Chapter 32

[98]Charles d'Anjou, afterwards King of Sicily.

[99]i.e.Frederick II. of Germany.

[100]The reason was that she wished to keep him in play till late into the night, when all the folk should be asleep and she might the lightlier deal with him.

[101]i.e.Catalan Street.

[102]Charles d'Anjou.

[103]i.e.the Banished or the Expelled One.

[104]An island in the Gulf of Gaeta, about 70 miles from Naples. It is now inhabited, but appears in Boccaccio's time to have been desert.

[105]i.e.wild she-goat.

[106]A river falling into the Gulf of Genoa between Carrara and Spezzia.

[107]More familiar to modern ears as Doria.

[108]The Ghibellines were the supporters of the Papal faction against the Guelphs or adherents of the Emperor Frederick II. of Germany. The cardinal struggle between the two factions took place over the succession to the throne of Naples and Sicily, to which the Pope appointed Charles of Anjou, who overcame and killed the reigning sovereign Manfred, but was himself, through the machinations of the Ghibellines, expelled from Sicily by the celebrated popular rising known as the Sicilian Vespers.

[109]i.e.Beritola's sons.

[110]i.e.to which general joy.

[111]Pedro of Arragon, son-in-law of Manfred, who, in consequence of the Sicilian Vespers, succeeded Charles d'Anjou as King of Sicily.

[112]Or (in modern phrase) putting himself at their disposition.

[113]i.e.Egypt, Cairo was known in the middle ages by the name of "Babylon of Egypt." It need hardly be noted that the Babylon of the Bible was the city of that name on the Euphrates, the ancient capital of Chaldæa (Irak Babili). The names Beminedab and Alatiel are purely imaginary.

[114]i.e.to his wish, to whom fortune was mostly favourable in his enterprises.

[115]Il Garbo, Arabic El Gherb or Gharb,الﻐرب, the West, a name given by the Arabs to several parts of the Muslim empire, but by which Boccaccio apparently means Algarve, the southernmost province of Portugal and the last part of that kingdom to succumb to the wave of Christian reconquest, it having remained in the hands of the Muslims till the second half of the thirteenth century. This supposition is confirmed by the course taken by Alatiel's ship, which would naturally pass Sardinia and the Balearic Islands on its way from Alexandria to Portugal.

[116]The modern Klarentza in the north-west of the Morea, which latter province formed part of Roumelia under the Turkish domination.

[117]i.e.sister to the one and cousin to the other.

[118]Non vogando, ma volando.

[119]Sic (contò tutto); but this is an oversight of the author's, as it is evident from what follows that she didnotrelate everything.

[120]Lit. Ponant (Ponente),i.e.the Western coasts of the Mediterranean, as opposed to the Eastern or Levant.

[121]i.e.a.d.912, when, upon the death of Louis III, the last prince of the Carlovingian race, Conrad, Duke of Franconia, was elected Emperor and the Empire, which had till then been hereditary in the descendants of Charlemagne, became elective and remained thenceforth in German hands.

[122]Anguersa, the old form ofAnversa, Antwerp. All versions that I have seen call Gautier Comte d'AngersorAngiers, the translators, who forgot or were unaware that Antwerp, as part of Flanders, was then a fief of the French crown, apparently taking it for granted that the mention of the latter city was in error and substituting the name of the ancient capital of Anjou on their own responsibility.

[123]i.e.of her excuse.

[124]Lit. Thou holdest (or judges); butgiudichiin the text is apparently a mistake forgiudico.

[125]i.e.of discernment.

[126]Sic (aggiunsero); butsembleshould mean "believed, in addition."

[127]i.e.That the secret might be the better kept.

[128]Paesani, lit., countrymen; but Boccaccio evidently uses the word in the sense of "vassals."

[129]i.e.that it was not a snare.

[130]Quære, the Count's?

