and finding it commendable, and marking the lake in front ofthem, did, as 'twas very hot, and they deemed themselves secure fromobservation, resolve to take a bath. So, having bidden their maid waitand keep watch over the access to the vale, and give them warning, ifhaply any should approach it, they all seven undressed and got into thewater, which to the whiteness of their flesh was even such a veil as fineglass is to the vermeil of the rose. They, being thus in the water, theclearness of which was thereby in no wise affected, did presently beginto go hither and thither after the fish, which had much ado where tobestow themselves so as to escape out of their hands. In which diversionthey spent some time, and caught a few, and then they hied them out ofthe water and dressed them again, and bethinking them that 'twas time toreturn to the palace, they began slowly sauntering thither, dilating muchas they went upon the beauty of the place, albeit they could not extol itmore than they had already done. 'Twas still quite early when theyreached the palace, so that they found the gallants yet at play wherethey had left them. To whom quoth Pampinea with a smile:--"We have stolena march upon you to-day." "So," replied Dioneo, "'tis with you do firstand say after?" "Ay, my lord," returned Pampinea, and told him at largewhence they came, and what the place was like, and how far 'twas off, andwhat they had done. What she said of the beauty of the spot begat in theking a desire to see it: wherefore he straightway ordered supper, whereofwhen all had gaily partaken, the three gallants parted from the ladiesand hied them with their servants to the vale, where none of them hadever been before, and, having marked all its beauties, extolled it asscarce to be matched in all the world. Then, as the hour was very late,they did but bathe, and as soon as they had resumed their clothes,returned to the ladies, whom they found dancing a carol to an air thatFiammetta sang, which done, they conversed of the Ladies' Vale, waxingeloquent in praise thereof: insomuch that the king called the seneschal,and bade him have some beds made ready and carried thither on the morrow,that any that were so minded might there take their siesta. He then hadlights and wine and comfits brought; and when they had taken a slightrefection, he bade all address them to the dance. So at his behestPamfilo led a dance, and then the king, turning with gracious mien toElisa:--"Fair damsel," quoth he, "'twas thou to-day didst me this honourof the crown; and 'tis my will that thine to-night be the honour of thesong; wherefore sing us whatsoever thou hast most lief." "That gladlywill I," replied Elisa smiling; and thus with dulcet voice began:--
If of thy talons, Love, be quit I may, I deem it scarce can be But other fangs I may elude for aye.
Service I took with thee, a tender maid, In thy war thinking perfect peace to find, And all my arms upon the ground I laid, Yielding myself to thee with trustful mind: Thou, harpy-tyrant, whom no faith may bind, Eftsoons didst swoop on me, And with thy cruel claws mad'st me thy prey.
Then thy poor captive, bound with many a chain, Thou tookst, and gav'st to him, whom fate did call Hither my death to be; for that in pain And bitter tears I waste away, his thrall: Nor heave I e'er a sigh, or tear let fall, So harsh a lord is he, That him inclines a jot my grief to allay.
My prayers upon the idle air are spent: He hears not, will not hear; wherefore in vain The more each hour my soul doth her torment; Nor may I die, albeit to die were gain. Ah! Lord, have pity of my bitter pain! Help have I none but thee; Then take and bind and at my feet him lay.
But if thou wilt not, do my soul but loose From hope, that her still binds with triple chain. Sure, O my Lord, this prayer thou'lt not refuse: The which so thou to grant me do but deign, I look my wonted beauty to regain, And banish misery With roses white and red bedecked and gay.
So with a most piteous sigh ended Elisa her song, whereat all wonderedexceedingly, nor might any conjecture wherefore she so sang. But theking, who was in a jolly humour, sent for Tindaro, and bade him out withhis cornemuse, and caused them tread many a measure thereto, until, nosmall part of the night being thus spent, he gave leave to all to betakethem to rest.
