The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
be content; to wit, that, since you are apt for marriage, we would
have you take him to husband whom we shall bestow on you, purposing,
notwithstanding this, to call ourselves still your knight, without
desiring aught from you of so much love but one sole kiss.' The
damsel, grown all vermeil in the face for shamefastness, making the
king's pleasure hers, replied in a low voice on this wise, 'My lord, I
am well assured that, were it known that I had fallen enamoured of
you, most folk would account me mad therefor, thinking belike that I
had forgotten myself and knew not mine own condition nor yet yours;
but God, who alone seeth the hearts of mortals, knoweth that, in that
same hour whenas first you pleased me, I knew you for a king and
myself for the daughter of Bernardo the apothecary and that it ill
beseemed me to address the ardour of my soul unto so high a place.
But, as you know far better than I, none here below falleth in love
according to fitness of election, but according to appetite and
inclination, against which law I once and again strove with all my
might, till, availing no farther, I loved and love and shall ever
love you. But, since first I felt myself taken with love of you, I
determined still to make your will mine; wherefore, not only will I
gladly obey you in this matter of taking a husband at your hands and
holding him dear whom it shall please you to bestow on me, since that
will be mine honour and estate, but, should you bid me abide in the
fire, it were a delight to me, an I thought thereby to pleasure you.
To have you, a king, to knight, you know how far it befitteth me,
wherefore to that I make no farther answer; nor shall the kiss be
vouchsafed you, which alone of my love you would have, without leave
of my lady the queen. Natheless, of such graciousness as hath been
yours towards me and that of our lady the queen here God render you
for me both thanks and recompense, for I have not the wherewithal.'
And with that she was silent.
Her answer much pleased the queen and she seemed to her as discreet as
the king had reported her. Don Pedro then let call the girl's father
and mother and finding that they were well pleased with that which he
purposed to do, summoned a young man, by name Perdicone, who was of
gentle birth, but poor, and giving certain rings into his hand,
married him, nothing loath, to Lisa; which done, he then and there,
over and above many and precious jewels bestowed by the queen and
himself upon the damsel, gave him Ceffalu and Calatabellotta, two very
rich and goodly fiefs, and said to him, 'These we give thee to the
lady's dowry. That which we purpose to do for thyself, thou shalt see
in time to come.' This said, he turned to the damsel and saying, 'Now
will we take that fruit which we are to have of your love,' took her
head in his hands and kissed her on the brow. Perdicone and Lisa's
father and mother, well pleased, (as indeed was she herself,) held
high festival and joyous nuptials; and according as many avouch, the
king very faithfully kept his covenant with the damsel, for that,
whilst she lived, he still styled himself her knight nor ever went
about any deed of arms but he wore none other favour than that which
was sent him of her. It is by doing, then, on this wise that subjects'
hearts are gained, that others are incited to do well and that eternal
renown is acquired; but this is a mark at which few or none nowadays
bend the bow of their understanding, most princes being presently
grown cruel and tyrannical."
THE EIGHTH STORY
[Day the Tenth]
SOPHRONIA, THINKING TO MARRY GISIPPUS, BECOMETH THE WIFE OF
TITUS QUINTIUS FULVUS AND WITH HIM BETAKETH HERSELF TO ROME,
WHITHER GISIPPUS COMETH IN POOR CASE AND CONCEIVING HIMSELF
SLIGHTED OF TITUS, DECLARETH, SO HE MAY DIE, TO HAVE SLAIN A
MAN. TITUS, RECOGNIZING HIM, TO SAVE HIM, AVOUCHETH HIMSELF
TO HAVE DONE THE DEED, AND THE TRUE MURDERER, SEEING THIS,
DISCOVERETH HIMSELF; WHEREUPON THEY ARE ALL THREE LIBERATED
BY OCTAVIANUS AND TITUS, GIVING GISIPPUS HIS SISTER TO WIFE,
HATH ALL HIS GOOD IN COMMON WITH HIM
Pampinea having left speaking and all having commended King Pedro, the
Ghibelline lady more than the rest, Fiammetta, by the king's
commandment, began thus, "Illustrious ladies, who is there knoweth not
that kings, when they will, can do everything great and that it is, to
boot, especially required of them that they be magnificent? Whoso,
then, having the power, doth that which pertaineth unto him, doth
well; but folk should not so much marvel thereat nor exalt him to such
a height with supreme praise as it would behove them do with another,
of whom, for lack of means, less were required. Wherefore, if you with
such words extol the actions of kings and they seem to you fair, I
doubt not anywise but those of our peers, whenas they are like unto or
greater than those of kings, will please you yet more and be yet
highlier commended of you, and I purpose accordingly to recount to
you, in a story, the praiseworthy and magnanimous dealings of two
citizens and friends with each other.
