The Decameron of Giovanni BoccaccioBoccaccio, Giovanni
History
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
Boccaccio, Giovanni
Allegories; Frame stories; Plague -- Europe -- History -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
This speech seemed to the lady very contrary to that whereto she
thought to come for the keeping of her promise to her son,--albeit,
like a discreet woman as she was, she inwardly much commended the
damsel therefor,--and she said, 'How now, Jeannette? If our lord the
king, who is a young cavalier, as thou art a very fair damsel, would
fain have some easance of thy love, wouldst thou deny it to him?'
Whereto she answered forthright, 'The king might do me violence, but
of my consent he should never avail to have aught of me save what was
honourable.' The lady, seeing how she was minded, left parleying with
her and bethought herself to put her to the proof; wherefore she told
her son that, whenas he should be recovered, she would contrive to
get her alone with him in a chamber, so he might make shift to have
his pleasure of her, saying that it appeared to her unseemly that she
should, procuress-wise, plead for her son and solicit her own maid.
With this the young man was nowise content and presently waxed
grievously worse, which when his mother saw, she opened her mind to
Jeannette, but, finding her more constant than ever, recounted what
she had done to her husband, and he and she resolved of one accord,
grievous though it seemed to them, to give her to him to wife,
choosing rather to have their son alive with a wife unsorted to his
quality than dead without any; and so, after much parley, they did;
whereat Jeannette was exceeding content and with a devout heart
rendered thanks to God, who had not forgotten her; but for all that
she never avouched herself other than the daughter of a Picard. As for
the young man, he presently recovered and celebrating his nuptials,
the gladdest man alive, proceeded to lead a merry life with his bride.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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