Excerpt from Madonna Pia: A Tragedy in Three Acts The tragic circumstances of Madonna Pia's marriage, which Dante has indicated with his usual suggestive power in the few lines quoted on the title-page, have been a favourite theme with poets. They seem not incapable of being made interesting on our stage, although the vindictive jealousy of her husband is more akin to Italian than to English nature. The date of the Lady Pia's story is uncertain, but the year 1260 has been selected for the opening of the following drama, as affording a background of interest in the strife of the Guelph and Ghibelline factions, which reached a decisive climax on the 4th of September in that year, in the defeat of the former at Monte Aperto, on the banks of the Arbia, about five miles from Sienna, by the combined forces of Sienna and Pisa, under the command of Farinata degli Uberti. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.