The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
appears to have had the slightest idea of Boccaccio's meaning.]
When the young men, who looked for him to say otherwhat, heard this,
they all made mock of him and said, 'Thou gullest us, as if we knew
not the Cadgers, even as thou dost.' 'By the Evangels,' replied
Scalza, 'I gull you not; nay, I speak the truth, and if there be any
here who will lay a supper thereon, to be given to the winner and half
a dozen companions of his choosing, I will willingly hold the wager;
and I will do yet more for you, for I will abide by the judgment of
whomsoever you will.' Quoth one of them, called Neri Mannini, 'I am
ready to try to win the supper in question'; whereupon, having agreed
together to take Piero di Fiorentino, in whose house they were, to
judge, they betook themselves to him, followed by all the rest, who
looked to see Scalza lose and to make merry over his discomfiture, and
recounted to him all that had passed. Piero, who was a discreet young
man, having first heard Neri's argument, turned to Scalza and said to
him, 'And thou, how canst thou prove this that thou affirmest?' 'How,
sayest thou?' answered Scalza. 'Nay, I will prove it by such reasoning
that not only thou, but he who denieth it, shall acknowledge that I
speak sooth. You know that, the ancienter men are, the nobler they
are; and so was it said but now among these. Now the Cadgers are more
ancient than any one else, so that they are nobler; and showing you
how they are the most ancient, I shall undoubtedly have won the wager.
You must know, then, that the Cadgers were made by God the Lord in the
days when He first began to learn to draw; but the rest of mankind
were made after He knew how to draw. And to assure yourselves that in
this I say sooth, do but consider the Cadgers in comparison with other
folk; whereas you see all the rest of mankind with faces well composed
and duly proportioned, you may see the Cadgers, this with a visnomy
very long and strait and with a face out of all measure broad; one
hath too long and another too short a nose and a third hath a chin
jutting out and turned upward and huge jawbones that show as they were
those of an ass, whilst some there be who have one eye bigger than the
other and other some who have one set lower than the other, like the
faces that children used to make, whenas they first begin to learn to
draw. Wherefore, as I have already said, it is abundantly apparent
that God the Lord made them, what time He was learning to draw; so
that they are more ancient and consequently nobler than the rest of
mankind.' At this, both Piero, who was the judge, and Neri, who had
wagered the supper, and all the rest, hearing Scalza's comical
argument and remembering themselves,[307] fell all a-laughing and
affirmed that he was in the right and had won the supper, for that the
Cadgers were assuredly the noblest and most ancient gentlemen that
were to be found not in Florence alone, but in the world or the
Maremma. Wherefore it was very justly said of Pamfilo, seeking to show
the foulness of Messer Forese's visnomy, that it would have showed
notably ugly on one of the Cadgers."
[Footnote 307: _i.e._ of the comical fashion of the Cadgers.]
THE SEVENTH STORY
[Day the Sixth]
MADAM FILIPPA, BEING FOUND BY HER HUSBAND WITH A LOVER OF
HERS AND BROUGHT TO JUSTICE, DELIVERETH HERSELF WITH A
PROMPT AND PLEASANT ANSWER AND CAUSETH MODIFY THE STATUTE
Fiammetta was now silent and all laughed yet at the novel argument
used by Scalza for the ennoblement over all of the Cadgers, when the
queen enjoined Filostrato to tell and he accordingly began to say, "It
is everywise a fine thing, noble ladies, to know how to speak well,
but I hold it yet goodlier to know how to do it whereas necessity
requireth it, even as a gentlewoman, of whom I purpose to entertain
you, knew well how to do on such wise that not only did she afford her
hearers matter for mirth and laughter, but did herself loose from the
toils of an ignominious death, as you shall presently hear.
There was, then, aforetime, in the city of Prato, a statute in truth
no less blameworthy than cruel, which, without making any distinction,
ordained that any woman found by her husband in adultery with any her
lover should be burnt, even as she who should be discovered to have
sold her favours for money. What while this statute was in force, it
befell that a noble and beautiful lady, by name Madam Filippa, who was
of a singularly amorous complexion, was one night found by Rinaldo de'
Pugliesi her husband, in her own chamber in the arms of Lazzerino de'
Guazzagliotri, a noble and handsome youth of that city, whom she loved
even as herself. Rinaldo, seeing this, was sore enraged and scarce
contained himself from falling upon them and slaying them; and but
that he feared for himself, an he should ensue the promptings of his
anger, he had certainly done it. However, he forbore from this, but
could not refrain from seeking of the law of Prato that which it was
not permitted him to accomplish with his own hand, to wit, the death
of his wife. Having, therefore, very sufficient evidence to prove the
lady's default, no sooner was the day come than, without taking other
counsel, he lodged an accusation against her and caused summon her
before the provost.
