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1 - “So Great a Lover”: Facts and Narratives in the Love Stories of the Lustful

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2022

Alison Cornish
Alison Cornish
Affiliation:
New York University
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Summary

Dante’s Francesca, damned for what she claims Love did to her, refers to Lancelot as cotanto amante, “so great a lover,” at the very moment she recounts that her unnamed consort in hell kissed her on the mouth. The problem is not just that she has been befuddled by romance, misapplying it to the facts on the ground, but that she has been seduced by the wrong story and ignoring the greatest of lovers. “If only,” she says wistfully, “the king of the universe were my friend.

Keywords

lustloveInferno 5Francesca da Riminiromancereadingstories
Type
Chapter
Information
Believing in Dante
Truth in Fiction
 , pp. 22 - 61
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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