Commentary Inf V 132

Francesca's account of her and Paolo's conquest by Amor is 'corrected' by a later text, Dante's reference to God as the 'punto che mi vinse' ([Par XXX 11]), where Dante is, like Paolo, 'constrained' by love (strinse [v. 128]; Paradiso XXX, 15: amor mi costrinse) -- but his desire is for Beatrice, not for a fleshly liaison. The passage in Paradiso is clearly meant to reflect negatively, not only on the amorous activity of Francesca and Paolo, but on the protagonist's reactions to it. The god of Love and Francesca are being played against God and Beatrice -- or so we will understand once we reach the last cantica. For the resonance of this self-citation see Holl.1988.1, pp. 7-8, discussing the contributions of Contini (Cont.1976.1), p. 206; Hollander (Holl.1983.1), pp. 139-140; and Dronke (Dron.1989.1), p. 30.