamo un giorno per diletto Di Lancelotto, come Amor lo strinse: Soli eravamo, e senza alcun sospetto.

Per piu fiate gli occhi ci sospinse Quella lettura, e scolorocci il viso: Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse.

Quando leggemmo il disiato riso Esser baciato da cotanto amante, Questi, che mai da me non fia diviso, La bocca mi baci tutto tremante: 40 Galeotto fu il libro, e chi lo scrisse-- Quel giorno piu non vi leggemmo avante Mentre che l'uno spirto questo disse, L'altro piangeva s che di pietade Io venni meno cos com' io morisse; E caddi, come corpo morto cade.

FOOTNOTES:

[348] {317}[Dante, in his _Inferno_ (Canto V. lines 97-142), places Francesca and her lover Paolo among the l.u.s.tful in the second circle of h.e.l.l. Francesca, daughter of Guido Vecchio da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna, married (circ. 1275) Gianciotto, second son of Malatesta da Verrucchio, Lord of Rimini. According to Boccaccio (_Il Comento sopra la Commedia_, 1863, i. 476, _sq._), Gianciotto was "hideously deformed in countenance and figure," and determined to woo and marry Francesca by proxy. He accordingly "sent, as his representative, his younger brother Paolo, the handsomest and most accomplished man in all Italy. Francesca saw Paolo arrive, and imagined she beheld her future husband. That mistake was the commencement of her pa.s.sion." A day came when the lovers were surprised together, and Gianciotto slew both his brother and his wife.]

[349] ["On arrive a Ravenne en longeant une foret de pins qui a sept lieues de long, et qui me semblait un immense bois funebre servant d'avenue au sepulcre commun de ces deux grandes puissances. A peine y a-t-il place pour d'autres souvenirs a cote de leur memoire. Cependant d'autres noms poetiques sont attaches a la Pineta de Ravenne. Naguere lord Byron y evoquait les fantastiques recits empruntes par Dryden a Boccace, et lui-meme est maintenant une figure du pa.s.se, errante dans ce lieu melancolique. Je songeais, en le traversant, que le chantre du desespoir avait chevauche sur cette plage lugubre, foulee avant lui par le pas grave et lent du poete de _l'Enfer_....

"Il suffit de jeter les yeux sur une carte pour reconnaitre l'exact.i.tude topographique de cette derniere expression. En effet, dans toute la partie superieure de son cours, le Po recoit une foule d'affluents qui convergent vers son lit; ce sont le Tesin, l'Adda, l'Olio, le Mincio, la Trebbia, la Bormida, le Taro...."--_La Grece, Rome, et Dante_ ("Voyage Dantesque"), par M. J. J. Ampere, 1850, pp. 311-313.]

[350] [The meaning is that she was despoiled of her beauty by death, and that the manner of her death excites her indignation still. "Among Lord Byron's unpublished letters we find the following varied readings of the translation from Dante:--

Seized him for the fair person, which in its Bloom was ta'en from me, yet the mode offends.

_or_, Seized him for the fair form, of which in its Bloom I was reft, and yet the mode offends.

Love, which to none beloved to love remits, / with mutual wish to please Seized me < with="" wish="" of="" pleasing="" him=""> so strong, with the desire to please / That, as thou see'st, not yet that pa.s.sion quits, etc.

You will find these readings vary from the MS. I sent you. They are closer, but rougher: take which is liked best; or, if you like, print them as variations. They are all close to the text."--_Works of Lord Byron_, 1832, xii. 5, note 2.]

[351] {319}["The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man."--S. T. Coleridge, _Table Talk_, July 23, 1827.]

[352] [Cana is the first belt of Cocytus, that is, circle ix. of the Inferno, in which fratricides and betrayers of their kindred are immersed up to the neck.]

[353] [Virgil.]

[co] {319}

_Is to recall to mind our happy days_.

_In misery, and this thy teacher knows_.--[MS.]

[354] [The sentiment is derived from Boethius: "_In omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum genus est infortunii, fuisse felicem_."--_De Consolat. Philos. Lib. II. Prosa_ 4. The earlier commentators (_e.g._ Venturi and Biagioli), relying on a pa.s.sage in the _Convito_ (ii. 16), a.s.sume that the "teacher" (line 27) is the author of the sentence, but later authorities point out that "mio dottore" can only apply to Virgil (v. 70), who then and there in the world of shades was suffering the bitter experience of having "known better days." Compare--

"For of fortunes sharp adversitee The worst kinde of infortune is this, A man to have ben in prosperitee, And it remembren whan it pa.s.sed is."

_Troilus and Criseyde_, Bk. III. stanza ccx.x.xiii. lines 1-4.

"E perche rimembrare il ben perduto Fa piu meschino lo stato presente."

Fortiguerra's _Ricciardetto_, Canto XI. stanza lx.x.xiii.

Compare, too--

"A sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things."

Tennyson's _Locksley Hall_.]

[cp] _I will relate as he who weeps and says_.--[MS.] (The sense is, _I will do even as one who relates while weeping_.)

[355] [Byron affixed the following note to line 126 of the Italian: "In some of the editions it is 'dir,' in others 'faro;'--an essential difference between 'saying' and 'doing' which I know not how to decide--Ask Foscolo--the d.a.m.ned editions drive me mad." In _La Divina Commedia_, Firenze, 1892, and the _Opere de Dante_, Oxford, 1897, the reading is _faro_.]

[cq] {321} ----_wholly overthrew_.--[MS.]

[cr] _When we read the desired-for smile of her_. [MS, Alternative reading.]

[cs]--_by such a fervent lover_.--[MS.]

[356] ["A Gallehault was the book and he who wrote it" (A. J. Butler).

"Writer and book were Gallehault to our will" (E. J. Plumptre). The book which the lovers were reading is ent.i.tled _L'Ill.u.s.tre et Famosa Historia di Lancilotto del Lago_. The "one point" of the original runs thus: "Et la reina ... lo piglia per il mento, et lo bacia davanti a Gallehault, a.s.sai lungamente."--Venice, 1558, _Lib. Prim_. cap. lxvi. vol. i. p.

229. The Gallehault of the _Lancilotto_, the shameless "purveyor," must not be confounded with the stainless Galahad of the _Morte d'Arthur_.']

[357] [Dante was in his twentieth, or twenty-first year when the tragedy of Francesca and Paolo was enacted, not at Rimini, but at Pesaro. Some acquaintance he may have had with her, through his friend Guido (not her father, but probably her nephew), enough to account for the peculiar emotion caused by her sanguinary doom.]

[358]

Alternative Versions Transcribed by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley.

_March_ 20, 1820.