The Decameron (85 page)

[253]
i.e.
Bandy–legs.

[254]
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
."

[255]
i.e.
what course she should take in the matter,
consiglio
used as before (see notes, pp. 2 and 150) in this special sense.

[256]
i.e.
her heart.

[257]
Or surfeited (
svogliato
).

[258]
This is the well–known story of the Troubadour Guillem de Cabestanh or Cabestaing, whose name Boccaccio alters to Guardastagno or Guardestaing.

[259]
A proverbial way of saying that he was fast asleep.

[260]
i.e.
about half–past seven a.m.

[261]
Or "having risen from the grinding" (
levatasi dal macinio
).

[262]
i.e.
the theme proposed by her.

[263]
i.e.
on my heart.

[264]
i.e.
death.

[265]
Or farm (
villa
).

[266]
i.e.
of music, vocal and instrumental.

[267]
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.

[268]
i.e.
thy spirit.

[269]
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.

[270]
Or "eminent" (
valoroso
),
i.e.
in modern parlance, "a man of merit and talent."

[271]
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.

[272]
Lit. necessity (
necessità
).

[273]
i.e.
to use a new (or strange) fashion of exposing herself to an inevitable death (
nuova necessità dare alla sua morte
).

[274]
i.e.
knew not whether she was ashore or afloat, so absorbed was she in her despair.

[275]
Or "augured well from the hearing of the name."
Carapresa
signifies "a dear or precious prize, gain or capture."

[276]
This name is apparently a distortion of the Arabic
Amir Abdullah
.

[277]
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.

[278]
Lit. stand (
stare
),
i.e.
abide undone.

[279]
i.e.
a native of Faenza (
Faentina
).

[280]
A questo fatto
,
i.e.
at the storm of Faenza.

[281]
i.e.
the owner of the plundered house.

[282]
Iron., meaning "with how little discretion."

[283]
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.

[284]
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.

[285]
Apparently a pleasure–garden, without a house attached in which they might have taken shelter from the rain.

[286]
i.e.
of her sin.

[287]
Syn. your charms (
la vostra vaghezza
).

[288]
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.

[289]
Or chokebits (
stranguglioni
).

[290]
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.

[291]
i.e.
a hypocritical sham devotee, covering a lewd life with an appearance of sanctity.

[292]
Lit. a due or deserved bite (
debito morso
). I mention this to show the connection with teeth.

[293]
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."

[294]
The songs proposed by Dioneo are all apparently of a light, if not a wanton, character and "not fit to be sung before ladies."

[295]
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.]

[296]
Lit. for their returning to consistory (
del dovere a concistoro tornare
).

[297]
Messer Mazza
,
i.e.
veretrum.

[298]
Monte Nero
,
i.e.
vas muliebre.

[299]
i.e.
who are yet a child, in modern parlance, "Thou whose lips are yet wet with thy mother's milk."

[300]
i.e.
women's.

[301]
See ante, p. 43, Introduction to the last story of the First Day.

[302]
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.

[303]
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.

[304]
Il palio
, a race anciently run at Florence on St. John's Day, as that of the Barberi at Rome during the Carnival.

[305]
Lit. knowing not whence himself came.

[306]
Or, as we should say, "in his own coin."

[307]
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.

[308]
Baronci
, the Florentine name for what we should call professional beggars, "mumpers, chanters and Abrahammen," 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.

[309]
i.e.
of the comical fashion of the Cadgers.

[310]
An abbreviation of Francesca.

[311]
"Or her."

[312]
Lit. to avoid or elude a scorn (
fuggire uno scorno
).

[313]
Cipolla
means onion.

[314]
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.

[315]
Diminutive of contempt of Arrigo, contracted from Arriguccio,
i.e.
mean little Arrigo.

[316]
i.e.
Whale.

[317]
i.e.
Dirt.

[318]
i.e.
Hog.

[319]
A painter of Boccaccio's time, of whom little or nothing seems to be known.

[320]
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."

[321]
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?

[322]
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.

[323]
Sic (
star con altrui
); but "being in the service of or dependent upon others" seems to be the probable meaning.

[324]
Apparently the Neapolitan town of that name.

[325]
The name of a famous tavern in Florence (
Florio
).

[326]
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.

[327]
Apparently the island of that name near Venice.

[328]
i.e.
Nonsense–land.

[329]
i.e.
Land of Tricks or Cozenage.

[330]
i.e.
Falsehood, Lie–land.

[331]
i.e.
paying their way with fine words, instead of coin.

[332]
i.e.
making sausages of them.

[333]
Bachi
, drones or maggots.
Pastinaca
means "parsnip" and is a meaningless addition of Fra Cipolla's fashion.