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Tragedy Or Romance? A Reading Of The Paolo And Francesca Episode In Dante'S Inferno

1957; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 72; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/460460

1938-1530

Renato Poggioli,

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

As every schoolboy knows, Dante classified the sins punished in the Inferno in descending order, going from transgressions caused by the abuse of our normal instincts down to the graver violations involving perfidy and malice, which both deface the nobility of the human soul and sever us from our fellow men. So, even before crossing the passage from the first to the second circle, we know that there we shall find damned souls worthy still of tears of pity. The damned of the second circle, carnal sinners, are men and women who have subjected their nobler impulses to the animal urges of the flesh. Foremost in the ranks of these stand Paolo and Francesca, and their story is in a certain sense the first truly infernal episode.