The Decameron, Volume II Read online

  Produced by Donna Holsten

  THE DECAMERON

  OF

  GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

  Faithfully Translated

  By J.M. Rigg

  with illustrations by Louis Chalon

  VOLUME II

  CONTENTS

  - FIFTH DAY -

  NOVEL I. - Cimon, by loving, waxes wise, wins his wife Iphigenia bycapture on the high seas, and is imprisoned at Rhodes. He is delivered byLysimachus; and the twain capture Cassandra and recapture Iphigenia inthe hour of their marriage. They flee with their ladies to Crete, andhaving there married them, are brought back to their homes.

  NOVEL II. - Gostanza loves Martuccio Gomito, and hearing that he is dead,gives way to despair, and hies her alone aboard a boat, which is waftedby the wind to Susa. She finds him alive in Tunis, and makes herselfknown to him, who, having by his counsel gained high place in the king'sfavour, marries her, and returns with her wealthy to Lipari.

  NOVEL III. - Pietro Boccamazza runs away with Agnolella, and encounters agang of robbers: the girl takes refuge in a wood, and is guided to acastle. Pietro is taken, but escapes out of the hands of the robbers, andafter some adventures arrives at the castle where Agnolella is, marriesher, and returns with her to Rome.

  NOVEL IV. - Ricciardo Manardi is found by Messer Lizio da Valbona withhis daughter, whom he marries, and remains at peace with her father.

  NOVEL V. - Guidotto da Cremona dies leaving a girl to Giacomino da Pavia.She has two lovers in Faenza, to wit, Giannole di Severino and Minghinodi Mingole, who fight about her. She is discovered to be Giannole'ssister, and is given to Minghino to wife.

  NOVEL VI. - Gianni di Procida, being found with a damsel that he loves,and who had been given to King Frederic, is bound with her to a stake, soto be burned. He is recognized by Ruggieri dell' Oria, is delivered, andmarries her.

  NOVEL VII. - Teodoro, being enamoured of Violante, daughter of MesserAmerigo, his lord, gets her with child, and is sentenced to the gallows;but while he is being scourged thither, he is recognized by his father,and being set at large, takes Violante to wife.

  NOVEL VIII. - Nastagio degli Onesti, loving a damsel of the Traversarifamily, by lavish expenditure gains not her love. At the instance of hiskinsfolk he hies him to Chiassi, where he sees a knight hunt a damsel andslay her and cause her to be devoured by two dogs. He bids his kinsfolkand the lady that he loves to breakfast. During the meal the said damselis torn in pieces before the eyes of the lady, who, fearing a like fate,takes Nastagio to husband.

  NOVEL IX. - Federigo degli Alberighi loves and is not loved in return: hewastes his substance by lavishness until nought is left but a singlefalcon, which, his lady being come to see him at his house, he gives herto eat: she, knowing his case, changes her mind, takes him to husband andmakes him rich.

  NOVEL X. - Pietro di Vinciolo goes from home to sup: his wife brings aboy into the house to bear her company: Pietro returns, and she hides hergallant under a hen-coop: Pietro explains that in the house of Ercolano,with whom he was to have supped, there was discovered a young manbestowed there by Ercolano's wife: the lady thereupon censures Ercolano'swife: but unluckily an ass treads on the fingers of the boy that ishidden under the hen-coop, so that he cries for pain: Pietro runs to theplace, sees him, and apprehends the trick played on him by his wife,which nevertheless he finally condones, for that he is not himself freefrom blame.

  - SIXTH DAY -

  NOVEL I. - A knight offers to carry Madonna Oretta a horseback with astory, but tells it so ill that she prays him to dismount her.

  NOVEL II. - Cisti, a baker, by an apt speech gives Messer Geri Spina toknow that he has by inadvertence asked that of him which he should not.

  NOVEL III. - Monna Nonna de' Pulci by a ready retort silences the scarceseemly jesting of the Bishop of Florence.

  NOVEL IV. - Chichibio, cook to Currado Gianfigliazzi, owes his safety toa ready answer, whereby he converts Currado's wrath into laughter, andevades the evil fate with which Currado had threatened him.

  NOVEL V. - Messer Forese da Rabatta and Master Giotto, the painter,journeying together from Mugello, deride one another's scurvy appearance.

  NOVEL VI. - Michele Scalza proves to certain young men that the Baronciare the best gentlemen in the world and the Maremma, and wins a supper.

