The Decameron (82 page)

[61]
i.e.
Latinist.

[62]
Lit. was (
era
); but as Boccaccio puts "can" (
possono
) in the present tense we must either read
è
and
possono
or
era
and
potevano
. The first reading seems the more probable.

[63]
i.e.
have most power or means of requiting it.

[64]
Fem.

[65]
Uomo di corte.
This word has been another grievous stumbling block to the French and English translators of Boccaccio, who render it literally "courtier." The reader need hardly be reminded that the minstrel of the middle ages was commonly jester, gleeman and story–teller all in one and in these several capacities was allowed the utmost license of speech. He was generally attached to the court of some king or sovereign prince, but, in default of some such permanent appointment, passed his time in visiting the courts and mansions of princes and men of wealth and liberty, where his talents were likely to be appreciated and rewarded; hence the name
uomo di corte
, "man of court" (not "courtier," which is
cortigiano
).

[66]
i.e.
those minstrels.

[67]
i.e.
the noblemen their patrons.

[68]
Syn. penalties, punishments (
pene
).

[69]
Virtù
, in the old Roman sense of strength, vigour, energy.

[70]
Old form of Margherita.

[71]
i.e.
the base or eatable part of the stem.

[72]
i.e.
that day.

[73]
See ante, p. 8.

[74]
i.e.
the terms of the limitation aforesaid.

[75]
i.e.
in the mirrored presentment of her own beauty.

[76]
Ballatella
, lit. little dancing song or song made to be sung as an accompaniment to a dance (from
ballare
, to dance). This is the origin of our word ballad.

[77]
Or pretext (
titolo
).

[78]
Or "having him punished," lit. "causing give him ill luck" (
fargli dar la mala ventura
). This passage, like so many others of the Decameron, is ambiguous and may also be read "themseeming none other had a juster title to do him an ill turn."

[79]
Lit. a story striveth in (draweth) me to be told or to tell itself (
a raccontarsi mi tira una novella
).

[80]
i.e.
religious matters (
cose cattoliche
).

[81]
i.e.
take things by the first intention, without seeking to refine upon them, or, in English popular phrase, "I do not pretend to see farther through a stone wall than my neighbours."

[82]
i.e.
the aforesaid orison.

[83]
Or "'Twill have been opportunely done of thee."

[84]
i.e.
our patron saint.

[85]
i.e.
whose teeth chattered as it were the clapping of a stork's beak.

[86]
i.e.
after her bath.

[87]
i.e.
to be hanged or, in the equivalent English idiom, to dance upon nothing.

[88]
i.e.
usury? See post. One of the commentators ridiculously suggests that they were needlemakers, from
ago
, a needle.

[89]
i.e.
the thing is done and cannot be undone; there is no help for it.

[90]
i.e.
make her a solemn promise of marriage, formally plight her his troth. The ceremony of betrothal was formerly (and still is in certain countries) the most essential part of the marriage rite.

[91]
i.e.
cannot hope to tell a story presenting more extraordinary shifts from one to the other extreme of human fortune than that of Pampinea.

[92]
The Genoese have the reputation in Italy of being thieves by nature.

[93]
It seems doubtful whether
la reggeva diritta
should not rather be rendered "kept it upright." Boccaccio has a knack, very trying to the translator, of constantly using words in an obscure or strained sense.

[94]
i.e.
for nothing.

[95]
i.e.
son of Pietro, as they still say in Lancashire and other northern provinces, "Tom o' Dick" for "Thomas, son of Richard," etc.

[96]
i.e.
ill hole.

[97]
i.e.
a member of the Guelph party, as against the Ghibellines or partisans of the Pope.

[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, [Arabic: al gharb], 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 did
not
relate 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 of
Anversa
, Antwerp. All versions that I have seen call Gautier Comte d'
Angers
or
Angiers
, 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); but
giudichi
in the text is apparently a mistake for
giudico
.

[125]
i.e.
of discernment.

[126]
Sic (
aggiunsero
); but
semble
should 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 verb
rimanere
is 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 as
quale
and
tale
are 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.