You must know, then, that at the time when Octavianus Cæsar (not yet
styled Augustus) ruled the Roman empire in the office called
Triumvirate, there was in Rome a gentleman called Publius Quintius
Fulvus,[461] who, having a son of marvellous understanding, by name
Titus Quintius Fulvus, sent him to Athens to study philosophy and
commended him as most he might to a nobleman there called Chremes, his
very old friend, by whom Titus was lodged in his own house, in company
of a son of his called Gisippus, and set to study with the latter,
under the governance of a philosopher named Aristippus. The two young
men, coming to consort together, found each other's usances so
conformable that there was born thereof a brotherhood between them and
a friendship so great that it was never sundered by other accident
than death, and neither of them knew weal nor peace save in so much as
they were together. Entering upon their studies and being each alike
endowed with the highest understanding, they ascended with equal step
and marvellous commendation to the glorious altitudes of philosophy;
and in this way of life they continued good three years, to the
exceeding contentment of Chremes, who in a manner looked upon the one
as no more his son than the other. At the end of this time it befell,
even as it befalleth of all things, that Chremes, now an old man,
departed this life, whereof the two young men suffered a like sorrow,
as for a common father, nor could his friends and kinsfolk discern
which of the twain was the more in need of consolation for that which
had betided them.
[Footnote 461: Sic, _Publio Quinzio Fulvo_; but _quære_ should it not
rather be _Publio Quinto Fulvio_, _i.e._ Publius Quintus Fulvius, a
form of the name which seems more in accordance with the genius of the
Latin language?]
It came to pass, after some months, that the friends and kinsfolk of
Gisippus resorted to him and together with Titus exhorted him to take
a wife, to which he consenting, they found him a young Athenian lady
of marvellous beauty and very noble parentage, whose name was
Sophronia and who was maybe fifteen years old. The term of the future
nuptials drawing nigh, Gisippus one day besought Titus to go visit her
with him, for that he had not yet seen her. Accordingly, they being
come into her house and she seated between the twain, Titus proceeded
to consider her with the utmost attention, as if to judge of the
beauty of his friend's bride, and every part of her pleasing him
beyond measure, what while he inwardly commended her charms to the
utmost, he fell, without showing any sign thereof, as passionately
enamoured of her as ever yet man of woman. After they had been with
her awhile, they took their leave and returned home, where Titus,
betaking himself alone into his chamber, fell a-thinking of the
charming damsel and grew the more enkindled the more he enlarged upon
her in thought; which, perceiving, he fell to saying in himself, after
many ardent sighs, 'Alack, the wretchedness of thy life, Titus! Where
and on what settest thou thy mind and thy love and thy hope? Knowest
thou not that it behoveth thee, as well for the kindness received from
Chremes and his family as for the entire friendship that is between
thee and Gisippus, whose bride she is, to have yonder damsel in such
respect as a sister? Whom, then, lovest thou? Whither lettest thou
thyself be carried away by delusive love, whither by fallacious hope?
Open the eyes of thine understanding and recollect thyself, wretch
that thou art; give place to reason, curb thy carnal appetite, temper
thine unhallowed desires and direct thy thoughts unto otherwhat;
gainstand thy lust in this its beginning and conquer thyself, whilst
it is yet time. This thou wouldst have is unseemly, nay, it is
dishonourable; this thou art minded to ensue it behoveth thee, even
wert thou assured (which thou art not) of obtaining it, to flee from,
an thou have regard unto that which true friendship requireth and that
which thou oughtest. What, then, wilt thou do, Titus? Thou wilt leave
this unseemly love, an thou wouldst do that which behoveth.'
Then, remembering him of Sophronia and going over to the contrary, he
denounced all that he had said, saying, 'The laws of love are of
greater puissance than any others; they annul even the Divine laws,
let alone those of friendship; how often aforetime hath father loved
daughter, brother sister, stepmother stepson, things more monstrous
than for one friend to love the other's wife, the which hath already a
thousand times befallen! Moreover, I am young and youth is altogether
subject to the laws of Love; wherefor that which pleaseth Him, needs
must it please me. Things honourable pertain unto maturer folk; I can
will nought save that which Love willeth. The beauty of yonder damsel
deserveth to be loved of all, and if I love her, who am young, who can
justly blame me therefor? I love her not because she is Gisippus's;
nay, I love her for that I should love her, whosesoever she was. In
this fortune sinneth that hath allotted her to Gisippus my friend,
rather than to another; and if she must be loved, (as she must, and
deservedly, for her beauty,) Gisippus, an he came to know it, should
be better pleased that I should love her, I, than another.' Then, from
that reasoning he reverted again to the contrary, making mock of
himself, and wasted not only that day and the ensuing night in passing
from this to that and back again, but many others, insomuch that,
losing appetite and sleep therefor, he was constrained for weakness to
take to his bed.
Gisippus, having beheld him several days full of melancholy thought
and seeing him presently sick, was sore concerned and with every art
and all solicitude studied to comfort him, never leaving him and
questioning him often and instantly of the cause of his melancholy and
his sickness. Titus, after having once and again given him idle tales,
which Gisippus knew to be such, by way of answer, finding himself e'en
constrained thereunto, with tears and sighs replied to him on this
wise, 'Gisippus, had it pleased the Gods, death were far more a-gree
to me than to live longer, considering that fortune hath brought me to
a pass whereas it behoved me make proof of my virtue and that I have,
to my exceeding shame, found this latter overcome; but certes I look
thereof to have ere long the reward that befitteth me, to wit, death,
and this will be more pleasing to me than to live in remembrance of my
baseness, which latter, for that I cannot nor should hide aught from
thee, I will, not without sore blushing, discover to thee.' Then,