2005 Articles

"Sotto benda": The Women of Dante's Canzone "Doglia Mi Reca" in the Light of Cecco d'Ascoli

Barolini, Teodolinda

Whereas the courtly canzone frequently opens with a conventional address to ladies who then disappear from the poem (Cavalcanti's "Donna me prega," Dante's "Donne ch'avete intelletto d'amore"), the female addressees whom Dante enlists in the struggle against male vice in stanza one of "Doglia mi reca" do not disappear from view but are summoned again prior to the canzone's midpoint and again at the conclusion.