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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Classical Maxims in Francesca's Speech (Inferno V): Virgil, Ovid, Boethius

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We are identifying the 'classical maxims' referred to by D. Glenn in "Legger d'amore" -- proceedings of a conference at Rimini, p. 33): "[Francesca's] speech [in Dante's Inferno V] contains maxims drawn from classical literature [...]
-- Virgil
-- Ovid
-- Boethius"

 
Francesca:

"No greater grief than to remember days
Of joy, when mis'ry is at hand! That kens
Thy learn'd instructor. Yet so eagerly
If thou art bent to know the primal root,
From whence our love gat being, ---> I will do,
---> As one, who weeps and tells his tale.


"Nessun maggior dolore
che ricordarsi del tempo felice
ne la miseria; e ciò sa 'l tuo dottore.

Ma s’a conoscer la prima radice
del nostro amor tu hai cotanto affetto,
--> dirò --> come colui che PIANGE e dice.


VIRGIL [L. S.]:

Infandum, regina, iubes renovare dolorem,
Troianas ut opes et lamentabile regnum
eruerint Danai; quaeque ipse miserrima vidi,
et quorum pars magna fui. Quis talia fando
Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Ulixi
temperet a lacrimis? Et iam nox umida caelo
praecipitat, suadentque cadentia sidera somnos.

----Sed si tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros
et breviter Troiae supremum audire laborem,
quamquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit,
incipiam.


Tr.:
"But O! in telling, [who] could the tears restrain?"
"... if thy heart yearn to hear in brief of all our evil days
..., although the memory makes my soul shudder and recoil in pain,
I will essay it."

[No one] "... could hear ... nor ... tell without a tear."
Or: "But, since you take such int'rest in our woe,
... I will restrain my tears, and briefly tell
What in our last and fatal night befell."


The ref. to Boezio ("Nam in omni aduersitate fortunae infelicissimum est genus infortunii fuisse felicem" ---
 
Further expansions: ‘For in alle adversities of fortune the most unzeely kynde of contrarious fortune is to han ben weleful’ (II, pr. 4 noted by Windeatt 1984, 331). (Severino Boezio, tr. Chaucer). Windeatt, designating the notion ‘proverbial,’ notes another possible parallel, quoting lines from Dante Inferno V: ‘nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice nella miseria’ (V, 121-3) (there is no greater pain than to recall the happy time in misery). The full significance of this Dantean parallel can only be sensed if we recall that those are the words of Francesca, who tells how she committed adultery with her husband’s brother after reading with him about Lancelot and Guinevere’s first kiss. That moment of physical passion and ‘bliss’ has brought them to everlasting torment. Boezio, dottore di Dante -- FRANCESCA. Inf. C. 5. fa che Francesca da Rimini chiami Severino Boezio Dottòre di Dante.

Francesca, Dante, Severino Boezio. In bocca a Francesca Dante pone un concetto che deriva da Severino Boezio: quando si è infelici è terribile il ricordo della felicità.
"No greater grief than to remember days of joy, when misery is at hand" -- that kens thy learned instructor. When mistery is at hand, there is no greater grief than to remember days of joy. Of all suffering from fortune, the unhappiest misfortune is to have known a happy fortune (Severino Boezio).

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