The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
time to beget myself perpetual quiet, what while I had to live with
thee; the which, whenas I came to take a wife, I was sore afraid might
not betide me, and therefore, to make proof thereof, I probed and
afflicted thee after such kind as thou knowest. And meseeming, for
that I have never perceived that either in word or in deed hast thou
departed from my pleasure, that I have of thee that solace which I
desired, I purpose presently to restore thee, at one stroke, that
which I took from thee at many and to requite thee with a supreme
delight the pangs I have inflicted on thee. Wherefore with a joyful
heart take this whom thou deemest my bride and her brother for thy
children and mine; for these be they whom thou and many others have
long accounted me to have barbarously let put to death; and I am thy
husband, who loveth thee over all else, believing I may vaunt me that
there is none else who can be so content of his wife as can I.'
So saying, he embraced her and kissed her; then, rising up, he betook
himself with Griselda, who wept for joy, whereas the daughter, hearing
these things, sat all stupefied, and tenderly embracing her and her
brother, undeceived her and many others who were there. Thereupon the
ladies arose from table, overjoyed, and withdrew with Griselda into a
chamber, where, with happier augury, pulling off her mean attire, they
clad her anew in a magnificent dress of her own and brought her again
to the saloon, as a gentlewoman, which indeed she appeared, even in
rags. There she rejoiced in her children with wonder-great joy, and
all being overjoyed at this happy issue, they redoubled in feasting
and merrymaking and prolonged the festivities several days, accounting
Gualtieri a very wise man, albeit they held the trials which he had
made of his lady overharsh, nay, intolerable; but over all they held
Griselda most sage. The Count of Panago returned, after some days, to
Bologna, and Gualtieri, taking Giannucolo from his labour, placed him
in such estate as befitted his father-in-law, so that he lived in
honour and great solace and so ended his days; whilst he himself,
having nobly married his daughter, lived long and happily with
Griselda, honouring her as most might be. What more can here be said
save that even in poor cottages there rain down divine spirits from
heaven, like as in princely palaces there be those who were worthier
to tend swine than to have lordship over men? Who but Griselda could,
with a countenance, not only dry,[483] but cheerful, have endured the
barbarous and unheard proofs made by Gualtieri? Which latter had not
belike been ill requited, had he happened upon one who, when he turned
her out of doors in her shift, had let jumble her furbelows of another
to such purpose that a fine gown had come of it."
[Footnote 483: _i.e._ unwetted with tears.]
* * * * *
Dioneo's story being finished and the ladies having discoursed amain
thereof, some inclining to one side and some to another, this blaming
one thing and that commending it, the king, lifting his eyes to heaven
and seeing that the sun was now low and the hour of vespers at hand,
proceeded, without arising from session, to speak thus, "Charming
ladies, as I doubt not you know, the understanding of mortals
consisteth not only in having in memory things past and taking
cognizance of things present; but in knowing, by means of the one and
the other of these, to forecast things future is reputed by men of
mark to consist the greatest wisdom. To-morrow, as you know, it will
be fifteen days since we departed Florence, to take some diversion for
the preservation of our health and of our lives, eschewing the woes
and dolours and miseries which, since this pestilential season began,
are continually to be seen about our city. This, to my judgment, we
have well and honourably done; for that, an I have known to see
aright, albeit merry stories and belike incentive to concupiscence
have been told here and we have continually eaten and drunken well and
danced and sung and made music, all things apt to incite weak minds to
things less seemly, I have noted no act, no word, in fine nothing
blameworthy, either on your part or on that of us men; nay, meseemeth
I have seen and felt here a continual decency, an unbroken concord and
a constant fraternal familiarity; the which, at once for your honour
and service and for mine own, is, certes, most pleasing to me. Lest,
however, for overlong usance aught should grow thereof that might
issue in tediousness, and that none may avail to cavil at our overlong
tarriance,--each of us, moreover, having had his or her share of the
honour that yet resideth in myself,--I hold it meet, an it be your
pleasure, that we now return whence we came; more by token that, if
you consider aright, our company, already known to several others of
the neighbourhood, may multiply after a fashion that will deprive us
of our every commodity. Wherefore, if you approve my counsel, I will
retain the crown conferred on me until our departure, which I purpose
shall be to-morrow morning; but, should you determine otherwise, I
have already in mind whom I shall invest withal for the ensuing day."
Much was the debate between the ladies and the young men; but
ultimately they all took the king's counsel for useful and seemly and
determined to do as he proposed; whereupon, calling the seneschal, he
bespoke him of the manner which he should hold on the ensuing morning
and after, having dismissed the company until supper-time, he rose to
his feet. The ladies and the young men, following his example, gave
themselves, this to one kind of diversion and that to another, no
otherwise than of their wont; and supper-time come, they betook
themselves to table with the utmost pleasure and after fell to singing
and carolling and making music. Presently, Lauretta leading up a
dance, the king bade Fiammetta sing a song, whereupon she very
blithely proceeded to sing thus:
If love came but withouten jealousy,
I know no lady born
So blithe as I were, whosoe'er she be.
