199 Lit. and so I hope (spero), a curious instance of the ancient Dantesque use of the word spero, 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 word tosa, 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 without enviers.
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.” — Philippians iv. 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 word introdurre in 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 render affezione sentiment, cognobbe (as riconobbe) acknowledged, recognized, and read le sue parole as meaning her (instead of his) 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 who was held of the greatest casuists (di quelli che de’ maggior cassesi era tenuto). This is another very obscure passage. The meaning of the word cassesi is unknown and we can only guess it to be a dialectic (probably Venetian) corruption of the word casisti (casuists). The Giunta edition separates the word thus, casse si, making si a mere corroborative prefix to era, but I do not see how the alteration helps us, the word casse (chests, boxes) being apparently meaningless in this connection.
226 Venetian contraction of Casa, house. Da Ca Quirino, of the Quirino house or family.
227 cf. Artemus Ward’s “Natives of the Universe and other parts.”
228 Mo vedi vu, Venetian for Or vedi tu, now dost thou see? I have rendered it by the equivalent old English form.
229 i.e. not of the trap laid for him by the lady’s brothers-in-law, but of her indiscretion in discovering the secret.
230 Che xe quel? Venetian for che c’e quella cosa, What is this thing?
231 i.e. semble “an you would wish them nought but an ill end.”
232 i.e. to anger.
233 i.e. to the proposal I have to make.
234 i.e. the possession of their mistresses.
235 Sic (di che veleno fosse morto), but this is probably a copyist’s error for che di veleno fosse morto, i.e. that he had died of poison.
236 i.e. that night.
237 Or, in modern parlance, “laying certain plans.”
238 i.e. for lack of wind.
239 i.e. of each other.
240 This is the proper name of the heroine of the story immortalized by Keats as “Isabella or the Pot of Basil,” and is one of the many forms of the and name Elisabetta (Elizabeth), Isabetta and Isabella being others. Some texts of the Decameron call the heroine Isabetta, but in the heading only, all with which I am acquainted agreeing in the use of the form Lisabetta in the body of the story.
241 i.e. to the place shown her in the dream.
242 i.e. in their service.
243 Lit. unhung (spiccò).
244 The following is a translation of the whole of the song in question, as printed, from a MS. in the Medicean Library, in Fanfani’s edition of the Decameron.
Alack! ah, who can the ill Christian be,
That stole my pot away,
My pot of basil of Salern, from me?
’Twas thriv’n with many a spray
And I with mine own hand did plant the tree,
Even on the festal[A] day.
’Tis felony to waste another’s ware.
’Tis felony to waste another’s ware;
Yea, and right grievous sin.
And I, poor lass, that sowed myself whilere
A pot with flowers therein,
Slept in its shade, so great it was and fair;
But folk, that envious bin,
Stole it away even from my very door.
’Twas stolen away even from my very door.
Full heavy was my cheer,
(Ah, luckless maid, would I had died tofore!)
Who brought[B] it passing dear,
Yet kept ill ward thereon one day of fear.
For him I loved so sore,
I planted it with marjoram about.
I planted it with marjoram about,
When May was blithe and new;
Yea, thrice I watered it, week in, week out,
And watched how well it grew:
But now, for sure, away from me ’tis ta’en.
Ay, now, for sure, away from me ’tis ta’en;
I may ‘t no longer hide.
Had I but known (alas, regret is vain!)
That which should me betide,
Before my door on guard I would have lain
To sleep, my flowers beside.
Yet might the Great God ease me at His will.
Yea, God Most High might ease me, at His will,
If but it liked Him well,
Of him who wrought me such unright and ill;
He into pangs of hell
Cast me who stole my basil-pot, that still
Was full of such sweet smell,
Its savour did all dole from me away.
All dole its savour did from me away;
It was so redolent,
When, with the risen sun, at early day
To water it I went,
The folk would marvel all at it and say,
“Whence comes the sweetest scent?”
And I for love of it shall surely die.
Yea, I for love of it shall surely die,
For love and grief and pain.
If one would tell me where it is, I’d buy
It willingly again.
Fivescore gold crowns, that in my pouch have I,
I’d proffer him full fain,
And eke a kiss, if so it liked the swain.
[A] Quære — natal? — perhaps meaning her birthday (lo giorno della festa).
[B] Or “purchased” in the old sense of obtained, acquired (accattai).
