The Decameron of Giovanni BoccaccioBoccaccio, Giovanni
History
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
Boccaccio, Giovanni
Allegories; Frame stories; Plague -- Europe -- History -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
What while Giannotto and Spina abode in this doleful case and had
therein already abidden a year's space, unremembered of Currado, it
came to pass that King Pedro of Arragon, by the procurement of Messer
Gian di Procida, raised the island of Sicily against King Charles and
took it from him, whereat Currado, being a Ghibelline,[108] rejoiced
exceedingly, Giannotto, hearing of this from one of those who had him
in guard, heaved a great sigh and said, 'Ah, woe is me! These fourteen
years have I gone ranging beggarlike about the world, looking for
nought other than this, which, now that it is come, so I may never
again hope for weal, hath found me in a prison whence I have no hope
ever to come forth, save dead.' 'How so?' asked the gaoler. 'What doth
that concern thee which great kings do to one another? What hast thou
to do in Sicily?' Quoth Giannotto, 'My heart is like to burst when I
remember me of that which my father erst had to do there, whom, albeit
I was but a little child, when I fled thence, yet do I mind me to have
been lord thereof, in the lifetime of King Manfred.' 'And who was thy
father?' asked the gaoler. 'My father's name,' answered Giannotto, 'I
may now safely make known, since I find myself in the peril whereof I
was in fear, an I discovered it. He was and is yet, an he live, called
Arrighetto Capece, and my name is, not Giannotto, but Giusfredi, and I
doubt not a jot, an I were quit of this prison, but I might yet, by
returning to Sicily, have very high place there.'
[Footnote 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.]
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