The Decameron of Giovanni BoccaccioBoccaccio, Giovanni
History
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
Boccaccio, Giovanni
Allegories; Frame stories; Plague -- Europe -- History -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
[Footnote 230: _Che xe quel?_ Venetian for _che c'e quella cosa_, What
is this thing?]
No sooner was the mask off than Fra Alberto was incontinent recognized
of all, who raised a general outcry against him, giving him the
scurviest words and the soundest rating was ever given a canting
knave; moreover, they cast in his face, one this kind of filth and
another that, and so they baited him a great while, till the news came
by chance to his brethren, whereupon half a dozen of them sallied
forth and coming thither, unchained him and threw a gown over him;
then, with a general hue and cry behind them, they carried him off to
the convent, where it is believed he died in prison, after a wretched
life. Thus then did this fellow, held good and doing ill, without it
being believed, dare to feign himself the angel Gabriel, and after
being turned into a wild man of the woods and put to shame, as he
deserved, bewailed, when too late, the sins he had committed. God
grant it happen thus to all other knaves of his fashion!"
THE THIRD STORY
[Day the Fourth]
THREE YOUNG MEN LOVE THREE SISTERS AND FLEE WITH THEM INTO
CRETE, WHERE THE ELDEST SISTER FOR JEALOUSY SLAYETH HER
LOVER. THE SECOND, YIELDING HERSELF TO THE DUKE OF CRETE,
SAVETH HER SISTER FROM DEATH, WHEREUPON HER OWN LOVER
SLAYETH HER AND FLEETH WITH THE ELDEST SISTER. MEANWHILE THE
THIRD LOVER AND THE YOUNGEST SISTER ARE ACCUSED OF THE NEW
MURDER AND BEING TAKEN, CONFESS IT; THEN, FOR FEAR OF DEATH,
THEY CORRUPT THEIR KEEPERS WITH MONEY AND FLEE TO RHODES,
WHERE THEY DIE IN POVERTY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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