Tenso with Forese

What it is

This is a tenzone, or exchange of insult sonnets, written by Dante Alighieri and his friend Forese Donati. In the poem shown, Dante mocks Forese's wife, imagining her coughing and shivering with cold as if she had spent the winter somewhere icy.

Why it matters

This exchange reveals a rougher, more comic and personal side of the young Dante, far from the solemn poet of the Divine Comedy. Such insult-sonnet exchanges were a known literary game among poets and friends in medieval Florence, used to display wit through exaggerated mockery rather than real cruelty. It reminds students that Dante, before becoming the author of a towering religious epic, was also a young man trading crude jokes with friends.

• How does this poem's tone differ from what you might expect from Dante?
• Why might poets of this time have enjoyed writing insulting verses to friends?
• What does this exchange suggest about Dante's relationships before his exile and later fame?