Subject:

Comments:
: "I need a list of all of the women that were in The Inferno." : : <marquee><font color=red size=6>THE INFERNO : Dante Alighieri</font></marquee> : : Go to: : http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/LD/numbers/numbers.html : Here, web site of the "Lectura Dantis," you'll find a number of great articles, by selecting a dated category and c on TABLE OF CONTENTS. Here is a segment of one of those articles, from THOMAS GODDARD BERGIN: : "Lectura Dantis: Inferno V" -- listed under Fall, 1987. : Mentre che l'uno spirto questo disse, : l'altro piangëa; sė che di pietade : io venni men cosė com' io morisse. : E caddi come corpo morto cade. : While the one spirit was saying this, : the other was weeping so that for pity : I swooned as if I were dying : and fell as a dead body falls. : : While our sympathetic traveler is recovering from his swoon, which incidentally permits his author to move him to the next circle without telling the reader how it is done, I should like to make one or two observations on aspects of canto V not commonly touched on by critics and commentators, who, it may be, think such matters too obvious for comment. First of all, it seems to me worth noting that Francesca is the only female in hell who has a speaking part. Indeed, there arc only sixteen females even mentioned in the course of the subterranean journey: nine are briefly catalogued in Limbo and of the remaining seven, five have their residence in Francesca's circle. Feminine representation in the higher realms is likewise scanty. If we except Beatrice __ and I think we may since she is something more than a woman __ who, admittedly, is almost excessively loquacious once we meet her in the earthly paradise, there are only three women with speaking parts in the Purgatorio and only two in the Paradiso. Throughout the Comedy, Dante seems to think of women almost exclusively in some kind of love connection. In the Purgatorio, the gentle Pia is a victim of love, and in Heaven we meet Francesca's celestial counterpart, Cunizza da Romano, serenely lodged in the appropriate sphere of Venus. A wanton in her youth as she readily and cheerfully confesses, her place among the saints dramatically illustrates a central point of doctrine: the fate of a soul in after life is determined by the condition of that soul at the moment of death. Francesca sinned only once but died in sin. Cunizza, after years of scandalous behavior, was granted further years in which to acknowledge her faults and make her peace with God. Dura lex sed lex. : That's from the Brown University "Lectura Dantis" site ... go there! Immediately! : : --Virgil--

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL: