The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
bound for Alexandria and taking leave of Messer Guasparrino's service,
journeyed to divers parts, without any wise availing to advance
himself. At last some three or four years after his departure from
Genoa, being grown a handsome youth and tall of his person and hearing
that his father, whom he thought dead, was yet alive, but was kept by
King Charles in prison and duresse, he went wandering at a venture,
well nigh despairing of fortune, till he came to Lunigiana and there,
as chance would have it, took service with Currado Malespina, whom he
served with great aptitude and acceptance. And albeit he now and again
saw his mother, who was with Currado's lady, he never recognized her
nor she him, so much had time changed the one and the other from that
which they were used to be, whenas they last set eyes on each other.
Giannotto being, then, in Currado's service, it befell that a daughter
of the latter, by name Spina, being left the widow of one Niccolo da
Grignano, returned to her father's house and being very fair and
agreeable and a girl of little more than sixteen years of age, chanced
to cast eyes on Giannotto and he on her, and they became passionately
enamoured of each other. Their love was not long without effect and
lasted several months ere any was ware thereof. Wherefore, taking
overmuch assurance, they began to order themselves with less
discretion than behoveth unto matters of this kind, and one day, as
they went, the young lady and Giannotto together, through a fair and
thickset wood, they pushed on among the trees, leaving the rest of the
company behind. Presently, themseeming they had far foregone the
others, they laid themselves down to rest in a pleasant place, full of
grass and flowers and shut in with trees, and there fell to taking
amorous delight one of the other.
In this occupation, the greatness of their delight making the time
seem brief to them, albeit they had been there a great while, they
were surprised, first by the girl's mother and after by Currado, who,
chagrined beyond measure at this sight, without saying aught of the
cause, had them both seized by three of his serving-men and carried in
bonds to a castle of his and went off, boiling with rage and despite
and resolved to put them both to a shameful death. The girl's mother,
although sore incensed and holding her daughter worthy of the severest
punishment for her default, having by certain words of Currado
apprehended his intent towards the culprits and unable to brook this,
hastened after her enraged husband and began to beseech him that it
would please him not run madly to make himself in his old age the
murderer of his own daughter and to soil his hands with the blood of
one of his servants, but to find other means of satisfying his wrath,
such as to clap them in prison and there let them pine and bewail the
fault committed. With these and many other words the pious lady so
wrought upon him that she turned his mind from putting them to death
and he bade imprison them, each in a place apart, where they should be
well guarded and kept with scant victual and much unease, till such
time as he should determine farther of them. As he bade, so was it
done, and what their life was in duresse and continual tears and in
fasts longer than might have behoved unto them, each may picture to
himself.
What while Giannotto and Spina abode in this doleful case and had
therein already abidden a year's space, unremembered of Currado, it
came to pass that King Pedro of Arragon, by the procurement of Messer
Gian di Procida, raised the island of Sicily against King Charles and
took it from him, whereat Currado, being a Ghibelline,[108] rejoiced
exceedingly, Giannotto, hearing of this from one of those who had him
in guard, heaved a great sigh and said, 'Ah, woe is me! These fourteen
years have I gone ranging beggarlike about the world, looking for
nought other than this, which, now that it is come, so I may never
again hope for weal, hath found me in a prison whence I have no hope
ever to come forth, save dead.' 'How so?' asked the gaoler. 'What doth
that concern thee which great kings do to one another? What hast thou
to do in Sicily?' Quoth Giannotto, 'My heart is like to burst when I
remember me of that which my father erst had to do there, whom, albeit
I was but a little child, when I fled thence, yet do I mind me to have
been lord thereof, in the lifetime of King Manfred.' 'And who was thy
father?' asked the gaoler. 'My father's name,' answered Giannotto, 'I
may now safely make known, since I find myself in the peril whereof I
was in fear, an I discovered it. He was and is yet, an he live, called
Arrighetto Capece, and my name is, not Giannotto, but Giusfredi, and I
doubt not a jot, an I were quit of this prison, but I might yet, by
returning to Sicily, have very high place there.'
[Footnote 108: The Ghibellines were the supporters of the Papal
faction against the Guelphs or adherents of the Emperor Frederick II.
of Germany. The cardinal struggle between the two factions took place
over the succession to the throne of Naples and Sicily, to which the
Pope appointed Charles of Anjou, who overcame and killed the reigning
sovereign Manfred, but was himself, through the machinations of the
Ghibellines, expelled from Sicily by the celebrated popular rising
known as the Sicilian Vespers.]
