THE SIXTH STORY
[Day the Sixth]
MICHELE SCALZA PROVETH TO CERTAIN YOUNG MEN THAT THE CADGERS OF FLORENCE ARE THE BEST GENTLEMEN OF THE WORLD OR THE MAREMMA AND WINNETH A SUPPER
The ladies yet laughed at Giotto's prompt retort, when the queencharged Fiammetta follow on and she proceeded to speak thus: "Youngladies, the mention by Pamfilo of the cadgers of Florence, whomperadventure you know not as doth he, hath brought to my mind a story,wherein, without deviating from our appointed theme, it isdemonstrated how great is their nobility; and it pleaseth me,therefore, to relate it.
It is no great while since there was in our city a young man calledMichele Scalza, who was the merriest and most agreeable man in theworld and he had still the rarest stories in hand, wherefore the youngFlorentines were exceeding glad to have his company whenas they made aparty of pleasure amongst themselves. It chanced one day, he beingwith certain folk at Monte Ughi, that the question was started amongthem of who were the best and oldest gentlemen of Florence. Some saidthe Uberti, others the Lamberti, and one this family and another that,according as it occurred to his mind; which Scalza hearing, he fella-laughing and said, 'Go to, addlepates that you are! You know notwhat you say. The best gentlemen and the oldest, not only of Florence,but of all the world or the Maremma,[305] are the Cadgers,[306] amatter upon which all the phisopholers and every one who knoweth them,as I do, are of accord; and lest you should understand it of others, Ispeak of the Cadgers your neighbors of Santa Maria Maggiore.'
[Footnote 305: A commentator notes that the adjunction to the world ofthe Maremma (cf. Elijer Goff, "The Irish Question has for somecenturies been enjoyed by _the universe and other parts_") produces arisible effect and gives the reader to understand that Scalza broachesthe question only by way of a joke. The same may be said of thejesting inversion of the word philosophers (phisopholers, Fisofoli) inthe next line.]
[Footnote 306: _Baronci_, the Florentine name for what we should callprofessional beggars, "mumpers, chanters and Abrahammen," called_Bari_ and _Barocci_ in other parts of Italy. This story has been aprodigious stumbling-block to former translators, not one of whomappears 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 knewnot the Cadgers, even as thou dost.' 'By the Evangels,' repliedScalza, 'I gull you not; nay, I speak the truth, and if there be anyhere who will lay a supper thereon, to be given to the winner and halfa 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 ofwhomsoever you will.' Quoth one of them, called Neri Mannini, 'I amready to try to win the supper in question'; whereupon, having agreedtogether to take Piero di Fiorentino, in whose house they were, tojudge, they betook themselves to him, followed by all the rest, wholooked to see Scalza lose and to make merry over his discomfiture, andrecounted to him all that had passed. Piero, who was a discreet youngman, having first heard Neri's argument, turned to Scalza and said tohim, 'And thou, how canst thou prove this that thou affirmest?' 'How,sayest thou?' answered Scalza. 'Nay, I will prove it by such reasoningthat not only thou, but he who denieth it, shall acknowledge that Ispeak sooth. You know that, the ancienter men are, the nobler theyare; and so was it said but now among these. Now the Cadgers are moreancient than any one else, so that they are nobler; and showing youhow 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 thedays when He first began to learn to draw; but the rest of mankindwere made after He knew how to draw. And to assure yourselves that inthis I say sooth, do but consider the Cadgers in comparison with otherfolk; whereas you see all the rest of mankind with faces well composedand duly proportioned, you may see the Cadgers, this with a visnomyvery long and strait and with a face out of all measure broad; onehath too long and another too short a nose and a third hath a chinjutting out and turned upward and huge jawbones that show as they werethose of an ass, whilst some there be who have one eye bigger than theother and other some who have one set lower than the other, like thefaces that children used to make, whenas they first begin to learn todraw. Wherefore, as I have already said, it is abundantly apparentthat God the Lord made them, what time He was learning to draw; sothat they are more ancient and consequently nobler than the rest ofmankind.' At this, both Piero, who was the judge, and Neri, who hadwagered the supper, and all the rest, hearing Scalza's comicalargument and remembering themselves,[307] fell all a-laughing andaffirmed that he was in the right and had won the supper, for that theCadgers were assuredly the noblest and most ancient gentlemen thatwere to be found not in Florence alone, but in the world or theMaremma. Wherefore it was very justly said of Pamfilo, seeking to showthe foulness of Messer Forese's visnomy, that it would have showednotably ugly on one of the Cadgers."
[Footnote 307: _i.e._ of the comical fashion of the Cadgers.]
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio Page 64
