Collected Works of Giovanni Boccaccio

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by Giovanni Boccaccio


  The persecutions of Biancofiore, however, are not over. King Felice, wishing to be rid of her, sells her one day to some merchants, and these take her at length to Alexandria in Egypt. Florio, returning, is told she is dead; he tries to kill himself on her pretended tomb, but his mother prevents him and tells him the truth. He resolves to set out through the world in search of his love. Here the first part of the story may be said to end.

  The second part is concerned with Florio’s adventures. He travels unknown under the name of Filocolo,218 that is to say Fatica d’ Amore. With his companions he voyages first towards Italy, and, blown by a tempest to Partenope (Naples), meets there in a garden the beautiful Fiammetta and her lover Galeone amid a joyful and numerous company, each member of which recounts an amorous adventure, and closes the narrative with a demand for the solution of the Questione d’ Amore which arises out of it.

  Meanwhile Biancofiore has been sold to the admiral of the Sultan of Babylon in Alexandria, who makes a collection of beauties for his lord. This treasure is kept well guarded, but with every consideration, at the top of a lofty and beautiful tower by Sadoc, a ferocious old Arab, who, however, has two weaknesses — his love of money and his love of chess. Florio allows him to win at a game of chess, and at the same time bribes him generously. Having thus won his good will he has himself carried to Biancofiore in a great basket of flowers. She rewards him for all his labour. The admiral, however, learns of this, and, furious at the spoliation of his property, condemns both Florio and his mistress to be burned alive. But when they are at the stake, Venus makes their bodies invulnerable, and inspires Florio’s companions to heroic deeds. In admiration of their courage, the admiral is reconciled with them; and, in fact, when Florio, Filocolo till now, declares who he is, he finds that the old admiral is his uncle. Then follows the marriage and the marriage feast.

  Here the book might well have ended; but Boccaccio has by no means finished.

  On the way back to Spain, Florio, Biancofiore and their companions pass through Italy. In Naples they find Galeone abandoned by Fiammetta. They visit the places round about, the baths of Baia, the ancient sepulchre of Misenum,219 Cuma, the Mare Morto and Pozzuoli. Florio fishes in the bay and hunts in the woods. One day following a stag, he shoots an arrow that not only wounds the animal, but also strikes the root of a tall pine, and, wonderful to relate, Florio and Biancofiore see blood spring from the wounded tree and hear a mournful voice cry out in pain. This being, changed into a tree, proves to be Idalagos, who, questioned by Florio, tells him all his history, the history, as we have seen,220 of Boccaccio himself, for it is his own story he tells in the name of Idalagos.

  After these adventures Florio, with Biancofiore and his companions, goes on to Rome, where, like a modern tourist, he visits all the sights. In the Lateran he meets the monk Ilario, who discourses on religion, dealing severely with paganism, and recounting briefly the contents of the Old and New Testaments. He speaks also of the history of the Greeks and Romans, and at last converts Florio and his companions to Christianity.221 Then follows the reconciliation with Biancofiore’s relations and the return to Spain, where, Felice being dead, Florio inherits his kingdom, and with Biancofiore lives happily ever after.

  Such, in the most meagre outline, is the main story of the Filocolo; but Boccaccio is not really concerned with it in its integrity, and in the construction of it he does not show himself to be the future composer of the Decameron. He collects in haste, and without much discernment, all sorts of episodes and adventures, and tells them, not without some confusion, solely to serve his own ends, to express himself and his love. Sometimes he copies the French poems from which in part he had the story,222 though probably his real sources were tradition; sometimes he invents his own story, as in the tale of Idalagos. But as a work of art the Filocolo is now intolerable, and is, in fact, even in Italy, quite unread. For when we have followed the hero in detail from birth to the unspeakable happiness which is the finality of all such creations, we know nothing of his character. He is not a man, but a shadow; the ghost of a ghost. And as it is with Florio, so it is with Biancofiore: they are pure nothing. But, as it seems, Boccaccio was too young and too eager to care about anything but flattering Fiammetta and telling her he loved her. The story, in so far as it is a story, is an imitation of the endless medieval tales told by word of mouth in the streets and piazzas up and down Italy. Yet now and again, even in this wearying and complicated desert of words, we may find hints of the author’s attitude of mind towards the great things of the world, while once certainly we find a prophecy not only of a great artist, but of the Decameron itself.