245 i.e. these two classes of folk.
246 i.e. to the encouragement of good and virtuous actions and purposes.
247 Or “lap” (seno).
248 Lit. what meaneth this? (che vuol dire questo?)
249 Lit. complaining, making complaint (dolendosi).
250 i.e. to attend the ecclesiastical function called a Pardon, with which word, used in this sense, Meyerbeer’s opera of Dinorah (properly Le Pardon de Ploërmel) has familiarized opera-goers. A Pardon is a sort of minor jubilee of the Roman Catholic Church, held in honour of some local saint, at which certain indulgences and remissions of sins (hence the name) are granted to the faithful attending the services of the occasion.
251 i.e. Bandy-legs.
252 Ristretti in sè gli spiriti. An obscure passage; perhaps “holding his breath” is meant; but in this case we should read “lo spirito” instead of “gli spiriti.”
253 i.e. what course she should take in the matter, consiglio used as before (see notes, pp. 2 and 150) in this special sense.
254 i.e. her heart.
255 Or surfeited (svogliato).
256 This is the well-known story of the Troubadour Guillem de Cabestanh or Cabestaing, whose name Boccaccio alters to Guardastagno or Guardestaing.
257 A proverbial way of saying that he was fast asleep.
258 i.e. about half-past seven a.m.
259 Or “having risen from the grinding” (levatasi dal macinio).
260 i.e. the theme proposed by her.
261 i.e. on my heart.
262 i.e. death.
263 Or farm (villa).
264 i.e. of music, vocal and instrumental.
265 Per fortuna. This may also be rendered “by tempest,” fortuna being a name for a squall or hurricane, which Boccaccio uses elsewhere in the same sense.
266 i.e. thy spirit.
267 Syn. inclinations (affezioni). This is a somewhat obscure passage, owing to the vagueness of the word affezioni (syn. affetti) in this position, and may be rendered, with about equal probability, in more than one way.
268 Or “eminent” (valoroso), i.e. in modern parlance, “a man of merit and talent.”
269 Valoroso nel suo mestiere. It does not appear that Martuccio was a craftsman and it is possible, therefore, that Boccaccio intended the word mestiere to be taken in the sense (to me unknown) of “condition” or “estate,” in which case the passage would read, “a man of worth for (i.e. as far as comported with) his [mean] estate”; and this seems a probable reading.
270 Lit. necessity (necessità).
271 i.e. to use a new (or strange) fashion of exposing herself to an inevitable death (nuova necessità dare alla sua morte).
272 i.e. knew not whether she was ashore or afloat, so absorbed was she in her despair.
273 Or “augured well from the hearing of the name.” Carapresa signifies “a dear or precious prize, gain or capture.”
274 This name is apparently a distortion of the Arabic Amir Abdullah.
275 Clement V. early in the fourteenth century removed the Papal See to Avignon, where it continued to be during the reigns of the five succeeding Popes, Rome being in the meantime abandoned by the Papal Court, till Gregory XI, in the year 1376 again took up his residence at the latter city. It is apparently to this circumstance that Boccaccio alludes in the text.
276 Lit. stand (stare), i.e. abide undone.
277 i.e. a native of Faenza (Faentina).
278 A questo fatto, i.e. at the storm of Faenza.
279 i.e. the owner of the plundered house.
280 Iron., meaning “with how little discretion.”
281 Gianni (Giovanni) di Procida was a Sicilian noble, to whose efforts in stirring up the island to revolt against Charles of Anjou was mainly due the popular rising known as the Sicilian Vespers (a.d. 1283) which expelled the French usurper from Sicily and transferred the crown to the house of Arragon. The Frederick (a.d. 1296-1337) named in the text was the fourth prince of the latter dynasty.
282 William II. (a.d. 1166-1189), the last (legitimate) king of the Norman dynasty in Sicily, called the Good, to distinguish him from his father, William the Bad.
283 Apparently a pleasure-garden, without a house attached in which they might have taken shelter from the rain.
284 i.e. of her sin.
285 Syn. your charms (la vostra vaghezza).
286 i.e. she was grown so repulsively ugly in her old age, that no one cared to do her even so trifling a service as giving her a spark in tinder to light her fire withal.
287 Or chokebits (stranguglioni).
288 i.e. that they may serve to purchase remission from purgatory for the souls of her dead relatives, instead of the burning of candles and tapers, which is held by the Roman Catholic Church to have that effect.
