Francesca da Rimini

Though Paolo, too, was married, they managed to carry on an affair for some ten years, until Giovanni ultimately surprised them in Francesca's bedroom some time between 1283 and 1286, killing them both.

[3][4] Francesca appears as a character in Dante's Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy, where she is the first soul damned in Hell proper to be given a substantive speaking role.

[6] In Inferno 5, Dante and Virgil meet Francesca and her lover Paolo in the second circle of hell, reserved for the lustful.

She first introduces herself not by name, but by the city in which she was born; Francesca's self-association with the land implies a voluntary detachment from her personhood and a self-objectification.

Francesca and Paolo's relationship began innocently while reading a tale about Lancelot du Lac.

Ironically, if Paolo and Francesca had finished reading, they would have learned that Guinivere and Lancelot's adultery eventually destroys King Arthur's kingdom.

Francesca is "never actively interrupted by any authoritative male voice, be it the pilgrim's, the narrator's or, importantly, her lover's, who is silently present at the scene of the testimony.

"[11] Additionally, Francesca's persuasive power derives from her language, which echoes that of love poetry, especially from Dante's early poems.

Though Dante condemns Francesca, his compassionate literary portrayal gives her a dignity and a historical significance that she was deprived of in real life.

Chief among them was one put forth by poet Giovanni Boccaccio in his commentary on the Divine Comedy, Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante.