Dante's Francesca & Paolo in Persuasion: Austen’s towering Inferno remix

In my post the other day giving my preliminary answer to my Persuasion quiz, I wrote, in relevant part:

“…I started looking at the Francesca-Paolo episode in Inferno, and a whole universe of allusion and significant thematic meaning opened up to me -- it didn’t take me long to realize that Austen's interest went far beyond a passing wink at Byron's epigraphs of Dante [in The Corsair].

And yes, indeed, the scene when Anne translating for Cousin Elliot the lyrics of the Italian song they listen to at the recital in Bath is one of several additional passages in Persuasion that I identified… which ALL point to Dante --- mostly, again, to the very famous episode of  Paolo and Francesca, the two damned lovers who whirl in the wind forever in the second circle of hell, in Inferno. And, to further confirm, JEAL notes in passing in his Memoir that while JA was fluent in French, she also had some knowledge of Italian.

I have spent hours today collecting so much probative material relating to…the allusion to Dante in Persuasion, [which] is SO huge and multi-faceted, because it also includes Chaucer's Troilus & Cressyde, Shakespeare's Troilus & Cressida, and Byron (and Leigh Hunt, surprisingly) as well -- It is spectacularly intertextual, and Jane Austen was in full command of it all.

…7-8 years ago…I argued…that there were Dantean allusions by JA in 3 letters (Letters 43, 44 & 46) that she wrote in April and August,1805….she wrote those letters shortly after the publication of an acclaimed…new translation of Inferno that came out early in 1805! I have no doubt that this is when JA's interest in Dante, if it did not already exist, exploded, and took its most elaborate and central place in JA's fiction in Persuasion.” END QUOTE FROM MY PRIOR POST

Because of the sprawling, complex intertextuality I’ve uncovered, I’ve decided not to write a detailed post at this time, and will save that for the future, after I’ve had a chance to let all the implications sink in. In the interim, I will just present the center of the circle, so to speak, of the allusion to Dante’s Divine Comedy in Austen’s Persuasion.

To start, here is the full text of Henry Cary’s 1805 translation of the Francesca/Paolo episode in Canto V of Inferno, with the lines in ALL CAPS which I claim Austen was most interested in. To briefly set the stage, the narrating pilgrim, led by Virgil (his ‘sage instructor’), has picked out one couple from among the many damned souls whirling around him in the perpetual wind of the second circle of Hell, perhaps because the pilgrim recognizes this unfortunate couple:

As you read this translation of this particular passage of Dante’s poetry, know that you’re following in the illustrious footsteps of some of the greatest artists/interpreters in history—readers like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Blake, Byron, Austen, Tennyson, and Rodin, among many others –who were inspired by this short, but endlessly fascinating Dantean passage (trust me, there have been many scholarly articles and chapters written about it, arguing to and fro about how to interpret its mysteries), to create some of their own greatest art.

So, please read and reread this short passage to get familiar with it, and, for brief real-life context for Francesca da Rimini, read here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_da_Rimini  and then I’ll be back at the end of this passage with the passages in Persuasion which I claim point to it:

When I had heard my sage instructor name
Those dames and knights of antique days, o'erpower'd
By pity, well-nigh in amaze my mind
Was lost; and I began: "Bard! willingly
I would address those two together coming,
Which seem so light before the wind."  He thus:
"Note thou, when nearer they to us approach.

"Then by that love which carries them along,
Entreat; and they will come."  Soon as the wind
Sway'd them toward us, I thus fram'd my speech:
"O wearied spirits! come, and hold discourse
With us, if by none else restrain'd."  As doves
By fond desire invited, on wide wings
And firm, to their sweet nest returning home,
Cleave the air, wafted by their will along;
Thus issu'd from that troop, where Dido ranks,
They through the ill air speeding; with such force
My cry prevail'd by strong affection urg'd.

