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praises (Memoir of H. F. Cary, 1847, ii. 28). Byron seems to have thought that a fragment of the Inferno, "versed like the original," would challenge comparison with Cary's rendering in blank verse, and would lend an additional interest to the "Pulci Translations, and the Dante Imitation." Dis aliter visum, and Byron's translation of the episode of Francesca of Rimini, remained unpublished till it appeared in the pages of The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, 1830, ii. 309-311. (For separate translations of the episode, see Stories of the Italian Poets, by Leigh Hunt, 1846, i. 393-395, and for a rendering in blank verse by Lord [John] Russell, see Literary Souvenir, 1830, pp. 285-287.)

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI.

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.

1. [Dante, in his Inferno (Canto V. lines 97-142), places Francesca and her lover Paolo among the lustful in the second circle of Hell. 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 (II 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 passion." A day came when the lovers were surprised together, and Gianciotto slew both his brother and his wife.]

2. ["On arrive à Ravenne en longeant une forêt de pins qui a sept lieues de long, et qui me semblait un immense bois funèbre servant d'avenue au sépulcre commun de ces deux grandes puissances. A peine y a-t-il place pour d'autres souvenirs à côté de leur mémoire. Cependant d'autres noms poétiques sont attachés à la Pineta de Ravenne. Naguère lord Byron y évoquait les fantastiques récits empruntés par Dryden à Boccace, et lui-même est maintenant une figure du passé, errante dans ce lieu mélancolique. Je songeais, en le traversant, que le chantre du désespoir avait chevauché sur cette plage lugubre, foulée avant lui par le pas grave et lent du poëte de l'Enfer.

...

FRANCESCA OF RIMINI,'

FROM THE INFERNO OF DANTE.

CANTO THE FIFTH.

"THE Land where I was born 2 sits by the Seas
Upon that shore to which the Po descends,
With all his followers, in search of peace.
Love, which the gentle heart soon apprehends,
Seized him for the fair person which was ta'en
From me, and me even yet the mode offends.

"Il suffit de jeter les yeux sur une carte pour reconnaitre l'exactitude topographique de cette dernière expression. En effet, dans toute la partie supérieure de son cours, le Po reçoit une foule d'affluents qui convergent vers son lit; ce sont le Tésin, l'Adda, l'Olio, le Mincio, la Trebbia, la Bormida, le Taro. . ."-La Grèce, Rome, et Dante ("Voyage Dantesque"), par M. J. J. Ampère, 1850, pp. 311-313.]

3 [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

with the desire to please

}

so strong,

That, as thou see'st, not yet that passion quits, etc.

You will find these readings vary from the MS. I sent you. They are

Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona,

Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,

Che, come vedi, ancor non mi abbandona.
Amor condusse noi ad una morte:

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 basso,
Finchè il Poeta mi disse: 'Che pense?'
Quando risposi, cominciai: 'O lasso!
Quanti dolci pensier, quanto disio
Menò costoro al doloroso passo !'
Poi mi rivolsi a loro, e parla' io,

E cominciai: Francesca, i tuoi martiri
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 ciò sa il tuo dottore.
Ma se a conoscer la prima radice

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Del nostro amor tu hai cotanto affetto
Farò come colui che piange e dice.

30

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.]

1. ["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.]

2. [Caïna 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.]

3. [Virgil.]

4. The sentiment is derived from Boethius: "In omni adversitate fortune infelicissimum genus est infortunii, fuisse felicem."-De Consolat. Philos. Lib. II. Prosa 4. The earlier commentators (e.g. Venturi and Biagioli), relying on a passage in the Convito (ii. 16), assume 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,

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