If gladsome youthfulness
In a fair lover might content a maid,
Virtue and worth discreet,
Valiance or gentilesse,
Wit and sweet speech and fashions all arrayed
In pleasantness complete,
Certes, I'm she for whose behoof these meet
In one; for, love-o'erborne,
All these in him who is my hope I see.
But for that I perceive
That other women are as wise as I,
I tremble for affright
And tending to believe
The worst, in others the desire espy
Of him who steals my spright;
Thus this that is my good and chief delight
Enforceth me, forlorn,
Sigh sore and live in dole and misery.
If I knew fealty such
In him my lord as I know merit there,
I were not jealous, I;
But here is seen so much
Lovers to tempt, how true they be soe'er,
I hold all false; whereby
I'm all disconsolate and fain would die,
Of each with doubting torn
Who eyes him, lest she bear him off from me.
Be, then, each lady prayed
By God that she in this be not intent
'Gainst me to do amiss;
For, sure, if any maid
Should or with words or becks or blandishment
My detriment in this
Seek or procure and if I know't, ywis,
Be all my charms forsworn
But I will make her rue it bitterly.
No sooner had Fiammetta made an end of her song than Dioneo, who was
beside her, said, laughing, "Madam, you would do a great courtesy to
let all the ladies know who he is, lest you be ousted of his
possession through ignorance, since you would be so sore incensed
thereat." After this divers other songs were sung and the night being
now well nigh half spent, they all, by the king's commandment, betook
themselves to repose. As the new day appeared, they arose and the
seneschal having already despatched all their gear in advance, they
returned, under the guidance of their discreet king, to Florence,
where the three young men took leave of the seven ladies and leaving
them in Santa Maria Novella, whence they had set out with them, went
about their other pleasures, whilst the ladies, whenas it seemed to
them time, returned to their houses.
HERE ENDETH THE TENTH AND LAST DAY
OF THE DECAMERON
_Conclusion of the Author_
Most noble damsels, for whose solace I have addressed myself to so
long a labour, I have now, methinketh, with the aid of the Divine
favour, (vouchsafed me, as I deem, for your pious prayers and not for
my proper merits,) throughly accomplished that which I engaged, at the
beginning of this present work, to do; wherefore, returning thanks
first to God and after to you, it behoveth to give rest to my pen and
to my tired hand. Which ere I accord them, I purpose briefly to reply,
as to objections tacitly broached, to certain small matters that may
peradventure be alleged by some one of you or by others, since
meseemeth very certain that these stories have no especial privilege
more than other things; nay, I mind me to have shown, at the beginning
of the fourth day, that they have none such. There are, peradventure,
some of you who will say that I have used overmuch license in
inditing these stories, as well as in making ladies whiles say and
very often hearken to things not very seemly either to be said or
heard of modest women. This I deny, for that there is nothing so
unseemly as to be forbidden unto any one, so but he express it in
seemly terms, as meseemeth indeed I have here very aptly done. But let
us suppose that it is so (for that I mean not to plead with you, who
would overcome me,) I say that many reasons very readily offer
themselves in answer why I have done this. Firstly, if there be aught
thereof[484] in any of them, the nature of the stories required it,
the which, an they be considered with the rational eye of a person of
understanding, it will be abundantly manifest that I could not have
otherwise recounted, an I would not altogether disfeature them. And if
perchance there be therein some tittle, some wordlet or two freer,
maybe, than liketh your squeamish hypocritical prudes, who weigh words
rather than deeds and study more to appear, than to be, good, I say
that it should no more be forbidden me to write them than it is
commonly forbidden unto men and women to say all day long _hole_ and
_peg_ and _mortar_ and _pestle_ and _sausage_ and _polony_ and all
manner like things; without reckoning that no less liberty should be
accorded to my pen than is conceded to the brush of the limner, who,
without any (or, at the least, any just) reprehension, maketh--let be
St. Michael smite the serpent with sword or spear and St. George the
dragon, whereas it pleaseth them--but Adam male and Eve female and
affixeth to the cross, whiles with one nail and whiles with two, the
feet of Him Himself who willed for the salvation of the human race to
die upon the rood. Moreover, it is eath enough to see that these
things are spoken, not in the church, of the affairs whereof it
behoveth to speak with a mind and in terms alike of the chastest
(albeit among its histories there are tales enough to be found of
anothergates fashion than those written by me), nor yet in the schools
of philosophy, where decency is no less required than otherwhere, nor
among churchmen or philosophers anywhere, but amidst gardens, in a
place of pleasance and diversion and among men and women, though
young, yet of mature wit and not to be led astray by stories, at a
time when it was not forbidden to the most virtuous to go, for their