The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
embarrel! It is not the month of October'?" Quoth the queen, laughing,
"Ill luck to thee, sing us a goodly one, an thou wilt, for we will
none of these." "Nay, madam," rejoined Dioneo, "fash not yourself; but
which then like you better? I know more than a thousand. Will you have
'This my shell an I prick it not well,' or 'Fair and softly, husband
mine' or 'I'll buy me a cock, a cock of an hundred pounds
sterling'?"[292] Therewithal the queen, somewhat provoked, though all
the other ladies laughed, said, "Dioneo, leave jesting and sing us a
goodly one; else shalt thou prove how I can be angry." Hearing this,
he gave over his quips and cranks and forthright fell a-singing after
this fashion:
[Footnote 292: The songs proposed by Dioneo are all apparently of a
light, if not a wanton, character and "not fit to be sung before
ladies."]
O Love, the amorous light
That beameth from yon fair one's lovely eyes
Hath made me thine and hers in servant-guise.
The splendour of her lovely eyes, it wrought
That first thy flames were kindled in my breast,
Passing thereto through mine;
Yea, and thy virtue first unto my thought
Her visage fair it was made manifest,
Which picturing, I twine
And lay before her shrine
All virtues, that to her I sacrifice,
Become the new occasion of my sighs.
Thus, dear my lord, thy vassal am I grown
And of thy might obediently await
Grace for my lowliness;
Yet wot I not if wholly there be known
The high desire that in my breast thou'st set
And my sheer faith, no less,
Of her who doth possess
My heart so that from none beneath the skies,
Save her alone, peace would I take or prize.
Wherefore I pray thee, sweet my lord and sire,
Discover it to her and cause her taste
Some scantling of thy heat
To-me-ward,--for thou seest that in the fire,
Loving, I languish and for torment waste
By inches at her feet,--
And eke in season meet
Commend me to her favour on such wise
As I would plead for thee, should need arise.[293]
[Footnote 293: This singularly naïve give-and-take fashion of asking a
favour of a God recalls the old Scotch epitaph cited by Mr. George
Macdonald:
Here lie I Martin Elginbrodde:
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God;
As I wad do, were I Lord God
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.]
Dioneo, by his silence, showing that his song was ended, the queen let
sing many others, having natheless much commended his. Then, somedele
of the night being spent and the queen feeling the heat of the day to
be now overcome of the coolness of the night, she bade each at his
pleasure betake himself to rest against the ensuing day.
HERE ENDETH THE FIFTH DAY
OF THE DECAMERON
_Day the Sixth_
HERE BEGINNETH THE SIXTH DAY OF THE DECAMERON WHEREIN UNDER
THE GOVERNANCE OF ELISA IS DISCOURSED OF WHOSO BEING
ASSAILED WITH SOME JIBING SPEECH HATH VINDICATED HIMSELF OR
HATH WITH SOME READY REPLY OR ADVISEMENT ESCAPED LOSS, PERIL
OR SHAME
The moon, being now in the middest heaven, had lost its radiance and
every part of our world was bright with the new coming light, when,
the queen arising and letting call her company, they all with slow
step fared forth and rambled over the dewy grass to a little distance
from the fair hill, holding various discourse of one thing and another
and debating of the more or less goodliness of the stories told, what
while they renewed their laughter at the various adventures related
therein, till such time as the sun mounting high and beginning to wax
hot, it seemed well to them all to turn homeward. Wherefore, reversing
their steps, they returned to the palace and there, by the queen's
commandment, the tables being already laid and everything strewn with
sweet-scented herbs and fair flowers, they addressed themselves to
eat, ere the heat should grow greater. This being joyously
accomplished, ere they did otherwhat, they sang divers goodly and
pleasant canzonets, after which some went to sleep, whilst some sat
down to play at chess and other some at tables and Dioneo fell to
singing, in concert with Lauretta, of Troilus and Cressida. Then, the
hour come for their reassembling after the wonted fashion,[294] they
all, being summoned on the part of the queen, seated themselves, as
of their usance, about the fountain; but, as she was about to call for
the first story, there befell a thing that had not yet befallen there,
to wit, that a great clamour was heard by her and by all, made by the
wenches and serving-men in the kitchen.
[Footnote 294: Lit. for their returning to consistory (_del dovere a
concistoro tornare_).]
The seneschal, being called and questioned who it was that cried thus
and what might be the occasion of the turmoil, answered that the
clamour was between Licisca and Tindaro, but that he knew not the
cause thereof, being but then come thither to make them bide quiet,
whenas he had been summoned on her part. The queen bade him
incontinent fetch thither the two offenders and they being come,
enquired what was the cause of their clamour; whereto Tindaro offering
to reply, Licisca, who was well in years and somewhat overmasterful,
being heated with the outcry she had made, turned to him with an angry
air and said, "Mark this brute of a man who dareth to speak before me,
whereas I am! Let me speak." Then, turning again to the queen,
"Madam," quoth she, "this fellow would teach me, forsooth, to know
Sicofante's wife and neither more nor less than as if I had not been
familiar with her, would fain give me to believe that, the first night
her husband lay with her, Squire Maul[295] made his entry into Black
Hill[296] by force and with effusion of blood; and I say that it is
not true; nay, he entered there in peace and to the great contentment
of those within. Marry, this fellow is simple enough to believe
wenches to be such ninnies that they stand to lose their time, abiding
the commodity of their fathers and brothers, who six times out of
seven tarry three or four years more than they should to marry them.