  In the course of the book Boccaccio makes all sorts of excursions into mythology, and towards the end into religion. If we examine these pages we find that for him the gods of Greece once reigning in Olympus are now devils and demons according to the transformation of the Middle Age. The monk who converts Florio and teaches him Christian doctrine speaks with the same faith of Saturn and the Trojan war, while Mars and Venus are never named without the epithet of Santi, and S. James of Compostella is “il Dio che viene adorato in Galizia.”

  In spite, however, of its faults of prolixity and preciosity, the Filocolo has, as I have said, this much interest for us to-day, that in the finest episode, that of the Questioni d’ Amore, it prophesies the Decameron. In the course of his search for Biancofiore, Florio, it will be remembered, comes to Naples, where in a beautiful garden he finds Fiammetta and her lover Galeone. There, amid a joyful company, he assists at a festa given in his honour, where thirteen questions are proposed by four ladies — Cara, Pola, and Graziosa, and one dressed in bruni vestimenti; and nine gentlemen — Filocolo, Longanio, Menedon, Clonico, Galeone, Feramonte, Duke of Montorio, Ascalione, Parmenione, and Massalino.223 It is Fiammetta’s task to resolve these questions. Neither the tales nor the questions which rise out of them are entirely new. For instance, Galeone asks: “Whether a man for his own good ought to fall in love or no?” Feramonte demands: “Whether a young man should love a married woman, a maiden, or a widow?” It is not indeed so much in the questions as in the stories and the assembly we are interested, for they announce the Decameron, the whole of which, as Bartoli224 says, is contained in the Questioni d’ Amore.225

  The first edition of the Filocolo was published in Venice in 1472 by Gabriele di Piero, with a life of Boccaccio written by Girolamo Squarciafico. A French translation appeared in 1542 by Adrien Sevin. It was translated again in 1554 by I. Vincent (Paris, 1554, Michel Fezandat).

  The Filocolo was written in prose. In his next venture226 Boccaccio, who had no doubt already written many songs for Fiammetta, attempted a story in verse. It is written in ottave, and was begun during the earlier and brighter period of his love.227 “You are gone suddenly to Samnium,” he writes in the dedication to Fiammetta, “and ... I have sought in the old histories what personage I might choose as messenger of my secret and unhappy love, and I have found Troilus son of Priam, who loved Criseyde. His miseries are my history. I have sung them in light rhymes and in my own Tuscan, and so when you read the lamentations of Troilus and his sorrow at the departure of his love, you shall know my tears, my sighs, my agonies, and if I vaunt the beauties and the charms of Criseyde you will know that I dream of yours.” Well, the intention of the poem is just that. It is an expression of his love. He is tremendously interested in what he has suffered; he wishes her to know of it, he is eager to tell of his experiences, his pains and joys. The picture is the merest excuse, a means of self-expression. And yet in its exquisite beauty of sentiment and verse it is one of the loveliest of his works. The following is an outline of the narrative.

  During the siege of Troy, Calchas, priest of Apollo, deserts to the Greek camp,228 and leaves his daughter Criseyde, the young and beautiful widow, in Troy.229 Troilus sees her there in the temple of Minerva,230 and falls in love. By good luck he finds that Criseyde is a cousin of his dear friend Pandarus, whom he immediately makes his confidant,231 obtainin
g from him the promise that he will help him.232 Pandarus goes slowly and cautiously to work. He first persuades Criseyde to let herself be seen by Troilus,233 and when this does not satisfy his friend he shows himself rich in resource. At his suggestion Troilus writes to Criseyde and he bears the letter. He spares no way of persuading her, who at first swearing “per la mia salute” that she will never consent, consents and makes Troilus happy.234

  Almost all the third Canto is devoted to a description of the happiness of the two lovers.