[131]Rimane.The verbrimanereis constantly used by the old Italian writers in the sense of "to become," so that the proverb cited in the text may be read "The deceiver becometh (i.e.findeth himself in the end) at the feet (i.e.at the mercy) of the person deceived."

[132]Lit. Whatsoever an ass giveth against a wall, such he receiveth (Quale asino da in parete, tal riceve). I cannot find any satisfactory explanation of this proverbial saying, which may be rendered in two ways, according asqualeandtaleare taken as relative to a thing or a person. The probable reference seems to be to the circumstance of an ass making water against a wall, so that his urine returns to him.

[133]From this point until the final discovery of her true sex, the heroine is spoken of in the masculine gender, as became her assumed name and habit.

[134]Here Boccaccio uses the feminine pronoun, immediately afterward resuming the masculine form in speaking of Sicurano.

[135]i.e.her.

[136]i.e.her.

[137]i.e.hers.

[138]i.e.her.

[139]Sic (meglio).

[140]Lit. fabulous demonstrations (dimostrazioni favolose), casuistical arguments, founded upon premises of their own invention.

[141]According to one of the commentators of the Decameron, there are as many churches at Ravenna as days in the year and each day is there celebrated as that of some saint or other.

[142]A trifling jingle upon the similarity in sound of the wordsmortale(mortal),mortaio(mortar),pestello(pestle), andpestilente(pestilential). The same word-play occurs at least once more in the Decameron.

[143]Il mal foro, a woman's commodity (Florio).

[144]i.e.Cunnus nonvult feriari.Some commentators propose to readil mal furo, the ill thief, supposing Ricciardo to allude to Paganino, but this seems far-fetched.

[145]i.e.sembleran headlong to destruction. The commentators explain this proverbial expression by saying that a she-goat is in any case a hazardous mount, anda fortioriwhen ridden down a precipice; but this seems a somewhat "sporting" kind of interpretation.

[146]i.e.Friday being a fast day and Saturday ajour maigre.

[147]i.e.generally upon the vicissitudes of Fortune and not upon any particular feature.

[148]Industria, syn. address, skilful contrivance.

[149]i.e.halfbefore(not halfafter) tierce or 7.30 a.m.Cf.the equivalent German idiom,halb acht, 7.30 (not 8.30) a.m.

[150]i.e.as a whole (tutto insieme).

[151]Sollecitudine.The commentators will have it that this is an error forsolitudine, solitude, but I see no necessity for the substitution, the text being perfectly acceptable as it stands.

[152]Hortyard (orto) is the old form of orchard, properly an enclosed tract of land in which fruit, vegetables and potherbs are cultivated for use,i.e.the modern kitchen garden and orchard in one, as distinguished from the pleasaunce or flower garden (giardino).

[153]Giardino,i.e.flower-garden.

[154]Lit. broke the string of.

[155]Boccaccio calls herTeudelinga; but I know of no authority for this form of the name of the famous Longobardian queen.

[156]Referring apparently to the adventure related in the present story.

[157]Lit. with high (i.e.worthy) cause (con alta cagione).

[158]Lit. (riscaldare gli orecchi).

[159]i.e.three a.m. next morning.

[160]i.e.a lay brother or affiliate.

[161]i.e.the canticles of praise chanted by certain lay confraternities, established for that purpose and answering to our præ-Reformation Laudsingers.

[162]An order of lay penitents, who were wont at certain times to go masked about the streets, scourging themselves in expiation of the sins of the people. This expiatory practice was particularly prevalent in Italy in the middle of the thirteenth century.

[163]Contraction of Elisabetta.

[164]Dom, contraction of Dominus (lord), the title commonly given to the beneficed clergy in the middle ages, answering to ourSiras used by Shakespeare (e.g.Sir Hugh Evans the Welsh Parson, Sir Topas the Curate, etc.). The expression survives in the titleDominie(i.e.Domine, voc. of Dominus) still familiarly applied to schoolmasters, who were of course originally invariably clergymen.