  NOVEL VII. - Madonna Filippa, being found by her husband with her lover,is cited before the court, and by a ready and jocund answer acquitsherself, and brings about an alteration of the statute.

  NOVEL VIII. - Fresco admonishes his niece not to look at herself in theglass, if 'tis, as she says, grievous to her to see nasty folk.

  NOVEL IX. - Guido Cavalcanti by a quip meetly rebukes certain Florentinegentlemen who had taken him at a disadvantage.

  NOVEL X. - Fra Cipolla promises to shew certain country-folk a feather ofthe Angel Gabriel, in lieu of which he finds coals, which he avers to beof those with which St. Lawrence was roasted.

  - SEVENTH DAY -

  NOVEL I. - Gianni Lotteringhi hears a knocking at his door at night: heawakens his wife, who persuades him that 'tis the bogey, which they fallto exorcising with a prayer; whereupon the knocking ceases.

  NOVEL II. - Her husband returning home, Peronella bestows her lover in atun; which, being sold by her husband, she avers to have been alreadysold by herself to one that is inside examining it to set if it be sound.Whereupon the lover jumps out, and causes the husband to scour the tunfor him, and afterwards to carry it to his house.

  NOVEL III. - Fra Rinaldo lies with his gossip: her husband finds him inthe room with her; and they make him believe that he was curing hisgodson of worms by a charm.

  NOVEL IV. - Tofano one night locks his wife out of the house: she,finding that by no entreaties may she prevail upon him to let her in,feigns to throw herself into a well, throwing therein a great stone.Tofano hies him forth of the house, and runs to the spot: she goes intothe house, and locks him out, and hurls abuse at him from within.

  NOVEL V. - A jealous husband disguises himself as a priest, and hears hisown wife's confession: she tells him that she loves a priest, who comesto her every night. The husband posts himself at the door to watch forthe priest, and meanwhile the lady brings her lover in by the roof, andtarries with him.

  NOVEL VI. - Madonna Isabella has with her Leonetto, her accepted lover,when she is surprised by one Messer Lambertuccio, by whom she is beloved:her husband coming home about the same time, she sends MesserLambertuccio forth of the house drawn sword in hand, and the husbandafterwards escorts Leonetto home.

  NOVEL VII. - Lodovico discovers to Madonna Beatrice the love that hebears her: she sends Egano, her husband, into a garden disguised asherself, and lies with Lodovico; who thereafter, being risen, hies him tothe garden and cudgels Egano.

  NOVEL VIII. - A husband grows jealous of his wife, and discovers thatshe has warning of her lover's approach by a piece of pack-thread, whichshe ties to her great toe a nights. While he is pursuing her lover, sheputs another woman in bed in her place. The husband, finding her there,beats her, and cuts off her hair. He then goes and calls his wife'sbrothers, who, holding his accusation to be false, give him a rating.

  NOVEL IX. - Lydia, wife of Nicostratus, loves Pyrrhus, who to assurehimself thereof, asks three things of her, all of which she does, andtherewithal enjoys him in presence of Nicostratus, and makes Nicostratusbelieve that what he saw was not real.

  NOVEL X. - Two Sienese love a lady, one of them being her gossip: thegossip dies, having promised his comrade to return to him from the otherworld; which he does, and tells him what sort of life is led there.

  - EIGHTH DAY -

  NOVEL I. - Gulfardo borrows moneys of Guasparruolo, which he has agreedto give Guaspar
ruolo's wife, that he may lie with her. He gives them toher, and in her presence tells Guasparruolo that he has done so, and sheacknowledges that 'tis true.

  NOVEL II. - The priest of Varlungo lies with Monna Belcolore: he leaveswith her his cloak by way of pledge, and receives from her a mortar. Hereturns the mortar, and demands of her the cloak that he had left inpledge, which the good lady returns him with a gibe.

  NOVEL III. - Calandrino, Bruno and Buffalmacco go in quest of theheliotrope beside the Mugnone. Thinking to have found it, Calandrino getshim home laden with stones. His wife chides him: whereat he waxes wroth,beats her, and tells his comrades what they know better than he.

  NOVEL IV. - The rector of Fiesole loves a widow lady, by whom he is notloved, and thinking to lie with her, lies with her maid, with whom thelady's brothers cause him to be found by his Bishop.

  NOVEL V. - Three young men pull down the breeches of a judge from theMarches, while he is administering justice on the bench.

  NOVEL VI. - Bruno and Buffalmacco steal a pig from Calandrino, and inducehim to essay its recovery by means of pills of ginger and