289 i.e. a hypocritical sham devotee, covering a lewd life with an appearance of sanctity.
290 Lit. a due or deserved bite (debito morso). I mention this to show the connection with teeth.
291 An ellipsis of a kind common in Boccaccio and indeed in all the old Italian writers, meaning “it may be useful to enlarge upon the subject in question.”
292 The songs proposed by Dioneo are all apparently of a light, if not a wanton, character and “not fit to be sung before ladies.”
293 This singularly naïve give-and-take fashion of asking a favour of a God recalls the old Scotch epitaph cited by Mr. George Macdonald:
Here lie I Martin Elginbrodde:
Hae mercy o’ my soul, Lord God;
As I wad do, were I Lord God
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.
294 Lit. for their returning to consistory (del dovere a concistoro tornare).
295 Messer Mazza, i.e. veretrum.
296 Monte Nero, i.e. vas muliebre.
297 i.e. who are yet a child, in modern parlance, “Thou whose lips are yet wet with thy mother’s milk.”
298 i.e. women’s.
299 See ante, p. 43, Introduction to the last story of the First Day.
300 Lit. Family wine (vin da famiglia), i.e. no wine for servants’ or general drinking, but a choice vintage, to be reserved for special occasions.
301 A silver coin of about the size and value of our silver penny, which, when gilded, would pass muster well enough for a gold florin, unless closely examined.
302 Il palio, a race anciently run at Florence on St. John’s Day, as that of the Barberi at Rome during the Carnival.
303 Lit. knowing not whence himself came.
304 Or, as we should say, “in his own coin.”
305 A commentator notes that the adjunction to the world of the Maremma (cf. Elijer Goff, “The Irish Question has for some centuries been enjoyed by the universe and other parts”) produces a risible effect and gives the reader to understand that Scalza broaches the question only by way of a joke. The same may be said of the jesting inversion of the word philosophers (phisopholers, Fisofoli) in the next line.
306 Baronci, the Florentine name for what we should call professional beggars, “mumpers, chanters and Abrah
ammen,” called Bari and Barocci in other parts of Italy. This story has been a prodigious stumbling-block to former translators, not one of whom appears to have had the slightest idea of Boccaccio’s meaning.
307 i.e. of the comical fashion of the Cadgers.
308 An abbreviation of Francesca.
309 “Or her.”
310 Lit. to avoid or elude a scorn (fuggire uno scorno).
311 Cipolla means onion.
312 The term “well-wisher” (benivogliente), when understood in relation to a woman, is generally equivalent (at least with the older Italian writers) to “lover.” See ante, passim.
313 Diminutive of contempt of Arrigo, contracted from Arriguccio, i.e. mean little Arrigo.
314 i.e. Whale.
315 i.e. Dirt.
316 i.e. Hog.
317 A painter of Boccaccio’s time, of whom little or nothing seems to be known.
318 Perpendo lo coreggia. The exact meaning of this passage is not clear. The commentators make sundry random shots at it, but, as usual, only succeed in making confusion worse confounded. It may perhaps be rendered, “till his wind failed him.”
319 Said by the commentators to have been an abbey, where they made cheese-soup for all comers twice a week; hence “the caldron of Altopascio” became a proverb; but quære is not the name Altopascio (high feeding) a fancy one?
320 It does not appear to which member of this great house Boccaccio here alludes, but the Châtillons were always rich and magnificent gentlemen, from Gaucher de Châtillon, who followed Philip Augustus to the third crusade, to the great Admiral de Coligny.
321 Sic (star con altrui); but “being in the service of or dependent upon others” seems to be the probable meaning.
322 Apparently the Neapolitan town of that name.
323 The name of a famous tavern in Florence (Florio).
324 Quære a place in Florence? One of the commentators, with characteristic carelessness, states that the places mentioned in the preachment of Fra Cipolla (an amusing specimen of the patter-sermon of the mendicant friar of the middle ages, that ecclesiastical Cheap Jack of his day) are all names of streets or places of Florence, a statement which, it is evident to the most cursory reader, is altogether inaccurate.
325 Apparently the island of that name near Venice.
326 i.e. Nonsense-land.
327 i.e. Land of Tricks or Cozenage.
328 i.e. Falsehood, Lie-land.
Collected Works of Giovanni Boccaccio Page 190