  “Poi che ciascun sen fu ito a dormire,

  E la casa rimasta tutta cheta,

  Tosto parve a Griseida di gire

  Dov’ era Troilo ni parte segreta,

  Il qual, com’ egli la sentì venire,

  Drizzato ni piè, e con la faccia lieta

  Le si fe’ incontro, tacito aspettando,

  Per esser presto ad ogni suo comando.

  “Avea la donna un torchio in mano acceso,

  E tutta sola discese le scale,

  E Troilo vide aspettarla sospeso,

  Cui ella salutò, poi disse, quale

  Ella potè: signor, se io ho offeso,

  In parte tale il tuo splendor reale

  Tenendo chiuso, pregoti per Dio,

  Che mi perdoni, dolce mio disio.

  “A cui Troilo disse: donna bella

  Sola speranza e ben della mia mente,

  Sempre davanti m’ è stata la stella

  Del tuo bel viso splendido e lucente,

  E stata m’ è più casa particella

  Questa, che ‘l mio palagio certamente;

  E dimandar perdono a ciò non tocca;

  Poi l’ abbracciò e baciaronsi in bocca.

  “Non si partiron prima di quel loco

  Che mille volta insieme s’ abbracciaro

  Con dolce festa e con ardente gioco,

  Ed altrettante vie più si baciaro,

  Siccome que’ ch’ ardevan d’ ugual foco,

  E che l’ un l’ altro molto aveva caro;

  Ma come l’ accoglienze si finiro,

  Salir le scale e’n camera ne giro.

  “Lungo sarebbe a raccontar la festa

  E impossibile a dire il diletto

  Che insieme preser pervenuti in questa:

  E’ si spogliarono e entraron nel letto;

  Dove la donna nell’ ultima vesta

  Rimasa già, con piacevole detto

  Gli disse: speglio mio, le nuove spose

  Son la notte primiera vergognose.

  “A cui Troilo disse: anima mia,

  I’ te ne prego, sì ch’ io t’ abbia in braccio

  Ignuda sì come il mio cor disia.

  Ed ella allora: ve’ che me ne spaccio;

  E la camicia sua gittata via,

  Nelle sue braccia si raccolse avaccio

  E strignendo l’ un l’ altro con fervore,

  D’ amor sentiron l’ ultimo valore.

  “O dolce notte, e molto disiata,

  Chente fostu alli due lieti amanti!”235

  But the happiness of the Trojan prince does not last. Calchas, who desires to see his daughter, contrives that she shall come to him in an exchange of prisoners. Inexpressible is the sorrow of Troilus when he learns of this design.236 He prays the gods, if they wish to punish him, to take from him his brother Hector or Polissena, but to leave him his Criseyde.237 Nor is Criseyde less affected.238 Pandarus, when appealed to, suggests that Troilus shall take the girl, if need be, by force: a marriage seems to have been out of the question.

  “Pensato ancora avea di domandarla

  Di grazia al padre mio che la mi desse;

  Poi penso questo fora un accusarla,

  E far palese le cose commesse;

  Nè spero ancora ch’ el dovesse darla,

  Sì per non romper le cose promesse,

  E perchè la direbbe diseguale

  A me, al qual vuol dar donna reale.”239

  In fact, Cassandra has already discovered that her brother is in love with a lady of no birth, the daughter of a wretched and vulgar priest. So Troilus decides to have a last meeting with Criseyde before she goes, to contrive with her what is to be done. At this meeting the lovers swear eternal fidelity240 and Criseyde promises to return to him in Troy in ten days’ time. Then in that same day Diomede delivers one prisoner and takes Criseyde back with him to the Greek camp.

  Now Troilus is alone with his sorrow. He visits all the places that remind him of Criseyde, and this pilgrimage is described in some of the most splendid verses of the poem: — 241

  “Quindi sen gì per Troia cavalcando

  E ciascun luogo gliel tornava a mente;

  De’ quai con seco giva ragionando:

  Quivi rider la vidi lietamente;

  Quivi la vidi verso me guardando:

  Quivi mi salutò benignamente;

  Quivi far festa e quivi star pensosa,

  Quivi la vidi a? miei sospir pietosa.

  “Colà istava, quand’ ella mi prese

  Con gli occhi belli e vaghi con amore;

  . . . . . .

  “Colà la vidi altiera, e là umile

  Mi si mostrò la mia donna gentile.”