[165]A Conventual is a member of some monastic order attached to the regular service of a church, or (as would nowadays be said) a "beneficed" monk.

[166]Sic.This confusion of persons constantly occurs in Boccaccio, especially in the conversational parts of the Decameron, in which he makes the freest use of the various forms of enallage and of other rhetorical figures, such as hyperbaton, synecdoche, etc., to the no small detriment of his style in the matter of clearness.

[167]i.e.nine o'clock p.m.

[168]i.e.a gentleman of Pistoia.

[169]Lit. "The summit," or in modern slang "The tiptop,"i.e.the pink of fashion.

[170]i.e.this love shall I bear you. This is a flagrant instance of the misuse of ellipsis, which so frequently disfigures Boccaccio's dialogue.

[171]i.e.my death.

[172]Syn. a rare or strange means (nuovo consiglio). The wordnuovois constantly used by Boccaccio in the latter sense, as isconsiglioin its remoter signification of means, remedy, etc.

[173]i.e.the favour.

[174]i.e.the lost six months.

[175]Or, in modern parlance, to enlighten her.

[176]i.e.It was not the dead man, but Tedaldo Elisei whom you loved. (Lo sventurato giovane che fu morto non amasti voi mai, ma Tedaldo Elisei si.)

[177]i.e.friars' gowns. Boccaccio constantly uses this irregular form of enallage, especially in dialogue.

[178]Or, as we should nowadays say, "typical."

[179]i.e.the founders of the monastic orders.

[180]Lit. pictures, paintings (dipinture), but evidently here used in a tropical sense, Boccaccio's apparent meaning being that the hypocritical friars used to terrify their devotees by picturing to them, in vivid colours, the horrors of the punishment reserved for sinners.

[181]i.e.may not have to labour for their living.

[182]i.e.the false friars.

[183]Lit. more of iron (più di ferro).

[184]Sic (per lo modo); butquærenot rather "in the sense."

[185]i.e.if they must enter upon this way of life, to wit, that of the friar.

[186]The reference is apparently to the opening verse of the Acts of the Apostles, where Luke says, "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach." It need hardly be remarked that the passage in question does not bear the interpretation Boccaccio would put upon it.

[187]Sic; but the past tense "loved" is probably intended, as the pretended pilgrim had not yet discovered Tedaldo to be alive.

[188]Lit. barkers (abbajatori),i.e.slanderers.

[189]Lit. despite, rancour (rugginuzza), but the phrase appears to refer to the suspicions excited by the whispers that had been current, as above mentioned, of the connection between Ermellina and Tedaldo.

[190]i.e.foot-soldiers.

[191]i.e.of his identity.

[192]i.e.the abbot who played the trick upon Ferondo. See post.

[193]i.e.I will cure your husband of his jealousy.

[194]The well-known chief of the Assassins (properlyHeshashin,i.e.hashish or hemp eaters). The powder in question is apparently a preparation of hashish or hemp. Boccaccio seems to have taken his idea of the Old Man of the Mountain from Marco Polo, whose travels, published in the early part of the fourteenth century, give a most romantic account of that chieftain and his followers.

[195]i.e.in the sublunary world.

[196]Sic(casciata); meaning that he loves her as well as he loves cheese, for which it is well known that the lower-class Italian has a romantic passion. According to Alexandre Dumas, the Italian loves cheese so well that he has succeeded in introducing it into everything he eats or drinks, with the one exception of coffee.

[197]i.e.the Angel Gabriel.

[198]The plural of a surname is, in strictness, always used by the Italians in speaking of a man by his full name,deibeing understood between the Christian and surname, asBenedetto(dei)Ferondi, Benedict of the Ferondos or Ferondo family, whilst, when he is denominated by the surname alone, it is used in the singular,il(the) being understood,e.g.(Il) Boccaccio, (Il) Ferondo,i.e.the particular Boccaccio or Ferondo in question for the nonce.

