The Decameron of Giovanni BoccaccioBoccaccio, Giovanni
History
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
Boccaccio, Giovanni
Allegories; Frame stories; Plague -- Europe -- History -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
It presently befell that, the weather being warm, many companies of
ladies and gentlemen went, according to the usance of the Neapolitans,
to divert themselves on the banks of the sea and there to dine and
sup, and Ricciardo, knowing Catella to be gone thither with her
company, betook himself to the same place with his friends and was
received into Catella's party of ladies, after allowing himself to be
much pressed, as if he had no great mind to abide there. The ladies
and Catella fell to rallying him upon his new love, and he, feigning
himself sore inflamed therewith, gave them the more occasion for
discourse. Presently, one lady going hither and thither, as commonly
happeneth in such places, and Catella being left with a few whereas
Ricciardo was, the latter cast at her a hint of a certain amour of
Filippello her husband, whereupon she fell into a sudden passion of
jealousy and began to be inwardly all afire with impatience to know
what he meant. At last, having contained herself awhile and being
unable to hold out longer, she besought Ricciardo, for that lady's
sake whom he most loved, to be pleased to make her clear[175] of that
which he had said of Filippello; whereupon quoth he, 'You conjure me
by such a person that I dare not deny aught you ask me; wherefore I am
ready to tell it you, so but you promise me that you will never say a
word thereof either to him or to any other, save whenas you shall by
experience have seen that which I shall tell you to be true; for that,
when you please, I will teach you how you may see it.'
[Footnote 175: Or, in modern parlance, to enlighten her.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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