ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Dante and Beatrice never married. In 1285 Dante married Gemma Donati and together they had four children: Giovanni, Pietro, Jacopo, and Antonia. Beatrice became the wife of Simone dei Bardi, a prominent Florentine banker. Source: Dante Alighieri, and Corrado Ricci.

Detailed explanation-2: -Beatrice was the fiancee of Dante Alighieri. Although described by all as a “pure” soul worthy of Heaven, after losing a bargain with Lucifer, she was forced to accompany him to Hell to become his bride. Her capture was the catalyst for Dante’s journey through the Inferno and the redemption of his soul.

Detailed explanation-3: -Beatrice, the woman to whom the great Italian poet Dante dedicated most of his poetry and almost all of his life, from his first sight of her at the age of nine (“from that time forward, Love quite governed my soul”) through his glorification of her in La divina commedia, completed 40 years later, to his death in 1321.

Detailed explanation-4: -When Dante was exiled from Florence in 1301, Donati and her children did not join him, and it is probable that Donati never saw her husband again. She entered a convent in Ravenna later in her life. Documents suggest that as of June 1333 she was alive; however, her exact death date is unknown.

Detailed explanation-5: -Beatrice was Dante’s true love. In his Vita Nova, Dante reveals that he saw Beatrice for the first time when his father took him to the Portinari house for a May Day party. They were children: he was nine years old and she was eight.