The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
have e'en stolen a march on you to-day." "How?" asked Dioneo. "Do you
begin to do deeds ere you come to say words?"[339] "Ay, my lord,"
answered she and related to him at large whence they came and how the
place was fashioned and how far distant thence and that which they had
done. The king, hearing tell of the goodliness of the place and
desirous of seeing it, caused straightway order the supper, which
being dispatched to the general satisfaction, the three young men,
leaving the ladies, betook themselves with their servants to the
valley and having viewed it in every part, for that none of them had
ever been there before, extolled it for one of the goodliest things in
the world. Then, for that it grew late, after they had bathed and
donned their clothes, they returned home, where they found the ladies
dancing a round, to the accompaniment of a song sung by Fiammetta.
[Footnote 339: Alluding to the subject fixed for the next day's
discourse, as who should say, "Have you begun already to play tricks
upon us men in very deed, ere you tell about them in words?"]
The dance ended, they entered with them into a discourse of the
Ladies' Valley and said much in praise and commendation thereof.
Moreover, the king, sending for the seneschal, bade him look that the
dinner be made ready there on the following morning and have sundry
beds carried thither, in case any should have a mind to lie or sleep
there for nooning; after which he let bring lights and wine and
confections and the company having somedele refreshed themselves, he
commanded that all should address themselves to dancing. Then, Pamfilo
having, at his commandment, set up a dance, the king turned to Elisa
and said courteously to her, "Fair damsel, thou has to-day done me the
honour of the crown and I purpose this evening to do thee that of the
song; wherefore look thou sing such an one as most liketh thee." Elisa
answered, smiling, that she would well and with dulcet voice began on
this wise:
Love, from thy clutches could I but win free,
Hardly, methinks, again
Shall any other hook take hold on me.
I entered in thy wars a youngling maid,
Thinking thy strife was utmost peace and sweet,
And all my weapons on the ground I laid,
As one secure, undoubting of defeat;
But thou, false tyrant, with rapacious heat,
Didst fall on me amain
With all the grapnels of thine armoury.
Then, wound about and fettered with thy chains,
To him, who for my death in evil hour
Was born, thou gav'st me, bounden, full of pains
And bitter tears; and syne within his power
He hath me and his rule's so harsh and dour
No sighs can move the swain
Nor all my wasting plaints to set me free.
My prayers, the wild winds bear them all away;
He hearkeneth unto none and none will hear;
Wherefore each hour my torment waxeth aye;
I cannot die, albeit life irks me drear.
Ah, Lord, have pity on my heavy cheer;
Do that I seek in vain
And give him bounden in thy chains to me.
An this thou wilt not, at the least undo
The bonds erewhen of hope that knitted were;
Alack, O Lord, thereof to thee I sue,
For, an thou do it, yet to waxen fair
Again I trust, as was my use whilere,
And being quit of pain
Myself with white flowers and with red besee.
Elisa ended her song with a very plaintive sigh, and albeit all
marvelled at the words thereof, yet was there none who might conceive
what it was that caused her sing thus. But the king, who was in a
merry mood, calling for Tindaro, bade him bring out his bagpipes, to
the sound whereof he let dance many dances; after which, a great part
of the night being now past, he bade each go sleep.
HERE ENDETH THE SIXTH DAY
OF THE DECAMERON
_Day the Seventh_
HERE BEGINNETH THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE DECAMERON WHEREIN
UNDER THE GOVERNANCE OF DIONEO IS DISCOURSED OF THE TRICKS
WHICH OR FOR LOVE OR FOR THEIR OWN PRESERVATION WOMEN HAVE
HERETOFORE PLAYED THEIR HUSBANDS WITH OR WITHOUT THE
LATTER'S COGNIZANCE THEREOF
Every star was already fled from the parts of the East, save only that
which we style Lucifer and which shone yet in the whitening dawn, when
the seneschal, arising, betook himself, with a great baggage-train, to
the Ladies' Valley, there to order everything, according to
commandment had of his lord. The king, whom the noise of the packers
and of the beasts had awakened, tarried not long after his departure
to rise and being risen, caused arouse all the ladies and likewise the
young men; nor had the rays of the sun yet well broken forth, when
they all entered upon the road. Never yet had the nightingales and the
other birds seemed to them to sing so blithely as they did that
morning, what while, accompanied by their carols, they repaired to the
Ladies' Valley, where they were received by many more, which seemed to
them to make merry for their coming. There, going round about the
place and reviewing it all anew, it appeared to them so much fairer
than on the foregoing day as the season of the day was more sorted to
its goodliness. Then, after they had broken their fast with good wine
and confections, not to be behindhand with the birds in the matter of
song, they fell a-singing and the valley with them, still echoing
those same songs which they did sing, whereto all the birds, as if
they would not be outdone, added new and dulcet notes. Presently, the
dinner-hour being come and the tables spread hard by the fair lakelet
under the thickset laurels and other goodly trees, they seated
themselves there, as it pleased the king, and eating, watched the fish
swim in vast shoals about the lake, which gave bytimes occasion for
talk as well as observation. When they had made an end of dining and
the meats and tables were removed, they fell anew to singing more
