The Old Yellow Book: Source of Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book

by Unknown

And the reason is very evident, because to excuse a husband from the murder of his adulterous wife after an interval, an exact proof of the adultery is not required, but strong suspicion of adultery is quite abundant, as Sanfelicius testifies it was decided (dec. 337, num. 13). But we are upon firmer grounds, because we not only have strong suspicions drawn from single witnesses, but other finely proved grounds, yes, the clearest of proofs, deduced by the Prosecution.

Very little does it stand in the way of this proof of her guilt that Francesca, when near to death, tried to exculpate herself and her lover by asserting that there had been no sin between them; for this kind of exculpation, which is all too much a matter of pretence, might help her companion just as theretofore she had brought blame upon him; and by no other proof might his inculpation have been removed. This would indeed aid her fellow, but not herself. But since she stands convicted by the abovesaid proofs of having broken her matrimonial faith, it would be absurd that an exculpation made that she might seem to die an honest woman, should be of such efficiency as to destroy the proofs of her baseness. [Citations.] And what is more horrible, that from the said exculpation, her murderer might be the more severely punished.

I have faith, and this helps me to hope, that her soul rests in eternal safety, by divine aid, since she had time to hate her previous life. But no man of sense could praise her testamentary disposition, in which she appointed as her sole heir her son, who, as I hear, was but just born and hence innocent, and who had been hidden away from his father, and which appointed as residuary legatee a stranger joined by no bond of relationship.

From these considerations, therefore, it is plain that the adultery of Francesca is fully proved. Hence according to the opinion of the Fisc, her murder, even if committed after an interval, is not to be expiated by the death penalty; not only because of the justly conceived grievance, but because the injury to the honour always keeps its strength, according to the sentiment of Virgil in the Æneid, Book I: "Keeping an eternal wound within the breast."

It is of no force in response to this that he did not kill his wife and the adulterer, whom he had overtaken at the inn of Castelnuovo, but that he merely saw to their imprisonment; as if that, after his recourse to the judge, he could not with his own hand avenge his honour.

For we deny in the face of all heaven that he could have killed either of them, because he was worn out by the rapid journey, and was so perturbed by the agitation of his mind, that he was seized by a fever. And furthermore he had heard that the said priest was armed with firearms, as he asserted in the prosecution for flight, at a time when his word cannot be suspected, because the murders had not yet been committed (pp. 76 and 77). It is also true that the priest was a terrible fellow, according to the witness for the prosecution (p. 167), and as Francesca herself confesses. Elsewhere, the Accused speaks of the taking away of an arquebus pointed at the officers, as he himself asserts (p. 71). And, furthermore, Caponsacchi was all too prompt and too much disposed to resisting, as we read in letter 18. There, in speaking of the opiate to be given to the domestics, he adds: "If by ill luck they shall find it out and shall threaten you with death, open the door, that I may die with you, or free you from their hands." And the wife, indeed, was unterrified, full of threatening, angered, and even furious, as the outcome proved; since when captured by the posse of the Ecclesiastical Court, she dared in the very presence of the officers and other witnesses to rush upon her husband with drawn sword. And she would easily have killed him, if she had not been hindered (p. 50). He, indeed, weak, as he is, and of insufficient strength, could not have taken vengeance by killing both, or either of them, provided as he was with only a traveller's sword. Hence, as he was not able to kill them, he saw to their imprisonment in the confusion of his mind, in order that he might prevent the continuation of his disgrace, and thus might hinder their future adultery.

But, indeed, even if he could have killed them, and did not do so, he would be praiseworthy; for up to that time the adultery had not been made notorious by the sentence of the judge, and only strong suspicions of it were urging him on.

But as for the recourse to the judge, whereby it can be claimed that he renounced the right to kill his adulterous wife, which we deny, I pray you note that the Tribunal acted prudently in placing Francesca in the Monastery, that she might be kept more decently than in a prison. Then when it received the attestation of the physician as to her condition, lest she might be kept there destitute of necessary aids, and so might undergo punishment in the very course of events (which is everywhere avoided), after obtaining the consent of Abate Franceschini, brother of the Accused, the court permitted her to be placed in the home of her parents with the warning to keep that home as a prison.

But I cannot commend any one, whoever he may be, who tried to get Francesca from the Monastery under the false pretence of ill health, since he could legitimately and with more decency have succeeded in his intent by laying bare the truth, namely her pregnancy. But this was done for no other reasons than these: either that the son might be hidden away from Count Guido, since the law presumes that he was born of his legitimate father, although his wife had shown herself incontinent; or else Francesca, believing that the child was conceived of some one else, possibly was trying to hide from her husband the fact of her pregnancy.

And now in the meantime, let it please my Most Illustrious Lord to turn his eyes toward Arezzo and for a little while to think of Count Guido stained with infamy, when the decree of condemnation for adultery reached his ears. The adulteress was still unpunished, and he was ignorant of the fact that she could not be punished, owing to her supposed ill health, and that during her pregnancy, which she had so carefully hidden from him, she was unsuited to the vengeance of the sword. Furthermore, when he saw that Francesca had gone back to that very suspicious home of Pietro and Violante, who had instilled Francesca with dishonesty, had repudiated her, and had professed that she was the daughter of a harlot, he lost all patience, as is evident from the deposition of Blasio (p. 318), where we read: "But still further, she had been received back into the home, after she ran away from Guido, although the latter had put her in a Monastery." This change drove to desperation her luckless husband, who was at least an honourable man. Therefore his recourse to the judge ought not to increase the penalty for him.