  So he passes the time. In vain Pandarus seeks to distract him;242 in vain he seeks to comfort himself with making verses; the longing to see Criseyde again is stronger than anything else.

  At last the ten days pass, and Criseyde ought to return to Troy. Troilus awaits her at dawn at the gate of the city; but in vain: she does not come. He consoles himself, however, by thinking that perhaps she has forgotten to count the days and will come to-morrow. But neither does she come on the morrow. Thus he awaits her for a whole week in vain at the gate of the city, till at last in despair he resolves to take his own life.243

  Meanwhile Criseyde, from the day of her departure, has passed the time much better than Troilus. For in truth she has consoled herself with Diomede, who, after the first four days, has easily made her forget the Trojan. She does not wish, however, that Troilus should know she has broken faith. She answers his letters and puts him off with words and excuses.

  “My love with words and errors still she feeds,

  But edifies another with her deeds.”244

  This sort of deception, however, cannot last long. Troilus grows more and more suspicious, till one day Deiphebus having fought with Diomede, he brings into Troy a clasp taken from the Greek which Troilus recognises as the same he had given to Criseyde, and is persuaded of her falsity.245 So he resolves to avenge himself on Diomede. In every encounter he rushes headlong on the foe, achieving miracles of valour, seeking everywhere for Diomede; but fate is against him even here, and he falls at last unavenged, but at least by the noble hand of Achilles.246

  “The wraththe, as I began yow for to seye

  Of Troilus, the Grekes boughten dere;

  For thousands his hondes maden deye

  As he that was with-outen any pere,

  Save Ector, in his tyme, as I can here.

  But weylaway save only goddes will

  Dispitously him slough the fiers Achille.”247

  Thus ends this simple work. In it we see an extraordinary advance on the Filocolo and the Teseide, both of which were possibly planned and begun before the Filostrato and finished later, for there is a fine unity about the last which suggests that it was begun and ended without intervention. Certainly here Boccaccio has freed himself from all the mythological nonsense of those works as well as from the lay figures and ghosts of knights who take antique names and follow impossible ways. Here are real people of flesh and blood, and among them nothing is finer than the study of Criseyde. She is as living as any figure in the Decameron itself. We see her first as a widow mourning for a husband she has altogether forgotten; yet when Pandarus makes his first overtures, she pleads her bereavement, while she reads with delight the letters Troilus sends her, and is already contriving in her little head how and when she shall meet him. She tries to make Pandarus think she is doing everything out of pit
y, but in her mind she has already decided to give everything to her lover, although she writes him that she is “desirous to please him so far as she may with safety to her honour and chastity.” Then, as soon as she has left Troy weeping, and Diomede has revealed his love to her, she forgets Troilus because the Greek “was tall and strong and beautiful”: —

  “Egli era grande e bel della persona,

  Giovane fresco e piacevole assai

  E forte e fier siccome si ragiona....

  E ad amor la natura aveva prona.”248

  So she takes him, but even to him she lies, for she tells him she has loved and been loved by no one but her dead husband, whom she served loyally: —

  “Amore io non conobbi, poi morio

  Colui al qual lealmente il servai,

  Sì come a marito e signor mio;

  Nè Greco nè Troian mai non curai

  In cotal fatto, nè me m’ è in disio

  Curarne alcuno, nè mi fia giammai....”249

  This character, vain, false, and light, but absolutely living and a very woman, is opposed to the loyal character of Pandarus, and is doubtless subtly modelled without too much exaggeration on that of Fiammetta. In direct contrast to it is the character of Troilus, the most beautiful in the poem: so eager, so ardent, so perfectly youth itself. He knows no country, no religion, no filial affection, but lives and sees only Criseyde. Every day he will thrust himself into the thickest of the fight in search of glory that he may lay it at her feet and win her praise. It is love that has made him a hero, as it made Boccaccio a poet: but both Criseyde and Fiammetta were women; what should they care for that? Troilus is a real creation, the first of those marvellous living figures who later people the Decameron: the first and the most charming, the most youthful, the most beautiful. But the whole poem is marvellously original alike in its characters and in its versification.

 

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