The Decameron of Giovanni BoccaccioBoccaccio, Giovanni
History
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
Boccaccio, Giovanni
Allegories; Frame stories; Plague -- Europe -- History -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
The honest man, without asking farther, reported Giannotto's words, as
first he had occasion, to Currado, who, hearing this,--albeit he
feigned to the gaoler to make light of it,--betook himself to Madam
Beritola and courteously asked her if she had had by Arrighetto a son
named Giusfredi. The lady answered, weeping, that, if the elder of her
two sons were alive, he would so be called and would be two-and-twenty
years old. Currado, hearing this, concluded that this must be he and
bethought himself that, were it so, he might at once do a great mercy
and take away his own and his daughter's shame by giving her to
Giannotto to wife; wherefore, sending privily for the latter, he
particularly examined him touching all his past life and finding, by
very manifest tokens, that he was indeed Giusfredi, son of Arrighetto
Capece, he said to him, 'Giannotto, thou knowest what and how great is
the wrong thou hast done me in the person of my daughter, whereas, I
having ever well and friendly entreated thee, it behoved thee, as a
servant should, still to study and do for my honour and interest; and
many there be who, hadst thou used them like as thou hast used me,
would have put thee to a shameful death, the which my clemency brooked
not. Now, if it be as thou tellest me, to wit, that thou art the son
of a man of condition and of a noble lady, I purpose, an thou thyself
be willing, to put an end to thy tribulations and relieving thee from
the misery and duresse wherein thou abidest, to reinstate at once
thine honour and mine own in their due stead. As thou knowest, Spina,
whom thou hast, though after a fashion misbeseeming both thyself and
her, taken with love-liking, is a widow and her dowry is both great
and good; as for her manners and her father and mother, thou knowest
them, and of thy present state I say nothing. Wherefore, an thou will,
I purpose that, whereas she hath unlawfully been thy mistress, she
shall now lawfully become thy wife and that thou shalt abide here with
me and with her, as my very son, so long as it shall please thee.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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