"O gracious creature and benign! who go'st
Visiting, through this element obscure,
Us, who the world with bloody stain imbru'd;
If for a friend the King of all we own'd,
Our pray'r to him should for thy peace arise,
Since thou hast pity on our evil plight.
Of whatsoe'er to hear or to discourse
It pleases thee, that will we hear, of that
Freely with thee discourse, while e'er the wind,
As now, is mute.  The land, that gave me birth,
Is situate on the coast, where Po descends
To rest in ocean with his sequent streams.

"Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt,
Entangled him by that fair form, from me
Ta'en in such cruel sort, as grieves me still:
Love, that denial takes from none belov'd,
Caught me with pleasing him so passing well,
That, as thou see'st, he yet deserts me not.

"Love brought us to one death: Caina waits
The soul, who spilt our life."  Such were their words;
At hearing which downward I bent my looks,
And held them there so long, that the bard cried:
"What art thou pond'ring?"  I in answer thus:
"Alas! by what sweet thoughts, what fond desire
Must they at length to that ill pass have reach'd!"

Then turning, I to them my speech address'd.
And thus began: "Francesca! your sad fate
Even to tears my grief and pity moves.
But tell me; in the time of your sweet sighs,
By what, and how love granted, that ye knew
Your yet uncertain wishes?"  She replied:

“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.  One day
For our delight we read of Lancelot,
How him love thrall'd.  Alone we were, and no
Suspicion near us.  Ofttimes by that reading
Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue
Fled from our alter'd cheek.  But at one point
Alone we fell.  When of that smile we read,
The wished smile, rapturously kiss'd
By one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er
From me shall separate, at once my lips
All trembling kiss'd.  THE BOOK AND WRITER BOTH
WERE LOVE’S PURVEYORS.  In its leaves that day
We read no more."  While thus one spirit spake,
The other wail'd so sorely, that heartstruck
I THROUGH COMPASSION FAINTING, SEEM’D NOT FAR
FROM DEATH, AND LIKE A CORPSE FELL TO THE GROUND.

And now, without further explanation (because it would go on for pages and pages), I will simply give you those same passages in Persuasion which I presented in my Quiz, but this time with the verbiage in ALL CAPS which I claim points back to Dante’s Francesca and Paolo. I will be back one last time at the end of these Persuasion quotations, with a few final comments:

Ch. 6: Anne had not wanted this visit to Uppercross, to learn that a removal from one set of people to another, though at a distance of only three miles, will often include a total change of conversation, opinion, and idea. She had never been staying there before, without being struck by it, or without wishing that other Elliots could have her advantage in seeing how unknown, or unconsidered there, were the affairs which at Kellynch Hall were treated as of such general publicity and pervading interest; yet, with all this experience, she believed she must now submit to feel that another lesson, in THE ART OF KNOWING OUR OWN NOTHINGNESS BEYOND OUR OWN CIRCLE, was become necessary for her; for certainly, coming as she did, with a heart full of the subject which had been completely occupying both houses in Kellynch for many weeks, she had expected rather more curiosity and sympathy than she found in the separate but very similar remark of Mr and Mrs Musgrove.

Ch. 8: From this time Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot were REPEATEDLY IN THE SAME CIRCLE. They were soon dining in company together at Mr Musgrove's, for the little boy's state could no longer supply his aunt with a pretence for absenting herself; and this was but the beginning of other dinings and other meetings.

Whether former feelings were to be renewed must be brought to the proof; former times must undoubtedly be brought to the recollection of each; they could not but be reverted to; the year of their engagement could not but be named by him, in the little narratives or descriptions which conversation called forth. His profession qualified him, his disposition lead him, to talk; and "That was in the year six;" "That happened before I went to sea in the year six," occurred in the course of the first evening they spent together: and though his voice did not falter, and though she had no reason to suppose his eye wandering towards her while he spoke, ANNE FELT THE UTTER IMPOSSIBILITY, FROM HER KNOWLEDGE OF HIS MIND, THAT HE COULD BE UNVISITED BY REMEMBRANCE ANY MORE THAN HERSELF. THERE MUST BE THE SAME IMMEDIATE ASSOCIATION OF THOUGHT, THOUGH SHE WAS VERY FAR FROM CONCEIVING IT TO BE OF EQUAL PAIN.

