SOURCE: Evans, Oliver H. “Shakespearean Prototypes and the Failure of Boker's Francesca da Rimini.” Educational Theatre Journal 30, no. 2 (May 1978): 211-19.

In the following essay, Evans examines Francesca da Rimini, praising the treatment of Francesca and Paolo as well as the emphasis on the relationship between the brothers; however, he maintains that Boker's failure to develop the character of Lanciotto results in the failure of the play as a whole.

In “Boker's Francesca da Rimini: The Brothers' Tragedy,” Jules Zanger argues that while at the start of the play the three principal characters “conform to the traditional characterizations” found in Dante, Boccaccio, and Leigh Hunt, Boker transforms the play from “the tale of Paolo and Francesca” into “the tragedy of Paolo and Lanciotto.”¹ Zanger further argues that just as Boker transforms the traditional story, he transforms the principal characters. At the play's start, the principal characters recall “Shakespearean prototypes...