Madam Filippa, being great of heart, as women commonly are who are
verily in love, resolved, although counselled to the contrary by many
of her friends and kinsfolk, to appear, choosing rather, confessing
the truth, to die with an undaunted spirit, than, meanly fleeing, to
live an outlaw in exile and confess herself unworthy of such a lover
as he in whose arms she had been the foregoing night. Wherefore,
presenting herself before the provost, attended by a great company of
men and ladies and exhorted of all to deny the charge, she demanded,
with a firm voice and an assured air, what he would with her. The
magistrate, looking upon her and seeing her very fair and commendable
of carriage and according as her words testified, of a lofty spirit,
began to have compassion of her, fearing lest she should confess
somewhat wherefore it should behoove him, for his own honour's sake,
condemn her to die. However, having no choice but to question her of
that which was laid to her charge, he said to her, 'Madam, as you see,
here is Rinaldo your husband, who complaineth of you, avouching
himself to have found you in adultery with another man and demanding
that I should punish you therefor by putting you to death, according
to the tenor of a statute which here obtaineth; but this I cannot do,
except you confess it; wherefore look well what you answer and tell me
if that be true whereof your husband impeacheth you.'
The lady, no wise dismayed, replied very cheerfully, 'Sir, true it is
that Rinaldo is my husband and that he found me last night in the arms
of Lazzarino, wherein, for the great and perfect love I bear him, I
have many a time been; nor am I anywise minded to deny this. But, as I
am assured you know, laws should be common to all and made with the
consent of those whom they concern; and this is not the case with this
statute, which is binding only upon us unhappy women, who might far
better than men avail to satisfy many; more by token that, when it was
made, not only did no woman yield consent thereunto, but none of us
was even cited to do so; wherefore it may justly be styled naught.
However, an you choose, to the prejudice of my body and of your own
soul, to be the executor of this unrighteous law, it resteth with you
to do so; but, ere you proceed to adjudge aught, I pray you do me one
slight favour, to wit, that you question my husband if at all times
and as often as it pleased him, without ever saying him nay, I have or
not vouchsafed him entire commodity of myself.'
Rinaldo, without waiting to be questioned of the provost, straightway
made answer that undoubtedly the lady had, at his every request,
accorded him his every pleasure of herself; whereupon, 'Then, my lord
provost,' straightway rejoined she, 'if he have still taken of me that
which was needful and pleasing to him, what, I ask you, was or am I to
do with that which remaineth over and above his requirements? Should I
cast it to the dogs? Was it not far better to gratify withal a
gentleman who loveth me more than himself, than to leave it waste or
spoil?' Now well nigh all the people of Prato had flocked thither to
the trial of such a matter and of so fair and famous a lady, and
hearing so comical a question, they all, after much laughter, cried
out as with one voice that she was in the right of it and that she
said well. Moreover, ere they departed thence, at the instance of the
provost, they modified the cruel statute and left it to apply to those
women only who should for money make default to their husbands.
Thereupon Rinaldo, having taken nought but shame by so fond an
emprise, departed the court, and the lady returned in triumph to her
own house, joyful and free and in a manner raised up out of the fire."
THE EIGHTH STORY
[Day the Sixth]
FRESCO EXHORTETH HIS NIECE NOT TO MIRROR HERSELF IN THE
GLASS, IF, AS SHE SAITH, IT IRKETH HER TO SEE DISAGREEABLE
FOLK
The story told by Filostrato at first touched the hearts of the
listening ladies with some little shamefastness and they gave token
thereof by a modest redness that appeared upon their faces; but, after
looking one at another, they hearkened thereto, tittering the while
and scarce able to abstain from laughing. As soon as he was come to
the end thereof, the queen turned to Emilia and bade her follow on,
whereupon, sighing no otherwise than as she had been aroused from a
dream, she began, "Lovesome lasses, for that long thought hath held me
far from here, I shall, to obey our queen content myself with
[relating] a story belike much slighter than that which I might have
bethought myself to tell, had my mind been present here, recounting to
you the silly default of a damsel, corrected by an uncle of hers with
a jocular retort, had she been woman enough to have apprehended it.
A certain Fresco da Celatico, then, had a niece familiarly called
Ciesca,[308] who, having a comely face and person (though none of
those angelical beauties that we have often seen aforetime), set so
much store by herself and accounted herself so noble that she had
gotten a habit of carping at both men and women and everything she
saw, without anywise taking thought to herself, who was so much more
fashous, froward and humoursome than any other of her sex that nothing
could be done to her liking. Beside all this, she was so prideful
that, had she been of the blood royal of France, it had been
overweening; and when she went abroad, she gave herself so many airs
that she did nought but make wry faces, as if there came to her a
stench from whomsoever she saw or met. But, letting be many other
vexatious and tiresome fashions of hers, it chanced one day that she
came back to the house, where Fresco was, and seating herself near
him, all full of airs and grimaces, did nothing but puff and blow;
whereupon quoth he, 'What meaneth this, Ciesca, that, to-day being a
holiday, thou comest home so early?' To which she answered, all like
to die away with affectation, 'It is true I have come back soon, for
that I believe there were never in this city so many disagreeable and
tiresome people, both men and women, as there are to-day; there
passeth none about the streets but is hateful to me as ill-chance, and
I do not believe there is a woman in the world to whom it is more
irksome to see disagreeable folk than it is to me; wherefore I have
returned thus early, not to see them.' 'My lass,' rejoined Fresco, to
whom his niece's airs and graces were mighty displeasing, 'if