They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the commonest civility required. Once so much to each other! Now nothing! There had been a time, when of all the large party now filling the drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it most difficult to cease to speak to one another. With the exception, perhaps, of Admiral and Mrs Croft, who seemed particularly attached and happy, (Anne could allow no other exceptions even among the married couples), there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

Ch.11: [Benwick] was evidently a young man of considerable taste in reading, though principally in poetry; and besides the persuasion of having given him at least an evening's indulgence in the discussion of subjects, which his usual companions had probably no concern in, she had the hope of being of real use to him in some suggestions as to the duty and benefit of struggling against affliction, which had naturally grown out of their conversation. For, though shy, he did not seem reserved; it had rather the appearance of feelings glad to burst their usual restraints; and having talked of poetry, the richness of the present age, and gone through a brief comparison of opinion as to the first-rate poets, trying to ascertain whether Marmion or The Lady of the Lake were to be preferred, and HOW RANKED THE GIAOUR and The Bride of Abydos; and moreover, HOW THE GIAOUR WAS TO BE PRONOUNCED, he showed himself so intimately acquainted with all the tenderest songs of the one poet, and all the impassioned descriptions of hopeless agony of the other; he repeated, with such tremulous feeling, the various lines which imaged a broken heart, or a mind destroyed by wretchedness, and looked so entirely as if he meant to be understood, that SHE VENTURED TO HOPE HE DID NOT ALWAYS READ ONLY POETRY, AND TO SAY, THAT SHE THOUGHT IT WAS THE MISFORTUNE OF POETRY TO BE SELDOM SAFELY ENJOYED BY THOSE WHO ENJOYED IT COMPLETELY; AND THAT THE STRONG FEELINGS WHICH ALONE COULD ESTIMATE IT TRULY WERE THE FEELINGS WHICH OUGHT TO TASTE IT BUT SPARINGLY.

Ch. 12:  [At Lyme, Anne] was looking remarkably well; her very regular, very pretty features, having the bloom and freshness of youth RESTORED BY THE FINE WIND WHICH HAD BEEN BLOWING ON HER COMPLEXION, and by the animation of eye which it had also produced.

…THERE WAS TOO MUCH WIND TO MAKE THE HIGH PART OF THE NEW COBB PLEASANT FOR THE LADIES, and they agreed to get down the steps to the lower, and all were contented to pass quietly and carefully down the steep flight, excepting Louisa; she must be jumped down them by Captain Wentworth…. [Louisa] smiled and said, "I am determined I will:" he put out his hands; she was too precipitate by half a second, she fell on the pavement on the Lower Cobb, and WAS TAKEN UP LIFELESS! THERE WAS NO WOUND, NO BLOOD, NO VISIBLE BRUISE; BUT HER EYES WERE CLOSED, SHE BREATHED NOT, HER FACE WAS LIKE DEATH. THE HORROR OF THE MOMENT TO ALL WHO STOOD AROUND!

Ch. 13: …he was the last, excepting the little boys at the cottage, she was the very last, the only remaining one of all that had filled and animated both houses, of all that had given Uppercross its cheerful character. A few days had made a change indeed!

If Louisa recovered, it would all be well again. MORE THAN FORMER HAPPINESS WOULD BE RESTORED. There could not be a doubt, to her mind there was none, of what would follow her recovery. A FEW MONTHS HENCE, and the room now so deserted, occupied but by her silent, pensive self, MIGHT BE FILLED AGAIN WITH ALL THAT WAS HAPPY AND GAY, ALL THAT WAS GLOWING AND BRIGHT IN PROSPEROUS LOVE, all that was most unlike Anne Elliot!

