© 1988 by Cambridge Quarterly
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A Journey Through Hell: Dante's Inferno Revisited: Love and Courtesy – Canto V
(in which, as the two poets enter the second circle, they see Minos passing judgment on the damned souls and assigning each to its circle in Hell. He is severely put in his place by Virgil when he attempts to dissuade Dante from entering. Once in, the poets find a battering storm driving the souls before it. Dante somehow knows that they are all guilty of the sins of the flesh. Virgil tells him that they are the flower of the chivalry of the past, ranging from. Helen and Paris to Tristan and Isolde. Dante is smitten to the heart, but, instead of showing an interest in these famous figures who all died for love, asks permission to speak to an unknown pair. They come flying down to Dante's falconer's call, and agree to tell their tale. Only the woman Dante knows as Francesca speaks. Dante is filled with pain and pity but cannot restrain his desire to learn how Love presented itself to them. Francesca reveals that the critical moment came when they were reading together the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, and reached the moment of the kiss. The man, who is not named, does nothing but cry through the whole story. Dante at its climax falls down in a dead faint.)