The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
taken in like manner as was Andrevuola, freed herself from the court,
not by dint of fortitude nor constancy, but by an unlooked-for death.
And as hath otherwhile been said amongst us, albeit Love liefer
inhabiteth the houses of the great, yet not therefor doth he decline
the empery of those of the poor; nay, whiles in these latter he so
manifesteth his power that he maketh himself feared, as a most
puissant seignior, of the richer sort. This, if not in all, yet in
great part, will appear from my story, with which it pleaseth me to
re-enter our own city, wherefrom this day, discoursing diversely of
divers things and ranging over various parts of the world, we have so
far departed.
There was, then, no great while ago, in Florence a damsel very
handsome and agreeable, according to her condition, who was the
daughter of a poor father and was called Simona; and although it
behoved her with her own hands earn the bread she would eat and
sustain her life by spinning wool, she was not therefor of so poor a
spirit but that she dared to admit into her heart Love, which,--by
means of the pleasing words and fashions of a youth of no greater
account than herself, who went giving wool to spin for a master of
his, a wool-monger,--had long made a show of wishing to enter there.
Having, then, received Him into her bosom with the pleasing aspect of
the youth who loved her whose name was Pasquino, she heaved a thousand
sighs, hotter than fire, at every hank of yarn she wound about the
spindle, bethinking her of him who had given it her to spin and
ardently desiring, but venturing not to do more. He, on his side,
grown exceeding anxious that his master's wool should be well spun,
overlooked Simona's spinning more diligently than that of any other,
as if the yarn spun by her alone and none other were to furnish forth
the whole cloth; wherefore, the one soliciting and the other
delighting to be solicited, it befell that, he growing bolder than of
his wont and she laying aside much of the timidity and shamefastness
she was used to feel, they gave themselves up with a common accord to
mutual pleasures, which were so pleasing to both that not only did
neither wait to be bidden thereto of the other, but each forewent
other in the matter of invitation.
Ensuing this their delight from day to day and waxing ever more
enkindled for continuance, it chanced one day that Pasquino told
Simona he would fain have her find means to come to a garden, whither
he wished to carry her so they might there foregather more at their
ease and with less suspect. Simona answered that she would well and
accordingly on Sunday, after eating, giving her father to believe that
she meant to go a-pardoning to San Gallo,[250] she betook herself,
with a friend of hers, called Lagina, to the garden appointed her of
Pasquino. There she found him with a comrade of his, whose name was
Puccino, but who was commonly called Stramba,[251] and an amorous
acquaintance being quickly clapped up between the latter and Lagina,
Simona and her lover withdrew to one part of the garden, to do their
pleasure, leaving Stramba and Lagina in another.
[Footnote 250: _i.e._ to attend the ecclesiastical function called a
Pardon, with which word, used in this sense, Meyerbeer's opera of
Dinorah (properly Le Pardon de Ploërmel) has familiarized opera-goers.
A Pardon is a sort of minor jubilee of the Roman Catholic Church, held
in honour of some local saint, at which certain indulgences and
remissions of sins (hence the name) are granted to the faithful
attending the services of the occasion.]
[Footnote 251: _i.e._ Bandy-legs.]
Now in that part of the garden, whither Pasquino and Simona had
betaken themselves, was a very great and goodly bush of sage, at the
foot whereof they sat down and solaced themselves together a great
while, holding much discourse of a collation they purposed to make
there at their leisure. Presently, Pasquino turned to the great
sage-bush and plucking a leaf thereof, began to rub his teeth and gums
withal, avouching that sage cleaned them excellent well of aught that
might be left thereon after eating. After he had thus rubbed them
awhile, he returned to the subject of the collation, of which he had
already spoken, nor had he long pursued his discourse when he began
altogether to change countenance and well nigh immediately after lost
sight and speech, and in a little while he died. Simona, seeing this,
fell to weeping and crying out and called Stramba and Lagina, who ran
thither in haste and seeing Pasquino not only dead, but already grown
all swollen and full of dark spots about his face and body, Stramba
cried out of a sudden, 'Ah, wicked woman! Thou hast poisoned him.'
Making a great outcry, he was heard of many who dwelt near the garden
and who, running to the clamour, found Pasquino dead and swollen.
Hearing Stramba lamenting and accusing Simona of having poisoned him
of her malice, whilst she, for dolour of the sudden mishap that had
carried off her lover, knew not how to excuse herself, being as it
were beside herself, they all concluded that it was as he said; and
accordingly she was taken and carried off, still weeping sore, to the
Provost's palace, where, at the instance of Stramba and other two
comrades of Pasquino, by name Atticciato and Malagevole, who had come
up meanwhile, a judge addressed himself without delay to examine her
of the fact and being unable to discover that she had done malice in
the matter or was anywise guilty, he bethought himself, in her
presence, to view the dead body and the place and manner of the
mishap, as recounted to him by her, for that he apprehended it not
very well by her words.