An hour's complete leisure for such reflections as these, on a dark November day, a small thick rain almost blotting out the very few objects ever to be discerned from the windows, was enough to make the sound of Lady Russell's carriage exceedingly welcome; and yet, though desirous to be gone, she could not quit the Mansion House, or look an adieu to the Cottage, with its black, dripping and comfortless veranda, or even notice through the misty glasses the last humble tenements of the village, without a saddened heart. SCENES WHICH HAD PASSED IN UPPERCROSS WHICH MADE IT PRECIOUS. IT STOOD THE RECORD OF MANY SENSATIONS OF PAIN, ONCE SEVERE, BUT NOW SOFTENED; AND OF SOME INSTANCES OF RELENTING FEELING, SOME BREATHINGS OF FRIENDSHIP AND RECONCILIATION, BUT COULD NEVER BE LOOKED FOR AGAIN, AND WHICH COULD NEVER CEASE TO BE DEAR. SHE LEFT IT ALL BEHIND HER, ALL BUT THE RECOLLECTION THAT SUCH THINGS HAD BEEN.

Anne had never entered Kellynch since her quitting Lady Russell's house in September. It had not been necessary, and the few occasions of its being possible for her to go to the Hall she had contrived to evade and escape from. Her first return was to resume her place in the modern and elegant apartments of the Lodge, and to gladden the eyes of its mistress.

 …Anne, amused in spite of herself, was rather distressed for an answer, and the Admiral, fearing he might not have been civil enough, took up the subject again, to say--

"The next time you write to your good father, Miss Elliot, pray give him my compliments and Mrs Croft's, and say that we are settled here quite to our liking, and have no fault at all to find with the place. The breakfast-room chimney smokes a little, I grant you, but it is only WHEN THE WIND IS DUE NORTH AND BLOWS HARD, which may not happen three times a winter. And take it altogether, now that we have been into most of the houses hereabouts and can judge, there is not one that we like better than this. Pray say so, with my compliments. He will be glad to hear it."

Ch. 18: How do you like Bath, Miss Elliot? It suits us very well. We are always meeting with some old friend or other; the streets full of them every morning; sure to have plenty of chat; and then we get away from them all, and shut ourselves in our lodgings, and draw in our chairs, and are as snug as if we were at Kellynch, ay, or as we used to be even at North Yarmouth and Deal. We do not like our lodgings here the worse, I can tell you, for putting us in mind of those we first had at North Yarmouth. THE WIND BLOWS THROUGH one of the cupboards just in the same way."

Ch. 20: "I should very much like to see Lyme again," said Anne.

"Indeed! I should not have supposed that you could have found anything in Lyme to inspire such a feeling. The horror and distress you were involved in, the stretch of mind, the wear of spirits! I should have thought your last impressions of Lyme must have been strong disgust."

“THE LAST HOURS WERE CERTAINLY VRY PAINFUL,” REPLIED ANNE; “BUT WHEN PAIN IS OVER, THE REMEMBRANCE OF IT BECOMES A PLEASURE. ONE DOES NOT LOVE A PLACE LESS FOR HAVING SUFFERED IN IT, UNLESS IT HAS BEEN ALL SUFFERING, WHICH WAS BY NO MEANS THE CASE AT LYME. WE WERE ONLY IN ANXIETY AND DISTRESS DURING THE LAST TWO HOURS, AND PREVIOUSLY THERE HAD BEEN A GREAT DEAL OF ENJOYMENT. So much novelty and beauty! I have travelled so little, that every fresh place would be interesting to me; but there is real beauty at Lyme; and in short" (with a faint blush at some recollections), "altogether my impressions of the place are very agreeable."

….Anne's mind was in a most favourable state for the entertainment of the evening; it was just occupation enough: she had feelings for the tender, spirits for the gay, attention for the scientific, and patience for the wearisome; and had never liked a concert better, at least during the first act.

TOWARDS THE CLOSE OF IT, IN THE INTERVL SUCCEEDING AN ITALIAN SONG, SHE EXPLAINED THE WORDS OF THE SONG TO MR. ELLIOT. They had a concert bill between them.