blithely than ever; after which, beds having been spread in various
places about the little valley and all enclosed about by the discreet
seneschal with curtains and canopies of French serge, whoso would
might with the king's permission, go sleep; whilst those who had no
mind to sleep might at their will take pleasure of their other wonted
pastimes. But, after awhile, all being now arisen and the hour come
when they should assemble together for story-telling, carpets were, at
the king's commandment, spread upon the grass, not far from the place
where they had eaten, and all having seated themselves thereon hard by
the lake, the king bade Emilia begin; whereupon she blithely proceeded
to speak, smiling, thus:
THE FIRST STORY
[Day the Seventh]
GIANNI LOTTERINGHI HEARETH KNOCK AT HIS DOOR BY NIGHT AND
AWAKENETH HIS WIFE, WHO GIVETH HIM TO BELIEVE THAT IT IS A
PHANTOM; WHEREUPON THEY GO TO EXORCISE IT WITH A CERTAIN
ORISON AND THE KNOCKING CEASETH
"My Lord, it had been very agreeable to me, were such your pleasure,
that other than I should have given a beginning to so goodly a matter
as is that whereof we are to speak; but, since it pleaseth you that I
give all the other ladies assurance by my example, I will gladly do
it. Moreover, dearest ladies, I will study to tell a thing that may be
useful to you in time to come, for that, if you others are as fearful
as I, and especially of phantoms, (though what manner of thing they
may be God knoweth I know not, nor ever found I any woman who knew it,
albeit all are alike adread of them,) you may, by noting well my
story, learn a holy and goodly orison of great virtue for the
conjuring them away, should they come to you.
There was once in Florence, in the quarter of San Brancazio, a
wool-comber called Gianni Lotteringhi, a man more fortunate in his
craft than wise in other things, for that, savoring of the simpleton,
he was very often made captain of the Laudsingers[340] of Santa Maria
Novella and had the governance of their confraternity, and he many a
time had other little offices of the same kind, upon which he much
valued himself. This betided him for that, being a man of substance,
he gave many a good pittance to the clergy, who, getting of him often,
this a pair of hose, that a gown and another a scapulary, taught him
in return store of goodly orisons and gave him the paternoster in the
vulgar tongue, the Song of Saint Alexis, the Lamentations of Saint
Bernard, the Canticles of Madam Matilda and the like trumpery, all
which he held very dear and kept very diligently for his soul's
health. Now he had a very fair and lovesome lady to wife, by name
Mistress Tessa, who was the daughter of Mannuccio dalla Cuculia and
was exceeding discreet and well advised. She, knowing her husband's
simplicity and being enamoured of Federigo di Neri Pegolotti, a brisk
and handsome youth, and he of her, took order with a serving-maid of
hers that he should come speak with her at a very goodly country house
which her husband had at Camerata, where she sojourned all the summer
and whither Gianni came whiles to sup and sleep, returning in the
morning to his shop and bytimes to his Laudsingers.
[Footnote 340: See p. 144, note 2.]
Federigo, who desired this beyond measure, taking his opportunity,
repaired thither on the day appointed him towards vespers and Gianni
not coming thither that evening, supped and lay the night in all ease
and delight with the lady, who, being in his arms, taught him that
night a good half dozen of her husband's lauds. Then, neither she nor
Federigo purposing that this should be the last, as it had been the
first time [of their foregathering], they took order together on this
wise, so it should not be needful to send the maid for him each time,
to wit, that every day, as he came and went to and from a place he had
a little farther on, he should keep his eye on a vineyard that
adjoined the house, where he would see an ass's skull set up on one of
the vine poles, which whenas he saw with the muzzle turned towards
Florence, he should without fail and in all assurance betake himself
to her that evening after dark; and if he found the door shut he
should knock softly thrice and she would open to him; but that, whenas
he saw the ass's muzzle turned towards Fiesole, he should not come,
for that Gianni would be there; and doing on this wise, they
foregathered many a time.
But once, amongst other times, it chanced that, Federigo being one
night to sup with Mistress Tessa and she having let cook two fat
capons, Gianni, who was not expected there that night, came thither
very late, whereat the lady was much chagrined and having supped with
her husband on a piece of salt pork, which she had let boil apart,
caused the maid wrap the two boiled capons in a white napkin and carry
them, together with good store of new-laid eggs and a flask of good
wine, into a garden she had, whither she could go, without passing
through the house, and where she was wont to sup whiles with her
lover, bidding her lay them at the foot of a peach-tree that grew
beside a lawn there. But such was her trouble and annoy that she
remembered not to bid the maid wait till Federigo should come and tell
him that Gianni was there and that he should take the viands from the
garden; wherefore, she and Gianni betaking themselves to bed and the
maid likewise, it was not long before Federigo came to the door and
knocked softly once. The door was so near to the bedchamber that
Gianni heard it incontinent, as also did the lady; but she made a show
of being asleep, so her husband might have no suspicion of her. After
waiting a little, Federigo knocked a second time, whereupon Gianni,
marvelling, nudged his wife somewhat and said, 'Tessa, hearest thou