Well would they fare, forsooth, were they to wait so long! By Christ
His faith (and I should know what I say, when I swear thus) I have not
a single gossip who went a maid to her husband; and as for the wives,
I know full well how many and what tricks they play their husbands;
and this blockhead would teach me to know women, as if I had been born
yesterday."
[Footnote 295: _Messer Mazza_, _i.e._ veretrum.]
[Footnote 296: _Monte Nero_, _i.e._ vas muliebre.]
What while Licisca spoke, the ladies kept up such a laughing that you
might have drawn all their teeth; and the queen imposed silence upon
her a good half dozen times, but to no purpose; she stinted not till
she had said her say. When she had at last made an end of her talk,
the queen turned to Dioneo and said, laughing, "Dioneo, this is a
matter for thy jurisdiction; wherefore, when we shall have made an end
of our stories, thou shalt proceed to give final judgment thereon."
Whereto he answered promptly, "Madam, the judgment is already given,
without hearing more of the matter; and I say that Licisca is in the
right and opine that it is even as she saith and that Tindaro is an
ass." Licisca, hearing this, fell a-laughing and turning to Tindaro,
said, "I told thee so; begone and God go with thee; thinkest thou thou
knowest better than I, thou whose eyes are not yet dry?[297] Gramercy,
I have not lived here below for nothing, no, not I!" And had not the
queen with an angry air imposed silence on her and sent her and
Tindaro away, bidding her make no more words or clamour, an she would
not be flogged, they had had nought to do all that day but attend to
her. When they were gone, the queen called on Filomena to make a
beginning with the day's stories and she blithely began thus:
[Footnote 297: _i.e._ who are yet a child, in modern parlance, "Thou
whose lips are yet wet with thy mother's milk."]
THE FIRST STORY
[Day the Sixth]
A GENTLEMAN ENGAGETH TO MADAM ORETTA TO CARRY HER
A-HORSEBACK WITH A STORY, BUT, TELLING IT DISORDERLY, IS
PRAYED BY HER TO SET HER DOWN AGAIN
"Young ladies, like as stars, in the clear nights, are the ornaments
of the heavens and the flowers and the leaf-clad shrubs, in the
Spring, of the green fields and the hillsides, even so are
praiseworthy manners and goodly discourse adorned by sprightly
sallies, the which, for that they are brief, beseem women yet better
than men, inasmuch as much speaking is more forbidden to the former
than to the latter. Yet, true it is, whatever the cause, whether it be
the meanness of our[298] understanding or some particular grudge borne
by heaven to our times, that there be nowadays few or no women left
who know how to say a witty word in due season or who, an it be said
to them, know how to apprehend it as it behoveth; the which is a
general reproach to our whole sex. However, for that enough hath been
said aforetime on the subject by Pampinea,[299] I purpose to say no
more thereof; but, to give you to understand how much goodliness there
is in witty sayings, when spoken in due season, it pleaseth me to
recount to you the courteous fashion in which a lady imposed silence
upon a gentleman.
[Footnote 298: _i.e._ women's.]
[Footnote 299: See ante, p. 43, Introduction to the last story of the
First Day.]
As many of you ladies may either know by sight or have heard tell,
there was not long since in our city a noble and well-bred and
well-spoken gentlewoman, whose worth merited not that her name be left
unsaid. She was called, then, Madam Oretta and was the wife of Messer
Geri Spina. She chanced to be, as we are, in the country, going from
place to place, by way of diversion, with a company of ladies and
gentlemen, whom she had that day entertained to dinner at her house,
and the way being belike somewhat long from the place whence they set
out to that whither they were all purposed to go afoot, one of the
gentlemen said to her, 'Madam Oretta, an you will, I will carry you
a-horseback great part of the way we have to go with one of the finest
stories in the world.' 'Nay, sir,' answered the lady, 'I pray you
instantly thereof; indeed, it will be most agreeable to me.' Master
cavalier, who maybe fared no better, sword at side than tale on
tongue, hearing this, began a story of his, which of itself was in
truth very goodly; but he, now thrice or four or even half a dozen
times repeating one same word, anon turning back and whiles saying, 'I
said not aright,' and often erring in the names and putting one for
another, marred it cruelly, more by token that he delivered himself
exceedingly ill, having regard to the quality of the persons and the
nature of the incidents of his tale. By reason whereof, Madam Oretta,
hearkening to him, was many a time taken with a sweat and failing of
the heart, as she were sick and near her end, and at last, being
unable to brook the thing any more and seeing the gentleman engaged in
an imbroglio from which he was not like to extricate himself, she said
to him pleasantly, 'Sir, this horse of yours hath too hard a trot;
wherefore I pray you be pleased to set me down.' The gentleman, who,
as it chanced, understood a hint better than he told a story, took the
jest in good part and turning it off with a laugh, fell to discoursing
of other matters and left unfinished the story that he had begun and
conducted so ill."
THE SECOND STORY
[Day the Sixth]
CISTI THE BAKER WITH A WORD OF HIS FASHION MAKETH MESSER
GERI SPINA SENSIBLE OF AN INDISCREET REQUEST OF HIS