“THIS,” SAID SHE, “IS NEARLY THE SENSE, OR RATHER THE MEANING OF THE WORDS, FOR CERTAINLY THE SENSE OF AN ITALIAN LOVE-SONG MUST NOT BE TALKED OF, BUT IT IS AS NEARLY  THE MEANING AS I CAN GIVE; FOR I DO NOT PRETEND TO UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE. I AM A VERY POOR ITALIAN SCHOLAR.”

“YES, YES, I SEE YOU ARE. I SEE YOU KNOW NOTHING OF THE MATTER. YOU HAVE ONLY KNOWLEDGE ENOUGH OF THE LANGUAGE TO TRANSLATE AT SIGHT THESE INVERTED, TRANSPOSED, CURTAILED ITALIAN LINES, INTO CLEAR, COMPREHENSIBLE, ELEGANT ENGLISH. You need not say anything more of your ignorance. Here is complete proof."

"I will not oppose such kind politeness; but I SHOULD BE SORRY TO BE EXAMINED BY A REAL PROFICIENT.”

Ch. 23:  …The party before her were, Mrs Musgrove, talking to Mrs Croft, and Captain Harville to Captain Wentworth; and she immediately heard that Mary and Henrietta, too impatient to wait, had gone out the moment it had cleared, but would be back again soon, and that the strictest injunctions had been left with Mrs Musgrove to keep her there till they returned. She had only to submit, sit down, be outwardly composed, and FEEL HERSELF PLUNGED AT ONCE IN ALL THE AGITATIONS WHICH SHE HAD MERELY LAID HER ACCOUNT OF TASTING A LITTLE BEFORE THE MORNING CLOSED. There was no delay, no waste of time. SHE WAS DEEP IN THE HAPPINESS OF SUCH MISERY, OR THE MISERY OF SUCH HAPPINESS, INSTANTLY.

…soon words enough had passed between them to decide their direction towards the comparatively quiet and retired gravel walk, where the power of conversation WOULD MAKE THE PRESENT HOUR A BLESSING INDEED, AND PREPARE IT FOR ALL THE IMMORTALITY WHICH THE HAPPIEST RECOLLECTIONS OF THEIR OWN FUTURE LIVES COULD BESTOW. There they exchanged again those feelings and those promises which had once before seemed to secure everything, but which had been followed by so many, many years of division and estrangement. THERE THEY RETURNED AGAIN INTO THE PAST, MORE EXQUISITELY HAPPY, PERHAPS, IN THEIR RE-UNION, THAN WHEN IT HAD FIRST BEEN PROJECTED;  more tender, more tried, more fixed in a knowledge of each other's character, truth, and attachment; more equal to act, more justified in acting. AND THERE, AS THEY SLOWLY PACED THE GRADUAL ASCENT, HEEDLESS OF EVERY GROUP AROUND THEM, SEEING NEITHER SAUNTERING POLITICIANS, BUSTLING HOUSEKEEPERS, FLIRTING GIRLS, nor nursery-maids and children, THEY COULD INDULGE IN THOSE RETROSPECTIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, AND ESPECIALLY IN THOSE EXPLANATIONS OF WHAT HAD DIRECTLY PRECEDED THE PRESENT MOMENT, WHICH WERE SO POIGNANT AND SO CEASELESS IN INTEREST. All the little variations of the last week were gone through; and of yesterday and today there could scarcely be an end.

She had not mistaken him. JEALOUSY OF MR. ELLIOT HAD BEEN THE RETARDING WEIGHT, THE DOUBT, THE TORMENT…

Anyone very familiar with the story of Persuasion does not need more than that to begin to appreciate how deeply and densely Jane Austen wove the short tragic tale of Franesca and Paolo into the thematic fabric of Persuasion.

And there I will stop, with the caveat that there are other passages in The Divine Comedy which Jane Austen also pointed to in Persuasion (and also in several of her other novels), which are a topic, as I said, for the future. In the meanwhile, I very much want to hear your reactions to any or all of the above!

Cheers, ARNIE

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