[199]Lit. and so I hope (spero), a curious instance of the ancient Dantesque use of the wordspero, I hope, in its contrary sense of fear.

[200]Fornito, a notable example of what the illustrious Lewis Carroll Dodgson, Waywode of Wonderland, calls a "portmanteau-word," a species that abounds in mediæval Italian, for the confusion of translators.

[201]i.e.getting good pay and allowances (avendo buona provisione).

[202]Guadagnare l'anima, lit. gain the soul (syn. pith, kernel, substance). This passage is ambiguous and should perhaps be rendered "catch the knack or trick" or "acquire the wish."

[203]The translators regret that the disuse into which magic has fallen, makes it impossible to render the technicalities of that mysterious art into tolerable English; they have therefore found it necessary to insert several passages in the original Italian.

[204]i.e.the government (corte).

[205]Lit. that scythes were no less plenty that he had arrows (che falci si trovavano non meno che egli avesse strali), a proverbial expression the exact bearing of which I do not know, but whose evident sense I have rendered in the equivalent English idiom.

[206]Syn. what he said (che si dire). See ante, p.11, note.

[207]Apparently the well-known fabliau of the Dame de Vergy, upon which Marguerite d'Angoulême founded the seventieth story of the Heptameron.

[208]Lit. made (Di me il feci digno).

[209]i.e.false suspicion (falso pensiero).

[210]i.e.to heaven (e costa su m'impetra la tornata).

[211]The pertinence of this allusion, which probably refers to some current Milanese proverbial saying, the wordtosa, here used by Boccaccio for "wench," belonging to the Lombard dialect, is not very clear. The expression "Milan-fashion" (alla melanese) may be supposed to refer to the proverbial materialism of the people of Lombardy.

[212]Sic (senza invidia); but the meaning is that misery alone is withoutenviers.

[213]i.e.blasts of calumny.

[214]i.e.having not yet accomplished.

[215]i.e.my censors.

[216]i.e.in alms.

[217]"I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need."—Philippiansiv. 12.

[218]i.e.benumbed (assiderati).

[219]Or airshaft (spiraglio).

[220]Lit. introduced him to me (a me lo 'ntrodussi); but Boccaccio here uses the wordintrodurrein its rarer literal sense to lead, to draw, to bring in.

[221]i.e.thou being the means of bringing about the conjunction (adoperandol tu).

[222]i.e.Guiscardo's soul.

[223]i.e.in the heart.

[224]i.e.was more inclined to consider the wishes of the ladies her companions, which she divined by sympathy, than those of Filostrato, as shown by his words (più per la sua affezione cognobbe l'animo delle campagne che quello del re per le sue parole). It is difficult, however, in this instance as in many others, to discover with certainty Boccaccio's exact meaning, owing to his affectation of Ciceronian concision and delight in obscure elliptical forms of construction; whilst his use of words in a remote or unfamiliar sense and the impossibility of deciding, in certain cases, the person of the pronouns and adjectives employed tend still farther to darken counsel.E.g., if we renderaffezionesentiment,cognobbe(asriconobbe) acknowledged, recognized, and readle sue paroleas meaningher(instead ofhis) words, the whole sense of the passage is changed, and we must read it "more by her sentiment (i.e.by the tendency and spirit of her story) recognized the inclination of her companions than that of the king by her [actual] words." I have commented thus at large on this passage, in order to give my readers some idea of the difficulties which at every page beset the translator of the Decameron and which make Boccaccio perhaps the most troublesome of all authors to render into representative English.

[225]Lit. of those whowasheld of the greatest casuists (di quelli che de' maggior cassesi era tenuto). This is another very obscure passage. The meaning of the wordcassesiis unknown and we can only guess it to be a dialectic (probably Venetian) corruption of the wordcasisti(casuists). The Giunta edition separates the word thus,casse si, makingsia mere corroborative prefix toera, but I do not see how the alteration helps us, the wordcasse(chests, boxes) being apparently meaningless in this connection.

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