Commentary Inf V 107
Francesca, whose chief rhetorical strategy is to remove as much blame from herself as she is able, finding other forces at fault wherever possible (e.g., Paolo's physical beauty, her despicable husband, the allure of a French romance), here tries to even the score with her husband. She may be damned, but he, as the killer of his wife and brother, will be much lower down, in the ninth Circle. Since Gianciotto, who killed them in 1283-84, lived until 1304, his shade could not be seen by Dante in Caina. We have, as a result, no basis on which to question her opinion. However, had Dante wanted to guarantee it, it would have taken a line or so to do just that -- and he does several times have sinners tell of the impending arrival of still others in a given circle in ways that clearly call for acceptance (see C.Inf.XXXII.54-69). And so we are left wondering at Francesca's remark, and should at least keep this question open. It seems better to view her prediction as a wish stated as a fact than as a fact. This is to support the interpretation of Perotti (Pero.1993.1). However, for an example of the continuing view that accepts Francesca's predictive placement of her husband in hell see Baldelli (Bald.1988.1), p. 1070, a judgment recently reaffirmed (Bald.1999.2), pp. 55-56.

For the notion that this last line is spoken, not by Francesca, but by Paolo, see Gorni (Gorn.1996.2). It is difficult to accept such a view, since Dante is almost always carefully precise in separating one speaker's words from another's. And while punctuation in the manuscript tradition is not reliable, it nonetheless seems odd that no one else had read the line this way, which in fact seems more ingenious than sensible; that would at least suggest that, from the beginning, there have been no manuscripts that gave the line to her lover. Further, for Paolo to enter the fray in this single (and petulant?) outburst essentially destroys the effect of Francesca's climactic words, drawing attention from her just before she falls silent. And it is clear from what follows that it is she who is much on Dante's mind, not Paolo.

Iannucci suggests that Gianciotto may have been conceived by Dante as being misshapen and lame like Vulcan, the cuckolded husband of Venus (Iann.1980.1, p. 345).