Note 170 — TSCHAIKOWSKY

Francesca was the daughter of Guido Vecchio da Polenta, lord of Ravenna. She was given in marriage to Giovanni (or Gianciotto) Malatesta, the eldest son of Malatesta Vecchio, tyrant of Rimini. Giovanni was called "Lo Sciancato"—"the lame," or "hipshot." Not only was he a cripple, but he was much older than Francesca, and of stern and forbidding temper. Some say that he secured Francesca for wife by trickery, she being led to suppose that Paolo ("Il Bello"), the young brother of Giovanni, "a handsome man, very pleasant and of courteous breeding," was her future husband; that she therefore permitted herself to love him, and did not learn of the deception until "the morning ensuing the marriage." Giovanni surprised his wife and his brother together, and killed them both—between the years 1287 and 1289, says Hieronymus Rubeus in the first edition of his Hist. Ravennat. (Venice, 1572); in a later edition (1603) the date is given as early in 1289. The lovers were buried in the same grave. Guido Novello, with whom Dante lived at Ravenna, was the son of Francesca's brother, Ostagio da Polenta, and from him, it is believed, Dante heard the tragic story.—L. G.