--Endeth here the sixth day of the Decameron, beginneth the seventh, inwhich, under the rule of Dioneo, discourse is had of the tricks which,either for love or for their deliverance from peril, ladies haveheretofore played their husbands, and whether they were by the saidhusbands detected, or no.--
Fled was now each star from the eastern sky, save only that which we callLucifer, which still glowed in the whitening dawn, when uprose theseneschal, and with a goodly baggage-train hied him to the Ladies' Vale,there to make all things ready according to the ordinance and commandmentof the king. Nor was it long after his departure that the king rose,being awaked by the stir and bustle that the servants made in lading thehorses, and being risen he likewise roused all the ladies and the othergallants; and so, when as yet 'twas scarce clear daybreak, they all tookthe road; nor seemed it to them that the nightingales and the other birdshad ever chanted so blithely as that morning. By which choir they wereattended to the Ladies' Vale, where they were greeted by other warblersnot a few, that seemed rejoiced at their arrival. Roving about the vale,and surveying its beauties afresh, they rated them higher than on theprevious day, as indeed the hour was more apt to shew them forth. Thenwith good wine and comfits they broke their fast, and, that they mightnot lag behind the songsters, they fell a singing, whereto the valeresponded, ever echoing their strains; nor did the birds, as minded notto be beaten, fail to swell the chorus with notes of unwonted sweetness.However, breakfast-time came, and then, the tables being laid under aliving canopy of trees, and beside other goodly trees that fringed thelittle lake, they sat them down in order as to the king seemed meet. Sothey took their meal, glancing from time to time at the lake, where thefish darted to and fro in multitudinous shoals, which afforded not onlydelight to their eyes but matter for converse. Breakfast ended, and thetables removed, they fell a singing again more blithely than before.After which, there being set, in divers places about the little vale,beds which the discreet seneschal had duly furnished and equipped withinand without with store of French coverlets, and other bedgear, all, thatwere so minded, had leave of the king to go to sleep, and those thatcared not to sleep might betake them, as each might choose, to any oftheir wonted diversions. But, all at length being risen, and the time foraddressing them to the story-telling being come, the king had carpetsspread on the sward no great way from the place where they hadbreakfasted; and, all having sat them down beside the lake, he badeEmilia begin; which, blithe and smiling, Emilia did on this wise.
NOVEL I.
--Gianni Lotteringhi hears a knocking at his door at night: he awakens hiswife, who persuades him that 'tis the bogey, which they fall toexorcising with a prayer; whereupon the knocking ceases.--
My lord, glad indeed had I been, that, saving your good pleasure, someother than I had had precedence of discourse upon so goodly a theme asthis of which we are to speak--I doubt I am but chosen to teach othersconfidence; but, such being your will, I will gladly obey it. And myendeavour shall be, dearest ladies, to tell you somewhat that may beserviceable to you in the future: for, if you are, as I am, timorous, andthat most especially of the bogey, which, God wot, I know not what mannerof thing it may be, nor yet have found any that knew, albeit we are allalike afraid of it, you may learn from this my story how to put it toflight, should it intrude upon you, with a holy, salutary and mostefficacious orison.
There dwelt of yore at Florence, in the quarter of San Pancrazio, amaster-spinner, Gianni Lotteringhi by name, one that had prospered in hisbusiness, but had little understanding of aught else; insomuch that beingsomewhat of a simpleton, he had many a time been chosen leader of theband of laud-singers of Santa Maria Novella, and had charge of theirschool; and not a few like offices had he often served, upon which hegreatly plumed himself. Howbeit, 'twas all for no other reason than that,being a man of substance, he gave liberal doles to the friars; who, forthat they got thereof, this one hose, another a cloak, and a third ahood, would teach him good orisons, or give him the paternoster in thevernacular, or the chant of St.
Alexis, or the lament of St. Bernard, orthe laud of Lady Matilda, or the like sorry stuff, which he greatlyprized, and guarded with jealous care, deeming them all most conducive tothe salvation of his soul.
Now our simple master-spinner had a most beautiful wife, and amorouswithal, her name Monna Tessa. Daughter she was of Mannuccio dallaCuculla, and not a little knowing and keen-witted; and being enamoured ofFederigo di Neri Pegolotti, a handsome and lusty gallant, as he also ofher, she, knowing her husband's simplicity, took counsel with her maid,and arranged that Federigo should come to chat with her at a right goodlypleasure-house that the said Gianni had at Camerata, where she was wontto pass the summer, Gianni coming now and again to sup and sleep, andgoing back in the morning to his shop, or, maybe, to his laud-singers.Federigo, who desired nothing better, went up there