The Decameron (Day 6 to Day 10): Containing an hundred pleasant NovelsBoccaccio, Giovanni
History
The Decameron (Day 6 to Day 10): Containing an hundred pleasant Novels
Boccaccio, Giovanni
Allegories; Frame stories; Plague -- Europe -- History -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
I am not ignorant, that whatsoever I have already done unto thee,
cannot properly be termed revenge, but rather chastisement; because
revenge ought alwayes to exceede the offence, which (as yet) I am farre
enough from. For, if I did intend to revenge my wrongs, and remembred
thy monstrous cruelty to me: thy life, if I tooke it from thee, and an
hundred more such as thy selfe, were farre insufficient, because in
killing thee, I should kill but a vile inhumane beast, yea, one that
deserved not the name of a Woman. And, to speake truely, Art thou any
more, or better (setting aside thy borrowed haire, and painted beauty,
which in few yeares will leave thee wrinkled and deformed) then the
basest beggarly Chamber-stuffe that can bee? Yet thou soughtest the
death of a Gentleman and Scholler as (in scorne) not long since, thou
didst terme me: whose life may hereafter be more beneficiall unto
the world, then millions of such as thou art, to live in the like
multiplicity of ages. Therefore, if this anguish be sensible to thee,
learne what it is to mocke men of apprehension, and (amongst them
especially) such as are Schollers: to prevent thy falling hereafter
into the like extremity, if it be thy good lucke to escape out of this.
It appeareth to me, that thou art verie desirous to come downe hither
on the ground; the best counsell that I can give thee, is to leape
downe headlong, that by breaking thy necke (if thy fortune be so faire)
thy life and lothsome qualities ending together, I may sit and smile
at thy deserved destruction. I have no other comfort to give thee, but
only to boast my happinesse, in teaching thee the way to ascend that
Tower, and in thy descending downe (even by what means thy wit can best
devise) make a mockery of me, and say thou hast learned more, then all
my Schollership could instruct thee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account