Accordingly, he let bring her, without any stir, whereas Pasquino's
body lay yet, swollen as it were a tun, and himself following her
thither, marvelled at the dead man and asked her how it had been;
whereupon, going up to the sage-bush, she recounted to him all the
foregoing story and to give him more fully to understand how the thing
had befallen, she did even as Pasquino had done and rubbed one of the
sage-leaves against her teeth. Then,--whilst her words were, in the
judge's presence, flouted by Stramba and Atticciato and the other
friends and comrades of Pasquino as frivolous and vain and they all
denounced her wickedness with the more instance, demanding nothing
less than that the fire should be the punishment of such
perversity,--the wretched girl, who abode all confounded for dolour of
her lost lover and fear of the punishment demanded by Stramba fell,
for having rubbed the sage against her teeth, into that same
mischance, whereinto her lover had fallen [and dropped dead], to the
no small wonderment of as many as were present. O happy souls, to whom
it fell in one same day to terminate at once your fervent love and
your mortal life! Happier yet, an ye went together to one same place!
And most happy, if folk love in the other life and ye love there as
you loved here below! But happiest beyond compare,--at least in our
judgment who abide after her on life,--was Simona's soul, whose
innocence fortune suffered not to fall under the testimony of Stramba
and Atticciato and Malagevole, wool-carders belike or men of yet
meaner condition, finding her a more honourable way, with a death like
unto that of her lover, to deliver herself from their calumnies and to
follow the soul, so dearly loved of her, of her Pasquino.
The judge, in a manner astonied, as were likewise as many as were
there, at this mischance and unknowing what to say, abode long silent;
then, recollecting himself, he said, 'It seemeth this sage is
poisonous, the which is not wont to happen of sage. But, so it may not
avail to offend on this wise against any other, be it cut down even to
the roots and cast into the fire.' This the keeper of the garden
proceeded to do in the judge's presence, and no sooner had he levelled
the great bush with the ground than the cause of the death of the two
unfortunate lovers appeared; for thereunder was a toad of marvellous
bigness, by whose pestiferous breath they concluded the sage to have
become venomous. None daring approach the beast, they made a great
hedge of brushwood about it and there burnt it, together with the
sage. So ended the judge's inquest upon the death of the unfortunate
Pasquino, who, together with his Simona, all swollen as they were, was
buried by Stramba and Atticciato and Guccio Imbratta and Malagevole in
the church of St. Paul, whereof it chanced they were parishioners."
THE EIGHTH STORY
[Day the Fourth]
GIROLAMO LOVETH SALVESTRA AND BEING CONSTRAINED BY HIS
MOTHER'S PRAYERS TO GO TO PARIS, RETURNETH AND FINDETH HIS
MISTRESS MARRIED; WHEREUPON HE ENTERETH HER HOUSE BY STEALTH
AND DIETH BY HER SIDE; AND HE BEING CARRIED TO A CHURCH,
SALVESTRA DIETH BESIDE HIM
Emilia's story come to an end, Neifile, by the king's commandment,
began thus: "There are some, noble ladies, who believe themselves to
know more than other folk, albeit, to my thinking, they know less, and
who, by reason thereof, presume to oppose their judgment not only to
the counsels of men, but even to set it up against the very nature of
things; of which presumption very grave ills have befallen aforetime,
nor ever was any good known to come thereof. And for that of all
natural things love is that which least brooketh contrary counsel or
opposition and whose nature is such that it may lightlier consume of
itself than be done away by advisement, it hath come to my mind to
narrate to you a story of a lady, who, seeking to be wiser than
pertained unto her and than she was, nay, than the matter comported in
which she studied to show her wit, thought to tear out from an
enamoured heart a love which had belike been set there of the stars,
and so doing, succeeded in expelling at once love and life from her
son's body.
There was, then, in our city, according to that which the ancients
relate, a very great and rich merchant, whose name was Lionardo
Sighieri and who had by his wife a son called Girolamo, after whose
birth, having duly set his affairs in order, he departed this life.
The guardians of the boy, together with his mother, well and loyally
ordered his affairs, and he, growing up with his neighbour's children,
became familiar with a girl of his own age, the daughter of the
tailor, more than with any other of the quarter. As he waxed in age,
use turned to love so great and so ardent that he was never easy save
what time he saw her, and certes she loved him no less than she was
loved of him. The boy's mother, observing this, many a time chid and
rebuked him therefor and after, Girolamo availing not to desist
therefrom, complained thereof to his guardians, saying to them, as if
she thought, thanks to her son's great wealth, to make an orange-tree
of a bramble, 'This boy of ours, albeit he is yet scarce fourteen
years old, is so enamoured of the daughter of a tailor our neighbour,
by name Salvestra, that, except we remove her from his sight, he will
peradventure one day take her to wife, without any one's knowledge,
and I shall never after be glad; or else he will pine away from her,
if he see her married to another; wherefore meseemeth, to avoid this,
you were best send him somewhither far from here, about the business
of the warehouse; for that, he being removed from seeing her, she will
pass out of his mind and we may after avail to give him some well-born
damsel to wife.'
The guardians answered that the lady said well and that they would do
this to the best of their power; wherefore, calling the boy into the
warehouse, one of them began very lovingly to bespeak him thus, 'My
son, thou art now somewhat waxen in years and it were well that thou