Beatrice and Dante, their 3rd encounter?

Beatrice, assumed to be Misses Bice di Folco Portinari, was inspiration to Dante's work in literature and perhaps even his life. Wife to Mr. Simone dei Bardi, related to a family of rich bankers, Beatrice was married off in her early twenties by her father Folco Portinari. Her father was also a rich banker. Dante met Beatrice when they were both children. Beatrice continues to fascinate people. This woman even has a rock in the sky (asteroid 83 Beatrix) named after her. Historians only know of two of their encounters, and I believe there might of been a third.

Dante expresses his love and respect for his fare, green eyed lady in two works, that we know of. The Divine Comedy, and a book of his poetry. He wrote the latter first, and the Comedy was a commissioned satire of the religious ideas of his era.

I read something curious on Wikipedia which mirrors my thoughts:

It is more likely that the encounters with Beatrice that Dante writes of are the two that fulfill his poetic vision, and Beatrice, like Petrarch's Laura, seem to blur the line between an actual love interest and a means employed by the poet in his creations.

I find it an odd coincidence that both Laura and Beatrice died in their early 20's. Studying the Tutors, I find it common in medieval culture for men to dispose of their women at the suggestion of infidelity. I believe, their third encounter may have been the cause of her death, and women in the medieval ages had few reasons to live out their lives longer than biological prime.

Shot down by Laura de Noves

According to Strand and Boland in their  Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, ''The Making of a Poem,'' The Patrarchan sonnet spawns from the boot of Italy. Fourteen line iambic, octave and sestet, the rhyming scheme usually goes as follows: ababcdcdc and cdecde.

The Sonnet is usually attributed to Shakespeare. It actually took two centuries before it became popular in English courts. The purpose of this form was to bring inform a woman of a young man's passion, in a courtly love fashion. This was not always welcomed, so many are not preserved.

Francesco Patrarca, a colourful character from Italian history, gave up his priesthood at the sight of a woman during Good Friday, on April 6th 1327. This woman, in his poems, goes by the name of Laura. According to Wikipedia, she was possibly, Laura de Noves. She is known as the wife of some lesser Italian Count, known mostly because he was related to some French nut, during the French Revolution.

Besides her noble birth, she is mainly known for the love affair. Patrarca's boner for her was expressed through his sonnets. Never consummated their affair, as she was already married. She was a good childbearing wife, and died young. This devastated Patrarca as he stalked the fuck out of this bitch, and this made her famous.

To get back to the subject of poetic form, many interpretation are smarita in comparison to the original. Let's take the Higgenson's translation.

Soleasi Nel Mio Cor

She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.

Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, retrieved on Sonnet.org.

Right away, standard rhyming scheme is ignored. Perhaps it was to emphasize the theme of the poem, or to illustrate his passion for Dr. Sues rhymes. This is up to the interpreter. The theme of sonnets, is usually the courtship of a noble lady. Women of noble birth, like Laura, are usually married at a young age ensure the bargain of noble men. Courtly love, kept to retain the boners of virtuous men for virtuous and/or noble women, is an expression of tragic emotion. To sum up, Sonnets spawned from a love that could never have been.

This very idea made Shakespeare rich. We know Shakespeare for his play, which incorporated his poetry, however; it is his sonnets he was commissioned for and not many of them have been preserved. The idea of a woman cheating on her older, fatter, busier husband was not a welcomed signed in court, and usually does not end well... Laura de Noves did die young.