The honest man, without asking farther, reported Giannotto's words, as
first he had occasion, to Currado, who, hearing this,--albeit he
feigned to the gaoler to make light of it,--betook himself to Madam
Beritola and courteously asked her if she had had by Arrighetto a son
named Giusfredi. The lady answered, weeping, that, if the elder of her
two sons were alive, he would so be called and would be two-and-twenty
years old. Currado, hearing this, concluded that this must be he and
bethought himself that, were it so, he might at once do a great mercy
and take away his own and his daughter's shame by giving her to
Giannotto to wife; wherefore, sending privily for the latter, he
particularly examined him touching all his past life and finding, by
very manifest tokens, that he was indeed Giusfredi, son of Arrighetto
Capece, he said to him, 'Giannotto, thou knowest what and how great is
the wrong thou hast done me in the person of my daughter, whereas, I
having ever well and friendly entreated thee, it behoved thee, as a
servant should, still to study and do for my honour and interest; and
many there be who, hadst thou used them like as thou hast used me,
would have put thee to a shameful death, the which my clemency brooked
not. Now, if it be as thou tellest me, to wit, that thou art the son
of a man of condition and of a noble lady, I purpose, an thou thyself
be willing, to put an end to thy tribulations and relieving thee from
the misery and duresse wherein thou abidest, to reinstate at once
thine honour and mine own in their due stead. As thou knowest, Spina,
whom thou hast, though after a fashion misbeseeming both thyself and
her, taken with love-liking, is a widow and her dowry is both great
and good; as for her manners and her father and mother, thou knowest
them, and of thy present state I say nothing. Wherefore, an thou will,
I purpose that, whereas she hath unlawfully been thy mistress, she
shall now lawfully become thy wife and that thou shalt abide here with
me and with her, as my very son, so long as it shall please thee.'
Now prison had mortified Giannotto's flesh, but had nothing abated the
generous spirit, which he derived from his noble birth, nor yet the
entire affection he bore his mistress; and albeit he ardently desired
that which Currado proffered him and saw himself in the latter's
power, yet no whit did he dissemble of that which the greatness of his
soul prompted him to say; wherefore he answered, 'Currado, neither
lust of lordship nor greed of gain nor other cause whatever hath ever
made me lay snares, traitor-wise, for thy life or thy good. I loved
and love thy daughter and still shall love her, for that I hold her
worthy of my love, and if I dealt with her less than honourably, in
the opinion of the vulgar, my sin was one which still goeth hand in
hand with youth and which an you would do away, it behoveth you first
do away with youth. Moreover, it is an offence which, would the old
but remember them of having been young and measure the defaults of
others by their own and their own by those of others, would show less
grievous than thou and many others make it; and as a friend, and not
as an enemy, I committed it. This that thou profferest me I have still
desired and had I thought it should be vouchsafed me, I had long since
sought it; and so much the dearer will it now be to me, as my hope
thereof was less. If, then, thou have not that intent which thy words
denote, feed me not with vain hope; but restore me to prison and there
torment me as thou wilt, for, so long as I love Spina, even so, for
the love of her, shall I still love thee, whatsoever thou dost with
me, and have thee in reverence.'
Currado, hearing this, marvelled and held him great of soul and his
love fervent and tendered him therefore the dearer; wherefore, rising
to his feet, he embraced him and kissed him and without more delay
bade privily bring Spina thither. Accordingly, the lady--who was grown
lean and pale and weakly in prison and showed well nigh another than
she was wont to be, as on like wise Giannotto another man--being come,
the two lovers in Currado's presence with one consent contracted
marriage according to our usance. Then, after some days, during which
he had let furnish the newly-married pair with all that was necessary
or agreeable to them, he deemed it time to gladden their mothers with
the good news and accordingly calling his lady and Cavriuola, he said
to the latter, 'What would you say, madam, an I should cause you have
again your elder son as the husband of one of my daughters?' Whereto
she answered, 'Of that I can say to you no otherwhat than that, could
I be more beholden to you than I am, I should be so much the more so
as you would have restored to me that which is dearer to me than mine
own self; and restoring it to me on such wise as you say, you would in
some measure re-awaken in me my lost hope.' With this, she held her
peace, weeping, and Currado said to his lady, 'And thou, mistress, how
wouldst thou take it, were I to present thee with such a son-in-law?'
The lady replied, 'Even a common churl, so he pleased you, would
please me, let alone one of these,[109] who are men of gentle birth.'
'Then,' said Currado, 'I hope, ere many days, to make you happy women
in this.'
[Footnote 109: _i.e._ Beritola's sons.]
Accordingly, seeing the two young folk now restored to their former
cheer, he clad them sumptuously and said to Giusfredi, 'Were it not
dear to thee, over and above thy present joyance, an thou sawest thy
mother here?' Whereto he answered, 'I dare not flatter myself that the
chagrin of her unhappy chances can have left her so long alive; but,
were it indeed so, it were dear to me above all, more by token that
methinketh I might yet, by her counsel, avail to recover great part of
my estate in Sicily.' Thereupon Currado sent for both the ladies, who
came and made much of the newly-wedded wife, no little wondering what
happy inspiration it could have been that prompted Currado to such
exceeding complaisance as he had shown in joining Giannotto with her
in marriage. Madam Beritola, by reason of the words she had heard from
Currado, began to consider Giannotto and some remembrance of the
boyish lineaments of her son's countenance being by occult virtue
awakened in her, without awaiting farther explanation, she ran,
open-armed, to cast herself upon his neck, nor did overabounding